STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Birmingham: Authorities identified a Hoover High School student who left notes in boys’ restrooms threatening to kill himself at the school. Police Capt. Gregg Rector said police and school officials worked diligently to determine who wrote the letters, AL.com reported. ALASKA Fairbanks: Zachary Whisenhunt, 28, accused of fleeing from police, was found with methamphetamine, heroin, a loaded pistol and a bulletproof vest, according to charging documents cited by newsminer.com. ARIZONA Tempe: The bulls are coming Oct. 17, but not the giant, snorting ones that can do serious damage. This Running of the Bulls features AZ Roller Derby athletes wearing bull horns and chasing runners down with Nerf bats, The Arizona Republic reported. ARKANSAS Little Rock: John Selig, 55, director of the state Department of Human Services, will step down at the end of the year, Arkansas-Online reported. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Yoga poses do not receive copyright protection, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided, according to the Los Angeles Times. COLORADO Boulder: Activists are hoping to draw 10,000 people from a variety of organizations and causes for a march on Oct. 28, the same day as the Republican presidential debate at the University of Colorado this month, the Boulder Daily Camera reported. CONNECTICUT Meriden: The Pennsylvania-based Boscov’s department store chain is opening a store at Westfield Meriden shopping center, staking its first claim in New England, the Hartford Courant reported. DELAWARE Wilmington: Teveya Brittingham, who kicked a man to death in a drunken stupor, was sentenced to spend at least 12 years in prison on a charge of manslaughter, The News Journal reported. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Secret Service agent driving a motorcycle was seriously injured after being involved in a crash with a car, WUSA9 reported. FLORIDA New Port Richey: A teen got a reduced sentence after writing 200 apology letters to victims who lost their belongings in the fire he set, The Tampa Bay Times reported. The 18-year-old intended to burn the storage facility of his mother’s ex-boyfriend, but the fire spread to about 40 other units. GEORGIA Cobb County: A motorcyclist was badly burned when his bike caught fire as he was filling it with gas. The man didn’t turn the motor off, and the bike ignited, Fire Department spokesman Dan Dupree said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
HAWAII Honolulu: Researchers are seeing bleaching affect at least half the coral reef at Molokini Crater near Maui as a result of warmer ocean water, KHON-TV and KITV reported. IDAHO Boise: The number of people applying for a concealed weapon permit and buying firearms has doubled this month in the Treasure Valley, KBOI-TV reported. ILLINOIS Champaign: If pumpkin eaters and carvers want to make sure there’s enough left over for Thanksgiving, they might want to start stocking up, The State Journal-Register warned. Record rainfall in June devastated pumpkin crops. INDIANA Indianapolis: A woman says her training in medieval combat helped her corner a home intruder, The Indianapolis Star reported. Karen Dolley, 43, threw punches and then kept the man subdued with a Japanese sword she keeps near her bed. IOWA Iowa City: Ring-neck pheasants are on the rise in Iowa after seeing their populations decimated by a stretch of harsh winters and dwindling acres set aside for conservation, according to a state Department of Natural Resources survey. The survey found a 37% increase in Iowa’s ring-necked pheasants, compared with 2014, the Press-Citizen reported. KANSAS Lawrence: Officials at Haskell Indian Nations University approved plans to consider seeking more autonomy from the federal government by becoming a federally chartered school, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. KENTUCKY Louisville: The Kentucky Health Cooperative, a non-profit, government-subsidized insurance group aimed at offering consumers more choices in health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, will stop offering health plans at the end of this year, The Courier-Journal reported. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Ranney and Emel Mize told The Times-Picayune it feels like their “perfect party house” remodeled them. The grand center hall “can accommodate about 150 seated guests, and the acoustics are wonderful,” Emel Mize said. About 10 times a year, the couple open the hall for private concerts, welcoming some of the world’s most noted classical musicians. MAINE Pittsfield: The Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets will receive more than $348,000 in federal funds. MARYLAND Annapolis: Watermen dredging the Chesapeake Bay for oysters this season may not haul in the bounty that some recent years have produced, The Daily Times reported. State officials say last season’s haul came to more than 393,000 bushels of oysters valued at $17.3 million, second only to the 2013 season as the largest catch in 15 years.
MASSACHUSETTS New Bedford: The New Bedford Whaling Museum recently opened an $8 million wing dubbed the Wattles Jacobs Education Center. The 20,000-square-foot expansion quadruples the museum’s educational space. MICHIGAN Plymouth: Hundreds of worshippers at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church paid their respects Thursday to an 11-year-old saint who’s considered a model of mercy, the Detroit Free Press reported. MINNESOTA St. Paul: A dinosaur claw fossil found in the could help researchers better figure out what sort of dinosaurs lived in the state, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. The bone is being analyzed by paleontologists at the Science Museum of Minnesota. MISSISSIPPI Natchez: The westbound span of the U.S. 84 bridge over the Mississippi River was slated to reopen Monday, the Natchez Democrat reported. MISSOURI Kansas City: Authorities are investigating after burglars busted through a wall at a local loan business and stole an ATM, The Kansas City Star reported. MONTANA Helena: Gov. Bullock hired Tim Crowe as his new communications director. Crowe was the longtime spokesman for the state Department of Military Affairs. NEBRASKA Lincoln: Former Nebraska football standout and current NFL star Ndamukong Suh plans to open a Nike store in the former Nebraska Bookstore space downtown, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. NEVADA Reno: Andy Barron, a photographer with the Reno Gazette-Journal, was arrested following an altercation with security guards at the site of a future Tesla gigafactory. NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: With the Medicaid expansion covering about 42,000 low-income adults, the number of uninsured people using the emergency room has dropped 28% since August 2014. The number of uninsured, inpatient hospital services dropped 36%,
the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. NEW JERSEY Toms River: Citing concerns about safety and its impact on a nearby neighborhood, the town’s Board of Adjustment voted unanimously to reject a developer’s plan to build a heliport off Route 37 near the Thomas A. Mathis Bridge, the Asbury Park Press reported.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the Blue Rooster, the city’s last gay bar, shut its doors Friday.
NEW YORK Hastings-on-Hudson: The third year of a five-year experiment to reduce the deer population here through the use of birth control on local does is getting ready to start, The Journal News reported. NORTH CAROLINA Cary: Eric Fitts was named the Wake County school system’s 2015-16 Principal of the Year, The News & Observer reported. Fitts has been principal of Brentwood Elementary School in North Raleigh since 2013, during which test scores have risen and Brentwood was named the nation’s secondbest magnet school in April. NORTH DAKOTA Williston: The Williams County Sheriff ’s office bought a new bicycle for a 12year-old girl who had hers stolen shortly after its second ride, the Williston Herald reported. OHIO London: An outbreak of a highly contagious skin infection called impetigo has canceled all classes in Madison-Plains School District, WBNS-TV reported. OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A local man sentenced to 24 years in prison for a crash that killed three people was released on bond, the Tulsa World reported. Steven Wade, 24, was ordered to wear an ankle monitor. OREGON Portland: The Broadway Bridge will be closed to motor vehicles through Oct. 27 during a repainting project, The Oregonian reported. PENNSYLVANIA Doylestown: Hundreds of winter coats earmarked for inmates will instead warm the homeless because they arrived in the wrong color, the Bucks County Courier Times reported. RHODE ISLAND Providence: Revenue at the seven stateowned, pay-to-park beaches rose $55,000, or 1.4%, compared with last summer, the Providence Journal reported. SOUTH CAROLINA Greer: Hollywood has come to Greer and will take a tour through the Upstate over the next three weeks as production for Chronol-
ogy, a feature film from Stern Pictures produced by Dark Corner Films, films on location. Billy Baldwin, Danny Trejo, John James and Laura James star in the movie, The Greenville News reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: KELO-TV reported that crews are performing a restoration of Central Fire Station that’s expected to be complete in November. TENNESSEE Memphis: Voters tapped a city councilman to become their first white mayor in nearly a quarter century, rebuffing a three-term incumbent whose campaign sagged under rising crime, poverty and troubled finances, The Commercial Appeal reported. Mayor A C Wharton Jr. conceded in the race to Councilman Jim Strickland; Strickland will be the first white mayor since 1991. TEXAS Irving: A plan for the former home of the Dallas Cowboys was proposed to the City Council. The plan includes retail shops, hotels, theaters, and housing and office space, wfaa.com reported. UTAH Murray: A couple is accused of using a shaved key to steal 7 Honda vehicles from TRAX stations and a mall parking lot, KSL-TV reported. VERMONT Montpelier: Delivery of medical marijuana and hemp grown by dispensaries were among the rules approved Thursday by the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules. The committee’s 45-day review period ends Monday, Burlington Free Press reported. VIRGINIA Beaverdam: A 175pound South African Mastiff dog was reported stolen from a home. The dog, named Adnoof, is approximately 29 inches tall and valued at more than $10,000, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Macy’s says it’s selling the top four floors of its downtown store here, Seattlepi.com reported. Macy’s will sell floors five through eight of their building for $65 million to Starwood Capital Group for office space. None of the 265 employees at the store will lose their jobs. The store first opened as The Bon Marche in 1929 and has 864,000 square feet of space. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: In the criminal trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, Bobbie Pauley, the only woman coal miner working at Massey’s Upper Big Branch, testified about what she called “shocking ” incidents when she first started working underground at the mine in 2008. “The roof had fallen ... there were (roof ) bolts hanging out that weren’t supporting anything,” Pauley told jurors, according to the Gazette-Mail. WISCONSIN Belleville: Retailer Duluth Trading Company filed papers to be listed on the stock market and publicly traded. The Duluth Holdings Co., which owns the work-wear maker, said that it had registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol DLTH. Though Web sales account for 90% of the company’s revenue, Duluth Trading Co. said it plans to use revenue from the offering to expand into storefront retail. The company employs more than 250 fulltime employees, Oshkosh Northwestern reported. WYOMING Gillette: A 10-yearold pregnant mare was shot and killed near here, the Gillette News Record reported.