USA TODAY International Edition
50 ★ States
ALABAMA Montgomery: The City Council has voted unanimously to repeal a controversial ordinance that required jail time for panhandlers.
ALASKA Juneau: An Alaska Native advocacy group is seeking land and the establishment of Native corporations for communities that were omitted from a federal settlement in 1971, officials say.
ARIZONA Page: The Upper Antelope Canyon, a popular tourist attraction that sometimes requires tourists to wait while professionals get the perfect shot, is ending its photography-only tours.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state Agriculture Department says it has hired a Game and Fish biologist to coordinate efforts to eradicate damage- causing feral hogs.
CALIFORNIA Citrus Heights: The home of a man suspected of being the notorious Golden State Killer was sold last month to a couple who intend to live there.
COLORADO Denver: People who traveled through Denver International Airport last Wednesday afternoon may have been exposed to measles, state health officials say.
CONNECTICUT Newtown: The planned permanent memorial to honor the 26 people killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting will be simpler but maintain the essence of the original design, members of the memorial committee say. The dedication date has also been pushed back to December 2021.
DELAWARE Dover: Families living in homes on Dover Air Force Base say they have been experiencing ongoing problems with mold and leaks.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing
ton: The D. C. Council will vote Jan. 7 on marijuana legislation that is currently in effect for schools on a temporary basis, WUSA- TV reports.
FLORIDA Gulf Breeze: A man who once spent a below- freezing Florida Christmas without electricity has paid the power bills for 36 families with past- due accounts. Mike Esmond says he will never forget the Christmas he and his three daughters spent in 1983 without heat and power because he couldn't pay his bill.
GEORGIA Savannah: The first newborn right whale of the winter calving season has been spotted off the state's coast.
HAWAII Honolulu: Police are reviewing body camera footage after fatally shooting a second man in less than 24 hours, amid an apparent uptick in gun crime in the city.
IDAHO Mullan: Members of a union representing mine workers have rejected a tentative agreement that could have ended a 21⁄ 2- year strike at Lucky Friday Mine.
ILLINOIS Springfield: Hunters took more than 75,000 deer during the state's seven- day firearm hunting season this fall, a 7% drop in the number of deer harvested from 2018.
INDIANA Bloomington: People illegally driving off- road vehicles in the Hoosier National Forest are leaving behind deep tire grooves that are causing erosion, an official says.
IOWA Des Moines: The City Council has disbanded the city's Citizen Odor Board after concluding the panel was no longer needed after nearly 30 years of recording complaints.
KANSAS Lawrence: The University of Kansas plans to close its Confucius Institute in January, in part because federal funding for the China- linked facilities has been cut.
KENTUCKY Louisville: A gold bar worth almost $ 1,500 was found among donations to one of the Salvation Army's red kettles.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The state's transportation department will boost safety measures at its roadwork sites, the agency's secretary announced at a ceremony honoring an employee killed on the job.
MAINE Kennebunk: Nelson Analytics has become the first lab to apply for state certification to test recreational cannabis.
MARYLAND Baltimore: The city got a needed boost in federal funding to fight crime with a $ 4.6 million package of grants for public safety initiatives for the region. The city will receive more than $ 2.9 million.
MASSACHUSETTS Cape Cod: Activists are working to ban commercial sales of single- use plastic water bottles at stores across the cape.
MICHIGAN Detroit: The largest contractor in the city's demolition program is facing suspension again after it tore down the wrong house – for the second time in just a year.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: John Borger, one of the nation's preeminent First Amendment lawyers, has died. He was 68. Borger represented the Star Tribune and other media organizations for four decades.
MISSISSIPPI Gulfport: The Harrison County Sheriff ' s Office has distributed a confessed serial killer's sketch of a woman he says he killed in the area 27 years ago, and authorities are seeking the public's help to identify her.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: The statue of a Roman goddess that prompted a brief controversy returned to the dome of the Capitol on Tuesday. The statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain crops, was taken down last year for repairs. A state lawmaker had decried it as a “false god.”
MONTANA Billings: The Billings Chamber of Commerce has started to remove parts of its campaign, including an “Onward Pioneer” billboard, that was criticized by a local blogger who said its language and imagery was tone- deaf and racist against Native Americans.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Dozens of people who helped respond to flooding in the state this year were honored Tuesday for work saving lives and rescuing stranded neighbors.
NEVADA Reno: The Burning Man organization is tired of waiting on a decision that could potentially recover it millions of dollars. Black Rock City LLC has filed a lawsuit after waiting four years to hear whether the U. S. Bureau of Land Management would be required to justify its nearly $ 3 million in annual charges to Burning Man.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The number of people experiencing homelessness in the state is dropping, though four of its 10 counties saw increases in recent years, finds a report released Wednesday by a nonprofit advocacy group.
NEW JERSEY Newark: Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed legislation restoring voting rights to convicts who are out of prison on parole or probation.
NEW MEXICO Tsaile: The nation's first college established by an American Indian tribe is working to create a law school. Efforts picked up speed with a two- day symposium at Diné College on the Navajo Nation. NORTH CAROLINA Rocky Mount: A highway marker honoring Native American Olympic gold medalist James “Jim” Francis Thorpe has gone missing, officials say.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state will work with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to help develop a response plan for a potential spill of the Dakota Access pipeline, a state official says.
OHIO Cincinnati: The name of slave owner Charles McMicken will be removed from the University of Cincinnati's largest college after a unanimous vote by trustees.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Scientists surveying a cemetery and a homeless camp found pits holding possible remains of black residents killed nearly 100 years ago in a race massacre, investigators have revealed.
OREGON Portland: A city auditor's report says leaders failed to fully deliver on promises they made to voters as they implemented arts, cannabis, affordable housing and street repair programs funded by voter- approved measures.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: The state's high court has turned down an effort to resume cash welfare assistance to the poor and disabled while litigation continues over a law that ended the payments this summer.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A community development organization has announced it's planning an affordable housing project for young adults who have been in foster care.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: University of South Carolina fans will be able to buy beer and wine at home athletic events starting next month.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has received its largest gift ever. The donation of $ 3.6 million from 1969 graduate Willard Goodman and his wife was made to the Department of Civil Engineering.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The Volunteer State won't stop resettling refugees, Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday, rejecting the option offered to states by President Donald Trump's administration.
TEXAS Houston: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for damages to area homes and businesses that were flooded by two federally owned reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey because the inundation was due to how the federal government built and maintained the dams.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A farming family has reached a deal with land officials allowing permanent access to a portion of private land along a trail bordering Zion National Park.
VERMONT Middlesex: A post- Christmas event will aim to create the world's largest s'more. The annual S'morestice Celebration will be hosted at Camp Meade on Dec. 28.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The state is the only one in the country whose workers' compensation system doesn't cover injuries sustained through repetitive work activities, like repeatedly lifting boxes over several weeks, a new state report says.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Puget Sound has a 75% or greater chance of being struck by a damaging earthquake in the next 100 years, according to a new earthquake danger assessment by the U. S. Geological Survey.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The city will get a new park. The City Council has approved a donation of 65 acres of woodlands in South Hills that is set to become a new recreation area with trails and other activities.
WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday that the state will continue welcoming refugees.
WYOMING Cheyenne: The governor says he doesn't support a proposal to increase his salary and those of the other four statewide elected officials.