Parents and teachers on Tuesday questioned Duval County Public Schools’ communication and reasoning of a plan to move students attending the dedicated magnet James Weldon Johnson Middle School to Paxon Middle School.

The plan is an effort to maximize the available seats of middle schools in Northwest Jacksonville, where nearly 2,000 middle school seats are empty.

More than 2,200 students would change schools and five middle schools would be affected by the move. James Weldon Johnson’s facility would be shuttered if the School Board approves the plan.

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An additional charge of child molestation and 12 counts of using a child in a sexual performance were filed today against Jarred Mitchell Harrell, the Clay County man also named as a person of interest in the Somer Thompson slaying, court records show.

The 13 new charges against Harrell, 24, were added to a case in which he was charged two weeks ago with molesting the same unidentified young girl and promoting a sexual performance involving the girl. There are now 26 counts against Harrell in that case, which investigators said did not involve Somer.

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Monday-afternoon gunfire forced people to hit the floor inside an apartment building in the 1400 block of East 24th Street as bullets slammed into the outside wall in rapid succession.

No one was injured. And after a telephone call to police from his mother, a 30-year-old Jacksonville man was arrested on charges of shooting deadly missiles and aggravated assault and remains jailed.

Kalvin Keshawn Gilbert of the 1400 block of North 23rd Circle was arrested at his mother’s home on Haines Street, the Sheriff’s Office arrest report said.

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LONDON -- A chip for Spot? In a country where guns are tightly controlled and even carrying a kitchen knife can bring prison time, some thugs use dogs to menace their victims. Now the British government is proposing that dog owners be forced to get microchips and take out insurance for their pets.

NEW YORK -- The New York Police Department wants the public to know that the figures soon to be gazing down from buildings near a midtown park are an artist's body casts -- not residents in distress.

William Murray, a Sacramento accountant who stole more than $13 million from 52 clients between 2001 and 2009, pleaded guilty today in federal court to mail fraud and interference with tax administration.

U. S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia ordered Murray to immediately be taken into custody by deputy U. S. marshals. The judge set sentencing for May 28.

Murray, 55, told clients to write checks to accounts under his control so he could pay taxes or make investments on their behalf. Much of the money went to support his extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of real property, a classic car, a fleet of limousines, expensive jewelry and rugs, and fine wines.

He changed his clients' addresses to his own so they would not receive the IRS' delinquent tax notices.

As demands for payment arrived from clients and the IRS, Murray's fraud became a Ponzi scheme that he perpetuated by using more than $3.5 million in recent client receipts to pay off demands stemming from earlier theft.

Before the house of cards collapsed, Murray was a man of some prominence. He was a certified public accountant with a solid client base.

He regularly offered tax advice on a local television channel. He was used as an expert witness in courts in five counties.

He served as a federal tax agent between 1976 and 1980, when he moved to Sacramento to join a former IRS colleague in private practice.

Murray's plea agreement calls for the forfeiture of all his remaining assets to the government, victim restitution, and full disclosure of his finances to the victims.

The Ecorse City Council did not elect a new mayor today to succeed disgraced former Mayor Herbert Worthy who resigned in January after pleading guilty to a federal bribery charge.