STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Huntsville: For summer satisfaction that’s worth venturing out into the heat, AL.com recommends 38 of the state’s best frozen treats, including Peach Park’s peach ice cream (and pies) and a key lime milkshake at Stacey’s Drugs and Old Tyme Soda Fountain.
ALASKA Kodiak: A recently completed study shows that the bear population is on the rise after seeing a significant drop in 2010. KMXT-FM reported that the bears were studied through a partnership between the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and the University of Montana.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The city may close hiking trails in more than 40,000 acres of desert preserves during intense heat that has claimed several lives this summer, The Arizona Republic reported.
ARKANSAS Hot Springs: Norma Jean Toussaint, 70, a grandmother, was arrested after a 12-year-old girl told police the woman used a switch on her as punishment, according to ArkansasOnline.
CALIFORNIA Santa Paula: Former library financial officer Tammy Jean Ferguson, 55, was sentenced to four years in prison for embezzling $499,254 from the library’s coffers, the Ventura County Star reported.
COLORADO Boulder: Prosecutors have formally charged Callie Kuhasz, 24, in a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist in Boulder, the Daily Camera reported.
CONNECTICUT Stamford: The former emergency manager at Bridgeport Hospital, awaiting trial for allegedly forcibly administering enemas to at least four men and secretly photographing a dozen others, has committed suicide, police said. Barry Barkinsky, 62, was found dead Monday, the Connecticut Post reported.
DELAWARE Bethany: State officials issued a water quality advisory for Bethany Beach and Dewey Beach at Dagsworthy Street ahead of the holiday weekend, The Daily Times reported. The advisory cited elevated levels of bacteria, likely due to increased rainfall.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Metro’s long-term maintenance effort will result in two weeks of railline shutdowns near Reagan National Airport, The Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA Babcock: Tuesday marked a quiet, official groundbreaking at the new solar city of Babcock as construction of its first downtown building — a farmto-table restaurant — got underway, The News-Press reported. It’s a milestone for investors who patiently waited out the postGreat Recession doldrums for the mega-project to begin.
GEORGIA Savannah: Arts Academy dance instructor Christine Shaw was recommended for termination on the grounds that she was insubordinate, the Savannah Morning News reported.
HAWAII Honolulu: State official say there are 7,620 homeless people living in Hawaii now, an increase of 4% over last year, Hawaii News Now reported.
IDAHO Boise: State residents can carry a concealed gun without needing licenses or training starting Friday. The change is one of the new laws going into effect on July 1, which is the start of Idaho’s new financial calendar.
ILLINOIS Chicago: If the long holiday weekend is anything like previous years, it could be one of the most violent of the summer, the Chicago Tribune warned. In 2014 and 2015, the long weekends that included the Fourth of July had the most shootings.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Riley Children’s Health will partner with The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on a $35 million outdoor sports exhibit intended to combat childhood obesity, The Indianapolis Star reported.
IOWA Iowa City: Neighboring property owners have filed an appeal with the Board of Adjustment in an effort to stop an Iowa City couple’s plans to build a home designed to resemble Kinnick Stadium, the Press-Citizen reported. Reed and Sandy Carlson have filed building plans for a nearly 7,500-square-foot house that would echo the stadium architecture.
KANSAS Topeka: Republican Gov. Brownback says he’s disappointed that the state’s backlog in unprocessed Medicaid applications is four times as large as previously thought, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
KENTUCKY Louisville: For the second straight year, Louisville’s lowest-paid workers will get a raise because of the city’s minimum wage law, which will boost hourly salaries to $8.25 an hour on Friday, The Courier-Journal reported.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The state Department of Health tests and posts the results of waterquality samples taken along beaches every week, The Advocate reported. Twenty-four beach advisories can be found at dhh.louisiana.gov.
MAINE Bar Harbor: David Shaw, the founder of Idexx Laboratories, is giving $1 million to pay for a science initiative involving Acadia National Park, the Portland Press Herald reported.
MARYLAND Ocean City: Seacrets restaurant’s distillery opened its doors to the public with the help of Gov. Hogan, who was on hand to cut the ribbon, The Daily Times reported. The new facility will produce spirits including flavored rums and vodkas, bourbon, American light whiskey and gin.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Republican Gov. Baker is suggesting an alternative route for commuter rail service to New Bedford and Fall River as the projected price tag for the original project climbs. The estimated cost for the South Coast rail project grew more than $2.2 billion to about $3.4 billion this week.
MICHIGAN East Lansing: A grain developed at Michigan State College in 1916 that used to be used in soup and livestock feed will be getting a revival a century later, the Lansing State Journal reported. The seeds for Spartan barley had to be retrieved from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s gene bank in Utah and are being grown now for malting houses in Michigan and to generate more seeds.
MINNESOTA Hibbing: David Haiman, 20, was decapitated with a machete by a woman’s boyfriend after she accused him of rape, the Star Tribune reported. Joseph C. Thoresen, 35, of Grand Rapids, Minn., is charged with second-degree murder.
MISSISSIPPI Columbus: State consumers will be able to register their cellphones in addition to residential lines on the do-notcall list starting July 1, WCBI reported. Registrations done by July 31 become effective Sept. 1. Consumers who continue receiving telemarketing calls may file a complaint with the Public Service Commission after Sept. 1.
MISSOURI St. Charles: Zak Smithey is a step closer to being able to build a home made out of shipping containers after action by the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. KTVI-TV reported the commission chose not to recommend that the City Council adopt restrictions on homes made of shipping containers.
MONTANA Missoula: Allegiant Air announced it will start offering nonstop flights from Missoula to Los Angeles year-round, The Missoulian reported. Starting in August, the flights between the two cities will operate on Mondays and Fridays.
NEBRASKA Albion: Sgt. Calvin Koziol, 21, is the “National Guard Soldier of the Year,” after winning the three-day Best Warrior competition in Concord, Mass., the Omaha World-Herald reported.
NEVADA Reno: The city agreed to pay nearly $23,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit against an officer accused of assaulting a man during a traffic stop, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia: The city plans to tap into its Motorcycle Week account to cover a $63,000 shortfall resulting from a music festival that ended early, the Laconia Daily Sun reported. The LaconiaFest was scheduled to take place from June 11 through June 19 but failed to draw a crowd.
NEW JERSEY Statewide: Homelessness is decreasing overall in the state, but the number of people living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, train stations or similar locations jumped by 48% since 2015. The Daily Journal reported the results of the NJCounts 2016 report by Monarch Housing Associates. Surveyors found 8,941 homeless men, women and children, a 12% decline from 2015.
NEW MEXICO Hobbs: Police Chief Chris McCall says his department has seen about 100 applicants hoping to fill nine spots, The Hobbs News-Sun reported.
NEW YORK Syracuse: The family of a man sucked into a manhole while trying to help a stranded motorist last summer is suing the city for his death, syracuse.com reported. Brandon Closure was pulled into the open manhole during heavy rains.
NORTH CAROLINA Durham: Transit advocates expressed disappointment after state legislators released a budget that includes restrictions that Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger said could kill the Durham- Orange light rail project, The News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: One person was burned and a car was destroyed in an explosion and fire caused by fireworks here, KFGOAM reported.
OHIO Zanesville: Emile Weaver, 21, a former Muskingum University student who gave birth April 22, 2015, in a bathroom at the Delta Gamma Theta sorority house, was sentenced earlier this week to life in prison without parole, the Times Recorder reported. Weaver, who was convicted of aggravated murder and three other charges last month, had put the baby in a trash bag outside, where the newborn girl died of asphyxiation.
OKLAHOMA Broken Arrow: Grace Church is selling its 77acre Broken Arrow property 14 years after a molestation scandal, Tulsa World reported. The church faced almost a decade of difficulties beginning in 2002 when one of the most popular teachers at Grace Christian School, Aaron Thompson, was arrested and convicted of molesting boys.
OREGON Portland: Authorities say they have arrested a 18-yearold man on suspicion of driving while high on pot after he crashed into a Happy Valley marijuana dispensary, The Oregonian reported.
PENNSYLVANIA King of Prussia: The King of Prussia Mall plans to expand with 50 new retailers, officials said. The new retailers open Aug. 18.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Providence School Board passed a new policy that aims to strengthen the district’s support of its transgender and gender-expansive students, the Providence Journal reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Moncks Corner: The Lord’s Prayer is no longer being recited at Berkeley County School Board meetings, The Post and Courier reported. Americans United for Separation of Church and State wrote the board noting that the prayer violates freedom of religion protections because it is a Christian prayer.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: AAA South Dakota is offering a free ride home and tow service for drinking drivers over the Fourth of July holiday. KSFY-TV reported the “Tipsy Tow” service is available from 6 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Tuesday. The program will be offered to AAA members and non-members in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Mitchell and Yankton.
TENNESSEE Memphis: More than 400 grocery stores across the state are being allowed to sell wine starting July 1, The Commercial Appeal reported.
TEXAS Carrizo Springs: Officials here voted against a contract to open a new immigrant family holding center, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
UTAH Provo: Officials say the number of visitors to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument is on the rise this year, the Daily Herald reported. The monument’s superintendent, Jim Ireland, says visits from January to May have gone up 12% from the same period in 2015.
VERMONT South Hero: Lightning is the suspected cause of a fire that consumed the $1.7 million lakefront home owned by Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell and her husband, Mark Brooks, Burlington Free Press reported.
VIRGINIA Henrico: The Butterflies LIVE! exhibit at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will be closed until early July because of a severe storm June 16, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Washougal: Firefighters rescued three dogs from a mobile home fire that left one person hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Thirty-seven foresters will lose their jobs, the Charleston GazetteMail reported. The foresters will be unemployed effective July 15.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Samy Mohamed Hamzeh, 23, who is suspected of plotting to attack a Masonic center in Milwaukee, remains locked up as the FBI transcribes months of secretly recorded conversations between him and informants, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
WYOMING Casper: Lanny Applegate, Wyoming’s fire marshal, has announced that he will retire, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.