STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Dothan: A lawsuit accuses Dothan police of needlessly killing a man who went to an animal shelter to drop off a stray dog. The lawsuit was filed by the estate of Robert Earl Lawrence. Police say Lawrence became disorderly after being told he couldn’t leave the dog without showing ID.
ALASKA Anchorage: The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly has voted to keep a controversial invocation policy being criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska. KTUU-TV reports that the policy allows only members of established religious groups to pray at the beginning of meetings.
ARIZONA Tucson: A planned memorial for victims and survivors of Tucson’s 2011 mass shooting that targeted U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords could become part of the National Park System. The January 8th Memorial is expected to be completed in 2018.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The new Hot Spring County sheriff says he’ll likely ask Arkansas State Police to investigate what he calls trashing of the department’s Malvern office during the previous administration. Former Sheriff Ed Hollingsworth denies the allegation, the Arkansas Dem
ocrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: California’s water use is on the rise since the state lifted mandatory conservation for the drought. The state Water Resources Control Board says urban Californians used an average of 77 gallons a day in November, one gallon a day more than in November of last year.
COLORADO Fort Carson: Fort Carson has given a formal sendoff to the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, which is deploying to Europe for nine months.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Homeowners say a new report on crumbling house foundations in Connecticut failed to answer many questions. Hundreds of homeowners have filed complaints about the problem, which was traced to a quarry that produced a concrete mix containing pyrrhotite.
DELAWARE Smyrna: Delaware fish and wildlife police arrested a Smyrna man who they say illegally sold 100 pounds of white perch to a seafood buyer in Milford. The agency says Mathew C. Ryan doesn’t have a commercial food fish license.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 hosted a panel discussion with safety and transit experts last week to “expose mismanagement” at the District of Columbia’s Metro rail system.
FLORIDA Marathon: Fifteen endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are convalescing — and warming up — at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital. The creatures were rescued from the cold coastal waters off Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A judge says Georgia universities must allow immigrants to pay in-state tuition if they’ve been granted temporary permission to stay in the country.
HAWAII Honolulu: The Honolu
lu Star-Advertiser reports that the state Department of Education is partnering with the University of Hawaii to create a pathway for students to pursue direct acceptance into the College of Engineering at UH at Manoa.
IDAHO Boise: A group of veterinarians from Mexico is suing Funk Dairy. The veterinarians say the Idaho dairy lured them under false pretenses to work as animal scientists but that they were illegally forced into general labor.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum has announced the formation of the Illinois History Forum, with the first meeting set for Thursday. The topic is based on the book Lincoln’s Springfield Neighborhood.
INDIANA Princeton: An extensive tree-cutting effort will get started Monday in Princeton. The city is giving the axe to more than 100 dead, rotting trees that pose a public safety hazard, The Prince
ton Daily Clarion reports.
IOWA Des Moines: Iowa officials are reporting outbreaks of norovirus and the flu. Experts say the two illnesses are often mistaken for each other. Flu viruses tend to cause coughing, sneezing, body aches and fevers. Noroviruses tend to cause vomiting and diarrhea.
KANSAS Topeka: The Kansas Legislature expects to have streaming live audio on the internet of all committee hearings before the end of this year’s session, the Lawrence
Journal-World reports.
KENTUCKY Lexington: U.S. Attorney Kerry B. Harvey says he’s resigning at the end of this week. The top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Kentucky has served in the position since 2010.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Sharon Weston Broome has broken the glass ceiling in East Baton Rouge Parish. Broome took office last week as the first woman elected as the Louisiana parish’s mayor-president.
MAINE Portland: A group of local merchants in Maine’s largest city is cracking down on panhandling. The Portland Press
Herald reports that the merchants say panhandling makes residents, workers and tourists feel unsafe.
MARYLAND Frederick: A state senator from Maryland’s Frederick County says his re-election campaign is raffling off an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Republican Michael Hough says the prize includes 250 rounds of ammunition.
MASSACHUSETTS Concord: Three sleeping Massachusetts firefighters narrowly escaped after their fire station went up in flames in the middle of the night. Concord Fire Chief Mark Cotreau says smoke alarms woke up the firefighters.
MICHIGAN Lansing: The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has updated its regulations of toxic chemicals in industrial air emissions. The agency says the changes will make the rules less burdensome for companies with emissions that don’t endanger the public.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Minnesota’s program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional. That’s the ruling last week by a federal appeals court.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Mississippi lawmakers are considering a measure to let school boards appoint replacements for elected school superintendents who resign in the next three years. A law passed last year makes all 55 elected superintendents appointed beginning in 2020.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: The Missouri Supreme Court suspended a Lincoln County judge. The director of the state’s public defender system complained that Judge Christina Kunza Mennemeyer deliberately waited to assign attorneys until the deadline passed for requesting a new trial judge.
MONTANA Billings: Montana’s Yellowstone County is preparing to install a bronze plaque honoring women with ties to the region who served in World War I. The Billings Gazette reports that 23 names will be on the plaque to be dedicated April 6.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Police arrested a man suspected of setting a fire at a Lincoln veterinary center. Investigators also are checking into whether the man was involved in five other recent fires. No staffers or animals were injured in the pet center fire.
NEVADA Elko: A couple of partygoers at an Elko bar were cited for smoking marijuana, minutes before the new year brought new marijuana laws to Nevada, The
Elko Daily Free Press reports. Although state voters legalized recreational marijuana as of Jan. 1, public smoking is still prohibited.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Nashua: This New Hampshire city averaged a drug overdose a day in 2016, with a total of 365. The Telegraph reports that the number was 250 in 2015.
NEW JERSEY Mays Landing: A woman accused of waging an online campaign against a family who adopted a child that she claims is her grandson has pleaded not guilty to stalking and cyber harassment. Christine Merlo Kline was extradited to New Jersey from Arizona.
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: Officials say construction of a southern road to Spaceport America could begin in late spring or early summer. The Las
Cruces Sun-News reports that improving the southern route would dramatically cut travel time from Las Cruces.
NEW YORK Orchard Park: A woman is charged with stealing more than $1 million from the suburban Buffalo auto dealership where she had worked since 2001.
NORTH CAROLINA
Raleigh: North Carolina’s new governor is bringing in people from previous Democratic administrations. Gov. Roy Cooper announced last week that Charlie Perusse will be his state budget director. Perusse held the same post for Gov. Beverly Perdue.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Downtown Bismarck’s quiet rail system went into effect last week.
The Bismarck Tribune reports that trains no longer sound their whistles when approaching crossings.
OHIO Cincinnati: Police are investigating the painting of a white swastika on a sign at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Police are reviewing video to help in the search for the vandals.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Gov. Mary Fallin says Oklahoma has received an extension to comply with a federal law to beef up driver’s license security. But the Department of Homeland Security warns that failure to act during the 2017 legislative session may mean a denial of future extensions.
OREGON Town: The Register
Guard reports that Eugene’s government has received grants totaling $70,000 to launch socalled “repair cafes” on a pilot basis. Those are places where residents can get their household goods fixed free.
PENNSYLVANIA Ridgway: The owners of a historic Pennsylvania hotel that once served as a stagecoach stop say it was destroyed by a fire last week. Nicoll and Robert Hearst had to climb onto the Highland Hotel roof, where they were rescued.
RHODE ISLAND Exeter: The Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery has implemented policies to ensure that flags are handled properly after tattered U.S. flags were found in a pile of trash. A Veterans Affairs official said cemetery staff failed to follow flag protocol.
SOUTH CAROLINA Rock Hill: Rock Hill police say a woman exposed herself at a barber shop where she said she was hired to clean while wearing red lingerie. Latigra Charell Ervin Heath, 28, was charged with indecent exposure.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A nonprofit aimed at helping Native American students says a former employee who later committed suicide took roughly $21,000 from the organization for college savings accounts.
TENNESSEE Nashville: A Tennessee business group is charging into the debate over bathroom gender and religious objection laws. About 300 companies are involved, from health-care giant HCA to package delivery service FedEx.
TEXAS Houston: Texas filed a lawsuit last week to force the Food and Drug Administration to decide whether an impounded shipment of a drug used for executions should be delivered. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice purchased the sodium thiopental from an unidentified foreign drug supplier.
UTAH Salt Lake City: About 150 people showed up at a City Council meeting in Salt Lake City to speak against four planned homeless shelters. Some opponents said they worry about drugs and violence.
VERMONT Brattleboro: A Vermont doctor accused of diverting or falsely prescribing more than 1,200 oxycodone pills for her own use has pleaded guilty. The Brattleboro Reformer reports that Melanie Canon will serve four years of probation.
VIRGINIA Arlington: Animal control officers recovered a 4to 5-foot anaconda from an Arlington County resident’s toilet. The Animal Welfare League placed the snake with a specialist who’s taking care of it.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A Whidbey Island man must pay a $9,500 civil penalty for shining a highpowered blue laser at a Washington state ferry. Mark Raden’s beam hit the vessel’s master and chief mate in the eyes.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A newly elected West Virginia sheriff who has admitted being a meth addict is charged with stealing the drug from a police evidence storage area. Bo Williams faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
WISCONSIN Madison: A state legislator is ripping the University of Wisconsin-Madison for offering a program for men to examine their masculinity. Sen. Steve Nass says the school’s Men’s Project declares war on men.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Wyoming lawmakers will consider a bill to allow automakers like Tesla Motors to sell cars directly to customers. The Wyoming Tri
bune Eagle reports that the nearest Tesla stores to Wyoming are in Colorado and Utah.