STATE-BY-STATE
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Opelika: Police shut down Interstate 85 after a man made a false report of being held hostage inside his vehicle, AL.com reported.
ALASKA Fairbanks: A Big State Logistics trailer went off the Richardson Highway near Birch Lake and spilled fuel, newsminer.com reported.
ARIZONA Tucson: A barking dog helped save a family by alerting them to a fire in their mobile home. A propane gas tank exploded but did not cause any injuries.
ARKANSAS Murfreesboro: Deborah Miller, who lost a diamond necklace when a restaurant ceiling collapsed on her, found a 1.05-carat white diamond replacement at Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas-Online reported.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: The Nightmare Before Christmas will return to the Hollywood Bowl for Halloween, the Los Angeles Times reported. Danny Elfman will reprise his live performance as Jack Skellington, the melancholy pumpkin king who longs to celebrate Christmas. The performances, scheduled for Oct. 29 and 30, will feature an orchestra and chorus.
COLORADO Livermore: Investigators confirmed that lightning started a wildfire burning near the Colorado-Wyoming border. The Starwood Fire broke out Sunday afternoon after storms moved through the area west of U.S. Highway 287.
CONNECTICUT West Haven: State inspectors found more than 600 marijuana plants growing behind a day care center. Sgt. David Tammaro said the plants were 6 to 10 feet tall with an estimated street value of more than $1 million.
DELAWARE Cape Henlopen: A stretch of ocean beach at Cape Henlopen State Park has reopened now that the nesting season for piping plovers has come to an end. Officials say this year’s nesting season produced 13 fledgling plovers, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Hundreds of nursing home residents alleged in a lawsuit that the city failed to comply with a federal mandate to move eligible and interested Medicaid recipients out of nursing homes and into the community where they are entitled to in-home care, The Washington Post reported.
FLORIDA Viera: Rojak, a 60-foot-long, double-headed, fire-breathing dragon proposed by construction contractor Don Facciobene, can be built at Dragon Point, Florida Today reported. Brevard County officials approved Facciobene’s plans to rebuild Dragon Point.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Police investigated an alleged sexual assault reported at the pop culture convention Dragon Con, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
HAWAII Honolulu: Hundreds of swimmers who were competing in a race off Oahu had to be pulled from the ocean by rescue crews. Kaia Hedlund, director of the 47th annual Waikiki Roughwater Swim, said some swimmers couldn’t handle the strong current after the first buoy, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
IDAHO Idaho Falls: The region had more lodging sales in July than ever before, the Post Register reported. The Yellowstone Teton Territory reported $11.7 million in lodging sales in July. That’s a 15% increase com- pared with the same month last year and a higher figure than any other month recorded in the organization’s 25-year history.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said his department is doing all it can to combat violence rooted where “people without hope do these kinds of things,” the Chicago Tribune reported.
INDIANA Indianapolis: State regulators are giving central Indiana residents who live in the 317 telephone area code another month before they must begin using 10 digits when dialing. Ten-digit dialing had been set to become mandatory in the 317 area code on Sept. 17, but the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission moved the mandatory start date to Oct. 15.
IOWA Indianola: Investigators said a substitute school bus driver pulled out in front of a semitrailer last week, causing a crash that injured two students on board.
KANSAS Kansas City: Police investigated a fire on a school playground that damaged tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment. KMBC-TV reported that equipment at Stony Point North Elementary School was burned over the weekend.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Visitors to two state parks can participate in elk-viewing tours beginning this month. The tours will begin Saturday at Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park in Buckhorn and on Sept. 17 at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park in Prestonsburg.
LOUISIANA Jefferson Parish: Gabrielle Whittington, the mother of 2-year-old Timothy Thompson, who was found buried in a garbage bag under the Huey P. Long Bridge in Elmwood in July, surrendered to police, The Times-Picayune reported.
MAINE South Portland: The $3.3 million redevelopment of the historic former National Guard armory is on track to be completed by Thanksgiving, the Portland Press Herald reported. The former armory has been mostly dormant since the state closed its doors in 1994.
MARYLAND Ocean City: Maryland’s Public Service Commission will vote in either late winter or early spring on whether to approve U.S. Wind’s application for offshore renewable energy credits, The Daily Times reported.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A state trooper was taken to a hospital after his cruiser was rearended on Interstate 93 by a driver who was charged with drunken driving.
MICHIGAN Dickson Township: Authorities said a man died after being struck by lightning on the North Country Trail, WWTV-TV reported.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: Minnesotans with intractable pain have become the second-largest group of patients in the state’s medical marijuana program, even though they became eligible just one month ago, the Star
Tribune reported. One out of three patients enrolled in the program is seeking relief from chronic pain, according to figures released by the Office of Medical Cannabis.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: State health officials are confirming four new cases of West Nile virus, bringing the state’s total to 19 cases this year.
MISSOURI Kansas City: ITT Educational Services closed its ITT Technical Institute campuses in Overland Park, Kan., and Kansas City, The Kansas City Star reported. The Indiana-based company blamed the closings on a federal ruling last month that banned the company from enrolling any students who relied on federal financial aid.
MONTANA Missoula: A 71-yearold man was killed in a crash after his motorcycle struck a deer on Montana Highway 43 west of Wisdom, according to the Highway Patrol.
NEBRASKA Grand Island: Officials with the City Cemetery asked to be removed as a site for the Pokémon Go game. Superintendent Mark Sands said playing the game in the cemetery is disrespectful and causes maintenance problems, The Grand Island Independent reported.
NEVADA Las Vegas: The Southern Nevada Water Authority is using a combination of aerial photography and laser mapping to track water usage in the Las Vegas area, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Eaton: Au- thorities said a 57-year-old man was found dead near his ATV on a private trail behind his home. The ATV was still running and the man was not wearing a helmet.
NEW JERSEY Newark: Schools are reopening here, but water fountains remain offline after last spring ’s lead scare. Officials say bottled water will be distributed for the next month at the city’s 30 schools.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced that filming for the limited television series Godless began and will employ 280 crew members from the state. The six-episode period drama is scheduled to premiere worldwide on Netflix in 2017.
NEW YORK New York: Bird-watchers said circumstantial evidence indicates New York City could have its first native-born bald eagle in more than 100 years. The New York Times reported the juvenile is among seven to 10 bald eagles thought to live on Staten Island. The state Department of Environmental Conservation cautioned that without a confirmed nest, there’s no way to be certain where it was hatched.
NORTH CAROLINA Chapel Hill: Phoebe Lawless, celebrated chef and owner of Durham’s Scratch bakery, will teach a hands-on class on baking bread Sept. 19, The News & Observer reported.
NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: Storms over the Labor Day weekend dropped heavy rainfall, breaking a century-old record and leading to street flooding. The National Weather Service said 3.73 inches of rain was recorded Sunday, breaking the city’s record for the date of 1.49 inches set in 1912.
OHIO Cleveland: Cuyahoga County’s debt service represents 5% of the total budget, a report by the Center for Community Solutions found. The county has nearly $862 in debt for each resident.
OKLAHOMA Poteau: The City Council approved funding to add gates to a railroad crossing where a woman and three children died last month after they were struck by a train, KHBS-TV reported.
OREGON Medford: Divers recovered the body of a 40-yearold swimmer who drowned at Emigrant Lake outside Ashland.
PENNSYLVANIA Lewistown: Asher’s Chocolates voluntarily recalled about 40 of its chocolate products because of possible salmonella contamination.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Department of Environmental Management will give away 1,000 trees to homeowners as part of a program to help conserve energy. Registration for the program will open Monday. Trees may be picked up at specific farmers markets in October.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: Charleston police said all 300 of its patrol officers and supervisors have been given body cameras. The police department said in a news release that all the officers were trained before they started wearing the devices.
SOUTH DAKOTA Springfield: Hundreds of volunteers turned out to help residents after a storm wreaked havoc in the town and displaced 70 people. The storm early Monday brought straight-line winds of up to 110 mph that destroyed four homes and damaged dozens more, according to the Bon Homme County Emergency Management Office.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee State University is planning an 84-acre development project along the Cumberland River. The Cumberland City at TSU project will include restaurants, retail stores, a hotel, a library and research centers, The
Tennessean reported.
TEXAS San Antonio: Three people were killed, including two children, and four people were critically injured after a sportutility vehicle went off a roadway, police said.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Clark Planetarium is closed through Sept. 16 for the installation of exhibits, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
VERMONT Waterbury: The Hunger Mountain Children’s Center will return to its old home on South Main Street after the non-profit used a $1.3 million community development block grant to purchase and renovate the property, WCAX-TV reported.
VIRGINIA Richmond: A grand jury indicted Nigel Walker, 26, an Army veteran, in the fatal stabbing of Brian Szabo, 55, a bank executive in April, the Richmond
Times-Dispatch reported.
WASHINGTON Tri- Cities: Energy Northwest plans a facility that generates and stores solar power, the Tri-City Herald reported. It will be located north of Richland. The project is funded with help from a Clean Energy Fund grant. The fund supports the development of low-carbon energy technologies to save energy and strengthen the economy.
WEST VIRGINIA Mount Nebo: Some rafting guides will make practice runs before the start of the fall season on the Gauley River, WVVA-TV reported. The season starts Friday when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins lowering Summersville Lake to its winter level through releases at the Summersville Dam.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randa, whose rulings included the John Doe investigation into Gov. Walker’s campaign, died at age 76. Randa’s secretary, Cary Biskupic, confirmed Randa died after a battle with cancer, which sent him into semiretirement in February.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Federal health officials trained tribal officials in Montana and Wyoming to use software to track population health data, the Bill
ings Gazette reported. The fiveday training was attended by members of Montana’s Blackfeet, Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations and Wyoming’s Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.