STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Montgomery: Officials say Montgomery isn’t producing enough trash to make a recycling program sustainable.
The Montgomery Advertiser reports that the city owns a recycling facility, but it’s been closed for 17 months since a private company suspended operations.
ALASKA Fairbanks: A group of tourists got an extra Alaska experience when a dogsled team helped pull their car out of snow, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. Neil Eklund says his nine dogs had plenty of power to free the vehicle.
ARIZONA Tucson: Authorities are looking for a suspect who broke into the Islamic Center of Tucson, ripped up copies of the Quran and scattered the pieces around the building. Nothing was stolen and no one was hurt.
ARKANSAS Bentonville: The curator at Arkansas’ Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is leaving to take a job in California. Chad Alligood has been at Crystal Bridges since 2013, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Vacaville: An environmental group has sued Vacaville over the amount of a naturally occurring carcinogen in the city’s groundwater, The San
Francisco Chronicle reports. California River Watch wants the city to provide a safe water source for seniors and children.
COLORADO Colorado Springs: The Colorado Springs Fire Department’s Twitter account was apparently one of hundreds hijacked amid a diplomatic feud between Turkey and Germany and the Netherlands. KRDO-TV captured an image of the department’s account showing the Turkish flag and an Ottoman Empire pin.
CONNECTICUT Hamden: The Archdiocese of Hartford is merging two Catholic elementary schools in Hamden. St. Stephen School will close, and it 150 students will move next fall to St. Rita School about a mile away.
DELAWARE Newark: Former vice president Joe Biden hopes a new public policy institute bearing his name at the University of Delaware will foster civic engagement and promote bipartisanship. The Biden Institute will focus on issues such as criminal justice and economic reform.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Last week, National Park Service employees were turning on pool and drinking fountains for visitors. This week, they were clearing snow from the monuments and memorials on the National Mall. Officials say it’s odd to have a winter snow as spring preparations are underway.
FLORIDA Ocala: Police and wildlife officials are searching for a tan and yellow monocle cobra that apparently escaped from its Florida home. The Ocala
Star-Banner reports that the snake jumped at an apprentice of its owner and then slid away.
GEORGIA Atlanta: An 86-yearold jewel thief who discussed her six-decade criminal career in a documentary is under arrest after failing to appear in court. Doris Marie Payne missed a March 6 arraignment involving a jewelry theft at Atlanta’s Perimeter Mall.
HAWAII Wailuku: Golf enthusiasts on Maui are pitching ideas ranging from higher prices to night golf in a bid to keep Mayor Alan Arakawa from shutting down an 87-year-old golf course,
Hawaii News Now reports.
IDAHO Boise: Federal authorities have approved Idaho’s wildlife conservation plan. The 1,500-page plan identifies 205 species of concern, from the already-listed grizzly bear and salmon to imperiled sage grouse, monarch butterflies and the magnum mantleslug, which hasn’t been verified in Idaho since a dead one was found 2013.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The nonprofit Heartland Alliance says Illinois
residents living in poverty are more likely to become violent crime victims than higher wage earners whether they live in cities, suburbs or rural areas.
INDIANA Lafayette: Tippecanoe County may not see its 1.1% share of a $435 million Powerball jackpot because the anonymous winner who lives in the county claimed the prize under a limited liability company, the Lafayette
Journal & Courier reports.
IOWA Graettinger: Environmental officials say about 1,600 gallons of ethanol leaked into an Iowa creek as crews pulled three derailed train tankers from the water. But the Iowa Natural Resources Department says water tests taken downstream showed normal oxygen levels.
KANSAS Topeka: Kansas has sued a former Multi-State Lottery Association employee in an alleged number-fixing scam involving bogus lottery tickets. The suit says Eddie Tipton used software manipulation to rig the tickets.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Kentucky appears to be hedging its bets on a comeback for coal. The state legislature is considering lifting a decades-long moratorium on nuclear energy.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University says several students have come down with the mumps. WBRZ-TV reports that the virus has been confirmed in three students over the past two weeks, and others may not have been tested yet.
MAINE Biddeford: Biddeford High School math teacher Jon Jacques didn’t let this week’s blizzard overshadow national Pi Day. But since he couldn’t bring a few pies to students with schools closed, he settled for tweeting about the holiday from a pizza maker.
MARYLAND Rising Sun: The staff at Maryland’s Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun stayed at the facility all night through a power outage as winter storm Stella hit the East Coast this week. Zookeepers and maintenance workers shoveled snow and ice to keep paths clear for animals to reach water and food.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Boston Marathon organizers have announced a new sponsorship arrangement with Equinox. The chain of upscale fitness clubs will help runners at the starting line “get in the zone” for the April 17 event.
MICHIGAN Pontiac: A Michigan appeals court criticized an Oakland County judge for sending a 70-year-old man to prison in 2015 after he insisted he was too poor to make consistent payments to a crime victim.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A Minnesota man who burglarized the homes of people attending the theater was sentenced last week to 11 years in prison. Prosecutors say David Pollard used license numbers on cars parked in theater lots to find home addresses to burglarize.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A retired Mississippi military officer heads a group that lobbies Congress on behalf of the National Guard. The new president of the National Guard Association of the United States is retired Brig. Gen. Roy Robinson, a former assistant adjutant general of Mississippi.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: Two Mexican nationals admitted in federal court to roles in a marijuana-growing operation at the Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge in Missouri. The operation with nearly 2,000 plants was discovered last October on five acres.
MONTANA Butte: Police in Butte cleared out space in the city jail in anticipation of a rowdy St. Patrick’s Day, The Montana Standard reports. The last time St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday, in 2006, 100 people were arrested.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline donated $20,000 to the Nebraska GOP through a political action committee run by a U.S. subsidiary. The Feb. 8 donation came as TransCanada seeks approval for a route through Nebraska.
NEVADA Carson City: Nevada officials are laying the groundwork to build a light rail system in Las Vegas. The system would link McCarran International Airport with the Strip.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: Police arrested a work-release inmate last weekend who had walked away from a transitional housing facility in Manchester. William Plaisted-Comeau was serving a two- to four-year sentence for reckless conduct.
NEW JERSEY Point Pleasant
Beach: Part of the sea wall at Manasquan Inlet was damaged this week by winter storm Stella. Pounding surf at the point where the inlet becomes the
Manasquan River bashed a 10foot hole in the sea wall, destroying a park.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: New Mexico lawmakers are considering a ban on indoor tanning for people under age 18. The measure responds to evidence of increased skin cancer risks.
NEW YORK New York: Two ponies broke free from their New York City stables during this week’s winter storm. An off-duty police officer saw the animals roaming the snowy streets of Staten Island and wrangled them using straps for towing vehicles.
NORTH CAROLINA McAdenville: An elementary school special needs teacher in Gaston County is accused of assaulting one of her students. School records show that Penny Barker was suspended with pay Jan. 24.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Bismarck will step up the fight against Dutch elm disease in early April. Crews will look for firewood piles that might contain elm wood and the destructive beetles that attach to the bark for winter protection.
OHIO Columbus: Amazon plans to open a storefront in Columbus near the Ohio State University campus. Students will be able to pick up books and other items they’ve ordered online at the location.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating may become the newest member of the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents. Keating was appointed by Gov. Mary Fallin, pending state Senate approval.
OREGON Portland: Even anarchists enjoy smooth roads. A group billing itself Portland Anarchist Road Care has taken to the streets, not to promote disorder but to repair potholes.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Pennsylvania hunters posted the largest harvest of antlered deer since 2002 during the last hunting season. Of an estimated 333,254 deer taken during the season, 149,460 were antlered deer, an increase of about 9%.
RHODE ISLAND Narragansett: Strong winds toppled a wind turbine at a Rhode Island beach as winter storm Stella crossed New England this week. Gov. Gina Raimondo says the wind knocked over the state-owned turbine at Salty Brine Beach. Raimondo said no one was hurt and the state will fix the structure.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: Police in South Carolina are investigating racist and anti-gay graffiti found this week at three buildings, including a library named for Cynthia Hurd, one of the victims of the Charleston church shootings. Dylann Roof has been sentenced to death for the 2015 shootings.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A federal judge says the trial of a lawsuit against a South Dakota Hutterite colony can move ahead. The suit was brought by the parents of a 15-year-old girl who was killed in the crash of a vehicle driven by a Deerfield Hutterian Brethren Colony member, The
Argus Leader reports.
TENNESSEE Knoxville: A Knox County jury has convicted a woman accused of torturing and starving two teenage stepsons. Jessica Ann Cox was found guilty of aggravated child abuse and reckless endangerment following a six-day trial. Prosecutors say the victims were 14 and 16 when they escaped their home in handcuffs in May 2013.
TEXAS Arlington: Police in Arlington arrested a “prolific identity thief ” found with 50 credit cards, Social Security cards and five backpacks filled with other people’s mail. Alfred Cruz is charged with fraudulent use of identifying information, the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram reports.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A state wildlife employee was hospitalized after he was accidentally injected with a tranquilizer while tracking bears in remote Utah. The man was flown to a hospital in Provo. Officials say biologists use several methods to sedate bears, including dart guns and poker sticks.
VERMONT Burlington: City regulators have approved a $225 million redevelopment of Burlington Town Center mall. But opponents of the project are expected to appeal to Vermont Environmental Court, the Bur
lington Free Press reports.
VIRGINIA Lexington: The proConfederate group Virginia Flaggers took down a large rebel flag but says it’ll raise the banner again when it gets the proper permits. The Roanoke Times reports that Rockbridge County officials ordered the 82-foot flagpole removed because it was too close to a public highway.
WASHINGTON Vancouver: Fire investigators say an electronic tablet that was being charged likely caused a blaze that damaged an apartment above a Vancouver restaurant. The blaze this week caused an estimated $75,000 damage to the Igloo Restaurant building.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A state-funded roadside assistance program may be eliminated by West Virginia lawmakers. Supporters want to transfer the program’s $4 million to road repairs. But supporters say Courtesy Patrol drivers are “the ears and the eyes of the roadway” who help stranded motorists.
WISCONSIN Madison: About 200,000 recipients of Wisconsin Retirement System benefits will receive 2% pension payment increases starting in May. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board says “Core Fund” investments rose by 8.5% last year and “Variable Fund” investments rose by 10.6%.
WYOMING Casper: Wyoming’s governor has signed a bill that will help educate future generations about the state’s native population, The Casper StarTribune reports. The legislation provides schools with education material that will be created in consultation with the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes.