News from across the USA
ALABAMA Florence: An Alabama man is charged with extortion after allegedly faking his kidnapping. The Lauderdale County Sheriff ’s Office says Preston Kelley texted his grandmother a photo that appeared to show him bound and beaten and told her to send $1,000 or he’d be killed. She contacted police.
ALASKA Ketchikan: A lawmaker wants to spike Alaska’s studded tire tax from $5 to $75, The Ketchikan Daily News reports. The bill is aimed at raising money to repair rutted roads damaged by studded tires.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: A project to thin forests of overgrown trees and brush around Flagstaff will expand this year. The goal is to reduce the risk of wildfires and flooding, The Arizona Daily Sun reports. Last year’s effort thinned 885 acres. The minimum for this year is 1,300 acres.
ARKANSAS Heber Springs: A Cleburne County sheriff ’s deputy was fired after giving conflicting information about driving past a stopped school bus that was dropping off children, Sheriff Chris Brown tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
CALIFORNIA South El Monte: Los Angeles County authorities are searching for a suspect who dressed as a construction worker for a smash-and-grab jewelry store robbery. KABC-TV reports that security camera footage shows the thief using a hammer to bash in a glass case. Nobody was hurt.
COLORADO Denver: A gubernatorial appointee in charge of the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council has filed dozens of lawsuits against small businesses claiming federal disability law violations, The Denver Post reports. The suits brought by Mellisa Umphenour on behalf of her 11-year-old son, who is disabled, cite violations such as the height of bathroom mirrors or toilet-paper holder placements.
CONNECTICUT Storrs: UConn will begin repairing the roof of the Gampel Pavilion basketball arena in May, a year later than originally scheduled. Work should be completed by October.
DELAWARE South Bethany: South Bethany is considering banning smoking on its beach. WBOC-TV reports that a survey of all 1,400 homeowners shows 72% support for the ban.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: High winds blew off part of an apartment building ’s roof and downed trees and power lines around the District of Columbia region early this week. The National Weather Service said a 66 mph wind gust was measured at Reagan airport.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Florida lawmakers are considering a referendum on judicial term limits. If passed by the legislature, the ballot issue on Supreme Court justices and appeals court judges would go to voters in 2018. Those jurists now get a merit retention vote every six years, something no judge has ever lost.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia’s top election official says the state has settled a federal lawsuit that argued thousands of residents were blocked from registering to vote. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia will no longer reject registration applications that don’t exactly match state and federal data IDs.
HAWAII Hilo: Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim says he’ll try to cover an expected $12 million budget shortfall without raising taxes, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Kim says the $4 million that goes to the county’s open space land fund accounts for a third of the budget gap.
IDAHO Lewiston: City leaders want a stand of giant sequoia trees saved from a planned development, The Lewiston Tribune reports. The project is for a new Lewiston fire station.
ILLINOIS Chicago: A Chicago museum that chronicles the history of surgery is planning an exhibit to “demystify” sex-reassignment procedures, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
INDIANA Evansville: A 9-yearold boy will undergo facial reconstruction surgery after a pit bull attack. The (Evansville) Courier & Press reports that the dog bit off most of the boy’s right cheek.
IOWA Des Moines: A day care worker was arrested after Polk County sheriff ’s deputies say she showed up to work drunk, The Des Moines Register reports. Lt. Rich Blaylock said officers at the scene cited her “bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and wobbly gait.”
KANSAS Wichita: Police have suspended the use of spike strips after a Wichita officer was run over and critically injured by a stolen SUV being chased, The Wichita Eagle reports.
KENTUCKY Clinton: A fire ripped through an award-winning Kentucky country ham business last week, burning much of the 100,000-square-foot facility to the ground. Hickman County fire officials say windy conditions caused the blaze at Harper’s Country Hams to spread quickly.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A St. James Parish tax preparer faces felony charges of fabricating business losses for companies that don’t exist.
MAINE Fairfield: One of Maine’s biggest Independence Day events remains without a home. The Morning Sentinel reports that Fairfield rejected a proposal to host the Winslow Family Fourth of July Celebration.
MARYLAND Frostburg: A study has identified certain types of businesses that could keep graduates of Frostburg State University employed locally. The school says the study found that life sciences, small tech firms and financial and accounting services offer the best prospects.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Boston Symphony Orchestra is celebrating this week after receiving its ninth Grammy Award. The orchestra won for best orchestral performance for its rendition of “Shostakovich Under Stalin’s Shadow: Symphonies Nos. 5, 8, and 9.”
MICHIGAN Cadillac: The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is offering a class in basic ice fishing. Participants will learn how and where to fish, when it’s safe to be on ice and how to use electronics.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The Minnesota Department of Transportation is testing drones to inspect bridges. Officials say the technology will save money, KARE-TV reports.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The Mississippi Supreme Court says it has no authority to block the state legislature’s “demon chipmunk.” That’s how some lawmakers jokingly describe the speedy computer voice that reads bills aloud before a final vote.
MISSOURI Eugene: Authorities believe they found the skeletal remains of a missing man in the debris of a November house fire. An anthropologist and a team from the University of Missouri and Columbia College carried out the search.
MONTANA Butte: State wildlife officials say cloudy water in the Beaverhead River led to an estimated $5 million in losses for outfitters and related businesses in 2015, The Montana Standard reports.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: A conference at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln this spring will examine early efforts to map Nebraska and the Great Plains. Experts will talk about how American Indian tribes made the first maps of the region.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Two men died at a Las Vegas racetrack after a Lamborghini crashed and burst into flames. Las Vegas police say a man was driving with an instructor in the passenger seat at SpeedVegas when the vehicle crashed Sunday.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Several New Hampshire groups want the state to pull out of a nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Leading the critics is a group founded by the billionaire Koch brothers.
NEW JERSEY Cinnaminson: Burlington County police are investigating the appearance Sunday of fliers promoting the Ku Klux Klan. Residents found the fliers near their driveways with messages saying “love your own race” and “stop homosexuality and race mixing.”
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: New Mexico lawmakers are considering prison policy changes to help promote breastfeeding of infants by incarcerated mothers. Health officials cite a potential to improve infant health. Prison officials cite safety and security concerns.
NEW YORK Albany: Free fishing days return to New York state this weekend. Residents and non-residents won’t need a license Saturday and Sunday at any of New York’s 7,500 lakes and ponds or 70,000 miles of rivers and streams.
NORTH CAROLINA Fayetteville: Two people face criminal charges in an investigation at a Fayetteville home of alleged drug purchases. Deputies also found a toddler playing in an area littered with syringes, a glass pipe, heroin and fentanyl residue.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The Minot City Council is working with the North Dakota State Historic Preservation Office to demolish a flour mill to make way for a flood protection project, The Minot Daily News reports.
OHIO Columbus: Construction will begin in May on a new terminal and education building as part of a $20 million overhaul of Ohio State University’s airfield, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A federal report shows Oklahoma had more children abused or neglected by foster parents in 2015 than any other state, The Oklahoman reports.
OREGON Bend: Public safety officers at Central Oregon Community College will no longer undertake criminal investigations, The Bulletin reports. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel says those officers don’t have the same jurisdiction as campus police at universities.
PENNSYLVANIA Stroudsburg: Classes resumed this week after a one-week teachers’ strike in Stroudsburg. But the school board and teachers’ union still haven’t reach a deal.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Rhode Island Foundation awarded a record $45 million in grants last year. The foundation, with about $830 million in assets, says about 1,600 nonprofit groups received funding.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: A federal judge turned aside South Carolina’s pursuit of $100 million in fines it contends the federal government owes for an unfinished plutonium processing project. The judge ruled last week that the U.S. Court of Federal Claims is the proper forum for the demand.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: The number of homicides on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation nearly doubled in 2016, The Rapid City Journal reports. FBI data cites 17 homicides last year, compared with nine in 2015.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The Tennessee Treasury Department says it returned a record of almost 42,000 unclaimed property items in the 2016 budget year. That’s a 28% increase over the previous year.
TEXAS Houston: A Houston businessman is suing a South African company for failing to deliver two horns from the white rhino he shot during a safari trip. Kevin Poynter’s lawyer tells the Houston Chronicle that the hunt was “completely legal.”
UTAH Bountiful: The University of Utah is leaving Bountiful due to declining enrollment and the city’s decision to demolish the building the school leases, The Standard-Examiner reports. University officials also cite the increased availability of online classes.
VERMONT St. Johnsbury: No one was hurt when inmates at a Vermont prison destroyed furniture and fashioned improvised weapons one evening last week. The disturbance ended after about two hours.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Ex-Virginia legislator Joseph Morrissey’s law firm is suing former Gov. Douglas Wilder and his National Slavery Museum. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the case stems from Morrissey’s representation of Wilder and the museum in a tax dispute with Fredericksburg.
WASHINGTON Centralia: The Lewis County prosecutor says the Napavine City Council has scheduled meetings and appointed members unlawfully. The Chronicle reports that the city code requires the council to hold two meetings a month, but the council has only been meeting once a month. The city also violated a rule requiring it to fill a council position within 90 days.
WEST VIRGINIA Elkins: A prosecutor is reviewing a former West Virginia police chief ’s instruction for officers to harass and put fear into “any suspected cockroach” in the community. Reports indicate that Elkins Police Chief Craig Cross was referring to people carrying knives or backpacks or wearing hoodies.
WISCONSIN Madison: Teachers in Wisconsin would never have to renew their licenses under a plan by Gov. Scott Walker. And school administrators who’ve pushed for streamlined licensing to address a teacher shortage say they could be onboard, with a caveat. They want to require ongoing training.
WYOMING Jackson: Wyoming Game and Fish officials are anticipating a decline in gun tax revenue. The agency’s commissioner says sales that were robust during the Obama administration aren’t expected to stay at that level.