50 ★ States
ALABAMA Montgomery: Mayor Steven Reed named Darryl Washington the Economic Development director and David Card the Parks and Recreation director.
ALASKA Juneau: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing restrictions that would hinder plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Arizona’s clemency board has declined to recommend to Gov. Doug Ducey that the death sentence of a man convicted in the 1984 kidnapping and killing of an 8-year-old girl be reduced to a lesser punishment, rejecting his claims that he is innocent of the crimes.
ARKANSAS Fort Smith: Voters approved two continued sales tax increases that will support the fire, parks and police departments, and consent decree projects.
CALIFORNIA Bakersfield: Some residents are concerned about potential explosions after a state agency found six idle oil wells near homes were leaking methane in the past several days.
COLORADO Denver: Two wildfires burning in southern and western Colorado have been fully contained.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Bob Stefanowski, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate for governor, said he has tested positive for the coronavirus.
DELAWARE Dover: Dr. Karyl Rattay, Delaware’s top public health official who has led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said she will leave her job next month.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Some D.C. school leaders are looking to strengthen sexual assault reporting policies after parents weren’t notified about an alleged assault on a student, WUSA-TV reported.
FLORIDA St. Petersburg: Wildlife officials working to prevent threatened Florida manatees from starving to death said they’re encouraged that some of the marine mammals’ favorite food is growing naturally in a key area.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A group that works to protect Georgia’s waterways has released a free Georgia River Guide mobile app.
HAWAII Honolulu: The University of Hawaii said it will require masks indoors across its 10-campus system amid a spike in COVID-19 cases on the islands.
IDAHO Boise: A California man convicted of kidnapping an 11-year-old Idaho girl could be released from prison after five to seven months if he successfully completes a treatment program.
ILLINOIS Chicago: One person died and seven injured Tuesday in a pileup crash involving at least seven vehicles on the Tri-State Tollway around Chicago, authorities said.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Lawmakers voted Tuesday to override Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of a bill banning transgender females from competing in girls school sports.
IOWA Des Moines: Deer hunters would be able to use semi-automatic rifles during a newly created antlerless season in January under a bill approved by lawmakers Tuesday and sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds. KANSAS Salina: After being canceled in 2020 and moved to September in 2021 because of the pandemic, the Smoky Hill River Festival is back to its typical spot on the calendar in the second week of June.
KENTUCKY Covington: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine have asked the federal government to spend $2 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure deal to build a new Ohio River bridge and fix an existing, outdated span.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Two Confederate holidays would be erased from Louisiana law under legislation approved 4-2 by a state Senate committee.
MAINE Alfred: Three FedEx delivery vehicles traveling single-file crashed into each other, sending one driver to a hospital and tying up traffic.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A Maryland man has pleaded guilty to making threats against the National Security Agency and its employees.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Massachusetts has sued more than a dozen companies involved in the manufacture or marketing of forever chemicals, alleging they knowingly polluted the environment and endangered public health.
MICHIGAN Lansing: The Michigan Court of Appeals opened the door Wednesday to abortion opponents who are trying to overturn a recent decision that suspended the state’s long-dormant ban on the procedure.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Two administrative law judges said Minnesota natural gas utilities should be allowed to pass on an extra $660 million in costs related to storm damage to their customers.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A convicted killer’s effort to get his execution quickly scheduled has been dismissed by the state’s Supreme Court, weeks after the condemned man changed his mind. MISSOURI Kansas City: A Missouri man will be laid to rest Saturday, more than 80 years after he died in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
MONTANA Great Falls: Five central Montana community development organizations will receive a total of $9.7 million in federal funding to redevelop environmentally contaminated sites across 20 counties.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: A man with a long history of mental illness when he killed the grandfather of two Nebraska football players more than two decades ago has died in prison.
NEVADA Elko: An Elko County man, 20, convicted of sexually assaulting and killing a Spring Creek teenager two years ago has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A man who was allegedly killed by a female coworker’s husband who discovered they had been texting, had other gunshot wounds, cuts and bruises before he died of a bullet to the head, the state’s chief medical examiner testified.
NEW JERSEY Newark: U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres implored graduating college students to reject jobs at companies that fund the fossil fuel industry he described as “killing our planet.”
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: A BNSF train stalled in Las Cruces on Tuesday afternoon, blocking vehicles and pedestrians from seven crossings for about 3 hours.
NEW YORK New York City: An outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease in a Bronx neighborhood has sickened 19 people since the beginning of the month, with one person dying.
NORTH CAROLINA Manteo: Debris from two houses that collapsed into the surf on the Outer Banks are washing ashore, prompting the National Park Service to issue warnings to visitors walking along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Secretary of State Al Jaeger denied a move by a group that wants to change the voter threshold for amending the state constitution.
OHIO Columbus: Gov. Mike DeWine ended Ohio’s participation in a federal pandemic unemployment aid program ahead of a government deadline for stopping the payments.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A proposal to end free curbside parking in Midtown is facing opposition from business owners who worry about losing employees and customers.
OREGON Salem: A state commission has adopted three temporary rules that could significantly impact future housing developments, prioritizing dense communities and walkability while deemphasizing automobiles.
PENNSYLVANIA Mount Joy: Harold Billow, 99, the last known survivor of a World War II POW massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, will be laid to rest Thursday in Pennsylvania.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Gov. Dan McKee signed legislation Wednesday to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana in the state.
SOUTH CAROLINA Chester: A magistrate whose husband is a former sheriff awaiting sentencing for stealing money from government programs has been suspended from the bench for six months, the South Carolina Supreme Court said.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The Sioux Falls School District’s nutrition trucks with the iconic 1980s apple logo will no longer be on the streets, but a more colorful, designer logo will take the apple’s place.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee agriculture officials said work has begun to clean up debris at Natchez Trace State Forest after a December tornado damaged the park.
TEXAS Richmond: A Texas man has been arrested for what authorities said was his role in an online romance scam in which women were cheated out of a total of nearly $1 million by someone pretending to be an Army general.
UTAH Springdale: Zion National Park officials said they expect a busy Memorial Day weekend and for crowds to bleed into the weekdays, as well.
VERMONT Burlington: A man has been arraigned on charges accusing him of threatening to kill a state court judge, a defense attorney, and a state prosecutor and to sexually assault the prosecutor.
VIRGINIA Simplicity: A woman, 69, who went missing last week was found alive Monday in a dense pine forest about a mile from her home.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A large black bear that evaded capture in western Washington for more than two years was trapped and killed near Issaquah last week.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Attorneys for the state and two remaining pharmaceutical manufacturers have reached a tentative $161.5 million settlement over the opioid epidemic.
WISCONSIN Madison: All of the $2.3 million stolen from the Wisconsin Republican Party by hackers just before the 2020 presidential election has been recovered, the state party executive director said.