News from across the USA

ALABAMA Gadsden: Someone throwing fake cash on an Alabama highway created a few moments of traffic chaos last week, The Gadsden Times reports. Annika Snead said she had to slam on brakes to avoid hitting a vehicle whose driver stopped to pick up bills that, from a distance, looked like $ 20s. ALASKA Juneau: State marijuana regulators are asking the public for comments on a proposal to allow onsite consumption at retail stores. If ultimately approved, Alaska would become the first state to allow store tokes. ARIZONA Phoenix: A man convicted of running a brothel out of his pornography production studio will be sentenced Aug. 25. William Hartwell was found guilty in April of 10 felonies, including operating a house of prostitution and sexual assault. ARKANSAS Fayetteville: The Arkansas and Missouri Railroad is being sued by a former engineer who says his injuries from a 2014 train wreck were caused by unsafe work conditions, The Northwest Arkansas DemocratGazette reports. CALIFORNIA San Jose: A man who pleaded guilty last year to killing 21 cats was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Robert Roy Farmer lured some of the cats from people’s homes in San Jose’s Cambrian Park neighborhood, the Mercury News reports. COLORADOSprings: A Steamboat Steamboat Springs lodging Suburban companyafter a bearis down ransackedone the Today vehicle, reports. The HousekeepersSteamboat Pilot & who left the vehicle unlocked returned to see the face of a black bear staring at them from inside. CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: A former university student accused of lying about being raped by two football players is seeking to have the case against her dismissed, The Connecticut Post reports. The former Sacred Heart University student says she’s suffering from a psychiatric disability. DELAWARE Wilmington: A family of volunteer Wilmington firefighters has adopted a dog they rescued from a burning building. WDEL- FM reports that Ivy, a 60- pound bulldog, was carried out of a local animal shelter during a July 9 fire. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Washington Metro supervisor was fired for abuse of overtime, and others are under administrative review, the transit agency says. FLORIDA Deland: A Florida sky diver sent his wife a video saying he wasn’t going to pull his parachute cord, minutes before jumping to his death from a plane. She had a sky- dive employee contact the plane by radio, but her husband had already jumped. GEORGIA Ellenwood: A man found dead in a Georgia lake was a suspect in an armed robbery. Police say Joshua Allen is suspected of shooting the driver of a pickup truck who stopped July 5 to offer him a ride. HAWAII Waimea: A popular Waimea trail continues to attract hikers even after the Department of Land and Natural Resources cited dozens for trespassing. Several hikers were spotted at the White Road Trail last week, West Hawaii Today reports. IDAHO Boise: Officials say Idaho closed out the budget year with tax revenue exceeding forecasts by nearly $ 94 million. For fiscal year 2017 — which ended June 30 — the state took in almost $ 3.45 billion compared with the predicted $ 3.35 billion. ILLINOIS Springfield: The bondrating agency Moody’s Investors Service says Illinois’ fiscal challenges linger despite approval of the first state budget in two years. Moody’s notes that an income tax increase will generate nearly $ 5 billion more a year. But the report questions the state’s ability to “generate sustained surpluses” to reduce its nearly $ 15 billion backlog of bills. INDIANA Indianapolis: Education officials are considering changing Indiana’s school grading system, The Indianapolis Star reports. The State Board of Education is mulling giving student proficiency more significance than student growth when grading school performance. IOWA Waterloo: The Grout Museum District has opened a Korean War exhibit that honors Iowa’s veterans, The WaterlooCedar Falls Courier reports. KANSAS Lawrence: A man is charged with stealing $ 13,000 worth of items from a University of Kansas lab, The Lawrence Journal- World reports. Matthew Reynard is accused of taking a veterinary camera, a camera control unit, syringes and hypodermic needles. KENTUCKY Louisville: Authorities searching for fugitive Kentucky lawyer Eric Conn released surveillance photos that they say show him at a gas station and a Walmart in New Mexico in early June. Conn vanished after pleading guilty to Social Security fraud. LOUISIANA New Orleans: A federal study says Louisiana’s devastating wetlands loss has slowed slightly since 2010. But the report says that’s probably the result of no major hurricanes hitting the state since 2008. MAINE Augusta: Maine is implementing a new lottery system for licenses to fish for baby eels. Elvers are worth more than $ 1,000 a pound on the world sushi market. MARYLAND La Plata: A man was trampled and bitten by a camel at the Charles County Fairgrounds, WJLA- TV reports. The camel was part of the Lewis and Clark Circus, which was renting the parking lot. MASSACHUSETTS

Falmouth: A Cape Cod aquarium temporarily closed after two harbor seals died within days of each other, The Boston Globe reports. MICHIGAN Lansing: A public- private partnership has released plans to restore selfsustaining populations of the arctic grayling to state waters. The Michigan Arctic Grayling Initiative has 32 member organizations. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A convoy of more than 50 tow trucks left a Minneapolis gas station last week to send the son of one of its founders on his final journey. Steve Williams, the son of a co- founder of the Bobby and Steve’s Auto World chain, died July 6. MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Two Mississippi men, a pharmacist and a marketer, face charges in a federal health care fraud crackdown. Authorities say Jason May’s pharmacy grossed $ 192 million from military insurer TRICARE. Gerald Jay Schaar is accused of taking kickbacks from a pharmacy linked to $ 2.3 million in drug prescriptions. MISSOURI Kansas City: A man who played a leading role in a plot that helped African nationals evade immigration laws by arranging fraudulent marriages was ordered to spend three years in prison. Delmar Dixon charged $ 1,000 upfront and another $ 1,000 after the wedding. MONTANA Big Timber: The Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame is without land to build on after the chosen spot was found to contain wetlands, The Billings Gazette reports. NEBRASKA Kearney: Authorities say a good Samaritan spotted four children who wandered away from their day care in Kearney and alerted police. Officers located the two 5- year- olds, a 6- year- old and an 8- year- old more than a mile from where they were supposed to be. NEVADA Gardenerville: Vice President Mike Pence will be the keynote speaker at Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s fundraiser Aug. 26. The Basque Fry fundraiser at Corley Ranch has become an annual event for conservative

causes. NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: A work- release inmate who walked away July 7 was found at the Mall of New Hampshire. Michael Maurice Chiasson Jr. was taken to the state prison in Concord to face escape charges. NEW JERSEY Hopewell Township: Police believe a lightning strike caused a fire at the Har Sinai Temple synagogue, NJ. com reports. Police say occupants were evacuated. NEW MEXICO Portales: The Portales Municipal Airport has won a federal grant of nearly $ 432,000 to construct two 12,000- gallon fuel tanks. With the tanks, officials say the airport is taking a step toward becoming financially self- sustaining. NEW YORK New York: The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan is recreating the Jerusalem court where Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was tried in 1961 for engineering the deaths of millions of Jews. The exhibit, “Operation Finale,” features the actual bulletproof glass booth where Eichmann sat for the proceedings. ville: NORTH Nearly CAROLINAnine miles Fayette-of Interstate 95 in North Carolina will be partially closed for several weeks to repair a bridge damaged by flooding, The Fayetteville Observer reports. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Bad winter weather and drought this summer could combine to put a damper on the fall pheasant hunt in North Dakota. A spring survey by the state Game and Fish Department indicates the population might be down about 14% from a year ago. OHIO Wilmington: State officials have ordered the slaughter of nearly 300 hogs at the Clinton County Fair after at least two animals tested positive for swine flu, WLWT- TV reports. OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A man accused of setting off a pipe bomb outside an Air Force recruiting office has been ordered to undergo a mental evaluation, The Tulsa World reports. OREGON Salem: The North Fork Smith River has been given a designation that could end an effort to build a nickel mine nearby, The Statesman Journal reports. The Outstanding Resource Waters is part of the Clean Water Act that allows states to protect pristine water bodies. PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: Call fisherman Aaron Thompon’s catch prehistoric. The angler showed pictures of himself holding the long- nosed fish caught in the Allegheny River, and the Army Corps of Engineers asked people what it was. Turns out, it was a Paddlefish, which dates back 75 million years and was thought to no longer be present in Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Tribune- Review reports. RHODE ISLAND Providence: Officials say Eastern equine en- cephalitis virus was found in mosquito samples collected in three Rhode Island cities. But there have been no confirmed human cases in the state. SOUTH CAROLINA Moncks Corner: The federal government has admitted fault in a mid- air collision over South Carolina of an Air Force F- 16 and a Cessna aircraft in July 2015. A father and son in the Cessna were killed. The F- 16 pilot ejected safely. SOUTH DAKOTA Wagner: More than 10 South Dakota police and fire departments took part in a fundraising softball game to help a man who was injured while helping an officer who was being assaulted. Bystander Wayne Joseph, 53, also was assaulted when he stepped in to help Officer James Flynn, who was trying to arrest a combative teenager, the Mitchell Daily Republic reports. TENNESSEE Nashville: The Tennessee comptroller’s website was hacked last week and a message was put up by a group claiming to be the Moroccan Islamic Union- Mail, WSMV- TV reports. The group left a message and a photo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. TEXAS Bastrop: Residents in about 15 households were forced to leave their homes after some 50,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a cut underground pipeline near Bastrop. A contractor accidentally cut the line. UTAH Salt Lake City: Some Utah cities are skirting political backlash by raising fees on electricity and other services instead of property taxes to balance their budgets. But residents, as well as some state lawmakers, tell The Salt Lake Tribune that such fee hikes should be curbed. mont VERMONT farmer Randolph:is asking forA Ver- help findingTV reports.her stolenThe animalsgoats, WCAX-went missingstate Agency earlier of this Agriculturemonth. The says the goats were taken from their pasture at night. VIRGINIA Virginia Beach: Federal wildlife officials say 103 geese were rounded up and euthanized in Virginia Beach following a petition by waterfront residents. Officials said nonlethal methods failed to shrink the geese population. WASHINGTON Spokane: At least four wolves have died in Washington state this year. Two were struck by vehicles, one was killed to protect caribou and one wandered into Idaho and was legally hunted. Washington is home to about 115 wolves in 20 packs. They are a state protected species. WEST VIRGINIA Bluefield: Authorities says one of two suspects in a home invasion died of possible heat stroke or heart attack while being tracked by police, The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. Both suspects were armed and wearing body armor when they fled on foot. The other suspect surrendered. WISCONSIN Madison: Authorities are trying to determine why people started falling ill at the UW Health West clinic in Madison. Patients and staff started reporting nausea and headaches, and 29 were taken to hospitals as a precaution. A hazardous materials crew ruled out carbon monoxide and a natural gas leak. WYOMING Jackson: The full solar eclipse on Aug. 21 is having a side effect on child care in Wyoming. Some preschools and day care providers in Jackson are planning to close that day, The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports. Safety concerns related to congested roads are being cited.