Combined briefs package

***DUPLICATION ALERTS:

PBP: Gay couple green card. OHIO: Diet pill sex abuse (also note content). BIZ: Tennessee nuclear tree. FEATURES: Ex-Elmo puppeteer.

CHECK YOU LINEUPS, PLEASE.****

NORTH DAKOTA

22 charged in oil patch drug case

Federal authorities unsealed indictments Monday against 22 people charged with conspiracy to sell heroin and other drugs on an Indian reservation in the heart of the North Dakota oil patch. The first indictment in the investigation, dubbed “Operation Winter’s End,” was filed in March, but authorities did not make the case public until Monday because of the ongoing investigation. Investigators say heroin and other drugs were brought to the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, located southeast of Williston within the Bakken oil patch, from other parts of the country.

IRAQ

3 deadly attacks hit Baghdad

Three attacks north of Baghdad on Monday killed 25 people, including members of a Sunni militia that fights al-Qaida, officials said, in the latest of a growing surge of insurgent strikes that are plaguing Iraq. Also Monday, the United Nations mission to Iraq said last month’s violence claimed the lives of 761 Iraqis and wounded 1,771 others. The statement said Baghdad province had the most casualties, with 258 people killed and 692 injured.

FLORIDA

Gay couple get green card OK

A Bulgarian graduate student and his American husband are the first gay couple in the U.S. to have their application for immigration benefits approved after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last week on same-sex marriages, their lawyer said. The approval means that Traian Popov, here on a student visa, will be able to apply for a green card, and eventually citizenship. But his marriage to Julian Marsh, performed in New York, still won’t be recognized in Florida, where they live. Last week’s pair of rulings left a patchwork of laws in place across the country regarding gay marriage.

OHIO

Woman cites diet pills in sex abuse

An Ohio woman blamed diet supplements after police accused her of filming herself sexually abusing her young daughter and emailing the videos to others, police records showed Monday. The 32-year-old was indicted Monday on multiple charges, including rape and pandering. If convicted, she faces life in prison. She did not yet have an attorney. The woman was arrested at her home in Springboro in southwestern Ohio on June 22. The girl is under 5 but authorities wouldn’t be more specific about her age.

TENNESSEE

Tree causes nuke plant shutdown

Operations at an East Tennessee nuclear power plant are back to normal after an interruption caused by a large tree falling onto a transmission line. Tennessee Valley Authority spokeswoman Gail Rymer said automatic shutdown procedures began at the Watts Bar plant when the electrical fault was detected on Friday afternoon. Rymer said a homeowner cut down the tree that fell onto a 500 kilovolt transmission line close to the plant near Spring City, about 55 miles southwest of Knoxville. The plant’s lone reactor was back online by Sunday afternoon.

CALIFORNIA

Chalk protester found not guilty

A jury on Monday acquitted an activist of vandalism charges for chalking anti-bank slogans on San Diego sidewalks, delivering a swift verdict on a prosecution that the city’s own mayor said was “stupid.” Jeff Olson, 40, turned to his attorney, nodded and smiled as verdicts were read on charges that could have sent him to jail for 13 years — one year for each misdemeanor count — and brought a $13,000 fine. He was charged with scrawling messages with water-soluble chalk on city sidewalks outside Bank of America branches from April to August 2012, including “Shame on B of A,” ”No thanks, big banks,” and a drawing of an octopus reaching for dollar bills.

NEW YORK