50 States
ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: After closing for several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the University of Alabama campus reopened Thursday.
ALASKA Juneau: A larger-thannormal number of young bears and dwindling natural food supply for them are forcing the animals to head for the city’s garbage with unusual frequency, a wildlife official said.
ARIZONA Scottsdale: Despite sharply lower coronavirus case counts, state officials should not stop requiring that people wear masks in public, as the city did this week, an Arizona State University researcher said Wednesday. Dr. Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the ASU Biodesign Institute, said Mayor Jim Lane’s decision is short-sighted. “Mask-wearing is what is keeping this virus under control,” LaBaer said.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss an effort by some Republican lawmakers to invalidate coronavirus safety restrictions. In a filing Tuesday, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said a lawsuit challenging the measures would effectively allow the Legislature to “micro-manage” the state’s response to the pandemic.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday allowed health officials, those “on the front lines of the fight against the virus,” to hide their addresses under a state program designed to protect people from harassment or violence. A community college instructor was arrested last month and charged with sending two dozen threatening letters to Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s top public health official.
COLORADO Fort Collins: Sixteen confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three probable cases of the disease caused by the coronavirus have been traced to an outbreak at Pelican Lakes Golf Club, according to data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. New outbreaks were also reported this week at two Colorado State University sororities.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island and Wyoming have reappeared on Connecticut’s COVID-19 travel advisory this week, given recent upticks in cases in those locations.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: The taste of ballpark food is headed straight to homes. The Washington Nationals Best Ballpark Bites menu offers classic fare such as wings, pretzels and barbecue, as well as alcohol, with 100% contactless delivery, WUSA-TV reports.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Spring break may not be included on the spring academic calendar, Florida A&M University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maurice Edington told trustees Thursday.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Jobless Georgians filed 49,421 initial unemployment claims last week, up 7,341 from the previous week, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
HAWAII Hilo: Reports on the activities at a nursing home with a fatal coronavirus outbreak found various problems, including what one investigation called a culture of complacency among staff. The COVID-19 outbreak at the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo has claimed the lives of 25 veterans and infected another 79 residents and staff as of Tuesday.
IDAHO Boise: Elections officials have said they are aiming for a million registered voters in the state this year, many of whom are expected to vote by mail during the pandemic. ILLINOIS Springfield: Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state is averaging 52,000 coronavirus tests a day to become “the best testing state between the two coasts.”
INDIANA Indianapolis: Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush said Thursday that she is still dealing with her COVID-19 illness, as she joined the high court’s first online arguments held since she tested positive for the coronavirus 11 days earlier.
IOWA Des Moines: More Iowans now disapprove than approve of the job Gov. Kim Reynolds is doing in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic – a significant shift since June, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll finds.
KANSAS Topeka: The state set another record Wednesday for its biggest seven-day spike in new coronavirus cases, and Kansas’ top public health official said it’s a sign the state is seeing community spread of the virus even in “frontier” counties. KENTUCKY Louisville: Gov. Andy Beshear announced 796 new coronavirus cases Wednesday and five additional deaths.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, on Wednesday hailed Gov. John Bel Edwards’ COVID-19 restrictions as helping to save lives, giving the Democrat a boost on the eve of a special session where Republican lawmakers will work to strip some of those rules.
MAINE Portland: The state’s school systems will receive another $164 million in federal coronavirus relief to help with health and safety protocols, Gov. Janet Mills said.
MARYLAND Baltimore: The Restaurant Association of Maryland says the governor’s recent order to expand indoor dining capacity to 75% doesn’t do enough.
MASSACHUSETTS Lowell: Restaurants will be able to seat up to 10 people at a table and use their bar areas to serve food starting Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday.
MICHIGAN Lansing: A divided state House voted Wednesday to shield health providers and businesses from coronavirus-related lawsuits filed by patients, employees or customers, advancing bills that Republicans said would give businesses more comfort to reopen.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: A Republican state representative and a GOP activist are challenging an agreement to accept mail-in ballots that arrive up to a week after the November election. Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, agreed to extend the deadline because of a legal challenge by groups who sought to allay concerns about voter safety during the pandemic and ease mail-in voting requirements.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday praised the Trump administration’s efforts to make a coronavirus vaccine available to the public in the next few months and asked residents not to allow political divisions to stop them from getting vaccinated.
MISSOURI St. Charles: With bars and nightclubs limiting capacity and closing early in the St. Louis area due to the pandemic, neighboring establishments in St. Charles are seeing so many large and unruly crowds that the city is taking a cue from the 1984 movie, “Footloose,” and banning dancing. City leaders met Wednesday with restaurant, bar and club operators and announced a temporary ban on “music activities” after 11 p.m.
MONTANA Billings: Newly confirmed coronavirus cases in the state spiked to another record Thursday with 333, as health officials reported that the number of infections tied to schools more than doubled in just a week.
NEBRASKA Gering: About 70 students and staff at Gering High School were under quarantine this week after an outbreak with four cases, the Scottsbluff Star-Herald reports. Neighboring Scottsbluff Public Schools has had nine confirmed cases and 113 quarantines across its buildings, the Star-Herald reports.
NEVADA Carson City: State officials expect the federal government to expand the use of antigen testing at places like nursing homes or schools. Cartridges to process them have been provided to skilled nursing facilities in Las Vegas.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: Superintendent Stephen Zadravec told the School Board on Tuesday that city schools may be “looking to make some kind of shift” in October to increased in-person learning.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: The state is “well positioned” for an expected second wave of the coronavirus and serves as an example for other states to reopen sectors of the economy, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Organizers had to cancel this year’s international hot air balloon fiesta due to the pandemic, but Mayor Tim Keller said Wednesday he wants to keep the tradition alive for residents by inviting local pilots to lift off from city parks, golf courses and other open spaces Oct. 3-11.
NEW YORK New York: A spike in COVID-19 cases in a handful of neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations is raising alarm bells even as New York City’s overall infection rate remains low, officials said Wednesday. The neighborhoods including Borough Park and Williamsburg accounted for 20% of the city’s COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, according to city Health Department numbers.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: N.C. State University students can take in-person classes for the spring semester and live in campus housing, the school’s chancellor announced Wednesday.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Saying it’s time to “spring into action” to handle rising COVID-19 cases in longterm care facilities, Gov. Doug Burgum is directing health officials to place those residents at the head of the line for testing.
OHIO Columbus: Initial claims for unemployment and continuing claims rose slightly in the past week as the pandemic’s impact on the economy continues, Ohio’s human services agency reported Thursday. OKLAHOMA Norman: The City Council voted to require that masks be worn indoors at house parties if more than 25 people are present to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the college town – a step that angry residents said would infringe on their rights. The state ranks third in the U.S. in positive tests for the coronavirus and sixth in new coronavirus cases, according to the latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
OREGON Salem: Economists presented a “shocking” and significantly improved revenue forecast Wednesday, which could leave the state’s current budget nearly unscathed by the economic impacts of COVID-19.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Some school districts are letting more fans in the stands after a federal judge’s ruling that tossed statewide pandemic limits on crowd size, although legislative Republicans on Wednesday lost an effort to enshrine local control of school sports into law.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Gov. Gina Raimondo on Wednesday blamed a surge of new coronavirus cases on recent outbreaks among students at Providence College and the University of Rhode Island. The schools, between them, have had nearly 200 new cases in the past week or so, she said.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: State lawmakers agreed Wednesday on how to spend the remaining $693 million in federal money meant to help pay for COVID-19 expenses. Most of the money – $420 million – will go to replenish the state’s unemployment fund, keeping businesses from having to pay over years to repay the money spent on jobless benefits after the pandemic caused hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Another eight South Dakotans have died from COVID-19 as hospitalizations, rates of new cases and active cases continue to break records. Thursday’s numbers show the deaths were accompanied by 463 new confirmed cases of the virus. That’s a single-day record for new cases, outpacing the previous record of 445 set Wednesday.
TENNESSEE Nashville: State education officials on Wednesday predicted a big hit to student learning due to interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department of Education projected a 50% decrease in reading proficiency rates and a 65% drop in math among third graders.
TEXAS Austin: The number of Texas students testing positive for the coronavirus has risen every week since the start of classes, as more districts reopen schoolhouse doors, according to state data released Wednesday. There are 1,212 new confirmed coronavirus cases among students in the state and 660 new cases among teachers and staff for the week ending Sept. 20.
UTAH Draper: The Utah State Prison in Draper and the Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison were placed under 24-hour lockdowns after authorities believe the general inmate populations were exposed to COVID-19.
VERMONT Middlebury: Twenty-two Middlebury College students were “barred from campus” due to “significant COVID-19 conduct violations” this past weekend, the school said. VIRGINIA Charlottesville: The president of the University of Virginia has announced new COVID-19 restrictions he describes as mostly preemptive because students have been doing the right thing. Among the new rules is a reduction in maximum student gathering size from 15 to five.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Lawmakers received some good financial news Wednesday, with updated numbers showing an increase in state revenues over the past few months, cutting an earlier projection of revenue losses by more than half. But officials warned there’s still a good deal of economic uncertainty due to the coronavirus pandemic.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The owners of 12 restaurants and bars sued the governor Wednesday for indefinitely closing establishments in student-heavy Monongalia County due to the coronavirus. Gov. Jim Justice defended his decision and said the county may soon be able to reopen further if cases keep declining.
WISCONSIN Madison: The state’s daily count of COVID-19 cases hit its second-highest total to date Thursday, while the seven-day average topped 1,900 for the first time. WYOMING Laramie: Twelve studentathletes at the University of Wyoming have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the Casper StarTribune reports.