News from across the USA

ARIZONA Phoenix:

A Tucson man accused of performing liposuction procedures without a medical license was sentenced to nearly 39 years in prison. Authorities say three victims of Gustavo Nunez were hospitalized after botched surgeries.

ARKANSAS Little Rock:

Six inmates at the maximum security unit at Tucker snatched keys from three correctional officers during recreation call and held them for about three hours Monday. The inmates surrendered after releasing the guards.

CALIFORNIA Long Beach:

A baby Magellanic penguin made its public debut this week at Southern California’s Aquarium of the Pacific. The chick hatched in May.

COLORADO Denver:

Charges against five people who protested the Senate health care bill at Sen. Cory Gardner’s Denver office on July 6 and refused to leave were dropped at Gardner’s request, The Denver Post reports.

CONNECTICUT Hartford:

A convicted felon who turned his life around and graduated from Yale Law School is being forced to prove that he has the moral character and fitness to practice law in Connecticut. Reginald Dwayne Betts passed the state bar exam in February but has three past carjacking convictions.

DELAWARE Seaford:

A Delaware fire claimed the lives of five horses and caused an estimated $750,000 in losses, The News Journal reports. The cause of the early Monday blaze in Seaford remains under investigation.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:

Authorities arrested a man suspected of taking pictures up the skirts of women at a Metro station. The suspect was charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse.

FLORIDA Deland:

Two Florida men accused of beating a disabled Navy veteran who tried to stop them from torturing a turtle were sentenced to 18 months of probation, WFTV reports.

GEORGIA Atlanta:

An orangutan who communicated with researchers using sign-language died at Zoo Atlanta this week at age 39. Chantek had been treated for progressive heart disease.

HAWAII Honolulu:

Authorities plan to move a newborn Hawaiian monk seal away from congested Waikiki so it can remain a wild animal and won’t become accustomed to interacting with people. It’ll be moved to a remote, undisclosed part of Oahu island.

IDAHO Boise:

A former Idaho businessman who took prepaid jetboat orders but left the state without filling them was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. A plea agreement says Christopher Bohnenkamp knew his business was broke but took money from new customers to finish boats for existing customers.

ILLINOIS Springfield:

Officials at the University of Illinois in Springfield say a consulting firm will review safety issues at the Sangamon Auditorium following the death of a concertgoer who fell through an opening near the main stage, The State JournalRegister reports.

INDIANA Terre Haute:

A community garden at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility is helping fill six nonprofit food pantries with fresh produce, the Tribune-Star reports. About 20 inmates work in the garden.

IOWA Sioux City:

A man who tried to deposit what he presented as a $1 million bill was charged

with drug possession. Police called to the Northwest Bank branch to talk to the man say a baggie that fell out of his pocket contained methamphetamine.

KANSAS Kiowa:

This small Barber County town is cleaning up after strong winds, hail and heavy rain left severe damage, The Wichita Eagle reports. Authorities say the storm damaged 42 homes, leaving 17 uninhabitable.

KENTUCKY Georgetown:

Police say a man who claimed to have several hundred personalities attacked a woman at Georgetown Cemetery, WKYT-TV reports. Police say Brice Gross tried to strangle the victim, but she fought him off.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge:

A lawsuit claims that a Louisiana pretrial supervision firm essentially holds inmates for ransom even after they’ve paid bond. The state ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center say Rehabilitation Home Incarceration requires a $525 fee to get out of jail and monthly payments to stay out, The Advocate reports.

MAINE Portland:

An error by the Portland City Clerk’s Office resulted in initiatives on housing and rent being left off the November ballot. Officials say they’re not sure if a special election will be held for the measures, The Portland Press Herald reports.

MARYLAND Baltimore:

The Baltimore Bike Share system faces a high rate of stolen or otherwise not returned bikes. The subcontractor that operates the program says two employees are assigned to recover unreturned bikes every day.

MASSACHUSETTS Cambridge:

This Boston suburb has passed one of the nation’s toughest limits on the sale of animals. Cambridge has barred selling commercially bred dogs, cats and other animals. The city allows only the sale of shelter and rescue animals, The Boston Globe reports.

MICHIGAN Lake Orion:

A memorial to military dogs is being unveiled this weekend in suburban Detroit. The Oakland Press reports that the War Dog Monument at the Orion Veterans Memorial in Lake Orion will be dedicated to dogs that served with military members.

MINNESOTA St. Paul:

A Minnesota law that requires mobile home parks to offer storm shelters or evacuation plans for residents in case of severe weather is rarely enforced, KSTP-TV reports.

MISSISSIPPI Cleveland:

A desegregation settlement has the 3,500-student Cleveland school district reopening this week with one high school and one middle school for the first time. A judge found the town’s two high schools and middle schools to be an illegal vestige of segregation.

MISSOURI Columbia:

The University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine has decided not to eliminate a reproduction studies program, The Columbia Missourian reports. The Missouri Cattlemen’s Association and the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association objected to plans to end the program.

MONTANA Billings:

Authorities say a house on Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation where three people were killed and two were wounded last week burned down. An FBI official said the cause of the fire isn’t known.

NEBRASKA Grand Island:

Mayor Jeremy Jensen says unions for Grand Island’s employees rejected a proposal for a two-year wage freeze. Jensen says the freeze would have allowed the city to maintain staffing levels and allowed two years of signifi

cant cost savings.

NEVADA Sparks:

A lightning-caused fire that threatened the Northern Nevada Medical Center as well as homes in the community nevertheless spared the hospital’s flock of fake flamingos, The Reno Gazette-Journal reports. Officials say the lawn ornaments have become a symbol of hope for patients and staff.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Nashua:

Nitric acid leaked from a UPS package at a distribution center, sending seven people to the hospital for minor respiratory problems, The Telegraph reports. Nitric acid is commonly used in making fertilizers.

NEW JERSEY Springfield:

A woman is charged with child endangerment after her 10-yearold special needs son was found walking in woods near Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The boy was treated for minor injuries.

NEW MEXICO Las Cruces:

Officials are considering a plan to remove Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park from New Mexico’s state park system, The Las Cruces

Sun-News reports. Instead, the park would transfer to the state Department of Game and Fish.

NEW YORK Albany:

Inmates at 17 New York correctional facilities will soon have greater access to a college education under a $7.3 million program announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. More than 2,500 inmates are expected to participate over five years.

NORTH CAROLINA Durham:

Gov. Roy Cooper used the launch of a school supply drive Tuesday at a Durham elementary school to argue that inadequate education spending leaves too many teachers paying for classroom necessities. Cooper says teachers shouldn’t have to reach into their own pockets to pay for pencils, papers and other needs.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck:

North Dakota’s early Canada goose hunting season is set, with bag limits and licensing requirements the same as last year. The season opens Aug. 15.

OHIO Zanesville:

Authorities say 300,000 tons of molten glass spilled from a ruptured tank at the Owens-Illinois glass plant in Zanesville, oozing from a small hole that grew several feet wide. It had to be cooled so it wouldn’t destroy structural beams and collapse the building. No injuries were reported.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City:

Gov. Mary Fallin has appointed a five-member task force to study the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. The move comes as some utilities and oil and gas companies have complained about the commission’s delay in processing cases.

OREGON Portland:

An industrial shop was ordered to pay $291,000 for failing to trim tree branches that blocked the view of a Portland stop sign and contributed to a fatal crash in June 2013, The Oregonian reports.

PENNSYLVANIA Hulmeville:

A funeral director is charged with stealing nearly $297,000 from people who paid for prearranged funerals. Bucks County authorities say David Faust is accused of forging several death certificates, including that of a woman in 2003 so he could spend more than $8,700 she prepaid. The woman is still alive.

RHODE ISLAND Providence:

Funding for incentives that helped Rhode Island residents buy electric cars has dried up, WPRI-TV reports. State drivers received $575,000 in incentives through the program that used settlement funds from petroleum violations.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia:

South Carolina has filed its largest lawsuit ever against the federal government. The state wants the Department of Energy to make good on a deal to remove plutonium from the Savannah River Site. The suit seeks to recover $100 million from the agency.

SOUTH DAKOTA Vermillion:

Former school administrators and community leaders in Vermillion say the University of South Dakota and the city would be negatively impacted if the university moves its law school to Sioux Falls.

TENNESSEE Memphis:

A Tennessee funeral home and its director were fined for reusing caskets without reupholstering them after they were rented, WMC-TV reports.

TEXAS El Paso:

A Texas judge says El Paso officials can move ahead with plans to construct a

$180 million multipurpose center downtown, as long as they don’t build it as a sports arena. Critics challenging the project say El Paso didn’t make clear in the

2012 bond question that sporting events would be held at the center.

UTAH Vernal:

A former Utah Highway Patrol trooper is charged with felony arson for allegedly starting a wildfire to “feel the excitement.” Authorities say GPS data linked Rex Richard Olsen’s patrol car to the June 9 fire, and gas station surveillance video shows him buying the cigarette used in a delayed-ignition device.

VERMONT Craftsbury:

Officials boosted security after the Craftsbury town office was burglarized July 28. Officials believe less than several hundred dollars in cash was stolen from envelopes in the office, the Caldonian Record reports.

VIRGINIA Richmond:

Researchers flew a drone into plumes of smoke from a hazardous waste burn at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant and found higherthan-expected levels of arsenic, lead and other pollutants.

WASHINGTON Port Orchard:

Two people are accused of providing fatal heroin and methamphetamine doses to a woman who died April 30, KING-TV reports. The suspects, arrested by the Kitsap County Sheriff ’s Office based on forensic evidence and witness interviews, are a 19-yearold woman and a 33-year-old man.

WEST VIRGINIA Lewisburg:

West Virginia’s State Fair opens Thursday. Fair officials say they’ll offer various admission discounts during its 10-day run in Lewisburg. Concert performers include Aaron Lewis, Martina McBride and Josh Turner.

WISCONSIN Madison:

A Wisconsin dairy group filed a lawsuit alleging the state Department of Natural Resources over-regulates large livestock operations. The group cites requirement changes for concentrated animal feeding operations in treating runoff.

WYOMING Cheyenne:

One of the world’s fastest supercomputers is named for this Wyoming city. The device has been crunching numbers for science for months in an office park just outside Cheyenne the city. Cheyenne the computer ranks 22nd among the world’s fastest supercomputers.