STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Huntsville: As many as 811 residents could face eviction from public housing under a proposal from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that would cut off assistance for higher-earning individuals, AL.com reported.
ALASKA Fairbanks: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported that a total of 0.01 inches of precipitation fell at the Fairbanks International Airport last month, the least for any January on record. ARIZONA Tucson: Schoolchildren who named the country’s only known jaguar “El Jefe,” or “The Boss,” can view a video showing him roaming his domain, The Arizona Republic reported. The Center for Biological Diversity and research partner Conservation CATalyst released a video compiling views from three trail cameras last fall in the Santa Rita Mountains. ARKANSAS Jackson County: Authorities sought Jeremy Wayne Conway, 33, after a fiveminute pursuit that reached speeds of more than 100 mph and ended in his truck being found on a flooded road, ArkansasOnline reported. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: The 1,018-feet-high U.S. Bank Tower downtown is destined to lose its title as the West Coast’s tallest building. A Western boomlet of skyscraper construction is likely to send the crown to Seattle, Los Angeles Times reported. COLORADO Cottonwood Pass: A man riding a snow bike was killed Friday in an avalanche about 20 miles west of Buena Vista in central Colorado, The Chaffee County Times reported. CONNECTICUT Meriden: Benjamin Ariza’s left leg was severed after he was pinned between two vehicles during a crash, The Hartford Courant reported. The 35year-old had been standing between his SUV and a van waiting to cross the street when a drunken driver struck the van, police said. DELAWARE Rehoboth Beach: It is estimated that repairing the storm-damaged boardwalk from Grenoble Place to Surf Avenue will cost between $150,000 to $400,000, The (Wilmington) News Journal reported. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The District will study whether to license private marijuana clubs, The Washington Post reported. FLORIDA Tampa: One person died and seven others were injured Saturday after a shooting at Club Rayne, a strip club, WTSPTV, Tampa-St. Petersburg reported. Police are investigating a motive. GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia State University offered a $2,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest in a string of robberies in the campus library over the past two months, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. HAWAII Waikiki: An influx of box jellyfish has forced officials to close Hanauma Bay after dozens of people were reported to have been stung, according to Hawaii News Now. IDAHO Garden City: A neighborhood of homes built from old shipping containers is planned for here, KBOI-TV reported. The container homes will have three bedrooms and three stories, including a 500-square-foot garage with studio space. ILLINOIS Chicago: Chicago State University declared a financial crisis, laying the groundwork for a plan that could include major cuts at the South Side public institution, the Tribune reported.
INDIANA Greencastle: DePauw University has received a $10 million donation to be used to build a technology center, The DePauw student newspaper reported. The donation is part of a fundraising campaign for the private school that was started in 2014, has raised $255 million and is aiming for $300 million. IOWA West Des Moines: Greg and Katy Merhroff, who have the same birthday, had their first baby Feb. 4 on their shared birthday, KCCI-TV reported. Aurora Claire even shares her birthday with her aunt, Katy Merhoff ’s twin. KANSAS Wichita: Kansas should see about 600,000 new residents over the next 50 years, the Topkea Capital Journal reported. Also, the number of Kansans over age 65 will exceed those who are younger than 18 within the next 20 years. KENTUCKY Pineville: Gov. Bevin wants to scale back a plan to build a 3,400-mile high-speed fiber optic network around the state and instead focus on Eastern Kentucky, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Former police officer Gregory McRae’s 17-year prison sentence in the death of Henry Glover after Hurricane Katrina will be cut by more than five years, The Times-Picayune reported. U.S. District Judge Lance Africk reduced McRae’s sentence to 11 years and 9 months, citing an appeals court’s decision to throw out an obstruction of justice conviction.
MAINE Waterville: Local officials voted to sell a downtown city-owned lot to Colby College so the school can build a dormitory there, the Morning Sentinel reported. City councilors voted unanimously to sell the land for $300,000. The council must vote again to finalize the sale. MARYLAND Cambridge: The body of Stephen Reynolds, who fell off his sailboat on New Year’s Eve, has been recovered, the (Annapolis) Capital Gazette reported. Hunters found the 48year-old’s body almost 30 miles south of where the Baltimore man reportedly fell overboard. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Robert Cordy, an associate justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court, said he plans to retire at the end of the court’s term in August. MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: Two flautists performed original music Saturday that was created for a flute crafted from the stalk of an 80-year-old agave plant, The Ann Arbor News reported. The plant, which has been in this city since 1934, grew to 28 feet, flowered in 2014 and died as expected. MINNESOTA Collegeville: A 6-month investigation concluded that sexual abuse allegations levied against the Rev. Thomas Andert, a former prior at St. John’s Abbey, and the Rev. Allen Tarlton, a monk at the abbey, were unsupported, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
MISSISSIPPI Hattiesburg: The Hattiesburg American reported that a not-yet-named dog park is scheduled to open with a celebration Saturday. MISSOURI St. Louis: Gov. Nixon said more than 90% of identified flood debris has been removed from the local region, where hundreds of homes were damaged in flooding in December. MONTANA Bozeman: Tim Barnard, founder and chairman of Barnard Companies, and his wife, Mary, pledged $6 million to Montana State University, Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. NEBRASKA Lincoln: A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction striking down the state’s now-negated constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. NEVADA Las Vegas: Jim Simms, head of the Downtown Grand casino-hotel here, is stepping down after eight months on the job, Vegas Inc. reported. The resort said Simms completed his one-year plan in less time than expected. He had been hired on a single-year contract. NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: A new cost estimate for Portsmouth’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade has resulted in an $83.8 million price tag on the project, the Portsmouth Herald reported. NEW JERSEY Clayton: Gene Costill, the 90-year-old former mayor of this borough, wants to have the remains of his brother, killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, returned to his hometown, the South Jersey Times reported. Harold Costill is buried in Hawaii’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Dental professionals are hitting the road in vans to treat the elderly in their homes and at assisted living centers, Albuquerque Journal reported. Dental Care in Your Home is the brainchild of Cathy Elliott, a dental hygienist. NEW YORK Waddington: A northern New York ice fishing contest was canceled for the first time in about a decade because a warm winter has made for thin ice on the St. Lawrence River, the Watertown Daily Times reported. NORTH CAROLINA Apex: A peacock got loose downtown, The News & Observer reported. In a tweet, Police Chief John Letteney posted a photo of the bird and declared it the “Peacock of Good Living,” a play on the town’s “Peak of Good Living ” motto. NORTH DAKOTA Williston: Removing downtown strip clubs is part of a larger vision for the oil patch hub, Mayor Howard Klug told the Williston Herald. The City Commission last month restricted all exotic dancing to industrial zones on the city’s outer fringe within a year. OHIO Columbus: A 3-monthold female polar bear cub born Nov. 6 at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium will be named Nora in honor of her parents, Nanuq and Aurora, The Columbus Dispatch reported. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The Oklahoma City Zoo says the elephant herpes virus (EEHV) was not the cause of death of an elephant at the zoo. Zoo spokeswoman Tara Henson told The Oklahoman that the zoo received test results that rules out EEHV as the cause of death of a 37-yearold Asian elephant named Chai. OREGON Salem: State utility regulators say they are concerned about a plan to move the state off coal power, the Statesman Journal reported. The proposal would transition the state off coal energy by 2030 and increase electricity produced from renewable energy sources to 50% by 2040. PENNSYLVANIA Coal: Striking Shamokin Area School District teachers returned to work after being on strike since Jan. 20. Northumberland County Judge Charles Saylor ordered the educators back to their classrooms so the district could meet a state requirement that students complete 180 days of school by June 30. RHODE ISLAND Providence: Esteban Carpio, who was convicted of killing a local police detective and stabbing a woman in 2005, lost his bid for a new trial, the Providence Journal reported. SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: The boardwalk at Cancer Survivors Park was dedicated Thursday, marking the completion of the first phase of the project, The Greenville News reported. When completed in 2017, the $7.5 million park will have transformed an overgrown 6.8-acre tract of land into gardens and an education center. SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen: About 40 cattle got loose in town last week, the Aberdeen American News reported. Brown County Emergency Management director Scott Meints said the cows escaped from a livestock auction. TENNESSEE White Pine: An 11-year-old boy was found guilty of killing McKayla Dyer, 8, after she and her sister refused to let him see their puppies, WBIR-TV, Knoxville, reported. Judge Dennis Roach II of Jefferson County Juvenile Court sentenced the boy to state custody until he turns 19. TEXAS Fort Worth: Fort Worth Water Department issued a boil water order. Officials say an operational error wrongly led to draining of an elevated tank and loss of water pressure. Six Northwest Independent School District campuses are affected. UTAH Salt Lake City: Utah State University Stan Albrecht is retiring after 11 years. Officials said he’ll stay in the president’s chair until his replacement is found after a national search by the Utah Board of Regents. VERMONT Burlington: Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven is casting his next movie, Wetware, a “noir thriller” based on the novel by former southern Vermont resident Craig Nova, Burlington Free Press reported. Craven is searching for actors ages 19 to 60 for various roles. VIRGINIA Newport News: A man who snatched hundreds of young turtles and eggs from their nests was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The Daily Press reported that Corey Lee Taylor was convicted on charges related to the sale of the turtles. WASHINGTON Bellingham: The fate of grocery chain Haggen has been delayed a few days as the auction to sell its 33 stores in Washington and Oregon has been pushed back to Feb. 11, The Bellingham Herald reported.
WEST VIRGINIA Kanawha County: The Board of Education and Mountaineer Gas settled a case in which Mountaineer officials alleged that “a fire or explosion could easily have occurred” last month at Capital High School, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. The settlement will disconnect lines running from Capital High to a gas well on school property. WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Walker signed a bill increasing the penalty for hiding a corpse. Concealing a corpse was previously a Class G felony, carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. The bill reclassifies the crime as a Class F felony, punishable by up to 12 ½ years in prison and $25,000 in fines, The (Appleton) Post-Crescent reported. WYOMING Cheyenne: Medical marijuana boosters fell thousands of signatures short of getting the question on the 2016 ballot, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported.