USA TODAY International Edition
50 ★ States
ALABAMA Montgomery: Several hundred inmates are set to be freed from prison under a 2021 sentencing law that sends prisoners to supervised release several months before their sentences are set to end.
ALASKA Juneau: The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency vetoed a proposed copper and gold mine in a remote region of southwest Alaska that is coveted by mining interests but that also supports the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said no criminal charges will be filed against two officers accused of using excessive force during an arrest last year.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Transgender people at public schools would not be able to use the restrooms matching their gender identity under a bill advanced by a House committee.
CALIFORNIA Visalia: Tulare County will pay $ 32 million to settle a lawsuit alleging its child welfare agency failed to respond to reports of abuse involving an infant boy who was hospitalized for malnutrition and suffered brain damage, plaintiffs’ attorneys said.
COLORADO Denver: An attorney for one of two law enforcement officers indicted in the fatal shooting of a man who was stranded along a road in a small mountain town and having a “mental health crisis” last year is trying to have the charges thrown out against him.
CONNECTICUT Plainfield: A review of recently released police videos, as well as an independent investigation by The Bulletin of the pursuit route and crash site, paints a fuller – but still incomplete – picture of an October crash involving state police.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Starting April 4, the St. Georges Bridge will be closed for repairs and closed to all traffic for about 18 months.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: The date to clear out the encampment of unhoused people at McPherson Square has been moved up to Feb. 15, WUSA- TV reports.
FLORIDA Titusville: A man has filed a defamation lawsuit against a sheriff who posts weekly “Wheel of Fugitive” videos on social media, saying that he wasn’t a fugitive when his name and image appeared in 2021 in the sheriff ’ s posts inspired by the TV game show “Wheel of Fortune.”
GEORGIA Atlanta: The state’s Supreme Court should permanently remove a state appeals court judge accused of ethical misconduct, a panel recommended in a report.
HAWAII Honolulu: The state land board can again consider new permits for collecting aquarium fish off West Hawaii after a five- year ban, HawaiiNewsNow reports.
IDAHO Boise: University of Idaho’s president is seeking $ 103 million in state funds, the Idaho Press reports.
ILLINOIS Harvey: A school district official has been charged in the theft of $ 1.5 million worth of food – mostly chicken wings.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The state’s high court said it will not immediately consider a challenge to the state’s abortion ban that is based on the argument that the law violates some people’s religious freedoms, leaving that decision to an appeals court, at least for now.
IOWA Des Moines: The founder of an educational program for at- risk youth has been released from the hospital, his family said, a week after he was wounded and two students were shot dead.
KANSAS Topeka: State Attorney General Kris Kobach still plans to sue the federal government over regulations designed to protect the lesser prairie chicken.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: The percentage of the state’s registered voters who aren’t affiliated with the Republican or Democratic parties reached a new high at the end of 2022, the secretary of state said.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: As insurers flee the state and residents face exorbitant, and in some cases unaffordable, property insurance costs, lawmakers returned to the Capitol for a special legislative session to address the ongoing crisis.
MAINE Portland: Utility regulators gave final approval to a wind power project that would provide enough electricity for at least 450,000 homes in New England along with construction of a new transmission corridor in northern Maine.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The number of students eligible for free or reduced- price meals has risen surprisingly high, causing a $ 390 million increase on the cost of the state’s sweeping education reform law in the next fiscal year, according to a recent state fiscal briefing.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The state launched a hotline offering legal advice to people seeking abortions in the state, as well as their health care providers and helpers.
MICHIGAN Brighton: A plastics manufacturer reached an agreement with the state to investigate and address hazardous substances known as “forever chemicals” at a former factory in Livingston County, Attorney General Dana Nessel said.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The Court of Appeals upheld the state’s “Clean Car Rule,” which ties the state’s vehicle emission standards to California regulations.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The state is seeing higher wages, an increase in the high school graduation rate and an “economic boom” that has led to a $ 4 billion surplus in the state budget, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said in his State of the State speech.
MISSOURI St. Louis: The city will pay nearly $ 5.2 million to settle claims by people who were arrested during a protest in 2017 over the acquittal of a police officer in the shooting death of a Black man, the St. Louis Post- Dispatch reported.
MONTANA Butte: Environmentalists are suing U. S. wildlife officials in a bid to force federal protections for a rare, freshwater fish in Montana’s upper Missouri River Basin.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Two police officers were wounded and a suspect was killed in a shootout during an attempted burglary, police said.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A man at the center of a police search in Oregon after a kidnapping last week was released from custody in October 2021 by Nevada prison officials on the same day he was transferred to the state’s custody to serve a kidnapping sentence, authorities said.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A man accused of killing a couple who had gone out for a walk on a hiking trail is scheduled to face trial in July.
NEW JERSEY Plainsboro: A man has been sentenced to 55 years in prison in the stabbing death of a co- worker authorities say was slain on her lunch break 31⁄ years ago.
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NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has named the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly in New Mexico as an endangered species, an environmental group said.
NEW YORK New York City: Since summer ended, there hasn’t been any measurable snowfall in the city, the National Weather Service said.
NORTH CAROLINA Elkin: Leaders of a church say cybercriminals stole nearly $ 800,000 that the congregation spent years raising to build a new sanctuary.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The North Dakota House approved a bill that would require school districts to show a video on fetal development as part of life science curricula.
OHIO Columbus: Officials have reached a $ 225,000 settlement with a man who said police officers used improper force during a 2017 arrest.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A charter school is on a path toward closure after four years of financial and academic disarray.
OREGON Salem: A handful of bills that lawmakers will consider this year could directly impact agricultural workers and their employees.
PENNSYLVANIA Morrisville: Authorities say a skull found on banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania more than 31⁄ decades ago has
2 been identified as that of a man long believed slain in New Jersey along with his girlfriend, whose body had been found in the river on the New Jersey side the previous year.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The owners of four lead- contaminated properties have agreed to fix the problems and pay fines that combined total more than $ 700,00 in value, the state attorney general’s office announced.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: South Carolina’s attorney general asked the state’s high court to reconsider its ruling striking down the state’s sixweek abortion ban.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: State Republican lawmakers advanced a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to try and force people on Medicaid to work.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The state Department of Correction is accepting applications for its Citizens Correctional Academy through Feb. 6.
UTAH Salt Lake City: State lawmakers are advancing legislation to strengthen how police investigate suspected intimate partner violence like the kind now believed to have led to Gabby Petito’s death.
VERMONT Guildhall: A former police chief is facing a felony sexual assault charge stemming from a 2017 incident involving an underage girl, state police say.
VIRGINIA Richmond: State lawmakers have shelved a pair of bills that would have given unemployment claimants half as much time to file an appeal with a state agency still struggling with pandemic- related cases.
WASHINGTON Seattle: The state’s Democratic Party has chosen Shasti Conrad, the former leader of King County Democrats, as its new chair.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Public schools may soon be required to display the phrase “In God We Trust” in every building if a bill passed by the state Senate becomes law.
WISCONSIN Madison: Spending in Wisconsin’s governor’s race shattered the previous record by more than 75%, with more than $ 164 million spent on the contest won in the battleground state by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a group that tracks campaign spending reported.
WYOMING Cheyenne: A bill that would restructure rooftop solar passed the state Senate, the Casper Star- Tribune reports.
From USA TODAY Network and wire reports