USA TODAY International Edition
50★ States
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Florence: The University of North Alabama is asking people to quit using plastic confetti as a photo prop on campus.
ALASKA Anchorage: A federal agency has awarded the state a $ 35.8 million grant to support recovery efforts from a 2018 earthquake, officials say.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: Researchers at Northern Arizona University’s Pathogen and Microbiome Institute lab are studying mosquitoes from Maricopa County as part of a DNA- mapping effort to target the West Nile virus.
ARKANSAS Conway: A Canadabased mass timber manufacturer in which Walmart has invested says it’s spending $ 90 million to open a plant in Arkansas, its first in the U. S.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: The state is fining CVS a record $ 3.6 million for failing to redeem deposits on bottles and cans at some of its locations.
COLORADO Denver: The University of Colorado Boulder’s media college says it will stop funding its studentrun news outlet.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: The state has a new online portal that will allow notaries to apply for, renew and reinstate licenses.
DELAWARE Dover: Wesley College is seeking money from the state for the third time this year. The struggling private school submitted a request Friday for $ 3.2 million.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing
ton: Public housing residents and advocates took their demands to the doorstep of the D. C. Housing Authority on Monday, demanding that no residents be evicted as part of the agency’s 20- year transformation plan, WUSA- TV reports.
FLORIDA Key Largo: Federal officials announced plans Monday to raise $ 100 million to fund projects to restore seven significant coral reef sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
GEORGIA Savannah: A 160- year- old church believed to be the oldest black church in the United States and built by enslaved Africans has been restored to a version of its former glory. A fresh coat of paint covers the freshly carpeted First African Baptist Church, which also had its bell tower fixed, water- damaged ceilings repaired and stucco replaced, the Savannah Morning News reports.
HAWAII Honolulu: The City Council has passed a single- use plastics ban that will be the first in the state to include all plastic containers used for food sales and service.
IDAHO Boise: A biennial state survey of youth shows fewer teens say they are being bullied, smoking cigarettes or having sex, but the number of kids who have seriously considered suicide remains at a 10- year high.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Federal officials are investigating whether the Chicago Cubs’ ongoing $ 1 billion renovation of Wrigley Field provides adequate wheelchair access.
INDIANA Terre Haute: Starting in January, Indiana State University will offer a teacher licensure program to train educators to work with students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
IOWA Cedar Rapids: A judge has sentenced a man to 14 years in prison after he was convicted of having his cousin try to hijack an internet domain from another man at gunpoint.
KANSAS Wichita: An ex- police officer who wounded a 9- year- old when he fired at her family’s dog is immune from criminal prosecution and can’t be sued, a judge ruled.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Democrat Andy Beshear was sworn in as governor early Tuesday during a private ceremony just after midnight in the Governor’s Mansion.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: The state Supreme Court building has been formally named in memory of late Chief Justice Pascal Calogero Jr.
MAINE Waterville: MaineHousing, an independent state authority, says it has been awarded nearly $ 4 million in federal low- income housing tax credits for several projects.
MARYLAND Baltimore: Six former inmates claim in a federal lawsuit that the state’s prison system fails to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Baltimore Sun cited allegations in the lawsuit that included prison guards making a one- legged man walk into the showers with no support.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The plan to modernize the area public transit system’s fare collection technology is expected to cost more and take years longer to implement than originally thought, officials say.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The state is on track to meet the project implementation deadlines for replacing its troubled driver and vehicle registration system known as MNLARS, the Office of the Legislative Auditor says, but it found some minor risks to completing the project on time and on budget.
MISSISSIPPI Oxford: Lafayette County is shifting back to voting on paper ballots. The Oxford Eagle reports county supervisors are seeking bids for new voting machines.
MISSOURI Springfield: Feral hog hunting in the Mark Twain National Forest has been curtailed. The U. S. Forest Service says it will only allow hunters to kill wild hogs if they come across them while hunting turkey and deer.
MONTANA Great Falls: The National Defense Authorization Act, which contains an amendment giving the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe federal recognition, cleared a conference committee Monday, bringing optimism from the state’s federal delegation that the bill will finally pass.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Dozens of bronze headstone flower vases were stolen from Lincoln Memorial Park.
NEVADA Reno: Police in the city are expanding the use of technology to automatically read license plates in an effort to reduce gun violence.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The state released a set of guidelines Tuesday to help law enforcement agencies better handle hate crimes. The protocols from the attorney general’s office call on departments to designate one staffer responsible for coordinating the handling of an alleged bias or hate crime.
NEW JERSEY New Brunswick: NJ Transit and Amtrak have started working on a new railyard to provide a safe place to store trains along the Northeast Corridor during severe weather.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: A contractor overseeing operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory lost track of 250 barrels of waste in the past year, an annual report on hazardous waste violations says.
NEW YORK Albany: The state plans to allow more local health centers and clinics to offer needle exchanges in hopes of reducing the number of opioid overdoses.
NORTH CAROLINA Hatteras: The power line carrying electricity to Ocracoke Island will be replaced by an underground cable next year.
NORTH DAKOTA Dickinson: The state’s final medical marijuana dispensary is set to open Friday.
OHIO Columbus: The official portrait of former Gov. John Kasich was unveiled Monday. The painting depicts Kasich in front of the Ohio Holocaust and Liberators Memorial, which he championed.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Attorneys for Johnson & Johnson have appealed an Oklahoma judge’s order for the company to pay $ 465 million to address the state’s opioid crisis.
OREGON Newport: State shellfish managers say the opening of the commercial Dungeness crab season will be further delayed until at least Dec. 31 along the entire Oregon coast, as testing shows crab are still too low in meat yield in half the areas.
PENNSYLVANIA Nazareth: A man whose home was destroyed in a September fire has raised $ 18,000 to thank the firefighters from nine departments who extinguished the flames and tried to save his dog.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Rhode Island’s secretary of state has announced the launch of a free online resource – called “Count Me In!” – to explore and compare centuries of data from state and federal census records.
SOUTH CAROLINA Cayce: Gov. Henry McMaster says he wants to give a $ 3,000 raise to all of the state’s nearly 53,000 teachers in next year’s budget, at a cost of $ 211 million.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Crews will use sound cannons to scare away geese in the city starting this week.
TENNESSEE Kingston: The Tennessee Valley Authority started removing asbestos- contaminated material last week that was unearthed during construction near its Kingston Fossil Plant.
TEXAS Austin: The city school district’s school closure plan perpetuates long- standing policies of racial and economic segregation, targeting vulnerable and historically underserved communities, according to a report by the district’s chief equity officer.
UTAH Salt Lake City: The state is set to become the latest to allow immigrant “Dreamers” to practice law under a proposed rule issued Monday by the Utah Supreme Court.
VERMONT Montpelier: The state plans to hold a new round of weekends, beginning this Friday, aimed at helping tourists who enjoy visiting Vermont move to the state full time.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The state has nearly 500 sites available for factories or distribution centers to be built, but only 30 of them are marketable amid competition with other states for big economic development deals, according to a new study by the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Board.
WASHINGTON Seattle: New research from the University of Washington indicates that communities beneath flight paths at Seattle- Tacoma International Airport are exposed to a special type of pollution caused by aircraft emissions.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Food producers who want to be listed in a state directory have until the end of the week to join the West Virginia Grown program.
WISCONSIN Madison: Pay raises for state employees are scheduled for a vote next week by a special legislative committee.
WYOMING Laramie: The state on Tuesday marked the 150th anniversary of becoming the first government in the U. S. to give women the unrestricted right to vote.