STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Fairfield: The U.S. Steel blast furnace will be shut down permanently on or after Nov. 17, AL.com reported. ALASKA Juneau: Máire New, 18, dreams of being the first Alaskan to graduate from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. About 50 people attended a fundraiser at the Arts and Culture Center to help the ballerina get there, the Empire reported. ARIZONA Tempe: Puscifer will launch a six-week U.S. tour at Monster Mash, a three-day festival at Tempe Beach Park on Sunday, The Arizona Republic reported.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The University of Arkansas is selling three lots on the campus to eStem Public Charter Schools,
Arkansas Online reported.
CALIFORNIA Yosemite National Park: The Tuolumne Meadows Campground was closed for flea treatment after two plague-infected squirrels were found, the Los Angeles Times reported.
COLORADO Denver: The state’s busiest street will be shut down Aug. 29 for a building implosion at the old University Hospital. The eight-story Biomedical Research Building at Colorado Boulevard and Ninth Avenue will come tumbling down to make way for a redevelopment project in the area, KUSA-TV reported.
CONNECTICUT Cheshire: A 15,000-square-foot space in the Cheshire Shopping Center will become Connecticut’s newest Advance Auto Parts location in
November, the New Haven
Register reported. DELAWARE Harrington: The Delaware Junction Country Music Festival will return in 2016, The News Journal reported. Alex Pires, a partner in festival co-producer Highway One, took the main stage before headliners Florida Georgia Line performed to announce that Delaware Junction would be pulling into town again next year. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Music legend Stevie Wonder performed a mini-concert free to the public, WUSA9 reported. He played a couple of songs at the Armory Mall, and the first 1,000 people to arrive received doughnuts.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Home to two state universities and a community college, Tallahassee’s astute population received a nod in Wallet Hub’s 2015 Most and Least Educated Cities list, the
Tallahassee Democrat reported. The study assessed 150 of the country’s largest metropolitan statistical areas across nine key metrics, and Tallahassee ranked 11th overall.
GEORGIA Atlanta: The Meatball Festival rolls into town
Aug. 30, the Journal-Constitution reported. Several types of meatballs will be offered, from traditional beef and pork to seafood and chicken. HAWAII Honolulu: A 58-yearold man was found dead during a snorkeling tour at Maui’s Molokini Crater, the Honolulu
Star-Advertiser reported.
IDAHO Idaho Falls: Police are investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a local park, the Post Register reported.
ILLINOIS Des Plaines: Adrian Menzel, 8, embarked on an ambitious project to bring hundreds of Lego sets to impoverished children living in a trash dump in Guatemala, the Des Plaines News reported.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Milktooth restaurant in Fletcher Place, owned by Jonathan and Ashley Brooks, made Bon Appetit magazine’s annual list of America’s Hot 10 new restaurants,
The Indianapolis Star reported.
IOWA Des Moines: Police arrested a man who witnesses said pushed a shopping cart full of batteries and wires into a Hy-Vee grocery store, claiming he planted a bomb, The Des Moines Register reported.
KANSAS Wichita: The Wichita Eagle reported that Wichita State University has 430 fewer students this fall than last year’s. The university has had about 15,000 for several years. KENTUCKY Louisville: The Kentucky State Fair has a new rule that only 100% homemade baked goods are eligible for entry in the culinary judging categories in 2015 because of a pie scandal last year, WHAS-TV reported. In 2014, a blue ribbon was awarded for a buttermilk pie that used a premade crust. LOUISIANA New Orleans: A report by Ride New Orleans found public transportation improved significantly since the flooding after Hurricane Katrina, but it never fully recovered to its pre-storm reach, and its leaders have not crafted a clear plan, according to The Times-Picayune. MAINE Port Clyde: Barclay Oudersluys completed a 3,000-mile run at the Marshall Point lighthouse here, WCSH-TV reported. The journey was inspired by the movie Forrest
Gump. Oudersluys also raised more than $11,000 for “STEPS,” an organization that aims to end poverty around the world.
MARYLAND Princess Anne: WOLC, which currently operates as Princess Anne-based Christian radio station “Joy! 102.5 FM,” went dark Tuesday, ceasing operations after its 9 a.m. broadcast. Delmarva’s CBS-TV affiliate, WBOC, purchased the radio station in August, the Daily Times reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Lawrence: A number of teachers who lost their jobs in the public schools here say they were unfairly evaluated, The Boston Globe reported.
MICHIGAN West Bloomfield: Emma Didlake, a longtime Detroiter and America’s oldest living veteran, passed away at age 110 on Sunday morning at a long-term care facility — just weeks after meeting President Obama in Washington, the
Detroit Free Press reported. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: Police are trying to figure out who is hurling chunks of concrete. There have been five assaults since July 20, with three in rapid succession Aug. 7, according to the Star Tribune.
MISSISSIPPI Natchez: Campaign signs for the two men running for Adams County sheriff — Travis Patten and Randy Freeman — were vandalized, The Natchez
Democrat reported.
MISSOURI St. Joseph: Officials issued a warning after two suspicious fires at abandoned, older buildings, the St. Joseph
News-Press reported.
MONTANA Missoula: Forest Service officials here are investigating when wildland firefighters start experiencing permanent health damage from smoke inhalation, the Missoulian reported.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Nearly 150 people, including Mayor Chris Beutler, attended the dedication ceremony for the History of the Malone Neighborhood Plaque
Project at Trago Park, the Lincoln
Journal Star reported. The 9foot-tall plaques tell the stories of several African Americans in Lincoln since the first black settlers arrived in the 1870s.
NEVADA Reno: About 100 students who expected to move into the University of Nevada-Reno’s Manzanita Hall will find out they will have a different address, the
Reno Gazette-Journal reported. UNR School officials said the decision comes from Nevada Public Works. NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: New Hampshire 11th-graders in public schools will be taking the SAT for statewide assessment tests this year, the Concord
Monitor reported. Heather Gage, the Division of Educational Improvement’s director, says school officials, teachers and students encouraged the department to make the move. NEW JERSEY Manalapan: A New Jersey dad hopes to raise awareness about Duchenne muscular dystrophy by attempting to break a Guinness World Record for the most people doing pushups at once, the Asbury Park
Press reported. An attempt in July involved 1,100 people — twice the current record — but weather prevented the aerial photo needed to certify a record.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: New Mexico has ramped up its efforts to collect delinquent gross receipts taxes from selfemployed workers, contractors and business owners. The Albuquerque Journal reported that the number of letters alerting taxpayers of a possible discrepancy in taxes paid has grown from 666 in the 2011 fiscal year to 17,930 in the budget year that ended in June.
NEW YORK Buffalo: The U.S. Coast Guard rescued two people from Lake Erie after nearly two hours in the water, WGRZ-TV reported.
NORTH CAROLINA Cary: A new location for the annual Lazy Daze Arts and Crafts Festival means fewer vendors, but there will still be plenty of beer, art, music and fun at the downtown event Saturday. This year, the event will encircle Town Hall, The News &
Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Hollywood actor Josh Duhamel was back in his native state for a North Dakota tourism video, WDAY-TV reported.
OHIO Buckeye Lake: Gov. Kasich asked the federal government for disaster assistance this week to help businesses in three counties affected by the Buckeye Lake dam project and lowering of the lake’s water level, the Newark Advocate reported.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Public schools here have resorted to emergency teaching certificates
at a record high rate, the Tulsa
World reported. More than 565 teachers, roughly 20% of the certified positions, left in the past 14 months.
OREGON Portland: Police are looking for a suspect who shot and wounded a man after an argument at a child’s birthday
party here. The Oregonian reported that police responded to reports of gunfire at the celebration at Laurelhurst Park.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: A woman accused of dumping her quadriplegic son in the woods of a local park for five days so she could visit her boyfriend in Maryland has waived her preliminary hearing on attempted
murder and related charges, The
Philadelphia Inquirer reported. RHODE ISLAND Providence: State health officials say there are no plans to change a new requirement that all middle school students get the HPV vaccine. Children entering seventh grade this fall in Rhode Island must get the vaccine unless their parents seek a medical or religious exemption, the Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Aiken: The Savannah River Site nuclear facility was locked down for three hours Monday after possible explosives were detected on a vendor delivery truck, but a lawenforcement investigation declared it a false alarm, The Aiken Standard reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Anglers are heading to the Pierre-Fort Pierre area as reports of whopper chinook salmon roll in, the
Capital Journal reported.
TENNESSEE Cleveland: The former communications director at the global headquarters of the Church of God, Troy Scot Carter, was sentenced to 34 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $880,000 from church coffers through 10 years of schemes that included creating false invoices
for audiovisual services, The Cleveland Daily Banner reported.
TEXAS Austin: A new law going into effect Sept. 1 will set deadlines for school districts to reform failing schools, thus holding the districts more accountable. After two years of poor ratings, districts will have to come up with a reform plan with input from the community,
The Texas Tribune reported. UTAH Hurricane: Road widening, passing lanes and improved safety features for cyclists are among the improvements proposed to take place in the next decade along state Route 9 between here and Springdale,
The Spectrum reported.
VERMONT Burlington: The case of a Bosnian war-crimes suspect accused of lying on his U.S. citizenship application is gearing up for a second trial early in 2016. Edin Sakoc of Burlington was found guilty of knowingly lying on his naturalization application in January, but he won a retrial
on appeal, the Burlington Free
Press reported. VIRGINIA Poquoson: In a state sanctioned-experiment, waterman George Trice pulls thousands of pounds of blue catfish a day from the James and Pamunkey Rivers in an effort to reduce the number of the troublemaking fish. Trice catches the fish by sending an electric current into the water to stun them, the Rich
mond Times-Dispatch reported. WASHINGTON Puyallup: The Washington State Fair is preparing for its 17-day run, starting on Sept. 11 and running through Sept. 27. The fair first opened in 1900.
WEST VIRGINIA West
Columbia: A program called KIDS, or Keeping Infant Development Successful, at Lakin Correctional Center allows non-violent inmates to remain with their babies, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
WISCONSIN Green Bay: Packers Hall of Fame staff showcased the Vince Lombardi office exhibit Monday morning ahead of Friday’s grand opening in the Lambeau Field atrium, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported. WYOMING Worland: The practice by farmers of burning fields after the barley harvest in Washakie County has raised complaints from some people about air quality, the Northern Wyoming Daily News reported.