STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Tuscaloosa: Construction of a $16 million facility for 911 operations in Tuscaloosa County is expected to finish by December, with occupancy next spring, The Tuscaloosa News reports.

ALASKA Fairbanks: A man who seemed headed for the winning spot in a Fairbanks sled dog race ended up in second place after his sled was struck by a snowmachine during the final stretch, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

ARIZONA Tempe: Retired Tempe police chief Tom Ryff is demanding the city pay him $1 million or face a lawsuit, KTVKTV reports. Ryff contends that actions by his successor constitute a breach of his retirement agreement.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: Arkansas prison officials say the state has enough lethal drug doses to execute eight inmates next month. Those executions are scheduled over a 10-day period in April.

CALIFORNIA San Francisco: An arbitration panel awarded California utilities $125 million in a lawsuit claiming that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries supplied faulty steam generators that contributed to closing the San Onofre nuclear plant. But the award was a fraction of the $7.6 billion that Southern California Edison sought.

COLORADO Aspen: Hotel bookings were up in the Aspen area this week amid ski competitions and school vacations, The Aspen

Daily News reports.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: Connecticut is running a Zika public awareness campaign targeting springtime travelers. TV and radio ads in English and Spanish will run statewide through the end of March aimed at college students heading to the Caribbean and other areas where the virus has been actively transmitted.

DELAWARE Pike Creek: Authorities are investigating what caused an abandoned New Castle County bowling alley to go up in flames over the weekend. The bowling alley that closed in 2009 was a total loss.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A man charged with jumping the White House fence last week will be allowed to remain free while awaiting trial, though he’ll have to wear a GPS monitor. Jonathan Tuan Tran must stay within 100 miles of his California home except while traveling to court in Washington.

FLORIDA Miami: A rookie Miami police officer is accused of stealing from drivers he pulled over for traffic infractions. Jose R. Acosta has been relieved of duty and officials say he’ll likely be fired, The Miami Herald reports.

GEORGIA Atlanta: A federal appeals court says employers aren’t barred from discriminating against employees because of sexual orientation. Jameka Evans claimed she was forced to leave her security guard job at Georgia Regional Hospital in Savannah because she’s a lesbian.

HAWAII Hilo: Big Island residents are trying to save an old theater that used to host live performances before it was left to sit vacant for more than a decade.

The Hawaii Tribune Herald reports that the Naalehu Theater, constructed in 1925, is in need of a new roof and other repairs.

IDAHO Boise: An Idaho couple face criminal charges after officials found several dead animals on their property. KTVB-TV reports that the Owyhee County Sheriff ’s Office received a call in January about dead horses and cattle on the Grand View property.

ILLINOIS Chicago: Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration spent more than $1,300 on dozens of photos of the Chicago official that lined a union hall where he delivered an address last month, The

Chicago Tribune reports.

INDIANA Noblesville: Operators of the suspended Indiana State Fair train have devised a plan for year-round trains between suburban Noblesville and downtown Indianapolis, The

Indianapolis Star reports. That idea comes as Hamilton County officials prepare to convert the Nickel Plate railroad, which had carried the fair train, into a greenway trail.

IOWA Mason City: A proposed farm slated to house 98,000 chickens has raised concern about limited oversight, The

Globe Gazette reports. The Wharam Creek Poultry facility is 2,000 birds shy of requiring regulation for large animal feeding confinements.

KANSAS Wichita: A World War II B-29 that was originally built in Wichita and then restored there is now able to tour. The

Wichita Eagle reports that a nonprofit — Doc’s Friends, a name derived from the plane’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs squadron — plans to take the bomber to airshows in six states this year.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: The Kentucky Heritage Council is seeking nominations for historic preservation awards. A ceremony will be held in May to recognize excellence in the preservation and rehabilitation of historic buildings and cultural sites.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A Baton Rouge judge has refused to restore voting rights for more than 70,000 Louisiana residents who are on probation or parole for felony crimes. An advocacy group, Voice of the Ex- Offender, will appeal.

MAINE Bath: The Maine Department of Transportation says a $15 million reconstruction of the viaduct that carries U.S. 1 traffic through Bath is three weeks ahead of schedule. The original timetable had the work being completed by Memorial Day.

MARYLAND Lansdowne: Authorities say a Maryland assistedliving home licensed for four beds actually had 16 people living there. The Baltimore Sun reports that all of the residents have been moved elsewhere.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The New England Aquarium has named longtime board member and senior financial services executive Maliz Beams as interim president and chief executive starting April 1.

MICHIGAN Delta Township: Operators of twin oil pipelines beneath the water where Lakes Huron and Michigan converge insist they remain structurally sound even though an outer layer of protective covering has worn away in places. Skeptics say the lines should be shut down.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: A Minneapolis liquor store that opened for Sunday business nearly four months before a new state law allows it will lose its license for 30 days. Surdyk’s opened Sunday with owner Jim Surdyk declaring that fact on social media.

MISSISSIPPI Oxford: Oxford is seeing a revenue boost because it raised parking meter fees, The

Oxford Eagle reports. The Board of Aldermen approved a 25cents-an-hour increase that took effect in January.

MISSOURI Jefferson City: Missouri first lady Sheena Greitens found a treasure trove of children’s books in the governor’s mansion storage locker. Greitens plans to donate the books, mostly to foster care facilities.

MONTANA Missoula: A team of Missoula firefighters took first place as they huffed and puffed up 69 stories of a Seattle highrise for an annual stairclimb competition last weekend, The Missoulian reports.

NEBRASKA Bellevue: The Bellevue City Council is seeking funds for a 90-foot observation tower on the Missouri River. The tower would be part of a $1.7 million research station that the University of Nebraska at Omaha wants to build, The Omaha World-Her

ald reports.

NEVADA Elko: A woman is being held in Nevada’s Elko County jail after deputies say she left her 14-month-old child in a running, unlocked car for an hour while she gambled, The Elko Daily Free

Press reports.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Efforts to install scanners in New Hampshire prisons appear to have hit a road block. Prison officials want to decide who gets scanned, but the law requires broader scanning.

NEW JERSEY Newark: Prosecutors say a Newark man pleaded guilty to robbing the same 7Eleven store three times in four days, brandishing a knife and grabbing candy each time.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The New Mexico legislature has set guidelines for physically restraining students or placing them in seclusion. Gov. Susana Martinez is expected to sign the measure.

NEW YORK Albany: An upstate New York cemetery where a Civil War veteran known as “Albany’s Little Drummer Boy” is buried has received the only image of him known to exist, the Times

Union reports. The tintype was discovered when a Connecticut woman went through Civil War memorabilia collected by her late father.

NORTH CAROLINA Newton: A man who made multiple fake bomb threats is facing years of imprisonment, The Hickory Daily

Record reports. In court last week to enter a guilty plea, Cody Matthew Startt apologized for the trouble he caused.

NORTH DAKOTA

Fargo: The owner of a North Dakota horse betting business says the state has agreed to pay her more than $13 million after her conviction for illegal gambling was overturned, KFGO reports. Susan Bala’s Fargobased Racing Services handled bets for closed-circuit horse race gambling sites.

OHIO Lancaster: A teenager who’s still in high school hopes to become the next mayor of Lancaster. Clayton Lunsford, 17, tells

The Eagle-Gazette that he’ll pursue online schooling if elected in November.

OKLAHOMA Norman: Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester is seeking $135,000 in emergency funding so the jail can meet payroll next month. But some county Budget Board members want an audit of the sheriff ’s books.

OREGON Portland: Portland police are investigating a flurry of swastika vandalism last weekend. Police say hate graffiti was tagged onto at least six cars as well as trees, sidewalks, fences and garages.

PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: A man whose company scoops up pet poop was given two years of probation and fined $500 for buying fake Secret Service IDs online to impress women on a dating site.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Gov. Gina Raimondo’s signature initiative this year would provide two years of free tuition at Rhode Island’s public colleges. But some lawmakers say the “free” label has hurt its chances.

SOUTH CAROLINA Anderson: A mother and daughter selling Girl Scout cookies were robbed outside a South Carolina Wal-Mart store. The mother told Anderson County sheriff ’s deputies that the thief bought a $4 box of cookies and then grabbed the money box, kicking the mother several times when she tried to get it back.

SOUTH DAKOTA Yankton: Minnehaha County’s public defenders office has sued a state-run mental hospital after it refused to admit a criminal defendant despite a judge’s order to do so, The

Argus Leader reports. The suit says the hospital lacks the authority to refuse a commitment order.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been rated as one of the busiest liver transplant hospitals in the nation. Hospital officials say Vanderbilt performed 149 adult and three pediatric liver transplants between July 2015 and June 2016.

TEXAS Raymondville: A former tent-city prison that was largely destroyed in an inmate riot is being sold to a private prison company, The Valley Morning

Star reports. Officials say federal immigration authorities have expressed interest in the facility.

UTAH St. George: Utah national parks saw big increases in visitors last year. The Spectrum reports that Zion National Park saw a 17% jump in visitors in 2016. Bryce Canyon National Park saw a 26% increase.

VERMONT Rutland: The U.S. Forest Service says two Green Mountain National Forest cliffs are closed until Aug. 1 to protect peregrine falcon nesting sites from hikers.

VIRGINIA Richmond: More than 100,000 Virginia taxpayers who had their tax refunds issued on prepaid debit cards never used them, leaving $14 million in refunds unclaimed, The Richmond

Times-Dispatch reports.

WASHINGTON Seattle: Federal regulators have cited the University of Washington for allowing a research monkey to die of thirst,

The Seattle Times reports. A federal animal welfare inspection report says keepers noticed a female pigtail macaque was lethargic on Jan. 8. The animal died within an hour.

WEST VIRGINIA Institute: West Virginia State University will inaugurate Anthony L. Jenkins as its 11th president on Friday. Jenkins was previously a vice president at the University of Central Florida.

WISCONSIN Madison: Wisconsin state superintendent candidate Lowell Holtz was chastised by his former school board for donating football bleachers to a private school his children attended. Holtz said the deal saved the district money rather than paying to have it hauled away.

WYOMING Casper: The Wyoming Department of Education is undertaking a review of the state’s K-12 math standards. The

Casper Star-Tribune reports that a standards review committee is being formed.