News from across the USA

ALABAMA Auburn: Auburn University plans to build a $ 28 million facility at Jordan- Hare Stadium, Al. com reports. The project expected to be completed in July 2018 will include renovated football locker rooms and space for recruiting, plus a new press box. ALASKA Anchorage: A man riding a snow machine died after being caught in an avalanche near Alaska’s Cooper Landing. State police say another man riding with Tyler Kloos dug Kloos out of the snow. But Kloos died after being taken to a hospital. ARIZONA Florence: Arizona’s Pinal County has hired its first chief medical examiner, no longer relying on neighboring jurisdictions. The Casa Grande Dis

patch reports that Dr. John Hu started the job last month. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Arkansas’ first high school for adults will open this summer in Little Rock. The school is for people 19 and older who never received a high school diploma. CALIFORNIA Eureka: Despite a high surf advisory, a driver went onto a Humboldt Bay jetty in his red Toyota last week and had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter, The San Francisco

Chronicle reports. COLORADO Denver: The Denver Public Library is asking for help documenting the recent Women’s March in the city. More than 100,000 people took part,

The Denver Post reports. CONNECTICUT Hartford: Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says Connecticut intends to use a more than $ 51 million settlement in the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal to improve air quality and public health. DELAWARE Georgetown: Delaware police are investigating a fire that forced the pilot of a single- engine airplane to land shortly after the aircraft took off from a Georgetown airport. Donald Byrne jumped from the smokefilled cabin as he landed Saturday.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: District of Columbia police are searching for a woman who set another woman’s hair on fire on Inauguration Day. WRC- TV reports that the suspect used a cigarette lighter in the attack. FLORIDA Riviera Beach: Florida authorities say a man jumped off his bike and tried to kidnap a toddler. The Palm Beach Post reports that the suspect was arrested when he tried to get the child out of a stroller. GEORGIA Fort Valley: A Georgia bus manufacturer has received $ 4.4 million from the federal government to develop a zero- emission, vehicle- to- grid electric school bus, The Telegraph of Macon reports. HAWAII Lihue: The University of Hawaii is working with state leaders to get $ 2.5 million for community college scholarships.

The Garden Island reports that the Hawaii’s Promise program is aimed at removing cost as a barrier to higher education.

IDAHO Boise: Idaho bird lovers are worried that an unusually cold and snowy winter may have harmed or killed some of the Anna’s hummingbirds that spend the winter in the state, The Idaho

Statesman reports.

ILLINOIS Champaign: The University of Illinois is shutting down its ice arena from March 17 until the beginning of the fall semester so that a new ice mat and refrigeration system can be installed, The ( Champaign) News

Gazette reports. INDIANA Crawfordsville: The head of an Indiana animal shelter that cared for a badly burned cat said she supports legislation raising the penalty for such crimes. Noah Riley, 19, was arrested on an animal cruelty charge. He told investigators he and his girlfriend “did not like cats,” a police affidavit says. IOWA Dubuque: An invasive weed that can grow up to 7 feet tall has been found in nearly half of Iowa’s counties. Experts say farmers should act quickly if the plant, Palmer amaranth, is found in their fields, the Telegraph Her

ald reports. KANSAS Lawrence: A Lawrence police officer tells investigators that another officer beat her, chained her in a dog kennel and choked her until she blacked out. But former Officer William Burk, who was never charged, claims it’s a matter of consensual sex, The Lawrence Journal- World reports. KENTUCKY Louisville: The Coalition for the Homeless says volunteers found 156 people sleeping outdoors in Louisville during its annual count. That’s up from last year’s 112. LOUISIANA Mansura: The Lousiana State University AgCenter says late planting and August floods hurt the state’s sweet potato harvest, cutting the yield from 450 bushels an acre in 2015 to 290 bushels per acre last year. MAINE Portland: A group of fishermen selected to help study New England’s declining Northern shrimp species is beginning its work. Scientists say the species has been hit hard by warming waters. MARYLAND Baltimore: Authorities say a former bank vice president pleaded guilty to stealing more than $ 1.8 million from customers. Prosecutors say Melissa Strohman faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to 30 years in prison for bank embezzlement. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: McDonald’s top executive Stephen Easterbrook is the featured guest at Boston College’s Chief Executives Club lunch at the Boston Harbor Hotel. MICHIGAN Mattawan: Mattawan Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robin Buchler is telling parents to keep their children at home if they’re sick. Custodians and drivers spent last weekend disinfecting buildings and buses after 500 students were absent last Friday, the Kala

mazoo Gazette reports. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Minnesota officials say they don’t know where soil contaminated

with trichloroethylene and other chemicals is coming from. The

Minnesota Daily reports that TCE is linked to non- Hodgkin’s lymphoma and kidney cancer.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The Confederate battle emblem that still waves on the Mississippi flag doesn’t appear to be in danger. State lawmakers have filed bills to either change the flag or punish schools that refuse to fly it. Leaders say there’s little chance any bill will pass. MISSOURI St. Louis: The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and its musicians union have reached agreement on a five- year contract. It calls for pay increases averaging 2.8% annually.

MONTANA Bozeman: Boaters may soon need a $ 25 sticker for access to Montana fishing sites, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. NEBRASKA Omaha: Omaha will have to pay $ 2.75 million extra to complete a sewer overhaul project. That’s because a tunnel boring machine got stuck, The

Omaha World- Herald reports. NEVADA Las Vegas: State and federal land managers have launched an aerial reseeding effort to stabilize and rehabilitate more than 10,000 acres of public land burned by wildfires in Nevada last year.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Dover: An art exhibit focuses on what it means to be transgender and the experiences transgender men and women face. “This is What TRANS Feels Like” features paintings, photos, poetry and other works by local artists. NEW JERSEY Newark: An auxiliary bishop with the Archdiocese of Newark was punched in the mouth during a mass at the city’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred

Heart. charged Charleswith assaultingMiller, 48, the was Rev. Manuel Cruz during an event honoring baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: A bobcat found in a barn with an illegal trap attached to one of its legs was euthanized. The Albu

querque Journal reports that the bobcat was discovered Jan. 12 by a woman feeding her horses. NEW YORK Albany: The state Department of Environmental Conservation is taking applications from people interested in raising and releasing pheasants. Day- old chicks are free to people who can provide a brooding facility, a covered outdoor rearing pen and an adequate release site. NORTH CAROLINA Monroe: North Carolina authorities say seven dogs were found shot and killed along a rural Union County road outside Charlotte. None of the hunting, which also had broken necks, had a microchip that could be used to trace the owner.

NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The National Weather Service’s first flood outlook for spring says the risk in the Souris River Valley is higher than normal, especially downstream of Minot. The outlook estimates a 50% chance of the river rising to just shy of flood stage, which is 1,551 feet, The

Minot Daily News reports. OHIO Columbus: An Ohio cemetery that has the graves of humorist James Thurber and a grandfather of President George H. W. Bush is seeing a wave of vandalism. Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus has suffered more than 600 damaged graves over the past two years, The Co

lumbus Dispatch reports. OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Authorities say 31 pounds of cocaine was found stashed in the nose of an American Airlines plane in Tulsa. The discovery came after the plane was flagged for maintenance, and a crew called the sheriff’s office after finding what looked like a clump of insulation. OREGON Salem: A federal judge halted cattle grazing in the Fremont- Winema National Forest until officials can review its impact on Oregon spotted frogs, The Capital Press reports. Environmentalists contend that cattle trample the endangered frogs that gather in shallow pools during dry periods. PENNSYLVANIA Spring Grove: A 35- year- old man will face charges in the death of a woman and her unborn child slain with a sword. Diana Ziegler, 25, of Jackson Township, was killed with what investigators called a “scimitar- style” sword. Officials said she was 24 weeks pregnant. RHODE ISLAND Central Falls: City police rescued seven people from a fire that’s being investigated as arson. Officers found a husband and wife asleep in a smoke- filled apartment with their 3- year- old son, along with three women and a man upstairs. All made it out safely. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The University of South Carolina wants to erect a statue in honor of the school’s first African- American professor. The school hosted a celebration of Richard T. Greener’s life this week. The State reports that university officials hope to establish programs that relate to Greener’s “pioneering spirit and contributions.” SOUTH DAKOTA Deadwood: Gambling in Deadwood fell 25% in December compared to December 2015. Overall, the industry finished the year with a 5% drop. Deadwood Gaming Association head Mike Rodman tells the

Black Hills Pioneer that the drop was “an alarming end to a disappointing year.” people TENNESSEE were Brownsville:injured in a shootingTen at nesseea party Nationallast week Guardat a Armory.TenThe fight shootingsbroke out occurredat the armory. when a Authoritieshad been rented believe out the for facilitya party. TEXAS Victoria: An online fund established to raise money to rebuild a Texas mosque destroyed by fire over the weekend has exceeded its $ 850,000 goal. In two days, the GoFundMe page set up for the Islamic Center of Victoria received contributions from more than 18,500 people. UTAH Salt Lake City: Utah lawmakers are considering creating a felony child abuse registry.

The Deseret News reports that the measure includes websites to list felony child abusers, similar to sex offender registries. VERMONT Burlington: The University of Vermont and an outdoor shopping mall in Burlington are raising funds for a bronze sculpture of Rally, the school’s mascot. The $ 100,000 sculpture will be located outside UVM’s Catamount Store at the Church Street Marketplace. VIRGINIA Richmond: A 100 megawatt solar farm planned in Southampton County will be the state’s biggest. It’ll be used by Amazon’s cloud computing unit. WASHINGTON Port Angeles: The Navy plans this summer to construct a pier and facilities at Port Angeles to support vessels that escort submarines between the Hood Canal and the Pacific Ocean. The $ 25 million project can’t begin until mid- July, when in- water work can be done without harming fish. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A Wood County woman claims in a lawsuit that the West Virginia State Police lack proper training in dealing with dogs. Tiffanie Hupp, 23, stopped a trooper from shooting her dog and was arrested. She was acquitted of misdemeanor obstruction charges. WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel and a sexual assault prevention group launched the By Your Side campaign to help victims track evidence in their cases. More than 6,000 evidence kits were sitting untested on state shelves in 2014. But testing has accelerated since then. WYOMING Cody: A man lost his hunting privileges for three years after pleading guilty to killing a mule deer out of season, The Cody Enterprise reports. Leonard Wascher also was fined $ 1,000.