STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Russell County: Scotty Brooks, media specialist at Russell County High School, plans to bike from his school to the state Capitol in Montgomery on Nov. 7 to raise money to buy new books for the school library. “We want to get more current books, more options, different genres,” Brooks told AL.com. ALASKA Fairbanks: Dan Schacher, the state Department of Transportation’s maintenance superintendent, embraced computer technology to help him do his job in a time of tightening resources, newsminer.com reported. The computer in his office displays an interactive map that shows road temperatures and weather forecasts, offering an analysis of how and when roads should be treated. ARIZONA Phoenix: The Arizona
Republic laid out an array of area doughnut shops to help readers get their morning (or any other part of their day) started. Choices include Rollover Doughnuts & Coffee, which features the Bear doughnut with smoked Gouda and bacon, and Fractured Prune Doughnuts, which lets customers customize their treats.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Frustration between Little Rock Film Festival organizers and the Central Arkansas Library System resulted in the library canceling its agreement with the festival and evicting its organizers from its rent-free library office space, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Nine students who have a variety of developmental or mental disorders such as autism enrolled in a 16-week program at UCLA to help them navigate social interaction, the Los Angeles Times reported.
COLORADO Frisco: A skull found in August on Peak One has been identified as that of Jack McAtee, a Breckenridge man who had been missing since last year,
The Summit Daily reported.
CONNECTICUT Milford: The annual Halloween costume parades at the city’s elementary schools have been canceled this
year, the Connecticut Post posted. A letter to parents said the cancelations “arose out of numerous incidents of children being excluded from activities due to religion, cultural beliefs, etc.”
DELAWARE New Castle: A federal judge has delayed the sentencing of the widow and children of a man who killed his ex-daughter-in-law at the New Castle County Courthouse in 2013, The News Journal reported. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: D.C. Water, which also treats sewage from Maryland and Virginia suburbs, is the first U.S. utility to use a Norwegian thermal hydrolysis system to convert sludge into electricity, The Washington
Post reported.
FLORIDA Merritt Island: An unidentified man working on a
boat dock at the site of the 2016
HGTV Dream Home was electrocuted before falling into the Indi
an River Lagoon, Florida Today reported.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A crew film
ing Sully, a new movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks as the heroic airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, will work in the state for several
weeks, the Journal-Constitution reported.
HAWAII Wailuku: Hawaii Department of Health’s Clean Air Branch fined seven businesses and two Kauai agencies for failing to pass air quality tests, The Maui
News reported.
IDAHO Chester: Two grizzly bear cubs were released near Yellowstone National Park after being captured here, the Post Register reported. ILLINOIS Chicago: Mayor Rahm Emanuel pointed to police tentativeness as one of the causes of an increase in crime, the Chicago
Tribune reported. Police are becoming “fetal” out of concern they will get in trouble for actions during arrests, he said. INDIANA Bloomington: The city may spend about $100,000 on a study of its water treatment methods. Utilities Director Patrick Murphy said the department is moving toward hiring an engineering firm to analyze treatment methods in hopes of reducing potentially harmful byproducts,
The Herald-Times reported.
IOWA Swisher: The City Council voted to keep its minimum wage at the state level of $7.25 an hour, but the ordinance will require a second reading for final passage, the Press-Citizen reported. KANSAS Hutchinson: Local health officials said the number of suspected cases of whooping cough has risen lately, but the spread is slowing, The Hutchinson
News reported.
KENTUCKY Louisville: More than a dozen local pastors launched what they’re calling a “grass-roots effort” demanding public charter schools and the redirection of pre-school funds in the area, WHAS-TV reported. The Kentucky Pastors in Action group is launching a petition to demand the next governor do more to help. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Members of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus assembled Big Chew, a 27-foot wooden sculpture of the Carnival club’s Wookiee namesake. The giant sculpture, designed by artist Brennan Steele, will be set ablaze Saturday during the first Ignition Festival, The Times-Picayune reported.
MAINE Dixfield: A man died and three people were hurt after a crash on state Route 2, WGMETV reported.
MARYLAND Pocomoke City: The Maryland Department of the Environment informed Mayor Bruce Morrison via letter that multiple violations at the city’s wastewater treatment plant are so significant that the agency will pursue enforcement actions, The
Daily Times reported. MASSACHUSETTS Lowell: A police officer who was photographed apparently taking a nap inside his cruiser while on duty has been placed on administrative leave. A citizen snapped a photo of the officer and sent it to
The Sun, which published the
photo.
MICHIGAN Lansing: Donors across the USA have chipped in $8,000 after learning about the plight of a cat named Booger, a male yellow tabby found shot with a crossbow Oct. 5 in Eaton County, the Lansing State Journal reported.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said zebra mussels have spread to two more state lakes — Lake John in Wright County and Bryant Lake in Eden Prairie. MISSISSIPPI Gulfport: A marketing study said that the Mississippi Aquarium planned for local waterfront would create a visitor experience “significantly larger in scale” than any Coast attraction, the Sun Herald reported.
MISSOURI Cape Girardeau: Police are questioning a person of interest in relation to a fatal shooting, the Southeast Missouri
an reported. The person is under investigation in the Oct. 6 killing of Howard Harris Smith Jr., 42. MONTANA Great Falls: The state Department of Transportation will either replace or install hundreds of 80-mph traffic signs along Interstates 15, 90 and 94 on Oct. 1, the Great Falls Tribune reported. NEBRASKA McCook: A man was given probation and ordered to help pay restitution for stealing and shooting an Angus heifer, the
McCook Gazette reported.
NEVADA Las Vegas: KTNV-TV reported that a local man posted video on Facebook that showed two women stealing dog food and toys from his front porch.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that New Hampshire ranks 43rd in the USA for access to fluoride in public drinking water. Less than 390,000 state residents have access to fluoridated water. NEW JERSEY Belmar: A woman who pounded double-vodka cocktails at 7 a.m. and then repeatedly fell off a chair at police headquarters can proceed with a lawsuit against officers who arrested her for drunken driving, the As
bury Park Press reported.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: A recent election saw the lowest voter turnout for a city election since 1974. The Albuquerque
Journal reported that only 8.2% of registered voters participated in last week’s election.
NEW YORK Tuxedo: A huge residential and commercial development called Tuxedo Farms is underway in Orange County, eventually bringing nearly 1,200 new homes to market, The Jour
nal News reported.
NORTH CAROLINA West Ra
leigh: Police released surveillance photos of two men suspected of starting a fire over the weekend inside a Walmart. No injuries were reported in the fire in the household products area, according to The News &
Observer.
NORTH DAKOTA Williston: City leaders are hoping to improve the appearance of downtown by making permanent a temporary moratorium on metal buildings, the Williston Herald reported.
OHIO Chillicothe: Members of 1194th Engineering Company of the Ohio National Guard are deploying to Kuwait in support of the military mission in Afghanistan, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. The unit has plumbers, electricians, concrete and masonry experts. OKLAHOMA Owasso: A fire at a local rock quarry caused a fuel tank at the site to explode, injuring three firefighters and sending two to the hospital, the Tulsa
World reported.
OREGON Medford: Beachgoers could see a spike in health advisories warning against water contact, the Mail Tribune reported. State officials are proposing more stringent criteria for the level of bacteria that triggers a warning. PENNSYLVANIA McMurray: Teachers here are threatening to strike Oct. 28 if they don’t have a new contract by then, the Pitts
burgh Post-Gazette reported.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Van Gogh Lounge was temporarily shut down after two men were shot, the Providence Journal reported. SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Proterra, the manufacturer of battery-powered transit buses, has moved its headquarters to the San Francisco Bay area, The
Greenville News reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Fort Pierre: A family was able to safely escape a fire that destroyed their home here. Fire Chief Cody Lengkeek told KCCR-AM the fire started in a gas grill on the porch.
TENNESSEE Oak Ridge: Federal overseers gave preliminary approval for a new uranium purification facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant with a price range of $58.6 million to $76.7 million, the Knoxville News
Sentinel reported.
TEXAS Fort Worth: Police will start arresting intoxicated offcampus partygoers from Texas Christian University because warnings from officers haven’t worked, the Fort Worth Star
Telegram reported.
UTAH Brigham City: Authorities said a Box Elder County Jail inmate died after he was found hanging in the shower area of his cell, the Deseret News reported.
VERMONT Middlebury: Laurie Patton has become the 17th president of Middlebury College and the first woman to hold the office at the 215-year-old institution,
Burlington Free Press reported. VIRGINIA Richmond: Singersongwriter Robbin Thompson, 66, died of complications from cancer, the Times-Dispatch reported. Thompson and fellow singer Steve Bassett tried to persuade legislators to adopt their song Sweet
Virginia Breeze as the official state anthem. This year, Gov. McAuliffe signed legislation naming it the official “popular” state song — one of two state songs.
WASHINGTON Seattle: The Seattle Tool Library, a non-profit organization that lends out tools for free to the community, reported more than $10,000 worth of stolen items, according to KOMO-TV. More than 100 tools were taken. The other stolen items included laptops, routers, air compressors and a salmon cooker.
WEST VIRGINIA Boone County: Ambulance director Randy Lengyel paid back an illegal loan he used to enhance his retirement benefits. Lengyel delivered a $103,000 check to the Boone Ambulance Authority. “I always intended to pay it back,” Lengyel told the Gazette-Mail.
WISCONSIN Madison: Campaign fundraising usually slows to a crawl during state budget talks, but two exceptions this year were the co-chairs of Wisconsin’s powerful budget-writing committee. Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, received about $64,000 during the first six months of the year while Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, took in about $23,000. Darling ’s haul was the third largest of Wisconsin state legislators despite her canceling a May fundraiser near the Capitol that one clean government group dubbed an obvious “shakedown” of lobbyists, Green Bay Press
Gazette reported.
WYOMING Laramie: The University of Wyoming started offering a weekly podcast called “The University of Wyoming Today.” The podcast is available through the college’s website.