50 ★ States

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: An event Monday will honor university students who led a 1960 sit-in at a whites-only courthouse lunch counter and were arrested and prosecuted. Alabama State University said in a news release that resolutions by the Montgomery City Council and Montgomery County Commission that acknowledge the “wrongs from the past” will be presented to the university president.

ARIZONA Grand Canyon National

Park: Rep. Raul Grijalva is pushing to make a temporary ban on the filing of new mining claims in the Grand Canyon region permanent.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Arkansas Racing Commission has approved regulations for the state’s four new casinos.

CALIFORNIA Desert Hot Springs: A pop-up music festival put on by Tyson Ranch, a cannabis business endeavor from boxing legend Mike Tyson, drew thousands to the desert Saturday. Held on the future site of Tyson Ranch Resort, a 412-acre resort and cannabis research facility, the Kind Music Festival brought out thousands and included a lineup of Miguel, Ferg and Starcrawler, among others.

COLORADO Breckenridge: A huge wooden troll will be reincarnated in this ski town, although it’s unclear what it will look like or where it will sit. The Summit Daily reported Friday that city officials have a deal with Danish artist Thomas Dambo to rebuild his troll, named Isak Heartstone, this spring. It was erected beside a trail last summer for a festival, but it was so popular that nearby homeowners complained about all the foot traffic.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: State lawmakers are considering whether to require motorcycle drivers to wear helmets.

DELAWARE Wilmington: A dog left at a local animal shelter with a heartbreaking note pleading for a new home finally found a new family Friday. The 6-year-old dog was abandoned on the grounds of the Delaware Humane Association in Wilmington on Jan. 2 by a homeless family.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Children’s author-illustrator Mo Willems has been named the Kennedy Center’s first ever “Education Artist-In-Residence.” The Washington-based center announced Friday that Willems will organize projects for children and their families, including “collaborative experiences across artistic genres.” The residency lasts two years.

FLORIDA Sarasota: The state’s coastal waters appear free from a devastating red tide bloom that began in 2017.

GEORGIA Brunswick: A replica of the Santa Maria – the flagship from Christopher Columbus’ expedition – will soon sail to the state for tours.

HAWAII Hilo: Scientists measuring the thickness of Kilauea volcano’s newest lava flows say molten rock added as much as 180 feet of lava to parts of the Big Island last year.

IDAHO Boise: Legislation intended to make more public who is donating to candidates and political causes in the state has been put on hold after a diverse array of nonprofit groups complained it would force them to reveal their donors.

ILLINOIS Chicago: has Emanuel a new and sister Lord city. The Mayor Mayor Windy Clover Rahm City Moore of Sydney, Australia, say they’ve signed a new agreement. Sydney is Chicago’s 29th international sister city.

INDIANA Indianapolis: next of the time Indianapolis you walk Museum in the Look main of up Art doors the at Newfields. Your movements will dictate how 18 giant, pastel-colored flowers above you behave. The installation, “Meadow,” will greet visitors for the next year.

IOWA Adair: town has been A named little spot the in state’s this small best pizza joint. Global travel site Big 7 Travel’s list of the nation’s top 50 pizza places recognizes Zipp’s Pizzaria as tops in Iowa.

KANSAS Kansas City: A judge has dismissed criminal charges against a water park owner and the designer of a 17-story slide on which a 10-yearold boy was decapitated in 2016. The Kansas City Star reports Wyandotte County Judge Robert Burns found that state prosecutors showed grand jurors inadmissible evidence in the Schlitterbahn case.

KENTUCKY Louisville: There’s a new cat in town. The Louisville Zoo welcomed Meru, a 11⁄2-year-old snow leopard, over the weekend.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is on the hunt for the state’s best seafood chefs. Nungesser, the state’s top tourism official, and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board are searching for chefs to compete in the annual Louisiana Seafood CookOff. Chefs interested in participating must enter by April 12.

MAINE Camden: “American Pie” singer Don McLean has threatened to sue a weekly newspaper, The Free Press of Rockland, that wrote about his former wife’s photo exhibition about domestic abuse, which includes a copy of the protection order issued against him.

MARYLAND Baltimore: The Maryland Institute College of Art has apologized for a past admission policy that barred black students.

MASSACHUSETTS Cambridge: Animal law advocates plan to gather at Harvard Law School this week for its fifth annual Animal Law Week, which kicks off Monday with a talk by Carol J. Adams, the author of “The Sexual Politics of Meat.”

MICHIGAN Lansing: More than $113,000 in state preservation grants has been awarded to three lighthouses. The Michigan State Housing Development Authority says the funding will help pay for work at the North Manitou Shoal Light, Grosse Ile Light and Eagle Harbor Lighthouse.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: The state is joining the mass of its counterparts holding 2020 primaries on so-called Super Tuesday.

MISSISSIPPI Oxford: Eight University of Mississippi basketball players kneeled during the national anthem Saturday in response to a pro-Confederacy rally being held near the arena.

MISSOURI Springfield: The Greater Ozarks PrideFest is moving to October. GLO Center President Nan Todd and Springfield NAACP President Toni Robinson announced the reason for the change is to avoid a timing conflict with Juneteenth, a celebration of the last day enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation.

MONTANA Billings: Some northcentral Montana ranchland is being conserved through a partnership between a conservation group and ranchers. The Billings Gazette reports ranchers near Malta asked The Nature Conservancy for help when a neighbor’s property went up for sale.

NEBRASKA Chadron: Nearly 50 bighorn sheep in the Nebraska Panhandle have been outfitted with new tracking devices to help wildlife officials monitor their health and combat diseases.

NEVADA Elko: State officials are seeding private land as part of a restoration project following a wildfire last summer that burned more than 5 square miles. The Elko Daily Free Press reports crews are seeding 210 acres with Siberian wheatgrass and forage kochia in order to create green strips, reduce the chance of mudslides and prevent cheatgrass infestation.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Arts organizations, artists and others interested in learning about applying for New Hampshire State Council on the Arts grants can attend upcoming hourlong regional information sessions.

NEW JERSEY Trenton: The state will likely not see any legal marijuana sales until next January at the earliest, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney says.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: An effort is underway in the state to build support for a national museum dedicated to the New Deal, the Great Depression-era series of work programs and art initiatives aimed at pulling America from destitution more than 80 years ago. Supporters say New Mexico would be an ideal spot for such an institution because the state received generous funding from the programs for new schools, post offices, visitor centers and art.

NEW YORK Albany: The topic of splitting the state into separate upstate and downstate entities has popped up again at the Capitol. A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo calls a new proposal “the Godzilla of pandering.”

NORTH CAROLINA Chapel Hill: Citing public safety concerns, the town has removed its Jefferson Davis Highway memorial marker.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Government officials say the five-month shutdown of a highway during protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline was not aimed at manipulating the media or an American Indian tribe fighting the project.

OHIO Columbus: The world’s largest cartoon museum has announced the acquisition of dozens of complete original Archie Comics stories. The work by the late artist Dan DeCarlo includes stories from Betty and Me, Betty & Veronica, Veronica, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Cheryl Blossom and Jughead. Jenny Robb, head curator at Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, says the characters are an important part of pop culture history and continue to resonate with audiences today.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The mayor is celebrating the completion of a personal mission: ridding the city’s airport of cow-tipping Tshirts. Mayor David Holt said on his Twitter account last week that after months of trying to end sales of shirts reading “Nothing Tips Like A Cow” at Will Rogers World Airport, the clothing has sold out and won’t be restocked.

OREGON Bend: Some Deschutes County residents say their wells are running dry after cannabis growing operations move in nearby. While a state investigation determined that growing operations had a relatively limited effect on groundwater near Tumalo, that hasn’t stopped anecdotal reports.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: The latest effort by Gov. Tom Wolf to impose a fee on municipalities that rely on state troopers, instead of a local police force, is generating new conversations, if not an embrace, as budget makers try to end the constitutionally questionable use of highway dollars to underwrite the Pennsylvania State Police.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: The University of Rhode Island is looking for volunteers to help track birds. URI scientists hope the American woodcock, also known as the timberdoodle, will help them better understand the decline of several species in the state.

SOUTH CAROLINA Simpsonville: Nearly everyone in this small town has a theory for the city’s billiondollar mystery: Who won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot announced last October? Maybe the winner was so overwhelmed upon seeing the winning numbers that she or he died on the spot? Maybe the winner is on the run from police and fears a background check? With less than two months to go, the clock is ticking for a winner to cash in.

SOUTH DAKOTA Spearfish: close trail to being on the officially outskirts included of town A popular in is the Black Hills National Forest trails system. The 46-mile Tinton Trail is used by mountain bikers, hikers, trail runners and horse riders.

TENNESSEE Memphis: The bananacolored country-western outfit worn spangled by Post Malone jumpsuit and sported the skintight by a wind-blown Jennifer Lopez on the recent “Elvis All-Star Tribute” TV special are going on display at Graceland. The costumes will be found in the expanded “Icons: The Influences of Elvis Presley” exhibit at Elvis Presley’s Memphis, the museums-andshops space across the street from the Presley mansion.

TEXAS El Paso: U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it’s installing coils of razor wire at Texas ports of entry across from Juarez, Mexico, where large groups of migrants wait to seek asylum.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Parents of Mormon missionaries can hear their children’s voices a lot more often under recently announced rules. The proselytizing youngsters may call home every week instead of only twice a year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says.

VERMONT Wallingford: The federal government says people have until April 1 to file any objections to a 15year plan to increase the amount of young forest in the Green Mountain National Forest.

VIRGINIA Richmond: In an uh-oh episode of historic proportions, live hand grenades from the last major battle of the Revolutionary War recently and repeatedly scrambled bomb squads in the capital city. More than two dozen had been sitting in cardboard boxes at the Department of Historic Resources, undetected for 30 years.

WASHINGTON Olympia: A state Senate committee advanced a measure Friday that would do away with the option for parents to claim a personal or philosophical exemption for their children’s school vaccinations.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The state is offering inpatient substance abuse treatment to jail inmates through court referrals for the first time.

WISCONSIN Milwaukee: A playful group of otters has been spotted downtown, hanging out near the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. The semi-aquatic critters were captured on video recently playing along the Milwaukee River. It’s the first documented otter sighting in the downtown area, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

WYOMING Cheyenne: State officials are moving ahead with new standards to help ensure that coal-mining companies are able to cover the cost of reclaiming any mines that close.