STATE BY STATE:
NEWS FROM AROUND THE NATION,
ALABAMA Columbiana: Authorities say an Alabama woman is charged with stealing at least $38,000 by portraying herself as a terminal cancer patient in online fundraising schemes. Jennifer Flynn Cataldo is charged with theft by deception in drives to solicit money for medical bills and a family trip to Disney.
ALASKA Juneau: Douglas Island Pink and Chum salmon hatchery honored its founder’s wishes by adding two totem poles, The Juneau Empire reports. The poles honor the raven and eagle clans of the Tlingit. The poles were part of founder Ladd Macaulay’s vision for the hatchery 25 years ago. He died in a 2000 car crash.
ARIZONA Phoenix: With musicians performing on two stages next to each other on either side of the border, a May 20 concert at the Douglas Port of Entry will bring a different kind of attention to the area. The fourth annual free “Concert Without Borders,” features Tin Can Tourists and Dan Simonis and the West Texas Millionaires as well as international guitarist Dieter Hennings.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Police charged three men with stealing an alligator from a downtown Little Rock nature center. Officers found the three-foot alligator beneath a seat in the suspects’ car. A shotgun taken in the burglary was also recovered.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Biologists are trying to figure out why hundreds of leopard sharks are dying in the San Francisco Bay. Researchers tell the San Francisco Chronicle that huge numbers of dead sharks have been found since mid-March along the shorelines of Redwood City, Foster City, Alameda, Hayward, Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. Experts believe the sharks are picking up toxins in stagnant saltwater.
COLORADO Denver: State records show Colorado has only three people assigned to check on the safety of pipelines running from about 54,000 active oil and gas wells, a task that came under scrutiny after a leaking pipeline was blamed for a fatal house explosion. The Denver Post reports that since 2016, an inspector has checked about 400 of those pipelines, and an engineer has audited company inspection records for lines at about 2,800 wells.
CONNECTICUT Waterbury: The suspension of more than 150 Wilby High School students for dress code violations has brought criticism to the Waterbury district of predominantly Hispanic and black students. Violations included wearing hoodies and forbidden colors. Activists say the suspensions reflect deeper issues.
DELAWARE Dover: Deputy police chief Marvin Mailey Jr. is now Dover’s police chief, nearly four months after taking over day-to-day operations. Mailey’s predecessor, Paul Bernat, stepped down in January.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: American University is providing campus police officers to protect the student body president and her family. Taylor Dumpson is being harassed with racist taunts. She’s the first black woman to be elected as student body president.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Florida lawmakers have voted to rebury the bodies of children whose remains were found on the site of a now-shuttered reform school. Nearly 100 boys died between 1900 and 1973 at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys near Marianna.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Prosecutors say a federal inmate in Atlanta and his fiancée ran an “inmate taxi service.” Deldrick Jackson and Kelly Bass are accused of helping inmates escape, taking them around town to restaurants and hotels and returning them to prison, sometimes with contraband, in exchange for money.
HAWAII Honolulu: Big Island Dairy has been fined $25,000 for illegal dumping of animal wastewater into local water supplies.
IDAHO Boise: The Forest Service is proposing to log 70 million board feet of timber over the next two years and replant more than 6,000 acres damaged in the 2016 Pioneer Fire with mostly ponderosa pine.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Eight maximum security inmates at Chicago’s Cook County Jail are charged with aggravated arson for allegedly setting fire to their uniforms last month. The special uniforms denote inmates who engage in sexual misconduct.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The Department of Veterans Affairs has reached an agreement with an Indianapolis cemetery to spare nearly 15 acres of oldgrowth forest. Under the deal, Crown Hill Cemetery will move the location for cremated remains of military veterans to an adjacent parcel.
IOWA Cresco: A small Iowa bridge collapsed last week after a semitrailer weighing more than 10 times the bridge’s weight limit drove across it. Officials say the Winneshiek County-owned span had a weight limit of three tons.
KANSAS Topeka: The Kansas Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to the state-owned Kansas Crossing ’s casino that opened March 31. Two Wichita entrepreneurs who proposed a larger casino in Cherokee County objected to the complex near Pittsburg.
KENTUCKY Somerset: Kentucky congressman Hal Rogers says the budget bill passed by Congress last week bars completion of a Corps of Engineers study on using Lake Cumberland as a water source, The Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Six cities are among users of the lake’s water free of charge, unlike users of other Corps lakes.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana Chief Justice Bernette Johnson thinks an 18-year prison sentence is too harsh for having 18 grams of marijuana, and she scolded her colleagues last week. The court’s majority said there was evidence that the defendant packaged the pot for distribution, not his own use.
MAINE Sanford: Construction workers in Sanford found human bones and the remains of a Victorian-era coffin in an area that was converted from a cemetery into a school playground in the 1930s, The Portland Press Herald reports.
MARYLAND Baltimore: The Coast Guard says someone is shining lasers into the eyes of ship pilots on the Chesapeake Bay. Seven nighttime incidents were reported last week.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A proposed Boston skyscraper is threatening to throw a shadow on two parks. But the tower’s planners say parts of Boston Common and the Public Garden would be shaded for only a short while during certain times of the year.
MICHIGAN Lowell Township: Prosecutors have identified a suspect in a fire that killed 13 horses at the Barn for Equine Learning. The horses were used as therapy for children and young adults with special needs.
MINNESOTA Belle Plaine: A veterans’ memorial park will soon include a satanic monument, an unintended consequence of a free speech debate in Belle Plaine. The city is allowing the monument after the Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened to sue.
MISSISSIPPI Hattiesburg: The Hattiesburg Zoo has a onepound newborn — an African antelope called a blue duiker. The zoo is holding a Facebook poll for fans to choose a name.
MISSOURI Columbia: The University of Missouri is expecting its smallest class of incoming freshmen in nearly two decades at its Columbia campus. The school is projecting about 4,000 freshmen will enroll in August, a 14% drop from last year.
MONTANA Hamilton: A snowy winter and a wet spring are making it hard to conduct prescribed burns, federal forest managers said. The Bitterroot National Forest hoped to burn about 3 square miles this spring, the Missoulian reports.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: This year’s Free Fishing and Park Entry Day is scheduled for May 20. People may enjoy a Saturday of fishing or Nebraska state park activities without the need to obtain fishing or park entry permits.
NEVADA Incline Village: Authorities say a Nevada sheriff ’s deputy accidentally shot a mother bear who was found with her three cubs in a neighborhood near Lake Tahoe. The Washoe County Sheriff ’s office said the deputy intended to shoot a rubber round to scare the bear away but fired off a live round instead.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Rochester: The 142-year-old Rochester Fair is shutting down. Organizers cite mounting debt and lower attendance for the annual event.
NEW JERSEY Jersey City: Former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini is resurrecting her career as a burlesque dancer on Thursday to raise money for the city’s Kennedy Dancers. Beldini, in her early 80s, will take the stage as Hope Diamond for the first time in more than 40 years, The Jersey Journal reports.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Authorities say they’ve arrested Paul Garcia, the second inmate who went missing Friday. Garcia, 25, was arrested in Los Lunas, about 45 miles south of the Sandoval County Detention Center.
NEW YORK Albany: Gov. Andrew Cuomo says spooky sounds keep him awake at night at the New York governor’s mansion. Cuomo usually stays at his family home in Westchester.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Within hours of announcing its sale last week to makers of Budweiser, the state’s Wicked Weed beer lost its voting rights in a craft beer guild and was exiled from some stores and restaurants.
NORTH DAKOTA Ashley: The Ashley Jewish Homesteaders Cemetery rededication ceremony will be held May 21, the Bismarck Tribune reports. The cemetery was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
OHIO Lorain: Police say a man was talking on a cellphone when he was hit and killed by a train in Lorain. The train’s engineer sounded a horn and applied emergency brakes but wasn’t able to stop in time.
OKLAHOMA Hunter: Two small earthquakes struck in northern Oklahoma on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. The agency recorded a magnitude-3.0 quake near Hunter and a magnitude-2.1 quake near Meno.
OREGON Portland: Taxes col- lected from Oregon’s legal marijuana sales have been a bright spot as lawmakers try to fill a $1.6 billion budget deficit. KGW-TV reports that the state has brought in almost $75 million in tax revenue since 2016.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Workers in Philadelphia have excavated more than 200-yearold water mains made of wood.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Providence City Council has passed an ordinance allowing police to confiscate and destroy recreational vehicles driven illegally, WPRI-TV reports. The move comes after dozens of riders tore through Riverside Park on Easter Sunday, causing nearly $20,000 in damage.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Riverbanks Zoo officials euthanized an elephant after the animal fell and was unable to get up. Penny was one of three African elephants at the zoo.
SOUTH DAKOTA Mitchell: The city’s new veterans park will add a wall honoring those who were killed in action. The Daily Republic reports the 6-by-5-foot wall is expected to cost $11,000.
TENNESSEE Nashville: A federal judge granted class-action status to a lawsuit that accuses Tennessee of systematically denying prisoners treatment for hepatitis C. The contagious liver disease is spread through contact with the blood of an infected person.
TEXAS Austin: Texas lawmakers have approved calling for a convention of states to amend the U.S. Constitution and impose such things as a federal balanced budget requirement. Ten other states have passed similar measures.
UTAH Logan: Utah State University’s business school has received two donations totaling $50 million. The money from the Huntsman Foundation and the Charles Koch Foundation will allow the Huntsman School of Business to create six faculty positions and expand scholarships.
VERMONT Bennington: A group of investors has presented a $50 million redevelopment plan for downtown Bennington. Several new or renovated buildings already have committed tenants, The Bennington Banner reports.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Virginia’s strawberry growers are optimistic about their crops this season. State agriculture officials report a bumper crop of strawberries, which generate about $9 million in revenue each year for growers.
WASHINGTON Tumwater: City officials say they haven’t been able to make much progress on a growing trash pile at a foreclosed home that’s been on a hazardous sites list since 2013.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A lawsuit filed by two former West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources employees who said they faced retaliation for whistleblowing has been settled. The lawsuit alleged Susan Perry and Jennifer Taylor were fired after raising issues with the handling of bids.
WISCONSIN Appleton: Boaters traveling from Green Bay to Lake Winnebago are facing obstacles because of an invasive fish called the round goby. Officials say the fish could eventually infect 17% of the state’s inland waters if it gets further over locks into the Lake Winnebago system.
WYOMING Casper: State officials say they can’t precisely measure prescription painkiller abuse in Wyoming because of inconsistent and incomplete record-keeping, The Casper StarTribune reports. Officials say records don’t always identify the specific drug involved.