News from around the nation

ALABAMA Auburn: Two men who worked for Auburn University’s transit system operator are charged with raping an 18-yearold student on one of the system’s buses. The university says the bus system fired both suspects.

ALASKA Fairbanks: University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen has pledged to donate his bonus back to the university, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. The school’s Board of Regents approved a $50,000 bonus for Johnsen last week.

ARIZONA Flagstaff: Prairie dog holes in northern Arizona are being dusted with an insecticide to combat the plague. Fleas infected with the plague have been found recently in the area.

ARKANSAS Hot

Springs: City officials have dropped a threat to close the Arlington Hotel Resort and Spa to give the new owner time to develop a repair plan.

CALIFORNIA Fresno: Two huge tunnels that would have transformed California’s water system might become just a pipe dream. The influential Westlands Water District board this week yanked its support for the $16 billion project pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

COLORADO Denver: The EPA is installing a barrier and valve in Colorado’s inactive Gold King Mine to prevent another surge of toxic wastewater. The agency inadvertently triggered a blowout while excavating the mine in August 2015, causing river contamination in three states.

CONNECTICUT Wolcott: A former teacher of the year in this Connecticut town is charged with stealing more than $88,000 in Parent Teacher Organization funds. Authorities say Jane Gargano was a kindergarten teacher at Alcott Elementary School and the school’s PTO treasurer.

DELAWARE Wilmington: The city likely lost thousands of dollars as nearly 100 businesses and non-profit groups received free trash pickup for years, The News Journal reports. Mayor Mike Purzycki says the organizations will need to hire a private collection service by Jan. 1.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A volunteer at a suburban Washington church is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the weekly collection. Sandra Irene Cortes is charged with three counts of grand larceny that allege she took money from the Queen of Apostles Church while counting it.

FLORIDA Tallahassee: State lawmakers are looking at ways to improve preparations and responses for disasters like Hurricane Irma, including setting up gasoline reserves and making food and water available along major roads in case evacuations are ordered.

GEORGIA Atlanta: Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for two inmates accused of killing their guards on a Georgia prison bus during a June 13 escape. Donnie Russell Rowe and Ricky Dubose were arrested two days later in Tennessee.

HAWAII Honolulu: Kaiser High School will forfeit the rest of this year’s varsity and JV football games. The Cougars have played only one game, a 71-0 loss, and are dealing with a shortage of players.

IDAHO Kamiah: Authorities say an Idaho man spent two days trapped in his vehicle after it plunged into a ravine. Jacob Phillips was rescued Sunday, two days after he was reported missing. He was taken to a hospital with an apparent broken leg.

ILLINOIS Moline: Quad City International Airport is getting nearly $3.3 million in federal funds to replace runway lighting and plan for future needs. Most of the funding will be used for lighting systems on a runway and taxiway to improve safety during times of low visibility.

INDIANA Indianapolis: A major Indianapolis interstate junction will be rebuilt. Officials say the 50-year-old merging point of I-65 and I-70 known as “the north split” is near the end of its useful life. The project will fix or replace deteriorating bridges, reconfigure ramps and improve pavement conditions.

IOWA Keokuk: The city is seeking business occupants for a former casino restaurant barge, The Hawk Eye reports. Keokuk took the old Davenport Rhythm City Casino restaurant barge as a donation, and officials are deciding what to do with it.

KANSAS Wichita: Court records show that the man accused of shooting a seizure agent this week at the Kansas Department of Revenue owed almost $200,000 in unpaid sales taxes related to his construction business. The victim is in stable condition.

KENTUCKY Louisville: The University of Kentucky has picked Louisville as the site for its College of Design’s first satellite studio. Officials say the Portland neighborhood studio will give School of Architecture students valuable experience in community transformations.

LOUISIANA Bawcomville: A man wielding a golf club while chasing two people reading water meters is charged with aggravated assault, The News-Star reports. Both meter readers told authorities that Tommy Bouwell appeared to be intoxicated.

MAINE Portland: Gov. Paul LePage is calling for a suspension of tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber to ease prices as families and businesses rebuild after hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

MARYLAND Baltimore: The University of Maryland’s pharmacy school has cancelled classes on growing medical marijuana, The Baltimore Sun reports. While medical pot is legal in Maryland, the White House hasn’t indicated how it’ll handle enforcement of federal laws that still classify the drug with heroin and LSD.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The state’s highest court says field sobriety tests used in drunkendriving cases aren’t conclusive evidence that a motorist was

under marijuana influence.

MICHIGAN Detroit: A federal court filing says money stolen from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center was laundered through a fake hospice center, The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press report. A forfeiture complaint seeks $292,000 seized from accounts connected to Hospice of Metropolitan Detroit.

MINNESOTA Rochester: The city will pay police Lt. Elisa Umpierre $1 million to settle a retaliation claim. Umpierre, who agreed to retire, says she was suspended for Facebook comments, including one about excessive force by police.

MISSISSIPPI Gulfport: The Mississippi State Port Authority is suing one of its contractors over a construction project that’s more than 1½ years behind schedule, The Sun Herald reports. Southern Industrial Contractors has a $50 million deal to build terminals and transit warehouses for port tenants.

MISSOURI Lexington: The former Wentworth Military Academy alumni group won its ownership claim on the “Doughboy” statue that honors cadets who died serving their country, The Columbia Missourian reports.

MONTANA Helena: The Montana Supreme Court has ordered the attorney general to re-write a ballot statement for an initiative to have birth certificate gender listings determine use of public restrooms. The ACLU of Montana challenged the language.

NEBRASKA Beatrice: City officials have approved $189,000 in loans for five projects to revitalize downtown properties, The Beatrice Daily Sun reports.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Attorney General Adam Laxalt says 24 people were indicted in a scheme alleging they staged car crashes in Las Vegas and filed about $500,000 worth of fraudulent insurance claims.

NEW HAMPSHIRE New Boston:

A propane tank explosion collapsed a New Boston house, killing a painter in the basement, WMUR-TV reports.

NEW JERSEY Belmar: Officials say a New Jersey shore fishing pier that was rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy was damaged by high waves caused by Hurricane Jose. Belmar Mayor Matthew Doherty says a support beam detached Tuesday and pilings were knocked loose.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: County voters rejected a proposed sales tax increase that would have raised money for behavioral

health services and public safety jobs. Officials say the gross receipts tax increase would have generated about $2 million a year.

NEW YORK New York: A man who admitted swindling thousands of dollars from women by posing as an oil tycoon on dating websites faces up to 30 years in prison at his Jan. 4 sentencing.

NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: A split appeals court says a nonprofit can’t install solar panels on a church roof and charge for the electricity generated. The North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network installed the solar array at a Greensboro church, then charged about half of Duke

Energy’s rate.

NORTH DAKOTA Minot: A woman who took part in a hotel robbery and threw a burning cigarette in the face of a police officer will serve nearly a year behind bars. Heather Travnicek also was given three years of supervised probation after pleading guilty, The Minot Daily News reports.

OHIO Cincinnati: A judge says he needs more information before sentencing a woman accused of falsely claiming her son had terminal cancer and raising money for him, The Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Monika Burgett could get jail time on telecommunications fraud and child endangering convictions.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: An environmental science teacher at Broken Arrow Public Schools is Oklahoma’s Teacher of the Year for 2018. Donna Gradel won the honor after a 20-member panel of judges conducted extensive interviews with 12 finalists. Gradel is a 29-year veteran educator.

OREGON Ashland: Southern Oregon University has recovered less than a third of $1.9 million it was tricked into paying to bogus construction contractors, The Mail Tribune reports. The school wired the money in April after receiving the claim for the McNeal Pavilion and Student Recreation Center project.

PENNSYLVANIA Pymatuning Central: State officials are in- vestigating a fish kill that affected only common carp in the Pymatuning Reservoir, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Officials say the kill hasn’t affected sanctuary waters.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: A handyman is charged with failing to a report a death after a woman’s body was found in an apartment building ’s maintenance closet, The Providence Journal reports. An autopsy is being performed to determine the cause of death.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia:

Education officials say stemming South Carolina’s growing teacher shortage requires persuading teachers not to leave the profession. More than 6,000 public school teachers didn’t return to their classroom last year, while the number of education degree grads fell below 1,900.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: The South Dakota Board of Regents says fall enrollment at the state’s six public universities increased slightly compared to last year. The enrollment total at the six universities is 36,662, or 131 additional students.

TENNESSEE Nashville: State health officials report a record number of drug overdose deaths last year with 1,631, up 12% from 1,451 in 2015. Fentanyl and heroin deaths went up the most.

TEXAS Dallas: Prosecutors say CitiFinancial Credit will pay

$907,000 to settle a complaint that it violated federal law by repossessing the vehicles of active duty military personnel. Authorities say the company repossessed 164 autos owned by military personnel from 2007 to

2010 without first getting court approval.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A new state report shows that Utah’s school nursing shortage slightly worsened over the last year. The shortage left school nurses with six times the recommended students under their care, or one nurse for every 4,543 students.

VERMONT Burlington: Schools reopened Wednesday in Burlington, ending a four-day strike by the city’s 400 teachers. A tentative contract agreement was reached between the school board and the teachers’ union a day earlier. Terms weren’t disclosed.

VIRGINIA Gordonsville: A truck carrying 47,000 pounds of Hershey’s chocolate bars overturned near this Virginia community to avoid hitting a car, WCAV-TV reports. The driver wasn’t hurt, and the chocolate stayed in the truck.

WASHINGTON Seattle: The FBI is investigating claims that city police may have engaged in offduty intimidation, The Seattle Times reports. Blucadia, which matches off-duty officers with customers, claims it was blackballed by the police guild, and that potential clients fear angering police by using its services.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston:

Capital High School in Charleston was closed most of this week after the discovery of high levels of mold and carbon dioxide. Officials say the cause of the problem isn’t known. Capital was one of 14 Kanawha schools that underwent HVAC system maintenance this summer.

WISCONSIN Madison: An inmate charged with homicide and armed robbery is accused of trying to strangle a Dane County Jail deputy. Officials say Curtis Langlois managed to get his handcuffed hands around the neck of a female deputy and began choking her. Two other deputies were able to get control of Langlois.

WYOMING Cheyenne: Police are investigating the explosion of a small, homemade device in a downtown Cheyenne alley. Authorities say the device similar to a pipe bomb went off behind a corrections halfway house. Nobody was injured and no property was damaged.