STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Montgomery: An Elmore County haunted house run by volunteer firefighters was shut down by Fire Marshal Ed Paulk, who said the Titus Maze of Terror posed a safety hazard, AL.com reported.
ALASKA Fairbanks: Next month, truck driver John Schank, 62, will move the Capitol Christmas Tree from Seattle to Washington, D.C. The 74-foot-tall Lutz spruce is the first Capitol tree to come from Alaska since the USDA Forest Service program began in 1970. Schank told newsminer.com it was an honor he couldn’t pass up.
ARIZONA Phoenix: It wasn’t easy, but the top-10 monster movies were decided in a lively debate at the Hard Rock Cafe during the second installment of Radical Rankings, a monthly gathering of opinionated popculture enthusiasts. The Arizona
Republic reported that Ridley Scott’s Alien came in at No. 1. Facehugs all around. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Great weather on the State Fair’s final day brought out a crowd of 43,206 to bring the 2015 final attendance to 473,106, KARK-TV reported. The previous best attendance for the fair was 472,194.
CALIFORNIA Hollywood: Numerous clubs have opened over the past decade to bring back a bustling nightlife to the famed district. But there’s also been a surge of development bringing new residents. Officials are trying to balance a robust entertainment scene with the new condos and apartments, the Los Angeles Times reported. COLORADO Fort Collins: A new commuter bus service will begin next year between Fort Collins and Boulder, the Coloradoan reported.
CONNECTICUT New Haven: Guilford High School won the Yale Physics Olympics, the New Haven Register reported.
DELAWARE Wilmington: A new golf tournament benefiting the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children is scheduled for Monday, The News Journal reported.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Stepped up federal oversight of Metro’s troubled subway system will include surprise inspections, deadlines for making safety fixes and potential loss of funding if the transit agency fails to comply, The Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Florida A&M University’s board of trustees voted 8-4 against awarding President Elmira Mangum a bonus, the Tallahassee Democrat reported, evidence of an ongoing rift between Mangum and the trustees over Mangum’s management style.
GEORGIA Norcross: Lanes will be closed this week as construction crews work to install overhead signs and highway signage along Jimmy Carter Boulevard, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
HAWAII Hilo: The Hawaii Fire Department is seeking another $6 million to build a new station in Hilo, as the projected price tag of the facility nearly doubled following an additional cost assessment, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
IDAHO Boise: Sherrie Blair says she was surprised when a city official said her neighbors had complained about her noisy pets. Blair told KBOI-TV that it was the first complaint she has had about the 23 exotic birds living in her garage and house.
ILLINOIS Will County: Dry fields and gusting winds contrib- uted to a three-alarm fire that spread quickly in cornfields in Wilton Township, the Daily Southtown reported.
INDIANA Muncie: The Muncie Animal Shelter is halfway to its goal of raising about $4,500 to buy industrial bedding for 40 of its 54 canine residents, The Star Press reported.
IOWA Cedar Rapids: The emerald ash borer has been confirmed in Linn County, state officials said. The discovery of the treekilling pest makes the county the 29th in the state with a confirmed presence for the insect, The Gazette reported.
KANSAS Stafford: The Wichita
Eagle reported that two whooping cranes were seen last weekend at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Stafford County. That marked an early fall return for the endangered birds.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Gov. Beshear is urging state lawmakers to adopt a series of preventive measures that target student bullying and harassment in state schools, The Courier-Journal reported.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: Fifty riders in NOLA to Angola, an annual 170-mile bike ride from New Orleans to the state prison in West Feliciana Parish, raised almost $30,000 for Cornerstone Builders, a project that provides free bus transportation to keep wives, mothers, girlfriends, grandmothers and children connected with inmates, The TimesPicayune reported.
MAINE Augusta: The Maine State Library’s “unlimited possibilities” room is now open for business, featuring 3-D printers and large scanners capable of digitizing and preserving photos, the Kennebec Journal reported.
MARYLAND Baltimore: Police are investigating an incident caught on tape that shows a man punching out a security worker at Horseshoe Casino, The Baltimore Sun reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The percentage of Massachusetts community college students in default on their student loans has dropped significantly for the first time in three years, The Boston Globe reported.
MICHIGAN Detroit: A pastor accused of fatally shooting a man Sunday in church may have been having an affair with the victim’s wife, the Detroit Free Press reported. Police are investigating the allegations; the gun-toting minister was not identified because he was had not been charged.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: People and Pets Together, a new food pantry only for pets, has opened here. Minnesota Public Radio News says volunteers hope to distribute 100,000 pounds of pet food in the first year.
MISSISSIPPI Pontotoc: Mayor Jeff Stafford says the city has a $111,000 state grant to build a bridge on which bicyclists can ride to the Terry Chewe Memorial Sportsplex.
MISSOURI Poplar Bluff: A pair of earthquakes hit southeastern Missouri, but there were no reports of damage or injuries. The Daily American Republic reported that residents in Butler, Ripley and Carter counties felt the quakes.
MONTANA Bozeman: Eighteen of the 80 tenured and tenuretrack faculty at the College of Engineering at Montana State University are women. They represent 22% of the engineering faculty, the highest portion of female engineering faculty in university history, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.
NEBRASKA Burwell: A service has been scheduled for a 38-yearold man believed to have drowned at Calamus Reservoir. The Grand Island Independent reported that the service for Wesley Sell is set for Thursday at Arcadia United Methodist Church.
NEVADA Reno: Authorities say a man crashed into a guardrail and then ran away. KRNV-TV reported that the man was driving a maroon Nissan and crashed on Interstate 80 near here.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Rumney: Three teenage hikers had to be rescued after an app led them the wrong way up Rattlesnake Mountain, WBZ-TV reported.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Residents are not pumped about the idea of a gas-tax increase, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll. Roughly three-fifths of New Jersey adults said they oppose raising the gas tax, the Asbury Park Press reported.
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: Developers are planning a city capable of housing nearly 40,000 people — but they don’t want anyone to move there. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported. Pegasus Global Holdings is pursuing permits for a facility west of here. The full-scale city would test building materials on a larger and more realistic scale than can be replicated in laboratories.
NEW YORK Rockland County: A health care group apologized for a “no Haitian” need apply advertisement for nurses and vowed to probe how the ad came about, The Journal News reported. The state attorney general’s office has opened an investigation into Interim Healthcare.
NORTH CAROLINA Garner: Police are investigating two incidents of vandalism in which graffiti encouraged the killing of police officers, The News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: The University of North Dakota opened voting for a new nickname, the Star Tribune reported. The Fighting Hawks, Nodaks, North Stars, Roughriders and Sundogs are the choices to replace the Fighting Sioux. Those eligible to vote anonymously online between now and 11:59 p.m. Friday are students, alumni, university faculty and staff, donors and season-ticket holders.
OHIO Lucasville: Ohio canceled executions for 2016, giving 12 death row inmates up to three more years to live because the state is having difficulty getting lethal-injection drugs, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
OKLAHOMA Norman: The National Weather Service says there is a high potential for wildfire. Still, the only state burn ban in effect is in McCurtain County.
OREGON Gearhart: The city will be using a survey to determine whether short-term vacation rentals should be regulated. The Daily Astorian reported that Gearhart City Manager Chad Sweet says the city has received more than 30 letters from each side in the rental debate.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: A 4-foot-long boa constrictor got loose on a local bus, leading to an emergency evacuation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The snake coiled itself under a seat until a transit police officer retrieved it.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A Brown University student is suing the school in federal court after he was suspended nearly three years when another student filed a sexual-misconduct complaint, the Providence Journal reported. SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The Legislature and Gov. Haley are asking the South Carolina Supreme Court to vacate its order of last month on education funding, arguing the high court is trying to “overstep its judicial authority.” The court’s order imposes a Feb. 1 deadline for the Legislature to come up with way to handle school funding in the wake of a lawsuit first brought by the state’s most rural and poor school districts in 1993, The Greenville News reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Mobridge: A 20,000-acre bison ranch here owned by Florida real estate tycoon Maurice Wilder drew a total of about $17 million in bids from two buyers at auction, but Wilder nixed the deals, according to The Bismarck Tribune.
TENNESSEE Greeneville: Greene County Commission voted this week 20-1 against adopting a resolution that would have allowed the Confederate battle flag to fly from the county’s historic courthouse downtown alongside the U.S. flag, WBIR-TV reported.
TEXAS Seguin: Switchback, billed as the world’s only wooden shuttle roller coaster, opened last weekend at ZDT’s Amusement Park here. Switchback uses unusually tight turns and steeply banked twists to pack 2,125 feet of excitement into each ride, the Houston Chronicle reported. UTAH Cedar City: Lightning sparked a small fire after hitting the roof of a local home, KUTVTV reported.
VERMONT Sheldon: Surrounded by almost as many cows as people at the Rowell family’s Green Mountain Dairy Farm, Bruce Lisman made his run for governor official Monday morning, saying he would seek the Republican nomination. Lisman, 68, of Shelburne is one of two declared candidates, along with Lt. Gov. Phil Scott, so far for the nomination in the first GOP primary for an open governor’s seat since 1990, Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The governor’s Commission to Ensure Integrity and Public Confidence in State Government recommended a $15,000 salary bump for state lawmakers as part of its final package of cleangovernment proposals, the Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Port Townsend: The Northwest Maritime Center here received a $1.6 million yacht that will be used for long cruises to help expand the center’s educational offerings, the Peninsula Daily News reported.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: After a two-year hiatus, the West Virginia Book Festival is back this weekend, the Gazette-Mail reported.
WISCONSIN Oshkosh: Craig Nicholson, 47, an officer at the Oshkosh Correctional Institution, faces a felony charge after authorities say he gave tobacco to inmates. Police found seven stickers from “Grizzly” brand chewing tobacco in one of the inmates’ cells, the Oshkosh Northwestern reported. Nicholson told police he gave the inmates tobacco because they threatened his family if he didn’t.
WYOMING Powell: The Powell Tribune reported that no contractors placed a bid on the project to stabilize about 800 feet of Road 1NG, about 15 miles north of here.