STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Leeds: The Freedom From Religion Foundation has asked a school district to end a high school band’s Christianthemed football halftime show. It says a parent asserted that the band director told students opposed to the routine that they could leave the band.

ALASKA Bethel: The cemetery in Kongiganak has begun to sink as the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s permafrost thaws. Some villages in the area have stopped burying their dead because digging in the soggy ground worsens the problem, KYUK-FM reports.

ARIZONA Phoenix: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, the only seller of individual health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act in 13 rural counties, says it will decrease premiums about 1% in 2018 after initially proposing a 7.2% increase.

ARKANSAS Pocahontas: State police say Wisam “Troy” Algburi is under investigation for alleged threats to blow up the Black River Law Enforcement Training Academy. Algburi, 29, was fired from the Marion Police Department after being dismissed from the academy.

CALIFORNIA Oakland: Attorneys for the family of a 3-year-old foster child who died after ingesting methamphetamine for a second time have sued Alameda County, saying the girl should have been removed from a Stockton foster home after she swallowed the drug the first time.

COLORADO Denver: Lawmakers ended a special session of the Legislature on Tuesday amid squabbling between Republicans and Democrats and without a fix to an intricate spending law that stripped some quasi-governmental agencies of the ability to collect sales taxes on recreational marijuana.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: The state House of Representatives chose not to vote Tuesday on an override of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget veto. Republicans acknowledged they did not have the 101 votes necessary to force through their $40.7 billion twoyear budget plan.

DELAWARE Dover: A 76-year-old man has been charged in a convenience store robbery in Dover.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Parking will be prohibited on portions of Connecticut Avenue NW on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings beginning Oct. 19 because the Dupont Circle area’s thriving nightlife is causing congestion and poses safety hazards, WTOP radio reports.

FLORIDA Fort Lauderdale:

Federal investigators say 12 people are accused of defrauding the government out of more than $20 million by illegally trading food stamps for cash in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

GEORGIA Stonecrest: This city east of Atlanta is taking steps to create a brand new city in hopes of luring Amazon’s new corportate hub. On Monday, the City Council voted 4-2 to de-annex 345 acres of land and ask the General Assembly to form the city of Amazon there.

HAWAII Honolulu: After a recent series of dog bites, fires and vandalism blamed on the estimated 180 homeless people in the area, officials will close Kakaako Waterfront Park, Kakaako Gateway Park and Kewalo Basin indefinitely, starting Sunday, while the campers are removed.

IDAHO Boise: The U.S. government has accused a top Micron Technology Inc. executive of sharing insider information with his wife, aunt and uncle. Anand Jayapalan, who was hired by Micron six weeks ago after working at SanDisk, is accused of giving them information about

SanDisk in 2014 that helped them make hundreds of thousands of dollars on illegal stock trades, the Idaho Statesman reported.

ILLINOIS Urbana: Press kits, film reviews and other memorabilia collected during film critic Roger Ebert’s tenure at the Chicago Sun-Times will become part of a University of Illinois collection. Ebert died in 2013 at 70.

INDIANA Indianapolis: The state Supreme Court has ruled that while the age of consent for sexual activity in the state is 16, sending a sexually explicit photo to anyone under 18 is a felony. The court acknowledged the law’s inconsistency but unanimously upheld it in its ruling Monday.

IOWA Des Moines: City officials have approved $62,000 for a phone survey as they explore whether to seek a 1-cent sales tax in Polk County. The county is one of the few in the state without such a tax.

KANSAS Kansas City: A man who calls himself rapper C-Los El Gran was sentenced to 14 years in prison for participating in a $4 million drug trafficking ring. Carl Sierra, 30, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: Gwen R. Pinson has been named executive director of the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state.

LOUISIANA Monroe: The state Department of Health says the North Monroe water system has tested negative for the presence of a brain-eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, after a positive test June 29.

MAINE Saco: Fans camped out a full day in advance to prepare for the state’s first- Krispy Kreme, which opened Tuesday morning.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Police say 266 people were killed during the first nine months of the year, four more than the previous record set in 1992. City officials are focusing on a strategy that calls for getting more police officers out on the streets.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Authorities say 24-year-old Curtis Simoneau, of Framingham, has been sentenced to 17 years in

prison for sexually exploiting about 150 boys by posing as a 14-year-old girl and convincing them to send him nude photos and videos of themselves.

MICHIGAN Burton: A former police sergeant has admitted to abusing prescription drugs he collected from several police agencies through pill take-back programs. Shawn Duncanson told investigators he took pills collected from the departments and the Burton Senior Center as well as a prescription opiate from evidence for his own use.

MINNESOTA Fergus Falls: A 64-year-old New York Mills man faces his 28th DWI charge. Danny Lee Bettcher was charged last week in Otter Tail County with felony-level drunken driving and refusing to submit to a preliminary breath test.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Mike Hurst has been confirmed as the new U.S. attorney for the southern half of Mississippi.

MISSOURI Springfield: City officials have narrowly approved a controversial ban on pit bulls. Owners who register their dogs before Jan. 1 can keep the animals in the city, but no new registrations will be accepted after Jan. 1. Opponents of the ban want to put the issue to a popular vote.

MONTANA Missoula: Seth Bodnar has accepted a preliminary offer to become president of the University of Montana. Bodnar was the only one of the four finalists without a doctorate, and his career is made up of roughly six years at General Electric and eight years in the military. He is a Rhodes scholar with two master’s degrees from the University of Oxford.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Taxi company owners oppose a proposed ordinance that would eliminate background checks and physicals for people who drive for ridehailing companies such as Uber and Lyft but keep the requirements in place for traditional taxi drivers.

NEVADA Las Vegas: A business innovation center recently hosted a training program that aimed to teach cybersecurity skills to homeless people.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: The U.S. Coast Guard says part of the Piscataqua River will be closed to marine traffic for 10 days starting Oct. 17. The closure will allow for installation of a new lift span for the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, which connects Portsmouth with Kittery, Maine.

NEW JERSEY Newark: Seven East Side High School students were suspended after a transgender student was assaulted. NJ.com reports that Kylie Perez, 14, was attacked last week in a hallway. The student who beat Perez and those who recorded the attack have been suspended. No charges have been filed.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Democratic State Auditor Tim Keller and Republican City Council member Dan Lewis won the top two spots in Albuquerque’s mayoral race and will face off in a November runoff, according to unofficial results Tuesday.

NEW YORK Tarrytown: Firefighters doused a blaze that started on wooden pylons under the old Tappan Zee Bridge early Tuesday. The cause had not been determined.

NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte has named Clarence Armbrister its new president. Armbrister, currently president of Philadelphia’s Girard College, will take office Jan. 1.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: A proposal by state judges who say out-of-state lawyers are no longer needed to represent Dakota Access pipeline protesters has drawn hundreds of complaints.

OHIO Columbus: Two in five Ohio households are struggling to come up with enough resources to provide basic necessities, according to a United Way study released Wednesday.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: State lawmakers are studying the cost of a high-speed rail system that would link Tulsa and Oklahoma City. An interim study was presented Tuesday to the Senate Transportation Committee.

OREGON Corvallis: Oregon State University is gathering input on whether to rename four cam- pus buildings named for people who may have held racist views.

PENNSYLVANIA Lititz: Bank holding company BB&T is closing a call center in central Pennsylvania and laying off 82 employees.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo slammed the state’s biggest media outlets Tuesday for what she sees as critical or insufficient coverage of her administration. Raimondo said at Brown University that “broadcast news has become almost like talk radio,” and the largest newspaper, The Providence Journal, is “a shadow of its former self ” because it has cut back on reporters.

SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: The International African American Museum, to be built on the site where nearly half the slaves first arrived in North America, has received a $10 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. Museum officials say they are about $9 million away from their fundraising goal.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Secretary of State Shantel Krebs says a presidential commission investigating election fraud can purchase South Dakota voter information. Krebs told the commission last week that the fee for the statewide voter registration file is $2,500. Driver’s license and Social Security numbers and full birthdates would be redacted.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Gov. Bill Haslam is headed on trade mission to Asia next week to pitch companies in Japan and South Korea about investment opportunities in Tennessee.

TEXAS San Antonio: H-E-B has recalled a diced chicken thigh product from its 114 supermarkets. The supermarket chain said the Mi Tienda Pollo Casero was mislabeled as pork, and the packages do not reveal a wheat allergen in the product.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is endorsing Provo Mayor John Curtis in the race to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz in the GOP-dominated 3rd Congressional District. Curtis will face Democratic physician Kathie Allen and Jim Bennett, who is running with a new independent party called United Utah, on Nov. 7.

VERMONT Burlington: Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s and leaders of a group that promotes the rights of immigrant farm workers say they’ve reached an agreement that improves pay and working conditions of the workers on farms that provide milk to Ben & Jerry’s while paying more to their employers.

VIRGINIA Charlottesville: An attorney hired by the city to evaluate its handling of white nationalist and Ku Klux Klan rallies has told city officials he will issue his report by the end of the year.

WASHINGTON Everett: A woman who stabbed a man she met on Craigslist and told police she intended to become a serial killer was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Amy Brown told police she had planned to eat the man’s heart after killing him, but he escaped and survived.

WEST VIRGINIA Bluefield: A former funeral director has pleaded guilty in an insurance fraud case. Joel L. McGuire, 61, of Alderson, was director of Broyles-McGuire Funeral Home in Union. Prosecutors say he sold insurance policies to pay for clients’ funerals and received more than $50,000 in false claims for clients who had not died.

WISCONSIN Madison: State superintendent Tony Evers, who is running for governor as a Democrat, spoke out Tuesday against a resolution pending at the University of Wisconsin that could lead to students being expelled for protesting at campus events and speeches.

WYOMING Casper: Police say a man they arrested for public intoxication claimed he had traveled back in time from the year 2048 to warn the people of Casper that aliens were coming. The man told police the only way he was able to time travel was to have aliens fill his body with alcohol, KTWO-AM reports.