STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: A University of Alabama student repeatedly used a racial slur in videos posted on social media, prompting condemnation from school officials and her apparent expulsion Wednesday. ALASKA Anchorage: Alaska’s attorney general and those from 18 other states asked Congress to change laws so marijuana businesses can start using banks. ARIZONA Phoenix: The state Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal from Chalice Renee Zeitner, a Phoenix woman imprisoned for faking a cancer diagnosis to get the state to pay for her late-term abortion.

ARKANSAS Springdale: The city is looking to potentially repair the former home of Sen. J. William Fulbright, the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and namesake of a scholarship program for international studies. CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Previously pot-friendly Calaveras County has reversed course and banned commercial marijuana farms, paving the way for lawsuits from growers who received permits and paid taxes. COLORADO Fort Collins: Bisetti’s Ristorante will close at the end of the month after 39 years in business. CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: The town of Fairfield will pay $2.1 million to the family of a woman who suffered a brain injury when her bicycle tire got caught in a road grate. DELAWARE Wilmington: Two civil rights groups are suing state and local officials, claiming Delaware is failing students from low-income families, those with disabilities and those who are learning English. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Police have charged a former Uber driver in an attempted sexual assault that was reported last month near the U.S. Capitol, WTOP radio reports. FLORIDA Boynton Beach: A fourth person, a bicyclist, has died in separate incidents after being struck by the new Brightline high-speed train.

GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia’s corrections commissioner wants lawmakers to pass a bill that stipulates that it’s illegal for a drone to cross a prison’s airspace. Dozens of drone sightings have caused lockdowns at prisons. HAWAII Honolulu: State legislators opened a new session Wednesday with vows to tackle the housing crisis and homelessness — and make sure the state never again experiences a false alarm missile alert like last weekend’s. IDAHO Boise: Longtime Republican state Rep. Dell Raybould, 84, says he will not seek re-election this year.

ILLINOIS Springfield: The race for governor cost more than $28 million in the last three months of 2017. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the leading Democratic challenger, Chicago businessman J.B. Pritzker, spent 90% of the money. INDIANA Terre Haute: A disc plant operated by Sony DADC US Inc. will lay off 375 workers starting March 23. IOWA Sioux City: Sioux City police have arrested two boys, ages 12 and 13, in connection with vandalism at a honey business that resulted in the destruction of roughly 500,000 bees. KANSAS Manhattan: A one-of-akind signed copy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s wartime memoirs, “Crusade in Europe,” has been given to Kansas State University. KENTUCKY Frankfort: “Adoption czar” Daniel Dumas, appointed to review Kentucky’s troubled child welfare system, has left Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration seven months into his appointment, the Courier Journal reports. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Almost a year after charges against him in a

1992 Robert crime Jones, spree who were spent dropped, more than

20 lawsuit years against behind the bars, New filed Orleans a federal district attorney’s office. MAINE Bridgton: An animal rescue group says it has raised enough money to save a 15-year-old pony that lost part of its penis due to cancer and frostbite. MARYLAND Baltimore: Bill Miller III, a former student, has pledged to donate what Johns Hopkins says is a record $75 million to the university’s Department of Philosophy. MASSACHUSETTS Plainville: Gambling revenue at Plainridge Park Casino was up 6% last year over 2016, the state Gambling Commission reports. MICHIGAN Grand Rapids: Davenport University is closing its main campus in Grand Rapids until Monday after about 100 students there may have contracted a norovirus.

MINNESOTA Eden Prairie: A 13year-old goldendoodle who’s blind and has cancer somehow survived five nights of bitter cold outside. He was found huddled in a window well of an Eden Prairie house. MISSISSIPPI Hattiesburg: City police officers will get a pay raise this spring, WDAM-TV reports. MISSOURI Springfield: A Republican state lawmaker is pushing a bill that would require college students to pass a civics test before they’re issued a diploma. MONTANA Billings: Michael Lange, 57, a Republican former state House majority leader, has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for his central role in a methamphetamine trafficking ring. NEBRASKA Lincoln: A Lincoln

woman, 52, has been accused of stealing more than $27,000 of her uncle’s Social Security benefits. NEVADA Las Vegas: The Lucky Dragon, an Asian-themed casinohotel that shuttered gambling and restaurant operations this month after being open for about a year, is facing foreclosure.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Hampton: Gov. Chris Sununu says he’s open to working with town officials to improve relations as the town prepares to sue the state over the cost of responding to 911 calls at the stateowned Hampton beach. NEW JERSEY Mount Laurel: Authorities say passing drivers helped rescue a motorist from a burning vehicle after an I-295 crash.

NEW MEXICO Portales: Authorities say a man who used a front-end loader to try to flip an SUV and led deputies on a chase was hospitalized after being shot by deputies.

NEW YORK New York: An appeals court says a model can sue a state agency for using a stock photo of her in an AIDS campaign because HIV is still considered “loathsome” by a segment of society. NORTH CAROLINA Lumberton: The FBI is offering a reward of up to $30,000 for information in the deaths of Christina Bennett, Rhonda Jones and Megan Oxendine in southeastern North Carolina in the

last year. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Police Chief Dan Donlin will retire this summer or early fall after 30 years on the force, including five as chief.

OHIO Cincinnati: A 67-year-old grandmother has been charged with child endangering after she left a 7-year-old boy in a running car that was then stolen. The child was dropped off unharmed about 2 miles away. The suspect faces kidnapping and robbery charges. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Officials are investigating after a Republican lawmaker found a magnetic box containing a high-tech tracking device affixed to the bottom of his truck. Four other GOP legislators have reported concerns they were being followed. OREGON Bend: All seven Deschutes County law enforcement unions have filed complaints about a new digital radio system that they say works so poorly it puts their lives and those of the public at risk. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: The city has filed a lawsuit against drug companies that make prescription opioids, saying they’ve created “an unprecedented public health crisis.”

RHODE state Senate ISLAND has Providence: approved a proposal The to stadium provide for public the Pawtucket subsidies Red for a Sox, new but future the in legislation the House. faces an uncertain SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s first State of the State address, which was scheduled for Wednesday evening, has been postponed to Jan. 24 by inclement weather. SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: Larry Lytle, 82, will plead guilty to charges that he made and sold bogus laser medical devices known as QLasers. Lytle also will repay at least $16.7 million to customers. TENNESSEE Knoxville: Great Smoky Mountains National Park is raising fees for front-country campgrounds and picnic pavilions by 10% to 25% starting March 1. TEXAS Houston: Three men have been charged with capital murder after investigators say they followed a suburban Houston couple home, forced them into their house at gunpoint, killed them, then ransacked their house.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A task force that includes a high-ranking Mormon leader, the Utah Jazz owner and the leader of an LGBT rights group has been created to address a troubling rise in teen suicides in Utah. VERMONT Brattleboro: Timothy O’Connor Jr., who in 1975 became the first Democratic speaker of the state House since the 1850s, has died at 81. VIRGINIA Charlottesville: A new multimillion-dollar center will be established at the University of Virginia, one of six around the nation tackling challenges in advancing microelectronics. WASHINGTON Kirkland: An umbrella that was mistaken for a rifle sparked a lockdown at a Seattle-area hospital. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Kanawha County library officials plan to limit patrons to three bags and will ban wheeled devices with some exceptions, including wheelchairs and strollers. Officials say the policy does not target homeless people. WISCONSIN Madison: Democrats say anger with Republican incumbents helped fuel Democrat Patty Schachtner’s upset win in a special state Senate election, energy they hope will carry over when Gov. Scott Walker faces re-election. WYOMING Yellowstone National Park: More than 50 bison escaped after someone cut a fence with bolt cutters. They were being prepared for transfer to the Fort Peck Tribes. Compiled from staff, wire reports