USA TODAY International Edition
HIGHLIGHT: CALIFORNIA
Santa Monica: An annual “Beach Report Card” concludes historic winter precipitation is resulting in high rates of runoff and dirtier water along the coast. Heal The Bay said just two beaches statewide made its 2022- 2023 Honor Roll – Bean Hollow State Beach in San Mateo County and Point Loma in San Diego County. In the last survey, 51 beaches made the Honor Roll. The environmental nonprofit surveys more than 500 beaches and assigns letter grades, A- plus through F. The exceedingly wet winter brought multiple rain- triggered sewage spills and flushed pollutants through storm drains into the ocean, the report said.
ALABAMA Montgomery: Republican Bryan Taylor, a former state senator and former chief legal adviser to Gov. Kay Ivey, announced Wednesday that he is running for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The election for chief justice will be held next year.
ALASKA Anchorage: Former state Rep. Chris Tuck has filed a letter of intent to run for mayor in 2024, Alaska Public Media reported.
ARIZONA Phoenix: A female Mexican gray wolf that a group of schoolchildren nicknamed Asha has been returned to the wilds of Arizona after she was found wandering in northern New Mexico outside of a zone set up for the recovery of her subspecies, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin on Wednesday formed a group to look at possible changes to the state’s Freedom of Information Act after efforts to scale back the open records and meeting law failed in this year’s legislative session.
COLORADO Denver: Two men were fatally shot after a road rage incident involving two vehicles on Interstate 25 in Denver, police said.
CONNECTICUT Norwalk: A commuter train collided with a pickup truck in Connecticut on Wednesday, injuring the driver and heavily damaging the vehicle, authorities said. None of the 24 passengers on the train were injured, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said.
DELAWARE Dover: The University of Delaware has agreed to pay $ 6.3 million to settle a lawsuit over its campus shutdown in 2020 and the halting of in- person classes because of the coronavirus pandemic.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Washington Post publisher and chief executive Fred Ryan, who presided over explosive growth during the Trump years but couldn’t avert the effects of the industry’s downturn over the past two years, said he’s leaving the publication after nearly a decade.
FLORIDA Tampa: Five dogs were killed in an RV fire the day before a dog show was set to begin in Florida, officials said.
GEORGIA Valdosta: A woman whose car was captured on video vaulting into the air over a tow truck and crashing onto a Georgia highway says she’s recovering after spending two weeks in a hospital and undergoing several surgeries.
HAWAII Honolulu: Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday a lower revenue forecast has forced him to use his line- item veto power to slice more than $ 500 million in spending out of the general fund budget during each of the next two years.
IDAHO Riggins: Authorities believe a car crash that killed a family of four in Idaho last weekend happened after the 17- year- old driver fell asleep on a curvy road and the vehicle went off a cliff, falling 30 feet into a river.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Amtrak travel between Chicago and St. Louis is about to get 15 minutes quicker thanks to a high- speed rail project allowing trains to reach speeds of 110 mph, Gov. JB Pritzker said. The higher speeds take effect June 26 and will reduce the duration of the trip from the current five hours and 13 minutes. Trips from St. Louis to Chicago are a few minutes shorter, according to Amtrak timetables. Existing maximum speeds on the route are 90 mph.
INDIANA New Carlisle: General Motors and Samsung SDI have selected New Carlisle as the site of a new electric vehicle battery cell plant in Indiana. The plant will create 1,700 manufacturing jobs, Gov. Eric Holcomb said in a statement on Tuesday.
IOWA Davenport: A songwriter and music industry entrepreneur from Atlanta has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his girlfriend in Iowa.
KANSAS Topeka: Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt has been diagnosed with breast cancer and plans to undergo treatment in the coming weeks. Schmidt said she will continue to work as the state’s top insurance regulator while undergoing treatment at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.
KENTUCKY Shepherdsville: Republican gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron stuck to his solidly conservative playbook Tuesday but steered away for the most part from former President Donald Trump’s latest legal woes. Cameron, the state’s attorney general, didn’t mention the ex- president in a campaign speech. But when asked later by reporters, he echoed comments from other Trump defenders in raising concerns about a “weaponization of government power.”
LOUISIANA Fort Johnson: A U. S. Army base in western Louisiana was renamed Tuesday to honor Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a Black hero of World War I who received the Medal of Honor nearly a century later. Fort Johnson had previously been named after a Confederate commander, Leonidas Polk.
MAINE Portland: Lawmakers are backing a proposal to include language about the state’s obligations to Native American tribes in future printings of the state’s constitution.
MARYLAND Hagerstown: A Washington County woman has won the top prize offered in the Maryland Lottery’s $ 50,000 Cash scratch- off game that started in late December, according to the lottery agency.
MASSACHUSETTS Cape Cod: Scientists monitoring the white shark population in the waters off Massachusetts’ Cape Cod are attaching improved sensors, including cameras, to the predators to help scientists keep track of their whereabouts and to keep beachgoers informed and safe, researchers said.
MICHIGAN Detroit: Michigan State University’s $ 3.9 billion endowment fund has become the majority investor in the Fisher Building, an iconic art deco style tower near downtown Detroit, the school announced Tuesday. The fund is investing $ 21 million in the building, two adjacent surface parking lots and a parking structure for a 79% ownership stake. The other owners are real estate developer and property manager The Platform and the MSU Federal Credit Union.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: A second man has been found guilty in a shootout at a bar that left one person dead and more than a dozen people injured.
MISSISSIPPI Oxford: Three Mississippi men each have been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for the 2018 armed robbery of a U. S. Postal Service worker.
MISSOURI Kansas City: The parents of a 6- year- old girl who drowned at a popular Kansas City water park last year allege in a lawsuit that the park repeatedly hires young, inexperienced lifeguards and does not adequately train them.
MONTANA Great Falls: A man has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison after being convicted of a hate crime and firearms charges for threatening a woman with violent, homophobic slurs and shooting at her house with an AK- style rifle as part of a self- described “mission” to rid a small town of its LGBTQ community.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will meet next week to consider increasing tuition rates by 3.5%, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
NEVADA Carson City: The Oakland Athletics cleared a major hurdle for their planned relocation to Las Vegas after the Nevada Legislature gave final approval on Wednesday to public funding for a portion of a proposed $ 1.5 billion stadium with a retractable roof. The deal that backers said will help further establish Las Vegas as the new “entertainment and sports capital of the world” still needs the governor’s signature, and MLB still must approve the A’s move to the Las Vegas Strip, but both are anticipated.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: The Pease Development Authority’s Board of Directors voted to extend the deadline for Million Air Portsmouth’s application to build a controversial fixed base operator facility until the end of the year.
NEW JERSEY Wayne: The leader of a local synagogue has offered to help stem a rise in school bullying after parents complained to the Board of Education that their children were victims of frequent ridicule by their classmates.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: It’s been almost 35 years since Tara Calico disappeared during a bicycle ride near her home in New Mexico, but authorities announced Tuesday that they have enough evidence now to turn the case over to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecution. The suspects haven’t been named and court records remain sealed. Authorities said they hope to provide more information as the case progresses.
NEW YORK New York City: An entrepreneur who promoted group “orgasmic meditation” as a road to women’s well- being turned herself in and pleaded not guilty to a charge of manipulating traumatized people into debt, undesired sex and underpaid work.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The North Carolina General Assembly gave final approval to legislation that would prohibit local governments from adopting ordinances preventing the expansion of certain energy services based on fuel type – one of two energy bills the legislature could wrap up this week.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Air quality in the state has plummeted once again due to smoke from wildfires burning in Canada, The Bismarck Tribune reported.
OHIO Columbus: Automatic external defibrillators, or AEDs, could be placed in nearly every school or sports and recreation venue in Ohio under a proposal that cleared the Republican- dominated House with overwhelming bipartisan support.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A 3% tuition increase has been approved at the University of Oklahoma, guaranteeing students’ costs will rise for the third consecutive year. University leaders say the increase is necessary to cover rising recurring costs.
OREGON Portland: A jury ordered the electric utility PacifiCorp to pay punitive damages for causing devastating wildfires in Oregon in 2020 – on top of an earlier verdict already expected to amount to billions of dollars.
PENNSYLVANIA Scranton: A former manager at the Harvard Medical School morgue, his wife and three other people have been indicted in the theft and sale of human body parts, federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania announced Wednesday.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state House of Representatives has backed away from a controversial proposal to create special drivers’ licenses and car decals for people with autism, and instead is supporting a plan to institute a “blue envelope” program similar to those in other states.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Criminal defendants with repeat violent charges will have a harder time getting out of jail as they await trial and could spend more time in prison if they are convicted of the crime while out on bond, under a proposal heading to the governor’s desk.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Sioux Falls’ public health director has resigned less than two years after he started in the role. Charles Chima’s final day with the city was June 12, according to a statement from Bill O’Toole, the city’s director of human resources.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The city’s Metro Council narrowly rejected a measure that would have sent a proposed deal to renovate and expand the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway back to the drawing board.
TEXAS McAllen: The Biden administration said that the reason it has halted online asylum appointments at the international crossing in Laredo was because of the “security situation” across the border in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo. U. S. Customs Border Protection said in a statement that the government also took into account other unspecified “operational factors, including relatively low demand for appointments for that location.”
UTAH Salt Lake City: In the latest effort to combat overcrowding at one of Utah’s “Mighty 5” national parks, officials at Capitol Reef National Park are proposing a revamp of the roadway and infrastructure along its iconic Scenic Drive roadway.
VERMONT Burlington: The man charged with killing his mother at sea during a 2016 fishing trip off the coast of New England has died awaiting trial, federal authorities said Thursday. Prosecutors say it was a scheme to inherit millions of dollars.
VIRGINIA Staunton: A petition on change. org started June 9 to oust Pat Trice as superintendent of the Virginia School for The Deaf and The Blind has 152 signatures as of late Tuesday.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A woman who was eight months pregnant died after a man shot multiple times into a car she was in while stopped at an intersection in central Seattle, authorities said. The 34- year- old woman’s baby was delivered at a hospital but died soon after, The Seattle Times reported Wednesday, citing a probable cause statement.
WEST VIRGINIA Martinsburg: City Manager Mark S. Baldwin recently announced the appointment of Erin P. Gibbons as the new chief of police for the Martinsburg Police Department. Gibbons, a 17- year law- enforcement veteran and the current deputy chief of police for Martinsburg, was promoted to police chief effective June 11, following the retirement of Chief George Swartwood.
WISCONSIN Madison: The Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday passed a bipartisan plan to prevent Milwaukee from going bankrupt that also sends more state aid to every community in the state, a longsought- after funding increase agreed to by Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
WYOMING Cheyenne: The University of Wyoming’s Board of Trustees approved the school’s financial plan for 2024, which will increase the annual budget by nearly $ 100 million, the Casper Star- Tribune reported.
From USA TODAY Network and wire reports