STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: Public Schools in Montgomery will get 158 new buses this year, The Montgomery Advertiser reports. The buses will cost about $11.9 million and will feature a geolocation system that can track a bus if it’s stolen.
ALASKA Fairbanks: An electric utility co-op serving the Fairbanks region denied a request for interconnection from a company looking to build a wind farm, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. Golden Valley utility officials say the wind farm would increase costs for co-op customers.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: Coconino National Forest officials say a drone hindered efforts to fight a grass fire north of Flagstaff. Officials say the drone’s presence delayed the arrival of a helicopter that was mapping the spread of the fire last weekend.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Nearly 3,000 state employees in Arkansas are paid $100,000 or more a year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The top five are in sports or medicine.
CALIFORNIA Irvine: An Orange County woman accused of selling sick puppies through a fake pet rescue organization is charged with animal abuse. The Orange County Register reports that the woman didn’t give the puppies veterinary care, and some died after being sold.
COLORADO Boulder: A wildfire that forced hundreds of people from their homes in the foothills near Boulder was contained this week. The fire started last weekend in a wooded, mountainous area near a shopping and dining hub in the heart of the university city.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: A Connecticut appeals court rejected a woman’s claim that her lawyer made mistakes leading to her murder-for-hire conviction. Beth Carpenter, serving a life sentence, fled to Ireland and was extradited only after U.S. officials agreed not to seek the death penalty.
DELAWARE Dover: A Delaware man was charged with driving under the influence after he was found passed out in the drivethru lane of a McDonald’s restaurant.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A man who displayed a weapon at a security checkpoint at the U.S. Capitol visitor center last year was sentenced to 11 months in prison. Larry Russell Dawson’s handgun turned out to be a BB gun.
FLORIDA Key West: Salvage crews are racing to get 32 abandoned boats off the bottom in the Marquesas Keys waters before sea turtles and birds arrive for nesting season. Some of the vessels hold oily residue, fuel and other pollutants, The Keynoter reports.
GEORGIA Athens: University of Georgia officials plan additional research on human remains discovered during a building project on the Athens campus. Workers found 105 gravesites in November 2015. Most were empty, but 30 had enough remains to allow DNA testing.
HAWAII Hilo: Three men are charged in the theft of seven goats on Hawaii’s Big Island, Hawaii News Now reports. The suspects also face drug charges, police say.
IDAHO Nampa: The Bureau of Land Management is trying to find the vandals responsible for spray-painting graffiti on the Black Cliffs climbing area along Highway 21 just outside of Boise. The agency is offering a $1,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to reconsider a lawsuit filed against a Chicago suburb and its police officers. Elijah Manuel was arrested in 2011 on a claim that he possessed ecstasy. Manuel was held for seven weeks, but the pills turned out to be vitamins.
INDIANA Anderson: Anderson authorities say cocaine was found in the pockets of an Erskine Elementary School student who wore his father’s jeans to school.
The Herald-Bulletin reports that the father is being sought on charges of dealing cocaine and neglect.
IOWA Dubuque: A Cedar Rapids developer has bought the historic Dubuque Malting and Brewing Co. building, The Telegraph Herald reports. Plans are to convert the crumbling 120-year-old building into apartments.
KANSAS Wichita: A lack of rain is hurting the winter wheat crop in Kansas. The National Agricultural Statistics Service says 24% of the wheat crop is in poor to very poor condition.
KENTUCKY Wayland: Football, basketball, swimming and other sports are showcased in a new Smithsonian exhibit in Kentucky. The exhibit, “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” will be open until April 22 in Wayland.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: Inmate advocates want video from a weekend New Orleans jail disturbance. The MacArthur Justice Center cites reports of prisoners getting access to controls and letting other inmates out of their cells.
MAINE Old Orchard Beach: Maine’s state fire marshal says a man burned down his parents’ house and killed three family pets while trying to exterminate ants in the basement with matches.
MARYLAND Kent Island: A kite surfer was rescued last weekend off the coast of Kent Island, The Baltimore Sun reports. The surfer was trying to swim to shore near Matapeake when the Coast Guard picked him up.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Gov. Charlie Baker is backing away from a proposal to eliminate weekend commuter rail service. Instead, Baker says he’s exploring alternatives to help make weekend rail service more efficient.
MICHIGAN Delta Township: Public school advocates have sued to block Michigan from helping private schools with the cost of complying with immunization reporting and other state requirements. The suit contends that such spending is an unconstitutional appropriation of state money.
MINNESOTA Waite Park: Leaders of a new school that helps students struggling with alcohol abuse are seeking state funding. Seven students have been treated so far at the McKinley Recovery School, now in its first year in Waite Park, the St. Cloud Times reports.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Alcorn State University plans to build a new 500-bed dormitory on its Lorman campus. The projected cost is more than $3 million, and the school will pay $200,000 for an architect.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: The program was called Hand-up, a Missouri effort to let residents receiving child support take wage hikes without losing state aid. But The Springfield News-Leader reports that no one enrolled in the 2012 program, in part because of ex- Gov. Jay Nixon’s budget cuts that delayed its start until January 2014 and cut it off in 2016.
MONTANA Billings: A Billings convenience store was ordered to pay $7,000 to a Native American customer after an employee refused to accept his tribal ID card. The customer was using the card as proof of age to buy a single-serving bottle of wine, The Billings Gazette reports.
NEBRASKA Bellevue: An Omaha billionaire is opening an independent high school in Bellevue that would be among the nation’s first to use “Next Generation Learning.” The Omaha World-Herald reports that NGL Academy begins accepting applications this week.
NEVADA Carson City: Nevada lawmakers are looking at eliminating plastic bags from state checkout counters within five years. The measure would start the push in July with a 10-cents-a-bag tax on customers.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Durham: Five communities in New Hampshire’s Seacoast have formed a campaign to provide energy efficiency and clean energy options at bulk discounts for homeowners and businesses. The initiative
offers energy audits, weatherization and other benefits.
NEW JERSEY North Wildwood: Fire crews in Cape May County rescued one of three dolphins that got stuck on a sandbar this week. WPVI-TV reports that the other two were able to free themselves when the tide came in.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The Albuquerque zoo has welcomed a new tiger after going nine months without one. The ABQ BioPark zoo’s 18-year-old Bengal tiger named Scout was euthanized in June because of liver cancer.
NEW YORK New York: Labrador retrievers have extended their record run as America’s most popular dog breed. After Labs, the top five are German shepherds, golden retrievers, bulldogs and beagles.
NORTH CAROLINA Salisbury: A Salisbury woman faces a seconddegree murder charge after allegedly injecting a teenager with nonmedical silicone in a plastic surgery procedure at her home. Police say the teen died Jan. 12.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The North Dakota oil boom has slowed, but the failure of oil patch workers to register their vehicles is still an issue. The Highway Patrol wrote more than 3,000 citations between February 2016 and January of this year, the Minot Daily News reports.
OHIO Columbus: Ohio plans to update its relatively new computer system that tracks liquor sales and distribution. The Columbus
Dispatch reports that retailers have complained about inaccurate inventory and sales information and overdue payments.
OKLAHOMA Pawhuska: The Osage Nation has voted to change the definition of marriage. The Oklahoma tribe will now define marriage as a union between “two persons” rather than “a man and a woman.” The change drew 53% support.
OREGON Portland: The mother of a 4-year-old special education student who was left sleeping on an empty Tillamook County school bus has filed a lawsuit, The Oregonian/ Oregon Live reports. The child was on the bus for about two hours before being found.
PENNSYLVANIA Bethlehem: The Bethlehem City Council is being asked to make bamboo taboo. The proposal would prevent residents from planting fast-spreading running bamboo. Those who already have it would have to build barriers to prevent its spread to neighboring property, easements and rights of way.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Rhode Island is dropping a $12 million project to build an Interstate 95 welcome center near the Connecticut border after Hopkinton residents opposed it, citing potential damage to the town’s rural character.
SOUTH CAROLINA Bluffton: The town of Bluffton and Beaufort County are working jointly to preserve the Squire Pope Carriage House. The building is one of the town’s oldest, dating to about 1850, The Island Packet reports.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: San Francisco has banned city employees from traveling to South Dakota following passage of a bill protecting religious or faith-based adoption agencies that won’t place children with unmarried or same-sex couples, The Argus Leader reports.
TENNESSEE Knoxville: Officials blame safety violations at a Tennessee trucking company for an explosion last year that killed a Knox County maintenance shop worker, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
TEXAS Houston: Officials may release genetically modified mosquitoes in Houston as part of the fight against the Zika virus and other diseases, The Houston Chronicle reports. The mosquitoes have been engineered to produce offspring that die.
UTAH Ogden: Environmental advocates say the May 31 closing of the Davis Energy Recovery incineration facility will help improve air quality, The Standard-Examiner reports. The plant is being closed because it needs $8 million in upgrades.
VERMONT St. Johnsbury: The St. Johnsbury Riverfront Revitalization Committee has proposed new pedestrian enhancements along the Passumpsic River. The project is estimated to cost about $200,000, The Caledonian Record reports.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Bridges in coastal Virginia play a key role in helping large birds like the peregrine falcon breed, the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary says.
WASHINGTON Tacoma: The owner of a now-closed Tacoma truck wash will pay $50,000 and spend two years on probation for dumping chemicals into the city’s sewer, The News Tribune reports.
WEST VIRGINIA Elkins: More than 100 dresses made by the Elkins Sewing Center and local volunteers will be given to children living in African countries,
The Inter-Mountain reports. Volunteer Bonnie Scalia was inspired by the organization Dress a Girl Around the World.
WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin has fallen behind other states in cutting carbon dioxide pollution from coal-burning power plants, The Wisconsin State Journal reports. Wisconsin emissions decreased by 12.7% from 2000 to 2014, but the nation cut emissions by 18.1% during that period.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Itchy eyes and scratchy throats blamed on high levels of wintertime ozone have returned to western Wyoming’s gas patch for the first time in six years. Environmentalists say the gas industry needs to do more to reduce air pollution.