STATE- BY- STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Birmingham: An Alabama judge has invalidated the state’s Workmans Compensation Act, The Gadsden Times reports. Circuit Judge Pat Ballard found fault with the $ 220- per- week cap for workers permanently but not totally disabled and the 15% cap on attorneys’ fees, limits that critics call outdated. ALASKA Anchorage: A 17- foot python that’s been missing for two weeks has returned to its Anchorage area home. The snake, named Sam, slithered back into the living room of its owners’ home Monday. Where it went is unknown. ARIZONA Phoenix: The Arizona Department of Gaming says contributions to the state from tribal gambling will be about $ 25 million for the quarter that ended March 31. That’s about a 4.2% increase compared with the same quarter in the 2016 fiscal year. ARKANSAS North Little Rock: The Arkansas State Veterans Home can now accept residents on Medicare and Medicaid, The Arkansas Democrat- Gazette reports. Until now, the home was taking only those residents who could afford to pay for care out of pocket. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A Santa Ana man was arrested for allegedly selling feathers from bald eagles and other protected birds. Tyler Vela is charged with illegally trafficking the feathers of eagles, red- tail hawks and turkey vultures. COLORADO Aspen: Starting Thursday, two military men will retrace a Colorado ski route used by soldiers in 1944. The four- day Trooper Traverse expedition finishes Sunday, The Aspen Daily News reports. CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: A Connecticut clinical social worker is headed to prison for 10 months for her role in a health care fraud. Authorities say Anne Silver let her son and another woman bill Medicaid more than $ 1.6 million for psychotherapy services that weren’t performed. DELAWARE Dover: Delaware is a step closer to reinstating the death penalty. The state House voted 24- 16 Tuesday to send the measure to the state Senate. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The District of Columbia tourism bureau says a record 20 million U. S. visitors traveled to Washington in 2016. Destination DC will release international visitor totals in August. FLORIDA Orlando: A 10- year- old Florida girl says she shoved her fingers up an alligator’s snout to escape after it bit her, WKMG- TV reports. Juliana Ossa was bitten last weekend on her knee and calf. GEORGIA Rome: An inmate who escaped from the Floyd County Courthouse was captured after a nearly 10- hour search. Dustin Cotton, 26, was in court for possible probation revocation based on other charges, including armed robbery. HAWAII Honolulu: A bill requiring Hawaii child care providers to obtain liability insurance has passed and is waiting for Gov. David Ige’s signature, Hawaii News Now reports. IDAHO Boise: The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Idaho Department of Corrections on behalf of four inmates seeking kosher meals for Jewish prisoners. The Idaho Statesman reports that during Passover last month, two of the four plaintiffs ate only fruit and matzo because no kosher meals were provided. ILLINOIS Springfield: Illinois officials have released plans for reintroducing a giant fish thought to be extinct from the state’s waters. Last fall, about 1,600 alligator gar were stocked with the hope they might become a weapon against the invasive Asian carp. INDIANA Terre Haute: Duke Energy’s plans to dispose of 9 million tons of coal ash into ponds at a power plant it closed last year have raised concerns about the site’s proximity to the Wabash River, The Tribune- Star reports. IOWA Keokuk: A judge awarded nearly $ 750,000 in damages to a woman who reported what she thought was abuse of a student at a Keokuk boarding school for troubled youths, The Hawk Eye reports. Cheyenne Jerred filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Midwest Academy after she was fired. KANSAS Kansas City: A Dodge City medical equipment supplier has agreed to pay $ 1 million to settle allegations that it submitted false claims to Medicare for vacuum erection devices. Medicare has since stopped covering the devices, known informally as penis pumps. KENTUCKY Louisville: The Kentucky Derby is over, but the Kentucky Derby Museum is keeping the fun going with a hat contest. Entries will be accepted through May 31. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Tulane Medical Center has acquired Lakeview Regional Medical Center in Covington. The acquisition adds to two other hospital properties owned by Tulane. MAINE York: Police officers in this Maine community say 35% of the town is out of range of their radios. York built a new dispatch center and added new antennas after realizing the problem, WGME- TV reports, but officers still report dead spots. MARYLAND Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan has signed a law requiring Maryland dam owners, public and private, to create or update emergency procedures by Aug. 1, The Baltimore Sun reports. MASSACHUSETTS Shrewsbury: Police in Shrewsbury are investigating a letter urging residents not to vote for a Muslim candidate for the town’s governing board. Rashid Shaikh, a U. S. citizen originally from Pakistan, failed to win one of two open seats in the May 2 election, The Telegram & Gazette reports. MICHIGAN Kalamazoo: A landscaping crew nicked a gas line at Western Michigan University, prompting an evacuation at the school’s health center. No injuries were reported, The Kalamazoo Gazette reports. MINNESOTA St. Paul: Two men are accused of trespassing by jumping into the giraffe exhibit at St. Paul’s Como Zoo over the weekend. Police say both suspects smelled of alcohol. MISSISSIPPI Olive Branch: Mississippi authorities say 67 guns were stolen from a tractortrailer waiting to deliver the firearms to a sporting goods store, The Commercial Appeal reports. MISSOURI Wellston: St. Louis County police are looking for a man who waited in line at a bank before robbing it, The St. Louis Post- Dispatch reports. When it was the man’s turn, police say, he handed a note to the teller demanding money and then walked out with an undisclosed amount. MONTANA Helena: A fire that may have started in a light fixture caused at least $ 250,000 in damage at a Helena school. Administrators canceled classes Tuesday at C. R. Anderson Middle School. NEBRASKA North Platte: Two parents were sentenced to 300 days in jail for child abuse in Lincoln County, The North Platte Telegraph reports. Authorities say the couple have a special needs son, who has been removed from his parents’ home. NEVADA Carson City: Gov. Brian Sandoval has signed a measure to speed up local control of Las Vegas- area schools. Clark County School Board trustees sued twice to stop the decentralization, but the bill effectively ends that effort. NEW HAMPSHIRE Alexandria: New Hampshire police are warning drivers to stay up to date on their vehicle registration. In Alexandria, a woman was fined and her car was towed when she tried to fake her vehicle registration using a supermarket cheese wrapper, WMUR- TV reports. NEW JERSEY Trenton: New Jersey is expanding its safe care cam program that protects the elderly in nursing homes. People can borrow hidden cameras to keep an eye on loved ones in nursing homes and institutional care facilities. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Dozens of witnesses are preparing to testify in New Mexico’s lawsuit against one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains. The case against Preferred Care Partners Management Group is set for trial next year. NEW YORK Albany: A large collection from the Woodstock Art Colony has been donated to the New York State Museum. The donation includes 1,500 paintings and sculptures, plus archival material. NORTH CAROLINA Wilmington: Replicas of two of Christopher Columbus’ ships are available for onboard tours starting Thursday at Port City Marina in Wilmington. The Nina and the Pinta will be in port through May 20. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Police say motor vehicle thefts more than doubled last year in Bismarck. The city had 309 vehicles stolen in 2016, compared with 154 in 2015, the Bismarck Tribune reports. OHIO Columbus: Hundreds of supporters of Ohio’s largest online charter school rallied at the Statehouse this week to let officials know they’re happy with the education at the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow. ECOT is in a legal dispute with the state over attendance tracking. OKLAHOMA Norman: An Oklahoma jury found the owner and manager of a pipe shop not guilty of selling drug paraphernalia. Friendly Market owner Robert Cox insisted that all of the items sold in his store could have been used to smoke tobacco and were therefore legal. OREGON McMinnville: A lawsuit seeking $ 12 million claims that an Oregon inmate asked for help 19 times in five hours before he died in the Yamhill County jail in 2015, The Oregonian/ OregonLive reports. PENNSYLVANIA Lower Burrell: A woman who decided to walk rather than drive after a night of drinking ended up at the wrong house, The Tribune- Review reports. Police say the woman climbed into a stranger’s house through a window. The woman faces burglary and trespassing charges. RHODE ISLAND Hopkinton: A flock of 70 chicks has safely returned to roost at a Rhode Island farm, WLNE- TV reports. The $ 300 worth of chicks and the equipment needed to care for them was stolen from Simplicity Farms, whose owner shared his loss on Facebook. A viewer tipped police to where the missing chicks were. SOUTH CAROLINA Myrtle Beach: Two people died and a third was injured in a fire at a coastal South Carolina campground. Horry County officials say four trailers at the Apache Family Campground and Pier near Myrtle Beach caught fire Tuesday and two were destroyed. SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: Opponents of a South Dakota uranium mine are challenging the Powertech project on two fronts. Some cite fear of degraded water quality. Others say the project is within a Great Sioux Nation tribal area and the U. S. lacks water or mineral rights there, The Rapid City Journal reports. TENNESSEE Nashville: Four married lesbian couples expecting children through artificial insemination have filed a lawsuit to question a new Tennessee law that requires using the “natural and ordinary meaning” of words in state statutes. The couples fear the law will be used to allow discrimination. TEXAS San Antonio: A judge declared a mistrial in a murder case after a juror admitted being intoxicated while listening to testimony, The San Antonio Express- News reports. The trial was rescheduled for September. UTAH Salt Lake City: A Utah zoo falcon was killed by wolves after it flew off during a bird show and landed in the wolf pen. Hogle Zoo officials say the 17- year- old Lanner Falcon named Maximus took an errant turn. VERMONT Bennington: The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation says Bennington has been fined $ 15,000 for failing to maintain its wastewater treatment facility. VIRGINIA Chesapeake: A bald eagle hatched at Virginia’s Norfolk Botanical Gardens had to be euthanized after being shot, The Virginian- Pilot reports. Officials say the 7- year- old eagle had over 20 pieces of buckshot in its body. WASHINGTON Olympia: Washington state lawmakers are considering a bill to remove a prohibition on including nuclear attack preparations in the state’s emergency management plans. Recent tensions between the U. S. and North Korea make the idea timely, one sponsor says. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A West Virginia woman is accused of locking her sons, ages 2 and 5, in enclosures similar to kennels, The Charleston- Gazette Mail reports. Officers conducting a welfare check found the boys naked in feces-andurine-ridden boxes made of tarp, plywood and mesh. WISCONSIN Madison: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is making emergency bottled water available when private wells are contaminated by livestock manure. A third of wells in Kewaunee County have contamination. WYOMING Cody: Federal officials have lowered water levels of the Buffalo Bill Reservoir in Wyoming to make room for expected heavy runoff in late May and June, The Cody Enterprise reports. Officials say the threat of flooding in the Shoshone River basin east of the reservoir is just a few weeks away.