STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Birmingham: Birmingham City Schools has received full accreditation for the first time.

ALASKA Juneau: A sea creature that fishermen believed to be a giant squid turned out to be the decaying carcass of a humpback whale.

ARIZONA Phoenix: Excessive heat warnings have been issued for the early part of the week for Phoenix and Tucson.

ARKANSAS Heber Springs: Michael Nelson reeled in “the best catch I’ve had this year” while recently fishing: a prosthetic leg. He posted about it on Facebook and learned that the leg belonged to a woman who was in a boating accident in April. The leg will be returned to the woman.

CALIFORNIA Fort Hunter Liggett: A helicopter blew down a tent, injuring 22 people. Seventeen people were treated at a hospital and released; five were treated on scene.

COLORADO Greeley: The University of Northern Colorado has shut down two kids’ summer camps after multiple campers became ill.

CONNECTICUT Ellington: In a “freak accident,” a worker at Oakridge Dairy Farm suffered a broken jaw after being head-butted by a cow.

DELAWARE Delaware City: The Delaware City oil refinery has been given permission to cool its plant with water pumped from the Delaware River, a process that previously killed millions of fish.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A threeyear, $1.5 million study, the DC Cat Count, is going to try to find out how many cats live in the District. The project seeks to count the number of cats, including feral cats, house pets and those in shelters.

FLORIDA Tallahassee: Historian Althemese Barnes is presenting the accounts of life for black Tallahasseans during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era during a two-part series entitled “Soul Voices.”

GEORGIA Marietta: Carol June Sautter is in jail after putting the body of her newborn son in a freezer. A warrant says the baby went through a full term but did not survive.

HAWAII Honolulu: Justin Waiki, who was suspected of gunning down a Hawaii police officer, was killed during a shootout with officers Friday after a three-day search for him across the Big Island.

IDAHO Caldwell: A woman told deputies her religious beliefs prompted her to pray for her husband instead of telling police that he sexually abused young relatives. Sarah Kester and Lester Kester Jr. both have been arrested.

ILLINOIS Brookfield: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has filed a lawsuit against the Brookfield Zoo in a search for documents that could shed light on the 2015 deaths of 54 stingrays.

INDIANA Indianapolis: A state report shows that about 45 percent of students at Indiana’s public universities are completing bachelor’s degrees within a four-year period. That is up 11 percentage points from 2013.

IOWA Iowa City: A special state audit has identified more than $57,000 in improper and unsupported purchases of gift cards, clothing, shoes and computer equipment by Amanda Shumaker, made through the University of Iowa dental school.

KANSAS Witchita: Wichita State University plans to start a marching band this fall. The band, which will be called the “Shocker Sound Machine,” will include brass, saxophone and a drum line.

KENTUCKY Lexington: The Fayette County Public Schools board voted for a property tax increase that will fund a $13.5 million initiative to help prevent school shootings. The 5cent added tax for every $100 of property values will pay for safety upgrades.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: Practitioners of the hair-removal technique “eyebrow threading” no longer need hundreds of hours of expensive training to work in the state. New requirements consist only of a test and a permit with costs totaling $50.

MAINE Portland: The Community Chamber of Commerce delivered a check for $13,000 so the jobs-for-panhandlers program can continue.

MARYLAND Baltimore: The purchase of a nearly $72,000 robot has been approved to assist the Baltimore Police Department’s dive team.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Massachusetts is moving closer to raising the minimum age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco and vaping products from 18 to 21.

MICHIGAN Harbert: Turkish cafe owner Ibrahim Parlak, who has been facing deportation for more than a decade, was granted a deferral of removal and will be allowed to stay in the U.S.

MINNESOTA Eagan: Sun Country Airlines terminated its contract with Global Aviation Services of Toronto – which recently took over the airline’s ground operations – because the company did not meet its standards.

MISSISSIPPI Gulfport: A seventh Mississippi Gulf Coast real estate investor is pleading guilty to charges that she helped rig bids in foreclosure auctions.

MISSOURI Kansas City: Texas County Sheriff James Sigman and Lt. Deputy Jennifer Tomaszewski have been indicted on charges of assault, robbery, child endangerment, unlawful use of a weapon, harassment and two misdemeanors.

MONTANA Billings: A jury has awarded $300,000 to a mother who claimed that the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch failed to protect her son from being sexually abused by other residents.

NEBRASKA Omaha: Firefighters have deployed a new, high-tech device to test potentially dangerous substances. Federal grant money paid for the $46,000 mass spectrometer, which can identify 30,000 substances.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Tesla has announced an initial $1.5 million education grant to two school districts and seven nonprofits — part of a 5-year, $37.5 million investment.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: Bruce Crochetiere, founder and chairman of Focus Technology Solutions, has dropped his bid for the Republican nomination for 1st Congressional District.

NEW JERSEY Long Branch: Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill banning smoking at public beaches and parks, yet towns can opt out and set aside designated areas.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Authorities investigating a deadly commercial passenger bus crash along Interstate 25 say one of the passengers was carrying a backpack filled with almost $100,000 in cash. The discovery has prompted a separate investigation.

NEW YORK New York: Ta-Nehisi Coates is leaving his job as a national correspondent for The Atlantic.

NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The state has its first recorded death of the West Nile virus this year.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Police say social media postings helped track down three teenagers in connection with vandalism at Sleepy Hollow Theatre and Arts Park. The three have been cited for burglary and criminal mischief.

OHIO Cleveland: City Council has approved moving police headquarters into the building that formerly housed the Plain Dealer newspaper. The project will cost an estimated $60 million.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Construction of the $235.5 million, 605room Omni Hotels and Resorts is set to start in September.

OREGON Corvallis: Oregon State University professor David Blunck is using federal funding to conduct research on how embers form and spread during devastating wildfires.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Auditor General Eugene DePasquale says legalizing and taxing the sale and use of marijuana at 35 percent could add more than a half-billion dollars to state coffers.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Health care companies Tufts Health Plan and Lifespan are joining the state’s bus authority to sponsor an electric bicycle rental service. Jump Bikes plans to launch in late August at a cost of $2 for a half hour of riding.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The state’s sales tax-free weekend is set for Aug. 3-5.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The $1.8 million Arc of Dreams public art project has been delayed. The stainless steel sculpture by artist Dale Lamphere.was scheduled to be in place over the Big Sioux River by July, The Argus Leader reported. The project’s leadership now expects installation to be complete in October.

TEXAS Houston: The “Hero Tree,” named for Texas Air National Guard Capt. Gary Herod, who sacrificed his life to save others in a 1961 jet crash, has been cut down. A new memorial spot is being planned.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Mormons Building Bridges, an LGBTQ support group, has been denied from participating in the privately funded Days of ’47 parade for a fifth year in a row.

VERMONT Montpelier: Vermont Tax Commissioner Kaj Samson is taking responsibility for property tax bill errors after as many as 4,500 property tax bills went out with the wrong rate or missing an adjustment.

VIRGINIA Louisa: Officials say a giant Confederate flag visible beyond the tree line along Interstate 64 has to come down because the flagpole is taller than the 60-foot maximum allowable height.

WASHINGTON Vancouver: The Clark County Sheriff ’s Office has fired Deputy Erin Willey, who was photographed wearing apparel affiliated with the Proud Boys, a far-right group known for white nationalist rhetoric.

WEST VIRGINIA Montgomery: An Ohio couple made the winning auction bid of $60,000 to purchase the 17-acre Eastern Wheeler Island.

WISCONSIN Sheboygan Falls: A pilot died and two people were injured after a small plane crashed into a farm.

WYOMING Laramie: The remains of a man thought to have drowned in the Laramie River seven years ago have been identified as those of Keith Lantz.