News from across the USA

ALABAMA Huntsville: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning: Stop kissing chickens. According to a study by the CDC cited by AL. com, the number of cases of salmonella contracted by live poultry has been steadily increasing along with the number of people raising chickens at their home. The cause of the salmonella outbreak? Kissing or snuggling the birds. ALASKA Ketchikan: Repairs will take the ferry boat Columbia off the water and interrupt service to Bellingham, Wash., for two weeks, the Ketchikan Daily News reported. State Department of Transportation spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said a log probably caused damage that divers spotted on a starboard propeller blade. ARIZONA Willcox: Willcox became the state’s second federally recognized wine- growing region, formally known as an American Viticultural Area, The Arizona Republic reported.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Police arrested Nathan Farmer, 41, who was accused of driving his girlfriend’s car at high speeds while she was on the hood of the vehicle, ArkansasOnline reported.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Despite a lineup of horrific heavy

weights from The Exorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween Horror Nights 2016 at Universal Studios Hollywood didn’t quite live up to the hype, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing predictability and long lines. COLORADO Denver: One man died after a shooting in Federal Heights. CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Wildlife Division asked hunters to provide deer heads to test for signs of chronic wasting disease, The Connecticut Post reported. DELAWARE Wilmington: State officials said Kamilla London, a transgender prison inmate who filed a civil- rights lawsuit, has a history of filing unsubstantiated grievances. London is serving 25 years for manslaughter after striking and killing a man while fleeing police in a stolen car. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Despite an overall decline in Metro ridership, Blue Line trains remain packed with hot and sweaty commuters, The Washington Post reported. FLORIDA New Smyrna: Three surfers suffered shark bites in separate attacks over a threehour period in the same area. GEORGIA Savannah: Brandon O’Hanley, founder of Dead City Clowns, a troupe that specializes in horror genre clowns, said he doesn’t totally buy recent sightings reported to police of clowns attempting to entice children into the woods, heckling citizens and shooting guns. “One day, it was lasers, the next it was money, candy, balloons — the story changes,” O’Hanley, also known by his clown persona “Stitches,” told the Savannah Morning News. HAWAII Wailuku: Maui lawmakers are urging Gov. Ige to halt the construction of a seawall along a highway on the western part of the island as protests have erupted over the $ 3 million project. They said the construction will cause harm to endangered Hawaiian monk seals. IDAHO Boise: Dwarf mistletoe disease and bark beetles threaten trees in Boise National Forest, KTVB- TV reported. ILLINOIS Chicago: Mining companies have shed more than 1,200 jobs over the past year as strict new environmental regulations and cheap natural gas encouraged utilities to drop their reli- ance on coal. About 2,800 jobs remain, the lowest tally in decades, the Chicago Tribune reported.

INDIANA Indianapolis: State troopers found an injured 2- footlong alligator along Interstate 65. The troopers contacted animal control workers but the alligator died before they arrived.

IOWA Council Bluffs: Officials don’t expect a proposed casino in Cedar Rapids to divert business away from the city’s three casinos. “It’s four hours away from our property here, and we really don’t think it would have a negative gaming revenue impact on our casino,” said Jill Beasley, marketing director for Harrah’s and Horseshoe casinos, according to The Daily Nonpareil.

KANSAS Lawrence: Police investigated after a man was found dead and a woman was injured during a domestic disturbance. KENTUCKY Danville: Health officials in Boyle County are moving forward with a proposed needle exchange program, The Advocate Messenger reported.

LOUISIANA St. Tammany Par

ish: Authorities urged citizens to avoid swimming, wading and fishing in the Bogue Chitto River after the release of about 6 million gallons of stormwater- diluted sewage into the East Branch of the river in Brookhaven, Miss., The Times- Picayune reported. MAINE Portland: Four museums will receive nearly $ 400,000 in federal funding to make improvements. The city museums are the Maine Historical Society, the Portland Museum of Art and the Victoria Mansion. The Maine State Museum in Augusta will also receive funds. MARYLAND Chestertown: Police said a 30- year- old pilot suffered minor injuries when his crop dusting plane crash landed after a failed takeoff. MASSACHUSETTS Nahant: A 38- year- old man diving off the coast was killed after he ran out of oxygen and was thrown against the rocks by the current. MICHIGAN Flat Rock: Supporters of a cemetery in southeastern Michigan repaired headstones that were vandalized over the Memorial Day weekend by a teen, WXYZ- TV reported. The Vreeland cemetery was the original burial site of a Revolutionary War soldier and his family. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The police department began tracking the ethnicities and other demographic characteristics of drivers and pedestrians stopped by its officers to determine whether racial profiling is a common problem, the Star Tribune reported. MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Through periodic testing required by the Environmental Protection Agency after a lead issue was discovered, the city detected more elevated levels of lead in the water at residents’ taps, The Clarion- Ledger reported. MISSOURI Joplin: A new campus of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences will begin recruiting and admitting students after getting official approval to operate. MONTANA Billings: The Board of Public Education adopted new science standards for public school students. The Billings Gazette reported the standards combine Indian Education for All, a state constitutional requirement that schools teach about Native American history and contemporary culture. NEBRASKA Lincoln: Officials looked for someone to donate a tree to display at the state Capitol during the Christmas holiday season. The Capitol Commission seeks a tree within a 70- mile radius. The tree must be a blue spruce, Douglas or Concolor fir. It must be able to fit through the Capitol’s 7- by- 6- foot north entrance doors but large enough to command attention in the rotunda. NEVADA Las Vegas: The state Public Utilities Commission approved a deal that will restore older, more favorable rates to about 32,000 customers who installed or applied for a rooftop solar system before this year.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Kings

ton: A fire station opened a spigot to residents to fill up buckets during the drought. Concord is more than 9 inches below normal precipitation for the year, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. NEW JERSEY Sea Isle City: Officials believe a whale that washed ashore here died because of human interaction, WCAU- TV reported. Officials say the 20- ton, 33- foot whale may have been caught in fishing line at some point, causing an injury that left the mammal unable to eat enough. NEW MEXICO Artesia: Police and firefighters will not have their salaries slashed, thanks to an anonymous donor. The donation affects 62 police and firefighters. NEW YORK Schenectady: The Department of Transportation is closing a section of Interstate 890 so General Electric can move a large piece of power plant equipment across it to the Erie Canal. DOT says it will detour traffic overnight Tuesday and again on Sept. 25. NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: A police officer checking on a possible wreck instead found one man dead and a second hurt in a shooting. NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: The U. S. Department of Agriculture said the state corn crop is forecast to be up 34% from last year. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates that 439 million bushels of corn will be harvested for grain, based on conditions Sept. 1. OHIO Reynoldsburg: Officials said a 7- year- old horse was put down after contracting West Nile virus in the state’s first confirmed equestrian case this year. OKLAHOMA Norman: Jason Louis Lane Diamond, 41, who is wanted for manslaughter in the April 2012 death of William Cooksey, 44, turned himself in to Cleveland County authorities on Friday, The Oklahoman reported. OREGON Corvallis: About a half- dozen buildings at Oregon State University were without power last week after a mechanical failure on campus, the Gazette- Times reported. PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: A proposed constitutional amendment to let judges serve five more years before mandatory retirement is headed for a statewide vote in November after another divided ruling by the state Supreme Court. RHODE ISLAND Narragansett: A man was rescued after getting stuck head- first between two rocks on a jetty near a fishing area in Point Judith, WJAR- TV reported. The man dropped his phone and got stuck up to his chest when he bent down to retrieve it.

SOUTH CAROLINA Orange

burg: An 809- pound alligator was captured — one of the largest caught in the state in recent years. The Times and Democrat reported that Jonathan Smith and Melissa Davis pulled in the gator after fighting it for hours on Lake Marion Sept. 10. It was 12 feet 10 inches long. SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A rare eastern black rhino was born at the Great Plains Zoo. The male calf is the third rhino born at the zoo and the first eastern black rhino born under an endangered species breeding program. The calf weighed 103 pounds at birth and will be viewable to the public in several weeks. TENNESSEE Murfreesboro: The Daily News Journal reported that Jim Edwards, a 75- year- old Murfreesboro resident, recently earned a degree from the Nashville School of Law. He’s studying for the bar exam. TEXAS Houston: Two transit police officers were suspended after their chief said surveillance video showed one hitting a man on a rail platform with a baton. UTAH Paradise: Whisper Ridge, a new ski resort, is officially opening this season, with access to 110 square miles of terrain, the Standard- Examiner reported. The resort has no lifts, lodges or season passes. Instead, guests can make tracks on land between Paradise and Eden near the Weber- Cache county line. VERMONT Barre: Canadian company Polycor has completed the purchase of Vermont- based Rock of Ages and its New Hampshire parent company, Swenson Granite. The deal doubles the Polycor workforce from 400 to 800. Polycor CEO Patrick Perus said he’s eager to assume leadership of a company that boasts 12 manufacturing plants, 30 quarries, seven retail stores and six offices in North America. VIRGINIA Richmond: A man was punched in the face while walking near Virginia Commonwealth University’s Monroe Park campus, the Richmond TimesDispatch reported. WASHINGTON Spokane: A two- year federal grant totaling almost $ 9 million will allow the hiring of 50 firefighters. The Spokesman- Review reported the money will help extend hours for medical crews that respond to calls about injuries that are not life- threatening. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The layoffs of 37 Division of Forestry workers led to the cancellation of annual fall foliage reports, according to the Charleston Gazette- Mail. The layoffs came in response to a $ 1.7 million budget shortfall. The layoffs eliminated one- third of all forester positions, reducing the agency’s ability to inspect logging operations, fight wildfires and give management advice to timber owners. WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Thad Jelinske, 56, a partner of Mawicke & Goisman, a business law firm, has been charged with stealing from the estate of a Brookfield man for whom the lawyer was serving as the personal representative and successor trustee, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.