News from across the USA
ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: Authorities are still seeking suspects in a downtown parking deck shootout last month, The Tusca
loosa News reports. More than 100 shots wer fied, but police don’t think anyone was injured in the July 23 gunfire.
ALASKA Fairbanks: Alaskans pushing to challenge Fairbanks North Star Borough’s tough rules on heating appliances and combustible fuels missed the deadline to get a proposal on the October ballot but are on track for 2018, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
reports. Critics say the rules are troublesome in a city that needs heat.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Officials are warning Arizona travelers about gas station skimmers. Forty of the devices that collect customer credit card information have been found in the state this year.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Highway officials shut down a portion of Interstate 30 in Arkansas after an 18-wheeler carrying frozen pizzas scraped a bridge support and sliced open its trailer. One official said the combination of pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni and spilled diesel fuel left a “slippery spot.”
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: Investigators say a generator on a marijuana farm is to blame for a fire last year that destroyed 28 structures, including a dozen homes, south of San Francisco. Authorities are still investigating whether the pot growing operation was legal.
COLORADO Denver: An elderly Colorado man found dead in a parking garage elevator pushed the emergency button twice but got no response, police say. The decomposing body of Isaak Komisarchik, 82, was found Aug. 2 after reports of a stench. The parking garage was closed for renovation, and the elevator wasn’t working.
CONNECTICUT Litchfield: A nurse’s aide was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing at least $100,000 from a woman in her care, The Republican-American reports.
DELAWARE Bridgeville: Organizers say a lack of funds could soon squash Delaware’s annual pumpkin-flinging event known as Punkin Chunkin. Still, this year’s 32nd edition will go on this November in Sussex County.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Three exotic corpse flowers at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington are about to bloom and unleash their reeking scent. The plants are expected to reach peak bloom between Aug. 17 and 22.
FLORIDA Orlando: A pilot whale is back in the sea after rehabilitation at Sea-World Orlando. The whale had beached itself July 1 in Dixie County.
GEORGIA Atlanta: An Atlanta gym owner has banned police officers and military members from working out at his facility. The EAV Barbell Club owner says most people who go there are minorities who are uncomfortable with law enforcement.
HAWAII Kailua- Kona: Nearly a month after Hawaii coffee farmer Andres Magana Ortiz returned to Mexico on orders to leave the United States, his attorney is fighting for the man’s return,
West Hawaii Today reports. His wife, an American, filed a petition for his permanent residency, but it was denied.
IDAHO Sandpoint: A stand of lakeside cedar trees that Idaho
residents rallied to preserve sold for about $900,000 in a state timber sale, The Bonner County
Daily Bee reports. Critics say losing the 40-acre parcel means less wildlife habitat.
ILLINOIS Pana: Officials at the 22-bed Pana Community Hospital have broken ground on a $20 million renovation to provide patients and visitors with more convenience and comfort, The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports.
INDIANA Muncie: An era is coming to a close as Ball State University removes smokestacks that have been a part of the campus skyline for decades, The Mun
cie Star Press reports. The two smokestacks atop the heat plant are coming down since they’re no longer needed.
IOWA Des Moines: After nearly
20 years, Iowa’s standard license plate will get a new design, and residents can vote on which of three options they like best. When a new design is selected, it will be available sometime in
2018.
KANSAS Ashland: About five months after wildfires swept through Kansas, Clark County ranchers have received the second installment of federal funds needed for fences, The Hutchin
son News reports.
KENTUCKY Stone: Authorities in Pike County say two teenagers fatally shot eight cows with an AR-15 rifle. WYMT-TV reports that the owners of the cows say five of them were pregnant, and the other three were calves.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A new website helps Louisiana parents find information about benefits and resources for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. The site, La.ExceptionalLives.org, offers how-to guides on applying for benefits and services.
MAINE Rockland: An airplane traveling from Maine to Boston made an emergency landing last week when one of its cabin doors opened mid-flight, The Portland
Press Herald reports. No one was injured.
MARYLAND Silver Spring: A year after leaking gas set off an explosion that collapsed a Silver Spring apartment building and killed seven people, the investigation into the cause is ongoing.
MASSACHUSETTS Salem: Authorities say two teenage girls face child endangerment and assault and battery charges after putting an infant they were babysitting in a refrigerator and closing the door. The mother tells WBZ-TV that she’s angry but her child is fine.
MICHIGAN Cadillac: The U.S. Forest Service is seeking volunteers to fix up a historic structure at the former Chittenden Nursery in Wellston.
MINNESOTA Melrose: A cattle barn fire killed about two dozen calves in Stearns County. The cause is under investigation.
MISSISSIPPI Brandon: This Mississippi city and the National Weather Service are split over plans to build a water tower that could affect weather coverage, WAPT-TV reports. The weather service says the tower will create black zones for its Doppler radar.
MISSOURI Kansas City: University of Missouri-Kansas City Chancellor Leo Morton says he’ll step down in October instead of after the 2017-18 academic year,
The Kansas City Star reports.
MONTANA Helena: Scuba divers searched for three days but didn’t find any indication of adult invasive mussels at Tiber Dam, Montana PBS reports.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Nebraska residents are sharing stories about the last time a total solar eclipse was visible from the state as another one approaches Aug.
21. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Dennis Riesselman,
75, was 12 and living in Butte on June 30, 1954, when he saw the moon cover the sun.
NEVADA Henderson: The Nevada Department of Transportation says the first section of Interstate 11 will open Tuesday. It’s part of what will become an international trade route from Mexico to Canada.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Rochester:
Organizers of one of the oldest fairs in New Hampshire are looking for ways to rejuvenate the 10-day event. Foster’s Daily Dem
ocrat reports that the Rochester Fair’s governing board is looking to have a smaller event in the future.
NEW JERSEY Morristown: A man convicted of stabbing his ex-wife 84 times before putting a
pig mask on her face has lost an appeal of his murder conviction and 50-year prison sentence. Anthony Novellino said his sentence was excessive.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The New Mexico State Land Office is seeking compensation from Hudspeth County in Texas. Officials say loads of dirt, sand and gravel have disappeared from a stateowned parcel along the border, and an investigation found that Hudspeth County crews were using material from the site for road improvements.
NEW YORK Olean: St. Bonaventure University researchers will look at how cell phones affect students in class. A founding co-director of the center that will conduct the study says cell phones cause harm that goes beyond momentary distraction.
NORTH CAROLINA Asheboro:
Officials have been asked to remove a Confederate monument at North Carolina’s Randolph County courthouse, WFMY-TV reports. The bronze Confederate soldier was erected in 1911.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Hunters are facing a Wednesday deadline to apply for North Dakota swan licenses. A total of 2,700 licenses are available.
OHIO Maumee: Health officials in Lucas County say more than 200 cases of norovirus are linked to the Mama C’s doughnut shop in this Ohio town. And officials in neighboring Wood County are investigating whether a dozen cases reported there are linked to stores that sell Mama C’s doughnuts.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City:
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has overturned a $1.50 per-pack fee on cigarettes. The fee was expected to raise more than $250 million a year.
OREGON Eugene: An Oregon rule change allowing people who don’t identify with their gender to mark “X” on their driver’s license or ID card has been used by more than 250 people since being enacted on July 3, The
Register-Guard reports.
PENNSYLVANIA Enola: A school district that closed schools and delayed classes because of mold last year has found more mold in three schools. Officials in the East Pennsboro School District say mold was found at West Creek Hills and East Pennsboro elementary schools and East Pennsboro High School.
RHODE ISLAND Providence:
Police in Rhode Island say a man is charged with committing six robberies in less than two weeks and is a suspect in several more. The man is believed to have committed an armed robbery at a pharmacy last Wednesday and other gas station and convenience store robberies dating to July 30.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: A
review of federal records shows that the company that led the failed effort to build two new nuclear reactors in South Carolina paid its executives millions of dollars in bonuses, some of it for work on the project, The State reports.
SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen: The State Treasurer’s office is setting up a booth at the Brown County Fair to give unclaimed property back to its rightful owners. The booth will open Tuesday. South Dakota has more than $379 million in unclaimed funds.
TENNESSEE Memphis: Officials suspended new admissions at Cummings Foster Group Home in Memphis after inspectors found building standard violations. The state says the violations at the 11-bed home for the aged were found July 12 during a life safety survey.
TEXAS Livingston: A Texas death row inmate convicted three times in a 1983 botched robbery and fatal shooting of a Houston bar owner has died of apparent natural causes. Raymond Deleon Martinez, 71, was found unresponsive in his cell last week.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Salt Lake County now has extra jail beds, courtesy of Utah County, The Salt
Lake Tribune reports. Utah County has agreed to house 128 Salt Lake County inmates after ending its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
VERMONT Montpelier: Vermont’s health care regulator has granted Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont a 9.2% rate increase for the 70,000 people who get coverage via Vermont Health Connect, the state’s online benefit exchange. Blue Cross had requested a 12.7% average annual rate increase beginning Jan. 1.
VIRGINIA Richmond: A fire caused at least $75,000 in damage to the playground at Woodville Elementary School in Richmond. Authorities say children are suspected of setting the fire last week, the Richmond Times-Dis
patch reports.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Visitors to Seattle’s Burke Museum got the chance over the weekend to watch as a team of paleontologists began work on a massive Tyrannosaurus rex skull. Burke scientists unearthed the bones last year in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana.
WEST VIRGINIA Parkersburg: The City Council has voted down a nondiscrimination ordinance that would have extended protections to LGBT residents. It would have barred discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and even veteran status.
WISCONSIN Madison: State wildlife officials may turn to electric fencing to stop bears from damaging crops, Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Some drivers who were stopped for traffic violations in Cheyenne last week received “throwback” warnings instead of real tickets. The 150th anniversary celebration tickets warned of penalties such as “leaving town by sunrise.”