In brief: Dad who killed man won’t be charged

Houston – A central Texas grand jury on Tuesday ruled that a local father who beat to death a man he reportedly caught molesting his 5-year-old daughter will not be charged in connection with the attack.

District court clerk staff told the Los Angeles Times that the Lavaca County grand jury met Tuesday and declined to return an indictment against the father in the June 9 death of 47-year-old Jesus Mora Flores of Gonzalez, Texas.

The attack happened at a horse barn between the farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum. Investigators said the 23-year-old father, who lives in Yoakum and whose name has not been released, ran toward his daughter’s screams, pulled Flores off his child and beat him to death with his bare hands.

Sale of Hawaii’s Lanai is imminent

Honolulu – The sale of Hawaii’s smallest publicly accessible inhabited island is imminent, and local leaders are anticipating what new ownership could mean for the island’s some 3,200 residents.

A potential buyer of Lanai, part of Maui County, was revealed to Gov. Neil Abercrombie and the county’s mayor at a meeting last week with representatives from landowner Castle & Cooke Inc. Billionaire David Murdock’s Castle & Cooke owns 98 percent of island’s 141 square miles.

“I was told they’re in serious negotiations,” Mayor Alan Arakawa told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

He said he’s sworn to secrecy about the buyer’s identity. But any buyer would have to have deep pockets. The asking price is reportedly between $500 million and $600 million, the Maui News reported. Castle & Cooke did not immediately comment Tuesday.

Southern Baptists get black president

New Orleans – The Southern Baptist Convention voted Tuesday to elect its first African-American president in one of its biggest steps yet to reconcile the 167-year-old denomination’s troubled racial past and appeal to a more diverse group of believers.

The Rev. Fred Luter Jr. was unopposed in being elected by thousands of enthusiastic delegates on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination in his hometown of New Orleans.