STATE- BY- STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Pine Hill: Loggers found a human skull in a wooded area of Wilcox County last week. Search dogs then found additional bones. Pine Hill Police Chief Nikisha Gailes tells WAKA- TV that the remains are likely those of an elderly man missing for more than six years.

ALASKA Fairbanks: Preparations for the world’s most famous sled dog race are underway in Fairbanks. The 1,000- mile Iditarod will start March 6 on the Chena River, The Fairbanks Daily News- Miner reports.

ARIZONA Lake Havasu City: The Havasu National Wildlife Refuge will be closed for two weeks starting Tuesday for an aerial hunt to eradicate hundreds of feral swine. The animals carry diseases and damage habitat and property.

ARKANSAS Springdale: Arkansas- based Tyson Foods is shaking up its leadership team. Three top executives will leave the company, while a 10- member leadership team will report to new President and CEO Tom Hayes.

CALIFORNIA Morgan Hill: A California restaurant was fined $ 120,000 for mislabeling fish on its menu as wild- caught sole, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. Instead, the Odeum in Morgan Hill was serving farmed tilapia.

COLORADO Aspen: A group of snowboarders had to fend off attacks by a moose after pulling themselves out of an avalanche last week, The Aspen Times reports. One of the snowboarders suffered a broken rib.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: Connecticut officials claim government immunity in response to a Schaghticoke Tribal Nation lawsuit seeking more than $ 600 million for land it says the state seized from 1801 to 1918.

DELAWARE Wilmington: A Wilmington fire truck is back in service after it was removed from operation during staffing shortages, The News Journal of Wilmington reports.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Advocates for District of Columbia statehood made their annual pitch to Congress last week. Supporters argue that District residents are “second- class citizens” because they lack voting representation in Congress.

FLORIDA Jacksonville: The Jacksonville City Council has voted to update the city’s civil rights laws to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians.

GEORGIA Decatur: An auditor will look into why water bills are so high in DeKalb County. The Atlanta Journal- Constitution reports that one in eight customers’ bills have at least tripled since April 2015.

HAWAII Manoa: University of Hawaii President David Lassner is recommending that the school suspend its search for a new chancellor at the Manoa campus for two years. Lassner plans to continue in that interim role and as university president, The Honolulu Star- Advertiser reports.

IDAHO Meridian: Police say a pet squirrel prevented a burglary attempt in a Boise suburb last week by scratching the teen suspect who tried to break into a gun safe. The squirrel’s owner says the animal, named Joey, eats nuts and spinach and, like a cat, uses a litterbox.

ILLINOIS West Frankfort: Former Southern Illinois University president Glenn Poshard has been named president of Morthland College, a private Christian liberal arts college in West Frankfort.

INDIANA Indianapolis: A proposal to authorize the owner of the Rising Star Resort and Casino in Rising Sun to move up to half of its state- approved gambling to Terre Haute failed last week on a tie vote in the Indiana legislature.

IOWA Crescent: Parents are pushing Iowa’s Council Bluffs Community School District board to keep Crescent Elementary School open despite years of falling enrollment, The Daily Nonpareil reports.

KANSAS Topeka: A fire that badly damaged a restaurant and nightclub near downtown Topeka is under investigation. The Tope

ka Capital- Journal reports that damage is estimated at $ 125,000 to the Famous Door & Thelma’s Corner. No one was hurt.

KENTUCKY Golden Pond: The Forest Service says it plans to conduct several prescribed burns this year at Kentucky’s Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. The burns will start this month.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: A think tank studying New Orleans public schools says the city faces challenges as it prepares to take back governance of close to 50 schools that have under state control since Hurricane Katrina.

MAINE Augusta: Maine lawmakers are considering a measure to let police use red and blue lights when pulling over motorists. Police say studies have found that the human eye can see flashing red lights better, The Portland Press Herald reports.

MARYLAND Hagerstown: Maryland fishery managers say they’re looking for a geological explanation for a drop in the flow rate of a spring that feeds the state’s largest trout hatchery.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A man has pleaded guilty to threatening to burn down New England’s largest mosque and making other threats against Muslims. Authorities say Patrick Keogan posted an image depicting a mosque in flames on the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center’s Facebook page in 2015.

MICHIGAN Allendale: A criminal case review team will look at sexual assault allegations on or near Grand Valley State University’s Allendale campus. MLive. com says the team was formed after some sexual assaults that were disclosed to university staff were slow to reach police.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The chairwoman of the Minnesota Vikings’ stadium authority has resigned after weeks of criticism over how luxury suites were used.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: At least 15 Mississippi companies are heading to the Middle East next month in hopes of establishing new partnerships, The Clarion

Ledger reports. The businesses will visit Dubai and Jordan.

MISSOURI Webster Groves: This St. Louis suburb has been forced to remove more than 200 ash trees due to an infestation of emerald ash borers, KTVI- TV reports.

MONTANA Great Falls: Two Montana towns about 10 miles apart are looking at consolidating their schools. The Great Falls Tribune reports that the Hobson and Moore school boards are working on a plan for elementary students to attend classes in Moore while middle and high school students attend classes in Hobson.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Lincoln officials have devised a new use for hail- damaged roof shingles: Cover the old city dump. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the City Council is expected to vote next week to lift its ban on shingles at the North 48th Street site.

NEVADA Las Vegas: More than 340,000 people passed on Nevada’s hotel rooms last year and opted instead for home- sharing service Airbnb. The $ 47 million in revenue that hosts took in is a loss for the state’s hospitality industry.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: New Hampshire’s next education commissioner homeschooled his children. Frank Edelblut, Gov. Chris Sununu’s choice for the post, was confirmed last week by a 3- 2 Executive Council vote.

NEW JERSEY Piscataway: Rutgers University officials are condemning an anti- Muslim poster found hanging outside a cultural center on the New Jersey school’s Piscataway campus. The poster says “Imagine a Muslim- Free America” and shows the World Trade Center’s twin towers in silhouette.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The owners of an Albuquerque car dealership say 10 cars were stolen off their lot last week. KOAT- TV reports that the owners of Duke Motors also noticed that the office door frame was busted and supplies were scattered on the floor.

NEW YORK Kings Point: A training program that places U. S. Merchant Marine Academy midshipmen aboard commercial vessels is resuming. The program called Sea Year had been halted amid concerns about sexual assault and harassment.

NORTH CAROLINA Taylorsville: Where do you hide a 1,000pound chicken? That’s what sheriff’s deputies in North Carolina’s Alexander County are trying to figure out as they search for the concrete statue that disappeared from a farm.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s preference for wearing jeans got him booted from the floor of the state Senate last week. Burgum, elected in November, was posing for a photo with high school students when he was asked to leave. A spokesman for Burgum says he “meant no disrespect to the chamber rules.”

OHIO Medina: A University of Akron accounting student is the nation’s top grocery bagger. The Medina Gazette reports that Brady Long won a $ 10,000 prize in the National Grocers Association’s Best Bagger championship in Las Vegas.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A lawsuit filed by the newly formed Scenic Prairie Preservation Association in Caddo County alleges that the developer of two wind farms didn’t adequately notify residents and public officials about turbine locations, The Oklahoman reports.

OREGON Eugene: A consultant hired to help improve downtown Eugene tells city leaders that the area is in “crisis” and is considered unsafe, The Register- Guard reports. The consultant said the homelessness situation in downtown Eugene is the most serious she’s seen.

PENNSYLVANIA North Whitehall Township: Lehigh County officials are investigating a fire that destroyed a former hotel in North Whitehall. Firefighters say no one was injured in the blaze last week at the old Rockdale Hotel.

RHODE ISLAND Cranston: A Rhode Island man will serve four months in state prison followed by eight months in home confinement for the beating death of his neighbor’s Yorkshire terrier. Prosecutors say Nicola Patalano killed Missy with his cane after the Yorkie began barking at Patalano’s terrier.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Plans to deal with coal tar in the Congaree River have drawn criticism. The State reports that South Carolina Electric & Gas intends to cover some of the river bed with concrete to contain the coal tar.

SOUTH DAKOTA Mitchell: A decision to keep murals made of corn one more year on the exterior of Mitchell’s signature Corn Palace tourist attraction has come under fire, The Daily Republic reports. Corn Palace Director Scott Schmidt thinks the murals should be replaced every year.

TENNESSEE Nashville: A woman is charged with stealing nearly a half- million dollars from the church where she worked. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says Connie Parker manipulated accounting reports to hide the theft of about $ 498,000 while serving as treasurer of First Presbyterian Church in Clarksville.

TEXAS Houston: A federal judge has ordered a civil trial of the Texas prison system and its leaders. The civil rights lawsuit arises from the 2011 heat- related death of cab driver Larry Gene McCollum, who was serving a one- year sentence at the Hutchins State Jail when he died in 2011.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A federal grand jury indicted a man accused of causing a power outage in September by firing gunshots at a Utah substation transformer. Most of Kane and Garfield counties were left without power for about eight hours.

VERMONT Underhill: Dozens of people are seeking assistance with the permanent closing last week of the residential Maple Leaf addiction treatment center in Underhill and its outpatient facility in Colchester, The Free Press reports.

VIRGINIA Richmond: A state audit found problems with cybersecurity at the Virginia Department of Taxation. The audit says critical security patches to protect the tax department’s systems haven’t been installed within 90 days of release, as required.

WASHINGTON Seattle: King County is still dumping raw wastewater into Puget Sound after equipment at a Seattle treatment plant failed earlier this month. The Seattle Times reports that as much as 50 million gallons of untreated effluent a day is being dumped through an emergency bypass.

WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: The West Virginia Attorney General’s unit that targets Social Security disability fraud says it helped save $ 2.5 million in improper claims during its first year.

WISCONSIN Madison: The day before Gov. Scott Walker proposed eliminating the Wisconsin Parole Commission, its staff completed a $ 39,000 purchase of new furniture for its Madison offices. A Department of Corrections spokesman says the furniture will be repurposed if the commission is eliminated.

WYOMING Cheyenne: The Wyoming voter tradition of changing party affiliation at the polls on primary day lives on. A legislative committee last week killed a bill that would have blocked such switches within 30 days of a primary.