News from across the USA

ALABAMA Mobile: Alabama lawmakers are being asked to get involved with Mobile’s crawfish boils, a city where it’s traditional for bars to cook crawfish on the street. The Mobile County Health Department has shut down the boils, citing health regulations.

ALASKA Kodiak: New tobacco and chartered sport fishing taxes could be coming Kodiak. The

Kodiak Daily Mirror reports that the island’s Borough Assembly is looking for ways to make up a budget gap, believed to be as much as $1.9 million. ARIZONA Tombstone: Border Patrol agents in Arizona found 67 pounds of marijuana inside a mahogany coffin in a hearse they stopped near Tombstone. Drugsmelling dogs alerted to the pot despite bags of manure put in the casket to try to conceal the marijuana’s odor. ARKANSAS Little Rock: The former chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission says she won’t seek reappointment to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, The Arkansas Dem

ocrat-Gazette reports. Colette Honorable’s term ends June 30. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: The Venice Beach Freak Show says it’s closing over a lease dispute, The

Los Angeles Times reports. The boardwalk attraction put on a six-hour performance last weekend to serve as a protest, farewell and fundraiser. COLORADO Englewood: The country’s largest indoor rockclimbing park will open later this year in Colorado, The Denver Post reports. Earth Treks also has climbing facilities in Virginia and Maryland. CONNECTICUT Hartford: Union leaders point to a spike during 2015 in work-related deaths in Connecticut. Forty-four people in the state lost their lives that year, up from 35 in 2014. DELAWARE Dover: Gov. John Carney is signing legislation authorizing the use of “prizelinked” savings accounts. Under the program, a savings deposit makes the entrant eligible for a prize. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Three Washington-area police officers who died in the line of duty are having their names added to National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. WTOP-FM reports that 394 names are being added before National Police Week, which starts May 14. FLORIDA Coral Gables: A Coral Gables neighborhood is plagued by peacocks, and residents are divided over how to deal with them, The Miami Herald reports. Miami-Dade County is considered a bird sanctuary, and county law restricts removing peafowl. GEORGIA Brunswick: Safe Harbor has opened a new shelter for children in Brunswick, The

Brunswick News reports. The Georgia city’s downtown center took 10 months to build. HAWAII Lihue: The Kauai Police Department is getting new Ford Explorers as patrol cars, The

Garden Island reports. Each new vehicle costs between $50,000 and $55,000. IDAHO Stanley: A group of stakeholders in Sawtooth Valley has unveiled a plan to thin thousands of acres of Idaho forest. The goal is to cut down on wildfires in the region, The Times

News reports. ILLINOIS Naperville: Forest preserve officials plan to release 9,000 mussels into the DuPage River in the hopes of bolstering the existing population and keeping the waterway clean, The Na-

perville Sun reports. Mussels filter out such things as bacteria and algae. INDIANA Muncie: A year after authorities seized more than 450 silver bars from the property of James Reynolds, the assets have been liquidated and the $345,000 raised has been divided, The Star

Press reports. Court documents show that Reynolds was suspected of operating a marijuana distribution empire. IOWA Davenport: A longtime Dubuque fixture is leaving the Mississippi River for the Ohio River. The Spirit of Dubuque paddleboat is moving to Cincinnati, the Telegraph Herald reports. KANSAS Wichita: Newman University, a private Catholic school in Wichita, is planning to offer a support group for its LGBTQ students in response to a growing diversity on campus, The

Wichita Eagle reports. KENTUCKY Bowling Green: For the next year and a half, the public won’t be able to tour the Kentucky plant that manufactures Corvettes. The Bowling Green Daily News reports that tours will shut down after June 16. LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The Louisiana chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers says the state’s roads and bridges are “embarrassing,” The Advocate reports. MAINE Portland: Maine officials say tick-borne infections are on the rise in the state. And officials say the trend isn’t limited to Lyme disease. Officials encourage daily tick checks. MARYLAND Annapolis: A group of Maryland teenagers returning from an outdoor field trip to Washington went to hospitals last week complaining of symptoms related to overheating. Complaints included dizziness and nausea.

MASSACHUSETTS Northamp

ton: Police in Northampton are warning of a “very dangerous batch” of heroin after a rash of overdoses. Officials tell the Boston

Globe that naloxone was used to revive the victims. MICHIGAN Lansing: Michigan officials say a recent outbreak of an invasive virus may have killed tens of thousands of fish in Lake St. Clair. The state Department of Natural Resources is investigating what triggered the outbreak. MINNESOTA Northfield: Hundreds of students packed an administration building at St. Olaf College to protest recent racist incidents at the Lutheran liberal arts school. MISSISSIPPI Harrison County: A private Christian university in Mississippi broke ground this week on the state’s second pharmacy program, The Sun Herald reports. William Carey University is expected to open its program in July 2018. MISSOURI Rolla: The new president of the four-campus University of Missouri System says faculty will be added despite reduced budgets, The Columbia

Daily Tribune reports. Instead, the system needs to cut up to 12% across its operations to free resources for faculty, research and student support. MONTANA Bozeman: Montana game wardens are investigating the poaching of 37 snow geese. The birds were found last week near Canyon Ferry Reservoir. NEBRASKA Omaha: The labor union representing public school teachers in Nebraska is advancing “a culture of social justice,”

The Omaha World-Herald reports. The plan calls for more diversity in teacher recruitment, training teachers in “cultural proficiency” and promoting laws that advance human and civil rights. NEVADA Carson City: A coalition of casino owners and their employees’ unions are trying to force pharmaceutical firms to make refunds if insulin prices surpass inflation. But it’s unclear whether such a measure would survive legal challenges, even if Nevada lawmakers pass it.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Hampton

Falls: The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has scheduled a bridge replacement project to start May 15 over the Hampton Falls River. A section of Route 84 will be closed for six weeks. NEW JERSEY Edison: New Jersey police are looking for a thief who stole the backpack of a man who leaped onto train tracks to help rescue a woman. The woman had fainted and fell on the tracks. Anil Vannavalli carried her to safety, but his backpack carrying a laptop, headphones and about $200 was taken. NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Envi- ronmentalists are criticizing plans to repeat a backcountry trail race after a runner was attacked by a bear last year. The 50-mile race is set for May 20 at a National Park Service preserve in New Mexico. NEW YORK New York: New York City has launched a new ferry service with a Rockaway, Queens route. The area was given priority because residents there have some of the city’s longest commutes. The ferry will get a South Brooklyn route on June 1. NORTH CAROLINA Davidson: Davidson College plans to turn a former mill into a center for entrepreneurs and innovation,

The Charlotte Observer reports. Workers have gutted the 1920sera mill building, and interior reconstruction is expected to start this summer. NORTH DAKOTA West Fargo: The West Fargo school district is investigating mysterious bites at L.E. Berger Elementary School. Officials say a kitchen staff member and a student were bitten by “something.” Parents have been notified, KFGO-AM reports. OHIO Toledo: Ohio’s health department has created a list of homes that have serious lead paint problems. Health regulators say the registry will help inform renters and home buyers. OKLAHOMA Shawnee: Ten people in Oklahoma are charged with drug-related offenses after a marijuana cigarette was found in a child’s Easter basket. The discovery at a school led police to a home where marijuana was growing, The Shawnee News-Star reports. OREGON Astoria: The Coast Guard is expanding its Oregon operations, selecting Astoria as the new home for two fast-response cutters, The Daily Astor

ian reports. The new boats will arrive in 2021. PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: Duquesne University has made former Superior Court Judge Maureen Lally- Green its first female law school dean. LallyGreen was a law professor at Duquesne from 1983 to 1998 before becoming a judge. RHODE ISLAND Providence: The nation’s first offshore wind farm is powering more of Rhode Island, saving Block Island Power Co. nearly a million gallons of diesel fuel annually. Deepwater Wind’s five turbines began generating power for the mainland grid in December. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: South Carolina’s capital city is considering train quiet zones, The

State reports. Columbia has about two dozen trains each day that are required to sound their horns for 15 to 20 seconds as they approach street crossings. SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A woman is suing a South Dakota ranch after being mauled by a buffalo in 2014 while driving by on her motorcycle. Marisol Heidrich claims negligence by Mickelson Ranch, The Rapid City

Journal reports. The ranch owners deny any negligence. TENNESSEE Knoxville: The Tennessee Valley Authority suppressed some negative findings about the work environment at one of its nuclear plants, The

Knoxville News Sentinel reports. A consultant hired by the utility’s inspector general was told that employees feared retaliation for raising safety concerns. TEXAS San Antonio: Commanders at the Brooke Army Medical Center shut more than half of the hospital’s 28 operating rooms and curtailed elective surgeries because of a shortage of properly sterilized instruments, The San

Antonio Express-News reports. The facility found 73 cases of improperly sterilized instruments last month. UTAH Salt Lake City: The Utah Department of Transportation plans to build a $5 million overpass for wildlife along one of the state’s deadliest stretches of road for big game, The Salt Lake Tri

bune reports. Officials say cars traveling on a 13-mile stretch of Interstate 80 near Parleys Summit have killed 122 mule deer, 13 moose, four elk and three mountain lions in the past two years. VERMONT Underhill: A Vermont residential addiction treatment center that filed for bankruptcy is seeking to auction off assets at its site in Underhill,

The Burlington Free Press reports. The Maple Leaf Treatment Center trustee filed notice to sell furniture and other assets starting May 18. VIRGINIA Richmond: Gov. Terry McAuliffe is in Mexico this week to drum up business for Virginia. McAuliffe has been a big booster of international trade while in office. WASHINGTON Goldendale: A $1.5 million renovation will begin next month at Goldendale Observatory State Park. But the Yakima

Herald-Republic says the observatory was dropped late last year from a list of Dark Sky Parks. There are only 33 such parks in the country. WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: A new video board measuring 37 feet high by 97 feet long is planned for installation this summer at West Virginia University’s Milan Puskar Stadium, in time for the fall college football season. WISCONSIN Janesville: The Janesville Fire Department has upgraded its technology and equipment to better help overweight patients. The Janesville

Gazette reports that local ambulances are equipped with powerassisted stretchers that lower and lift. WYOMING Casper: A hiring freeze is in effect in Wyoming for state agencies, The Casper Star

Tribune reports. The only exceptions are the University of Wyoming and the state Department of Corrections.