News from across the USA

ALABAMA Birmingham: Simultaneous raids on 12 pawn shops in Jefferson and Shelby counties led to the seizure of more than $600,000 cash and enough stolen goods to fill two 53-foot trailers, AL.com reported. ALASKA Fairbanks: The discovery of dinosaur bones in Denali National Park for the first time this summer opened the door for more remains to be found, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. Paleontologists from the University of Alaska and the National Park Service uncovered the bones during an expedition in July. ARIZONA Phoenix: Internationally renowned brain surgeon Robert Spetzler is resigning as president and CEO of Barrow Neurological Institute after 30 years of leadership that helped define Barrow as a top facility for neurological and neurosurgical care, The Arizona Republic reported. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Five people were suspected of robbing a Pizza Hut delivery driver of two pizzas, ArkansasOnline reported. CALIFORNIA Oakland: A man in a wheelchair killed himself when he detonated a pipe bomb inside a health clinic, the Los Angeles

Times reported. COLORADO Boulder: The mystery surrounding a human foot found in a snow boot at Eldora Mountain Resort this summer has been partially solved. The foot and other remains found nearby were identified as those of an 83-year-old Denver man, Ervin Mettler, who had apparently been camping in the area, the Daily Camera reported. CONNECTICUT Hartford: A Connecticut judge vacated the corruption convictions of former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez, but Perez will face new trials on the charges. The state Supreme Court in July ordered the convictions overturned, saying two cases were improperly combined into one trial. DELAWARE Dover: Gov. Markell unveiled the state’s new open data portal Wednesday. The portal provides information that has been collected by state agencies and will include figures for traffic, state contracts, cancer mortality rates and even the most popular baby names in the state. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Bill Murray sounds conflicted about receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday at the Kennedy Center. “I really thought if I don’t answer the phone for a while, maybe they’ll just move on to someone else,” Murray told The Washington

Post. “But all these people called from everywhere. This is so great. Ugh.” FLORIDA Orlando: Washburn, an 800-pound pregnant manatee, traveled 1,300 miles from Connecticut to receive medical care at SeaWorld, Florida Today reported. GEORGIA Decatur: The U.S. Postal Service launched an investigation after a resident said she filmed a worker dumping hundreds of pieces of mail in the woods, WSB-TV reported. HAWAII Honolulu: Even with the threat of a hefty fine, thousands of Oahu drivers continue to talk or text while driving. So far this year, 6,871 citations have been handed out to Oahu drivers for breaking the cellphone law,

Hawaii News Now reported. IDAHO Boise: The Land Board voted to consider buying about 1,400 acres near St. Maries from the state Department of Fish and Game. The land has an appraised value of $4.6 million. ILLINOIS Chicago: Think ink. That’s the message the Field Museum conveys with its new exhibition, a compendium of tattoo art, tattooed bodies and tattoo history titled, unsurprisingly, “Tattoo,” according to the Chicago Tribune. INDIANA Muncie: A newly published book explores the history of crime and corruption in the city, once known as “Little Chicago” for its notoriety. Wicked

Muncie, written by Keith Roysdon and Douglas Walker, veteran reporters for The Star-Press, spans the 1800s to about 1980 with a look at notable crimes, ghost stories, gypsy kings and more. IOWA Waterloo: Former secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Wednesday visited an Islamic center in Waterloo that was vandalized over the weekend. Albright was in town to campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. KANSAS Cunningham: An 8-foot-long tusk of a mammoth uncovered this year by a construction company was moved to a lab at Wichita State University.

The Wichita Eagle reported that the tusk will be cleaned and prepped for display here, where it was found as Skyland Grain ran a sewer line across a grain elevator’s property. KENTUCKY Louisville: A legislative panel asked State Auditor Mike Harmon to audit the Louisville Arena Authority, which oversees the KFC Yum! Center,

The Courier-Journal reported. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Melvin Lopez, 35, who claimed he blacked out and was possessed by the devil when he fatally stabbed his cousin in an Algiers townhouse last year, was convicted of second-degree murder, The

Times-Picayune reported. MAINE York: A distracted teenager was accused of causing a 10-car pileup last week, The

Portsmouth Herald reported. The 17-year-old driver allegedly was using her cellphone when she drove forward through a red light and into the path of a dump truck. MARYLAND Baltimore: Prosecutors decided not to charge two police officers who fired 56 unanswered rounds at a father and son who were armed with loaded guns, killing both, The Sun reported. MASSACHUSETTS Pittsfield: The Environmental Protection Agency upheld its plan to require General Electric to clean chemicals along a 10.5-mile stretch of the Housatonic River in Pittsfield and Lenox. The cleanup will include dredging and trucking contaminated soil and sediment to an out-of-state facility. MICHIGAN Ludington: The Guinness World Records informed the local ice cream shop House of Flavors that it now holds the record for the largest ice cream sundae. Officials said a sundae made in June measured nearly 2,970 feet in length. MINNESOTA St. Paul: The state’s highest court decided that a BB gun is not a firearm, the

Pioneer Press reported. The decision tosses the firearm-possession conviction of David Haywood. MISSISSIPPI Jackson: State residents will receive three years of free access to their own credit reports under an agreement three credit reporting agencies have made with the state’s top legal officer. Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax agreed to overhaul their business practices after an investigation showed they made mistakes on consumers’ credit reports, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said. MISSOURI Milan: The Humane Society removed eight horses and mules from a property, claiming the animals were badly malnourished. MONTANA Billings: The Highway Patrol seized about 50 pounds of marijuana after pulling over a Washington state driver for speeding, the Billings Gazette reported. NEBRASKA Gering: Representatives of the Nebraska Eclipse Coalition, an organization formed to promote the state as a top travel destination for the Aug. 21, 2017, solar eclipse, said the eclipse will be the top tourism event in the state next year, the Omaha

World-Herald reported. NEVADA Reno: A freshman at the University of Nevada was in critical condition after a fall at the campus’ Sigma Nu fraternity house, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. NEW HAMPSHIRE Dover: The city broke ground on a project to upgrade its drinking water supply and treatment facilities. Its first phase will replace a water treatment facility built in 1957. NEW JERSEY Paterson: The City Council approved paying $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit by a former police officer. Jeffrey Heffernan claimed he was demoted after his boss mistakenly believed he was involved in a political campaign. Heffernan claimed other officers saw him picking up a campaign sign for his mother. NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The first influenza cases of the state’s flu season were confirmed by laboratory tests. The cases involve a 64-year-old man from Bernalillo County and a 64-yearold woman from Valencia County. NEW YORK Cheektowaga: Police arrested Corey Shepard, who had been posing as a police officer and had a stockpile of law enforcement equipment, including fake badges and uniforms. NORTH CAROLINA Wake

County: The school system is distributing 52,000 new laptop computers and tablets to schools over the next year as part of an effort to expand how many devices are available for students to use, The News & Observer reported. NORTH DAKOTA Drake: A twovehicle crash on U.S. Highway 52 in McHenry County killed a 73year-old woman. OHIO Bellefontaine: Brittany Pilkington, 24, accused of suffocating her three young sons over a 13-month period, said in a recorded police interview that she smothered each boy with a blanket over the face because she didn’t want to see them suffering and worried they would become abusive toward women, The

Columbus Dispatch reported. OKLAHOMA Turpin: A 17-yearold girl died after a driver swerved to miss a deer and she was thrown from a Jeep that overturned, The Oklahoman reported. OREGON Myrtle Point: A black-tailed deer found dead in Myrtle Point was infected with a virus that is lethal to the species.

The Coos Bay World reported that the virus is known as A-H-D and is spread by direct contact. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Road rage may have sparked a gunbattle between occupants of two vehicles near Independence Mall, WPVI-TV reported. RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state Department of Transportation plans to restore the old alignment of highway lanes on Interstate 95 after its new traffic pattern resulted in delays and driver confusion. SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: Brian Eybers, 21, was arrested after a street confrontation in which racial slurs were directed at Steve Crump, a veteran WBTV reporter, The Charlotte Observer reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The Agriculture Department said that winter wheat planting is 96% complete, with 63% of the crop emerged. That’s ahead of the average pace. TENNESSEE Lebanon: Derek Dodson, 59, has a restraining order banning him from City Hall here, but that’s not stopping him from running for mayor, The

Tennessean reported. TEXAS Richmond: An 88-yearold man was treated and released from a Houston-area hospital after he was bitten by an alligator near his home. The man was cutting weeds near a pond behind his home when he was bitten. UTAH Plain City: An 18-year-old man was cited after he dressed up as a clown with a sword to play a prank on his friends, the Stan

dard-Examiner reported. VERMONT Hartford: Police were asking for the public’s help in finding who spray-painted the side of Dothan Brook Elementary School with the words “AmeriKKK-ans for Trump,” WCAX-TV reported. VIRGINIA Sandston: A teen who spun the cylinder of a loaded revolver and put it to his head, pulling the trigger during his 18th birthday party died after accidentally shooting himself in the head, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. WASHINGTON Tacoma: The

News Tribune reported that Pierce Transit is applying for a $2 million federal grant to outfit the rest of its 167 buses with technology that helps notify drivers if a pedestrian or bicyclist wanders into their blind spot. Seven buses have the vision sensors. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A report by the National Transportation Safety Board said the design of a railcar that leaked chlorine at a New Martinsville plant had been under scrutiny. The report described a 46-inchlong crack on one end of the tank car that leaked. WISCONSIN Waukesha: Corporate lawyer Thad Jelinske, 56, who regulators said had multiple conflicts of interest while representing a former client’s estate, was sentenced to 30 days in jail as a condition to 18 months of probation, Milwaukee Journal Senti

nel reported. WYOMING Jackson: No new strategies will be tested to try to drive the alfalfa-fed wapiti population down on the National Elk Refuge, the Jackson Hole News

and Guide reported. Wintertime elk numbers on the 24,700-acre preserve have been well above a 5,000 target and generally headed upward. The highest level in 18 years was registered during the 2015 feeding season.