Around the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Florence: Grammy-winning Heart of Dixie native Jason Isbell is bringing a new music festival to the Muscle Shoals area. The firstever ShoalsFest is set for Oct. 5 and will feature performances by Isbell and The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow, Mavis Staples and Amanda Shires.

ALASKA Anchorage: A record number of people visited Alaska’s national parks in 2018, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The paper says the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Skagway had the most visits in the state last year, and it was the only national park site in Alaska to top 1 million visits.

ARIZONA Tucson: A project to provide travelers on Interstate 10 with timely warnings about potentially deadly low-visibility conditions from dust storms on a 10-mile stretch between Phoenix and Tucson is just months from completion. The Arizona Daily Star reports the system will combine several technologies, including closed-circuit cameras, radar and digital warning signs.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Arkansas Racing Commission has approved full casino licenses for a Hot Springs horse-racing track and a greyhound track in West Memphis.

CALIFORNIA San Francisco: A trip across the Golden Gate Bridge is about to get more expensive. The Press Democrat reports Golden Gate Bridge officials voted Friday to raise tolls up to $9.75 by 2023.

COLORADO Denver: Lawmakers have introduced a bill designed to implement Gov. Jared Polis’ plan to offer state-funded full-day kindergarten. The Joint Budget Committee has set aside $185 million to implement the plan in the fiscal year starting July 1.

DELAWARE Milton: Kodak says a new beer hitting the market can be used to develop its Super 8 movie film. Milton-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery created SuperEIGHT beer after a conversation with people at Kodak about how heightened levels of acidity and vitamin C in certain beers could make them a processing agent for film.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Reagan National Airport is celebrating the quasi-holiday of Star Wars Day with an outer spacethemed dance party on “May the Fourth,” WUSA-TV reports.

FLORIDA Palm Beach Gardens: This suburb is being plagued by thousands of poisonous toads. Experts say the amphibians are bufo toads, also known as cane toads.

GEORGIA Savannah: Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced Friday that the Trump administration has finalized $3.7 billion in new loan guarantees to support completion of the first new U.S. commercial nuclear reactors in a generation. The expansion of Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia has fallen years behind schedule while its price tag has nearly doubled since 2012. But Perry said the administration is determined to see the project finished.

HAWAII Honolulu: The Aloha State leads the nation in union membership, at 139,000 workers in 2018, according to a federal labor report.

IDAHO Boise: Legislation to limit how much the state Department of Fish and Game has to pay ranchers and farmers for damage to crops caused by elk, deer and other big game is headed to Gov. Brad Little.

ILLINOIS Champaign: Actresses Gina Gershon, Virginia Madsen and Jennifer Tilly are among the guests at this year’s Ebertfest film festival. The annual festival honoring Roger Ebert, the late Chicago Sun-Times film critic, runs April 10-13 at Champaign’s Virginia Theatre.

INDIANA Bloomington: State wildlife officials say a second type of invasive Asian carp has reached the waters just downstream of the state’s largest reservoir. The recent find of bighead carp in Salt Creek just below Lake Monroe’s dam comes after silver carp have been found since at least 2015 in the dam’s tailwaters.

IOWA Ames: Roadways can turn hazardous and deadly during winter’s wrath, and a project underway in the state is looking at one possible solution – heating the pavement. The Ames Tribune reports the Iowa Department of Transportation and Iowa State University are working together on heated pavement technology.

KANSAS Topeka: Lawmakers are considering legislation aimed at addressing a shortage of social workers in the state. KCUR reports that low pay, challenging work and years of declining state funding have made it hard to hire and keep qualified social workers.

KENTUCKY Louisville: American whiskey producers are suffering a worsening hangover from the Trump administration’s trade disputes. Overall exports of bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey fell 11 percent in the second half of 2018 compared with the prior-year period, as the impact of tariffs started to be felt, the Distilled Spirits Council says in a report.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson will deliver the commencement address to graduates of Loyola University in May.

MAINE Portland: Maine fishermen are taking to rivers and streams in the state to fish for baby eels in a high-stakes season they hope isn’t interrupted by poaching concerns, as it was a year ago. The elver season began Friday.

MARYLAND Annapolis: A panel of state lawmakers has passed a scaled-back version of a measure aimed at making prescription drugs more affordable. The House Health and Government Operations Committee voted 20-3 on Friday to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

MASSACHUSETTS Brookline: A marijuana shop in town that has opened to recreational users is the first legal pot retailer in the immediate Boston area and the first within close proximity to MBTA stations.

MICHIGAN Lansing: The state attorney general’s office has settled a lawsuit by same-sex couples who say their rights have been violated by faith-based adoption agencies that don’t want to work with gays and lesbians. Under the settlement announced Friday, the state says it will enforce non-discrimination provisions in its foster care and adoption agency contracts.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A study says homelessness in the state increased by 10 percent between 2015 and 2018, despite employment growing during the same period.

MISSISSIPPI Pearl: The Mississippi Department of Public Safety is asking for more money to fill vacant jobs for driver’s license examiners.

MISSOURI Kansas City: Faced with resident concerns about violent crime, the city council is adding more police officers.

MONTANA Helena: The Legislature unanimously passed a bill Friday to clarify that fossils are part of a property’s surface rights, not its mineral rights, unless a contract separating those rights says otherwise. The state Senate passed the bill 50-0 after it passed the House 100-0 in February. It now goes to Gov. Steve Bullock for his signature. The bill was prompted by a legal challenge over the ownership of valuable dinosaur fossils unearthed on an eastern Montana ranch.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A new report says the city might not need to build a new downtown convention center, despite concerns that it’s losing out on events for a lack of facilities.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Authorities say a three-year road overhaul is coming to the Las Vegas Strip. Clark County public works chief Denis Cederburg tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal the project will begin in June. It’ll repave the entire core of Las Vegas Boulevard.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The Granite State’s first new law of 2019 looks to both the future and the state’s past. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a bill into law Friday declaring June 2 to June 8 as New Hampshire State House Bicentennial Week. A commission has been planning numerous events.

NEW JERSEY North Bergen: While it may be true that “in space, no one can hear you scream,” the same cannot be said for those who attended North Bergen High School’s stage production of the sci-fi horror classic “Alien” last week. Screams echoed through the auditorium along with cheering and applause at the unusual, ambitious adaptation of the 1979 film that has caught the attention of tens of thousands of people across the globe after videos of the production went viral online.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Final grant season for an endangered federal program that’s helped preserve the historic Route 66 Highway for two decades is ending next month. The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program is accepting grant applications until April 12.

NEW YORK New York: A vintage plane that went from flying passengers in the 1950s to running drugs in the 1970s visited Times Square on Saturday before its next transformation into a cocktail lounge at the former TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport. The fuselage of the 1958 Lockheed Constellation spent the weekend in Times Square as part of an upcoming documentary about the redevelopment of Eero Saarinen’s landmark TWA Flight Center into a hotel.

NORTH CAROLINA Pembroke: A $10 million low-income housing project planned for the lands of the Lumbee Tribe may break ground this year. Tribal Housing Director Bradley Locklear says the project will create 50 affordable homes at about 1,200 square feet each. NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: Hollywood actor Josh Duhamel is soon to be a doctor in his native state. The “Transformers” star will receive an honorary doctorate degree at the University of North Dakota’s commencement in May.

OHIO Cleveland: Opponents of the Cleveland Indians’ Chief Wahoo logo are planning to demonstrate before the club’s home opener even though the team has dropped the mascot from its caps and jerseys. Organizers of the protest say they still want the team to change its name. One of the protest organizers tells cleveland.com that fans won’t stop dressing up like Native Americans until the name is changed.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: City officials say work to replace the lighting system along the Bricktown Canal will be underway by next year. The city now has an architects’ report recommending safety features not in place when 23-year-old Wesley Seeley of Tuttle died and 31-year-old Brian Gann of Van Buren, Arkansas, was critically injured after both were electrocuted in the canal last year.

OREGON Salem: Environmental groups are doubling down on demands for a megadairy moratorium in the state as a new owner takes over the troubled Lost Valley Farm.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Naked bicyclists say they were so cold riding around the city last September that this year they’ll do it in August. Organizers of the annual Philly Naked Bike Ride say they’ve “ridden in chilly weather” the past two Septembers, so this time they’ll saddle up Aug. 24 and “hope it’s a scorcher!” RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state has been awarded $6.5 million in federal funding to fight opioid addiction. The grants aim to help states increase access to medication-assisted treatment and reduce opioid overdose deaths through prevention, treatment and recovery activities. SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: The Poor People’s Campaign has launched a national bus tour of poverty-stricken areas to bring attention to what it calls the “real crises” or “interlocking injustices” afflicting the country, including systematic racism, poverty, voter suppression and ecological devastation. The National Emergency Truth and Poverty Tour kicked off Saturday in Charleston.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A local social service organization is seeking to educate elementary and middle school students on health hazards related to vaping. The Rapid City Journal reports Lifeways discusses the products in its intervention- and prevention-oriented programming.

TENNESSEE Nashville: The city is auctioning off Greer Stadium’s giant guitar scoreboard. Bidding for the massive prop on eBid Nashville begins at 9 a.m. Monday with an opening bid of $54,815.

TEXAS Austin: A conservative Christian group, the U.S. Pastor Council, has dropped its lawsuit attempting to overturn the capital city’s antidiscrimination ordinance that extends employment protection to sexual orientation and gender identity.

UTAH Salt Lake City: The city’s zoo is offering visitors a new behind-thescenes tour of an area that outsiders rarely experience. The Salt Lake Tribune reports the walk through Hogle Zoo’s animal hospital reveals what veterinarians see and what they do in real-life scenarios such as a polar bear swallowing a glove or a sea lion eating a sock.

VERMONT Montpelier: A committee of the state Senate has approved a bill that could lead to the state amending its constitution to preserve a woman’s right to abortion.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Would-be makers of switchblades in the state are out of luck. Gov. Ralph Northam announced last week that he has vetoed legislation that would allow people to make and sell switchblades to out-ofstate buyers. Current law prohibits Virginians from owning switchblades, throwing stars and brass knuckles.

WASHINGTON Oso: Five years after the deadliest landslide in U.S. history decimated this community northeast of Seattle, residents Gail and Ron Thompson have unveiled a bronze sculpture of mailboxes that were at the entrance to the neighborhood. WEST VIRGINIA South Charleston: Officials say the West Virginia State Police Forensic Lab has reduced pending cases by more than half.

WISCONSIN Ashland: Two sheriff ’s deputies rescued a pair of bear cubs trapped in a flooded culvert that had served as their den. The Ashland Daily Press reports that Ashland County deputies Zach Pierce and Dylan Wegner discovered the baby bruins Friday near the Bad River Indian Reservation.

WYOMING Casper: The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has issued more ozone air pollution warnings than usual this year in the southwest part of the state.