STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Birmingham: The deadline to nominate a company for the fifth annual Alabama Launchpad Innovation Awards is Sunday, AL.com reported. The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama will recognize honorees Sept. 2 for achievements in job creation and innovation.
ALASKA Juneau: The Alaska Marine Highway ferry Taku will be out of service from July through September, peak travel and tourism season, due to maintenance delays, the Empire reported. Originally, the work was supposed to be done by July 1.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The state’s Energy Efficient Plate Program for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles has reached its maximum limit of 10,000 vehicles, the Department of Transportation reported. Plate issuance has been suspended until further notice.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Independent Citizens Commission raised pay for prosecutors by 23.4%, from $123,162 to $152,000, arkansasonline reported.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Los Angeles County supervisors voted to end a controversial program that places immigration agents inside county jails to determine whether inmates are deportable, the Times reported. But the board passed a separate measure expressing support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s newest jails initiative, known as the Priority Enforcement Program.
COLORADO Boulder: Hatecrime charges have been anounced against a man involved in an alleged assault against a transgender person in April. Paul Wettengel, 45, is accused of assaulting a 21-year-old woman who identifies as a man at a Boulder RTD bus stop, KUSA-TV reported.
CONNECTICUT Enfield: The local board of education voted to remove armed guards from inside the town’s public schools, The Hartford Courant reported.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Delaware’s congressional delegation wants to see the long-awaited Veterans Affairs inspector general report on the agency’s hospital here as well as restoration of the facility’s intermediate-level surgical status and has asked the VA secretary to “allocate the necessary resources” for both, The News Journal reported.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Funeral services are today for fire Lt. Kevin McRae, 44, who collapsed and later died after fighting a fire last week, The Washington Post reported. McRae was the 100th city firefighter to die in the line of duty; his cousin, James J. McRae III, was the 99th, in 2007.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: The city celebrated Water Wednesday this week, toasting its good-tasting tap water that beat out 11 other regional winners May 5 in a blind taste test at a water resources conference in Orlando, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A new law lets restaurants, recreation camps, youth sports leagues, theme parks, resorts, sports arenas and other public venues stock epinephrine auto-injectors and authorizes trained employees to administer the medication to people with life-threatening allergic reactions, the Journal-Constitution reported.
HAWAII Hilo: The University of Hawaii is getting a $4.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation so it can invest in an international submarine network, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
IDAHO Idaho Falls: Through July 1, Bonneville County is searching for its oldest building, the Post Register reported. Everything, from outhouses to churches, is eligible.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Production studio Chicago Studio City has filed a federal lawsuit claiming the state wrongly issued tax credits and steered projects such as Chicago Fire to its competitor, Cinespace Chicago, the Tribune reported.
INDIANA Muncie: Last year’s 15th annual RibFest proved to be the city’s last one, city officials told the Star Press. They believe higher prices and fewer vendors led to low attendance in recent years.
IOWA Des Moines: The Iowa Department of Transportation has told four cities to turn off their highway traffic cameras that issue tickets to speeders caught on camera. DOT officials said the cameras are not making highways safer, The Des Moines Register reported.
KANSAS Jefferson City: House Speaker John Diehl admitted to a sexually charged relationship with an intern, The Kansas City Star reported. The admission comes after the paper revealed text messages between Diehl and a college freshman who participated in a Capitol internship program.
KENTUCKY Louisville: With less than a week left before the Kentucky GOP primary for governor, the latest Bluegrass Poll show that three candidates are essentially tied atop the fourman field, The Courier- Journal reported. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, found Matt Bevin with 27%, James Comer with 26% and Hal Heiner one point behind him. Will T. Scott trailed with just 8%.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Legislators on opposite sides of Common Core have reached a compromise on how to move forward with setting academic standards for primary and secondary schools, nola.com reported. Under the compromise, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education would start developing English and mathematics standards in July.
MAINE Augusta: A man pleaded guilty to breaking into neighbors’ homes and stealing items, including eight Build-a-Bear gift cards intended to be Christmas presents for children, The Kennebec Journal reported.
MARYLAND Annapolis: Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologists are encouraging anglers to kill any northern snakehead fish they catch after several were found in April in Eastern Shore ponds. Northern snakeheads, first found in the state in 2002, are a nuisance species from China that breeds rapidly and preys on native fish, the Daily Times reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: An incoming sociology professor at Boston University has landed in some hot water after a website listed tweets she made about race earlier this year, WBUR-FM reported. Saida Grundy said she regrets that her “personal passion about issues surrounding ” race has led her “to speak about them indelicately.”
MICHIGAN Williamstown Township: An area man suffered minor hand burns as he escaped a fire that destroyed his home early Thursday morning, the Lansing State Journal reported.
MINNESOTASt. Louis Park: If one city councilman has his way, St. Louis Park could become the first in Minnesota to ban singleuse plastic bags, KARE-TV reported. Councilman Tim Brausen has now asked city staff to review the proposal.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Hinds County Detention Center Administrator Diane Gatson-Riley resigned Tuesday. The 16-year corrections veteran did not give a reason for her resignation, but the Hinds County jail system has been the source of much controversy as officials are working to come from years behind on repairs, technology and jailer pay.
MISSOURI St. Joseph: The Girl Scouts of NE Kansas & NW Missouri says it notified the United Way of Greater St. Joseph it has decided to end the partnership between the two organizations, effective May 31, the St. Joseph News-Leader reported.
MONTANA Hobson: A real-life cattle queen died this week just shy of her 101st birthday. Jeanette Stevenson and her husband started a ranch 70 years ago focused on Angus cattle, reported the Great Falls Tribune.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Developers want to transform an old mail terminal into the headquarters of a construction company and into a space for start-up businesses, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
NEVADA Reno: Breakdowns of the aging elevators at Reno City Hall have trapped riders 10 times in the past 12 months, according to a data obtained by the Reno Gazette- Journal. The City Council decided to spend $600,000 to fix the system.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Gov. Hassan has vetoed a bill that would’ve prohibited implementing Common Core, citing economic competitiveness. School districts already have a choice in implementing the national standards, Governing.com reported.
NEW JERSEY Randolph: Edward Yaw, president of County College of Morris for the last 29 years, announced he will not seek renewal of his contract when it expires in August of 2016, the Daily Record reported.
NEW MEXICO Carlsbad: A U.S. Department of Energy report said that a site near here may be used to dispose of plutonium from surplus nuclear weapons, The Carlsbad Current-Argus reported.
NEW YORK Albany: The state Department of Environmental Conservation released a 2,000page report that lays the groundwork for the state’s promised ban of large-scale hydraulic fracturing, the Gannett Albany bureau reported.
NORTH CAROLINA Hillsborough: Development experts said it would cost at least $2.9 million for a public-private partnership to buy and restore the historic Colonial Inn, the News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The Bismarck Tribune reported that preliminary March numbers released by the Department of Mineral Resources had oil production for the month at 1,190,583 million barrels per day. This was up from the February total of 1,178,082 barrels per day.
OHIO Granville: Workers cleaning out a Dennison University dorm found a 12-by-8-inch fragment of a 19th-century tombstone that apparently marked the grave of a child who died in 1829, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Now police are trying to figure out where it came from.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Harding Charter Preparatory High School Principal Justin Hunt expressed regret over a video that shows students waving dead cats, the Oklahoman reported.
OREGON Salem: A local man was sentenced to 12 years in prison after beating his ex-girlfriend with a baseball bat, the Statesman Journal reported. Landis Provancha, 26, was charged with attempted murder and second-degree assault.
PENNSYLVANIA Indiana: First Commonwealth Bank has purchased Ohio-based First Community Bank for nearly $15 million, The Indiana Gazette reported.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The ACLU-Rhode Island, NAACP and 13 other organizations are asking school committees to postpone using the new state assessment to qualify students for high school graduation, the Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: The city as part of its budget is prepared to give the Greenville Zoo $1 million in addition to its yearly subsidy to offset operating losses, Greenville Online reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Delmont: The town’s future is uncertain after half of its 200 residents were displaced by a tornado, the Argus Leader reported. “People are looking at, ‘Do we even build in Delmont,’ ” said Mayor Mae Gunnare.
TENNESSEE Atwood: Thalia Townsend, 13, is fighting for her right to continue playing football after being turned away from tryouts for her West Carroll Junior High School team, The Jackson Sun reported.
TEXAS Beach City: H3N2 dog flu has been reported for the first time in Texas near Houston. More than 1,000 dogs in the Midwest have been infected and there is no vaccine, NBCDFW.com reported.
UTAH St. George: City managers are proposing a $57.2 million general fund budget for the 201516 fiscal year, The Spectrum reported. The City Council is expecting to have more money to spend with forecast increases in sales tax revenues and property taxes when the fiscal year begins in July.
VERMONT Montpelier: State Sen. Norm McAllister, R-Franklin, has lost out on a possible $20,000 state agriculture agency grant in the wake of his arrest on sexual assault charges, the Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Charlottesville: For the first time, the University of Virginia has split its Final Exercises ceremony into two, the Daily Progress reported.
WASHINGTON Lynnwood: The driver of a semi-truck hauling more than 13 million honeybees that overturned last month on Interstate 5 near here has been fined $550 for the accident that sent millions of bees buzzing onto the highway, The Daily Herald reported.
WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: West Virginia University’s Personal Rapid Transit System has shut down for maintenance and upgrades, and will resume operations Aug. 10, wvutoday reported.
WISCONSIN Green Bay: You can add “Celebrity Jeopardy!” champion to Aaron Rodgers’ list of accomplishments. The Green Bay Packers quarterback and two-time NFL MVP won Tuesday’s episode, totaling $8,399 to beat out Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary and astronaut Mark Kelly.
WYOMING Gillette: A second high school is expected to open here in fall 2017, said the Gillette News Record.