News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: Some Alabama board of education members are giving low performance scores to Superintendent Michael Sentance. On a scale of one to three, the board this week ranked the new superintendent’s performance in various areas between 1.28 and 2.07. ALASKA Petersburg: Alaskans driving on Mitkof Island say the chip seal in road repairs does more harm than good. Residents cite cracked windshields and chipped paint, KFSK-FM reports. ARIZONA Phoenix: Transportation officials say specialty license plates keep raising record amounts of money for charitable causes in Arizona. In the most recent fiscal year ending June 30, specialty plate sales generated more than $9.8 million. ARKANSAS Little Rock: A committee met for the first time this week to come up with a plan for the state judiciary, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The panel will likely address automating courtroom technology and making e-filing available in all circuits. CALIFORNIA Stockton: California’s almond boom has hit a million acres, covering an area bigger than Rhode Island, The Record of Stockton reports. The harvest is expected to hit 2.2 billion pounds. COLORADO Colorado Springs: A study confirms that toxic firefighting foam chemicals used at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs leached into surrounding groundwater, The Gazette reports. CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: The city has settled two lawsuits alleging police misconduct, The Connecticut Post reports. An undisclosed sum was paid to a man who said he was shocked with a stun gun during a 2013 arrest. A state juvenile detention officer was paid $16,000 after being stopped and frisked in 2015 in front of his children. DELAWARE Rehoboth Beach: A woman was hospitalized Monday after falling at Funland, a boardwalk amusement park ride in Rehoboth Beach. WXDE reports that the woman suffered head lacerations and complained of side pain. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A man was convicted of killing his roommates at their District of Columbia home three years ago. The victims were beaten with a hammer, The Washington Post reports. FLORIDA Miami: Florida wildlife officials are investigating a video of men dragging a shark behind a speeding boat. The video went viral on several social media sites. GEORGIA Chattahoochee Hills: Officials shut down a summer camp outside Atlanta after a 5-year-old boy enrolled in it died on a field trip, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. State officials were unaware of the unlicensed Camp Cricket Summer Day Camp until this week. HAWAII Honolulu: A Hawaii homeless camp perched on an embankment above a freeway was cleared Tuesday. At least 80 homeless people live along the highway. Outreach workers offered shelter ahead of the sweep. IDAHO Priest Lake: A mountain lookout tower used to spot fires in the Priest Lake area of Idaho is closed due to vandalism, The Daily Bee reports. ILLINOIS Springfield: An auction of unclaimed property at the Illinois State Fair will be previewed in coming weeks. The auction is set for Aug. 19. State Treasurer Michael Frerichs says items include a signed 1983 Ryne Sandberg baseball card and coins from a 1622 Spanish shipwreck. INDIANA Terre Haute: Indiana State Police are working to make construction zones on Interstate 70 safer after three people were killed last week in two crashes.

The Tribune-Star reports that seven people have died this year in a 20-mile stretch near Terre Haute and Brazil. IOWA Des Moines: The head of Iowa’s largest public pension system says the fund that pays retirement benefits is sound. But Gov. Kim Reynolds backs a state lawmaker’s effort to hold hearings on the system’s long-term unfunded liabilities. KANSAS Wichita: Guards at the El Dorado Correctional Facility say disturbances the week of May 8 and on June 24 during which inmates took control of the yard were never reported. That’s before a June 29 uprising disclosed when inmates got a cellphone and called relatives. KENTUCKY Williamstown: Officials of a Noah’s Ark theme park have sold their main parcel back to a for-profit affiliate days after Kentucky’s tourism agency said the park breached an incentive agreement that would refund a portion of the sales tax collected at the site, The Lexington Herald-Leader reports. LOUISIANA Covington: This Louisiana city plans to turn its old fire station into a community center, The Times-Picayune reports. The 80-year-old building housed Covington’s main fire station until 1972. MAINE Hollis: A man accused of drunkenly strolling down a Maine road wearing a blackhooded sweatshirt and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to his amputated arm has been arrested on a criminal threatening charge, WCSH-TV reports. Corey Berry told officers it was a prank. MARYLAND Elkton: The U.S. Equestrian Federation’s board of directors has recommended Maryland’s Fair Hill to permanently host an annual international event of jumping, cross country and dressage. MASSACHUSETTS Sandwich: A woman who got out of her sport utility vehicle, removed her shirt and charged topless while holding a dagger-like knife toward another motorist is accused of assault with a dangerous weapon,

The Cape Cod Times reports. The other motorist in the incident last weekend was an off-duty police officer. MICHIGAN Summit Township: A house that will soon be for sale may have mammoth or mastodon bones at the bottom of a backyard pond, The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports. Steve Dodge found the bones of an elephant-like animal after excavating to build the pond 10 years ago. MINNESOTA St. Paul: Authorities filed felony charges against a man whose car sliced through the midsection of a Metro Transit bus in St. Paul last week, killing a passenger and critically injuring another. Tyler Randall Bjelland, who was already on probation for a DWI-related conviction, smelled of alcohol after the crash, police say. MISSISSIPPI Ocean Springs: Police say a man punched a convenience store clerk as he was stealing two hot dogs and a gallon of antifreeze, The Sun Herald reports. MISSOURI Ozark: Deputies escorted Christian County auditor Lacey Hart from her office this week after she was charged with failure to do her job, The Springfield News-Leader reports. Hart allegedly told other county workers that she “willingly” didn’t act on Sheriff Brad Cole’s requisitions because she dislikes him. MONTANA Great Falls: A bookkeeper will serve more than three years in prison and must repay $425,000 for forging checks to make lavish purchases, including NCAA Final Four tickets and renting a Ferrari. Authorities say Natalee Crumley also took vacations and bought furniture and clothes, spending significant sums at Victoria’s Secret. NEBRASKA Omaha: Ahead of Global Tiger Day on Saturday, the Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium in Omaha has announced plans to open a sperm bank and breeding facility for tigers, The Omaha World-Herald reports. NEVADA Reno: Facing a critical shortage in some subjects like special ed and industrial arts, the Washoe County School District is looking at bringing back retired employees, The Reno GazetteJournal reports. NEW HAMPSHIRE Gorham: New Hampshire officials are looking for volunteers to pluck weeds around the summit of Mount Washington. Participants are warned to dress for the weather and have to bring work gloves, water and food. NEW JERSEY Asbury Park: An Asbury Park lifeguard was disciplined after a beachgoer took a photo of him using his cellphone while on duty. Lifeguards can be suspended or fired for using their cellphones in non-emergency situations. NEW MEXICO Alamogordo: Holloman Air Force Base and engineering firm AECOM are seeking to fill 638 fighter jets maintenance jobs, The Alamogordo Daily News reports. NEW YORK New York: Police found a rare tortoise that was stolen from the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Queens. Investigators say an anonymous caller reported receiving the African spurred tortoise named Millennium in a trade. Millennium was brought back to the center unharmed. NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The chief investment officer for North Carolina’s $94 billion state pension fund unexpectedly resigned, The News & Observer of Raleigh reports. Kevin SigRist had held the job since 2013. NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Sanford Health opened a $494 million hospital this week in Fargo. Sanford Medical Center has 284 beds, 28 operating rooms and 51 emergency bays. OHIO Columbus: In a 5-2 ruling this week, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld traffic camera enforcement. It’s the third time the court has struck down legislative restrictions opposed by cities, including the latest to require a police officer to be present. OKLAHOMA Pawhuska: A former substitute teacher who exposed herself to high school choir students when she did a cartwheel while wearing a long skirt but no underwear pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. Lacey Sponsler was given a two-year suspended sentence and can’t teach for two years. OREGON Springfield: The Jacob Clearwater Farmhouse has qualified for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, The Register-Guard reports. PENNSYLVANIA Bethel Park: Police say a video posted by one of three women killed in a suburban Pittsburgh crash shows them drinking in the vehicle beforehand. A fourth person is hospitalized in critical condition. RHODE ISLAND Providence: A redevelopment commission has approved a revised plan to build a 46-story skyscraper on the Providence waterfront. Hope Point Tower would have 400 rental apartments and about 100 condos. SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Two teens admit driving a van through the doors of a South Carolina gun store and stealing 43 weapons. Authorities say the pair of 18-year-olds used sledgehammers and baseball bats to shatter display cases. SOUTH DAKOTA Pickstown: Officials in Pickstown are weighing whether to replace or renovate two of the town’s three original buildings, The Press and Dakotan reports. Historian Ken Stewart says the buildings are a memorial to everyone who built the Missouri River’s Ft. Randall Dam. TENNESSEE Knoxville: A biblical passage that has long been displayed at the Knoxville police headquarters will be removed following a complaint by the East Tennessee chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The plaque quotes Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us then who can be against us.” TEXAS Kaufman: A 92-year-old Marine veteran of World War II was injured while trying to defend the U.S. flag outside his Texas home. Howard Banks went outside to check on a noise and found someone trying to pull his flag down from its pole. The would-be thief knocked him down before running off. UTAH Salt Lake City: Two homeless people are dead this week in violence near an overcrowded shelter in Salt Lake City. One man was beaten to death with a 50-pound cinder block and another man was fatally shot near Pioneer Park. VERMONT Burlington: The Vermont Agency of Agriculture says the state has found about 30% more mosquitoes caught this year in its traps, The Burlington Free Press reports. VIRGINIA Richmond: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is bringing bring back the Artmobile, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The mobile museum toured the state from 1953 to 1994. WASHINGTON Yelm: The first Yelm UFO Fest is set to launch this weekend. Organizers are preparing to welcome visitors from beyond — or at least beyond Yelm. Officials tell The Olympian it will feature more than 15 musical performances and a beer garden with a specially bottled Alien Pale Ale. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Three construction workers were injured Wednesday when a section of parking garage at Charleston Memorial Hospital collapsed. Officials say crews were pouring concrete at the time. WISCONSIN Wausau: The Wausau Center Mall has been auctioned for $12.8 million at a sheriff ’s foreclosure sale. But the buyer and the future of the mall remain a mystery. WAOW-TV reports there was only one bidder. WYOMING Cheyenne: Locals who modify their diesel vehicles to blast out heavy plumes of smoke could be hit with worse punishments than the state’s $100 fine. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that the City Council voted this week to ban the practice commonly called “rolling coal.” That gives the municipal court discretion to boost the penalty.