STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: A recently published book by three University of Alabama professors details the challenges of teaching evolution in the state. Many fundamentalist Christians oppose evolution education.
ALASKA Anchorage: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says America’s tallest mountain should keep its new name, Denali, given by the Obama administration in 2015 in a gesture to Alaska Natives. President Trump vowed while campaigning to change the name back to Mount McKinley.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: The retrial of a former Northern Arizona University student in a 2015 fatal shooting is rescheduled for Oct. 10. The initial trial of Steven Jones, 20, ended May 2 with a deadlocked jury, the Arizona Daily Sun reports.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Thousands of state employees will be eligible for merit bonuses of up to 3% next month, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Ventura: A rescue group found dozens of sick and dying pelicans along the Ventura and Santa Barbara coasts, The Ventura County Star reports. Officials say the likely suspect is a naturally occurring toxin in algae.
COLORADO Denver: Federal safety officials awarded $150,000 to a former railroad worker who was fired after reporting track safety issues, KCNC-TV reports. Brandon Fresque was fired hours after informing the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad that there was a problem with tracks in Denver.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: State officials have stocked 24 Connecticut ponds and lakes with some 15,800 channel catfish. It’s a procedure that’s been carried out for 11 straight years.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Delaware State Police have implemented a training program that will allow troopers to carry Naloxone, the potentially life-saving antidote for opioid overdoses.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: District of Columbia officials have launched a website aimed at highlighting how quickly police solve most missing-person cases in the city. The Washington Post reports that the site was created to combat rumors that hundreds of young girls have gone missing or were abducted in Washington.
FLORIDA Cape Canaveral: A weekend launch pad test of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sparked a wildfire. Official said the fire spread to two acres on a small island near the Kennedy Space Center.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Early voting started this week for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District election, which is June 20. Democrat Jon Ossoff faces Republican Karen Handel.
HAWAII Honolulu: A traditional Polynesian voyaging canoe on an around-the-world journey reached a milestone last week by crossing the equator on its way back to Hawaii. Hawaii News Now reports that the Hokulea plans to return June 17.
IDAHO Boise: The Idaho Statesman reports that in the past four months, Zoo Boise has seen three cancer cases, ending with the deaths of two animals. Jack, a sloth bear, had to be euthanized on May 13. Jabari, a lion, died in January. Spot, a meerkat, had a tumor removed from his liver this month and is back at the zoo.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The number of Illinois medical school graduates who stay in the state is plummeting, Crain’s Chicago Business reports. The state has two public medical schools, at Southern Illinois University and the University of Illinois.
INDIANA Bloomington: The city has sued the state for blocking its bid to annex 9,500 acres. The proposed annexation would’ve added about 15,000 people to Bloomington’s current 84,000 population, The (Bloomington) Herald Times reports.
IOWA Jefferson: The Mahanay Bell Tower in Jefferson will soon be ringing for the first time in more than 30 years. KCCI-TV reports that a $440,000 renovation project on the carillon is expected to be finished this week.
KANSAS Wichita: Grain elevators across Kansas are feverishly working to move last year’s harvest out to make room for the new winter wheat crop. Cutting is expected to be in full swing by the second week of June.
KENTUCKY Trapp: The former Trapp Elementary School in Clark County is being transformed into a home for homeless female veterans and their children, The Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: A deadly virus is threatening the Louisiana crawfish industry. LSU agriculture officials say the virus — known as white spot syndrome — was first discovered in southeast Asia but has made its way to state ponds.
MAINE Scarborough: The Department of Veterans Affairs is awarding nearly a half million dollars to pay for a recent renovation of the Maine Veterans’ Homes facility in Scarborough.
MARYLAND Baltimore: Mayor Catherine Pugh says she wants to explore removing Baltimore’s Confederate monuments. The city has monuments to Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Roger Taney, The Baltimore Sun reports.
MASSACHUSETTS Provincetown: Fire officials are assessing the stability of a Provincetown restaurant and neighboring buildings damaged in a weekend fire. The Cape Cod Times reports that the blaze seemed to originate in the ventilation system of the Red Shack.
MICHIGAN Lansing: Michigan officials plan to expand camping options for pet lovers. Beginning in November, the state’s Department of Natural Resources will open some state park cabins and lodges to people traveling with dogs or cats, MLive.com reports.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will remove a gallows-like sculpture because of protests from Native Americans. The critics say it brought back painful memories of the mass hanging of 38 Dakota men in 1862.
MISSISSIPPI Greenwood: A 50-year-old Mississippi police station has undergone a $3.7 million makeover. Greenwood is holding an open house Friday at the building, The Greenwood Commonwealth reports.
MISSOURI Maryville: Northwest Missouri State University officials have approved plans for a more than $15 million athletic center, The Maryville Daily Forum reports. The facility will have a practice turf for football, an indoor track and structures for baseball and softball.
MONTANA Helena: The Montana Department of Transportation’s division of aeronautics is studying the future of three historic aviation beacons. Montana is the only state to operate a system of airway beacons, which allow pilots to fly by sight through the mountains, The Independent Record reports.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: A longtime afterschool program offers nonjudgmental support and homework space for Lincoln students, The Lincoln Journal Star reports. The city’s Board of Education agreed last week to continue providing Lighthouse’s “Get Linked” program to students with out-of-school suspensions.
NEVADA Carson City: Key budget issues are still unresolved as Nevada lawmakers enter the final week of their biennial session. A two-year state spending plan of over $8 billion hangs in the balance.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The boilers behind Concord Steam, founded 80 years ago, will go cold Wednesday night, marking the first time in New Hampshire history that a public heating utility will go out of business, The Concord Monitor reports.
NEW JERSEY Cape May: A great white shark with its own Twitter account was detected last weekend off New Jersey’s Cape May. And Mary Lee was not alone. A male great white named Cisco also was detected nearby, The Press of Atlantic City reports.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: City officials say construction related to a public transit project will be finished in time for the annual Route 66 Summerfest. The festival is set for July 22.
NEW YORK Albany: New York college students can apply for the state’s free tuition plan beginning next week. The initiative is a key priority for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
NORTH CAROLINA Jacksonville: Wildlife officials are considering whether to allow hunters to kill alligators, The Daily News reports. North Carolina last allowed alligator hunting in 1973.
NORTH DAKOTA Mandan: Local leaders hope to create a public art display similar to Art Alley, a popular venue for wedding and graduation photos in neighboring Bismarck, The Bismarck Tribune reports.
OHIO Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum has unveiled improvements for fans. Cleveland.com reports that the museum now has an outdoor beer garden, food trucks and the new All Access Cafe.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A woman who leaped from an Interstate 44 bridge last week after bolting from an Oklahoma Highway Patrol car is hospitalized. The woman had been stopped on suspicion of driving under the influence.
OREGON Bend: Officials are working on settlements with two aviation companies at the city airport, The Bend Bulletin reports. Aero Facilities and Professional Air allege fraud and breach of contract in development and lease agreements.
PENNSYLVANIA Barnesboro: Authorities say a man cutting down a tree was killed when it fell on him. A Cambria County coroner The death was ruled accidental.
RHODE ISLAND Newport: The Newport Opera House Theater and Performing Arts Center is undergoing an $18 million renovation. The 700-seat facility is due to reopen in December to mark its 150th anniversary.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: An alternative certification program is being offered South Carolina college graduates who want to teach but don’t have an education degree. Participants spend a year as an intern and take about 300 hours of online courses. Then they teach three years with a provisional license before getting a state teaching license, The Post and Courier reports.
SOUTH DAKOTA Silver City: Officials in Pennington County and the Black Hills National Forest have reached agreement on speeding up road clearing in the event of a fire evacuation. NewsCenter1 reports that the plan is expected to give emergency responders better access to the Edelweiss Mountain Road when fighting wildfires.
TENNESSEE Cordova: Police say a man who was approached by security officers in the parking lot of a Tennessee church sped off, jumped a curb and drove into a lake Sunday, The Commercial Appeal reports. The man was on top of the vehicle as it sank. His body was later recovered.
TEXAS Rio Grande City: The remains of more than 10 unidentified people were removed from the Starr County Cemetery along the Texas-Mexico border in a project to identify migrants who died and were buried for years without markers. The Brownsville
Herald reports that no one has kept track of the burials.
UTAH Helper: The Humane Society of Utah is offering a $5,000 reward for information about the fatal shooting of a dog in Helper. Police say they’re also investigating the incident. The dog was in its owner’s enclosed back yard when it was shot with a pellet gun last week.
VERMONT Greensboro: A $14 million arts center is officially opening this week in Greensboro. Three days of celebrations are planned for the grand opening of the Highland Center for the Arts. All events are free and open to the public.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts officials are looking for the owners of about 400 items that were lent to the museum over several decades, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Some of the items were borrowed by the museum as far back as 1950, such as a mezzotint print of Mary Ann Wolcott by an unknown artist.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A man who shot and killed a cougar in a state wildlife research trap last year is barred from hunting for two years, The Seattle Times reports. The state’s Humane Society director had urged a permanent ban.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A national Muslim civil rights group plans to open a West Virginia office. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the Council on American-Islamic Relations is looking for an executive director to lead the state branch. The location has not been determined yet.
WISCONSIN Muskego: The Wind Lake chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War wants Muskego officials to mow the grass at Luther Park Cemetery, which has the graves of Civil War veterans, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The city says the site is maintained to preserve native prairie.
WYOMING Laramie: A University of Wyoming physics professor is part of a team of scientists and engineers planning and designing what will become the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth. Michael Pierce will work with four other scientists on a special $25 million instrument on the $1.6 billion telescope.