News from every state

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Foley: An Alabama tribe has opened the largest amusement park on the northern Gulf Coast. The Park at OWA is owned by the Poarch Band of Creeks. Its name is for a Muscogee Creek word that means “big water.”

ALASKA Juneau: City engineers say the dirt at the Twin Lakes Playground that burned down in April isn’t contaminated, The

Juneau Empire reports. Proposals for a new playground design are being accepted.

ARIZONA Prescott: Producers have released the trailer for an upcoming movie chronicling 19 Arizona firefighters, the Granite Mountain Hotshots, who died in June 2013 while battling one of the state’s most devastating wildfires. The movie titled Only the

Brave will be released Oct. 20.

ARKANSAS Jonesboro: A 110year-old Jonesboro building listed on the National Register of Historic Places is set for demolition. The Rosse’s Home Ice Co. building, constructed in 1907 as the Jonesboro Wagon Factory, has fallen into disrepair, the

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara: A kayaker escaped without a scratch after a shark bit the device and tipped him into the water off Santa Barbara. Bret Jackson tells KSBY-TV that he managed to get back on and paddled to a nearby dinghy.

COLORADO Colorado Springs: City leaders are being urged to allow hunting in Colorado Springs to reduce deer populations. Officials say a hunt could decrease crashes with vehicles, The Colorado Springs Gazette reports.

CONNECTICUT Middletown: A Connecticut man whose dog died three years ago after being left in a hot car was arrested last week after another dog died the same way. Authorities say David Beveridge, 79, is charged with animal cruelty.

DELAWARE Dover: Gov. John Carney has vetoed a bill that would have barred Delaware charter schools from giving enrollment preferences to children living within a 5-mile radius. The bill was aimed at Newark Charter, a mostly white, high-performing school with a waiting list of more than 3,000 students.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Speed camera tickets in Washington raked in nearly $100 million in 2016, nearly doubling the amount collected from the prior year. The city has 148 speed cameras.

FLORIDA South Miami: Solar panel installations will be required for all new residential construction and some home renovations in South Miami. According to the Miami Herald, Mayor Philip Stoddard says the requirement will reduce the cost of home ownership and cut carbon emissions.

GEORGIA Milledgeville: A $2.4 million state grant will expand the Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Milledgeville. Officials say the 15-acre project will include 1,520 pre-placed crypts and 320 columbarium niches.

HAWAII Honolulu: A dog breeder was sentenced to nine months in jail for torturing one of his animals. Humane Society staff and Hawaii animal investigators rescued 33 dogs kept in a bunker.

IDAHO Ketchum: Federal Aviation Administration documents show that an Idaho airport being built by actor Bruce Willis will be larger and busier than officials originally expected. The Moun-

tain Express reports that FAA documents say it could have about 500 landings a month.

ILLINOIS Galena: A native son of this Illinois city was remembered last week with the naming of a revitalized downtown park. Elihu Benjamin Washburne was a member of Congress and served briefly as secretary of State for President Ulysses Grant, another Galena resident.

INDIANA Muncie: A two-story dinosaur sculpture that has loomed over Sutton Elementary School since 1981 is getting a new home in Heekin Park now that the school has closed, The Star Press reports.

IOWA Council

Bluffs: Authorities say a former employee is accused of scamming the Bethany Lutheran Nursing Home out of more than 9,700 painkiller pills while working there as a nurse, The Daily

Nonpareil reports.

KANSAS Emporia: As temperatures soared last week, a major water main break left Emporia nearly waterless. An Emporia

Gazette website photo showed a street flooded because of the break.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: A committee will provide historical context for the statue of Jefferson Davis in the Kentucky Capitol. The move comes after the Historic Properties Advisory Commission rejected the idea of moving the statue of the Confederate president elsewhere.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: The city’s inspector general says residents haven’t been adequately warned that ongoing street repairs and water system improvements could result in temporarily high lead levels.

MAINE Portland: Maine’s largest city is telling residents to stop vandalizing traps designed to help move turtles to a pond. Portland officials say some people believe the traps are designed to harm animals.

MARYLAND Annapolis: Gov. Larry Hogan and first lady Yumi Hogan held a cookout last week to urge Marylanders to buy locally produced food.

MASSACHUSETTS Leominster: A school custodian faces a murder charge in the death of a woman who authorities suggest may have been strangled during sex. Police say the woman’s partially nude body with a tie around her neck was found in the suspect’s home.

MICHIGAN Detroit: The state has dropped charges and arrest warrants against 186 people accused of illegally collecting jobless benefits. Officials acknowledge a computer problem wrongly targeted those accused.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The state Department of Agriculture is investigating about two dozen complaints from farmers about a weed killer used on genetically modified soybean fields that can tolerate the herbicide. Minnesota Public Radio reports that farmers say the herbicide drifts to non-resistant fields and hurts crops.

MISSISSIPPI Biloxi: A dead dolphin washed ashore last week in Mississippi, WXXV-TV reports. Officials say it’s the 43rd dolphin found dead this year.

MISSOURI Sullivan: Thousands of ticks are being collected at Meramec State Park for testing after a worker there died of complications from the tick-borne Bourbon virus. CDC officials say results won’t be available for several months.

MONTANA Missoula: Authorities say a 19-year-old firefighter died after being struck by a falling tree while responding to a blaze. Missoula County officials say Trenton Johnson was part of a 20-person crew responding last week to a lightning-caused blaze in the Lolo National Forest.

NEBRASKA Omaha: A man who worked at an Omaha wine and spirits store has taken a plea deal in a gift-card scheme. Officials found that multiple gift cards at the Village Pointe Brix store had balances in the thousands of dollars.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Authorities say a man who collapsed during the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival last month at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway died from drug intoxication and high heat.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Rye: A New Hampshire state trooper caught a 650-pound Atlantic bluefin tuna after a 90-minute tug of war last week. Nick Cyr tells WBZ-TV that the 9-foot fish spun his boat in circles before he managed to reel it in.

NEW JERSEY Bellmawr: A group of New Jersey preservationists wants the state to build a replica of a Revolutionary Warera farmhouse that was torn down this year to make way for a highway interchange. The Camden County Historical Society had sought an injunction to block the March 3 demolition of the Hugg-Harrison- Glover House in Bellmawr. State officials say the house was in too poor condition for historic designation.

NEW MEXICO Taos: D.H. Lawrence Ranch Initiatives is partnering with the University of New Mexico Continuing Education to host a series of online creative writing workshops. Classes cater to poets, novelists, short story writers and nonfiction writers.

NEW YORK New York: A bag containing traces of moon dust sold at a Sotheby’s auction last week for $1.8 million. The collection bag was used by astronaut Neil Armstrong during the first manned mission to the moon in 1969.

NORTH CAROLINA Greens

boro: The University of North Carolina- Greensboro’s nursing school has unveiled a high-tech childbirth simulator. The News &

Record reports that SimMom is designed to provide nursing students with a realistic labor and delivery experience.

NORTH DAKOTA Wahpeton: The president of the North Dakota State College of Science has apologized for comments he made on a radio show about the value of a high school diploma. John Richman drew criticism after saying a high school diploma provides “enough education to be a ward of the state,” The Daily

News reports.

OHIO Cleveland Heights: The Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department have filed a lawsuit against Cleveland Heights, The Plain Dealer reports. The suit says the city let raw sewage flow into Lake Erie tributaries.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A rare baby Amur tiger cub that was neglected by its mother at the Philadelphia Zoo is being sent to the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. Zoya, whose name means “life” in Russian, is the only surviving cub of a litter of five born July 10.

OREGON La Grande: People traveling to Oregon to see next month’s solar eclipse can rent a room at Eastern Oregon University, The Observer reports. The rooms are available from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22 for $500.

PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: Authorities are hoping surveillance video identifies whoever broke the hands off a granite statue of Jesus on the campus of Carlow University. Officials at the Catholic school said it’s unclear when the vandalism occurred.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Two Rhode Island hospitals are feuding over a longstanding policy that lets one hospital call for help from the other hospital’s doctors in emergency cardiac and stroke situations. WPRI-TV reports that Lifespan-owned Rhode Island Hospital wants to stop the policy with Care New England’s Women & Infants Hospital.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Authorities say a man who drove his car into graveside mourners had a grudge against the South Carolina mental health agency where the woman being buried worked. James Kester told a judge that the agency kept him from seeing his daughter for 600 days.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A man was sentenced to five years of probation for airmailing hazardous mercury that leaked at the Rapid City airport. The airport’s mail sorting facility was shut down for nearly a week while the building was cleaned, The Rapid

City Journal reports.

TENNESSEE Greenville: A family whose daughters were injured when they fell from a Ferris wheel at the Greene County Fair in 2016 has filed lawsuits against the ride’s owners and manufacturer.

TEXAS Houston: Authorities arrested a Houston woman who collected ransoms from people who believed their children were kidnapped and that the money would get them released. Yanette Rodriguez Acosta allegedly conspired with others in Mexico in the “virtual kidnapping ” scheme.

UTAH Salt Lake City: The sweeping red-rock vistas at Utah’s Zion National Park are increasingly drawing visitors. Now park managers are weighing whether to require RSVPs. Public comment is open until mid-August. The park saw a record 4.3 million tourists last year.

VERMONT Bennington: Plans for a new city park include a piece of public art — a chalk wall that could host visitors’ thoughts and art, The Bennington Banner reports.

VIRGINIA Richmond: A clogged toilet in a first-floor restroom at the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center caused a backup and subsequent leak that led to an evacuation last week. Areas for patients weren’t affected.

WASHINGTON Olympia: Drivers need to put down their phones or face tougher penalties under a distracted driving law that took effect last weekend. The law prohibits doing anything that requires drivers to hold an edevice while behind the wheel.

WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert has received a four-year contract extension. Financial terms are unchanged. Gilbert earns an annual salary of $430,000.

WISCONSIN Milwaukee: A federal judge says Milwaukee County likely is violating the Constitution with a requirement that game developers get permits for augmented-reality apps such as Pokémon Go to be played in parks. For now, the county is barred from enforcing the ordinance.