USA TODAY International Edition
50 ★ States
ALABAMA Huntsville: Hartselle schools called off classes Thursday because water from a rising creek flooded a water pumping station, the Morgan County Sheriff ’ s Office said in a statement posted on Facebook.
ALASKA Anchorage: Police arrested the wrong person in the 2017 shooting deaths of three men at a coin and precious metals shop in Anchorage, a defense attorney said at the murder trial of the suspect, who provided security at the store.
ARIZONA Buckeye: A police dog is expected to recover after getting hit with a pellet gun by a suspect who was barricaded in a home.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A federal judge has set a July trial for a lawsuit challenging a Ten Commandments display outside the state Capitol.
CALIFORNIA Dana Point: A delighted passenger on a whale- watching cruise was able to pet a 35- foot gray whale that surfaced near a boat off Southern California.
COLORADO Pueblo: Doctors at a state psychiatric hospital released a man who pushed a snowboarder off a ski lift.
CONNECTICUT Middletown: Police are looking for a masked suspect caught on surveillance video using an ax to force their way into a military museum and steal several items.
DELAWARE Wilmington: The owners of the Hercules Plaza building downtown said that because they struggle to attract tenants in a stagnant office market, they should have to pay less in property taxes to the city, New Castle County and local schools.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Neighborhood leaders are demanding that Metro not cut bus routes as part of its proposed annual budget, WUSA- TV reported.
FLORIDA Palm Beach: During a dive charter trip on Walker’s Dive Charters out of Riviera Beach on Tuesday, a group of scuba divers encountered a great white shark.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Georgia’s public safety chief said he’s stepping down just weeks after an entire graduating class of the State Patrol’s Trooper School was fired or resigned after being accused of cheating on an online exam.
HAWAII Kailua- Kona: The Coast Guard has scrapped plans to move a fishing vessel that ran aground after inspectors discovered flooding in the boat, an official said.
IDAHO Boise: A lawmaker wants to ban transgender female athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Chicago Public Schools said it has launched an investigation after four students complained that a teacher told a Hispanic student who is a U. S. citizen that she should go back to her own country because she didn’t stand during the national anthem.
INDIANA Indianapolis: An Indianapolis boy is asking for Valentine’s Day cards as he awaits a heart transplant at Riley Children’s Hospital.
IOWA Des Moines: Dozens of schools across Polk County and the state delayed start times or closed altogether Thursday. Rapidly falling temperatures mixed with overnight snow made for dangerous conditions across Iowa.
KANSAS Emporia: The Kansas Highway Patrol said several children from Wichita suffered minor injuries when a school bus they were riding rolled onto its side.
KENTUCKY Louisville: A large rock slide caused a fiery train derailment Thursday morning in eastern Kentucky, briefly trapping two crew members and causing a chemical leak into a river, authorities said.
LOUISIANA Shreveport: Canadian manufacturer E. I. Williams Industries will create 100 jobs in Sarepta in the North Webster Parish Industrial Park, the company’s president and Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Thursday.
MAINE Portland: The number of flu cases in Maine shot up by nearly a quarter over the a week, with almost 1,000 new cases reported.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The state Senate has approved a measure that would create a statewide ban on the intentional release of balloons into the atmosphere.
MASSACHUSETTS Newburyport: Several explosions rocked a chemical plant Thursday morning, blowing a hole in the roof and leading to an evacuation but injuring no one, authorities said.
MICHIGAN East Lansing: The City Council voted to authorize culling as a way to reduce deer herds, the Lansing State Journal reported.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Fear of frostbite kept many students home Thursday across Minnesota, and the National Weather Service warned people to limit time outdoors.
MISSISSIPPI Columbus: The Mississippi Ethics Commission said a school board did not violate the state Open Meetings law when it held superintendent interviews behind closed doors, with 15 handpicked citizens allowed to attend but others from the public excluded.
MISSOURI Clayton: Keith Wildhaber, a gay St. Louis County police lieutenant who was passed over for promotion 23 times, said he has no plans to leave the department after he settled a discrimination lawsuit for $ 10.25 million.
MONTANA Butte: A fire that badly damaged a historic building started in a storage room on the second floor where several appliances were plugged into a power strip.
NEBRASKA Columbus: Pat Pope, the president and chief executive officer of Nebraska Public Power District, said Thursday that he intends to leave his post.
NEVADA Reno: The City Council will be looking for a new city manager again – the second search in less than three years.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: Interstate fishing regulators will hold a series of public hearings in March about plans to better manage the fishery for Atlantic herring.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Two men serving life sentences for a double killing 25 years ago, but whose convictions were recently thrown out because of evidence that cast doubt on their guilt, celebrated with relatives and friends after they walked out of prison.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Portions of the Gila River would be protected as wild and scenic under legislation proposed by U. S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich.
NEW YORK Glens Falls: This northern New York city with frequent political gatherings adopted new regulations to govern protesters after several months of review.
NORTH CAROLINA Ocracoke: Contractors will soon be placing sandbags along a stretch of N. C. 12 on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to protect the road from getting washed out again.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state reached a proposed settlement agreement Thursday with American Indians who sued over the state’s voter ID laws requiring residents to provide a street address, arguing they are a form of voter suppression.
OHIO Columbus: The state House again approved a measure covering post- traumatic stress disorder for emergency responders who haven’t suffered a physical injury.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The state plans to resume executing death- row inmates, five years after lethal injections were put on hold following a series of death- chamber mishaps, state officials said.
OREGON Happy Valley: The state has fined two companies for safety violations that led to the deaths of two workers at a Portland- area music festival.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: A federal judge sentenced a former Philadelphia Navy Yard worker to six months in prison for lying to the FBI about his ties to a white nationalist group to obtain security clearance.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A Roman Catholic bishop responded to controversy created by a priest who said he would deny communion to state legislators who support abortion and defended his stance by saying abortion is worse than pedophilia.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: A 6year- old girl who disappeared earlier in the week after getting off her school bus was found dead Thursday, and a homicide investigation has been opened, authorities said.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The Sioux Falls Regional Airport will spend millions in the coming years on a multistory, 1,100- space parking ramp and a 600- space parking lot.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee has not performed autopsies on the four death row inmates who chose to die in the electric chair since the state resumed executions in 2018.
TEXAS Houston: Texas’ highest criminal court overturned the death sentence of a man who was convicted of capital murder.
UTAH West Valley City: A police officer helped deliver a baby whose mother got stuck in rush- hour traffic en route to a hospital.
VERMONT Montpelier: A Pennsylvania man has been charged with smuggling seven parrots into the United States by carrying them across the Quebec- Vermont border.
VIRGINIA Richmond: More than 1,000 people rallied at the state Capitol protesting legislation advancing in the General Assembly that would ease restrictions on abortion access.
WASHINGTON Mount Vernon: Four nonprofits filed a joint lawsuit against the state for issuing a permit for steelhead farms in the marine waters of Skagit and Kitsap counties.
WISCONSIN Madison: The state recorded its second child death of the flu season as influenza activity surges in the state, health officials said.
WYOMING Casper: An anonymous tipster application marketed to Wyoming students received a record number of tips last year, with suicide being the most frequently reported concern, a report said.