STATE- BY- STATE News from across the USA

ALABAMA Selma: Organizers of the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma are moving musical performances to private property owned by a Jubilee supporter following a dispute with the city over fees. The event commemorates the fight for voting rights.

ALASKA Anchorage: A Jewish community center in Anchorage was among those targeted in a wave of bomb threats around the country this week. The Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska was evacuated after receiving the threat. No explosives were found.

ARIZONA Phoenix: Windy conditions and blowing dust shut down parts of Interstate 10 in Arizona and New Mexico for three straight days this week.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson this week set execution dates for eight inmates over a 10- day period in April. But the state still lacks one of the three drugs needed to put the men to death.

CALIFORNIA San Francisco: A federal appeals court in California has rejected a lawsuit that sought to require labels on egg cartons indicating the conditions in which the chickens were raised, such as “Free- Range Eggs” or “Eggs from Caged Hens.”

COLORADO Boulder: Authorities in Colorado are looking for two suspects who ruined about $ 1,000 worth of meat at a Boulder market. The Daily Camera reports that flowers were put on top of raw lamb, pork and beef in an apparent anti- meat protest.

CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: A former Connecticut church pastor has pleaded no contest to charges of fleecing two parishioners out of $ 400,000, The Connect

icut Post reports. Both victims have since died.

DELAWARE Delaware City: The Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board has dismissed an appeal filed against a project that will significantly increase the amount of biofuel being stored at and shipped from a Delaware City refinery, The News Journal of Wilmington reports.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The District of Columbia’s Police Complaints Board says the city police department should appoint an independent consultant to examine the actions of officers on Inauguration Day. More than 200 people were arrested and charged with rioting that day.

FLORIDA Palm Coast: An argument over a $ 20 debt led to a melee at a Girl Scout cookie stand outside a Florida Wal- Mart. Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies arrested two teenage brothers who allegedly knocked over a table and scattered cookie boxes.

GEORGIA Jackson: A man who got into an altercation with a sheriff’s deputy trying to serve a drug warrant died after being shot by a stun gun, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation tells The Atlanta Journal- Constitution.

HAWAII Honolulu: A renewable energy nonprofit’s survey shows that most parking lot owners on Oahu have evaded a law on electric vehicle charging stations, The Honolulu Star- Advertiser reports. The law requires parking lots with 100 stalls or more to have at least one EV charging station.

IDAHO Boise: Federal officials say three types of genetically engineered potatoes are safe. The Environmental Protection Agency and U. S. Food and Drug Administration approval last week gives Idaho- based J. R. Simplot Co. permission to plant the potatoes this spring and sell them in the fall.

ILLINOIS O’Fallon: An Illinois thief took an 80,000- pound track hoe from a road construction project to break open a coin machine at a car wash. The Belleville

News- Democrat reports that the burglary Sunday netted about $ 50 in coins.

INDIANA Noblesville: Plans are in the works for a paved 9.2- mile pedestrian and bicycle trail connecting the Indiana cities of Noblesville and Fishers.

IOWA Iowa City: Two lawsuits challenge the University of Iowa’s decision to eliminate scholarships that had been promised to roughly 3,000 students.

KANSAS Norton: Police and Kansas animal- rescue officials say dozens of dogs were seized from a house in Norton and will be assessed for adoption. The

Wichita Eagle reports that 51 adult dogs and a dozen puppies were rescued.

KENTUCKY Lexington: The University of Kentucky has announced plans for a third regional medical school. The latest campus will be in partnership with Northern Kentucky University and St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

LOUISIANA Henderson: Authorities say a man who tried to hold up a store at gunpoint abandoned the effort, made a purchase and left — but was still arrested later at a casino, KLFYTV reports.

MAINE Patten: A nonprofit group plans to preserve and protect the newly- designated national monument in Maine. The Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters will work collaboratively with the National Park Service, which manages the monument.

MARYLAND Woodsboro: The Maryland Department of the Environment fined a Frederick County rock quarry $ 2,500 after a resident reported “chalky colored” water. The discolored water was traced Laurel Sand and Gravel’s limestone processing plant, the Frederick News- Post reports.

MASSACHUSETTS Northfield: The owners of a vacant Massachusetts prep school who’ve been trying to give away the campus for years say they finally found takers — California- based Thomas Aquinas College, which will open a campus there, and the nonprofit Moody Center, which will open a museum honoring the 19th- century evangelist who founded the Northfield school.

MICHIGAN Harbor Springs: A man who sprayed a fire extinguisher at a security guard who was chasing him during a December fire at Michigan’s Boyne Highlands ski resort was sentenced this week to up to 20 years in prison.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: Scientists think they’ve solved the mystery of the Devil’s Kettle waterfall at Minnesota’s Judge C. R. Magney State Park. The water on the west side of where the Brule River splits plunges into a hole and vanishes. Hydrologists believe it re- enters the river from underground.

MISSISSIPPI Natchez: Natchez plans to keep its curbside recycling program even though Adams County is ending its program, The Natchez Democrat reports.

MISSOURI Branson: People working in Branson’s entertainment industry say they’re concerned about a local taxpayer- funded marketing strategy. The Springfield News- Leader reports that the convention bureau has added messages about family- oriented attractions and outdoors life at the expense of theaters.

MONTANA Helena: Montana lawmakers are considering a bill to make it illegal for doctors to help terminally ill patients kill themselves.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A struggling farm economy could mean more budget challenges for Nebraska lawmakers facing a projected $ 288 million revenue shortfall. Low commodity prices continue to hurt agriculture, the state’s largest industry.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Nevada regulators say state casinos won just over $ 1 billion in January. Downtown Las Vegas casinos saw a whopping 32% increase compared with a year earlier.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Tamworth: Recent warm weather has forced cancellation of the popular Tamworth Sled & Skijor Race. Organizers say thin ice on Lake Chocorua means it isn’t safe.

NEW JERSEY Trenton: Former Perth Amboy Mayor Joe Vas is back in New Jersey to begin serving a state prison sentence stemming from corruption charges. Vas just finished serving a 6 ½ - year federal prison sentence.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: A top oil industry lobbyist in New Mexico says companies are going to fight back against critics of fracking, The Roswell Daily Record reports.

NEW YORK Rochester: Racially insensitive art that was removed from a historic carousel a year ago is now back on display in an exhibit on battling racism. WHEC- TV reports that the Rochester Museum and Science Center unveiled the “Take It Down! Organizing Against Racism” exhibit Tuesday at a local church.

NORTH CAROLINA

Leland: A North Carolina family’s dog is alive thanks to an off- duty Leland police officer. WWAY- TV reports that Sgt. Jonathan Hall ran into a burning home Sunday night to save the animal. The dog came through the door Hall kicked open.

NORTH DAKOTA Carrington: The small North Dakota community of Carrington is coming together to support a couple who lost their three children in a fire last weekend. The children died when their mobile home at Westside Trailer Court was engulfed in flames.

OHIO Montpelier: A pair of Ohio towns placed first and third for U. S. tap water at an international tasting contest last weekend. Montpelier was No. 1 at the 27th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting. Hamilton finished third.

OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Surveys indicate that Tulsa Public School teachers are leaving their jobs because of low pay, The Tulsa World reports. School district leaders say it takes local teachers 18 years to reach what Tulsa County considers a living wage.

OREGON Portland: Doctors say a 4- month- old Iranian girl with a rare heart condition is “out of the woods” and making progress after life- saving surgery. Fatemeh Reshad and her parents’ plans to come to the U. S. were briefly canceled after President Trump issued an executive order blocking immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iran. But they arrived in Portland a few days later after being granted a waiver.

PENNSYLVANIA Irwin: A man is jailed on charges of holding $ 30,000 worth of stolen jewelry when he suffered an apparent drug overdose. KDKA- TV reports that Kenneth Rossi collapsed Saturday in a bank where he was about to put more than 200 stolen items into a safe deposit box.

RHODE ISLAND Cranston: Police in Connecticut say a woman forged and cashed $ 64,000 in checks from a bank account meant to help the Assumption Parish Food Ministry in Providence. WPRI- TV reports that Tomma DiSano was arrested on charges of forgery and passing counterfeit notes.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: One of the two men accused of bilking a South Carolina project turning warheads into nuclear reactor fuel has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors say Phillip Thompson billed but never delivered goods for the Savannah River Site’s mixed- oxide fuel facility.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: South Dakota lawmakers approved a bill to encourage installation of buffer strips between agricultural land and waterways. The bill offers property tax breaks for land turned into buffer strips.

TENNESSEE Oak Ridge: The Oak Ridge Public Library is looking for help in identifying names and places in its vast photo collection. The photos were taken from the 1960s to the mid- 1990s. Many don’t include notes about who is in them or where it was taken.

TEXAS Farmersville: An Islamic association has been given renewed permission for a Muslim cemetery just outside the Texas town of Farmersville. A similar plan approved two years ago never moved forward and lapsed.

UTAH Bountiful: Officials have scrapped a plan to relocate Bountiful’s city hall, The StandardExaminer in Ogden reports. Instead, they say they’ll look into making improvements to the existing city hall building. The relocation plan was met with strong community opposition.

VERMONT Barre: Police say a Barre homeowner used a tomahawk to fight off a homeless intruder who pointed a rifle at him, The Times Argus reports.

VIRGINIA Onancock: Authorities on Virginia’s Eastern Shore helped rescue a man who got his lower leg caught in a bear trap along the side of a road. Officials say the man jumped over a fence and into a ditch to avoid traffic in Accomack County. He was taken to a hospital for treatment.

WASHINGTON Yakima: A cold and snowy winter has eaten up Washington’s road- clearing budget, The Yakima Herald- Republic reports. State transportation officials are asking lawmakers to add $ 5 million to cover snow and ice removal costs incurred this season.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: West Virginia’s spring forest fire season started this week with limits on outside burning. The season runs through May 31. Burning is limited to brush, leaves, yard clippings and other vegetative material.

WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin lawmakers are close to eliminating the office of state treasurer. But critics are expressing concern over how that would affect public school libraries. The treasurer’s only duty involves distributing investment income to the libraries.

WYOMING Laramie: University of Wyoming officials are hoping the school’s new oil and gas research facility will help attract leading academics and researchers. The Laramie Boomerang reports that construction on the High Bay Research Facility has wrapped up.