News from across the USA
ALABAMA Birmingham: Federal officials say a man faces fraud, money laundering, and identity theft charges in connection with a scheme to steal more than $545,000 from a dead Huntsville man. Dwayne Baptiste, 43, is accused of taking over the retirement account of a Lockheed Martin employee, The Birmingham News reports.
ALASKA Fairbanks: Alaska USA Federal Credit Union and the Alaska USA Foundation raised $47,800 for food banks in the state during their annual Cash for Cans charity drive, according to the Daily NewsMiner.
ARIZONA Tempe: Repair work is underway at the Arizona Historical Society Museum after it was damaged by a June brush fire that is thought to have started in a homeless camp on adjacent land.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: An upgrade to Interstate 40 marks the first project to be completed under a $1.8 billion road construction program approved by Arkansas voters. In a $38.4 million project, the highway was widened between Interstate 430 and Arkansas 365, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Salinas: Stanley Wyman, a science teacher at Bolsa Knolls Middle School, was honored by the Monterey Bay Aquarium for giving his students a taste of real-world science, the Californian reported. He coteaches a course in which seventh- and eighth-graders learn to build Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles, or ROVs.
COLORADO Durango: The La Plata Sheriff ’s Office has started an educational campaign with homeless residents to keep encampments clean, The Durango Herald reports. The sheriff ’s office has told residents that camps will be left alone as long as they are kept clean and campers obey the law.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Yale University’s president has appointed an advisory panel to consider whether to change the name of its Calhoun residential college. The name honors John C. Calhoun, a former U.S. vice president from South Carolina who attended Yale and was a supporter of slavery.
DELAWARE Wilmington: The 40th Delaware Grand Gala was held last weekend. The Wilmington News Journal reports that the gala raises as much as $200,000 annually for the theatre’s arts education programs.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A $2 million to $3 million project to modernize the Washington Monument’s elevator will be paid for by businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein. The monument is expected to re-open in 2019.
FLORIDA Orlando: The nation’s largest installer of solar panels is moving into Florida’s residential market. California-based SolarCity said last week it’s opening an operations center in the Orlando area.
GEORGIA Macon: The Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon has been designated a National Treasure. The Macon Telegraph reports that the National Trust for Historic Preservation made that declaration last week.
HAWAII Haleakala: Maui Lavender, a farm more than 4,000 feet up the slopes of Haleakala, plans to reopen next month with a line of lavender, coffee, tea products. And olives.
IDAHO Coeur d’Alene: Kootenai County is adding a “dial-aride” bus program as early as next month to the Citylink paratransit system that serves Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Huetter and Dalton Gardens, The Coeur d’Alene Press reports.
ILLINOIS Springfield: Dave Kinzer’s music class is jamming to the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Matishyahu — on ukulele. Kinzer was awarded a $2,200 grant to purchase 27 ukuleles, the (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports.
INDIANA West Lafayette: Purdue University will hold off on raising employees’ salaries and changing job classifications after a federal judge suspended a rule that would have expanded the pool of workers eligible for overtime pay, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reports.
IOWA Dubuque: An unwelcome surprise was in store for Paul Meissner and his crew as they worked on an old chapel at E.B. Lyons nature preserve. “I think every bat in the Mines of Spain was living in that roof there,” Meissner tells The Telegraph Herald.
KANSAS Topeka: The town of Frederick has nine registered voters, but the tally was 13-7 in favor of keeping it a third-class municipality. Poll workers handed out the wrong ballots to some voters who live outside town but officials are letting the results stand.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: A major restoration project is underway at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. The Lexington HeraldLeader reports that the $1.1 million project is expected to completed in February.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: Worried about potential unrest, New Orleans wants advance notice from a federal appeals court deciding the future of the city’s Confederate-era monuments. Officials want police to be prepared if the monuments become the target of demonstrations.
MAINE Augusta: A proposed law in Maine aims to increase testing for arsenic in private wells. Arsenic occurs naturally in bedrock and can contaminate groundwater.
MARYLAND Mount Airy: The Mount Airy Town Council is considering a proposal to allow home sales of firearms. Resident Mike Wonsala wants to sell and repair antique and historically significant guns.
MASSACHUSETTS Amherst: A college that drew nationwide criticism when it stopped flying the U.S. flag on campus following the presidential election says Old Glory is back up. Hampshire College in Amherst returned the flag to full staff last week.
MICHIGAN West Bloomfield: Temple Shir Shalom synagogue will provide temporary shelter for 30 homeless men, women and children from Dec. 11-18. Members of the temple’s congregation will prepare the visitors’ meals and provide supervision.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Metropolitan Council and Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission are seeking applicants to serve on the Parks and Trails Legacy Advisory Committee, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A $33 million federal grant is coming to Mississippi to beef up coordination among emergency responders statewide.
MISSOURI Springfield: Lisa Kaye Barwick-Majeski faces 12 years in federal prison for leading a wire-fraud scheme. Authorities say victims were tricked into cashing up to $3 million in counterfeit money orders and cashier’s checks.
MONTANA Great Falls: The Great Falls Tribune reports that police are receiving complaints of checks being stolen from mailboxes.
NEBRASKA Hastings: The Hastings Public School system is having a substitute teacher shortage. The Hastings
Tribune reports that on Nov. 14, the district had 39 certificated staff members, or teachers, absent and just 35 substitutes.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A century of public records could soon go online in Clark County, the Review-Journal reports. County commissioners approved a $100,000 grant for the project.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The owners of a railway that climbs New Hampshire’s Mount Washington want to build an upscale hotel a mile from the summit to accommodate summer tourists.
NEW JERSEY Newark: An Edison man admits taking part in a student visa scam uncovered when federal agents set up a fake New Jersey university. Homeland Security agents created the University of Northern New Jersey in 2013 to catch brokers, recruiters and employers offering bogus student visas to foreign nationals.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Legislation that would provide a place to file complaints against local and state officials will be among the measures greeting lawmakers next month, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
NEW YORK Nichols: New York has ushered in a new era of statesanctioned gambling with the opening last week of the first of four planned casinos. With 944 slot machines, 33 table games and an adjacent 161-room hotel under construction, Tioga Downs Casino is the first to open since New York voters authorized state-regulated gambling facilities in 2013.
NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: Federal prosecutors say a Charlotte woman was sentenced to 16 years in prison for orchestrating an $11 million Medicaid scam involving false medical claims and identity theft.
NORTH DAKOTA Williston: Figures show North Dakota residents seeking an associate’s degree spend an average of $11,535 annually, but not all of those degrees will lead to higher wages, the Williston Herald reports.
OHIO Powell: The oldest known gorilla living in a zoo is slated to undergo a surgical biopsy sometime before her 60th birthday on Dec. 22. Colo was born in 1956, making her the first gorilla born in a zoo.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Pecan shipments are lighter this year than is typical this season, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bad weather is the culprit , farmers told The Journal Record.
OREGON Salem: Oregon education officials laid out their plans last week for how to fight chronic absenteeism, the Oregonian reports. A team of experts would be deployed to help the 30% of schools with sky-high absenteeism do better.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: A retiring Pennsylvania Turnpike worker decided brutal honesty was the way to go. When Michael Stuban filled out an exit survey after a 35-year career, he sent a reply-to-all email to more than 2,000 colleagues. Stuban tells The Philadelphia Daily News that he thinks the turnpike commission is run by “out of touch” executives.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The nation’s first offshore wind farm is about to start delivering power. But one of the five turbines at the Deepwater Wind farm off Block Island isn’t turning and must be repaired. .
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Federal prosecutors say a Greenville County woman faces up to three years in prison for trying to scam $11 million from the IRS.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: South Dakota Highway Patrol Officer Brian Swets and dog Rocko were honored over the weekend at the Black Hills Dog Training Club’s meeting.
TENNESSEE Memphis: Memphis has opened enrollment for its paid youth jobs and development programs, The Commercial Appeal reports.
TEXAS Austin: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is promising to cut funds to public universities that become what he calls “sanctuary” campuses for immigrant students.
UTAH Lehi: Many Utah public school teachers work second jobs to supplement low pay. Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley told the Salt Lake Tribune that Utah’s teacher shortage can be tied to pay and hours.
VERMONT St. Johnsbury: The town’s fire department says some families are “double-dipping ” into a Santa Fund, asking for toy donations more than once for the same child.
VIRGINIA Chesterfield: Police say a miniature pony had to be euthanized after being wounded in an attack by Rottweilers. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that charges are expected to be filed against the owner of the dogs.
WASHINGTON Spokane: Washington State University will take part in a study on the relationship between sleep and chronic pain. Study lead Marian Wilson of the school’s College of Nursing says there is some thought that suggests bad sleep goes with bad pain.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Environmentalists and Pocahontas Land Corp. have agreed to settle a lawsuit over coal mine drainage into streams. Environmental groups say Pocahontas’ former White Flame mine in Mingo County still discharges pollutants into tributaries of the Tug Fork River.
WISCONSIN Madison: Dane County and the city have dedicated portions of their 2017 budgets to a municipal court diversion program for youth that will lose $150,000 in grant funding next year. The Capital Times reports that the initiative allows 12- to 16-year-old youth to complete requirements such as written assignments, restitution or community service to prevent an arrest from appearing on their records.
WYOMING Jackson: A good deed could turn into a $50 tip from Jackson law enforcement officials. The Jackson Hole News and Guide reports that Teton County Sheriff Jim Whalen says anonymous donors contributed enough for deputies, officers and troopers to give $50 to $100 gifts. Whalen said the money could go for almost anything, including good drivers.