STATE BY STATE: NEWS FROM AROUND THE NATION,
News from across the USA
ALABAMA Birmingham: A disease that’s affecting bats nationwide has been found in a species in Alabama for the first time. White-nose syndrome was detected in a cave in Shelby County. ALASKA Anchorage: The state Department of Natural Resources wants Alaskans to buy homegrown products. The Division of Agriculture launched the “$5 Alaska Grown, Five Month Challenge” campaign this month to get Alaskans to spend $5 a week for five months on products with the Alaska Grown label. ARIZONA Mesa: Mesa Mayor John Giles isn’t a divorced dad looking for a date in Canada. But somebody using a Match.com profile with his pictures claims to be, The Arizona Republic reports. ARKANSAS Little Rock: Arkansas transportation officials have opened a bid of $29.7 million to resurface a section of Interstate 40, the Arkansas Democrat-Ga
zette reports. CALIFORNIA San Diego: Authorities in San Diego rescued nine hedgehogs that were thrown into an Ocean Beach trash can and left to die. It’s illegal to possess hedgehogs in California. COLORADO Pueblo: A police officer accused of re-enacting body camera footage of a vehicle search will receive undisclosed discipline, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. Prosecutors had to drop drug and weapon charges in April against a suspect. CONNECTICUT Kent: A black bear killed and ate one of Megg and Ted Hoffman’s donkeys, the Connecticut couple tell The
News-Times of Danbury. Two other donkeys were injured in the attack last month. DELAWARE Dover: An independent review ordered by Delaware’s governor after a deadly inmate riot describes the state’s maximum-security prison as dangerously overcrowded, critically understaffed, and poorly run. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Ten people were injured last week when a District of Columbia streetcar rear-ended a bus. All of the injuries were minor, The
Washington Post reports. FLORIDA Miami: Some coastal residents put off emergency hurricane preparations until storm clouds loom. The National Hurricane Center is giving those people a deadline this year. Forecasters plan to issue experimental advisories showing when tropical storm-force winds may hit communities. GEORGIA Tybee Island: Lifeguards kept people out of the water at Georgia’s largest public beach after an alligator was spotted, The Savannah Morning News reports. Authorities called in a licensed trapper to Tybee Island. HAWAII Honolulu: Officials are urging all Hawaii residents born in or after 1957 to get a mumps vaccination. The state Health Department reports 81 mumps cases this year. Hawaii News Now says that’s more than double the total of cases during the past 10 years. IDAHO Idaho Falls: An excavator that slid into a nuclear waste pit in Idaho has been retrieved,
The Post Register reports. ILLINOIS Springfield: Three years after Illinois changed how science is taught and tested, performance data isn’t available because schools haven’t seen science exam scores, The Chicago
Tribune reports. INDIANA Rensselaer: Alumni of Saint Joseph College are taking steps to reopen the school, which is suspending operations at the end of the month. The (Northwest
Indiana) Times reports that a team of volunteers dubbed the Saint Joseph’s Phoenix Project hopes to put the school in a stronger financial position. IOWA Iowa City: The Iowa Supreme Court says the parents of a severely disabled child can sue medical providers for failing to warn of fetal abnormalities that would have caused the mother to have an abortion. KANSAS Topeka: A proposal to restore guaranteed tenure for some Kansas public school teachers is part of legislative talks on education funding. Lawmakers are looking at phasing in a $230 million increase over two years in school funding. KENTUCKY Louisville: Gov. Matt Bevin is urging people to “put their faith to work” by forming prayer groups that walk in some of Louisville’s highestcrime neighborhoods. The mother of a 7-year-old boy killed by a stray bullet says the Kentucky governor’s “heart is in the right place,” but some people will be scared to walk neighborhoods. LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana patients who need shortterm pain relief will soon stop getting month-long prescriptions of highly addictive opioid drugs. Instead, first-time prescriptions for acute pain will be for seven days.
MAINE Port
land: Maine is on track for a record number of cruises this year. More than 400 vessels will be arriving at locations like Portland and Bar Harbor, The Portland Press Herald reports. MARYLAND Finksburg: A stun gun was used last week on a 9year-old Maryland boy who allegedly threatened his mother and deputies with kitchen knives, The
Carroll County Times reports. Sheriff Jim DeWees says it appears that the deputies acted appropriately. MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A high-profile Boston clergyman and a top Massachusetts court official are among 10 people facing charges in a police prostitution sting. Police say the defendants were arrested after responding to a fake online ad. MICHIGAN Saginaw: Property owners in Saginaw won a key appeals court ruling last week in a lawsuit over dioxin contamination by Dow Chemical. The court rejected arguments by Dow that it was too late to sue over dioxin released decades ago into the Tittabawassee River. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota has turned over athletic ticket sales transaction records to the FBI, WCCO-TV reports. MISSISSIPPI Columbia: The Mississippi fire marshal’s office is leading an investigation into a church fire in Marion County. WDAM-TV reports that officials believe someone intentionally set Mt. Zion Baptist Church on fire. MISSOURI Columbia: The University of Missouri System is cutting 474 jobs, including 307 at its flagship Columbia campus. Officials are trying to save $100 million after lawmakers decreased core university funding statewide. MONTANA Officials are investigating a male grizzly bear that was shot to death and found in Montana’s Stillwater River. Investigators believe the bear may have been dumped off a bridge. NEBRASKA Lincoln: Sweetness is buzzing on the roof of the Lincoln Marriott Cornhusker Hotel. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that beekeepers Warren Nelson and his son, Trey, carried up four bee-filled hives last month. The hotel hopes to harvest up to 600 pounds of honey annually. NEVADA Reno: A man who was named guardian of his father’s affairs has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for looting his family financial accounts, Nevada authorities say. NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The New Hampshire Supreme Court has rejected efforts by two state utilities to reduce their property taxes in 64 towns. The utilities cited widespread differences in the taxes. NEW JERSEY Ocean City: A woman who contracted an infection after a forced catheterization to take a urine sample following her DUI arrest has settled her lawsuit for $140,000,
The Press of Atlantic City reports. NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: A construction site that sparked buzz with a fake sign announcing it as the future home of a Cheesecake Factory is really a future emergency center, The Las Cruc
es Sun-News reports. Officials say pranksters put up the bogus sign as a joke. NEW YORK New York: A young daredevil who climbed the World Trade Center’s centerpiece tower in 2014 was arrested atop another Manhattan high-rise last week. Police say Justin Casquejo, 19, is accused of accessing a roof without permission.
NORTH CAROLINA Greens
boro: The University of North Carolina Greensboro is kicking off a yearlong celebration of its 125th birthday, The News & Rec
ord of Greensboro reports. The school opened in 1892 with 198 female students and 15 professors. NORTH DAKOTA Jamestown: A woman who escaped from the state mental hospital in Jamestown was apprehended in Fargo, the state Highway Patrol says. Desiree McKay, 33, escaped Thursday from a fenced outdoor area at an addiction treatment unit. She was taken into custody the next day. OHIO Canton: Ohio’s environmental regulators have raised the proposed penalty for the builder of a high-pressure natural gas pipeline from $430,000 to $914,000. Tests found diesel fuel in drilling mud spilled in a wetland, The Canton Repository reports. OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A 100-mile daily restriction on how far Oklahoma state troopers can travel has been lifted. The restriction went into effect in December as state agencies scrambled to close a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. OREGON Eugene: University of Oregon officials say a water leak caused $20,000 in damage to its Museum of Natural and Cultural History, The Register-Guard reports. No collections or pieces were damaged. PENNSYLVANIA Lancaster: Police say lye sickened two children who drank what they believed to be apple juice at a Chinese buffet in March. But there was no evidence that what happened at the Star Buffet & Grill near Lancaster was intentional. RHODE ISLAND Providence: The mayor of Providence has vetoed a measure that would ban smoking in areas around Kennedy Plaza and Burnside Park downtown. Mayor Jorge Elorza said the ordinance was targeted at homeless people and would criminalize poverty. SOUTH CAROLINA Anderson: A sheriff ’s deputy who volunteered for marine patrol was killed in training last week when he was thrown from a boat and run over by the driverless vessel. Two others also were thrown into the water. SOUTH DAKOTA Sturgis: Sturgis is serving Tuesday as the honorary South Dakota capital. Special events for the day include a main street walk and a speech by Gov. Dennis Daugaard at a community social at the HarleyDavidson Plaza. TENNESSEE Nashville: Health officials say hundreds of inmates are being treated for what appears to be scabies, causing delays in court hearings and even one murder trial, The Tennessean reports. About 320 inmates have been treated for the parasites that burrow into the skin and cause itching. TEXAS Houston: Officials are conducting an environmental study to monitor the effects of oil and gas drilling on San Solomon Springs at Texas’ Balmorhea State Park, the Houston Chronicle reports. UTAH Draper: Utah State Prison inmates are taking up crochet and making blankets with patriotic designs for hospitalized military veterans, KSL-TV reports. The Draper prison’s crochet class makes anything from booties and hats to blankets and scarfs. The class recently participated in a Memorial Day event, making 150 blankets for veterans. VERMONT Montpelier: Gov. Phil Scott has appointed an attorney as the next chairman of the Vermont Public Service Board. Anthony Roisman will head the board that oversees siting of energy projects, public utility rates and service quality. VIRGINIA Virginia Beach: The Navy says two Virginia-based sailors are responsible for throwing compacted trash off their ship. Some of the trash discs washed up on beaches along North Carolina’s Outer Banks. WAVY-TV reports that the trash came off the USS Whidbey Island, based in Virginia Beach. WASHINGTON Spokane: A Spokane Craigslist ad is looking for a paternal figure to serve as a Father’s Day barbecue dad, KHQ reports. The ads seeks a man who’s been a dad for a minimum of 18 years, has 10 years of grilling experience, and likes to talk about things like lawnmowers and building a deck and singer Jimmy Buffett. Bonus points if your name is Bill, Randy or Dave. WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: The First Congregational United Church of Christ in Huntington has pledged to be a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants who are targets of deportation, The
Herald-Dispatch reports. WISCONSIN Madison: A group of Wisconsin lawmakers is circulating a bill to create gun safety classes for high school students. Schools would not be required to offer the course, which is aimed at students who participate in their schools’ trap and target shooting teams. WYOMING Cody: Researchers trying to preserve native cutthroat trout in Yellowstone National Park say they’re on track to eliminate non-native predator fish from Yellowstone Lake in about a decade, The Cody En
terprise reports. The National Park Service is trying to get rid of non-native lake trout, which feed on cutthroats.