Around the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Clanton: An 89-year-old woman is free after spending what she says was her first night in jail for not cleaning up her appliance store.
ALASKA Anchorage: A man who poached three moose and left most of the meat to rot has been sentenced to nine months in jail and fined more than $100,000.
ARIZONA Flagstaff: Joy Cone Co., the world’s largest ice cream cone manufacturer, can bake thousands of cones every hour, but each one still has to pass inspection by a person, not a machine. The Arizona factory’s general manager says that “there is a human element to everything we do.”
ARKANSAS Mountain Home: Ben Camp, 15, is updating and expanding the automated external defibrillators at Mountain Home Public Schools for his Eagle Scout project.
CALIFORNIA San Lorenzo: A man who authorities say was possibly trying to burglarize an abandoned Chinese restaurant has been rescued from the grease vent, where he had been trapped for two days.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Forbes Magazine has ranked the city as a top U.S. travel destination to visit in 2019.
CONNECTICUT Thomaston: Tom Vaughn is working to clean up the “ancient” section of Hillside Cemetery after finding many headstones had fallen down or were knocked down. Some were vandalized, and others were propped up with sticks.
DELAWARE Wilmington: World War II vet Bob Smiley, 93, knows Santa Claus isn’t real. Or at least he thought he did, before Father Christmas took a knee, took his hands and thanked him for his service in a moving encounter at the Concord Mall.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing
ton: Meow Wolf is planning a largescale exhibition in the nation’s capital. The New Mexico-based startup company for immersive art installations says the three-story exhibit is scheduled for 2022.
FLORIDA Cape Coral: The Holiday Boat-A-Long, a 45-year tradition in which a parade of decorated boats plies city waters, runs Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. at Four Freedoms Park.
GEORGIA Macon: A commission considering a replacement for the state’s antiquated voting system plans to hold a last meeting in January before finalizing recommendations to lawmakers.
HAWAII Kailua-Kona: The state Department of Education is looking for a vendor to provide beef to schools as it continues efforts to locally source food for student lunches.
IDAHO Pinehurst: Federal officials are offering a $2,500 reward to find those responsible for an illegal timber harvest on federal land.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The Chicago Transit Authority board approved contracts for a $2.1 billion modernization project for the Red and Purple Lines.
INDIANA Indianapolis: A mysterious seven-story glass structure spawned plenty of theories, but isn’t a giant display case for Funko Pops. Turns out it’s a car vending machine. Indiana’s first Carvana opened Thursday.
IOWA Clive: Dogs are an everyday part of the job for a delivery person, but UPS employee Mary Knutson was thrown when she encountered a couple of pit bulls on a roof last week.
in KANSAS the head Derby: with A a nail man gun shot as himself he fell off a ladder but was able to walk to the site of a traffic accident to ask law enforcement for help.
KENTUCKY Richmond: Volunteers have planted more than 600 American chestnut trees at Eastern Kentucky University in an effort to restore the tree to the Daniel Boone National Forest.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: A City Council member has released a long-awaited proposal that would ban short-term rentals of whole houses in residential areas.
MAINE Augusta: A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit by a Republican incumbent who lost the nation’s first congressional election held under a candidate-ranking system.
MARYLAND Salisbury: The National Folk Festival in its inaugural year in the city had a $20 million impact on the local economy, a study finds.
MASSACHUSETTS Provincetown: Marine scientists say endangered North Atlantic right whales have been spotted in Cape Cod Bay for the first time this feeding season.
MICHIGAN Whitehall: The remains of what could be a shipwreck from 1878 have emerged through sand along Lake Michigan.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: Lawmakers are considering steps they could take to rein in the cost of insulin.
MISSISSIPPI Hattiesburg: A controversy over the name of the University of Southern Mississippi’s McCain Library and Archives has prompted the Student Government Association to form an ad hoc committee to look into the background of how university buildings have been named. The controversy centers on the desegregation views of Southern Miss’ fifth president, William McCain.
MISSOURI Kansas City: Fans of the former Negro League could have a chance to commemorate some of its stars through a series of bobbleheads. The effort is designed to help mark the upcoming centennial of baseball’s Negro National League.
killing MONTANA of a Yellowstone Billings: The National recent Park erated wolf hundreds outside of the emails park and has genphone life and calls Parks to officials Montana suggesting Fish, Wildthe hunt wasn’t lawful. But FWP officials have determined the wolf was legally hunted.
NEBRASKA Fremont: The city will keep paying former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach at least $10,000 a year to defend its immigration ordinance, but the last legal challenge to it ended in 2014.
NEVADA Reno: Downtown Reno’s oldest building is coming down, slowly. Wednesday marked the start of a four- to six-week demolition process of the more than 140-yearold Reno Mercantile Building.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Dartmouth College will respond to a recent lawsuit accusing it of ignoring professors’ sexual misconduct with a sweeping plan to combat harassment and assault, the president of the Ivy League college says.
NEW JERSEY East Rutherford: During rush hour Thursday, some drivers screeched to a halt to try to grab money off the highway after a malfunction of the back door of an armored Brink’s truck.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Wildlife managers confirm a record number of Mexican gray wolves have been reported dead this year.
NEW YORK New York: Customs officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport say they found 70 live finches hidden inside hair rollers. Authorities say a passenger arriving from Guyana had the songbirds in a duffel bag. The New York Times reports officials believe the birds were brought to the U.S. to participate in singing contests.
NORTH CAROLINA Greensboro: After two years of probation, one of just two historically black private women’s colleges in the country has lost its accreditation, threatening the 145-year-old school’s survival. But Bennett College President Phyllis Worthy Dawkins says the college has appealed the decision.
Doug NORTH Burgum DAKOTA wants Bismarck: to exempt Gov. military income pay taxes. and pensions from state
have OHIO given Wintersville: the green State light regulators to Ohio’s first medical marijuana dispensary.
director OKLAHOMA Ron Howard Duncan: says Oscar-winning he still feels was born connected but never to the lived, town after where vis- he iting the now-shuttered hospital of his birth in this town.
OREGON Salem: Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., thought he had a deal to establish new wilderness areas and help protect an area in Central Oregon from wildfire. Problem is, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., wants the wildfire protection but not the wilderness.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: The U.S. Mint is marking the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing by launching a new commemorative coin. The children of Apollo 11 crew members Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on hand at the mint Thursday at the first pressing.
RHODE ISLAND Newport: Salve Regina University has selected its next president. Kelli Armstrong will replace Sister Jane Gerety.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greer: Someone in town is hoping to help strangers keep warm this winter. Scarves and hats were found tied around light posts in Greer City Park, with notes that read, “I am not lost! If you are cold, please take me to bundle up!”
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: More fencing or barriers between public viewing areas and the Big Sioux River would mitigate drowning risks at Falls Park, according to an audit.
TENNESSEE Nashville: When Drake came to town this year, there was one name the rap star couldn’t stop saying on stage: Tay Keith. On Saturday, he’ll hear his name called out again. Brytavious Lakeith Chambers will walk in the graduation ceremony at Middle Tennessee State University.
TEXAS Austin: Powerful natural disasters in Texas on the scale of Hurricane Harvey will become more frequent because of a changing climate, warns a new report ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
UTAH St. George: The annual Shivwits Toy Drive is underway. It collects money and gifts for children on the Shivwits Reservation near Ivins.
VERMONT Colchester: State police have ended a long-standing program that used military helicopters to search for illegal marijuana farms.
VIRGINIA Richmond: A masterpiece that celebrates expansion across the continent has a new home that promises to add Native Americans’ point of view. “Progress (The Advance of Civilization),” painted in 1853 by Asher B. Durand, was unveiled at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
WASHINGTON Leavenworth: A bear cub, “Cinder,” found badly burned in a massive 2014 wildfire has been killed by a hunter.
WEST VIRGINIA Fairmont: Officials say 57 uncounted ballots have been found from the 2018 general election.
WYOMING Gillette: A facility that plans to allow companies to build pilot plants to test coal conversion technologies has been pushed back three years.