STATE-BY-STATE
Editor’s Note: This is an abbreviated State-By-State page. The full version will return.
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Center Point: Authorities say two adult sisters face charges from a confrontation with a school bus driver.
ALASKA Juneau: Alaska’s capital city is trying counseling for repeat shoplifting offenders.
ARIZONA Phoenix: It’s listed as one of the most dangerous railroad crossings in the U.S., so a new traffic signal is being added to a BNSF crossing in Phoenix.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The city spends nearly $10,000 daily on mandatory police overtime to fight violent crime, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: State lawmakers have voted to lower the penalty for intentionally exposing someone to HIV from felony to misdemeanor.
COLORADODen
ver: People who buy their own health insurance will be charged an average of 27% more next year in Colorado, The Denver Post reports.
CONNECTICUT New London:
Natural-lawn advocate Maggie Redfern has successfully contested a blight citation for her yard, The Day of New London reports.
DELAWARE Hartley: Police charged a driver in a fatal hitand-run with an Amish buggy.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The superintendent of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is heading to Washington temporarily as acting superintendent of National Mall and Memorial Parks, The Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
FLORIDA St. Petersburg: The University of South Florida has achieved “preeminent” desig- nation, meaning bonus dollars.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Police say a man who used a machete in a carjacking and then crashed while being chased was caught.
HAWAII Honolulu: A tour operator was fined $2,500 for harassing dolphins by dropping swimmers in front of them.
IDAHO Boise: Pocatello could be forced to refund millions of dollars in excess sewer and water fees following a recent Idaho Supreme Court ruling.
ILLINOIS Urbana: The University of Illinois is launching an initiative to hire 10 to 15 tenured, high-achieving faculty members each year over three years.
INDIANA Indianapolis: State health officials have received a $26 million federal grant to treat and counsel people with HIV.
IOWA Waterloo: A woman was seriously injured when she tried to climb through a parked train that lurched forward. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that one of her legs was severed.
KANSAS Man
hattan: The National Science Foundation has awarded Konza Prairie Biological Station and the Division of Biology $225,000 for bison research, The Manhattan Mercury reports.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: A proposed overhaul of state license plates would let drivers order flat plates online as soon as 2019, The Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The Southern Poverty Law Center says New Orleans bail firms routinely charge excess premiums.
MAINE Jay: A 9-year-old elementary student is charged with making 911 calls that put several schools in lockdown. The calls were made from a school bus.
A man accused of fatally stabbing his sister and two cousins, all under the age of 10, has been ruled competent to stand trial.
MASSACHUSETTS Fall River: The mansion where Lizzie Borden lived out her days after she was acquitted of the ax murders of her father and stepmother is for sale, The Herald News reports.
MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: A new wing is open at the University of Michigan’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
MINNESOTA Cold Spring: Rocori High School has reversed its ban on vehicle flags in the school parking lot after students staged a protest, WJON-AM reports.
MISSISSIPPI Lumberton: Mayor Quincy Rogers has vetoed an effort by a divided Board of Aldermen to remove Police Chief Elsie Cowart, who has held the office since 2012, WDAM-TV reports.
MISSOURI Columbia: A former University of Missouri chemical engineering professor must pay the school $600,000 in damages in an intellectual property suit, the Columbia Missourian reports.
MONTANA Billings: A road contractor was given seven safety citations after an excavator and truck fell in a mine pit, The Billings Gazette reports.
NEBRASKA Omaha: The Omaha Police Department says it will rely on the University of Nebraska Medical Center for forensic crime lab services as of Oct. 1.
NEVADA Reno: A Sparks Middle School teacher who was killed in a 2013 schoolyard shooting is the favorite in the search for a name for a new elementary school, The Reno Gazette-Journal reports.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord:
Police are investigating vandalism on Concord’s walking trails, WMUR-TV reports.
NEW JERSEY Randolph: Dozens of students were ordered to get blood and urine tests after a can of beer was discovered at a Randolph High School football game.
NEW MEXICO Espanola: The city has its third police chief this year. His predecessor is charged in a domestic violence case, The Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
NEW YORK Mineola: The family of a 16-year-old boy who died when a log fell on him during a football drill has filed notice of intent to sue for $15 million.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: An annual North Carolina school accountability report shows a mix of improvement and shortcomings. High school graduation rates are up, but fewer than half of elementary and middle school students are ready to tackle reading and math in the next grade.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: A judge threw out a lawsuit by a woman who says police wrongly accused of her of possessing a meth pipe.
OHIO Put-in-Bay: Investigators searched the police department, Village Hall and other places on South Bass Island, Ohio’s attorney general’s office says.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City:
Federal prosecutors charged a former bank president with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, The Oklahoman reports.
OREGON Pilot
Rock: Officials are asking the state for advice on handling wild turkeys that are leaving droppings everywhere, the East Oregonian reports.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg:
Work to replace two Pennsylvania Turnpike bridges will be done in one weekend for each project.
RHODE ISLAND Providence:
The state’s attorney general has blasted a ruling giving ownership of the nation’s oldest synagogue to a New York congregation.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia:
State officials are in Germany this week to recruit auto industry jobs, but Hurricane Irma kept Gov. Henry McMaster at home.
SOUTH DAKOTA Yankton: Gavins Point Fish Hatchery will release some 90,000 American paddlefish into two reservoirs, The Press and Dakotan reports.
TENNESSEE Nashville: A task force wants to address the opioid epidemic with pain clinic referral requirements, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.
TEXAS Austin: A city police officer quit after allegedly trying to fake his own death and fleeing to Mexico, The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV report.
UTAH Erda: Animal rights activists held weekend vigils for up to 150,000 chickens that died when an egg farm caught fire last week.
VERMONT Victory: The Vermont League of Cities and Towns has put Victory on notice about insurance coverage following multiple lawsuits, The Caledonian-Record reports.
VIRGINIA Roanoke: Twice last week, Virginia airports stopped travelers carrying loaded handguns from boarding planes, in Roanoke and Lynchburg.
WASHINGTON Seattle: The state will spend $1 million to help construct 15 charging stations for electric vehicles, The Seattle Times reports.
WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston: Yeager Airport will get a $13.5 million FAA grant to rebuild a runway safety overrun, The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.
WISCONSIN Town of Norway:
Officials in Racine County arrested two people accused of keeping a 9-year-old child in a dog kennel at a house near Wind Lake.
WYOMING Cheyenne: A federal appeals court has questioned two Wyoming laws penalizing people for trespassing to collect data about natural resources.