State-by-state

What’s happening across the nation

ALABAMA Hoover: A high school teacher has been charged in two road rage incidents. AL.com reports 23-year-old Amol Kaushal, 23, was arrested last week in connection with an Oct. 12 encounter and arrested again this week in connection with an Aug. 30 incident. He is charged with menacing in each incident.

ALASKA Anchorage: A seal weighing about 450 pounds was removed from the Utqiagvik Airport runway by way of sled, KTVA reported. A photo and video of the bearded seal lounging on the runway was shared on Facebook. The state Department of Transportation warned pilots of “low sealings” at the airport.

ARIZONA Phoenix: State Department of Transportation officials will use a $6 million federal grant to help pay for the Loop 101 project, which will include a system to provide drivers with real-time information on detours for crashes, disabled vehicles and other incidents.

ARKANSAS Jonesboro: Risever, a Chinese company that makes machine parts for heavy equipment is spending $20 million to build a manufacturing facility that will employ 130 people. Risever makes machine parts for manufacturers that include Caterpillar, Volvo and Komatsu.

CALIFORNIA Stockton: The Stockton airport has, for now, shelved a proposal to add “San Francisco” to its name. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that city officials received a letter of protest from the San Francisco International Airport saying the proposed name change would cause confusion.

COLORADO Lone Tree: iFLY Denver skydiving center is giving students a chance to fly as part of a statewide push to increase STEM education opportunities for K-12 students, especially girls. The Denver Post reported iFLY Denver invited about 30 educators for a program that addresses the physics of human flight.

CONNECTICUT Milford: A Connecticut school district says it will carry the overdose reversal drug naloxone. The New Haven Register reported that Milford Health Director Deepa Joseph and the schools’ medical coordinator confirmed that Milford is among the first in the state to make naloxone or Narcan, available in elementary schools.

DELAWARE Wilmington: New Castle County youth will be some of the beneficiaries of employment opportunities made possible for non-profit organizations. The West End Neighborhood House and its county partners are rolling out a paid career program for 150 people ages 16-24.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A higher proportion of people in the Metro system were injured in July, August and September than the same period last year, WTOP reported. The bus rider injury rate rose 22% to 2.28 per million trips. Reported Metrorail injuries rose to 1.24 per million trips.

FLORIDA Tallahassee: Republican Gov. Scott says he’ll ask legislators to set aside $63 million for school supplies, giving each teacher $100 more to spend.

GEORGIA Roswell: Sandra Sidhom, a candidate for mayor, has been ruled ineligible less than two weeks before the election. The Fulton County District Attorney said Sidhom has not lived in Roswell for at least one year before the Nov. 4 election.

HAWAII Honolulu: The City Council’s Zoning and Hearing Committee was to consider four proposals aimed at resolving issues tied to bed-and-breakfasts and other vacation rentals, the Star Advertiser reported. Proponents want to allow for more units to operate legally. Opponents say rentals contribute to the housing crunch.

IDAHO Nampa: Researchers at Northwest Nazarene University have identified a possibly undiscovered species of frog. Customs authorities in Hong Kong had confiscated tree frogs that were thought to be crowned and fringe-limbed species, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported. In order to confirm a species as new, it must be found and observed in the wild.

ILLINOIS Mahomet: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is suing Peoples Gas over an underground natural-gas leak that has affected water wells in the central part of the state. The News-Gazette said Peoples Gas spokesman Brian Manthey said the company has installed four gas-water separators.

INDIANA West Lafayette: Cytomics Analytical LLC, founded by Purdue University scientist J. Paul Robinson, has landed government funding to adapt Blu-ray technology into a device for detecting early-stage cancers. has received nearly $150,000 in federal funding and $50,000 in state funding.

IOWA Sioux City: The Woodbury County Courthouse needs $12 million in repairs, a consultant told county supervisors. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

KANSAS Lawrence: An activist who was banned from a building at the University of Kansas has been hired to teach on another part of campus. Caleb Stephens was banned after a confrontation in 2015 with the then-Dean Paul Smokowski, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: The Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System has been plagued by “systemic” problems that contributed to its chronic funding woes, Senate President Robert Stivers said.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: Country music great George Strait makes his only scheduled festival appearance next year at the Bayou Country Superfest over the Memorial Day weekend.

MAINE Woodland: State police say Ryan Lowell flipped his pickup truck while trying to find a lighter he had dropped. Lowell, 29, was driving on Route 161 in Woodland when he became distracted.

MARYLAND Annapolis: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is returning to his alma mater to address the Brigade of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on leadership and service. McCain will speak Monday at Alumni Hall.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Another rare North Atlantic right whale has been found dead on Nashawena Island, according the International Fund for Animal Welfare. There are fewer than 500 North Atlantic right whales left, scientists say.

MICHIGAN Lansing: Legislation approved 101-5 by the Michigan House would shield cybersecurity information from public records requests. Supporters say the exemptions are designed to ease companies’ concerns about divulging private and sensitive data to police investigators.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Work will begin next month on a $6.7 million construction project to restore an island on the Mississippi Rive, Minnesota Public Radio reportedHall’s Island will get a natural habitat and a 3,000-foot-long channel for kayaking and boating.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Gov. Bryant is talking to more outside groups about ways to improve the state’s second-largest school district. Bryant is talking to the nonprofit Kellogg Foundation, the Education Commission of the States and Mississippi’s Barksdale Reading Institute.

MISSOURI Point Lookout: The College of the Ozarks, an evangelical Christian college is requiring freshman to take Patriotic Education and Fitness, a class designed to educate students on military customs, U.S. politics and flag protocol and procedures.

MONTANA Helena: Disability Rights Montana has filed a lawsuit against the Office of Public Instruction and a rural school district saying a 16-year-old disabled boy has not received any formal education in three years.

NEBRASKA Wakefield: Facebook is partnering with Trade Winds Energy to build the Rattlesnake Creek Wind Project. The Sioux City Journal reported that Facebook plans to use the energy to power its data center in Papillion, a suburb of Omaha.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Caesars Entertainment’s President and CEO Mark Frissora said his company is seeing a decrease in casino play from Asian guests as a result of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: David Shulkin, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, has replaced Michael Mayo-Smith as leader of a task force looking at the future of New Hampshire’s only veterans hospital. Jennifer Lee, the VA’s deputy under secretary of Health for Policy and Services, took his place.

NEW JERSEY Glassboro: Rowan University president Ali Houshmand is using his culinary skills and his hot sauces to help raise money for student scholarships. All proceeds from the sauce sales go to Rowan’s Student Scholarship Fund.

NEW MEXICO Gallup: Northwestern New Mexico will have its own veterans cemetery by 2019 through a federal grant. The Gallup cemetery will serve veterans of McKinley and Cibola counties, as well as communities in the Four Corners area, the Navajo Nation and pueblos.

NEW YORK New York: Ten documents presumed to have been destroyed during the Holocaust are on display at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The documents were hidden to protect them from the Nazis and resurfaced in 2016.

NORTH CAROLINA Dublin: Six-term Rep. Bill Brisson, a Democrat, told WECT-TV he was filing paperwork to change his voter affiliation and will seek re-election in 2018 as a Republican.

NORTH DAKOTA Fort Totten: Residents of the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation are seeking to change their alcohol sales laws. The Devils Lake Journal reported they may allow the sale of alcohol in restaurants and for special events.

OHIO Cleveland: Charity Tillemann-Dick, an opera singer still performing after two double lung transplants has premiered American Rainbow which she wrote to honor the immigrant roots of her more recent donor. She and her donor’s daughter sang at a Cleveland medical summit

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The Oklahoma Supreme Court has tossed another revenue bill passed by the Legislature. The court ruled 6-3 that the new registration fees of $100 for elec- tric and $30 for hybrid vehicles was unconstitutional.

OREGON Astoria: State wildlife managers say cougar populations appear to be increasing elsewhere along the Oregon Coast. State biologists are beginning the first coastal effort to attach GPS collars to adult cougars.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: The state Senate is advancing legislation to bar coverage for gender or sex reassignment surgery in the federally subsidized Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Republicanpenned bill passed 37-13, over the protests of Democratic lawmakers who called it discriminatory.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Adventurous Journeys Capital Partners, a Chicago-based hospitality company, has purchased the Providence Biltmore Hotel, which was built in 1922.

SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Information technology company Blue Eye Soft Corp., is expanding its operations, adding 120 jobs in Greer over the next two to four years.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Harold Wittrock, 94, of Rock Rapids, Iowa is suing First National Bank in Sioux Falls claiming its employees set up an account that enabled a relative to raid his annuity. Wittrock said a relative established an account by forging his signature and began withdrawing funds beginning in 2009, The Argus Leader reported,

TENNESSEE Nashville: Four industrial sites in Tennessee will receive help from the Select Tennessee Certified Sites program to make them more attractive to companies looking to expand or relocate.

TEXAS College Station: The “Deep From the Heart” concert to benefit victims of hurricanes has raised about $2.6 million in addition to $31 million collected before it took place.

UTAH Ogden: A teen girl agreed to a plea deal this week after being accused of speeding into another car and killing two people last year when police tried to pull her over on her way to carry out a suicide pact. The 17-yearold will be held in a juvenile facility until she is 21. She then will serve time in state prison.

VERMONT South Burlington: South Burlington’s public library hopes to open a transitional location in the city’s mall by the end of the year. City Public Information Officer Coralee Holm said the transitional space will be used for three years.

VIRGINIA Portsmouth: U.S. Navy investigators say security personnel at Norfolk Naval Shipyard created an unauthorized police force that wasted up to $21 million on equipment, manpower and vehicles that included a highspeed boat.

WASHINGTON Spokane: The state has issued a 20-year-plan to reduce the number of wildfires in 1.25 million acres in eastern Washington. The plan is a combination of forest restoration prescribed burns.

WEST VIRGINIA Parkersburg: Gov. Justice this week toured the 420,000-foot warehouse property owned by Intercontinental Export Import Inc., or IEI Plastics. Justice said he stepped in with an emergency declaration to keep state funds flowing.

WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Walker says the Department of Natural Resources’ forestry operations will move from Madison to Rhinelander.

WYOMING Gillette: The University of Wyoming is partnering with Clean Coal Technologies to develop coal refining technology. The firm plans to move its test plant to the Powder River Basin in northeast Wyoming, The Gillette News Record reported.