News from across the USA

ALABAMA Florence: City Treasurer Dan Barger told TimesDaily.com that parking meter collections totaled $119,000 at the end of the 2015 fiscal year Sept. 30, compared with $107,000 the previous year and $77,500 the year before that. City Clerk Bob Leyde said the City Council increased the parking meter rates in June 2013. ALASKA Juneau: The Mendenhall Valley Public Library will hold a grand opening celebration Saturday, and the public is invited to attend, the Empire reported. ARIZONA Phoenix: Librarygoers can feel the burn while they browse the Web through “active workstations” unveiled at three city branches. Library computers have been fitted to desks on slowmoving treadmills, allowing patrons the chance to exercise while they read, The Arizona Republic reported. ARKANSAS Fayetteville: A small plane landed on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, according to the Fire Department. The Northwest Arkansas

Democrat-Gazette reported that three people were on the plane. CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Formed in 1940 to promote the region’s then-booming agriculture industry, the Los Angeles County Fair Association now has little connection to farming or livestock, and its managers have been richly compensated even as the association loses money, according to a Times investigation. COLORADO Denver: A former Weld County oil company employee was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing company funds and using it to buy land in Nebraska and oil field services equipment, The Denver Post reported. CONNECTICUT Stamford: A local man pleaded guilty to firstdegree manslaughter with a firearm in the 2006 shooting death of a 19-year-old man, The Stam

ford Advocate reported.

DELAWARE New Castle Coun

ty: Anyone who provides a tip leading to the arrest of a person responsible for a major crime could see up to $20,000 in reward money, The News Journal reported. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The

Washington Post reported that nearly three in five American adults take a prescription drug, which is up markedly since 2000 because of much higher use of almost every type of medication, from antidepressants to treatments for high cholesterol and diabetes. The findings are from a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. FLORIDA Fort Myers: The family of Expavious Tyrell Taylor, the 20-year-old man killed at ZombiCon, filed a $5 million wrongful death lawsuit against the event’s organizer and security firm, The

News-Press reported. GEORGIA Dublin: A prisoner charged with killing a sheriff over the summer escaped as deputies tried to transfer him to a different jail, the Atlanta Journal-Constitu

tion reported. HAWAII Honolulu: The number of confirmed cases of dengue fever on the Big Island has reached 10, KGMB-TV reported. Symptoms of dengue fever include fever, severe headaches, rash as well as eye, joint and muscle pain. IDAHO Lewiston: The city and police departmetnt will not release the names of the two officers who were injured when a gun accidentally fired in the department’s basement at the end of a training session or any other details, citing privacy issues. The

Lewiston Tribune reported that the department and the city have denied public information requests. ILLINOIS Chicago: Police were looking into whether a 9-year-old boy was fatally shot as retaliation because of an older relative’s involvement in a gang rivalry that has led to two murders on the South Side, the Tribune reported. INDIANA Lebanon: Matt Gentry, a 26-year-old Republican, is the new mayor of this city, The

Indianapolis Star reported. He said one of his first orders of business will be to remove the door from the mayor’s office at City Hall. IOWA Sioux City: Authorities say a 3-year-old boy has died in a house fire last week, the Sioux

City Journal. KANSAS Lawrence: Officials at the Kansas University Endowment say the endowment gave the university $184 million during the last fiscal year, the Law

rence Journal-World reported. KENTUCKY Louisville: A former pastor was indicted by a federal grand jury on one charge of accessing and viewing child pornography, The Courier-Journal reported. Stephen Pohl, 57, is accused of violating federal child exploitation laws using computers where he lived and worked at the St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church office and rectory between January and August of this year. LOUISIANA Slidell: Police officers are getting a month off from rules requiring them to be clean-shaven and have neatly groomed hair if they give $25 to the fight against cancer. Chief Randy Smith approved participation in “No-Shave November” for officers. MAINE Rome: Florida-based Global Tower Assets wants the town to turn over communications between officials and the town’s attorney regarding its application to build a 190-foot cellphone tower, the Kennebec

Journal reported. MARYLAND Berlin: To encourage residents to work toward better health, Berlin is launching a new town walking initiative at this weekend’s fourth annual Just Walk, Berlin! event, The Daily

Times reported.

MASSACHUSETTS Northamp

ton: A motorcyclist was killed in a single-vehicle crash, The Daily

Hampshire Gazette reported. MICHIGAN Mount Clemens: A six-point buck jumped through the picture window of a family’s home, took off down the hallway and eventually barged into a bedroom, WDIV-TV reported. It took two hours and five tranquilizers to subdue the deer. MINNESOTA New Brighton: A body was recovered from Rush Lake near an area where search crews have looked for a missing Mounds View man. MISSISSIPPI Pascagoula: One boat per home, and it has to be stored on the side of the house or in the backyard. The Sun Herald reported that’s what the Jackson County Board of Supervisors approved when supervisors gave a blanket approval to the county Planning Commission’s recommendations on zoning laws. MISSOURI St. Louis: Forest Park Forever wants the public’s help in determing how the city’s large central park can improve its trails, paths and roadways, the St.

Louis Post-Dispatch reported. MONTANA Helena: The Helena Valley Irrigation District is looking to retrofit its existing pump plant at Canyon Ferry Dam to produce hydropower, the In

dependent Record reported. NEBRASKA Omaha: The Creighton University Medical Center was included in a settlement with more than 450 hospitals over inappropriate use of a heart device, the Omaha World

Herald reported. NEVADA Reno: New daily nonstop service to Orange County will be available next year from here, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. Alaska Airlines will start on March 16 flying nonstop between Reno and Orange County. Horizon Air, Alaska’s sister carrier, will fly the route with a 76-seat Bombardier Q400 aircraft, according to the announcement. NEW HAMPSHIRE Nashua: State Rep. Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien proposed legis- lation to make denial of parental rights mandatory for a parent convicted of manslaughter or murder of another child, the

Union Leader reported.

NEW JERSEY Moorestown: The Moorestown Business Association will host its 39th annual Candlelight Night on Friday, the

Courier-Post reported. The event, which helps kick off the holiday shopping season in town, starts at 5 p.m. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Police recaptured Ronald Martinez, who escaped from a lowsecurity prison work farm, the

Albuquerque Journal reported. NEW YORK New City: A rabbi was sentenced to three years probation with sex offender conditions and banned from schools with children under 18 after his conviction for endangering a child, The Journal News reported. NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The federal government approved an environmental impact study of possible routes for the planned extension of the 540 Outer Loop across southern and eastern Wake County, The News

& Observer reported. NORTH DAKOTA Minot: Michael Sasser, 46, is the new editor of the Daily News. An Oklahoma native, Sasser has traveled extensively during his journalism career and written several travel books. OHIO Marietta: A federal agency is again considering requests to open Wayne National Forest to oil and gas drilling, The Columbus

Dispatch reported. Companies formally expressed interest to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in drilling about 31,900 acres of the forest through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. OKLAHOMA McAlester: Authorities say an inmate at a facility in Atoka County was on the verge of being freed when he assaulted a correctional officer,

The McAlester News-Capital

reported. OREGON Oakridge: State contractors completed a project to rebuild a tunnel on Highway 58 southeast of Eugene. The Regis

ter-Guard reported that the project’s $21 million price tag was more than $8 million above the original projection. PENNSYLVANIA State College: Penn State and state Department of Health officials are warning students that three people on campus may have the mumps, WJAC-TV reported. Students, faculty and staff are being asked to check with their doctors whether they’ve been properly vaccinated for the mumps, measles and rubella. RHODE ISLAND Providence: The City Council’s Public Works Committee held off on a proposed resolution that would have called for more controls on multiple-mile road races on city streets, the Providence Journal reported. Ward 2 Councilman Samuel D. Zurier said he had discussed his concerns with the city departments and felt the problems could be dealt with without council intervention.

SOUTH CAROLINA Travelers

Rest: Travelers Rest residents voted to expand existing Sunday alcohol sales to convenience stores and supermarkets at the polls Tuesday, The Greenville

News reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The City Council eliminated a $5,000 cap on political action committee donations in city elections, the Argus Leader reported. TENNESSEE Memphis: City Council approved a resolution to create a non-profit land bank to aid in fighting blight, The Com

mercial Appeal reported. The Blight Authority of Memphis will be an entity that can acquire real estate with delapidated structures and apply for grants to tear those structures down; it will have access to up to $7 million in federal grant money. TEXAS Helotes: A local district will review safety procedures after three school buses were caught in flash flooding and nearly 20 people had to be rescued, KENS-TV reported. UTAH Ogden: Patients at McKay-Dee Hospital could have been exposed to hepatitis C through a former nurse who was fired for tampering with syringes or other equipment to steal medications, the Deseret News reported. VERMONT Montpelier: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has inspired a new underwear company, “Bernie’s Briefs.” The undies, screen printed with a line drawing of Sanders’ face and the message “Feel the Bern,” are the brainchild of Alexandra MacLean, Nick Sherman and Todd Bailey, NECN reported. VIRGINIA Virginia Beach: The Aquarium and Marine Science Center added two Tomistoma crocodiles, pilotonline.com reported. The rare reptiles — named Ralf and Sommer — arrived from Malaysia. WASHINGTON Everett: The

Daily Herald reported that Grandy Lake Forest Associates failed to convince a King County judge that a trial is unnecessary to see if the company bears any responsibility for the March 22, 2014 slide in Oso. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: It’s barely November, but workers at the Charleston Town Center Mall are stringing lights and ornaments and constructing Santa’s Village, according to the

Gazette-Mail. WISCONSIN Green Bay: The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is taking action to shut down a fake Twitter account for Bishop David Ricken. It also warned Twitter users about the fraudulent account, and that at least one user reported an attempt to solicit money, Green Bay Press-Gazette reported. WYOMING Sheridan: State lawmakers may change Wyoming’s Hathaway Scholarship in response to the increasing cost of tuition at the University of Wyoming and the state’s community colleges, The Sheridan Press reported. The Hathaway program awards four merit-based scholarships that range in amount from $840 to $1,680 per semester to students who pursue higher education in the state.