News from across the USA

ALABAMA Birmingham: The National Institutes of Health has awarded a contract extension worth $ 650,000 to the non- profit Southern Research to expand its work on the Zika virus, which is transmitted by the bite of a tropical mosquito.

ALASKA Fairbanks: An archway to a park memorializing two slain Alaska State Troopers has been unveiled in Fairbanks. The Trooper Gabe Rich and Trooper Scott Johnson Memorial Park is set to open May 1, according to The Fairbanks Daily News- Miner.

ARIZONA Phoenix: A suburban Phoenix man is getting ready early for the biggest shopping day of the year. KPHO- TV reports that Jarvis Johnson has set up camp in front of a Best Buy electronics store in Avondale in preparation for Black Friday. And he has sponsors providing him with canopies for his tent, couches, food and a microwave.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: A project intended to reduce the number of wrong way crashes on Arkansas interstates has been tabled after being determined to be too expensive. The only bid for the project that targeted 285 of Arkansas’ 528 interstate onramps was $ 3.8 million, $ 1 million more than estimated.

CALIFORNIA Shaver Lake: A father and his teenage son died during an apparent hiking accident. The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office says the two fell off an embankment near Shaver Lake over the weekend.

COLORADO Glenwood

Springs: The new owners of a $ 2.2 million historic castle plan to rent rooms and expand tours for the public. The Redstone Castle’s sale to Hotel Denver owners Steve and April Carver closed this month, the Post Independent reports. CONNECTICUT New Haven: The Shubert Theater is donating 40 tickets to the Department of Children and Families so troubled youth at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School and the two Albert J. Solnit Center campuses in Middletown and East Windsor can see A Christmas Carol. DELAWARE Dover: Delaware officials are laying the groundwork for a final budget proposal by Gov. Jack Markell. Public hearings that started Tuesday will continue through next week. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The head of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington is calling on President- elect Donald Trump and his supporters “to separate themselves from acts of violence and hate” after a suburban church with a strong Latino population was vandalized with a racist message. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde called for unity following Sunday services. FLORIDA St. Petersburg: Salmonella from sewage spills in waters near St. Petersburg may be behind the deaths of dozens of seabirds. The Tampa Bay Times reports that 48 fledgling black skimmers were found dead in September after two Pinellas County cities dumped sewage into Boca Ciega Bay. GEORGIA Savannah: The Avett Brothers will headline two shows at the 2017 Savannah Music Festival. Next year’s festival, which runs March 23 through April 8, also features performances by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and jazz organists Joey DeFrancesco and Ike Stubblefield. HAWAII Honolulu: The Department of Land and Natural Resources bought 635 acres of watershed land in the Kalauao Valley from Bishop Museum for $ 760,000 in an effort to protect 635 acres that are home to an endangered bird, native plants and trails, the Honolulu Star

Advertiser reported.

IDAHO Idaho Falls: The Post Register reports that BP Wind Energy officials hope to have Goshen North wind farm back up and running this month after power grid damage from a wildfire is repaired.

ILLINOIS Chicago: Illinois is marking its first year of medical marijuana sales. Officials said there have been few problems. Police say no patients have had their licenses rescinded for using the drug illegally.

INDIANA West Lafayette: Purdue University is renaming its School of Chemical Engineering to honor Charles D. “Chuck” Davidson and his wife, Nancy, who donated $ 20 million to the school.

IOWA Des Moines: Iowa lawmakers are considering imposing tougher penalties for violent acts against law enforcement officers following the fatal shootings of Urbandale Officer Justin Martin, 24, and Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony Beminio, 38.

KANSAS Lawrence: The University of Kansas campus plans to be tobacco- free beginning in the fall of 2018. Under the new policy all tobacco use, plus the use of e- cigarettes, will be banned campuswide.

KENTUCKY Golden Pond: The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area is offering free cedar Christmas tree permits starting later this month. A permit entitles a family to cut one cedar tree through Christmas Eve, with certain exceptions on location.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The PotashCorp fertilizer plant in Geismar has given $ 50,000 to expand cash awards at the annual LSU AgCenter Livestock Show.

MAINE Portland: The state hopes to begin shipping wood chips to Europe next year if plans remain on track for two methods of treating the wood with heat to kill pests.

MARYLAND Hagerstown: Maryland opened a 30- day comment period this week for proposed permit rules for hydraulic fracturing. Opponents, meantime, are gearing up activities to block the practice used in natural gas drilling.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in Massachusetts, is set to hear a request for a remedy in a drug lab scandal. Public defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts are asking the court to dismiss about 24,000 criminal cases in which a former state chemist went to prison for tampering with evidence and falsifying drug tests.

MICHIGAN Bloomfield Hills: Cranbrook Art Museum is launching a video exhibition featuring the “truths” of roughly 1,000 Detroit and Flint- area residents. “The Truth Is I Hear You” opens Saturday . People from various cultural backgrounds recorded statements of up to 2 minutes starting with, “The truth is ...”

MINNESOTA Lakeland: Fire destroyed a city hall under construction east of the Twin Cities. The Lakeland project that burned Sunday night had divided public opinion over whether to build a new city hall or preserve the historic facility.

MISSISSIPPI Pascagoula: The USS Ramage will return to the Ingalls Shipbuilding’s Pascagoula shipyard on Nov. 21 for an overhaul. The work is expected to be complete by late 2017.

MISSOURI Springfield: Pressure from constituents who don’t want someone else’s scofflaws sticking around town prompted Joplin City Council members to unanimously reject a request to house Springfield inmates in Joplin’s jail.

MONTANA Kalispell: Mission Mountain Railroad and the BNSF Railway are working together to move gondolas full of a mineral to Fortine. The companies are looking for new customers, the Flathead Beacon reports.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A new holiday play, Making Spirits Bright, will be performed at Mahoney State Park starting after Thanksgiving.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Residents are complaining that peafowl like the ones on Wayne Newton’s ranch have become pests — squawking, scratching family cars and creating a traffic hazard. Newton’s lawyer, Jay Brown, said the birds aren’t Newton’s.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Jackson: The Jackson Ski Touring Center is celebrating a $ 500,000 expansion, the largest in its 44- year history. An opening is planned around Dec. 10.

NEW JERSEY Woodland Park: Raccoons are at the center of a legal battle between animal rights activists and state regulators that may head to the state Supreme Court. At issue is a policy that allows the use of a controversial “enclosed foothold” trap. Some say they’re similar to steel- jaw traps that were banned 32 years ago.

NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: A veterans court in Dona Ana County is a few months away from its start. The court would allow veterans or activeduty military members who are charged with crimes to choose treatment programs rather than jail time, the Las Cruces SunNews reports.

NEW YORK Geneva: Residents of this update New York city were first warned last month about lead contaminated soil, some 30 years after state officials uncovered evidence of the problem, an investigation by the Democrat & Chronicle of Rochester found. The state will spend $ 17 million to remove the contamination.

NORTH CAROLINA WinstonSalem: Wake Forest University’s Campus Kitchen expects to prepare and deliver more than 300 Thanksgiving meals to WinstonSalem residents during the school’s annual Turkeypalooza which runs through Friday.

NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The city Planning Commission has voted to recommend approval of a rezoning request by Trinity Health. The Minot Daily News reports that the proposed $ 275 million project calls for a sixstory hospital and a three- story facility for behavioral health services.

OHIO Middletown: Norfolk Southern officials notified Middletown that it has raised speeds on its main line from 25 to 40 mph. Six rail crossings are affected in the city.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The estate of energy industry magnate Aubrey McClendon is rejecting a Tulsa man’s $ 500,000 claim as a forgery. Retired businessman Thomas Quinn said in court documents that he loaned McClendon the money in 1991.

OREGON Portland: Software firm Mentor Graphics Corp. is being bought by German industrial equipment maker Siemens AG for $ 4.5 billion. Mentor specializes in software used to design computer chips.

PENNSYLVANIA North Braddock: Police are looking for a man who shot two people after being thrown out of a bar for being too drunk. Allegheny County police Lt. Andrew Schurman says the gunfire erupted just before midnight Saturday at Crud’s Bar in North Braddock.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a nearly $ 60 million plan to lift up 341 private structures along four Rhode Island coastal towns in an attempt to reduce potential damage from flooding caused by storm surges, The Providence Journal reports.

SOUTH CAROLINA Inman: A motorcyclist died after a deer ran in front of him on a road near Inman. Coroner Rusty Clevenger says the motorcyclist wasn’t wearing a helmet.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Some boosters of the city’s new $ 24 million indoor aquatic center aren’t happy with a policy not to commit the facility for anything other than public swimming and lane rentals, the Argus Leader reports. That has prevented the Sioux Falls Swim Team from hosting competitions there.

TENNESSEE Nashville: The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted plain- language forms and instructions that couples with children can use for uncontested divorces. The forms are intended to simplify proceedings for people who agree on child support and other issues.

TEXAS Houston: A woman has been accused of endangering her 14- year- old daughter by letting exotic animals roam in the family’s Houston- area home. Officers saw tigers, a skunk, a cougar and a fox at Trisha Meyer’s home.

UTAH Bountiful: Two poetry books feature the work of Utah Judge Thomas L. Kay, who has spent almost 30 years writing poems, the Standard- Examiner reports. Kay says Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” sparked his interest in poetry when he was in seventh grade.

VERMONT Montpelier: The deadline has been extended to Dec. 2 for grant applications for Vermont projects that protect, restore and enhance the state’s waterways.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Virginia is trying to help veterans get jobs in the cybersecurity industry. Gov. Terry McAuliffe says there are 17,000 open cyber jobs in the state.

WASHINGTON Spokane: The former chief financial officer of a chain of medical clinics has been awarded $ 1.9 million after he alleged he was fired for refusing to file fabricated financial reports. An appeal is expected.

WEST VIRGINIA Durbin: The Cass Scenic Railroad in Pocahontas County is offering holiday train rides. The “Elf Limited” train will debut on Nov. 25 and run through Dec. 11 on track next to the Greenbrier River.

WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Scott Walker took over this week as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Walker says he sees an opportunity in Washington with unified Republican control of Congress and the White House for GOP governors to push their wish lists.

WYOMING Casper: People hoping to stay in Casper for next year’s Wyoming Eclipse Festival may be out of luck as hotel rooms are essentially sold out.