STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Birmingham: Authorities ruled that a 26-year-old rape victim was justified in fatally shooting Jeremy Arnold Ford, 25, who abducted her, AL.com reported.

ALASKA Fairbanks: A community policing initiative that matches neighborhood leaders with designated beat cops is working well in four neighborhoods and will expand into a fifth area in 2016, newsminer.com reported. ARIZONA Prescott: Police could have an armored military vehicle available for use during SWAT events before the end of the year.

The Daily Courier reported that the City Council voted 6-1 to accept an International Navistar MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle that was available through the federal Law Enforcement Support Office of the Defense Logistics Agency. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Donations to replace about 400 flagpoles reported stolen from the First Baptist Church have largely come from outside the congregation, the Rev. Jonathan Curtis told ArkansasOnline.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Robert Andrew Falcon, 32, was sentenced to 16 years in state prison for the shooting death of tattoo artist and body piercer Michael Christopher “Trigz” Pebley, the

Los Angeles Times reported.

COLORADO Denver: Safeway confirmed that workers found card skimmers at checkout lanes in three Colorado stores in November, KUSA-TV reported. Safeway reported the skimmers at stores in Lakewood, Denver and Conifer.

CONNECTICUT Milford: A convicted burglar dubbed the “White Sock Robber” denied accusations that he raped a woman in November, the Connecticut Post reported.

DELAWAREtical twin brothers Wilmington:known as Iden-the “Twin state’s Poets” ambassadorswere namedfor poetry,the

The News Journal reported. DISTRICTjuana partiesOF COLUMBIA:used to be wild, Mariillicit affairs in word-of-mouth locations with off-the-record agreements, according to The

Washington Post. This week, High Times magazine threw a gala dinner at the Washington Hilton to celebrate innovators in the pot business.

FLORIDA Melbourne Beach: Timothy Day, a former police officer who serves as town manager of Greenville, Fla., will be Melbourne Beach’s new town manager with a starting salary of $89,000 per year, Florida

Today reported. His pay would increase to $93,600 after successfully completing a six-month probationary period.

GEORGIA Stockbridge: Mayor Tim Thompson abruptly resigned during a City Council meeting, surprising officials who were considering charging him with creating a hostile work environment, The Atlanta Journal

Constitution reported. HAWAII Honolulu: Nuns who were ordered to move from the Manoa convent they had been living in for decades will be able to stay there a little longer. The 25 nuns living in Saint Francis School’s convent were told that plans for them to be moved out by spring 2016 have been pushed back, KHON-TV reported. IDAHO Tamarack: A Nampa man spent the night inside a snow cave after he skied out of bounds of Tamarack Resort and became lost, KIVI-TV reported.

ILLINOIS Wheaton: Larycia Hawkins, a political science pro- fessor at Wheaton College, who donned a head scarf as part of her Christian Advent devotion to show solidarity with Muslims, was placed on administrative leave, the Chicago Tribune reported.

INDIANA Indianapolis: Diabetics will soon to be able to buy Basaglar a knockoff version of Lantus, the world’s best-selling insulin, and it will be sold by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and its German partner, Boehringer Ingelheim, The Indi

anapolis Star reported.

IOWA West Union: About 30 hogs were killed when a semi overturned in Fayette County, the

Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier

reported. KANSAS Wichita: The Wichita

Eagle reported that the Butler Community College’s Board of Trustees approved a $170,000 investment in a three-story fire training tower. It will be constructed behind El Dorado’s Fire Station No. 2. The tower will be three stories tall with a rooftop.

KENTUCKY Paintsville: A school has cut Bible passages referenced in an upcoming performance of A Charlie Brown

Christmas, the Lexington HeraldLeader reported. Students at W.R. Castle Elementary School were set to perform the play Thursday. LOUISIANA Gretna: Former police officer Daniel Swear accused the department in a federal lawsuit of implementing an illegal quota system for arrests and traffic tickets, then terminating him for refusing to follow it and speaking out against it. Deputy Chief Anthony Christiana denied such a system existed, The

Times-Picayune reported.

MAINE Freeport: L.L. Bean is giving $2.1 million to more than 80 organizations this holiday season.

MARYLAND Tyaskin: Investigators are treating a fire that scorched and melted exterior vinyl siding at centuries-old St. Mary’s Episcopal Church as attempted arson and are working to identify a suspect, The Daily

Times reported.

MASSACHUSETTS Southbridge: State education officials say public schools here could wind up in receivership, the Worcester Tele

gram reported. MICHIGAN Howell: Lawrence Kopczyk, 70, won $1 million on the Mega Millions lottery and a

dollar on another ticket by matching the Mega Ball, the Daily

Press & Argus reported.

MINNESOTA Virginia: The City Council rejected a motion that asks a company that hosts “clothing optional” parties to leave town, WDIO-TV reported. Mayor Larry Cuffe told council members the city has no legal grounds to stop the company, AttractionUSA, from holding the parties at a downtown hotel.

MISSISSIPPI Columbus: Twenty-five candidates submitted applications to become Columbus’ next police chief.

MISSOURI Cape Girar

deau: Police are investigating two messes on the Southeast Missouri State University campus. KFVS-TV reported that an officer with the Department of Public Safety says someone put what appears to be detergent in one of the campus fountains. MONTANA Helena: The Montana Public Service Commission has rejected Montana-Dakota Utilities’ request for a $10.9 million electricity rate hike. MDU provides power to about 26,000 homes and businesses in eastern Montana.

NEBRASKA Grand Island: Hall County supervisors agreed to submit an application to take over ownership of the Federal Building here, The Grand Island

Independent reported.

NEVADA Reno: The University of Nevada, Reno is planning a $20 million fine arts building with a museum, recital hall and electroacoustic lab, the Reno

Gazette-Journal reported.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: More than $1.4 million in grants was awarded by Endowment for Health to support health needs and social services in New Hampshire. Grants include $20,000 to the Concord school district to train teachers and staff on how to work with refugee children, the

Union Leader reported.

NEW JERSEY Millville: With the promotion of eight-year veteran Cindi Zadroga, the police force got its first female sergeant, The

Daily Journal reported. Zadroga, who is filling a retirement vacancy, was appointed to the force in November 2007.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Stephanie Lopez, the president of Albuquerque’s police union, resigned from her leadership post after authorities say she abused a teenage relative. Lopez was ar- rested last week on charges of child abuse and bribery or intimidation of a witness.

NEW YORK Albany: The state will overhaul its system for placing prisoners in solitary confinement as part of a wide-ranging settlement to reduce the number of isolated inmates, the Gannett Albany Bureau reported.

NORTH CAROLINA

Wilmington: New Hanover County will offer early voting on a Sunday for the first time in 12 years, the Wilmington

Star-News reported. Board member Tom Pollard supported bringing back Sunday voting, saying, “People do a lot of things on Sundays. I don’t know why we can’t add voting to it.”

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Residents hoping to add a second sheet of ice and other amenities to Schaumberg Ice Arena are asking the School Board for $500,000 so they can reach their $8 million fundraising goal, The

Bismarck Tribune reported. OHIO Lorain: An anonymous donor visited two Ohio Walmarts earlier this week, spreading holiday cheer by paying off the stores’ entire layaways. He paid $36,000 to clear layaway accounts at a store here and another $70,000 at a Walmart in Cleveland, corporate spokesman Wyatt Jefferies said. OKLAHOMA Muskogee: Authorities say two inmates were able to escape from the Muskogee County/City Detention Facility because a guard failed to follow procedure, the Muskogee

Phoenix reported.

OREGON Portland: The Oregon Health Authority is considering charging medical marijuana growers $200 a year for each patient they serve. The Oregonian reported that people who grow only for themselves would not be subject to the higher fee.

PENNSYLVANIA Allentown: A pet owner is seeking answers after his lost cat was shot and killed by a police officer, WFMZTV reported.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Officials say Rhode Island’s Vehicle Value Commission is currently operating while in violation of three state rules, WJAR-TV reported. The commission establishes the presumptive values of vehicles and trailers subject to the excise tax. SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: The Blue Ridge Brewing Co. will be closing its doors on North Main by the end of this year – 20 years after the brewpub staked out the first territory for craft beer in the city, The Greenville

News reported. The pub owners and the landlord couldn’t agree on the length of a continued lease.

SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen: Residents approved a bond package to finance an $8 million public library, the Aberdeen American

News reported. The City Council adopted the bond financing ordinance in late September, but people who questioned the cost launched a petition drive to refer the matter to voters. The project includes $6.2 million in city financing and $1.5 million from the Alexander Mitchell Public Library Foundation.

TENNESSEE Chattanooga: The Navy will award Purple Heart medals to four Marines and a sailor killed by a lone terrorist at the Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga in July, the

Navy Times reported. Another Marine wounded in the shooting will also be awarded the Purple Heart.

TEXAS Austin: A group that opposes the death penalty reported that Texas only issued two new death sentences this year, a record low since the death penalty was reinstated in 1974. Texas did account for about half of the 28 executions in the U.S. this year,

The Dallas Morning News reported.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Keeping the roads clear during the state’s latest snowstorm cost more than $1 million, KSL-TV reported.

VERMONT Burlington: Edin Sakoc, a 56-year-old Bosnian Muslim found guilty of lying about his participation in Bosnian war crimes in 1992, but later granted a new trial in Vermont, will give up his U.S. citizenship and leave the country, the Bur

lington Free Press reported.

VIRGINIA Gainesville: David Abbott, 39, a police detective and hockey coach, killed himself after police tried to arrest him for allegedly soliciting a minor, WUSA9 reported. WASHINGTON Seattle: Trumpeter swans have returned to Washington for the winter, but there has also been a spike in the number of swans dying from collisions with power lines. KOMO-TV reported that biologist Martha Jordan recently collected more than six swan carcasses in Conway. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The state Hospital Association developed 10 guidelines, aided by a task force made up of ER doctors and nurses, that outline the best practices for health care providers prescribing opioids in hospital emergency rooms, the

Gazette-Mail reported.

WISCONSIN De Pere: The City Council narrowly approved a zoning change that paves the way for the relocation of the heavily attended Life Church from the town of Lawrence to a former Sportsman’s Warehouse facility,

The Green Bay Press Gazette

reported.

WYOMING Cheyenne: The State Parks and Cultural Resources requested nearly $500,000 for the final stage of setting up a new electronic archive system, the Wyoming Tri

bune Eagle reported. Parks Director Milward Simpson says the archive system is his agency’s top request for the 2017-18 budget. The Legislature has already spent $2.5 million to study and begin rolling out the system over the past several years.