STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Dothan: The city’s animal shelter and a wildlife refuge have custody of 85 animals recovered from an alleged puppy mill, The Dothan Eagle reports. A judge ruled that the 69 dogs and 16 birds were neglected. ALASKA Anchorage: The Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board has renamed Badger Road Elementary School to Midnight Sun Elementary School. The change is to remove the Badger name tied to a man convicted of raping a child in 1916, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. ARIZONA Phoenix: Arizona lawmakers are working on legislation to protect patients who receive unanticipated medical bills from out-of-network providers. The measure would assign arbitrators to handle cases of “surprise billing.” ARKANSAS Little Rock: An Arkansas panel on judiciary discipline is considering how to sanction a judge who pleaded guilty to drunken driving, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The punishment will determine whether, and how soon, Judge William Pearson can return to the bench. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A U.S. Forest Service researcher says vast numbers of Southern California trees are dying from insects and disease. Greg McPherson tells the Los Angeles Times that the region from Ventura County to the Mexican border is becoming a “post-oasis landscape” as trees struggle with drought, higher salinity levels in recycled water and new pests. COLORADO Denver: The American Lung Association says ozone pollution has improved in Denver and Fort Collins, but both are still among the 15 worst in the nation. CONNECTICUT Waterbury: A Connecticut woman is accused of extorting a man by threatening to release videos of the dominatrix services she provided him unless he paid her off, The RepublicanAmerican reports. DELAWARE Dover: Police say a search of a Dover man’s car turned up 5,200 bags of heroin, more than $1,000 in cash and a small amount of marijuana. WDEL-FM reports that the suspect was stopped while driving without a license. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Washington apartment complex has taken steps to end a political feud of sorts, WTTG-TV reports. The complex sent an email reminding residents that it’s a lease violation to hang anything off a balcony. Two residents who put up signs with rival political messages have to take them down by May 1. FLORIDA Havana: Florida wildlife officials say they don’t believe there should be a hunt for black bears this year. In 2015, hunters killed 304 bears in the state’s first hunt in more than 20 years. GEORGIA Dunwoody: Georgia police are searching for a man accused of ripping the headscarf off a Muslim teenager at a mall. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the man yelled “terrorist” at the 14-year-old girl before fleeing. HAWAII Honolulu: Hawaii health officials say two more people have contracted rat lungworm disease after consuming a homemade drink contaminated with slugs. The disease is caused by a parasite found in rodents. IDAHO Boise: A transgender woman has sued Idaho for refusing to change the gender listed on her birth certificate. Idaho is one of four states that prohibit birth certificate changes for gender identity. ILLINOIS Springfield: The campaign to restore the Illinois governor’s mansion is getting close to its $15 million goal, The State Journal-Register reports. INDIANA Bedford: An Indiana webcam is giving viewers a close look at a brood of rare barn owl hatchlings in a nesting box. The barn owl is a state-endangered species. IOWA Davenport: The Vatican has tapped the rector of St. Piux X Seminary in Dubuque as the next bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport. Monsignor Thomas Zinkula has a University of Iowa law degree and was ordained a priest in 1990. KANSAS Overland Park: Superintendent Jim Hinson of the Shawnee Mission School District is retiring June 30, the nearly 28,000-student district in suburban Kansas City says. KENTUCKY Paducah: More than 30,000 people are expected for the Spring Paducah Quilt Week event that begins Wednesday. Organizers say nearly 700 quilts will be on display. LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency last week for Louisiana’s coast. Edwards says he hopes to draw national attention to the loss of land to coastal erosion. MAINE Old Orchard Beach: An improving exchange rate between the Canadian and U.S. dollar is paying dividends to this Maine community. The Portland Press Herald reports that a local hotel has seen a $200,000 increase in bookings from this time last year. MARYLAND Rockville: Maryland’s Montgomery County will soon require at least half of the vending machine offerings in government buildings to be healthy snacks and drinks. Beverage machines also will have to offer bottled water. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Boston Public Library is returning historical artifacts to Italy, some dating back 600 years. Library officials say the items were bought legitimately from rare book dealers during the mid-20th century. MICHIGAN Detroit: Michigan officials say a virus might be responsible for recent fish deaths in Lake St. Clair. Many of the fish had bloody patches on their skin, a sign of the viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A U.S.-Canada trade dispute has spread to 19 Minnesota dairy farms. Canada recently imposed duties on ultra-filtered milk, a concentrate used to make cheese. It was duty free until Canadian producers complained. MISSISSIPPI Columbus: Mississippi officials are investigating why several emergency dispatchers skipped work earlier this month. The Commercial Dispatch reports that six Lowndes County dispatchers called in sick, and others on standby didn’t answer their phones. MISSOURI Kansas City: A woman says she wants her late brother “back home” after a bag containing his ashes was stolen from her car, The Kansas City Star reports. Naida Shipp’s brother David’s ashes were in a backpack taken while she and her fiance were at a doughnut shop. MONTANA Helena: A judge has lifted a hold on a proposed irrigation dam and fish passage that officials say is the best hope to save an endangered ancient species of fish in the Yellowstone River. NEBRASKA Omaha: Omaha’s police chief and Douglas County prosecutors say an officer was justified in shooting an unarmed man who reached into his waistband and then simulated pointing a gun at the officer. Dillon Trejo was wounded. NEVADA Carson City: Diabetics are calling on Nevada lawmakers to address growing insulin prices that they say put thousands of lives at risk. NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: An effort to restrict the use of food stamps in New Hampshire won’t move forward in the legislature this year. Throngs of people, including advocates for lowincome residents, came out in opposition to the measure. NEW JERSEY Hopatcong: New Jersey authorities say a man lived with a dead woman for three days and kept using drugs during that time. Police say Matthew Schmarr also rearranged the room to make it seem like the woman committed suicide. NEW MEXICO Clovis: Clovis officials say possible tampering prompted the removal and replacement of all drugs on the Fire Department’s 11 ambulances used for emergency calls, The Eastern

New Mexico News reports. NEW YORK Albany: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state will distribute $6.5 million to 17 health centers to expand services under the HealthySteps program that focuses on early-life doctor visits and family screening.

NORTH CAROLINA WinstonSalem: Two North Carolina sisters have pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud a federal nutrition program to help stock their restaurant. A federal prosecutor says the women used Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cards to buy food for Becky & Mary’s Restaurant in High Point. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Two-thirds of North Dakota deer hunters succeeded in bagging one last season. Also, a record 26,755 archery licenses were issued last year with an overall success rate of 43%. OHIO Cuyahoga Falls: Televangelist Ernest Angley’s Ohio restaurant abruptly closed after a court ordered $388,000 in payments to a group of employees. The court found that members of Angley’s church were urged to volunteer at the buffet as unpaid workers. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The Oklahoma House has voted to repeal a trigger that cuts the state’s individual income tax rate from 5% to 4.85% when collections rise by about $100 million annually. State revenues have plunged since the trigger passed in 2014, and the state faces an $878 million budget hole next year. OREGON Portland: A federal court has killed a large Oregon wind energy project over concerns about a declining sage grouse population that needs the area to breed. The Columbia Energy Partners’ transmission line right-of-way would have crossed public lands where sage grouse breed. PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Pennsylvania authorities have charged a dozen people with being part of a crime ring that rented out fraudulently obtained license plates used to evade law enforcement, parking tickets and tolls. Officials say the ring also used a stolen notary seal to help produce fraudulent insurance papers. RHODE ISLAND Middletown: Another Rhode Island town is considering a plastic bag ban after Newport passed one. The Newport Daily News reports that the Middletown Town Council may stop businesses from providing plastic shopping bags to customers. Ban supporters say the bags create litter and harm sea life. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered another hearing for a stripper who was shot on the job in 2008. The workers compensation commission initially ruled that LeAndra Lewis was an independent contractor and not a Boom Boom Room Studio 54 employee. SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: South Dakota lawmakers decided last week against studying a secretive religious sect’s outpost near Pringle. One lawmaker questioned whether polygamy or sex trafficking were taking place. House Speaker Mark Mickelson says it’s up to law enforcement to investigate. TENNESSEE Franklin: The Williamson County School Board has approved eliminating class rank, given its declining importance in college admissions. The Tennessean reports that a survey of 89 colleges last year found that 87% said rank has no effect on student admissions and scholarships. TEXAS Austin: The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would allow home-schooled students to participate in public school sports and other activities. The state’s 350,000 home-schooled students are currently barred from such competition. UTAH Salt Lake City: Two Daggett County jail employees were fired and a jail commander resigned two months after authorities announced a probe of inmate mistreatment allegations. Utah’s Department of Corrections moved 80 inmates out of the jail in February when the investigation was launched. VERMONT Brandon: Construction is almost complete on a 230-foot tunnel that will carry the Neshobe River under Brandon, The Rutland Herald reports. Work on the $2.38 million overflow culvert is scheduled to be finished May 12. VIRGINIA Hampton: An annual survey finds a record-high number of spawning-age female blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, even though the total blue crab population is down 18%. WASHINGTON Seattle: Two Seattle couples accused of hiring people to cut down public trees to improve their views have agreed to pay $440,000 to settle a lawsuit. The city says the unauthorized cutting occurred on a steep slope below the couples’ homes. WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: Marshall University hopes to expand Huntington’s services for babies born addicted to drugs by adding a comprehensive center to follow babies to kindergarten, The Herald Dispatch reports. WISCONSIN Janesville: Federal prosecutors have filed additional weapons charges against a man accused of stealing numerous firearms and sending a threating anti-government manifesto to President Trump. Joseph Jakubowski was the subject of a nationwide manhunt until he was captured while camping in a Wisconsin farm field. WYOMING Green River: Wyoming school board officials have decided to end four Green River sport programs in the face of budget cuts, The Rock Springs Rocket-Miner reports. The affected activities are indoor track and field, spring tennis, golf and cheerleading for the wrestling team.