STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: Alabama parents can now view report cards for their child’s school and school system. The Alabama Department of Education released the report cards last month.
ALASKA Anchorage: Repairs at Port MacKenzie are adding up to millions. Port director Marc Van Dongen tells Alaska Public Media that a planned permanent repair this year may cost another $1.5 million on top of money already spent.
ARIZONA Tucson: An autopsy shows that a Guatemalan detainee died of blood clots in her right lung. Officials with the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office say the clots likely stemmed from a leg injury Raquel Calderon de Hildago suffered while crossing the border.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Police in a three-county district in western Arkansas are responsible for nearly 40% of the seized cash from drug-related arrests from 2012 through 2015, The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: California’s capital has emerged as a leading destination for Afghan refugees who were awarded Special Immigrant Visas because of serving coalition forces. But the former translators, engineers and doctors are having to start over in low-rent apartments with minimum-wage jobs, The Sacra
mento Bee reports.
COLORADO Granby: A woman who fell from a chairlift at a Colorado ski resort last week died from a rupture of the aorta and other traumatic injuries, an autopsy concluded.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has been appointed to a board that advises the Federal Communications Commission on telecommunications issues.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Mayor Mike Purzycki has named a new Wilmington fire chief. Purzycki, sworn in Tuesday, named Deputy Chief Michael Donohue to lead the city’s Fire Department.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Former District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has been sworn in to his new seat on the D.C. Council. Gray is one of two new council members who defeated allies of Mayor Muriel Bowser, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Minors can’t buy some cough syrup brands over the counter in Florda. That’s under a new state law to curb youth substance abuse,
The News-Journal reports.
GEORGIA Augusta: A task force report by Augusta University says greater use of telemedicine and networks could help Georgia’s struggling rural hospitals. The
Augusta Chronicle reports that rural hospitals face huge challenges, such as increasing numbers of uninsured patients.
HAWAII Honolulu: A fireworks explosion at a New Year’s Day gathering on the Hawaiian island of Oahu left one woman dead and a man critically injured. Authorities said the pair were lighting illegal fireworks.
IDAHO Driggs: The Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race will hold a stage in this Idaho city Jan. 28. It’s the country’s largest sled dog race outside of Alaska, The
Idaho State Journal reports.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The $670,000 the city of Chicago paid in 2016 to
settle lawsuits alleging state open records law violations was nearly five times what it paid over the previous eight years, The Chicago
Tribune reports.
INDIANA South Bend: Indiana’s fourth-largest city is the latest in the state to prohibit smoking inside bars. The expanded South Bend smoking ban ordinance took effect Tuesday.
IOWA Boone: A man was killed in a fall last weekend at Ledges State Park in Iowa’s Boone County. The 63-year-old Ames man taking part in a group hike fell about 60 feet from an overlook off Lost Lake Trail.
KANSAS Pittsburg: The Kansas Supreme Court will hear arguments Jan. 25 in a lawsuit involving the Kansas Crossing Casino’s license. Cherokee County and investors in Castle Rock Casino claim regulators didn’t follow state law in choosing Kansas Crossing for a license.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Federal regulators have fined UPS $73,800 for safety violations at the company’s airplane hangar in Louisville. The Courier-Journal reports that one violation involved an open-sided platform without proper safety railings.
LOUISIANA Lake Charles: The USS Orleck has won a one-year reprieve from the scrap yard. The
American Press reports that the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury provided $25,000 in November that should allow the ship to remain in Lake Charles while organizers figure out its next location.
MAINE Kittery: The Navy is spending nearly $27 million for construction and dock repairs at Maine’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The work is expected to be completed in 2019.
MARYLAND Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan says he’ll attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Hogan, a Republican, was a vocal opponent of Trump. But Hogan’s office says he’s committed to working with the new administration.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Cer-
tified nurse practitioners would be allowed to authorize medical marijuana use by patients under new rules proposed by Massachusetts health officials.
MICHIGAN Hillsdale: Bill Word has retired after 27 years as Hillsdale County drain commissioner. His successor? His son, Matt, who was elected in November. The elder Word predicts a smooth transition, the Hillsdale
Daily News reports.
MINNESOTA Moorhead: County officials in Minnesota want to delay a law designed to prevent agricultural runoff from polluting lakes and streams. While there’s wide support for the concept of buffers, county officials contend there’s confusion about the law that’s set to take effect in November.
MISSISSIPPI Columbus: A hospital emergency room in Columbus is limiting pain medication for patients with chronic pain complaints. The Dispatch reports that the policy is in response to the nation’s opioid epidemic.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Volunteer counselors in St. Louis are taking on a daunting mission: Preventing violent conflicts in the most dangerous part of the city. St. Louis Public Radio reports that the nonprofit Better Family Life is establishing a hotline for residents to report potential conflicts.
MONTANA Great Falls: Officials in Montana plan to reduce the number of prairie dogs at First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park. The Great Falls Tribune reports that the animals are burrowing under rocks that Native Americans once used in buffalo hunts.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers’ opponent in the November election filed a residency qualifications challenge shortly after the vote count showed Chambers’ overwhelming victory, The Lincoln Journal
Star reports. Chambers denies falsifying his residence.
NEVADA Las Vegas: The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that developers want to build a 304-unit apartment complex on the edge of Indian Springs, some 50 miles northwest of the Las Vegas Strip.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Rindge: Franklin Pierce University is launching a program designed to help emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters and other first responders take their careers to the next level. Officials say it responds to increased demand for EMTs.
NEW JERSEY Newark: A federal judge says New Jersey’s upscale Bernards Township violated anti-discrimination laws by insisting that a proposed mosque have more parking spaces than churches or synagogues.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Underground pockets of boiling water and steam in a New Mexico national preserve represent the heart of an ancient collapsed volcano. The site could get extra federal protection under a National Park Service effort to limit or prevent tapping the geothermal energy from neighboring land.
NEW YORK Albany: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vetoed a proposal to have the state pay for public defenders. His decision means that for now, counties will largely keep footing the bill for defending poor people accused of crimes.
NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: A Charlotte landfill closed for nearly 50 years will soon find new life as a solar farm. The Char
lotte Observer reports that solar farms are one way North Carolina is trying to reuse 675 old landfill sites across the state.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: Some Minot residents who endured the Souris River flood of 2011 are concerned about current snowpack numbers. The National Weather Service says the snowfall total in the city for November and December approached 43.5 inches. That’s more than an inch above the total for the same two months in 2010.
OHIO Berea: Transportation officials will reduce construction on the Ohio Turnpike this year.
The Akron Beacon Journal reports that the turnpike commission estimates 25% fewer lane miles under construction in 2017.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Nine Oklahoma counties failed an audit over the state’s protocol on property valuation. The Tulsa World reports that the failing counties haven’t yet fully implemented a specific computer software system used in property appraisals.
OREGON Salem: Police say a man drowned after he ran from officers following a traffic stop and tried to hide under a bridge in the water. Christopher Free, 34, died last weekend.
PENNSYLVANIA Riverside: A former town police officer has filed suit claiming that she was fired in September 2015 because of her gender. Jennifer Alexander is seeking unspecified damages.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The use of bullhooks to train elephants is now banned in Rhode Island under a law that took effect on Sunday. Animal welfare advocates say the hooks can cause trauma and injury to elephants.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Government regulators are considering whether to OK a 55-mile natural gas pipeline from Spartanburg County to Greenwood County. The Greenville News reports that environmental groups and landowners object.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A major expansion of Cadillac Jack’s Gaming Resort has cleared its first hurdle. Deadwood Mayor Chuck Turbiville says the project could cause other hotel operators to “up their game,” the Rapid City
Journal reports.
TENNESSEE Memphis: Oneyear-old formerly conjoined twin girls from Nigeria are recovering from separation surgery in Memphis. The Commercial Appeal reports that the surgery in November lasted 18 hours.
TEXAS Del Rio: Paleontologists say a fossil found in limestone along a remote Texas riverbed could be that of a dolphin-like reptile that swam some 90 million years ago, The Houston
Chronicle reports.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Utah’s animal protection advocates want a law to require dog owners to provide adequate shelter for their pets during extreme weather or face animal-cruelty charges. Deann Shepherd of the Humane Society of Utah says current law fails to define shelter standards,
The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
VERMONT Brattleboro: Some Vermont towns and schools are being invited to buy into a solar array to be built on a closed Brattleboro landfill. Regulatory approval is expected later this winter or in early spring, The
Brattleboro Reformer reports.
VIRGINIA Norfolk: A group of Virginia women has reopened a dormant chapter of the National Organization for Women. The
Virginian-Pilot reports that the organizers plan to attend the Women’s March on Washington this month.
WASHINGTON Quilcene: Washington state officials have approved expanding Hood Canal conservation areas, The Kitsap
Sun reports. Conservation groups say expansion will reduce logging and loss of wildlife habitat.
WEST VIRGINIA Charles Town: The Hollywood Casino at West Virginia’s Charles Town Races is seeing a drop in revenue with new competition. The West Virginia Lottery says that in the first two weeks after the National Harbor casino opened in Maryland, video lottery and table gambling revenues at Hollywood Casino were down about 20%.
WISCONSIN Kenosha: A Kenosha police officer has been placed on administrative leave after being arrested. Police Chief Daniel Miskinis says the officer was involved in an altercation that stemmed from a matter unrelated to his official duties.
WYOMING Casper: A heavy metal in Casper’s water could become a $50 million hurdle when the city’s wastewater treatment plant permit is reviewed in 2018. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that selenium levels may require a new treatment plant.