Around the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: A high-tech facility designed to spur innovation and help new businesses has opened in a part of the city hit by a killer tornado nearly eight years ago. The Tuscaloosa News reports The Edge is aimed at supporting entrepreneurial collaboration and innovation.
ALASKA Juneau: A couple of Los Angeles-based producers are working to develop a TV series set and filmed in southeast Alaska. The Juneau Empire reports Helena Sardinha and Rafael Thomaseto are planning an eight-episode, fictional anthology series called “Sitka.”
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Desert Botanical Garden is holding an 80th anniversary party Saturday with cake, food trucks and a big discount on admission – $8, down from the usual $24.95.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Arkansas House has approved a plan to join other states in asking for a national convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The proposal heads back to the Senate to concur.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Federal forestry officials say the die-off of trees in the state’s forests slowed in 2018 thanks in part to the state receiving more rain.
COLORADO Loveland: Officials say nearly 4.6 million people visited Rocky Mountain National Park last year, breaking the park’s attendance record.
CONNECTICUT New Haven: The FBI and Yale University police are inviting teenagers to take part in a youth academy aimed at sparking interest in law enforcement careers.
DELAWARE Newark: A nap in the back of a car turned into a surreal nightmare for a tired musician after thieves jumped in and began to drive off Sunday. Justin Koerner woke up inside his crashed car and struggled to convince police of his story.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: The city is suing four Maryland parents and a district worker, saying they falsified residency records to enroll children in district schools.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: The Legislature is considering five new specialty license plate options for motorists, including ones promoting honeybees and the gopher tortoise. Another would pay for mental health counseling for shooting survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 in Orlando, which killed 49 people.
GEORGIA Savannah: Emergency managers are looking for about 200 volunteers to help make more realistic an evacuation drill next month.
HAWAII Honolulu: Buildings at a shopping mall have been renamed in the Hawaiian language. The Pearlridge Shopping Center has adopted the name Wai Makai for its complex formerly known as Downtown.
IDAHO Boise: Legislation has been introduced to honor Tom Cade, a conservationist who led efforts to prevent the extinction of the state raptor, the peregrine falcon.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The headliner at a March fundraiser for the Illinois Innocence Project will be The Exoneree Band, made up of wrongfully convicted musicians.
INDIANA Indianapolis: BrewDog, the Scotland-based brewery that brought the world its first craft beer hotel, is opening a bar in the city.
IOWA Des Moines: The City Council has approved a plan to create a new version of Riverview Park, the site of a much-loved but long-closed amusement park.
KANSAS Andover: The public library has rejected a request to move three children’s books with LGBT characters out of the kids’ section.
KENTUCKY Covington: Northern Kentucky is getting its own bourbon festival this fall. Kentucky’s Edge Bourbon Conference and Festival is branded as the “South By Southwest of Bourbon.”
MAINE Skowhegan: Organizers of the Maine Moose Festival say Guinness World Records has signed off on its record-setting attempt featuring 1,054 people simultaneously moose-calling.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A new study from Johns Hopkins University says crime-ridden commutes correlate with higher rates of student absenteeism in the city.
MASSACHUSETTS Quincy: A cab driver is being praised by police for helping an 87-year-old woman from being taken by a classic scam. Richard Spencer tells The Patriot Ledger the woman told him she was going to Walmart to purchase thousands of dollars in gift cards. Instead, he drove her to the police station.
MICHIGAN Lansing: The state is cutting in half its catch limit for yellow perch this year.
MINNESOTA Jackson County: The sheriff says a dog named Donald Trump wasn’t shot and killed over a political rivalry, despite false claims circulating on social media that have spurred “violent threats” against some county residents. The sheriff ’s office concluded the person who shot the dog Sunday was “legally protecting their livestock” on private property.
MISSISSIPPI Meridian: About 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel have spilled from a railroad yard, with some of the material getting into a nearby waterway, Sowashee Creek.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Authorities are investigating why a small amphibious
plane landed in the Mississippi River near the Gateway Arch, setting off a brief panic.
MONTANA Helena: The state House of Representatives has tentatively approved a bill adopting Indigenous Peoples Day and dropping Columbus Day.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: An already sizable expansion project at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo is growing even bigger after donations exceeded the original fundraising goal by millions of dollars. The extra funding will allow the zoo to add a cheetah habitat, a giant anteater exhibit, a playground, a cafe and an event lawn with a stage. The money will also allow the zoo to remain open year-round for the first time since opening in 1995.
NEVADA Reno: The Washoe County School Board has approved spending $1.6 million for online courses.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Gov. Chris Sununu’s proposed budget legalizes sports betting and estimates it would eventually generate $10 million a year in additional revenue for the state.
NEW JERSEY Camden: PATCO Hi-Speedline commuters will get a huge price break Friday morning, when fares will be rolled back to 1969 prices to mark the 50th anniversary of service.
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: The 2019 Las Cruces International Film Festival gets underway Feb. 19-24, and actors including Edward James Olmos and Beverly D’Angelo will be honored at the event.
NEW YORK Albany: A new exhibit at the state Capitol, “People of New York,” tells the story of the state’s diverse people through images and objects reflecting 400-plus years of immigration and assimilation.
NORTH CAROLINA Windsor: Drivers were startled Wednesday to see a hungry bear that got stuck in the back of garbage truck and took a ride down U.S. Route 17.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state’s Republican-led House has passed a measure that would outlaw
sobriety checkpoints in the state.
OHIO Toledo: Keepers at the Toledo Zoo are welcoming a new polar cub, but they haven’t been able to get close enough in the past two months to determine whether the new addition is a boy or a girl.
OKLAHOMA Edmond: Despite dying in December, then-Mayor Charles Lamb has advanced to the general election following a Facebook campaign supporting him.
OREGON Salem: The number of people camping in state parks hit a record in 2018.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Zoo is bringing back its iconic Zoo Keys. The plastic keys, shaped like different animals, unlock book-shape boxes throughout the park with prerecorded stories from zookeepers and “insider secrets” about the animals.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A new research vessel for oceanographers in New England has been named the RV Resolution.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The winner of a $1.54 billion lottery jackpot in South Carolina has yet to come forward. That means the state might be a big loser too. Economic officials estimated the winner would pay $61 million in state income taxes and put that money into the budget.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Soybean production in the state set a record high last year, while the dry pea crop was a record low.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The state has become the first in the South with a hate crime statute protecting transgender individuals.
TEXAS Dallas: The City Council has voted for the removal of the Confederate War Memorial after 121 years.
UTAH Springdale: President’s Day weekend has officials at Zion National Park and Snow Canyon State Park urging visitors to be ready for record crowds.
VERMONT Montpelier: The American Society of Civil Engineers has given the state a “C” grade on the condition of its infrastructure.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Two advocates for the Equal Rights Amendment were handcuffed and escorted away by police after staging a “die in” outside state House Speaker Kirk Cox’s office Thursday morning.
WASHINGTON Spokane: Environmental groups plan to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to prevent the recent loss of the last herd of mountain caribou in the Lower 48 states.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The 23rd annual West Virginia History Day is being held next Thursday at the state Capitol.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Elton John’s goodbye to the city isn’t going as planned. The superstar’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour stop scheduled for Fiserv Forum on Tuesday is being postponed. It’s now scheduled to take place Oct. 19 instead.
WYOMING Yellowstone National
Park: The National Park Service is moving ahead with plans to replace a deteriorating bridge in Yellowstone. Park officials say the bridge built in 1960 is deteriorating to the point where it could eventually become unstable.