STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Montgomery: Major changes are envisioned near Maxwell Air Force Base, with an innovation center planned just outside the facility’s gates for major aerospace and technology firms, The Montgomery Advertiser reports.
ALASKA Chenega Island: Germany’s Berlin Ethnological Museum is returning nine objects that it says were taken without consent from the graves of native Alaskans in the 1880s.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: State utility regulators are exploring ramping up the use of forest biomass for power, The Arizona Daily Sun reports.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: One of the Navy’s newest warships is named for the state’s capital city, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The USS Little Rock was commissioned last weekend.
CALIFORNIA Fresno: Authorities say five women, a man and a baby distracted the owner of a jewelry store while a sixth woman stole gold merchandise from a safe, The Fresno Bee reports.
COLORADO Durango: Members of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe have elected a new tribal chairwoman, The Durango Herald reports. Christine Baker-Sage won the runoff election by 63 votes.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: A state judge has denied requests by the plaintiff and defendant in a sexual assault civil case to allow them to use pseudonyms, saying that such secrecy allows assaults to “flourish.”
DELAWARE Rehoboth Beach: City commissioners have scrapped a proposal to let out-of-town property owners vote in local elections, The News Journal reports.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Officials say a controlled explosion Wednesday in the metro Washington area could create a loud blast and small vibrations, The Washington Post reports.
FLORIDA Davenport: Mayor Teresa Bradley has resigned and is on sixmonths probation for using dead peoples’ disabled parking permits to park at city hall, The Bradenton Herald reports.
GEORGIA Savannah: Mergers affecting four state universities will take effect in January.
HAWAII Honolulu: Authorities are seeking tips after four house fires were intentionally set while the residents were at home, Hawaii News Now reports.
IDAHO Burley: Experts say hay prices are down in the state due to low milk prices that are depressing the market, The Capital Press reports.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Here’s your chance to own the historic Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge, the Chicago Tribune reports. The city’s Department of Transportation is going to rebuild the bridge in Jackson Park in 2019.
INDIANA Vincennes: The Friends of Vincennes’ Heritage raised more than $60,000 for a statue honoring the city’s founder, Francois Marie Bissot.
IOWA Dubuque: The Dubuque Rescue Mission is facing a growing demand for beds, The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports.
KANSAS Witchita: Drivers who give money to panhandlers could face stiff fines or even jail time under a new ordinance approved by the City Council, The Wichita Eagle reports.
KENTUCKY Hyden: The state Board of Education is seeking an emergency loan fund to support school districts facing serious financial challenges, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Using PVC pipe, state wildlife officials created a freshwater artificial reef for the 4,200-acre Vernon Lake to boost fishing opportunities.
MAINE Brunswick: KeyBank Foundation is donating $450,000 to support job growth and small businesses in rural areas of the state.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A veterinarian is charged with animal cruelty and witness intimidation at Boston Street Animal Hospital, where he no longer works.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Following a wave of customer complaints, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is ending its contract with Global Contact Services by June, The Boston Globe reports. Global was hired to manage point-to-point services for disabled riders.
MICHIGAN Grand Rapids: Grand Rapids police have seized more than 265 illegal guns so far this year, up from 254 in 2016, The Grand Rapids Press reports.
MINNESOTA Mankato: The new Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas has graphs, interactive maps and data including where, when and how many birds are breeding in the state, the Mankato
Free Press reports. MISSISSIPPI Parchman: A shakedown at a Mississippi State Penitentiary work camp last week produced a sweet bit of contraband — a pecan pie. The search also turned up cellphones and marijuana.
MISSOURI Columbia: Missouri residents blocked from posting on the governor’s social media accounts are frustrated. His office says the Facebook and Twitter accounts are not official state accounts because they preceded his taking office.
MONTANA Great Falls: An energy company has canceled plans for a wind farm, citing a $23.30 per megawatt-hour price approved by regulators as making the project unfeasible, The Great Falls Tribune reports.
NEBRASKA Scottsbluff: The North Platte Natural Resources District is raising funds for a solar-powered greenhouse to grow oranges, lemons and other tropical fruit, the Scottsbluff Star Herald reports.
NEVADA Stateline: Skiing and gambling have dominated winter tourism on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore for years, but The Record-Courier reports that travelers are hitting the slopes and slots less and climate change is threatening the snowfall. NEW HAMPSHIRE Geoffstown: School officials say the district’s business administrator has resigned over an accounting error that kept more than $10 million from going toward property tax relief since 2011.
NEW JERSEY Tren
ton: State police say two weapons and police uniforms were taken from an unmarked troop car that was stolen over the weekend.
NEW MEXICO Santa
Fe: Education officials are pulling the plug on New Mexico Connections Academy, the state’s largest online charter school.
NEW YORK Saranac Lake: This Adirondack Mountain village will put on a local snowshoe racing event in February. NORTH CAROLINA Hendersonville: Authorities say cases of whooping cough more than doubled in one week in Henderson County, from 21 to 45.
RHODE ISLAND Smithfield: An earlymorning fire Monday at the New Life Worship Center is under investigation. Officials say the fire damaged the exterior, as well as causing interior smoke damage.
SOUTH CAROLINA Clemson: A Clemson University student who managed money for the school’s sailing club is accused of using the group’s funds to pay for his tuition, rent, a spring break trip and the deposit on a class ring, The Independent Mail reports.
SOUTH DAKOTA Spearfish: City planners are accepting public feedback for a nearly $8 million reconstruction of about one mile on Jackson Boulevard, the Rapid City Journal reports.
TENNESSEE Memphis: Prosecutors say a former Shelby County deputy was convicted of attempting to extort money from an alleged drug dealer after carrying out a search warrant on the suspect.
TEXAS Fort Worth: City records show that less than half of the more than 230,000 drivers caught by cameras running red lights during the last fiscal year paid the $75 ticket, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state Game and Fish Department has set tentative opening dates for 2018 hunting seasons. The earliest is the spring turkey season, which opens April 14.
OHIO Bellbrook: Authorities say no one was hurt in a weekend fire that destroyed a barn where racing fuel was stored.
OKLAHOMA McLoud: Authorities are looking for three suspects who tried to throw contraband into the Mable Bassett Correctional Center that houses more than 1,000 female inmates.
OREGON Eugene: Police accused a man of killing his girlfriend’s disabled dog, The Register-Guard reports. Sneekers was found dead in a garbage container last weekend.
PENNSYLVANIA Boalsburg: An opening day ski lift malfunction stranded dozens of people at the Tussey Mountain resort and left five with minor injuries as some chairs collided, The Centre Daily
Times reports.
UTAH Ogden: Two school districts, in Ogden and Weber, are boosting suicide prevention efforts after a state spike in youth suicides, The Standard-Examiner reports.
VERMONT Island Pond: Scientists fear that shifting climate conditions are to blame for the state’s struggling moose population.
VIRGINIA Charlottesville: More people are moving out of Virginia than are moving in, The Daily Progress reports.
WASHINGTON Spokane: Railroads ship more than a million barrels of crude oil across the state each week, The Spokesman-Review reports.
WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: Marshall University students and staff plan to lend a hand next semester to the Soul Searching for Recovery organization that works to fight addiction.
WISCONSIN Madison: The city’s bike-sharing program is on target to record its highest annual ride total since it began more than six years ago, with about 11,000 rides, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
WYOMING Cheyenne: The Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust has acquired a 15,000-acre ranch in Sublette County for preservation. The North Cottonwood Ranch has nearly 20 miles of streams.
Compiled from staff, wire reports.