News from across the USA

ALABAMA Montgomery: A 50-year-old man was charged with damaging and stealing city parking meters. Police Capt. Zedrick Dean told WSFA TV that police arrested Lester Brown and charged him with three counts of theft of property first degree. ALASKA Fairbanks: The Noel Wien library lobby will be remodeled this fall with new flooring, new seating and smaller plants to replace the large ficus trees, newsminer.com reported. ARIZONA Flagstaff: The 13th annual Celebraciones de la Gente Saturday and Sunday, a Museum of Northern Arizona Heritage Festival, will double the number of artists showing in the market, including retablo painters who follow the Spanish Colonial tradition, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. ARKANSAS Jonesboro: A Nettleton High School teacher suffered a concussion trying to break up a fistfight in a classroom between two girls, ages 14 and 16, over Facebook messages and comments, ArkansasOnline reported. CALIFORNIA Sacramento: “We are going to lance the boil.” That’s how Councilman Steve Hansen summed up City Hall’s quest to transform the 800 block of K Street. The Kings basketball team and the city want to fill a huge hole in the earth at Eighth and K streets and redevelop nearby properties, The Sacramento Bee reported. COLORADO Fort Collins: Authorities identified a man who was hit and killed by an SUV as he walked across a frontage road along Interstate 25 as Sean Stephens, 31, the Coloradoan reported. CONNECTICUT New Haven: A replica of the historic slave ship Amistad has reopened, WFSB-TV reported. The 129-foot Baltimore clipper is the state’s official flag ship. It’s a replica of the Amistad, which was taken over by African captives being brought to Cuba in 1839. DELAWARE Seaford: State police captured an escaped detainee hiding in the attic of an unfinished detached garage. Anthony Zack, 22, was hiding in the garage allegedly with the knowledge and help of his mother, Tammy, who was arrested. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The Smithsonian launched a Kickstarter campaign — its second — to raise money to repair Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, The Washington

Post reported. Last summer, the museum raised almost $720,000 to preserve Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit. FLORIDA Cocoa Beach: Barbara Schluraff, broker/owner of Century 21 Ocean, wanted to say thank you to first responders after Hurricane Matthew this month, so she said it with ice cream, Florida Today reported. A Chilly Willy Ice Cream & SnoBalls truck will travel around handing out free ice cream treats this week in the Melbourne area, courtesy of Century 21 Ocean. GEORGIA Atlanta: Walkability is on the rise in neighborhoods, but the increase in pedestrians has been accompanied by an increase in pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, The Atlanta JournalConstitution reported. HAWAII Lihue: Fledgling native birds are taking flight at Kauai’s first predator-proof area as groups work to create a breeding colony. Eight Newell’s shearwater chicks were brought to the fenced area of the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge in September and five remain under the care of a Pacific Rim Conservancy team,

The Garden Island reported. IDAHO Pocatello: Authorities said two people were hospitalized after a moose walked onto Interstate 86 east of American Falls and caused a three-vehicle collision. ILLINOIS Deerfield: A strike at two Jim Beam distilleries in Kentucky will not leave bourbon lovers high and dry, the Chicago

Tribune reported. Beam Suntory, which owns the Jim Beam brand, said it has an ample supply on hand. INDIANA Indianapolis: Van Rooy Properties successfully saved Phillips Temple, a former Indianapolis black church once headed toward demolition by restoring it and converting it into apartments, Indiana Business

Journal reported. IOWA Alvord: About 40 head of cattle died after eating from a feed wagon that contained a ground-up battery. Sioux City television station KTIV reported that the Lyon County Sheriff ’s Department was investigating the incident at the farm. KANSAS Lawrence: Students at two high schools will have access to free condoms at their school’s health offices, the Lawrence Jour

nal-World reported. KENTUCKY Louisville: A 10-day festival that will celebrate the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali, called “I Am Ali,” will be held July 5-15, The Courier-Journal reported. The festival will be based at the Muhammad Ali Center.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: The

Times-Picayune asked readers to nominate their favorite high school marching bands. NOLA.com will take votes through Friday. MAINE Oakland: Democratic congressional candidate Emily Cain was less than $300,000 behind U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in terms of the total money raised during the election cycle, the

Morning Sentinel reported. Poliquin raised more than $3 million while Cain raised $2.7 million. MARYLAND Baltimore: Amazon is hiring more than 3,000 people to fill holiday season jobs in Maryland, welcome news in areas where unemployment remains relatively high, the Balti

more Afro American reported. Amazon will be filling more than 120,000 temporary positions across the United States. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The latest weekly survey by AAA Northeast found the average price for self-serve regular gasoline was $2.13 per gallon, the same as a week ago. MICHIGAN Kalamazoo: Nearly 7.5 million Michigan residents out of 7.7 million age 18 and older are registered to vote, the highest number ever for a presidential election, according to data from the state secretary of State’s office. More than 120,500 people have been added to the voter registration rolls since July. The deadline to register to vote was Oct. 11. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional for law enforcement to install a GPS tracking device on a vehicle without a warrant, a decision applauded by privacy-rights groups, the Star Tribune reported. MISSISSIPPI Liberty: The remains of fallen World War II soldier James Samuel Smith have returned to Mississippi after more than 70 years. Smith, who was born in 1924, joined the Marines and left for service in August 1942. His remains were discovered in 2012 on a South Pacific island. DNA linked the remains to Smith. MISSOURI Affton: Thousands of people signed a petition to rename a park after St. Louis County police officer Blake Snyder, who was shot and killed this month, KSDK-TV reported. MONTANA Helena: Big game licenses are sold out for hunters who live outside the state, the

Independent Record reported. NEBRASKA Lincoln: Yiel Yiel, 21, was arrested on suspicion of trying to break into a house — twice in the same night, the Lin

coln Journal Star reported. Yiel denied breaking into the house, but police said he was wearing latex gloves when he was found. NEVADA Las Vegas: A man died after a hit-and-run crash, KLASTV reported.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Laconia: The 12th Annual Turkey Plunge to benefit the Salvation Army will take place Oct. 29. The swim for charity is at Lake Opechee Beach. NEW JERSEY Glassboro: Ric and Jean Edelman donated $25 million to preserve and expand Rowan University’s fossil park in Mantua Township. The donation is the second largest in Rowan’s history and the most ever given by alumni of the Glassboro school. NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Officials gathered in Torrance County to celebrate the restart of construction on Avangrid Renewables’ El Cabo Wind Farm. The 56,000-acre project spans private property and state trust land. NEW YORK Collins: A flock of pheasants raised by inmates at Erie County Correctional Facility was set free. The 250 pheasants were released into state-owned parkland in Zoar Valley. Inmates raised the birds as part of a partnership with the Department of Conservation to increase the region’s pheasant population. NORTH CAROLINA Cary: John Sisler, 46, will take part Wednesday in the Tuna Run 200, a 200mile race from Raleigh to Atlantic Beach. He estimates the race will take 50 to 70 hours. He is raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project, an organization that serves injured veterans, The News

& Observer reported. NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Montana-Dakota Utilities seeks approval from regulators to raise residential electric bills by nearly $10 per month. MDU proposed a 6.6% increase, which would raise an additional $13.4 million per year. It would increase a monthly residential bill by an average of about $9.60. OHIO Fayetteville: Brown County Animal Shelter officials said they’ve seized more than 130 animals from a home in a case they’re calling a “farmyard of horrors,” reported WXIX-TV. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Sex crimes detectives are warning that the messaging application Snapchat is fast becoming the preferred communication tool for online sexual predators, The

Oklahoman reported. OREGON Portland: The U.S. Department of Education reported that the state’s graduation rate was about 74%, trailed only by Nevada and New Mexico. Nationwide, the high school graduation rate rose to 83%. PENNSYLVANIA Aliquippa: A 28-year-old man who allegedly threatened his family was found sleeping hours later when SWAT officers burst into his home, Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier said. RHODE ISLAND Westerly: A woman was hospitalized for treatment of injuries from a crash that involved a school bus carrying middle school students, The

Westerly Sun reported.

SOUTH CAROLINA North Myr

tle Beach: While Hurricane Matthew brought destruction in its wake, the storm also washed up treasures. Nat Campbell found a washed up Megalodon tooth, an artifact from what used to be the world’s largest shark, The Sun

News reported. This tooth was valued at over $100, and is thought to be over 1 million years old. SOUTH DAKOTA Fulton: A large amount of crops waiting to be harvested made it difficult for some hunters to find pheasants during the opening weekend of the season, The Daily Republic reported. TENNESSEE Pleasant View: A Fort Campbell soldier was being chased by bees when he stepped onto U.S 41A in the dark over the weekend, The Tennessean reported. Spc. Austin McGeough, 21, of Connecticut called his girlfriend, then 911 to report that he was being chased; three vehicles hit him before he died.

TEXAS Galveston: The Galveston County Daily News

reported that researchers determined nearly half of the coral colonies in the East Flower Garden Bank were bleached or paling. Warm water temperatures could be at fault.

UTAH Salt Lake City: The Salt

Lake Tribune reported that Zion National Park officials plan several public meetings to discuss how to combat overwhelmed facilities and increased land erosion. Zion expects a record 4 million visitors this year. VERMONT Hardwick: Ross Connelly, owner and publisher of

The Hardwick Gazette, abandoned his plan for an essay contest to find a new owner for it because he failed to get enough entries, Burlington Free Press reported. VIRGINIA Glen Allen: Sarah and Matt Nuckols completed their lofty mission to go skydiving in all 50 states, the Richmond Times

Dispatch reported. WASHINGTON Spokane: The Association of Realtors said the median home price in May was $200,000, up 14.3% from the same month last year. KXLY-TV reported the reason was because more people are moving to the state’s second-largest city. WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: After a months-long compensation study completed by an independent consultant, some city department heads received raises of more than $20,000, the

Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. City Manager David Molgaard, among those who received a significant pay raise, said he thinks the increases are warranted, based on the consultant’s suggestions that many positions were underpaid. WISCONSIN Milwaukee: A bus driver for Milwaukee Public Schools was fired for not pulling over or breaking up a major bus fight that appeared to involve Lincoln Center of the Arts middle school students attacking a girl last week, Milwaukee Journal

Sentinel reported. WYOMING Cheyenne: The first big snowstorm of the season caused power outages and slick roads, the Jackson Hole News &

Guide reported. Snow covered Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. Compiled from staff and wire reports by Tim Wendel, with Jonathan Briggs, Carolyn Cerbin, Linda Dono, Mike Gottschamer, Ben Sheffler, Michael B. Smith, Nichelle Smith and Matt Young. Design by Tiffany Reusser. Graphics by Alejandro Gonzalez.