STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Selma: This weekend, Robert Pettus will conduct his annual Cash for Guns program, offering $75 for each weapon surrendered, no questions asked, WSFA reported. The antigun violence campaign has led to the destruction of 200 illegal firearms over three years.
ALASKA Juneau: The city is months away from implementing a program that will award a dozen $6,000 grants to homeowners who build accessory apartments onto their homes, Lands and Resources Manager Greg Chaney told the Affordable Housing Commission.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Arizona
Republic readers named vacant office buildings, a scorched apartment complex and an abandoned construction pit among the city’s worst eyesores of the year.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A World Health Organization study that said processed meats, including bacon, pose cancer risks is unlikely to change consumers’ eating habits, according to market research firm NPD Group.
CALIFORNIA Ventura: County supervisors told a La Conchita couple that they have to send three of their four potbellied pigs away, the Ventura County Star reported. Jeff and Stephanie Rowland argued the pigs are doctor-certified therapy animals that provide emotional support. COLORADO Denver: Canon City High School will forfeit this weekend's football game as police investigate reports of nude photos circulating throughout the school, KUSA-TV reported. School district officials were made aware of the photos through student reports and anonymous tips.
CONNECTICUT New Haven: A man who authorities say was involved in a robbery attempt that led to a fatal shooting has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, the New Haven Register reported. Xavier Yancey pleaded guilty to being an accessory to first-degree manslaughter with a firearm and conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery.
DELAWARE Dover: The state police will take a systematic look at where pedestrians cross roads and will introduce education and enforcement initiatives during the month, The News Journal reported. The announcement comes after a story pointed out that the state is the deadliest for pedestrians in the nation. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Go Guarded is a ring-like device that hides a small plastic spear. It’s marketed to runners for selfdefense, but they should be careful, cautioned Sgt. Guy Antinozzi, a defensive tactics police instructor. Wearers should know “it could be used on you or used to threaten you,” he told
TheWash-ington Post.
FLORIDA Rockledge: Fans of the chocolate-covered potato chips made by the Rockledge-based Grimaldi Candy Co. will start seeing $10 boxes at all Publix Super Markets this week, Florida
Today reported.
GEORGIA Atlanta: In anticipation of the opening of Spectre, the
Journal-Constitution ranked the five best James Bond movie theme songs. Nobody did it better than Carly Simon for The Spy
Who Loved Me.
HAWAII Lihue: Officials moved 10 endangered Hawaiian petrel chicks to an area that’s protected by a predator-proof fence. IDAHO Lewiston: The Lewiston
Tribune reported that the city hired cemetery consulting and planning firm Lees and Associates several months ago to create a plan for the future of Normal Hill Cemetery.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Kraft Heinz announced it will move Oscar Mayer and the company’s U.S. meats business unit here from Madison, Wis., a move that will add 250 jobs to the area, the
Chicago Tribune reported.
INDIANA Lafayette: Washington Township in northeastern Tippecanoe County finalized the purchase of more than 21 acres for wooded nature trails and a fire station that would be built within the next five years, the
Lafayette Journal & Courier re
ported.
IOWA Des Moines: Gov. Branstad won a major round in the fight over his controversial decision to close two state mental institutions, The Des Moines
Register reported. A judge ruled Tuesday that Branstad had the authority to veto millions of dollars legislators wanted to spend to keep the Clarinda and Mount Pleasant facilities open.
KANSAS Wichita: A man was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after hitting a just-married groom at an IHOP last August,
The Wichita Eagle reported.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Pleading for leniency, a nephew of the late Jerry Falwell who stole more than $1.1 million from the campaigns of Sens. Mitch McConnell and others said he was under pressure to succeed because of the success of Falwell and other relatives, The Courier
Journal reported. But Judge Greg Stivers on Tuesday sentenced Samuel K. Pate Jr. to two years in prison and ordered him to pay a $75,000 fine and $1,124,047 in restitution.
LOUISIANA Col
fax: The Pecan Festival begins Friday, The Town Talk reported. It will include a blessing of the crops and annual cooking contest.
MAINE Lewiston: Mayor Robert Macdonald and challenger Ben Chin will face each other in a runoff Dec. 8, the Portland Press
Herald reported. MARYLAND Ocean City: Constuction for Ocean City’s first on-site distillery began Monday at Seacrets, the resort town’s largest restaurant and nightclub,
The Daily Times reported. The proposed 12,000-square-foot structure will produce Seacrets’ own line of craft spirits.
MASSACHUSETTS Fall River: Mayor Sam Sutter lost to 23year-old City Councilor Jasiel Corriea, the Fall River Herald reported. City officials say Cor- riea is likely the city’s youngest elected mayor. MICHIGAN Midland: While you’re thinking about how early it is to see stores all decked out for Christmas, the 78th annual Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School is in session, the Lansing
State Journal reported. During three-day sessions, Santas and Mrs. Clauses learn a little child psychology, a little bit about hair and makeup, and many lessons in movement, demeanor and believability; some Santas go for an annual refresher course.
MINNESOTA St. Peter: A bountiful harvest for state grain farmers has some wondering where to store their crop while they hope for better market prices, KARETV reported.
MISSISSIPPI Southhaven: Aldermen approved a much-discussed code championed by Mayor Darren Musselwhite that allows the city to cite property owners whose homes are in such a state of decline that it affects the value of surrounding property,
The Commercial Appeal reported.
MISSOURI St. Louis: A St. Louis County jury awarded nearly $5 million to a former HarrisStowe State University instructor who argued the historically black school discriminated against her because she is white. Jurors returned the $4.85 million verdict favoring Beverly Wilkins, the St.
Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
MONTANA Missoula: The Montana Public Service Commission stepped in to preserve a single area code, 406, for the entire state until 2022, the Missoulian reported. It extended the switch by requiring phone service providers to enact “number pooling,” in which geographic areas are assigned blocks of numbers instead of phone carriers.
NEBRASKA
Grand Island: Lutheran Church Charities will open a training center for comfort dogs here, The Grand
Island Independent reported.
NEVADA Carson City: A man who got lost in the snow and was rescued and flown to a hospital has died, KOLO-TV reported. The man's name was not released.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Retiree state employees under 65 will see a 5% increase, from 12.5% to 17.5%, in health care premiums beginning in January, averaging about $500 more a year per person. The increase will raise about $2.8 million, the Union Leader reported. NEW JERSEY Asbury Park: A bar crawl in the city will benefit Covenant House, a nationwide organization that works to get homeless youth off the streets. The Central Jersey Associate Board’s Bar Crawl kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Saturday from Anchor’s Bend on the boardwalk, the As
bury Park Press reported. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta says the number of attendees this year was estimated at 955,703, up from 848,393 in 2014.
NEW YORK Bath: A bus driver has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and vehicle and traffic violations, according to state police. Kelly L. Parulski, 45, allegedly used a portable electronic device while driving a bus with children under age 17 on board, the Star-Gazette reported.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Superior Court Judge Arnold Ogden Jones was charged with trying to bribe an FBI agent with beer and cash to obtain copies of text messages involving members of the judge’s family, The News &
Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Annual vehicle passes for state parks in North Dakota are now available for the 2016 season. OHIO Reedsville: A 9-year-old who collapsed and died during football practice earlier this week suffered from a previously undetected heart abnormality, the
Pomeroy Daily Sentinel reported. A coach had found third-grader Wyatt Barber unconscious on the ground and not breathing Monday after players took a break from running sprints during a practice at a high school football field; the boy’s funeral is Monday.
OKLAHOMA Miami: Ottawa County commissioners approved a request to use excess marble from the old county courthouse to make markers for unmarked graves, the Miami News-Record reported. OREGON Bend: KTVZ-TV reported that a solar-powered race car that was missing from Bend’s Trinity Lutheran School was returned.
PENNSYLVANIA Bridgeton: A woman jumped to safety just before a freight train slammed into her car, WPVI-TV reported. The crash happened near Depot Street in Bridgeton. RHODE ISLAND Providence: Paula Grammas, a former executive director of the Garrison Institute on Aging at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, is the new head of the University of Rhode Island’s Institute for Neuroscience, the
Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Skyland: Duke Energy is dropping plans for a 45-mile transmission line running from its Lake Julian plant to a substation in Campobello, The
Greenville News reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Delmont: The fire department is fully equipped for the first time since a May 10 tornado devastated the community, The Daily Republic reported. Two fire trucks and a rescue van were destroyed and another fire truck was damaged.
TENNESSEE Nashville: A Metro councilman was in stable condition Thursday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after authorities say he was shot in the chest, elbow and shoulder the night before, The Tennessean reported. A motive in the shooting of Councilman Loniel Greene Jr. remains under investigation.
TEXAS Houston: Voters rejected an ordinance passed by City Council last year that would’ve made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on 15 different characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity. The main opposition was that it would allow men in women’s bathrooms, The Texas
Tribune reported.
UTAH Ogden: An 18-year-old in foster care is fighting for his right to own a firearm after the state denied his 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, the Standard Exam
iner reported.
VERMONT Milton: Chris Fanning, a Starksboro-based contractor who spotted smoke pouring from a Milton home’s roof eaves, stopped his vehicle and went inside the house to pull wheelchair-bound Marie O'Connor, 83, to safety, Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Richmond: BFFs Kumbali and Kago, a cheetah cub and puppy, became breakout stars at the Metro Richmond Zoo, the Times-Dispatch reported. “Because of (Kumbali and Kago’s) popularity and people wanting to see more of them, we have started releasing short videos of Kumbali and Kago visiting other animals in the zoo,” zoo owner Jim Andelin said.
WASHINGTON Bainbridge
Island: A bicyclist was injured when he was hit by a bus near the Agate Pass Bridge, the Kitsap Sun reported.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Raymond Floren, 69, was charged with assault and battery for poking his public defender “in an aggressive manner,” according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court, the Gazette-Mail reported. WISCONSIN Appleton: As a way to deal with her struggles with Parkinson’s and perhaps help others, Jean Wegner, 85, has written a series of 16 poems. With the help of her daughter, she has compiled the poems into a book and will host a signing Saturday at the Touchmark on West Prospect Retirement Community, The
Post-Crescent reported. WYOMING Jackson: Local firefighters formed a labor union under the International Association of Firefighters, the Jackson
Hole News and Guide reported.