News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: Alabama prisons have agreed to put new suicide prevention measures in place after an inmate killed himself days after testifying about inadequate psychiatric care in state prisons. The prison system agreed to keep a licensed mental health professional on staff at each major facility. ALASKA Bethel: Alaska’s Quinhagak village is preparing to receive artifacts from an archaeological dig conducted in the area over the last several years. KYUKAM reports that a team from Scotland’s University of Aberdeen preserved artifacts that include wooden tools and weapons. ARIZONA Tucson: The University of Arizona Police Department posted online the names and faces of nearly 40 people banned from all or part of the campus. Officials say people can be banned from the Tucson campus for something as minor as disrupting the library or as serious as a criminal charge. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Chicken waste that will be used as fertilizer is piling up in barns, causing worries about spontaneous combustion. A chicken litter pile triggered a wildfire last week that destroyed a mobile home in Arkansas. CALIFORNIA San Francisco: A book of short stories titled “Forty Minutes Late” has been returned to a San Francisco library — 100 years late. The San Francisco

Chronicle reports that Webb Johnson’s great-grandmother had checked it out in 1917. She passed away a week before the due date. COLORADO Aspen: The Aspen School District has removed the seat belts from some of its buses due to safety concerns. The Aspen

Times reports that District Transportation Director Gary Vavra says lap belts are more damaging in an accident than none at all. CONNECTICUT Hartford: Keep an eye on the picnic basket. Bear sightings are surging across Connecticut. There were about 6,700 black bear sightings in 2016, a 49% increase over the previous year. DELAWARE Dover: State insurance officials say they’re investigating a data breach involving two Highmark BlueCross BlueShield of Delaware contractors. Ransomware infected a server containing certain personal information, including names and Social Security numbers. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The U.S. Post Office says some District of Columbia customers will see changes in service because of the presidential inauguration on Friday. WJLA-TV reports that six facilities will be closed that day and some postal zones won’t get mail. Operations will return to normal on Saturday. FLORIDA LaBelle: Florida has its first panther fatality of 2017. The body was found last week on a Hendry County road. A vehicle strike is suspected. GEORGIA Atlanta: A Georgia law offers corporations and individuals tax credits worth 70% of donations to rural hospitals. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a proposed change would raise that to 90%. HAWAII Maui: State officials reopened a stretch of shoreline on Maui after the remains of a dead humpback whale disappeared from view. It was closed Dec. 30 because carcasses often attract sharks. IDAHO Boise: The Idaho Attorney General’s office says it won’t file criminal charges after being asked to review possible voter intimidation. According to police reports, a volunteer Democratic Party campaign worker said his vehicle was photographed by people he suspected of supporting a GOP candidate. ILLINOIS Chicago: Chicago Public Schools has mandated four unpaid furlough days this school year for teachers and staff. Officials blame Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a measure providing $215 million in state aid to the district. INDIANA Indianapolis: Much like folks in the Northeast call themselves Yankees, those from Indiana have long referred to themselves as Hoosiers. The federal Government Publishing Office finally caught up last week, officially changing the designation from “Indianian” to “Hoosier” in federal documents. IOWA Des Moines: Iowa regulators fined a state disability treatment center $40,000 following an abuse investigation. A report on the Glenwood State Resource Center details incidents of patients struck on the head with spoons and knives. KANSAS Topeka: The federal National Guard Bureau plans to investigate the Kansas National Guard at the request of the state’s adjutant general. An internal investigation found problems that include racism and enlistment document forgery, The

Topeka Capital-Journal reports. KENTUCKY Louisville: The Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville says it’s getting a donation from a foundation established by artist LeRoy Neiman. Ali and Neiman were longtime friends. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Two New Orleans inmates held in the East Carroll Parish jail well past the time their sentences ended were released last week. Inmate advocates believe many others are in similar predicaments. MAINE Mechanic Falls: The listing agent for the former Harvest Hill Farm in Maine says it may continue operating as a farm. Roger Gagnon tells the Sun

Journal that he’s received inquiries for the $1.6 million property that include at least two plans to grow marijuana. MARYLAND Ellicott City: Howard County Public Schools Superintendent Renee Foose has filed a lawsuit against her school board. Foose wants the court to void the contract of a lawyer hired by the board to inspect school records. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Former students of the now-shuttered American Career Institute will have more than $30 million in federal student loans forgiven, says Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. MICHIGAN Traverse City: Federal officials say they’ll continue efforts to prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. The invasive fish could disrupt food chains and compete with native species. MINNESOTA Ramsey: Police stopped a stolen minivan in a Twin Cities suburb and found a driver who claimed she was in labor. The driver was taken to a hospital. MISSISSIPPI Baldwyn: Assistant church pastor Luke Gardner and his wife Hillary never have a problem remembering each other’s birthday. The Mississippi couple were born the same December day. So was their infant son, 27 years later. Experts say the odds of that are about one in 133,000. MISSOURI St. Louis: St. Louis officials have ordered closure of the New Life Evangelistic Center by April 1. Critics say the homeless shelter is a nuisance, creating panhandling and crime concerns. MONTANA Eureka: Montana wildlife biologists captured 32 bighorn sheep and gave them health checkups. They’re being tested for respiratory pathogens and various bacteria. NEBRASKA Gering: Scotts Bluff County commissioners have tentatively approved a more than $4 million project to help alleviate crowding at the county jail in Gering. The plans include a relocation of administrator offices. NEVADA Reno: A team of heavy-machine operators drew a big crowd of camera-toting spectators as they plucked dangerous debris from raging floodwaters in Nevada. Emergency workers voluntarily evacuated about 1,300 people from 400 homes as the Truckee River overflowed, the

Reno Gazette-Journal reports. NEW HAMPSHIRE Bow: A high school student hopes a computer program will help military families find their loved ones at the New Hampshire Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen. The Concord Monitor reports that Elin Warwick is marking each grave’s location and uploading them to a computer in the cemetery’s welcome center. NEW JERSEY Newark: The owner of a New Jersey trucking company was arrested while trying to board a flight to Aruba and charged with racking up more than $1 million of unpaid tolls and fees using a delinquent E-ZPass account. NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The Santa Fe City Council has voted down a resolution that says President-elect Donald Trump “espouses beliefs that are contrary to and undermine our community values.” The measure died on a tie vote last week, The New Mex

ican reports. NEW YORK Albany: Gov. Andrew Cuomo will soon have a new chopper. A 2015 model, $12.5 million Sikorsky S-76D will transport the New York governor.

NORTH CAROLINA

Raleigh: North Carolina lawmakers want the incoming Trump administration to shut down a utilityscale wind farm nearing completion because they say it could interfere with a Navy radar installation in nearby Chesapeake, Va. NORTH DAKOTA Williston: The Williston City Commission has paved the way for two oil field housing companies to turn a vacated crew camp into a 600bed hotel, The Williston Herald reports. City officials say the camp is no longer needed. OHIO Akron: Health officials say people at Summa Akron City Hospital may have been exposed to tuberculosis late last year through a visitor who was later diagnosed with the airborne bacterial infection. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A trucking dispatcher pleaded guilty to wire fraud by creating more than $1.2 million in fake invoices for deliveries that never happened. Richard V. Kelly was sentenced last week in Oklahoma City to 15 months in prison. OREGON Corvallis: Oregonbased NuScale Power has submitted a design for a smaller and more affordable nuclear power plant. The Corvallis Gazette

Times reports that the plant would have 12 modules, each generating 50 megawatts of power, compared to about 1,000 megawatts for a traditional nuclear plant. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: A park in a posh section of Philadelphia has banned people from sitting on walls near a fountain after neighbors complained the practice led to pot smoking. The ban at Rittenhouse Square went into effect last week. RHODE ISLAND Providence: State regulators found multiple deficiencies with educator programs at Rhode Island College. The state Department of Education declined to renew master’s-level programs for administrator and school counselor.

SOUTH CAROLINA New Ellen

ton: Aiken County Sheriff Michael Hunt says officers found several small explosive devises that someone lit and threw out of a moving vehicle. No injuries were reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: Authorities are investigating the death of an escaped South Dakota prison inmate. The body of Moses Dubray, 32, was found last week along a state highway, a day after Dubray walked away from his assigned unit in Rapid City. TENNESSEE Nashville: A Tennessee lawmaker wants to ban the use of food stamps to buy items without nutritional value — things like sodas, ice cream, candy, cookies and cake. TEXAS Candelaria: Authorities say two men were shot at a West Texas ranch when they and another member of their hunting group opened fire during a “state of confusion” that erupted when someone tried to open the door of an RV where one of the men was staying. UTAH Salt Lake City: The Bureau of Land Management is trying to settle a longstanding legal challenge by conservation groups to management plans on some 10 million acres the agency administers in Utah. VERMONT Newport: This Perry Mason pleaded guilty. Perry Mason of Hardwick, Vermont — not to be confused with the fictional TV criminal defense lawyer — pleaded guilty last week to breaking into a jewelry store in 2014 and stealing $110,000 worth of items, The Caledonian Record reports. VIRGINIA Parksley: A Facebook photo that appears to show a neglected dog led to charges against two men in Accomack County. Sheriff Todd Godwin says deputies found several neglected dogs and one dead canine. WASHINGTON Seattle: The Seattle bike-sharing system will hit a dead end in March, a year after the city spent $1.4 million to buy it. Over 3,300 people signed up for the system, but the number dropped in May to about 1,800. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The West Virginia Board of Education is considering a plan to replace current assessments with end-of-course exams tied to a student’s final grade. State officials have said they’re concerned about a lack of effort by high schoolers on current exams. WISCONSIN Madison: A Wisconsin legislator wants to lift the state’s mining moratorium. Then- Gov. Tommy Thompson signed the moratorium into law in 1998. WYOMING Cheyenne: For the first time in its 121-year history, a woman will lead the Cheyenne Frontier Days board of directors. Rodeo CEO Tom Hirsig and General Chairman Bill Berg tell the

Wyoming Tribune Eagle that volunteer Lisa Murphy is the best person for the job.