STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Montgomery: Alabama lawmakers are considering a bill that would give death row inmates less time to file appeals. The goal is to reduce the time between sentencing and execution, which would drop from a maximum of 18 years to 11 years.

ALASKA Kenai: Bright stones lead to bright smiles. That’s what Kenai Rocks is hoping for. The

Peninsula Clarion reports that the group wants to spread joy and fun by randomly hiding painted rocks throughout the Kenai community.

ARIZONA Tucson: Pima County Justice of the Peace Paula Aboud faces ethics charges for allegedly looking at answers to a test during a judge orientation in January by taking an answer key off a desk. She calls it “a prank,” but the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct says it’s a conduct code violation.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Voters in Little Rock rejected a proposed 14-year property tax extension to help pay for school improvements. The special election Tuesday shows 65% of voters opposed extending the tax to 2047.

CALIFORNIA Fremont: Two people were hospitalized and another was arrested after a large brawl broke up a California wedding reception, The East Bay

Times reports. The bride said party crashers who were evicted from the reception fought with guests.

COLORADO Firestone: The National Transportation Safety Board has joined the investigation into a fatal Colorado house explosion. The April 17 blast is blamed on unrefined natural gas flowing from a severed pipeline,

The Longmont Times-Call reports.

CONNECTICUT Harwinton: Connecticut authorities are alerting residents after a coyote attacked a pet dog. The

Republican-American reports that the attack occurred at a Harwinton home Monday night. The dog was treated for injuries.

DELAWARE Wilmington: The New Castle County Council has voted to impose $1,000 fines for persistently vacant homes and commercial buildings. Officials estimate that more than 1,300 vacant and abandoned properties are within unincorporated areas.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Apple has set its sights on taking over the Carnegie Library in Washington’s Mount Vernon Square. The company made a project proposal to a neighborhood advisory commission this week to restore the building as a place for community events.

FLORIDA Bunnell: Authorities say a Florida woman fatally shot her legally blind husband and used mothballs to cover up the smell of his decomposing body, wrapped in a tarp and hidden under a boat in their backyard, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports.

GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia officials say a section of a heavily used Interstate 85 in Atlanta will reopen at the latest by next week. That’s less than two months after a large fire under an I-85 bridge caused the road to collapse.

HAWAII Wailuku: The Wailuku City Council is considering a ban on foam containers, The Maui

News reports. Supporters see the ban as a step toward saving the environment. Opponents say alternatives to the containers cost too much.

IDAHO Twin Falls: The College of Southern Idaho plans to pur- chase a geothermal aquifer that can provide heat to most of its campus, The Times-News reports. The $2.4 million cost will be split between the state and the college.

ILLINOIS Carlyle: High water levels on Carlyle Lake have forced postponement of a high school bass fishing tournament planned next week. The Illinois High School Association said the event will be rescheduled for later this spring.

Lafayette: The Journal and Courier

INDIANA A $200,000 Lafayette statue has become a safety hazard,

reports. One of the blue beams on the “What Lines?” statue protrudes into the walkway.

IOWA Arnolds Park: Upgrades worth $12 million are planned for a historic amusement park on the shore of West Lake Okoboji, The

Sioux City Journal reports.

KANSAS Topeka: Kansas lawmakers rejected a measure to let Sedgwick County decide whether to put slot machines at the Wichita Greyhound Park. Opponents expressed concern that allowing tracks to operate slot machines would break state contracts with casino owners.

KENTUCKY Louisville: Students from across the U.S. are in Louisville for the National Archery in the Schools Program Nationals, through Saturday. The event attracts about 14,000 students from 42 states.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been ordered to give a deposition in a lawsuit arising from landfill contracts following Hurricane Katrina. Nagin is in prison, serving a 10-year sentence on federal corruption charges.

MAINE Orono: An arm of the University of Maine is working on a 10-year push to grow marine jobs in the state. Officials say the $16 million-plus effort will target new investments.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Officials say four Johns Hopkins University undergraduates were hospitalized for apparent opiod overdoses following a fraternity house party. The Delta Phi fraternity has been suspended.

MASSACHUSETTS West Spring

field: A man who kept a 6-foot alligator in his backyard until it was removed by police wants the animal’s remains. The alligator, named Wally, died last month at the Forest Park Zoo, whose officials say they no longer have the remains, westernmassnews.com reports.

MICHIGAN Detroit: Tractortrailers with side guard rails mounted between their tires are less likely to be involved in fatal crashes, an auto safety group says. Federal law requires big trucks to have rear guards but doesn’t require side guards.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: Minnesota’s health commissioner is seeking $5 million in emergency funding to deal with an outbreak of measles and other infectious diseases. Dr. Ed Ehlinger says Minnesota is seeing its largest measles outbreak in nearly 30 years.

MISSISSIPPI Ocean Springs: An anonymous donor wiped away the lunch debt for all students in Mississippi’s Ocean Springs school district. The $760 gift cleared the books for 171 children, The Sun Herald reports.

MISSOURI Springfield: A man was sentenced this week to 2½ years in prison without parole for counterfeiting $100 bills. Stuart Thurber, 56, also was ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution to businesses in Missouri and two other states where the bogus bills were passed.

MONTANA Helena: Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Billings on Friday to campaign for a Republican U.S. House candidate. At stake is the former seat of new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A proposal before Nebaska lawmakers to require microbreweries to go through warehouse distribution was stripped from a larger alcohol bill. Craft brewers said the measure would stifle their industry.

NEVADA Reno: The Washoe County School Board has decided not to punish students with overdue lunch accounts by feeding them lesser, $1 meals. The district has $66,700 in unpaid lunch fees.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Colebrook: A new festival in New Hampshire’s North Country is making its debut on Memorial Day weekend. The Dixville Notch Music, Arts & Crafts Festival on May 27-28 will be held on the 40-acre Mohawk Falls estate.

NEW JERSEY Passaic: A former pastor is celebrating his win to serve a full-term as mayor of Passaic. Hector Lora and his slate of city councilors were victorious Tuesday, NorthJersey.com reports.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Latina political activist Cindy Nava will give Santa Fe Community College’s commencement address Saturday. Nava is working to establish an institute that encourages women of color to run for office.

NEW YORK Plattsburgh: New York’s attorney general says a taxi owner who charged inflated fares of up to $300 to refugees heading across the Canadian border faces $2,500 in penalties. Officials say the fare from Plattsburgh to the border should be $75 or less.

NORTH CAROLINA Winston

Salem: Police were executing a search warrant when a parcel was delivered with 4 pounds of highgrade marijuana, The Winston

Salem Journal reports. Officers confiscated that and eight marijuana plants.

NORTH DAKOTA Jamestown: A rare albino buffalo that drew long lines of visitors to Jamestown has been preserved following her death. With a police escort, White Cloud was shipped back to the National Buffalo Museum, where she lived for nearly two decades, KFGO reports.

OHIO Columbus: Members of Ohio’s growing African immigrant community say they hope a decade-long wait for their own state advocacy board is almost over. Ohio lawmakers created the New African Immigrant Commission in 2008, but it has no members yet.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Prosecutors have filed a seconddegree manslaughter charge against the owner of two dogs that attacked and killed an Oklahoma City woman. Authorities say Antwon Burks allowed his dogs to run wild.

OREGON Salem: A bill in the Oregon legislature to ban a longplanned footbridge for bikers and hikers over a pristine river is causing an uproar. Ban opponents say rich people with property along the river don’t want their view spoiled by “riffraff.”

PENNSYLVANIA Allentown: A former day care worker charged with coaxing 3- and 4-year-old children to use obscenities on camera died last month while awaiting trial. Rashanna Gyles, 25, had unspecified health problems, her attorney tells The (Easton) Express-Times.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Rhode Island Department of Revenue says a plan to cut registration fees for commercial trucks is costing the state $1.1 million more than expected, the

Providence Journal reports.

SOUTH CAROLINA Rock Hill: The Catawba Indian Nation has closed its bingo operation in Rock Hill because of a downturn in sales and competition from the lottery, The Herald reports.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Inmates in South Dakota’s prison system will soon have their own tablet computers. The effort is to help inmates access educational programs and maintain ties to friends and family, The Argus

Leader reports.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Under court order to take another vote, the Tennessee State Board of Education reversed itself and reinstated the license of an exteacher who pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a student in 2007, The Tennessean reports. William Haynes had his criminal record expunged.

TEXAS Austin: The ACLU is warning travelers to Texas about a new law banning sanctuary cities. The ACLU says travelers should anticipate “the possible violation of their constitutional rights” if stopped by police.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A new law requiring Utah bar and restaurant owners to hang a sign saying whether the business is a restaurant or a bar went into effect this week. Only restaurants that don’t serve liquor are exempt from the requirement.

VERMONT Royalton: Royalton residents will vote again June 13 on a plan to merge their school district with those in Bethel and Rochester, The Valley News reports. An earlier merger failed by a 460-203 vote. Another failure could mean a forced merger.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Two river otters that were deemed “nuisances” in Louisiana for raiding crawfish farms are making Virginia their new home, the Rich

mond Times Dispatch reports.

WASHINGTON Seattle: A Seattle nonprofit that converts unused buildings into temporary homeless shelters will have a permanent home at Amazon’s new headquarters building. Mary’s Place Family Shelter will have 65 rooms for more than 200 people each night.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The West Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of felony civil rights charges against a former Marshall University football player accused in a 2015 attack on two men he saw kissing. A majority agreed that lawmakers meant to leave sexual orientation protections out of the state law.

WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin lawmakers have sent Gov. Scott Walker a bill to loosen fish farm regulations so that no permit is needed for discharges to wetlands created for fish farming.

WYOMING Jackson: A 107year-old Wyoming man who lived in a cabin he built by hand has died, The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports. Leonard Ross died May 3 at his Jackson Hole home.