News from across the USA

ALABAMA Gadsden: A woman faces drug and child endangerment charges after police discovered marijuana and other drugs were being smoked in the same room where her baby was kept in a playpen, Al.com reports. ALASKA Anchorage: Military officials this week resumed a mission to the Colony Glacier in Anchorage where an Air Force plane crashed 65 years ago, killing 52 service members on board. Alaska Public Media reports that the remains were buried in snow and ice for years until an Alaska National Guard crew spotted the wreckage in 2012. ARIZONA Flagstaff: Officials have taken an indirect approach to battle a lightning-caused wildfire on Kendrick Mountain northwest of Flagstaff. The terrain is too steep and tangled with dead and downed trees for a direct assault. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Police say a man took $13 in a Little Rock gas station robbery but slipped in the parking lot and left behind what appeared to be a diamond-studded golden earring. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the earring could be valuable, or a fake. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: About 125 University High School students in Los Angeles may have to retake college admission tests after their answer sheets were lost. ACT Inc., which provides the tests, says a package with the answer sheets from the April 8 test hasn’t arrived. ACT, the test center and FedEx are trying to locate the missing package. COLORADO Denver: The Army blames pilot error for the 2015 crash of a Black Hawk helicopter in Colorado that injured four crew members and destroyed the $7 million aircraft. The Fort Carson-based UH-60L crashed on a training flight. CONNECTICUT Southington: A man faces an animal cruelty charge after witnesses say he intentionally ran over a family of geese. Two goslings were killed, and one had to be euthanized. DELAWARE Dover: Hundreds of people turned out for a fundraiser last weekend for the Delaware State Police. The “Back the Blue” event raised money for the Cheswold-based Delaware State Troopers Association, The News

Journal of Wilmington reports. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Georgetown University has launched a fellowship aimed at identifying the next generation of police leaders, The Washington

Post reports. The two-year program began this week with 19 participants from a select group of rookie officers and civilian workers. FLORIDA Tallahassee: Florida Gov. Rick Scott set a modern-day record for budget vetoes last week, cutting nearly $11.9 billion in spending. GEORGIA Atlanta: The Georgia Supreme Court says a man who was severely beaten while leaving Six Flags Over Georgia a decade ago can collect $35 million in damages from the amusement park and his attackers. The man’s lawyers say he suffered permanent brain damage. HAWAII Wailuku: Five Maui elementary schools and Molokai High and Intermediate School will serve free breakfast and lunch to children 18 and younger as part of the federal Seamless Summer Option program, The

Maui News reports. IDAHO Meridian: A woman says she discovered a Nazi explosive as she helped her parents clean out their shed in Meridian. The Idaho

Statesman reports that a bomb squad secured the shell last week, and it was safely detonated. ILLINOIS Chicago: The city will dedicate a nine-story mural Thursday to blues music legend Muddy Waters before Chicago’s annual blues festival this weekend.

INDIANA Bloom

ington: Indiana hopes to assume control of the Interstate 69 extension project three years after hiring a private developer for it. The takeover idea comes with the project’s fourth delayed completion date announced this week. Gov. Eric Holcomb says the project remains a priority. IOWA Burlington: The City Council has approved the sale of a historic but long vacant school to a company that intends to turn the building into apartments, The

Hawk Eye reports. KANSAS Wichita: The City Council has given initial approval to reducing marijuana penalties. The changes include a $50 fine for first-time offenders. A second conviction would bring a fine not to exceed $2,500 and a year in jail, The Wichita Eagle reports. KENTUCKY Louisville: A federal judge sentenced a Louisville doctor to four years in prison for unlawful distribution of painkillers and fraudulently billing Medicaid. But George Kudmani was acquitted of causing two patients’ deaths. LOUISIANA New Orleans: The newest permanent exhibit at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans tells the story of the homefront from the 1920s to the development of the atomic bomb. Exhibits include videotaped histories from Pearl Harbor attack survivors. MAINE Westbrook: Police say vandalism at a Halal market was a drunken incident, not a hate crime. The Portland Press Herald reports that the suspect is charged with aggravated criminal mischief after throwing a can of alcohol through a window at the Tigris Market, which sells Middle Eastern food and rugs. MARYLAND Salisbury: The National Arts Festival will be held in Salisbury beginning in September 2018, Mayor Jake Day announced this week. The annual three-day free event will make its home in the Eastern Shore town through 2020. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: State lawmakers are considering a ban on the use of Native American mascots in public schools. The push comes after Tewksbury rebuffed calls to change its Redmen mascot. MICHIGAN Rochester Hills: Oakland University in suburban Detroit has approved a 3.74% tuition increase for the 2017-18 school year, The Detroit News reports. MINNESOTA Apple Valley: A high school security guard is on leave following an altercation involving a Muslim student who says he put her in handcuffs and removed her headscarf, The Star Tribune reports. MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Mississippi Power is delaying proposals on how customers should pay for a new power plant, even as the cost of the facility crosses $7.5 billion. The utility has pushed back the completion date for its Kemper County plant to June 30. MISSOURI Branson: Two 18year-olds are accused of tying a kitten to a car’s bumper and dragging it to its death, then posting video online showing people “laughing as the cat tossed and turned” behind the vehicle. MONTANA Kalispell: Flathead High School officials apologized after a graduate was prevented from wearing a mortarboard decorated with Native American regalia. The denial came just 42 days after Montana’s governor signed a law allowing students to do just that. NEBRASKA Boys Town: Boys Town has a new statue that shows hardship isn’t exclusive to one race or gender. The Omaha home for troubled boys and girls unveiled a 7-foot statue this week by sculptor Matthew Placzek. It depicts an older boy carrying a smaller girl on his back. She’s white, he’s black. Its title: “The Work Continues.” NEVADA Carson City: It’s been in the works for years, and now a new medical school will become a reality at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. State lawmakers gave final approval this week to $25 million in funding to build the UNLV School of Medicine. NEW HAMPSHIRE Greenfield: A hospital specializing in rehabilitating serious injuries and degenerative brain damage says it will close by the end of the summer. Most patients of the Crotched Mountain Foundation hospital are on Medicaid, WEVOFM reports. NEW JERSEY Trenton: The grandparents of a boy who was severely beaten by his father as an infant are asking the New Jersey Supreme Court to reinstate a $102 million judgment against the child welfare system, NJ.com reports. The boy, Jadiel Velesquez, now 8, is blind and has brain damage. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The time that New Mexico students spend taking standardized tests will be further reduced starting next school year. The change results from a statewide listening tour to hear from parents, teachers and school administrators. NEW YORK Carle Place: The SPCA says a Long Island home became an illegal reptile house, with more than 100 animals crawling and slithering around. NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: A North Carolina appeals court has upheld a state commission’s decisions to refuse financial payments to certain people who were involuntarily sterilized by the state decades ago. Claims by the estates of three people who died before a deadline in a state law to distribute the money were rejected. NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Hot, dry weather is hampering North Dakota farmers. Temperatures for the week that ended last Sunday averaged 2 to 6 degrees above normal. Wind caused topsoil to dry out. OHIO Columbus: The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has its first wildebeest birth. Zoo officials say visitors can view the calf at the Heart of Africa savanna. OKLAHOMA Talihina: A state audit says about $150,000 was embezzled from the Talihina Public Works Authority, allegedly by a former utility clerk. No decision has been made on criminal charges, The Oklahoman reports. OREGON Scio: Helen, a blind bison at the Lighthouse Farm animal sanctuary, finally has a pasture pal in Oliver the cow, a 4-month-old calf, The Statesman

Journal reports. Oliver runs from the barn to join Helen every morning, where they share meals, graze and nap together in the Oregon sun. PENNSYLVANIA Wilkes-Barre: The Mohegan Sun Pocono Casino has apologized to people with disabilities about seating arrangements for weekly tribute band concerts. Officials say the disability seating area will move to a better location after customers complained that patio seats near the stage were reserved for “elite player” VIPs while disabled people were limited to a roped-off area where they couldn’t see and sound was muffled. RHODE ISLAND Providence: A federally protected red-tailed hawk is healing after being shot. Officials say the hawk has a fractured right wing where a pellet struck it, WJAR-TV reports. SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: It took awhile, but the bedbugs have been driven out of four fire stations along the South Carolina coast. K-9s trained to detect bedbugs did the checking. SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A judge dismissed a 2016 lawsuit by the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe seeking $200 million from the U.S. government for diverting Missouri River water for use by others without payment, The Rapid

City Journal reports. TENNESSEE Bristol: Tennessee officials cancelled a fair’s rattlesnake exhibit for failing to adhere to state code, The Bristol Herald Courier reports. The state Wildlife Resource Agency canceled the West Texas Rattlesnake Show at the Bristol Fair and cited the show’s owner. A magic show replaced the snake show. TEXAS Dallas: City officials have completed security upgrades to Dallas’ outdoor weather warning sirens to prevent the kind of “malicious activation” that set off the emergency system in April. Authorities said someone used radio or another transmission method to broadcast tones that activated the sirens. UTAH Ogden: A minor league Utah baseball team canceled a planned “Hourglass Appreciation Night” promotion after coming under fire for references to women’s bodies. A news release from the Ogden Raptors promised “gorgeous women whose curves rival those of any stud pitching prospect” at the Aug. 11 game. Raptors president Dave Baggott apologized. VERMONT Milton: The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has captured a 48-year-old endangered sturgeon that biologists studied and tagged nearly 20 years ago. The 78-pound fish was caught in late May in the Lamoille River, a tributary of Lake Champlain. Lake sturgeon can live for 150 years. VIRGINIA Great Falls: A missing dog was reunited with its family after being under their feet the whole time. Banx, a 60-pound pointer, was trapped under his family’s deck for two days before Fairfax County firefighters located and freed him. WASHINGTON Seattle: The City Council has approved taxing soda and other sugary beverages to fund nutrition and education programs. The 1.75 cents per ounce tax exempts diet drinks. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: West Virginia environmental officials are holding tire disposals this month. Events are set for Saturday in Ohio, Boone and Hardy counties; June 15 in Doddridge County; and June 21 in McDowell County. WISCONSIN Chippewa Falls: State and local health officials are working to determine the source of a norovirus infection that sickened dozens of people at a Northern Wisconsin State Fairgrounds festival, The Leader

Telegram reports. At least 60 adults and children became sick. WYOMING Laramie: The University of Wyoming expects to enroll the biggest freshman class in school history while making do with budget cuts. The Office of Academic Affairs estimates 1,750 incoming freshmen in the fall, a 13% increase from last year, The

Laramie Boomerang reports.