STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Decatur: A home health nurse is accused of stealing more than $8,000 from a 91-year-old patient, Al.com reports. Authorities say Lori Pendergrass Sconyers used the victim’s bank account to pay her own bills and get cash.

ALASKA Anchorage: The Federal Communications Commission warned Anchorage Baptist Temple that it can’t operate a radio station without a license, KTUUTV reports. Officials say the broadcasts started years ago with Christmas music to accompany the church’s lights display. The signal barely reached across the street.

ARIZONA Mesa: The Mesa City Council removed one of its members, Ryan Winkle, who pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated after being arrested in May. Authorities said Winkle had a bloodalcohol level of 0.22%.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Former President Bill Clinton will return to his home state of Arkansas on Sept. 25 to speak at an event marking the 60th anniversary of Little Rock Central High School’s desegregation. Clinton will deliver the keynote address.

CALIFORNIA San Diego: Federal prosecutors say a man pleaded guilty to illegally importing $3 million worth of abalone. As part of his plea, Yon Pon Wong agreed to forfeit $500,000 in proceeds from sales of the hard-to-find mollusks.

COLORADO Denver: A 224,000acre ranch in northwest Colorado is for sale with an asking price of $100 million. The Cross Mountain Ranch is a working cattle and sheep ranch with several homes, including a nine-bedroom log lodge.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: Federal health officials say three people in Connecticut contracted a salmonella infection linked to pet turtles.

DELAWARE Wilmington: Delaware has honored a state highway police officer who died in the line of duty nearly a century ago. Officer Francis Ryan died in 1922 when his motorcycle was struck by a car as he tried to apprehend a speeding driver on the Philadelphia Pike.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Civil War encampment planned for the Washington suburbs this month has been cancelled. Reenactors were notified that the Sept. 23-24 gathering won’t be held because of “recent events.”

FLORIDA Bryceville: A Florida man was billed nearly $60,000 to cover the cost of putting out a 705-acre wildfire. Officials say Brian Sparks caused the March blaze while burning old paperback books and clutter, The Florida Times-Union reports.

GEORGIA Savannah: A former government contractor charged with leaking classified documents wants a judge to rule that comments she made to FBI agents before her arrest can’t be used as evidence because she hadn’t been read her rights, the Augusta Chronicle reports.

HAWAII Hilo: Hawaii officials are scrambling to shore up security after a second public transit bus was stolen within a week, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Police say it appears the suspect is the same in both bus thefts.

IDAHO Idaho Falls: Authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of eight heads of cattle in the Swan Valley area of Idaho, The Post Register reports. The cattle have an estimated value of $1,500 each.

ILLINOIS New Lenox: Silver Cross Hospital says a data breach exposed patient information of as many as 9,000 people. The breach involves web forms submitted to the hospital between January 2013 and June.

INDIANA West Lafayette: A Purdue University graduate who developed a way to keep wine fresh for weeks in opened bottles founded a company to market his product. Ryan Frederickson’s Art Wine Preservation sells cans of argon that halt oxidation and seal in flavor and aroma.

IOWA Sioux City: Woodbury County officials are acting quickly to repair crumbling columns at the county courthouse, The Sioux City Journal reports. An emergency resolution will allow officials to skip taking formal bids.

KANSAS Topeka: A state official is promoting a plan to turn over the troubled Osawatomie State Hospital to a private company, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports. The hospital lost federal certification in 2015.

KENTUCKY Versailles: The Kentucky Community and Technical College System has set a new record for graduates and credentials awarded. For the 2016-17 academic year, 16,146 students graduated, up 9% from a year ago. Credentials increased 12%, to 34,502.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Hunters in Louisiana got a sales tax discount on firearms, ammunition and other gear over the weekend. The tax was dropped from 5% to 3% for a wide range of items, including airboats, rangefinders, blinds and safety gear.

MAINE Lewiston: A Lewiston school is banning cellphones over concerns about social media addiction and bullying, The Sun Journal reports. Lewiston Middle School will roll out an online app for students, parents and teachers to report bullying.

MARYLAND Beltsville: Authorities say a man threw a “Molotov cocktail” inside a Maryland liquor store, injuring two employees. One worker was hospitalized with burns. The motive is under investigation.

MASSACHUSETTS Springfield: The city’s police department has warned officers about “negative public perception” in going to strip clubs after a brawl between several off-duty officers and a gang member, Masslive.com reports. No one was arrested following the brief melee at the Mardi Gras club in December.

MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan is using dry ice to suffocate groundhogs in their dens beneath the school’s North Campus, The Ann Arbor News reports. Officials say the animals could undermine foundations and pavement. The Humane Society of Huron Valley calls the practice cruel.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A University of Minnesota department head is accused of illegally buying guns. Investigators say Technical Leadership Institute Director Massoud Amin bought 14 handguns while under indictment on a charge of providing fabricated financial documents during his divorce, KSTP-TV reports.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The U.S. Supreme Court is giving Mississippi’s governor until Sept. 28 to defend the Confederate battle emblem on the state flag. It’s the last state flag with the emblem. A black attorney filed a lawsuit last year seeking to declare it an unconstitutional relic of slavery.

MISSOURI Jefferson City: State education officials say results from two high school tests given this year can’t be used to gauge how well school districts are educating students. The problem with the Algebra I and English II end-of-course assessments given in Missouri is the lack of year-to-year comparisons.

MONTANA Missoula: University of Montana first-year student enrollment is even with the previous year, The Missoulian reports. President Sheila Stearns expects overall enrollment to drop up to 8% because of the large 2017 graduating class.

NEBRASKA Omaha: Police Chief Todd Schmaderer has fired two officers and is calling for the firing of two others who were involved in the stun gun death of a mentally ill man. The four responded to a disturbance call June 5 during which Zachary Bearheels was shocked 12 times with a stun gun.

NEVADA Reno: The Nevada Department of Education is postponing the release of its new school rating system after districts complained that the preliminary numbers don’t make sense. Officials say the release has been pushed back to December.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia: Voters in this New Hampshire city will be able to determine Nov. 7 whether the gambling game Keno should be played in restaurants and bars, The Laconia Sun reports.

NEW JERSEY Atlantic City: Authorities have solved the mystery about how an alligator ended up in a swimming pool at a New Jersey shore motel. The creature was part of a rap video filmed at the Bayview Inn & Suites in Atlantic City.

NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: New Mexico State University’s Board of Regents has voted to replace Chancellor Garrey Carruthers when his contract ends in mid-2018. But some faculty, staff, students and state lawmakers want an extension for Carruthers.

NEW YORK Ossining: An orange tabby named Tiger enjoys his role as one of the last cats living at New York’s Sing Sing prison, The Wall Street Journal reports. Inmate Jermaine Archer says Tiger is getting old, fat and slow. But “we love him.”

NORTH CAROLINA Greensboro: Downed power lines shut down a section of Interstates 73 and 40 last Tuesday and closed Piedmont Triad International Airport, The News & Record reports. Authorities say about 130 surrounding businesses also were left in the dark.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Registered nurses at CHI St. Alexius Health in Bismarck voted not to unionize, The Bismarck Tribune reports. The hospital has laid off about 120 employees over the last year and a half.

OHIO Massillon: A mail carrier rescued an injured elderly widow lying helpless in her home. Donnie Lance tells The Independent that he knew something was wrong when the woman’s porch door wasn’t unlocked for two straight days. He looked in a window and saw her on the floor, suffering from a broken hip.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: In a 5-4 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld the removal of a 1.25% sales tax exemption on vehicles sold in the state. The removal is expected to raise about $124 million a year.

OREGON Corvallis: Oregon State University is considering whether to change the names of four campus buildings that some students believe are named for racists, The Gazette-Times reports. The school will hold six public meetings on the issue, with a decision coming Nov. 27.

PENNSYLVANIA Shippingport: State police say two contractors died after inhaling toxic fumes that also injured several other workers in a Pennsylvania power plant. Police said the workers removed a pipe’s elbow joint, releasing hydrogen sulfide.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Authorities say at least 10 ATVs and dirt bikes, a pickup truck and other equipment were stolen out of a garage used by Providence Police to store seized property.

SOUTH CAROLINA Hilton Head Island: More sea turtle hatchlings have trouble finding their way to the ocean this year on South Carolina islands, The Island Packet reports. The hatchlings find the ocean partly by moonlight reflecting off the water. But land lights disorient them.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A former South Dakota state’s attorney convicted of tax evasion was sentenced to a year in prison. But Ken Orrock will serve the term only on weekends. The judge cited unique parenting needs as a reason for the unusual sentence.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Given Hurricane Harvey’s impact on Texas, Nashville is revisiting plans for flood protection. WPLN-FM reports that the Metro Council will reconsider a floodwall project.

TEXAS Houston: A vintage military aircraft museum in Galveston that was swamped in 2008 by Hurricane Ike and recently moved to Houston had to delay its planned weekend opening because of Tropical Storm Harvey. The Lone Star Flight Museum at Ellington Airport hasn’t announced a new opening date.

UTAH St. George: An electric bus has joined Zion National Park’s transportation fleet as part of a three-month pilot program to determine its feasibility as a shuttle, The Spectrum reports.

VERMONT Castleton: A Vermont neighborhood association is testing two weed harvesters to remove invasive Eurasian milfoil from Lake Bomoseen, the Rutland Herald reports. The 10-week pilot program will cost $29,500.

VIRGINIA Covington: A plan to turn a former Virginia primary school into a drone research and recreational facility is getting $100,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission, The Roanoke Times reports.

WASHINGTON Longview: Cowlitz County’s plan to turn an old rail line into a trail connecting Longview and Toutle has hit a roadblock, The Daily News reports. The former railroad operator says the project poses safety issues because a timber firm works near the line.

WEST VIRGINIA Bluefield: Police accuse a West Virginia man of branding a woman with a horseshoe and a fork. Authorities say Ervin Harold faces charges of malicious wounding and domestic assault.

WISCONSIN Antigo: A custodian preparing West Elementary School for the new year found an envelope with lunch money that was lost more than 30 years ago, WSAW-TV reports. Inside was $3.60 meant for the mother of 6th-grader Ann Marie Steber sometime during the 1985-86 school year.

WYOMING Meeteetse: Biologists have released 13 more blackfooted ferrets on Wyoming’s Pitchfork Ranch. Biologists thought the slinky predators were extinct until one was discovered on the ranch in 1981 when a dog brought it home, The Powell Tribune reports.