STATE-BY-STATE Tom’s River: Albuquerque:
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Birmingham: A Yellow Cab was sliced in half when it was struck by a train, AL.com reported. Fire and Rescue Service Capt. Bryan Harrell said the driver didn’t have any obvious injuries but was transported to a hospital as a precaution.
ALASKA Valdez: A 42-year-old man from Germany was treated at an Anchorage hospital after falling nearly 300 feet down Worthington Glacier.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Entering City Hall will soon be similar to a trip through airport security. This month, the city plans to roll out tighter security procedures at its administrative tower on Washington Street, The Arizona Re
public reported. Residents who visit City Hall will go through metal detectors and have their bags screened with an X-ray machine.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Envoy Air, a subsidiary of American Airlines, announced plans to establish an aircraft maintenance facility at the airport, a move that is likely to create 60 jobs over five years.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Angels Flight, the city’s historic two-car funicular, has sat idle between Hill and Olive Streets since it derailed in 2013. Operators, officials and locals were aghast to discover one of the cars had been defaced, the Los Angeles Times reported. The car’s windows were covered in white scrawl.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Colorado State University set a new record for enrollment this fall, surpassing more than 33,000 students for the first time ever, The Coloradoan reported. That marks a nearly 6% increase from the previous freshman class size record set last year.
CONNECTICUT Fairfield: A 40-year-old man told police an escort, known only to him as “Amanda,” allegedly stole $500 from him, The Connecticut Post reported.
DELAWARE Dover: Robert Vasecka, a New Castle County police officer, was charged with dealing in child pornography. Officials say a public internet chat room reported that a user uploaded suspected child porn images. An investigation led authorities to Vasecka, 45, who had several images of child pornography on his cellphone.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: On Thursday, Metro embarks on the longest “surge” of its SafeTrack maintenance program, which will entail 42 days of continuous single-tracking between Vienna and West Falls Church stations, affecting tens of thousands of weekday trips, The Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA Panama City Beach: A red-legged tortoise valued at about $200 has been stolen from ZooWorld, the Panama City News Herald reported.
GEORGIA Athens: Pi Kappa Phi, a fraternity at the University of Georgia, was suspended for one year after acknowledging a “sustained hazing ” of students, which included throwing food and condiments at students, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.
HAWAII Kilauea: The U.S. Geological Survey said a lake of lava came into view atop the Kilauea volcano, and a burst of seismic activity has shaken the summit in recent days. It’s the first time the lava lake has been visible since May 2015.
IDAHO Pocatello: Idaho State University saw a 2.1% drop in enrollment compared with last fall, the Idaho State Journal reported. According to the university’s 10th-day total enrollment figures, there are 11,025 students enrolled this semester; there were 11,259 at this time last year.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The Berghoff ’s outdoor party has been a staple of Oktoberfest observations for more than 30 years, but this year, the restaurant will host its festival inside, the Chicago Tribune reported.
INDIANA Evansville: Mayor Lloyd Winnecke said Olympic swimming gold medalist Lilly King will meet with children Sept. 24. She’ll also receive a key to the city.
IOWA Des Moines: Officials unveiled a proposed $500 million terminal at the Des Moines airport, KCCI-TV reported. The proposal includes 14 gates and a new parking garage.
KANSAS Topeka: The National Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, asked the state Supreme Court to overturn a 2014 law that stripped public school teachers of guaranteed tenure.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Riverports in five western Kentucky cities were awarded a total of $500,000 in grants for improvements and repairs, officials said. The money from the state’s Riverport Financial Assistance Trust Fund will go to ports in Hickman, Paducah, Eddyville, Owensboro and Henderson.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: The job of cleaning out the old Charity Hospital is likely to cost $10 million and take at least six months, The Times-Picayune reported.
MAINE Saco: State police charged a 49-year-old tractortrailer driver with driving to endanger after he drove the wrong way on the Maine Turnpike for several miles. Police received phone calls from drivers alerting them that a driver was in the wrong lane in a vehicle with its lights off.
MARYLAND Greenbelt: One person was arrested after authorities found more than 14 pounds of marijuana in a package waiting to be mailed. The Anne Arundel County Sheriff ’s office said a K-9 dog helped with the investigation.
MASSACHUSETTS Springfield: A 66-year-old man allegedly stopped to get food from Taco Bell immediately after running down a pedestrian and fleeing the scene in his heavily damaged vehicle, The Republican reported.
MICHIGAN Detroit: The first streetcar for the city’s new light rail system has arrived, officials said. Passenger operations are scheduled to start in spring 2017.
MINNESOTA Hopkins: Health officials investigated five confirmed cases of Legionnaire’s disease. All five people became ill between Aug. 4 and Sept. 1 and were hospitalized. Two have recovered. The patients are all over the age of 50.
MISSISSIPPI Crosby: A $250,000 grant will help people repair homes damaged by flooding in mid-August. Three homes were destroyed, 23 had major damage and 58 others had minor damage in Wilkinson County. The damage fell short of the threshold for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
MISSOURI Rosendale: An 8year-old girl died after a 9-yearold driver crashed a utility vehicle.
MONTANA Kalispell: Flathead Valley Community College is building its first on-campus student housing, the Daily Inter Lake reported. Swank Enterprises began work on the $7.7 million project that includes four buildings that will house 124 students.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Patricia Urbanovsky, 31, who sold thousands of worthless airline vouchers, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of wire fraud in federal court, the Omaha World-Herald reported. She could face more than six years in federal prison when she’s sentenced in December.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Auto title lender Title Max appealed a judge’s decision to refund thousands of title loans issued to customers, the Las Vegas ReviewJournal reported.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Brookline: After her limo got a flat tire, bride Angelique Arsenault stuck out her thumb and hitchhiked to the wedding venue in nearby Milford. In her white dress, she was able to flag down a passing motorist who gladly helped get her to the altar — albeit 30 minutes late.
NEW JERSEY Angelo Boemio, 42, marched down a roadway on Labor Day wearing only pink women’s bikini bottoms and sneakers as punishment for finishing last in his fantasy football league.
NEW MEXICO Federal agents searched for a man with a bandage over his chin suspected of robbing a downtown bank. FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said the man walked into the Bank of the West branch and tossed a threatening note toward a teller, demanding money.
NEW YORK West Seneca: Prosecutors said the former president of the West Seneca Youth Baseball Association embezzled about $49,000 from the club and used some of it to gamble at a casino. Kevin Chodkowski, 46, was president of the league from 2011 to 2014. Authorities say he diverted funds using checks and ATM withdrawals from league accounts and fundraisers.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Faulty electrical wiring and a failed pump motor probably caused the electrocution and drowning of a 17-year-old lifeguard at a neighborhood pool this month, according to a report from the Wake County Inspections Department cited by The News & Observer.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The school board considered giving its members a pay increase of $400 to $600 a month in an effort to bring its compensation in line with other large districts in the state. The Minot Daily News reported that each of the five board members gets $4,800 per year. The board wants to increase that to $7,200.
OHIO Columbus: The Franklin County Dog Shelter said eight more dogs have been put down following signs of distemper, bringing the total number of euthanized dogs to 60.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: An arena worthy of the name The Big House with amenities to cement Oklahoma City’s reputation as “horse show capital of the world” is on the drawing boards. Architects’ conceptual renderings for a new building depict a sleek profile with lower bowl seating designed especially for horse competitions and rodeo, The Oklahoman reported. At 295,000 square feet, the $80 million arena would rival in size the MAPS 3 expo center that is nearing completion close by the proposed site for the new building.
OREGON Lebanon: A 19-yearold man was arrested on suspicion of arson after a string of fires set in ditches this summer, the Democrat-Herald reported.
PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: The union representing 2,200 bus and light-rail drivers and other employees of the transit agency voted to reject a proposed four-year contract.
RHODE ISLAND Bristol: A decade-long project to extend the life of the nearly 90-year-old Mount Hope Bridge is about to get started, The Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: “It was a mistake,” interim Richland County Administrator Gerald Seals said of county crews who chopped down dozens of oak trees. The county vowed to plant 112 trees by early December to replace those mistakenly cut down by county workers last month in Landon Place, The State reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The school district charges parents a $2 convenience fee to pay for lunches online after widespread use strained its food services budget, the Argus Leader reported.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee State University and radio host Tom Joyner are encouraging community college graduates to attend the university and teach in Memphis and Nashville after graduation, officials said.
TEXAS Corpus Christi: The algae bloom known as red tide has been found along southern parts of the state. The Parks and Wildlife Department confirmed red tide in areas of the Rio Grande Valley.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A man was arrested after allegedly pretending to be a U.S. Marshal to try to avoid paying two escorts.
VERMONT St. Albans: Former Burlington police officer Leanne Werner, 31, of St. Albans faces up to 12 years in prison after admitting she was driving in a grossly negligent manner before a July 2015 crash that killed Omer Martin, 74, Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Chesterfield County: Three books criticized by parents as inappropriate should no longer be banned from use in schools, Superintendent James Lane concluded, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The books are Tyrell by Coe Booth, Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.
WASHINGTON Goldendale: A wildfire burned one home near the Columbia River, authorities said.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Rally organizer Olivia “Olive” Bias said police kicked a group of demonstrators out of the Lee Street Triangle, where they were protesting the removal of several benches, the Charleston GazetteMail reported.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Jesse Hyche, a former inner-city landlord who owes the city $202,000 in fines for code violations, just bought another month of delay for $50. Hyche has often used bankruptcy protection to frustrate city efforts to collect fines or seize his properties. Since 1989 Hyche has been in bankruptcy for all but 22 months, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
WYOMING Laramie: Dan Smith, owner of Summit Trucking and Housemoving, has moved seven buildings from 12th Street as preparation for the University of Wyoming Engineering Education and Research Building, the Laramie Boomerang reported. One of Smith’s projects was the removal of an apartment building. Smith and his crew — his two children, Tanner, 14, and Tucker, 9 — took two weeks to move it.