STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: The cases of four of the five University of Alabama fraternity members arrested last fall on charges of hazing became confidential, a sign that they may have been granted youthful offender status, AL.com reported. ALASKA Anchorage: Officials will consider a proposal that would require goat and sheep owners to have permits for their animals in an effort to prevent disease transmission among the wild and domesticated species. KTUU-TV reported the proposal submitted by the Wild Sheep Foundation seeks to have goat and sheep owners within 15 miles of Dall sheep habitat to obtain permits. ARIZONA Flagstaff: The Arizona Daily Sun reported that Lake Mary was scheduled to enter Flagstaff ’s water system again. Officials shut off the reservoir five months ago after they found the water contained haloacetic acids as a result of how they treated raw water. ARKANSAS Fort Smith: A Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of paper and fiber-based products will invest $80 million in a new production facility, creating up to 83 jobs, Arkansas Online reported. CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Crews swept out a homeless camp under the Central Freeway that was declared a health hazard, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. COLORADO Trinidad: A Las Animas County sheriff ’s deputy died after he was involved in a two-vehicle accident, KUSA-TV reported. CONNECTICUT New Britain: Brian Witham, 45, of Waterville, Maine, pleaded guilty to multiple armed bank robberies including the botched robbery of Achieve Financial Credit Union, the Hartford Courant reported. Witham and another man tied a fake bomb on bank executive Matthew Yussman last February. Yussman called the police. DELAWARE New Castle: A man has been charged with hitting a woman with his vehicle and dumping her body in the parking lot of a shopping center in early October, The News Journal reported. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: After a decade of delays, the streetcar system is being tested by commuters, errand-runners and clubgoers, The Washington Post reported. FLORIDA Fort Myers: Sanibel Island’s a long way from the Nile, but to the delight of area birders, a great white pelican has appeared at the Darling National Wildlife Refuge there — a good 4,000 miles from its home range and the first time the Old World species has been recorded in North America, The News-Press reported. GEORGIA Covington: Police searched for thieves accused of breaking into a metro Atlanta gun store and stealing more than 30 firearms, WSB-TV reported. HAWAII Oahu: Honolulu is kicking off a pilot project to replace grass with artificial turf at nine spots, Hawaii News Now reports. The one-year pilot project could show how much water and manpower turf could save the city. IDAHO Boise: Members of the Idaho Air National Guard are preparing to deploy to the Middle East this summer, the Idaho Statesman reported. More than 500 members of the 124th Fighter Wing based at Gowen Field will depart as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. ILLINOIS Chicago: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote a letter to Abbott CEO Miles White, urging the suburban-based company to cancel plans to outsource 180 IT jobs to India, the Chicago Tribune reported. INDIANA Muncie: Police say a felon sexually assaulted a woman after gaining access to her home by claiming to be a police officer, The Star-Press reported. IOWA Des Moines: Influential Iowa business leaders are urging state legislators to pass a bill that would expand the state’s medical marijuana laws, The Register reported. More than 90 business leaders sent lawmakers a letter, asking them to debate and pass comprehensive medical cannabis legislation. KANSAS Lawrence: The city decided against allowing people to pay $3 parking tickets with canned food donations, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. KENTUCKY Henderson: The Kentucky General Assembly’s Office of Education Accountability has concluded that Henderson County Schools didn’t break any laws by campaigning in favor of the school system’s nickel tax last year, The Gleaner of Henderson reported. LOUISIANA New Orleans: Fivetime Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar will return to the Essence Festival, along with first-timers Jeremih, Leon Bridges and Dej Loaf. This year’s festival is scheduled June 30 to July 3. MAINE Freeport: WGME-TV reported that a story about Morse Street Elementary School student Kylie Brown, 5, and her pet duck, Snowflake, has been viewed about 10 million times on social media. Snowflake grew fond of Brown after her parents brought the duck home last summer. MARYLAND Salisbury: The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury University will recognize artists Del Herbert, Rich Smoker and Todd Wohlt with its 2016 Living Legend Award in an April 22 ceremony, The Daily Times reported. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will end late-night weekend hours next month. The Boston Globe reported that MBTA board members voted to ax the service no later than March 18. Board members say they cannot continue subsidizing the pilot program as they try to cut overall costs at the MBTA. MICHIGAN Battle Creek: Thirty-four residents are accused of filing fake tax returns, bilking the federal government out of more than $22 million, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported. MINNESOTA St. Paul: The Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is relocating its headquarters to the former 3M Co. corporate office in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, the Star Tribune reported. MISSISSIPPI Vicksburg: All local police officers here will soon be equipped with body cameras, The Vicksburg Post reported. MISSOURI Jefferson City: A bill designed to prevent electrocution-related deaths at the Lake of the Ozarks has again been introduced in the state Legislature. KOLR-TV reported that state Rep. Caleb Jones is sponsoring a bill that would require all docks to have a ground fault interrupter, a device that shuts off the dock’s electricity when a short occurs. MONTANA Billings: Yellowstone National Park is retiring its fleet of bright yellow Bombardier snow coaches, the Billings Gazette reported. NEBRASKA Nebraska City: Glenn Oliver, 30, has been sentenced to three years in prison for duct taping his girlfriend’s two boys, 4 and 6, to chairs and forcing them to watch the movie Mommie Dearest, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. The mother, Mary Lucas, 28, is also facing charges. Authorities said she wanted them to watch the movie to show them she wasn’t the world’s meanest mom. NEVADA Reno: City employees and nonprofit leaders joined forces to help homeless people displaced by a shut down overflow shelter, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. It closed Feb. 20 because of vandalism. NEW HAMPSHIRE Franklin: Plans to build an 8.5-megawatt solar project in Merrimack County can’t proceed until more people are allowed to net meter, which lets customers sell excess solar power back into the grid. Mayor Ken Merrifield told the Concord Monitor that the solar installation, slated to become the largest in the state, would help halve the city’s electric bill. NEW JERSEY Camden: Gloucester Township is paying a reported $195,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging a policeman overturned a boy’s desk during a classroom presentation on bullying, the Courier-Post reported. The October 2013 incident at Glen Landing Middle School caused bruises and emotional trauma for the youngster, identified as J.W., and led to teasing by fellow students “so harsh that (the child) had to switch to another school,” the suit says. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico is considering a ban on stun guns on campus, The Albuquerque Journal reported. NEW YORK Albany: The state has spent $207 million on advertising to promote New York since 2012, the Gannett Albany Bureau reported. NORTH CAROLINA Asheville: The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that the wild turkey population has reached an all-time high of about 265,000 statewide. Chris Kreh, upland game bird biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission, said turkey harvests have dramatically increased over the past 30 years. As a result, the commission and the National Wild Turkey Federation will offer 24 free turkey-hunting seminars across the state in March and April. NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: The National Agricultural Statistics Service says state temperatures averaged 6 to 9 degrees above normal during February. OHIO Milford: David Allen Chapin, 60, once called Ohio’s Hannibal Lecter after killing his roommate and eating part of the man’s brain nearly 40 years ago, is under review for parole, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported. OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Former jail detention officer Joshua D. Crall, 28, who received more than $36,000 pay after leaving his job, has pleaded no contest in the case and been ordered to pay restitution, the Tulsa World reported. OREGON Salem: The City Council voted to pursue properties at the corner of Commercial and Division streets NE for the police department’s proposed new home, the Statesman Journal reported. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Mayor Jim Kenney is seeking a tax on sugary drinks to help fund his universal pre-K plan, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. RHODE ISLAND Pawtucket: Care New England announced plans to scale back services at Memorial Hospital. Spokeswoman Susan McDonald told WJAR- TV that the company doesn’t know how many jobs will be eliminated. SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Lawsuits were filed against a Greenville strip club on behalf of three children who were critically injured when their mother died in a wreck with a wrong-way driver on Interstate 385. The lawsuits allege Lust strip club over-served alcohol to an “extremely intoxicated” patron, The Greenville News reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Aberdeen: The city is close to approving an ordinance regulating the use of hobby and recreational drones, the American News reported. The ordinance would allow drones on private property but ban them over city-owned land with the exception of two city parks, an arboretum and a nature area. It also would create a 1 mile no-fly zone around the city airport. TENNESSEE Nashville: An argument about getting out of bed led a teenage boy, whose name was not released, to open fire on three family members, including his grandmother and two young children, The Tennessean reported. TEXAS Houston: A man who ran a sex trafficking ring was sentenced to 40 years. UTAH Salt Lake City: State lawmakers want the federal government to repay them for keeping the state’s national parks open when the federal government shut down in 2013. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Utah House of Representatives voted unanimously to pass a bill that calls for Congress to reimburse the state for $1 million. VERMONT Colchester: Vermont’s largest utility said strong winds with gusts up to 85 mph knocked out power to about 18,300 customers Tuesday, NECN reported. Green Mountain Power customers in the southeastern areas of the state were the hardest hit, with most of the outages in the Springfield, Royalton and Brattleboro areas. VIRGINIA Annandale: Veterans can attend free legal clinics this week. Clinics will be held Thursday in Roanoke and Friday in Annandale. Volunteers will help veterans and their spouses with estate planning, wills, powers of attorney and advance medical directives. WASHINGTON Seattle: Health officials said that the woman who was killed by measles was likely exposed at a Port Angeles tribal health clinic, The Seattle Times reported. WEST VIRGINIA Fairmont: A group is looking to revitalize a literacy program in Marion County that was started by country music singer Dolly Parton in Tennessee. Diana Marple of Marion County’s West Virginia University Extension Office told the Times West Virginian that a committee is investigating funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program. WISCONSIN Hobart: This village of 7,861 is The Most Boring Place in Wisconsin, according to the RoadSnacks.net website. WYOMING Cheyenne: A task force will look into trails for bicycling, walking and horseback riding around Wyoming, the Casper Star-Tribune reported. The task force will have 13 members from state agencies and public groups. The Legislature began looking into the task force after five cyclists were killed on Wyoming roadways in 2014.