Across the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Huntsville: The U.S. Army is defending a decision to close its historic space and technical library at Redstone Arsenal. Al.com reports the Redstone Scientific Information Center closed its doors Sept. 30.
ALASKA Anchorage: A man says he rescued his dog from an attack by river otters in Taku Lake. Wildlife biologists say they were not aware of prior attacks by otters in Anchorage.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Pulaski County Circuit Judge Morgan “Chip” Welch says he’s running for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: The state will ban the sale and manufacture of new fur products starting in 2023.
COLORADO Colorado Springs: A report by the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative says the state’s 54 highest summits are seeing more people seeking to climb the fourteeners, or those at least 14,000 feet high.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: A report shows the state’s utilities are “well aware of the increasing dangers” of cyberattacks and appear to have successfully thwarted recent threats.
DELAWARE Newark: ChristianaCare researchers say they have created a new computer program that will allow scientists to see the impact gene editing has on tumor cells, an idea they hope to patent. The concept came from intern Rohan Kanchana, a junior at Newark Charter School.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Plans are in the works to add thousands more dockless scooters to D.C. streets, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA Orlando: Gatorland has built an exhibit for a rare albino gator and two even rarer leucistic gators, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Officials hope the White Gator Swamp will be the site of a baby gator boom. GEORGIA Brunswick: Marine salvage experts seeking to remove an overturned cargo ship close to the coast say they will haul it away in pieces because it cannot be safely righted and refloated intact.
HAWAII Honolulu: As Rep. Tulsi Gabbard travels Iowa and New Hampshire trying to kickstart her Democratic presidential bid, she is facing a serious challenge back home for her U.S. House seat. State Sen. Kai Kahele, a fellow Democrat, is picking up endorsements and criticizing Gabbard for not paying enough attention to constituents in Hawaii.
IDAHO Boise: Authorities have released plans to stop devastating wildfires with one option creating 1,500 miles of fuel breaks up to 400 feet wide along existing roads.
ILLINOIS Marengo: A French religious order, Fraternite Notre Dame, has reached a preliminary agreement with McHenry County that would allow nuns to build a winery, brewery, gift shop and coed boarding school.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Butler University says it has raised more than half of the $250 million it needs for a campaign to invest in science education, increase enrollment beyond resident undergraduates and boost community outreach.
IOWA Des Moines: Backers of a skateboard park under construction downtown say they have reached their $6.3 million funding goal. The Lauridsen Skatepark will be the nation’s largest when completed in spring 2020. KANSAS Kansas City: The Kansas City T-Bones are locked out of their stadium. The local government changed the locks and padlocked the gates Monday over hundreds of thousands of dollars in debts.
KENTUCKY Winchester: Daniel Boone National Forest officials say multiple fires, almost all humancaused, have burned hundreds of acres. WTVQ-TV reports three crews from Puerto Rico have volunteered to help with restoration.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: The National World War II Museum’s $33 million education and outreach building will open Thursday. After an opening ceremony, it will break ground for its final exhibit hall and hold an open house at the new building, the Hall of Democracy.
MAINE Portland: A scientist says she has found what she believes is the first recorded appearance of the potentially damaging smooth mud crab in state waters. The crabs prey on young oysters. MARYLAND Adamstown: The fire chief says an “elusive” 3-foot-long alligator has finally been caught.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Two state lawmakers have filed legislation to make it easier for communities to purchase dormant rail tracks to convert into recreational trails.
MICHIGAN Detroit: King Solomon Baptist Church, which served as a popular venue for civil rights leaders including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, is getting a $500,000 National Park Service grant for needed renovations.
MINNESOTA St. Cloud: Over 100 mannequins in orange sweatshirts were set up along Minnesota Highway 23 on Saturday. The display, organized by Pathways 4 Youth, represented the number of youth experiencing homelessness on any given night in Central Minnesota.
MISSISSIPPI Meridian: The city will honor the late David Ruffin, one of the lead singers of the Motown group The Temptations, by adding signs ceremonially naming four blocks of a downtown street for him in an event Oct. 26. MISSOURI Columbia: The CEO of Dow Inc. has donated $6 million to a new University of Missouri health institute for personalized medicine.
MONTANA Missoula: State forest experts have proposed a timber harvest and prescribed-burns project to reduce the risk of wildfires in the Lolo National Forest.
NEBRASKA Norfolk: People who want to help preserve monarch butterflies can obtain free milkweed seed pods through the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
NEVADA Tonopah: Nye County has decided to abandon a controversial proposal that would have further limited the hours when legal prostitutes were allowed to leave brothels. NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester: Shakers have long been known for the simple design of their furniture and household objects, but a new exhibit at the Currier Museum of Art explores their cutting-edge skills in brand management.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: The state’s black bear hunt is underway. The first three days of the hunt beginning Monday are for hunters armed with bows and arrows. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Police data shows 42 Native Americans have been reported missing in the city so far this year, after 36 in 2018.
NEW YORK Albany: The state Department of Environmental Conservation is selling patches to support maintenance work on outdoor recreation facilities. NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Gov. Roy Cooper aims to create a statefunded program to help residents in four counties recover from Hurricane Dorian after the federal government declined a request for aid.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state auditor says the Commerce Department broke state law on bidding contracts for North Dakota’s new “Be Legendary” logo.
OHIO Dayton: About half of WrightPatterson Air Force Base’s workers are nearing the end of their careers, creating workforce challenges, the Dayton Daily News reports. OKLAHOMA Tulsa: State Sen. Joseph Silk, R-Broken Bow, who unsuccessfully tried to criminalize abortion, has announced plans to challenge GOP U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin in 2020. OREGON Portland: The frustrated owner of North Portland’s never-used Wapato Jail has announced he will bulldoze the facility unless someone comes up with funding to convert the facility into a homeless shelter in the next two weeks.
PENNSYLVANIA Doylestown: Some of Bucks County’s covered bridges will be getting a makeover due to a $2.5 million refurbishment project.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A statue of Christopher Columbus was vandalized Monday, on the U.S. holiday named for him. The statue in Providence was splashed from head to toe with red paint, and a sign reading “Stop celebrating genocide” was leaned against the pedestal. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The state is adding an area code. The latest set of digits, 839, will augment the state’s oldest area code, 803.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Sanford Health and Avera Health will begin covering an intensive form of autism treatment called Applied Behavior Analysis in 2020 after a loophole in state law caused families to lose insurance coverage this year.
TENNESSEE Memphis: A woman whose father, Sedley Alley, was executed for murder 13 years ago asked a judge Monday to order the testing of DNA evidence in the case.
TEXAS Waco: The Mayborn Museum is moving the outside inside to teach kids some basic lessons on the natural world in its new Backyard Ecology Hall. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports the hall is a $1.2 million revamping of the museum’s first-floor children’s space. UTAH Clearfield: Two firefighters are receiving praise after they found a creative way to keep a young girl calm at the scene of a car accident – letting her paint their nails purple.
VERMONT Wallingford: A group of outdoor lovers is working to raise the profile of the White Rocks National Recreation Area in the Green Mountain National Forest, using social media to raise awareness of opportunities to hike, snowshoe and crosscountry ski. VIRGINIA Richmond: A federal appeals court has put a hold on two permits needed for construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. WASHINGTON Spanaway: A food bank that hands out about 15,000 pounds of food a month to roughly 1,100 people in Pierce County has been damaged in a fire.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The state Department of Education data says more than half of the state’s teachers missed more than 10 days of school last year. WISCONSIN Milwaukee: The city’s natural history museum is hoping its new live spiders exhibit can educate visitors instead of scaring them away. The Milwaukee Public Museum is hosting the Spiders Alive! exhibit through January.
WYOMING Casper: State lawmakers have advanced legislation that would help expand a network of highway crossings for wildlife.