STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: Children who visit the First White House of the Confederacy in Alabama get a history lesson that critics call distorted. Visitors are told that Confederate President Jefferson Davis led a “heroic resistance” and was held in “genuine affection” by his slaves. Critics say that’s a “whitewashed” version of the past.
ALASKA Fairbanks: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Fairbanks’ failure to meet clean air standards is “serious.” The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that much of the problem comes from woodstoves that heat homes.
ARIZONA Tucson: A Tucsonbased hospital operator and insurer United Healthcare have failed to agree on a new contract. That could force many Northwest Healthcare patients to find new doctors or face out-of-pocket costs.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Arkansas State Medical Board is investigating whether any licensed doctors helped the state Department of Correction obtain the drugs used to execute four inmates last month, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA San Bernardino: Police arrested a man suspected of starting two small vegetation fires Monday in the San Bernardino Mountains not far from Crestline.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Emergency medical technicians and paramedics at UCHealth will soon be equipped with bulletproof vests, The Coloradoan reports. The policy is expected to cost as much as $80,000.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Trinity College officials say some of their students were assaulted last weekend by more than a dozen teenagers who crashed a fraternity event. Police are investigating.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Officials say an ambulance worker was assaulted outside a Wilmington fire station and a second was hurt in a struggle with the assailants, The News Journal reports. The attacks started when one of three people who approached the workers said he was having chest pain.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: American University officials are investigating what they say are racist incidents in which bananas were found hanging from string in the shape of nooses on campus. The bananas were marked with the letters AKA, those of the predominantly black Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority on campus.
FLORIDA Melbourne: Florida authorities are investigating last week’s death of a police dog inside a patrol car parked outside the Brevard County Courthouse. Officials haven’t said how long the dog was in the car on an afternoon when the temperature was 88 degrees.
GEORGIA Columbus: An inmate accused of multiple offenses including driving with a suspended license was found dead in Georgia’s Muscogee County Jail. No foul play is suspected.
HAWAII Honolulu: The Honolulu International Airport has been renamed in honor of the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, KHON-TV reports. Inouye served in the U.S. Senate from 1963 until his death in 2012.
IDAHO Twin Falls: A Twin Falls man has admitted his role in what police say was a staged pizza shop robbery, The Times-News reports. Authorities say Nicholas Anthony Slane was the masked gunman who took $1,800 in cash Feb. 6 from an employee who was in on the crime.
ILLINOIS Springfield: Dozens of University of Illinois-Springfield protesters walked a picket line Tuesday, a day after their union announced a strike. The union represents nearly 170 tenured and tenure-track faculty members.
INDIANA West Lafayette: Purdue University recently adopted an honor pledge created by students that aims to encourage a culture of integrity. The move comes in response to a perceived climate of academic dishonesty on campus, The Lafayette Journal and Courier reports.
IOWA Winterset: A teenager accused in the burning of an Iowa covered bridge featured in the best-selling novel “The Bridges of Madison County” has pleaded not guilty. The trial for Joel Davis, 18, on arson and related charges is scheduled for July 18.
KANSAS Kansas City: The archdiocese covering much of eastern Kansas says it’s severing ties with the Girl Scouts and urging an end to cookie sales, citing philosophical concerns, The Kansas City Star reports.
KENTUCKY Louisville: The Kentucky Derby Museum says it will become the permanent home for items collected by thoroughbred trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has trained four Derby winners.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Two of Louisiana’s largest scientific research vessels will dock in Baton Rouge this month for tours. A three-day “Meet the Fleet” event, May 19-21, will showcase the vessels Pelican, fitted for offshore studies, and the Acadiana, designed for shallow bays and rivers.
MAINE Newry: Maine’s two biggest ski resorts have closed shop for the season. Sunday River and Sugarloaf closed their slopes Monday.
MARYLAND Frostburg: Frostburg Police Chief Royce Douty was bitten on the arm Monday by a disorderly girl he was detaining, The Cumberland Times-News reports. Charges are pending.
MASSACHUSETTS Falmouth: Scientists on Cape Cod have located a pair of right whales that were presumed dead after not being sighted for many years. An aerial survey team found one of them, now a mother and feeding a calf, in the Great South Channel on Sunday.
MICHIGAN Kalamazoo: Hun- dreds of lead water pipes will be removed from Kalamazoo this summer, MLive reports.
MINNESOTA Cloquet: A longtime Cloquet factory that made Diamond matches and toothpicks will close within six months, leaving 85 people without jobs. The business was recently sold.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Standard & Poor’s has downgraded its outlook for Mississippi from stable to negative. The rating agency didn’t cut Mississippi’s debt rating but warned that it could later.
MISSOURI Cabool: A Missouri farmer says more than 30 of his cows were killed when lightning struck his property, The Spring
field News-Leader reports. Dairyman Jared Blackwelder estimates a loss of more than $60,000.
MONTANA Billings: A small Montana community held an early high school graduation ceremony for one student’s mother, who has pancreatic cancer, The Billings Gazette reports. Carol Grant wanted to live long enough to see her daughter, Kelsey, graduate as Terry High School’s valedictorian.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Nebraska prison officials have allowed 73 inmates to avoid submitting DNA samples because the inmates refused, The Omaha World-Herald reports. State law requires all felons to submit a DNA sample. But a 1997 opinion from the state attorney general suggested the law didn’t allow forced collection.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A wave of retirements and high demand for flights have left Nevada short of pilots, KSNV-TV reports.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: Authorities say drug cartels are finding creative ways to get drugs on New Hampshire streets — from fake candy wrapping to hidden vehicle compartments. WMUR-TV reports that cartels also are creating counterfeit prescription pills.
NEW JERSEY Bernards: Remnants of a 600-year-old white oak tree believed to be among the oldest in the nation will become furniture. The trunk and limbs removed from the grounds of New Jersey’s Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church were delivered this week to Pollaro Custom Furniture in Hillside, News 12 reports.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Officials say a fire broke out Monday at a World War II-era Santa Fe building that was part of the “Manhattan” television series set. No injuries were reported. The abandoned building was part of an Army hospital that housed men wounded in World War II.
NEW YORK New York: Every New York City public school will install at least one single-stall restroom by next January. Chancellor Carmen Farina says the new policy will support the privacy needs of transgender students and students with medical conditions and disabilities.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The state Court of Appeals says North Carolina acted legally when it made a deal with a private company to build and operate Interstate 77 toll lanes in the Charlotte area. The deal was challenged by a group that wanted the road widened without adding tolls.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: A jury awarded $3.5 million in damages to a woman who suffered a stroke after a major artery was accidentally severed during surgery at St. Alexius Hospital, The Bismarck Tribune reports. The hospital says it disagrees with the finding and is reviewing its options.
OHIO Columbus: A coalition of conservation groups has filed suit to block fracking in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest. Critics say fracking will pollute the air and water, threatening the public and wildlife.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Oklahoma transportation officials have suspended construction on about a dozen highway projects. Officials cite uncertainty with the state’s budget, The Oklahoman reports. State lawmakers are grappling with an $878 million budget hole.
OREGON Medford: A new Medford ordinance bans growing marijuana in backyards, The Mail Tribune reports. Voters in November approved the ban after some residents objected to the smell of plants growing in their neighborhoods. Residents can still grow indoors or in greenhouses.
PENNSYLVANIA Cambridge Springs: A fire Tuesday destroyed a 132-year-old Pennsylvania inn. The 12 guests and three staff at Riverside: The Inn at Cambridge Springs escaped unharmed. The inn opened in 1885 when the town was a summer destination for wealthy visitors.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A Rhode Island couple wants an exception to state law so they can raise money for charity by selling their prized family heirloom — license plate No. 11. Low-numbered plates now can only be transferred to relatives or go to a lottery to be awarded to someone, The Pawtucket Times reports.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: A South Carolina medical researcher was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for misusing millions of federal grant funds,
The Post and Courier reports. Prosecutors say Dr. Jian-Yun Dong used some of more than $3 million in grants to visit his mistress in China.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: South Dakota farmers trying to get their crops in the ground are dealing with wet and unseasonably cold weather. Parts of the state this week have seen rain, snow and ice. But planting of small grains is still ahead of the average pace. Corn seeding is behind average.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee lawmakers are considering a resolution calling for the body of President James K. Polk to be exhumed from the state Capitol grounds to the Polk home and museum in Columbia. Polk, a former Tennessee governor, died in 1849.
TEXAS Dallas: A Dallas man convicted of online activity linked to the Anonymous hacking network served five days in federal prison for reasons unknown after he was removed from home confinement. Barrett Brown is now back in home confinement and is set for early release May 25 from his five-year sentence.
UTAH Boise: Officials say the person who took an Idaho Fish and Game trailer from the agency’s headquarters dumped GPS wildlife tracking collars during the getaway across two states and left a trail leading to a remote Utah canyon. The trailer, valued at $100,000 with contents, was recovered by Utah authorities on Friday.
VERMONT Barre: Vermont’s Rock of Ages granite manufacturing company has approved two contracts for unionized workers, hours before the old agreements ended. The Times Argus reports that the deals were signed Monday with the Granite Cutters Association and the United Steelworkers of America Local 4.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The deadliest drug in Virginia last year was fentanyl, The Richmond Times
Dispatch reports. Fentanyl-related fatalities reached 618 last year, surpassing deaths related to heroin, 448, and prescription painkillers, 469.
WASHINGTON Seattle: King County voters will decide in August whether to raise the county sales tax to pay for arts, culture and science programs, The Seattle
Times reports. If approved, the “Access for All” measure will raise $67 million a year for more than 300 arts, science and cultural groups.
WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: West Virginia University faculty and student volunteers held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate completion of the Falling Run Greenspace. The Falling Run Trail that opened Sunday has 16 biking and hiking paths connecting the downtown campus to the university’s Organic Research Farm.
WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin lawmakers agreed Tuesday to make cheese the state’s official dairy product. Wisconsin produces more than 3 billion pounds of cheese a year, tops in the U.S.
WYOMING Devils Tower: The 498,000 visitors to Wyoming ’s Devils Tower National Monument spent more than $31 million in communities near the park last year. Devils Tower is the nation’s first national monument.