News from across the USA
ALABAMA Mobile: A Coast Guard report said a passing tugboat helped spark explosions that rocked the Mobile River and injured three people on April 24. A preliminary report said workers were cleaning fuel storage tanks on two barges moored at Oil Recovery Co. when vapors entered the engine room of the towing boat Safety Runner, causing a fire. Investigators believe the flames traveled back to the barges and resulted in the explosions.
ALASKA Anchorage: The state Department of Fish and Game said a black bear that mauled a man at a campground north of Anchorage won’t likely threaten other people. Spokesman Ken Marsh told the Anchorage Daily News the bear was “pretty much goaded” into the attack Saturday near Eklutna Lake Campground because the man fed it meat from a church barbecue. He may be charged with illegally feeding wildlife.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Police said a bus driver was caught on cellphone video repeatedly punching a passenger and slamming the man’s head against a bench. Todd Shields, 45, was charged with assault and other counts and placed on leave.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell on Monday named Deborah Coffman to the position to be the state Education Department’s new chief of staff.
CALIFORNIA Mariposa: Crews are battling two wildfires in the Central Valley — one of which is threatening hundreds of homes. The fires in the foothills of Madera and Mariposa counties started on Sunday.
COLORADO Aspen: Construction is rebounding here, with city-issued permits reaching their highest level since 2008. The Aspen Times reported Monday that the city issued 585 permits for construction, electrical, plumbing and related work in the first five months of 2013. That’s up 13% from the same period last year.
CONNECTICUT Fairfield: A man found dead in a marsh off Long Island Sound has been identified as Nikolay Papp, an artist from Fairfield who painted a landscape of sunflowers that President Clinton presented to the president of the Ukraine as a gift in 1994. Papp, 59, was from Ukraine and immigrated to the United States in 1990.
DELAWARE Dover: The discovery of an obscure chemical in a public well near New Castle is prompting state officials to propose requiring utilities to tell customers about the detection of unregulated but potentially toxic drinking water contaminants.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Educare, a state-of-the-art $16 million preschool that education officials consider a model for the nation, marked its first anniversary, The Washington Post reported. It is part of a national network of high-quality early education facilities aimed at low-income children and funded with private and public money.
FLORIDA Melbourne: Montana, a K-9 bloodhound used by the Brevard County Sheriff ’s Office, has retired from the corrections unit after nine years on the job, Florida Today reported. Montana had the longest record of continuous service for a BCSO bloodhound, answering more than 100 calls for investigations, missing people, fleeing criminals and other cases.
GEORGIA Savannah: A consultant’s report on three potential sites for a cruise ship terminal along the Savannah River has been given to city officials, but the city is refusing to make the taxpayer-funded analysis public, The Savannah Morning News reported.
HAWAII Honolulu: A program by the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine is helping high school and middle school students get their hands on laboratory equipment that can make their studies more meaningful. The university’s Center for Cardiovascular Research is collecting, repairing and donating used microscopes, glassware, lab benches and other equipment to schools once it’s no longer needed at the center.
IDAHO Lewiston: A farmer has died of injuries suffered when he was run over by a tractor. The Lewiston Tribune reported that Timothy Harbison, 41, of Juliaetta died Friday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. The Latah County sheriff ’s office said Harbison fell off his tractor and was run over by it.
INDIANA New Albany: Councilman Dan Coffey wants the city’s redevelopment commission to give $100,000 to help relocate a museum that showcases vintage fire engines. Leaders of the Vintage Fire Museum and Safety Education Center are looking to buy a former New Albany church.
IOWA Waterloo: A long-closed dog racing track here would become the headquarters for a trucking company. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Warren Transport president Dick Donnelly said the company hopes to close on the purchase of the former Waterloo Greyhound Park by August.
KANSAS Stafford: Conservationists are raising concerns that a proposal to expand hunting at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in southcentral Kansas could threaten whooping cranes that migrate through there, while refuge managers contend the federally endangered birds would be protected. Currently, the refuge is closed when the whooping cranes stop on their annual migration.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Gazelle Inc., the USA’s largest online consumer electronics trade-in company, is opening a processing center that the company said eventually will employ 438 people. Gazelle co-founder and CEO Israel Ganot said the company will invest $22.3 million in the state over the next several years.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A Kansas company that sells fireworks in Louisiana is asking a state judge to strike down a law that imposes higher permit fees and penalties on nonresident fireworks retailers than on local sellers. A hearing is scheduled June 20 before state District Judge Wilson Fields. C&A Pyro, based in Prairie Village, Kan., claims the higher fees are unconstitutional, discriminatory and unjustified, the Associated Press reported.
MAINE Bar Harbor: Acadia National Park rangers said a broken rope was to blame for an incident that injured three climbers on a 25-foot
high rock face.
MARYLAND Balti
more: Irene Pollin has donated $10 million to the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins University, The Washington Post
reported.
MASSACHUSETTS
Bridgewater: A West Bridgewater man police say was texting when he was involved in a car crash last week has died. A spokeswoman at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston told The
Enterprise of Brockton that Dennis McElhinney, 25, died Sunday.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Former governor Jesse Ventura asked a judge to allow his defamation lawsuit against slain American Sniper author Chris Kyle to go forward by substituting Kyle’s widow as the defendant. In the book, Kyle claimed he decked Ventura in 2006 over unpatriotic remarks Ventura made. Ventura said the punch never happened.
MISSISSIPPI Meridian: The East Mississippi Correctional Facility named a new warden. Issa Arnita, spokesman for prison operator Management and Training Corp., said Jerry Buscher was tapped as the new warden, taking over for Frank Shaw.
MISSOURI St. Louis: The ash trees on the grounds of the Gateway Arch are likely to die off soon, and they’re being removed. The National Park Service is replacing the ash trees with the London plane tree. A black fungus has infected and killed tens of thousands of plane trees across Europe.
MONTANA Helena: The state Highway Patrol is changing its toll-free number for non-emergency traffic concerns as it changes its phone service company to save over $81,000 a year. The new number is 1-855MHP-3777 or 1-855-647-3777.
NEBRASKA Firth: Dan Kadavy said he’s losing thousands of dollars a month and wants the federal government to sink a well for his housing development because water under it has been contaminated by a chemical used at a nearby nuclear missile site.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Authorities said 70 people were displaced and two people injured after a three-alarm fire at an apartment complex. Las Vegas Fire & Rescue officials said they responded to the fire a little before 7 a.m. Sunday at the Encantada Apartments, near U.S. 95 and Eastern Avenue.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Gov. Hassan’s husband is starting a statewide initiative to promote volunteer opportunities throughout the state. Tom Hassan plans to visit each of the state’s 10 counties and meet with volunteer groups.
NEW JERSEY Atlantic City: A South Jersey Transportation Authority study finds there were far fewer passengers on planes and trains, and fewer casino buses and cars heading into town during the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2012.
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: Mayor Ken Miyagishima is trying to convince former Los Angeles mayor Anthony Villaragosa and former Albuquerque mayor Martin Chavez to participate in an upcoming fundraiser. Miyagishima still has a $25,000 debt from his re-election campaign two years ago.
NEW YORK New York: A commuter train derailed in a tunnel under the East River shortly after leaving Penn Station on Monday night, forcing the hundreds of passengers on it to be removed. No injuries were reported.
NORTH CAROLINA Asheville: GE Aviation plans to break ground this year on a parts factory next to an existing machining plant. Within five years, the workforce at the factory could expand to more than 340 people.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: A crop-spraying pilot suffered minor injuries when his plane crashed about 3 miles west of Minot Air Force Base. Brian Sturm, 48, lost control of the plane Sunday morning when one of the wings malfunctioned.
OHIO Lima: The four-day International Harvester Collectors Red Power Roundup begins Wednesday. Up to 30,000 people are expected to view tractors of all sizes.
OKLAHOMA
Tulsa: The Tulsa Zoo had to put down 21-yearold Samburu, a giraffe born at the zoo in 1992. Sam had a broken bone in his right foot and suffered from osteoarthritis.
OREGON Salem: Some business and property owners are organizing a petition drive to block parking meters downtown. A task force recommended metered parking replace free on-street parking because permits and a tax on businesses don’t raise enough to pay for parking facilities, including $500,000 a year for parking garage maintenance.
PENNSYLVANIA Imperial: Officials at Pittsburgh International Airport are planning to honor the Tuskegee Airmen with an exhibit to open in September. Officials need to raise $40,000 for the exhibit, which will feature plaques naming three Tuskegee Airmen killed in combat. RHODE ISLAND North Kingstown: The town beach here has been closed again to swimming because of high bacteria counts in the water. The state Department of Health said five other beaches also remain closed because of unsafe bacteria.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: T. Ed Garrison, a state senator for 22 years, owner of Denver Down Farms, and whose name graces Clemson University’s T. Ed Garrison Arena, died at home Sunday afternoon. He was 91 years old.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: Four young peregrine falcons have been released as part of an effort to reestablish a population of the birds in the Black Hills. The Birds of Prey Northwest organization and the state Game, Fish and Parks Department have released 44 peregrines since the $10,000 project began in 2010. The four released Saturday were about 40 days old.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips is defending the cutting of services at career centers, saying changes should make it easier for Tennesseans to find jobs. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Phillips told the legislative Fiscal Review Committee that the ability to post open jobs over the Internet should simplify searches.
TEXAS San Marcos: Willie Roy Jenkins, 59, was sentenced to death for the slaying of a woman, who was raped, strangled and drowned in 1975. He was identified as a suspect in 2010 through DNA while in a hospital in California under a civil commitment order.
UTAH La Sal: Firefighters are continuing to battle three lightning-caused wildfires that broke out last week in the eastern part of the state. The biggest blaze, the Lackey Fan Fire, has burned 1.4 square miles in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, which is located about 3 miles northwest of here.
VERMONT Ferrisburgh: Vermont State Police are investigating the thefts of various boating equipment from a marina on Lake Champlain. Police say the stolen property has an estimated value of about $9,000. VIRGINIA Falls Church: Children’s National Medical Center is partnering with the Fairfax County public school system to develop a plan to delay the start time for high schools to 8 a.m. or later. Nearly all county public schools currently start at 7:20 a.m.
WASHINGTON Yaki
ma: West Nile virus has turned up in two samples of mosquitoes collected in Yakima County. The virus is spread by mosquito bites, so people are advised to wear insect repellant outdoors.
WEST VIRGINIA Martinsburg: City workers will be eligible for tuition discounts for classes at Shepherd University’s new Martinsburg Center. The center is scheduled to open in July.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Hundreds of National Guard members face furloughs as the result of the automatic federal budget cuts that took effect this year. About 700 Guard members who are Department of Defense technicians must take 11 furlough days before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
WYOMING Cheyenne: A judge approved medical testing for the state’s lone death row inmate to determine whether he should be covered by a federal ban against executing people with intellectual disabilities. Dale Wayne Eaton is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence he received in the rape and murder of Lisa Marie Kimmell, 18, of Billings, Mont., in 1988.