NEWS FROM AROUND THE NATION,
ALABAMA Florence: Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital plans to work with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System to create a cancer treatment center in Florence, The Times Daily reports.
ALASKA Anchorage: The National Park Service has indentified the climber who died on Denali as Sanjay Pandit, 28, of Kathmandu. He was descending the mountain Friday with two teammates when he died of an unknown medical illness.
ARIZONA San Tan Valley: A law passed by the Arizona Legislature paves the way for San Tan Valley to form a city government. The San Tan Valley Sentinel reports incorporation proponents will wait until the law takes effect Aug. 9 to start a campaign.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: University of Arkansas trustees have voted to give a 2% raise to system President Donald Bobbitt. That will increase Bobbitt’s salary to $510,000 a year, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: Authorities say San Francisco’s Bay Bridge was partially shut down for hours after officers responding to a crash wounded a motorist who drove at them.
COLORADO Denver: Colorado voters may consider the nation’s first legal limits on children buying smartphones. A proposal would ban the sale of smartphones to children younger than 13. Backers would need about 300,000 voter signatures to get on the ballot.
CONNECTICUT Middletown: The Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity has won a jury verdict in its lawsuit against Wesleyan University. The school closed the frat house after announcing a requirement that residential fraternities accept women. The jury awarded the fraternity $386,000 in damages.
DELAWARE Dover: State police are investigating the discovery of skeletal human remains found in a wooded area just outside Dover.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A tubby tabby named Symba has a new family. WTTG reports that the 6-year-old cat arrived at the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington at 35 pounds, but was working to slim down when adopted last week.
FLORIDA Sunny Isles Beach: A two-block stretch of this Florida beach was shut down after state health officials found that levels of bacteria from animal intestines were too high, The Miami Herald reports.
GEORGIA Augusta: A former deputy clerk of Richmond County Magistrate Court has admitted stealing more than $1,100 from the office, The Augusta Chronicle reports. Estela Figueroa, 47, was sentenced to two years in prison and eight years on probation.
HAWAII Honolulu: Hawaii officials are hoping to complete efforts to cool 1,000 classrooms before the start of the upcoming school year. The department has said the work was delayed by high numbers of bids for AC installation, budgetary concerns and aging infrastructure.
IDAHO Boise: Top legislative leaders have formed a working group to study possible changes to the state’s campaign finance laws. House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill want the group to find ways to increase transparency in campaign activity, political action committees and lobbyists.
ILLINOIS Lemont: Authorities discovered more than two tons of fireworks in a suburban Chicago home, The Chicago Tribune reports. Charges are pending. Most fireworks are banned in Illinois.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The state is taking control of a longdelayed section of the Interstate 69 extension by July 31, three years after hiring a private developer to complete the work. The section is between Bloomington and Martinsville.
IOWA Waterloo: Low staff and a growing number of deaths that require autopsies have created a backlog at the Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office, KWWL-TV reports. The backup means some families have to wait up to two weeks for a relative’s remains to be returned.
KANSAS Topeka: Officials say Osawatomie State Hospital failed to regain federal recertification after a survey in May. That means Kansas will continue to lose up to $1 million a month in federal funds. The hospital’s certification was revoked in December 2015.
KENTUCKY Louisville: The average cost of a four-year degree in Kentucky will be more than $39,000 this fall after state regulators approved tuition increases at all but two of the state’s public universities. The University of Kentucky had the largest dollar-amount increase: a $452 per-year hike for in-state students.
LOUISIANA Westwego: Police in Louisiana say one of three men engaged in horseplay after drinking died when the other two men performed a wrestling move known as an “elbow drop” on him. The two suspects face manslaughter charges, The TimesPicayune/ Nola.com reports.
MAINE Wayne: Strawberry farmers in Maine expect a good yield this season, thanks partly to the snow. Tom Stevenson of Stevenson’s Strawberries tells the Kennebec Journal that snow insulates strawberries.
MARYLAND Ocean City: Maryland’s attorney general says Ocean City can legally ban topless women at its beach, The Wash- ington Post reports. The issue arose after the head of the beach patrol said lifeguards would no longer scold women who are topless. Some on social media thought that meant toplessness would be OK.
MASSACHUSETTS Cambridge: The city has reduced its search for a police commissioner to a lone finalist. Cambridge officials say Branville Bard Jr., police chief of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, stood out after interviews with five candidates. A final decision is expected next month.
MICHIGAN Grand Rapids: The city has completed a section of a riverfront trail that will eventually connect downtown Grand Rapids to a larger trail system.
MINNESOTA Duluth: State transportation officials have notified members of the Fond du Lac Band that more human remains were found at a Duluth highway construction site. The agency apologized for disturbing the Native American burial site and stopped the project, WDIOTV reports.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The Mississippi Supreme Court says it’s OK for Justice Court Judge Gay Polk-Payton to call herself “Judge Cutie” on social media without ruffling the dignity of the legal profession.
MISSOURI Sunrise Beach: Bigger boats driving at higher speeds are causing rocky waters on the Lake of the Ozarks, The
Kansas City Star reports. Some landowners and business owners complain that large wakes repeatedly cause expensive damage to docks and the shoreline.
MONTANA Lakeside: The number of injuries from Saturday’s deck collapse at a Montana lodge has been lowered to 20. Authorities originally reported more than 25 injuries at Glacier Presbyterian Camp, where a secondstory deck collapsed Saturday during a memorial service.
NEBRASKA Peru: Nebraska’s first college is celebrating its 150th birthday. The Omaha
World-Herald reports that Peru State College kicked off a string of campus events with a weekend “All College Reunion” that brought back alumni from classes as far back as the 1940s.
NEVADA Yerington: The 19square-mile Walker River State Recreation Area is expected to soon be Nevada’s newest state park. The Interim Finance Committee will consider the request June 20.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: New Hampshire’s game agency issued 51 permits in its annual moose hunting lottery, out of 6,850 applications received. The hunt is set for Oct. 21-29.
NEW JERSEY Wall: The Wall Township school district will issue corrected yearbooks after photos of two high school students were altered to remove President Trump’s name on their clothing, the superintendent tells parents in a letter. The yearbook adviser was suspended with pay.
NEW MEXICO Grants: An inmate who is suing the prison system because she hasn’t been allowed to breast-feed her baby has secured a restraining order.
The Albuquerque Journal reported the lawsuit by Monique Hidalgo says orders from Hidalgo’s doctor say she should breast-feed her daughter to help her recover from being born addicted to opioids.
NEW YORK North Amityville: Long Island authorities say another church has been found vandalized with Satanic graffiti, taking the total up to four. Suffolk County police say the graffiti was found on the Prayer Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.
NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: A UNC Charlotte fraternity was suspended for four years because of hazing allegations, The Char
lotte Observer reports. Anonymous sources, but no students, alleged the hazing occurred at Sigma Phi Epsilon earlier this spring.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Legal questions are keeping state hemp producers from making one of the crop’s most desirable products, The Bismarck Tribune reports. Bottles of cannabidiol were seized from Watford City and Bismarck stores, and the owner faces felony charges.
OHIO Columbus: A report shows that the Ohio prison system overpaid $57,193 to its food service contractor. The Columbus
Dispatch reports that the excess payments to Aramark were due to an inflated inmate count at the London Correctional Institution.
OKLAHOMA Chickasha: The charred body of a Baptist minister was discovered next to his Oklahoma church. Chickasha police say the death of the Rev. Michael Dean Walworth is under investigation.
OREGON Salem: State officials say the number of untested rapes kits have quadrupled over the past two years despite efforts to process them faster. The States
man Journal reported half of the 2,800 untested rape kits sent to Utah last year have been processed, but that work was not enough to put the state on track. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Jessenia Cordero, who operated two tax preparation businesses, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for filing $4 million in fraudulent tax returns.
RHODE ISLAND Newport: The city picked a site for a planned monument memorializing Africans brought here to become slaves and those who died during the journey, The Newport Daily News reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The state’s two largest hospital systems are joining. Palmetto Health in Columbia and Greenville Health System will form a new organization Jan. 1 that will include 13 hospitals and 28,000 employees.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Game officials want to close hunting season on sage grouse after fewer male birds were seen dancing on their mating grounds this year, the Capital Journal reports.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that the State Fairgrounds is allowed to ban gun shows. The ruling backs up the position of city government over the Tennessee Firearms Association and International Gun-A-Rama.
TEXAS La Porte: The historic Battleship Texas reopened over the weekend after a week’s shutdown to repair leaks.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Mentally ill inmates may see a reduction in their wait time for treatment. The Disability Law Center and the state Department of Human Services settled a lawsuit that claimed that inmates waiting for an average of three to six months without treatment were denied speedy trials.
VERMONT St. Johnsbury: Workers doing excavation in front of a welcome center uncovered the gravestone of a woman who died in 1853, The Caledonian Record reports.
VIRGINIA Blacksburg: The Roanoke Times reported that the Town Council passed an ordinance to fine people $50 if they’re caught feeding deer. Law bans the practice during deer firearms and archery hunting seasons.
WASHINGTON Olympia: The Department of Natural Resources will assemble a panel of experts to help plan for state forests and the marbled murrelet, a seabird, said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Gov. Justice ordered the state Department of Commerce to remove its sponsorship of the Greenbrier Classic. Justice said he didn’t feel comfortable with the participation in the PGA Tour event because he owns the resort.
WISCONSIN Kenosha: A man was charged with attacking a stranger at a senior living facility, The Kenosha News reports.
WYOMING Laramie: Native American high school students attending a summer program at the University of Wyoming walked out of the college’s production of The Fantasticks because the musical includes material they found offensive.