News from across the USA
ALABAMA Huntsville: Huntsville could soon pass Birmingham to become the largest city in Alabama, AL.com reported. “We believe we will be the biggest city in the state within a decade,” predicted Dennis Madsen, longrange planner for the city.
ALASKA Fairbanks: High levels of smoke pollution spurred a Stage 3 air alert in North Pole where most residents were required to stop all wood and coal burning, newsminer.com reported.
ARIZONA Scottsdale: After a 42-year run as one of the Valley’s pre-eminent movie theaters, Harkins Camelview 5 is set to close Dec. 10, to be replaced a week later when a 14-screen cinema opens next door at Scottsdale Fashion Square mall, The Arizona Republic reported.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A woman charged in a stabbing death had bail set at $1 million, Arkansas Online reported. Paradise Deanna Williams, 28, pleaded innocent to a first-degree murder charge in the killing of Jerry Moore.
CALIFORNIA Fresno County: Cody Caldwell, 19, a suspected burglar who sneaked into a home chimney, died of burns and smoke inhalation after the homeowner unwittingly lighted the fireplace, the Los Angeles Times reported.
COLORADO Denver: Contact information for the Connect for Health Colorado hotline sent in a letter to 9,763 customers was one number off, but that single digit meant the difference between connecting with the health care provider and connecting with a phone sex line, KUSA-TV reported.
CONNECTICUT New London: A table games dealer at the Mohegan Sun casino has been accused of overpaying a blackjack player more than $78,000 and collecting part of the winnings, The Day reported.
DELAWARE Wilmington: A 19-year-old man, who along with his brother was shot when trying to rob a man of marijuana and a handgun earlier this year, died over the weekend while in Young Correctional Institution, The News Journal reported.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The D.C. Water utility sued the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging it improperly calculated limits on the amount of E. coli that the region’s sewage-treatment facility may discharge into the Potomac River, The Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA West Melbourne: Brevard County commissioners approved a $75,000 grant to help complete the Space Coast Field of Dreams sports complex for youth and adults with disabilities, The Daily Times reported. The multimillion-dollar complex is scheduled to open in January.
GEORGIA Atlanta: The Atlanta Improv stand-up comedy club in Buckhead will shut down Dec. 31 after three years, the Journal-Constitution reported.
HAWAII Honolulu: State officials say they have found private bidders to help clear out more homeless residents who have been camped along the Kakaako shoreline, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
IDAHO Riggins: KTVB-TV reported that Idaho Power is now counting fish with the help of a drone.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Dunkin’ Donuts is delivering in the city, according to DoorDash, the food delivery company behind the service, the Chicago Tribune reported.
INDIANA Muncie: Ball State President Paul Ferguson preceded a panel appearance by David Letterman this week with news that the retired talk-show host would donate his Emmy Awards, a talk-show set and other memorabilia to his alma mater, The
Indianapolis Star reported.
IOWA Des Moines: Muslims at all three regents universities are working to find a permanent place to perform their daily and weekly religious obligations, The Des Moines Register reported.
KANSAS Lawrence: The City Commission expects to receive a request from Menard Inc. for public incentives to construct a production plant and warehouse in the city, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.
KENTUCKY Louisville: The new downtown Interstate 65 bridge will be named in honor of the nation’s 16th president, Kentucky-born Abraham Lincoln, The Courier-Journal reported.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: The film collective Court 13, makers of the Oscar-nominated bayou fable Beasts of the Southern Wild, is gearing up for its next feature film, and it is looking for nonprofessional actors from the state who are interested in auditioning, The Times-Picayune reported.
MAINE Portland: A bill designed to allow workers at companies with 11 or more employees to earn paid sick leave will not come up for debate in the coming legislative session.
MARYLAND Eastern Shore: Maryland’s coastal bays show little ecological improvement despite the addition of thousands of acres of seagrass, according to a new report by three state environmental agencies. Overall, the bays stretching from the Maryland-Delaware state line south into Virginia received a grade of C+ in 2014, the same score as 2013, The Daily Times reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The city’s response time for emergency medical personnel to arrive on the scene of serious incidents has slowed. The Boston Globe reported that the median response time for Priority 1 cases, those deemed the most critical, climbed to more than six minutes in 2014.
MICHIGAN Muskegon: Trent Humphreys-McPherson, 26, convicted of first-degree murder in the Jan. 9 hacking and bludgeoning of his 71-year-old grandfather, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Ryan Cos. is building another office building in the Downtown East district — this time, for itself, the Star Tribune reported. The developer unveiled images of a four-story, warehouse-like office building at the corner of Third Street and Portland Avenue adjoining one of the two Wells Fargo towers, which are near completion.
MISSISSIPPI Bay St. Louis: The U.S. Department of Justice found several violations in Bay St. Louis’ handling of a federal forfeitures fund, The Sun Herald reported.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Autumn rains caused some rivers to reach flood level in Missouri, but most of the flooding was expected to be minor.
MONTANA Bozeman: A special Montana hunting season meant to eliminate a bighorn sheep herd will probably not meet its goal. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks held the hunt after other strategies failed to help a Tendoy mountain herd prone to disease die-offs.
NEBRASKA Omaha: A historic streetcar barn is among the sites to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Omaha World-Herald reported the streetcar barn was built in 1909 for the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway.
NEVADA Reno: Firefighters are investigating five local fires that occurred last weekend, leaving at least nine people and a dog displaced and injuring two firefighters.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Concord Craft Brewing will reapply to the city’s zoning board to open in a new location after receiving prior approval on a different space, the Concord Monitor reported.
NEW JERSEY Pemberton
Township: A woman is accused of trying to torch a home that held her child, the Courier-Post reported. No injuries were reported.
NEW MEXICO Farmington: As tax revenue from the Farmington area’s oil and gas sector continues its downward trend, the city is relying more heavily on retail and San Juan County is considering budget cuts. The Farmington Daily Times reported that retail taxes are increasing thanks to Farmington’s growing role as a shopping hub.
NEW YORK LeRoy: A gunman shot and killed one man before ambushing several firefighters at a house fire in western New York, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported. Police said the gunman was taken into custody hours after the shooting.
NORTH CAROLINA Durham: The Oval Park Grille will host a five-course Fullsteam beer dinner Dec. 10, including sausage, Korean barbecue and cheese, The News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The Minot Area Development Corp. has requested half a million dollars from the city to pay down interest on debt for businesses disrupted by the infrastructure projects, The Minot Daily News reported.
OHIO Cleveland: The Alabama father accused of kidnapping his 5-year-old son and living under fake names here for 13 years pleaded not guilty Tuesday to dozens of charges, The Plain Dealer reported.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A judge’s decision against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services in a class-action lawsuit could cost the state millions of dollars if upheld on appeal, The Oklahoman reported.
OREGON Cannon Beach: EO Media Group reported that the Planning Commission last week discussed an ordinance that would make it more difficult for homeowners to take down trees. Officials plan to seek public input on the ordinance.
PENNSYLVANIA York: Police told the York Dispatch that Leonard Smith, 21, took an ambulance for a joy ride before ditching it. They say an in-vehicle camera captured his actions and a tracking device led them to the ambulance.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: State taxpayers paid more than $6 million last year to private companies that provided communication and marketing services for state government agencies, the Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Autumn, the Greenville Zoo’s 9-year-old Masai giraffe, is pregnant. The zoo’s veterinary staff confirmed the pregnancy through hormone analysis, and after reviewing zoo keepers’ daily logs, have determined that Autumn could give birth as early as February, The Greenville News reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Swett: The ghost town of Swett is once again for sale. Real estate agent Stacie Montgomery told the Rapid City Journal that she’s put the town back on the market, at a reduced price of $250,000.
TENNESSEE Oak Ridge: Organizations that work with the homeless have not expressed any interest in acquiring a 160-acre tract here where thousands of people lived during the secret World War II Manhattan Project. Happy Valley, a temporary town built by the Army in 1943, has been declared surplus property by the federal government, The Tennessean reported.
TEXAS San Antonio: Local officials will spend $21 million to buy a soccer stadium that comes with no guarantees they will be able to lure a franchise from Major League Soccer, The San Antonio Express-News reported.
UTAH St. George: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks attracted a record number of visitors in 2015, besting the records they set just last year. The Spectrum reported that recent figures published by National Park Service show that Zion had 3,370,953 visitors through October, more than 2014’s 3,189,696 visitors.
VERMONT Colchester: The Vermont Army National Guard announced that five members of the Operational Support Airlift Detachment will soon deploy to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The group includes fixed-wing pilots who fly C-12 aircraft and will transport senior government officials in support of U.S. Africa Command, Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Charlottesville: University of Virginia fourth-year student Russell Bogue is one of 32 Americans to receive the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship this year, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Fisheries managers are concerned about the impact catch-and-release is having on endangered chinook salmon and have closed salmon fishing two months early in the central Puget Sound. The Kitsap Sun reported that even when anglers toss them back, many salmon end up dying from the encounter.
WEST VIRGINIA Clendenin: Jonathan Cleghorn, 27, is trying to raise money for a trip to the town of Urubamba, Peru, to restore a unique piano from the late 1800s, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
WISCONSIN Marshfield: More than 1,400 nesting pairs of bald eagles have been counted in Wisconsin this year, Marshfield News-Herald reported. Just 20 years ago, the state was home to 583 nesting pairs; in 1973 there were only 108 pairs.
WYOMING Laramie: The University of Wyoming Foundation is considering a policy change that would put underused money into a larger, intermediate-period investment to maximize returns, the Laramie Boomerang reported. The foundation currently controls a total of $616.5 million and delivered $6 million in scholarships and contributed $32.5 million in other support areas in 2014.