STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: A highly contagious bacterial disease that threatens the U.S. citrus industry has been found for the first time in Alabama. Officials say citrus greening was found in leaf and insect samples at a Dauphin Island home. ALASKA Fairbanks: The Fairbanks Police Department can now offer a $20,000 signing bonus for lateral transfers from other police departments who’ve completed the police academy, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. ARIZONA Phoenix: The roof of a local skating rink partially collapsed, and authorities are pointing to the age of the building as a possible cause. No one was injured. ARKANSAS Fort Smith: Officials have approved a new recycling contract, ending Fort Smith’s temporary practice of dumping recyclables in a landfill, the Southwest Times Record reports. CALIFORNIA Palmdale: Mayor Jim Ledford is charged with illegally receiving more than $60,000 a year from Palmdale consultants and failing to report it. He has been Palmdale’s mayor for 25 years. COLORADO Pueblo: A judge ordered a sanity evaluation for a man accused of throwing gas on another man and setting him on fire, causing severe burns, The

Pueblo Chieftain reports. CONNECTICUT New Haven: Authorities say a Yale University dean who was placed on leave over offensive reviews she posted on Yelp has left the school. DELAWARE Wilmington: The Delaware Attorney General’s office says confidential meetings between Wilmington’s mayor and select city council members must be made public, The News Jour

nal reports. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Metropolitan police officer stuck his head in a five-foot hole while his feet were held by a fellow officer as they rescued a dog in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood,

The Washington Post reports. FLORIDA Miami: Officials say an Uber driver was given a $250 ticket in Miami for not speaking English. The Florida city has a regulation that drivers of ride apps must be able “to communicate in the English language.” GEORGIA Augusta: A Savannah pastor was sentenced to 28 months in prison and ordered to pay his former church more than $178,000 after authorities say he stole tithes and donations for his personal account, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. HAWAII Honolulu: Officials on Oahu are looking for ways to cut down on subleasing. The popularity of the practice is rising with the advent of businesses such as Airbnb, The Honolulu Star-Ad

vertiser reports. IDAHO Boise: City officials closed several popular ponds after finding high levels of E. coli bacteria in the water. Officials are seeking the source of the contamination. ILLINOIS Rockford: A man who was serving a 100-year sentence for killing his six children in 1978 has died. Simon Peter Nelson, 85, died last weekend at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, the Rockford Register

Star reports. INDIANA Muncie: A former Ball State University student accused of threatening shoppers at a local Goodwill store unless they converted to Islam has been deported to his native Saudi Arabia, The

(Muncie) Star Press reports. IOWA Iowa City: Officials blame an idle extension cord for an accidental fire that damaged the Bowen Science Building at the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. No one was injured. KANSAS Wichita: Civil rights advocates say Kansas election official Kris Kobach is trying to hide material that undercuts his public claim about substantial numbers of noncitizens being registered to vote. The ACLU obtained the documents for its federal lawsuit challenging Kansas’ proof-of-citizenship document requirement for voting. KENTUCKY Frankfort: An annual count finds 4,025 homeless people living in Kentucky. The state Housing Corporation says that’s a decline from the last point-in-time count of the homeless, but it’s not a significant reduction. LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Gov. John Bel Edwards has signed a bill that let’s Louisiana colleges and universities continue to set their own student fees. That authority was set to expire June 30. MAINE Bangor: A man who worked as a financial manager for the Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine has admitted embezzling over $700,000, The Portland

Press Herald reports. Steven Nygren faces up to 30 years in prison. MARYLAND Rockville: Katz is on the side of the dogs. Montgomery County councilman Sidney Katz is sponsoring a measure to loosen dog-leashing rules in dog parks to allow more off

leash situations. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Police located a $40,000 violin that was accidentally left by its owner at a Boston train station. The 1855 George Gemunder instrument, along with a $6,000 bow, was returned this week to owner Amy Sims. MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: Two driverless shuttles will begin operating at the University of Michigan this fall. The 15-passenger shuttles will carry students and staff in a two-mile loop on campus roads alongside regular traffic. MINNESOTA Eden Prairie: A 9-year-old special needs boy was found safe in a marsh after wandering away from an Eden Prairie camp. A State Patrol helicopter spotted the child from the air, KSTP-TV reports. MISSISSIPPI Ocean Springs: This Mississippi city’s police department wants to sell its drugsniffing dog as “surplus.” Axel’s handler is being called up for military duty, and Chief Mark Dunston says his department can’t afford to train another officer as handler or to keep the dog as a pet. MISSOURI St. Louis: Organizers of a renovation project on the Gateway Arch grounds say the opening of a museum and expanded visitor center will be delayed until next summer. Officials had anticipated completion by the end of this year. MONTANA Helena: The Montana Family Foundation wants state voters to decide whether to limit transgender people’s access to bathrooms and locker rooms to those designated for their gender at birth. The foundation says the proposed 2018 ballot initiative is meant to guard against sexual predators. Critics warn it would embroil the state in anti-discrimination lawsuits. NEBRASKA Omaha: A newborn sea lion pup is the newest addition at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium, The Omaha World-Herald reports. A contest to pick a name will be launched next week. NEVADA Carson City: An inmate serving up to a 13-year sentence for battery died this week in Nevada’s Carson City prison. The coroner has not yet determined the cause of death of Darrell Pollock, imprisoned since October 2012. NEW HAMPSHIRE Jackson: Police Chief Chris Perley and another officer in this New Hampshire city had a different kind of chase this week. Responding to a report of a loose alpaca, the officers spotted the animal but had to chase it down and corral it, WMUR-TV reports. NEW JERSEY West Windsor: A sculpture honoring Nobel Prizewinning mathematician John Nash and his wife will be erected in the New Jersey town where they spent their last years, NJ.com reports. Nash became famous after the 2001 Academy Award-winning film A Beautiful

Mind chronicled his struggle with schizophrenia. The couple died in a 2015 taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Persistent hot, dry conditions have prompted New Mexico forest officials to impose more stringent fire restrictions that prohibit campfires and wood, coal and charcoal stoves to minimize the possibility of human-caused fires. NEW YORK New York: An empty New York City bus rolled backward down a hilly Brooklyn street Wednesday and smashed into a church and parked vehicles. One person received minor injuries. NORTH CAROLINA Durham: Police say a man kidnapped a family at gunpoint and forced them to take him shopping. Rollin Anthony Owens Jr. allegedly forced a man, a woman and two children out of their Durham house and into their vehicle for a trip to a convenience store and then a Target. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Officials say 158 employees from cabinet-level agencies in the North Dakota government have been approved for voluntary buyouts. The severances will cost the state about $3 million. OHIO Cleveland: Ohio officials are settling a lawsuit brought by a convicted killer who said prison officials wouldn’t give him two functional hearing aids. The suit filed by the ACLU said the state’s policy of providing only one hearing aid to inmates was unconstitutional, Cleveland.com reports.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma

City: Four attorneys allege in a lawsuit that Oklahoma’s new drunken driving law is unconstitutional, The Oklahoman reports. The law signed by Gov. Mary Fallin this month abolishes appeals for people trying to keep their licenses after being arrested for DUI. Fallin later issued an order to allow an administrative hearing if the state plans to take a person’s license. OREGON Salem: A recently enacted Oregon law allows drivers who crash into deer and elk to harvest the animals’ meat for food. About 20 other states also let people take meat from road kill. Oregon’s law, signed last week by Gov. Kate Brown, passed without opposition. PENNSYLVANIA Lancaster: A pit bull burst through a backyard fence and got into a nearby minivan, mauling two young children as they sat helplessly strapped in their car seats. Witnesses said the mother of the 2-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy managed to pry the animal off them but not before it seriously mangled her son’s face, WPMT-TV reports. RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Providence-to-Newport ferry was out of service for much of this week after sustaining damage in a crash last weekend. The ferry was damaged during a trip from Narragansett to Providence. Officials say it hit a buoy while trying to avoid another boat. No one was hurt. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: A decades-long proposal to build a four-lane path to the heart of South Carolina’s tourism industry has cleared a major hurdle, but funding for Interstate 95 access is questionable. The Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit allowing construction of I-73 to the Grand Strand. SOUTH DAKOTA Fort Pierre: A woman accused of stealing prescription pain pills from residents of a Pierre nursing home was sentenced to four years of probation, KCCR radio reports. TENNESSEE Hendersonville: The crash of a semitractor-trailer hauling sulfuric acid prompted business evacuations in the Hendersonville area earlier this week. The truck driver wasn’t hurt, and no residences were affected, WKRN-TV reports. TEXAS College Station: Retired Brown University President Ruth Simmons has been named interim president of Prairie View A&M University. Simmons, 71, also was president at Smith College in Massachusetts and served in executive positions at Princeton and Spellman College. Her new job begins July 1. UTAH Salt Lake City: Utah lawmakers who passed the strictest DUI threshold in the country got an earful this week from restaurant and tourism groups. The hospitality industry officials say their businesses will be hurt by the 0.05% blood-alcohol limit.

VERMONT Montpelier: It’s been another sweet season for Vermont maple syrup, with production reaching nearly 2 million gallons. That’s the second highest amount on record. Officials say the number of taps in Vermont maple trees grew this season by 12% for a total of 5.4 million. VIRGINIA Norfolk: The nation’s newest aircraft carrier will officially join the fleet next month. The USS Gerald R. Ford will be commissioned July 22 at Naval Station Norfolk. The ship will go through workups at sea before becoming operational in 2020. WASHINGTON Benton City: Sheriff ’s deputies responding to a domestic dispute call discovered $1.6 million worth of illegal marijuana, The Tri-City Herald reports. Officials seized 1,600 plants from the house. Sheriff Jerry Hatcher says it appears the growers tapped into the Benton Irrigation District’s line to water the plants. WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: CSX has cut 70 jobs at a locomotive shop in West Virginia. Another 270 workers remain at the facility, which railroad officials say will continue to service locomotives. Affected employees are eligible to seek positions at other nearby CSX facilities. CSX closed administrative offices in Huntington last year. WISCONSIN Madison: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will no longer have a large presence at the state fair to promote hunting, fishing and other recreational pursuits, the

Wisconsin State Journal reports. The decision is part of the department’s attempt to refocus its efforts after budget cuts and criticism from lawmakers. WYOMING Jackson: Construction workers uncovered a buried box of hand grenades in Wyoming’s Teton County. Officials say one of the devices detonated when the box was found near the Jackson Hole Gun Club, but no one was injured, the Jackson Hole

News & Guide reports.