News from across the USA

ALABAMA Birmingham: An Anniston Army Depot employee is charged with stealing more than $ 175,000 worth of transmission oil coolers between 2013 and 2015. Prosecutors have filed an agreement under which Eric Hardy will plead guilty and play restitution.

ALASKA Bethel: A management plan for Kuskokwim River salmon is expected soon amid signs of fewer fish this summer. KYUK- AM reports that Bethel area residents want to meet with state Fish and Game officials to work out a preseason plan.

ARIZONA Tucson: Tucson’s downtown redevelopment board has approved financing incentives for construction of two hotels. The developers will get rebates on sales taxes that the properties collect once the hotels open.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The new Broadway Bridge connecting downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock is open for traffic. The span opened last week ahead of schedule.

CALIFORNIA Twentynine Palms: Federal authorities have approved a plan to move nearly 1,500 desert tortoises from the Twentynine Palms Marine base, The Riverside Press- Enterprise reports. The Marine Corps wants to use the 88,000 affected acres for training.

COLORADO Grand Junction: A man who swore at a Mesa County judge during a bond hearing last week and then refused an opportunity to apologize was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Christopher Vigil then swore twice more at the judge, who boosted Vigil’s jail time to six month, The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction reports.

CONNECTICUT Waterbury: Police arrested two people and are seeking a third in the defacing of a 52- foot- tall Christian cross, The Republican- American reports. The vandalism occurred at the site of the long- closed Holy Land, a biblical theme park in Connecticut.

DELAWARE Dover: Delaware’s Supreme Court has rejected the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge of a law requiring GPS monitoring of certain sex offenders who’ve been released from prison and are on probation.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: District of Columbia police say a man died after he was punched by a construction worker during an argument over traffic cones at a work site. The Washington Post reports that the victim, who was trying to park in a construction zone, suffered a head injury upon being struck last week and died the next day.

FLORIDA Orlando: SeaWorld Orlando is set to open a new dolphin show this spring. Dolphin Days will open April 1.

GEORGIA Hull: A Georgia woman was arrested after she reportedly slammed into a chicken truck, fled and then told officers who tracked her down that she hit the vehicle because she’s a vegan, WXIA- TV reports.

HAWAII Honolulu: After 44 days, hearings on whether a giant telescope can be built atop a Hawaii mountain wrapped up last week. But it’ll be awhile before there’s a decision on granting a permit for the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, a place that some Hawaiians consider to be sacred land.

IDAHO Idaho Falls: A project to clear radioactive waste from a site near Idaho Falls began in 2003. Last week, the final box at the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project site was removed, The Post Register reports.

ILLINOIS Springfield: More than 8,000 Illinois students will get to visit state parks, museums and other sites to learn about nature and conservation thanks to privately funded grants worth more than $ 98,000.

INDIANA Indianapolis: Indiana officials say the federal government has awarded more than $ 675,000 in grants to help purchase flood- prone properties in Fort Wayne and Decatur.

IOWA Waterloo: A development group plans to invest $ 1.2 million to renovate four historic Waterloo homes, The Courier reports. The group also is seeking city help in creating a historic district for the Walnut Neighborhood.

KANSAS Manhattan: Investigators determined that a fire last week in the Aggieville bar and shopping district near the Kansas State University campus was accidental. It took about four hours to extinguish the blaze.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration is starting a pilot project aimed at making sure more of Kentucky’s prisoners get the skills needed to find jobs once they’re released.

LOUISIANA Kenner: A craps dealer at the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner was arrested after authorities say he was involved in a swindling scam, The Times- Picayune reports.

MAINE Lewiston: Maine animal welfare officials seized 64 animals — mostly cats — last week from an apartment in Lewiston. Officials tell The Sun Journal that one cat was dead and others needed medical attention.

MARYLAND Annapolis: St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis has ended an annual ceremony honoring a Confederate sailor buried in its cemetery, The Capital reports. The event was tied to Confederate Flag Day.

MASSACHUSETTS Cambridge: Harvard University is taking new steps to confront its slavery ties. The school hosted a conference last week exploring historical links between slavery and early universities.

MICHIGAN Lansing: Federal environmental officials are conducting tests to determine whether harmful contaminants from a former industrial complex in Lansing are seeping out of the ground. The EPA says the testing is for vapor intrusion at six homes, The Lansing State Journal reports.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Augsburg College is changing its name. Starting Sept. 1, the nearly 150- year- old Minneapolis school will be known as Augsburg University.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A Mississippi state House committee chairman held up Senate bills to name highways after people back home after the Senate killed a bill to fund road repairs. Rep. Charles Busby of Pascagoula says no one would be honored to have a dilapidated road named for them.

MISSOURI Joplin: The Jasper County coroner says a high school student in Joplin died in an accident involving a basketball goal while he was volunteering at an elementary school last week, The Joplin Globe reports. Spencer Nicodemus, 18, died when a basketball goal fell on him.

MONTANA Missoula: Enrollment at the University of Montana dropped slightly for the spring semester, The Missoulian reports. Enrollment of full- time students fell 5.45% compared to spring 2016.

NEBRASKA Grand Island: Nebraska’s Grand Island area is preparing for the annual migration of about 600,000 cranes — and thousands of bird- gazing tourists, The Grand Island Independent reports.

NEVADA Las Vegas: A Las Vegas man is in custody after attacking a mannequin that police positioned to resemble a homeless person, The Las Vegas ReviewJournal reports. Police set up the mannequin after detectives were faced with no leads on the slayings of two homeless men earlier this year downtown.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Brentwood: Monitoring wells at a Brentwood fire training facility detected elevated levels of two toxins, The Portsmouth Herald reports. The materials, known as PFOS and PFOA, are classified as “contaminants of emerging concern.” Only one nearby well was found with the chemicals.

NEW JERSEY Bellmawr: A Revolutionary War- era New Jersey farmhouse that was blocking a $ 900 million interchange reconstruction project has been demolished. Demolition crews tore down the Hugg- Harrison- Glover House in Bellmawr last week after officials said its condition was too poor for historic designation.

NEW MEXICO Carlsbad: An audit found that the oil and gas industry owes New Mexico’s Eddy County more than $ 460,000 in back taxes. The audit, which is still ongoing, has found 111 omitted drilling rigs and 101 miles of omitted pipeline that hasn’t been claimed.

NEW YORK Lake George: The head of an Adirondack environmental conservation group is charged with taking more than $ 69,000 from the organization over a 15- year period. The Warren County Sheriff’s Office says the charges include grand larceny and falsifying business records.

NORTH CAROLINA Chapel Hill: “A Day Without Women” will mean a day without class for students in the Chapel Hill- Carrboro City School system. Officials declared Wednesday as an optional teacher workday, saying it isn’t political but involves student safety and the inability to operate many staff absences.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The Bismarck area will host the 2017 Special Olympics North America Softball Championship in August. The event is expected to draw more than 700 participants for the 32 competing U. S., Canadian and Caribbean teams, The Bismarck Tribune reports.

OHIO Akron: A double amputee who uses a wheelchair is suing for access to the grave of his twolegged cat. Frank Iannaggi says the Ohio property’s new owners discriminated against him by installing landscaping barriers that block his way, The Akron Beacon Journal reports. His cat Yetty that died in 2011 was born without back legs.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The Pawnee Nation tribe has filed a lawsuit in its own tribal court system accusing several oil companies of triggering Oklahoma’s 5.8- magnitude September earthquake that caused extensive damage to some near- century- old tribal buildings. The suit blames the quake on wastewater injected into wells.

OREGON Corvallis: The same strain of meningococcal disease that infected two Oregon State University students last fall has sickened another student, The Gazette- Times reports. The student was hospitalized in Corvallis last month and is in good condition.

PENNSYLVANIA Parkersburg: An 88- year- old woman says she talked an attacker out of raping her by lying to him that she was HIV- positive. WPVI- TV reports that the suspect forced his way into the woman’s Parkesburg apartment on Feb. 17, took $ 40 from her purse and was prepar- ing to sexually assault her. After telling him that her husband died of HIV, she said she “kicked him where it hurt him the most” before he fled.

RHODE ISLAND Cranston: A highway department worker who had just sold his house set up a makshift bedroom in the Cranston office building where he worked, WPRI- TV reports. Officials say the worker was disciplined.

SOUTH CAROLINA Fort Jackson: The Army chaplain school at Fort Jackson has a new commander. Col. Jeffrey Hawkins took over at a ceremony last week. Hawkins isn’t new to South Carolina. He has been at Army Central Command at Sumter’s Shaw Air Force Base.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants organizers of a Sioux Falls bear show to cancel the event. The Great Bear Show has performances set March 9- 12 at the Sioux Empire Sportsmen’s Show, The Argus Leader reports.

TENNESSEE Nashville: A rare clouded leopard has been born at the Nashville Zoo. Officials say the male cub is the first clouded leopard conceived through artificial insemination with frozen sperm. The cub born last week doesn’t have a name yet.

TEXAS Dublin: For over 120 years, this Texas town was synonymous with Dr Pepper. But its production halted five years ago, and Dublin Bottling Works began making a variety of craft sodas. There’s one — called Black Cherry at first but recently renamed Dublin Original — that has a reputation for tasting … familiar, The Dallas Morning News reports.

UTAH Salt Lake City: The Utah Attorney General’s Office says investigators last week seized evidence and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from about 500 coin game machines that violate the state’s gambling ban.

VERMONT Montpelier: Vermont wildlife officials are proposing 80 bulls- only permits for the state’s October moose hunting seasons, WCAX- TV reports. That would be a decrease of more than half from last year’s 165 permits.

VIRGINIA Blacksburg: Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg will give the May 12 commencement speech at Virginia Tech. The school says 5,000 people are expected to attend.

WASHINGTON Seattle: BNSF Railway and seven environmental groups settled a lawsuit last week saying that coal spilled from trains pollutes Washington state waterways. BNSF admits no wrongdoing but will pay $ 1 million for environmental cleanup projects.

WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: A barge breakaway forced the Coast Guard to shut down the Racine Lock and Dam on the Ohio River near Huntington one day last week. Officials say a tug was pushing barges loaded with natural gas condensate when it hit a lock wall early Thursday. No injuries or spills were reported.

WISCONSIN Forrestville: The largest dairy farm in Door County is making plans to eventually milk 10,000 cows. S& S Jerseyland Dairy wants the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to renew its permit allowing an expansion, WLUK- TV reports.

WYOMING Cheyenne: A federal appeals court in Washington has lifted protections for gray wolves in Wyoming. State officials promised to maintain a population above the minimum 100 wolves.