STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Montgomery: Gun control proposals failed in the Legislature after most Republican committee members skipped out on a Wednesday debate on the bills, including one to raise the age to buy an AR-15 or similar rifle.
ALASKA Kodiak: The village of Larsen Bay, population 87, will have its first luxury cruise ship visit this summer. Mayor Alice Aga says that will allow residents to supplement their income while the Icicle Seafoods processing plant is closed.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Hundreds of educators jammed Capitol hearings rooms and marched around the Legislature on Wednesday to protest what they call dismal pay and conditions for their students.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Flu has killed 203 people in the state, officials say. The Department of Health, which began tracking the deaths in 2000, says the previous record was 110.
CALIFORNIA Half Moon Bay: A jury has awarded $2.3 million to Greg Reynolds, a former major league pitcher who broke his pitching hand when he punched a man high on LSD who was breaking into his home.
COLORADO Longmont: City officials have approved tougher rules that will require landowners to obtain city permission before exterminating 25 or more prairie dogs.
CONNECTICUT Easton: A 21-year-old EMS volunteer faces voyeurism charges after allegedly taking inappropriate photos of patients in the ambulance. He is also suspected of hiding a camera inside a bathroom at the EMS building.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Hundreds of students protested the firing of Cindy Mann, principal of Padua Academy, and her attorney says they expect to file Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Two bodies were found Thursday morning after a house fire in the Mt. Rainier neighborhood. Assistant Fire Chief Alan C. Doubleday said “excessive storage conditions” hampered efforts to fight the blaze, WTOP radio reports.
FLORIDA St. Petersburg: Florida welcomed a record 116.5 million tourists last year, a 3.6% increase over 2016 even though Hurricane Irma slammed the state.
GEORGIA Savannah: City officials say they spent $4,512 sprucing up City Hall for Vice President Pence’s St. Patrick’s Day visit.
HAWAII Kailua-Kona: Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources has drafted rules to regulate manta ray excursions, a multimilliondollar industry in West Hawaii.
IDAHO Coeur d’Alene: Troy Schueller, the principal of Coeur d’Alene High School, died Wednesday after he was found at home with a gunshot wound that appeared to be self-inflicted.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Census data show that Cook County lost 20,000 residents in 2017 but kept its status as the USA’s second-most-populous county, the Chicago Tribune reports.
INDIANA South Bend: City police officers will soon be equipped with body cameras, along with guidelines on the use of the devices.
IOWA Des Moines: The GOP-controlled state House has approved more than $35 million in mid-year cuts to Iowa’s $7.2 billion budget.
KANSAS Topeka: Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach picked former rival Wink Hartman on Wednesday to be his running mate in his campaign for governor.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: State lawmakers have voted to update laws against price gouging in times of emergencies.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards says he
likely would sign a proposal banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy if state lawmakers pass it.
MAINE Augusta: Saying the $70,000 salary is too low to attract the best talent, Republican Gov. Paul LePage wants to boost the salary for the next governor to $150,000.
MARYLAND Rossville: A new needbased scholarship program would provide free tuition for eligible high school graduates at the Community College of Baltimore County.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Cranberries, the state’s top agricultural food crop, could soon face a 25% tariff on exports to Europe, the Congressional Cranberry Caucus warns.
MICHIGAN Detroit: City police are trying to curb rising overtime costs. The Detroit News reports the city paid $40 million in overtime during the 2017-18 fiscal year, up from $28.3 million the previous year.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against Regions Hospital after staff accidentally discarded a woman’s stillborn baby in dirty laundry instead of cremating the remains.
MISSISSIPPI Canton: Nissan Motor Co. will increase production of NV vans at its Mississippi plant, adding
a second shift in April.
MISSOURI Springfield: Patrick Brigaudin, 56, who authorities say was the kingpin of a methamphetamine drug ring in Springfield, has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
MONTANA Great Falls: Pondera County Sheriff Carl Suta will resign by June 1 after reaching a plea agreement to settle misdemeanor domestic violence and official misconduct charges.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: A bill in the legislature would ease stringent licensing requirements for horse massage therapists. The state currently has none.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Joshua Andrew Balelo, the former cheer team coach at Spring Valley High School, has been arrested on felony child lewdness and abuse charges involving two female students.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The state Senate on Wednesday rejected an attempt to allow local communities to ban guns in schools, with one Republican telling students in the gallery that they were afraid of death, not guns.
NEW JERSEY Somers Point: Shore Medical Center has launched a $100,000 fund drive to buy 10 new fetal monitors.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Twelve percent of African American babies are born with low birth weight, compared with 8% for whites and 9% for Latinos,
KUNM-FM reports. The rate for blacks has not improved in almost two decades. NEW YORK Albany: A new poll shows Gov. Andrew Cuomo holding big leads over two potential Republican challengers and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, a fellow
Democrat. NORTH CAROLINA Belville: Officials have moved to ban alligator hunting inside town limits.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Former U.S. Rep. Rick Berg has been elected chairman of the state Republican Party.
OHIO St. Clairsville: A prosecutor says Meredith Broome, 35, withdrew money from her stepfather’s bank account to pay a man to kill him. Broome will be charged with complicity to murder.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: An attorney for Deonte James Green, 16, who faces murder and rape charges, will request a competency hearing after an evaluation found his IQ to be 59.
OREGON The Dalles: State wildlife officials euthanized a cougar that was found inside a motel complex in the city’s business district.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: More than 300,000 teachers are receiving letters offering free credit monitoring after their personal information was released publicly last month due to a “human error,” The Morning Call reports. RHODE ISLAND Providence: Republican gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung has dropped his Providence campaign chairman over a 2015 domestic violence arrest. The charge was later dropped.
SOUTH CAROLINA Lexington: Sheriff ’s deputies say no one was seriously hurt when four vehicles were hit by rocks thrown from an Interstate 26 overpass.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The West Mall 7 Theater is seeking city permission to sell beer and wine to customers.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Jeff Teague, most recently president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, is the Tennessee Democratic Party’s new executive director. TEXAS Wylie: A rare white tiger born at an exotic animal sanctuary near Dallas has been named Kylo Ren, after a villain in Star Wars.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Women in Utah will soon be able to get birth control directly from a pharmacist rather than visiting a doctor each time they want to obtain or renew a prescription.
VERMONT Montpelier: Some rural areas are likely to lose cellphone coverage and the ability to call 911 by mobile phone, perhaps as soon as Friday, because of provider Vanu CoverageCo’s financial troubles.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The affluent suburbs of Northern Virginia are the healthiest communities in the state, and lower-income localities, especially in southern and western Virginia, have the most serious health problems, a study finds.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a measure protecting high school and college students’ rights to publish and speak freely in school-sponsored media.
WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: A doctor says a couple’s three newborn daughters are “exceedingly rare” because they are identical triplets.
WISCONSIN Madison: Republican Gov. Scott Walker wants to create 120 “Economic Opportunity Zones” in Wisconsin, a designation allowed under the new federal tax law designed to spur development.
WYOMING Cheyenne: This year’s Wyoming State Fair is being shortened from eight days to four due to a drop in state financial support because of a downturn in the state’s economy.