50 ★ States

ALABAMA Montgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey proposed one-time tax rebates of $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples – as well as 2% pay raises for teachers and state employees – as she sent her proposed budgets to lawmakers.

ALASKA Juneau: Lawmakers have nearly $680 million less in expected revenue for the upcoming budget year amid lower oil price and production outlooks, a report suggests.

ARIZONA Prescott: Yavapai County Superior Court officials were continuing to gather information about Judge Celé Hancock’s arrest on suspicion of extreme DUI last weekend.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law prohibiting transgender people at public schools from using the restroom that matches their gender identity, the first of several states expected to enact such bans this year amid a flood of bills nationwide targeting the trans community.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A federal judge blocked key provisions of a state law that drastically restricts the sale of new handguns in the state, saying parts of the legislation violate the Second Amendment.

COLORADO Denver: Police believe a dentist laced his wife’s pre-workout protein shakes with arsenic and cyanide, eventually killing his spouse so he could be with a woman he was having an affair with, according to court documents.

CONNECTICUT Norwich: The Rose City Senior Center officially became the Jan A. Stewart Rose City Senior Center on Monday to honor a former director. The change was reflected on the signs outside and on a biographical plaque inside.

DELAWARE Dewey Beach: The mother of Rodney Robinson is suing the police officer who fatally shot her 21-year-old son last March, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. It comes in the wake of a January ruling by the Delaware Department of Justice that found Officer Dylan Ebke was justified in using deadly force.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington:

A man pleaded guilty to bribing a correctional officer to smuggle drugs into a jail, WUSA-TV reports. Officials said the man was recruited to package and manage payments for the sale of drugs within the jail, according to the news outlet.

FLORIDA Gainesville: The former lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” pleaded guilty to committing $150,000 in COVID-19 relief fraud. Joseph Harding pleaded guilty to wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in connection with COVID-19 relief fraud, according to court records.

GEORGIA Atlanta: A bill that would formally define antisemitism in state law has stalled after an unfriendly amendment in a Senate committee altered the measure in ways its sponsors disagree with, possibly ending the legislation’s prospects in the 2023 legislative session.

HAWAII Honolulu: The state Department of Transportation said that two high-altitude communication balloons will be launched Thursday, Hawaii News Now reports.

IDAHO Boise: Former Police Chief Mike Masterson is running for mayor, the first candidate to announce a challenge to Mayor Lauren McLean, who announced her reelection campaign earlier this month, the Idaho Press reports.

ILLINOIS Chicago: A floor collapsed onto two firefighters as they were helping battle a residential fire, trapping one of them until he was rescued, officials said. The two firefighters were taken to a hospital along with two other firefighters.

INDIANA Terre Haute: Battery parts producer Entek plans to invest $1.5 billion in a new manufacturing campus and create 642 jobs by the end of 2027, officials announced. The investment will support the growing electric vehicle industry in Indiana, the company said.

IOWA Anamosa: Authorities are searching for contraband at Anamosa State Penitentiary after several sickened inmates and workers were treated over the weekend with the overdose antidote Narcan.

KANSAS Topeka: Lawmakers backed off a more aggressive overhaul of campaign finance laws, instead opting for a more limited set of changes that focuses on the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission’s administrative procedures.

KENTUCKY Louisville: A pilot program that diverts some 911 emergency calls to mental health professionals is expanding to a citywide service, Mayor Craig Greenberg said. The program has so far offered more than 600 people crisis support and referrals without involving police officers, according to a media release from the mayor’s office.

LOUISIANA St. James Parish: Residents in the heart of a cluster of petrochemical factories filed a federal lawsuit raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations. The lawsuit names St. James Parish as the defendant and says the parish council approved the construction of factories in two Black districts of the parish that emit harmful amounts of toxic chemicals.

MAINE York: An American flag colored all black will be the topic of discussion for town officials after one Selectboard member expressed concern for its presence on York’s police cruisers.

MARYLAND Worcester County: A man died in a two-vehicle crash on Route 113. According to a preliminary investigation, a box truck was traveling north when it crashed into a Kia Forte, which was traveling west on Groton Road, state police said in a release.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A pizza shop owner accused by federal authorities of abusing employees who were not legally in the U.S. has been ordered held without bail by a magistrate judge who cited the defendant’s “history of violence and threats.”

MICHIGAN Detroit: Officials declared a public health emergency at an overcrowded jail for kids, a step that could lead to improved staffing and more services.

MINNESOTA Hennepin County: One of the state’s lead prosecutors who helped convict Derek Chauvin of murder in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd has been appointed as a judge in Hennepin County, Gov. Tim Walz announced.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: One Black lawmaker and nine white ones have been chosen to negotiate final versions of bills that could expand the territory of a state-run police department inside the majority-Black capital city.

MISSOURI Jefferson City: A lawmaker moved to strip state funding for public libraries. Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith’s budget proposal would cut all $4.5 million in state funding that libraries were slated to get next fiscal year. Smith said he’s upset that state and school libraries are suing to overturn a new law that bans sexually explicit material in school libraries. He said the state shouldn’t subsidize the lawsuit with funding.

MONTANA Crow Indian Reservation: A couple faces charges of murder and tampering with evidence in the 2019 disappearance and death of a 6-year-old girl, according to court documents.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Debate that began Tuesday on a bill to ban gender-affirming care for minors, which led one lawmaker to stage an epic weekslong filibuster, quickly grew contentious, with supporters and opponents angrily voicing their frustration and admonishing each other for a lack of collegiality.

NEVADA Clark County: The county comprising about three quarters of the state’s registered voters announced a new elections director. Lorena Portillo will succeed Joe Gloria, who ran elections in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, for nearly a decade and worked in the elections department since 2020.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Meredith: Five people who stayed at a campground came down with Legionnaire’s disease, a bacterial pneumonia spread by inhaling droplets of water contaminated with the bacteria, the state health department said.

NEW JERSEY New Brunswick: A 29-year-old woman accused of using false documents to enroll as a high school student and attend some classes over a four-day period did so because she was lonely and longed to return to her days with friends in school, her lawyer said.

NEW MEXICO Gallup: Former Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly died after a long illness, according to a family spokesman. Shelly became the tribe’s seventh president and took office in January 2011.

NEW YORK Hilton: Hilton Central School District evacuated all five of its schools after receiving a bomb threat Wednesday morning.

NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Victims of alleged domestic violence who fear for their safety at the courthouse could testify remotely at the defendant’s criminal trial or hearing under legislation that advanced in the state Senate.

NORTH DAKOTA Burleigh County: The county has approved an ordinance to require special permits for companies that want to build pipelines for hazardous liquids such as carbon dioxide. Commissioners acknowledged the ordinance is likely to draw a lawsuit from carboncapture pipeline developer Summit Carbon Solutions, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

OHIO Columbus: The Columbus City Schools Board of Education said that the district would lose $5.5 million in property tax revenue if proposed legislation passes in the Ohio General Assembly.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Brenda Andrew, the only woman on the state’s death row, moved a step closer to execution when a federal appeals court upheld her murder conviction despite misgivings about evidence admitted at her 2004 trial. Andrew, now 59, was convicted in the fatal shooting of her estranged husband at their home in 2001.

OREGON Salem: Lawmakers passed a sweeping $200 million housing and homelessness package, displaying a bipartisan will to tackle two of the state’s most pressing crises. The vast majority of the funding is aimed at boosting homelessness and eviction prevention services. The money will go toward increasing shelter capacity, addressing youth homelessness, and funding rapid rehousing efforts and rental assistance programs.

PENNSYLVANIA Aliquippa: A man was found dead in a home containing more than 150 exotic reptiles, many of them poisonous, and an alligator. It remained unclear how the 23-yearold died, but officials said he did appear to have a snake bite wound.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: A federal judge has struck down as unconstitutionally vague a state law that prevents high-risk sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school. U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. concluded that the law would leave people designated as Level III offenders guessing about where the boundaries lie, and open to the threat of arrest and possible imprisonment if they guessed wrong.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The legislative fallout over a $3.5 billion accounting blunder by the state’s comptroller general took a new turn as lawmakers moved to make his job a gubernatorial appointment instead of an elected position.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Gov. Kristi Noem signed legislation that will reduce overall sales taxes in the state for four years, even though the bill fell short of the permanent tax breaks she had urged.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Gov. Bill Lee has signed legislation that says local governments can’t ban gas stoves, even though no city in Tennessee is currently pursuing such actions.

TEXAS Arlington: A 15-year-old arrested in connection with a fatal shooting outside a high school will remain in custody following a detention hearing, the boy’s lawyer said. The Monday shooting left one student dead from a gunshot wound and another injured by shrapnel.

VERMONT Montpelier: President Joe Biden has approved a federal disaster declaration for eight counties hit by a storm that left tens of thousands of people without power during the Christmas holiday week. Gov. Phil Scott and the three members of the state’s congressional delegation said a preliminary damage assessment by the Federal Emergency Management Agency identified nearly $3 million in eligible costs from public and nonprofit utilities in communities recovering from the storm.

VIRGINIA Newport News: Two inmates used primitively made tools to create a hole in the wall of their cell and escape, only to be found hours later at an IHOP restaurant, a sheriff said. Authorities discovered the two men missing from their cell in the Newport News jail annex during a routine head count Monday evening, according to a statement from the Newport News Sheriff ’s Office.

WASHINGTON Everett: A robbery suspect opened fire on an approaching police cruiser early Wednesday, wounding an officer in the head before being killed himself in a confrontation with a second officer, authorities said.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A sweeping investigation into misconduct at the West Virginia State Police has brought new scrutiny to the mysterious roadside death of a man who was hit by a trooper’s Taser during a struggle with the officer that the governor labeled “very very concerning” in ordering a major shakeup of the agency.

WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Tony Evers and fellow Democrats worked to keep the spotlight on abortion ahead of next month’s state Supreme Court election, resurrecting a bill that would repeal the state’s 1849 ban on the practice.

WYOMING Casper: Nearly 12,000 customers lost power for a few hours when a raccoon tripped a substation, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. A spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power said substations automatically shut off for safety reasons when tripped by a foreign object, according to the news outlet.