STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Birmingham: The congregation of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church worshiped outside after members said pastor Willie Jackson locked them out of the building, AL.com reported. “I’m not going to let him steal my joy,” Diane Harrell, a churchgoer, said.
ALASKA Fairbanks: An international sled-dog crew plans a journey from the Beaufort Sea’s Herschel Island to the town of Eagle. The three men and 22-dog crew of the “In Amundsen’s Footsteps” expedition will try to recreate the 700-mile journey taken by Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen in 1905, newsminer.com reported.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Street Railway Museum isn’t included in plans to reimagine Margaret T. Hance Park as a vibrant urban center, The Arizona Republic reported. The city won’t renew the museum’s standard five-year lease when the agreement ends in September, said Michelle Dodds, historical preservation officer.
ARKANSAS Malvern: The Department of Corrections and state police are investigating the death of an inmate that appears to be a suicide, ArkansasOnline reported.
CALIFORNIA Wrightwood: Due to warm weather, the Mountain High ski area temporarily closed and will not reopen until new snowfall, The Press-Enterprise reported. New snow is likely around March 10.
COLORADO Denver: The Denver Art Museum has returned a sculpture to the Cambodian government, The Denver Post reported. The Torso of Rama was probably looted from the country years ago with other Khmer objects that were in collections and museums in the USA.
CONNECTICUT Willimantic: A drunken woman upset about the limo charge for her 50th birthday celebration ended up robbing the driver at gunpoint, the Hartford
Courant reported. The driver was not injured and Melanie Roberts was arrested, police said.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Black pastors and state NAACP members called on Gov. Markell to fire racists in state government, The
News Journal reported.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A Superior Court judge ordered the District government to pay $13.2 million to Santae Tribble, who was imprisoned for 28 years after being wrongfully convicted of killing a taxi driver, The
Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA Melbourne: Harris Corp. is adding 300 jobs, most of them to be based out of its new Technology Center in Palm Bay,
Florida Today reported. The positions are in engineering, finance and supply-chain operations.
GEORGIA Savannah: Eight people faced felony drug charges after an undercover operation at a Widespread Panic concert, the Savannah Morning
News reported.
HAWAII Hilo: Scientists plan to reintroduce Hawaii’s last remaining native crow species to the Big Island’s forests after breeding the bird in captivity. A dozen alala, which have been extinct in the wild for 14 years, will be released in September, the Hawaii
Tribune-Herald reported.
IDAHO Moscow: Workers removed soil that had been contaminated with ammonia and nitrate. The Lewiston Tribune reported that Moscow Urban Renewal Agency’s executive director, Bill Belknap, says the contaminants came from tanks of agricultural fertilizer that were on the site in the 1960s.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Chicago Public Schools announced that 62 employees are being laid off as a result of midyear cuts to school budgets, the Tribune reported.
INDIANA Indianapolis: As expected, Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann submitted a formal resignation letter to Gov. Pence and state legislative leaders,
The Indianapolis Star reported. Ellspermann is seeking to become the next president of Ivy Tech Community College.
IOWA Des Moines: The city is halting its crackdown on hundreds of in-home child care providers after a barrage of complaints that parents would be left with nowhere to take their children, The Des Moines Register reported.
KANSAS Wichita: Contracts with landowners are forcing a small number of companies to drill for oil and natural gas. The
Wichita Eagle reported that producers are required by contract to drill in a newly acquired lease within a few years in order to maintain the land lease.
KENTUCKY Louisville: Bellarmine University President Joseph McGowan died, a university spokesman confirmed. McGowan became the university’s third president in 1990 and is credited with the transformation of Bellarmine College to Bellarmine University, The
Courier-Journal reported.
LOUISIANA Opelousas: Capt. Clay Higgins, whose colorful crime-fighting videos got him the nickname “Cajun John Wayne,” resigned from his job at the St. Landry Parish Sheriff ’s Office,
The Times-Picayune reported. Higgins wore a cowboy hat when he announced his resignation.
MAINE Rockport: The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Samoset Resort. Last year, anglers hauled in a catch worth a state record $585 million in 2014.
MARYLAND Salisbury: Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot said tax fraud has reached “epidemic proportions,” and he called on state lawmakers to give his office more authority to combat it, The Daily Times reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Springfield: Police arrested more than 20 drug-dealing suspects and confiscated nearly 7,200 bags of heroin in the area, WWLP-TV reported.
MICHIGAN Quinnesec: A duck is recovering after being found in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with a crossbow bolt sticking through its head,
The Daily News reported.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The City Council has unanimously approved a $4 million, five-year contract that will allow the police department to outfit all of its officers with body cameras, the
Star Tribune reports.
MISSISSIPPI Summit: The
Enterprise-Journal reported that Edward Malta plans to open a restaurant on the Dixie Springs Cafe’s property by the holiday season. The restaurant was destroyed by fire in December. The new restaurant will be known as The Mallard.
MISSOURI Chesterfield: Parkway Central High School senior Sharanya Kumar scored a perfect score on the SAT college entrance test.
MONTANA Missoula: A man was banned from Wild Horse Island in Flathead Lake and lost his hunting privileges for three years for hunting violations, the
Missoulian reported.
NEBRASKA Omaha: The Gary and Mary West Regional Canine Training Center here prepares police dogs and their handlers for their hazardous duty, the
Omaha World-Herald reported. The dogs spend 16 weeks at the center, learning how to lead the way for uniformed patrol officers, detectives and SWAT teams.
NEVADA Reno: The University of Nevada-Reno plans to add 400 faculty members by 2020, the
Reno Gazette-Journal reported. The goal is a student-faculty ratio of 18-to-1.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Randolph: New Hampshire Fish and Game officers are investigating the death of a hiker on the Castle Ravine Trail, WMUR-TV reported.
NEW JERSEY East Brunswick: Animal-cruelty charges have been filed against the owner of a pet store, the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in a statement. The NJSPCA filed 267 animal-cruelty charges against Vincent “Vinnie” LoSacco, 50, the owner of Just Pups, the Home News Tribune reported.
NEW MEXICO Carlsbad: Local officials say homelessness is on the rise here, the Current-Argus reported. The Carlsbad Transitional Housing and Homeless Shelter estimates 170 homeless adults live in the city.
NEW YORK Lansing: The Cargill salt mine has reopened, nearly two months after an elevator malfunction trapped 17 miners 900 feet underground for 10 hours, The
Ithaca Journal reported.
NORTH CAROLINA Wake
County: Six schools could see changes this fall in the times they start and end the school day,
The News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The state is getting a $125,000 federal grant to support the North Dakota Head Start State Collaboration Office.
OHIO Plain Township: State agriculture officials showed up at Jeff and Susan Fitzgerald’s home and took Ben, a bear bought 18 years ago at an exotic animal sale,
The Repository reported.
OKLAHOMA Midwest City: Parkview Elementary student Miyah Lawrence, 10, received a letter from President Obama,
The Oklahoman reported. She wrote to him last summer about redesigning the $10 bill to feature a woman. Her choice for the $10 bill: Rosa Parks.
OREGON Portland: Tim Boyle, the head of Columbia Sportswear, announced he will give $10 million to the University of Oregon’s zebrafish facility to help expand genomics research, The Orego
nian reported. PENNSYLVANIA Pequea: A 20-year-old operator of a horse and buggy was seriously injured when he was rear-ended by a car.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Police are searching for three teenagers accused of attacking a group of men with brass knuckles and a kitchen knife in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood, the
Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: South Carolina is receiving nearly $157 million in federal aid to help pay for recovery from floods last fall, The Greenville
News reported.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: The South Dakota State Historical Society is preparing a book about frontiersman Hugh Glass, whose tale is told in the movie The Revenant. The book, Hugh
Glass: Grizzly Survivor by local historian James D. McLaird, is to be released in May, KELO-AM reported.
TENNESSEE Mount Juliet: Clayton Rogers, 22, who ran a red light in August 2014 and crashed head-on into another car carrying oncologist Eric Raefsky, 59, was sentenced to up to 12 years in prison, The Tennessean reported. Rogers, whose bloodalcohol content was 0.184 when the legal limit is 0.08, could be paroled when he serves 30% of his sentence.
TEXAS Dallas: An animal-rights group filed an injunction in federal court to prevent a group of elephants from being imported and kept at three zoos, including the one in Dallas. The Dallas
Morning News reported that an injunction hearing is scheduled for March 17.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Utah has joined the Aerospace States Association, an organization that advocates for state-based aviation and space initiative, KSL-TV reported.
VERMONT Colchester: The Colchester School District is seeking permission from the community to use leftover bond money toward renovating the Colchester High School auditorium. New seating, lighting and a sound system would be among items for which the $700,000 would be used, the Burlington
Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Urbanna: A marina fire that killed two people was investigated by state police and the Middlesex County Sheriff ’s Office as possible arson, the Rich
mond Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Seattle:
The Seattle Times reported that nearly 6,000 emergency and military personnel will pretend the ground is shaking on June 7 to test response to a massive seismic event. The simulation will test responses to a magnitude-9 earthquake.
WEST VIRGINIA Boone County: About 10 months after a sexual abuse charge against him was dropped, Garth Emil Mock, the suspended principal of Van High School, is resigning, the Charles
ton Gazette-Mail reported.
WISCONSIN Green Bay: Local police talked a would-be jumper off the Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge. Passersby reported a suicidal man on the bridge about 1:30 p.m. Police were told the man had jumped, but they arrived to find him on the girders below the bridge. He was upset and emotional, but officers trained in crisis negotiation were able to talk him to safety and take him to a local hospital, Green Bay Press
Gazette reported.
WYOMING Gillette: The Campbell County jail population has more than doubled since 2012. The Gillette News
Record reported that in 2015 the Campbell County Detention Center reached a population of 2014, only five fewer inmates than the jail’s highest-ever population of 219 in 2009, when the jail housed defendants from a mass arrest. Capt. Terry Cheairs says with an average of 200 inmates every day, housing inmates now costs more than $9 million a year.