STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Flat Rock: A traffic stop in DeKalb County this month yielded methamphetamine, Ecstasy and Xanax, as well as some drug paraphernalia, The Gadsden Times reports. One man was arrested.
ALASKA Wasilla: A group of Twindley Bridge Charter School students who took a class to become certified baristas have started a drive-thru coffee shop, KTUU reports.
ARIZONA Yarnell: Yavapai County authorities say a bomb squad detonated 25 sticks of dynamite that were found by hikers in a locked box. The Sheriff ’s Office says the dynamite’s origin isn’t known.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Gov. Asa Hutchinson is requesting up to $5 million in rental assistance for Arkansas residents who were forced from their homes due to recent floods.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: Five people were hospitalized after eating nacho cheese from a gas station, The Sacramento Bee reports. Officials say the five botulism illnesses were linked to Valley Oak Food and Fuel in Walnut Grove.
COLORADO Denver: The Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit for construction of the Chimney Hollow Reservoir. Work on the $400 million project could start in early 2019.
CONNECTICUT Branford: A pedestrian was killed in Connecticut after being struck by an Amtrak train. The accident occurred last week near a stop in Branford, The Hartford Courant reports.
DELAWARE Milton: The ACLU of Delaware is challenging the town of Milton’s political sign rules. Resdent Penny Nickerson was told to take down her front yard signs that read “Love Trumps Hate” and “No Wall No Ban” after the 2016 election.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Howard University officials are investigating a video that appears to show campus police dumping a woman from a wheelchair outside the university’s hospital.
FLORIDA Big Pine Key: Authorities say a woman living illegally in a vacant Florida house answered the door naked when a sheriff ’s deputy stopped to investigate. Feliciamae Farrington is charged with trespassing and resisting arrest.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A transgender man who won a Georgia legal battle to get a male name is dead at age 25. The LGBT nonprofit Lambda Legal says Rowan Feldhaus died last week after complications from surgery.
HAWAII Honolulu: Kahala Elementary School was ordered closed one day last week after demolition of a nearby house released a noxious chemical odor. No one was hospitalized, but 17 students and three adults were examined after complaining of headaches, nausea and dizziness.
IDAHO Boise: Cleanup efforts at an Idaho nuclear waste landfill are on hold while workers try to figure out what caused a collapse that sent an excavator into a pit. No radiation was released.
ILLINOIS Urbana: A University of Illinois study weighs in on the debate about the origins of life on Earth. Researchers provide evidence for a “metabolism-first” model of creation, in contrast to the theory suggesting that RNA molecules jump-started life.
INDIANA Bloomingdale: An Indiana covered bridge was damaged when a large vehicle drove onto the historic, 156-year-old span. The Parke County Sheriff ’s Office says some of the Jackson Covered Bridge’s support beams were damaged, The (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star reports.
IOWA Muscatine: Embattled Muscatine Mayor Diana Broderson will get a hearing this week in her appeal of the City Council’s decision to remove her from office. The council says Broderson contacted city staff without the city administrator’s OK, a code violation.
KANSAS Kansas City: The Kansas Prisoner Review Board has been asked by several people to keep a man called the Wichita Holiday Inn sniper behind bars. Michael Soles is eligible for parole in July, The Wichita Eagle reports.
KENTUCKY Bowling Green: Warren County officials have installed warning flags at two parks to notify kayakers and canoers about water conditions, The Daily News reports.
LOUISIANA Lake Charles: A civilian Fort Polk Army base employee has admitted receiving thousands of dollars from a contracting company that performed work on the base. Officials say Lucy Ransom pleaded guilty to bribery.
MAINE Phippsburg: Maine wildlife authorities are trying to protect a pair of vulnerable bird populations at Popham Beach State Park, home to piping plovers and least terns. MARYLAND La Plata: The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission has approved the first company in the state to grow marijuana. The Baltimore Sun reports the panel approved the license for ForwardGro last week.
MASSACHUSETTS Taunton: A bearded dragon lizard was turned over to animal control after a drunken driving suspect revealed she had it stuffed in her bra. Taunton police say the woman had a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.
MICHIGAN Detroit: Detroit is cracking down on people who owe back income taxes and live or work at certain downtown or Midtown properties, the Detroit Free Press reports.
MINNESOTA Wadena: A hungry deer was probably looking for a snack when it wandered through the garden center into the Wade-
na Walmart store last week. But it bumped into customer Tom Grasswick, who tackled it onto a pallet of dog food. Grasswick and others managed to get the deer outside and set it free.
MISSISSIPPI Brandon: A former employee at Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield was sentenced to 20 years in prison for breaking a patient’s jaw by punching him in the face. James Sorrell will have to serve at least half of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
MISSOURI St. Louis: St. Louis Treasurer Tishaura Jones has launched a GoFundMe campaign to pay for removal of the Confederate Memorial at Forest Park. The 103-year-old granite monument weighs 40 tons, so removal will be expensive.
MONTANA Butte: A federal jury awarded $31,000 in damages to a Bozeman woman who said her landlord required a $1,000 deposit to keep her service dog. The jury concluded that Jaclyn Katz, owner of Services Realty LLC, violated the Fair Housing Act.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: City residents celebrated the sixth annual Give to Lincoln Day last week, donating money to help local nonprofits. The Lincoln Community Foundation, host of the online event, put up $350,000 to match funds given by various supporters, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A longdelayed multibillion-dollar casino-resort project on the Las Vegas Strip that would cater to Chinese tourism is pushing its opening date back another year. The proposed $4 billion, 3,000room Resorts World Las Vegas will open in 2020 after a design overhaul.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Dover: The owner and manager of a New Hampshire apartment complex are accused of housing discrimination. WMUR-TV reports that White Cliffs at Dover officials limited rental options at the 192-unit complex if applicants had young children.
NEW JERSEY Manchester: An overturned dump truck spilled its load of stones on top of a car, and people had to dig out the driver when the car’s roof collapsed. Police in Manchester Township said 24-year-old Andrea Penna was trapped, but a passenger got out on her own.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains plans to close three New Mexico clinics, The Santa Fe
New Mexican reports. The closings in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Farmington, likely in September, are part of larger consolidation to keep the organization solvent.
NEW YORK Yaphank: New York’s attorney general has reached an anti-discrimination deal with a predominantly German-American housing enclave on Long Island. Eric Schneiderman says the German American Settlement League will no longer limit membership and home ownership to people of German descent.
NORTH CAROLINA Carova Beach: The Navy is investigating after compacted trash disks similar to those made on its ships washed up on beaches on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the Virginian-Pilot reports.
NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: Altru Health System’s Grand Forks hospital is seeking investors to help keep the facility afloat, WDAZ-TV reports. The hospital hopes to sell about $115 million in bonds.
OHIO Akron: A medical examiner says the two adults and five children found dead after an Akron house fire died from smoke inhalation. Authorities haven’t determined the cause of the blaze.
OKLAHOMA Cushing: The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says five prison guards were injured when they were attacked by inmates at the Cimarron Correctional Facility. No inmates were injured.
OREGON Eugene: The city is considering an alcohol ban at all of its parks, The Register-Guard reports. Eugene already bans alcohol at more than 20 city parks.
PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: A former Catholic church in Pittsburgh that was converted into a bar some 15 years ago is about to come full circle and be a church again. Orchard Hill Church bought the former Altar Bar last year for $800,000, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Rhode Island will finish the fiscal year will a smaller surplus than expected, WPRI-TV reports. The state budget officer anticipates a $14 million surplus, well short of the $59 million projected earlier.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: More than 1,000 people have signed a petition to rename Wade Hampton High School in South Carolina’s Greenville County. Hampton was a slaveholder and Confederate cavalry commander during the Civil War.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: The South Dakota Supreme Court has upheld law enforcement’s authority to perform a warrantless search following a citizen’s arrest by a store security officer. A police officer who searched the purse of a woman accused of shoplifting found a glass pipe that tested positive for methamphetamine.
TENNESSEE Nashville: A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring Rutherford County from enforcing a policy that allows young children accused of minor infractions to be locked up until a hearing. The ruling stems from a suit filed by the parents of elementary school students who were arrested after a bullying incident.
TEXAS Galveston: Changes to the commercial license program and more freshwater inflows have led to some of the best blue crab catches in Texas since crab numbers started declining in Galveston Bay in the late 1980s, The Galveston County Daily News reports.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Officials say a driver’s error caused a Salt Lake City bus to roll down a hill without her earlier this month. The driver stopped because the engine seemed to be overheating and applied electronic and air brakes, but forgot to apply manual brakes when she got off. A passenger stopped the rolling bus.
VERMONT Rutland: The Rutland Board of Aldermen wants to make the Vermont city’s charter gender neutral. The city attorney was asked last week to replace “he” terms with “they” or “he/ she,” The Rutland Herald reports. Alderman Thomas DePoy calls the effort “silly” and “a waste of time.”
VIRGINIA Newport News: Virginians will be able to fish without a license for a few days next month. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is encouraging families to enjoy the state’s natural resources with free rod-and-reel recreational fishing on June 2, 3 and 4. Size and catch limits still apply.
WASHINGTON Everett: The Everett Clinic has paid a group of its former doctors more than $33 million in a dispute about its sale, The Daily Herald reports. Thirtyone doctors claimed that the clinic owed them payment as shareholders after DaVita Healthcare purchased the medical group last year.
WEST VIRGINIA South Charleston: West Virginia wildlife officials say hunters killed 11,539 turkeys this spring. That’s up 11% from last year. The Division of Natural Resources says it’s the largest harvest since 2006.
WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel wants a federal appeals court to reinstate a law that allows pregnant women suspected of drug abuse to be detained for treatment. A lower court struck down the so-called “Cocaine Mom” law.
WYOMING Casper: A landowners’ group wants Wyoming regulators to address future cleanup of ponds that hold wastewater from older oil and gas operations, The Casper Star-Tribune reports.