News from across the USA

ALABAMA Athens: Authorities say a man whacked his twin brother with an aluminum baseball bat because he didn’t want to share tacos, The News Courier reports. Limestone County deputies arrested Tyler Dukes on a domestic violence charge.

ALASKA Juneau: Two people in Alaska were arrested in an investigation of a suspicious package mailed to their address from California, The Juneau Empire report. Postal authorities say the package sent to “Rosetta Stone” contained a coffee canister filled with pills.

ARIZONA Taylor: Fleas that tested positive for plague have been found in two Arizona counties, Navajo and Coconino, in two weeks. Officials are monitoring rodent burrows and prairie dog habitat.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: State lawmakers are considering whether police should be required to report encounters at restaurants, bars and nightclubs to Arkansas alcohol regulators, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The review comes after a July 1 shooting in Little Rock that left 28 people injured.

CALIFORNIA Alturas: Eight firefighters are recovering from injuries sustained when their truck rolled over en route to battling an 8,000-acre wildfire in the Modoc National Forest.

COLORADO Grand Junction: A cottonwood tree that provided shade for Colorado’s Ute tribes before white settlers arrived has grown rotten and unstable. The tree will be trimmed, and the remaining trunk will be carved into a memorial, The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel reports.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: The birthplace of abolitionist writer Harriet Beecher Stowe is for sale on eBay. The Connecticut building was disassembled in 1997 by a buyer who planned to turn it into a museum. But those plans never came to fruition.

DELAWARE Dover: A judge has invalidated the Sussex County Council’s vote to deny a rezoning application for construction of the Overbrook Town Center, saying one councilman failed to state the reason for his “no” vote and the other gave an arbitrary reason.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Riders of a Metro train that filled with smoke can’t sue the District of Columbia, a judge ruled. The lawsuit alleged that the city was negligent because first responders didn’t evacuate the train quickly enough.

FLORIDA Fort Lauderdale: Officials say three flight attendants became ill last week on a plane headed to Barbados, causing it to return to Fort Lauderdale. The Sun Sentinel reports that the Jet Blue flight was evacuated and paramedics were called. No passengers became ill.

GEORGIA Atlanta: State employees and teachers in Georgia will see an average increase of nearly 4% in health insurance premiums next year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

HAWAII Honolulu: The $200 million estate of a 91-year-old descendant of Hawaiian royalty is the subject of a legal dispute between her lawyer and her longtime partner. Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa suffered a stroke in June.

IDAHO Caldwell: A World War II fighter plane that spent 60 years at the bottom of an Austrian lake has been restored. The Dottie Mae, a P-47 Thunderbolt, will be unveiled and flown Aug. 26-27 at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, The Idaho Press-Tribune reports.

ILLINOIS Round Lake: Residents of this Chicago suburb are donating books to the local school district after it lost two libraries in a summer flood. The Round Lake Area School District said it has received at least 100,000 books so far to stock new libraries.

INDIANA Jeffersonville: Clark County is extending its needle exchange program aimed at curbing the spread of hepatitis C and HIV among intravenous drug users, The News and Tribune reports.

IOWA Des Moines: A woman was sentenced to five months in prison for embezzling thousands of dollars while working as a cash vault teller for Bankers Trust. KCCI reports that Lacey Nicolino also was ordered to pay nearly $70,000 in restitution.

KANSAS El Dorado: Officials are looking for suspects in an unusual vandalism case at the city’s pool. El Dorado police say the water was dyed a reddishpurple color, forcing officials to close the pool two days. A note left behind said the dye wasn’t toxic, wouldn’t stain and should eventually filter out.

KENTUCKY Louisville: Police say a K-9 is recovering after being exposed to heroin while searching a Louisville home. Metro police say the dog, Josie, was taken to a hospital after coming in contact with the drug.

LOUISIANA Minden: The sevenyear freeze is over in Louisiana’s Webster Parish schools — pay freeze, that is. KTBS-TV reports that the school board voted last week to give teachers raises with a projected $1.5 million surplus.

MAINE Augusta: Ethics commissioners trying to figure out the source of a $4.2 million campaign to build a Maine casino say the people behind the effort can only withhold certain documents. Maine voters are set to consider a November ballot question on building the York County casino.

MARYLAND Sharpsburg: A group of Maryland kayak activists took to the Potomac River last week to protest a proposed 3.5-mile natural gas pipeline that would cross underneath the waterway, The Baltimore Sun reports.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Police recovered a handgun that was reported stolen in 1981. Officers found the long-barreled pistol in a backpack that was dropped by a man who jumped out of a slow-moving car. The man escaped.

MICHIGAN Sault Ste. Marie: A 629-foot Great Lakes freighter, the Calumet, ran aground in the St. Marys River. No injuries were reported.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: The biggest mall in the United States celebrated its 25th anniversary last week. The Mall of America in Bloomington marked the special day Friday, the Star Tribune reported.

MISSISSIPPI Horn Lake: Some car thieves have luxury tastes. Police in Mississippi’s Horn Lake say six Mercedes-Benz vehicles were taken from a car lot last week. Four were recovered.

MISSOURI St. Louis: The mother of former St. Louis police chief Sam Dotson is accused of embezzling a real estate company. A federal grand jury indicted Carol Dotson with one count of wire fraud, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

MONTANA Helena: The Montana Health Co-op resumed accepting new enrollees Sunday after withdrawing from the health exchange last year amid worries about its financial condition.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: The Nebraska agency that awards grants for environmental projects has logged another uptick in applications, and the executive director expects to see more as federal and private grants shrink.

NEVADA Reno: State wildlife officials were unable find signs of a mountain lion that was spotted at three locations in Reno last week, the Reno Gazette-Journal reports.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Exeter: A hospital emergency department was evacuated Friday because of an odor that caused some workers to complain of dizziness and nausea. Nineteen Exeter Hospital staff members were treated.

NEW JERSEY Butler: Mourners at New Jersey’s Mount Holiness Memorial Park cemetery were startled when a corpse’s rotting foot from an adjoining grave was uncovered last week during the burial of a New York man, The Daily News reports.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: More than $200,000 worth of items went missing or were stolen from Albuquerque schools during the past year, the Albuquerque Journal reports. The items range from a small refrigerator and orange construction cones to trash bags, basketball shoes and a case of turkey pepperoni.

NEW YORK Albany: A Saratoga Springs couple is learning to care for three newborns at once after giving birth to a rare set of identical triplets who were conceived without fertility drugs. The boys were delivered by cesarean section two months early at Albany Medical Center. All are healthy.

NORTH CAROLINA Thomasville: A 9-year-old North Carolina boy is credited with saving his family from a house fire. Authorities say Levi Harris woke up four other people at their Thomasville home, and all of them escaped. The home was a total loss.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Six groups have formed an alliance to move North Dakota’s livestock industry forward. The groups representing the pork, dairy, corn, soybean and ethanol industries. Officials say they’ll promote responsible livestock operations, not try to push large confined animal feeding operations.

OHIO Lorain: A police union filed a grievance over conditions at the Lorain police station. The union tells the Morning Journal that the stench of raw sewage makes some officers feel ill.

OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A former Oklahoma police officer facing a fourth trial in the fatal shooting of his daughter’s black boyfriend says state prosecutors don’t have standing to try him because he’s a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Shannon Kepler also notes that the shooting occurred in tribal territory, The Tulsa World reports.

OREGON Eugene: An Oregon huckleberry picker who went missing last week was found three days later, safe but hungry. Linn County authorities say it’s not clear how the 70-year-old man survived because he couldn’t fully remember everything that happened. He declined medical treatment.

PENNSYLVANIA Wilkes-Barre: The curtain is closing on the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic. The orchestra has canceled the upcoming season because of financial problems. It will play one concert in October.

RHODE ISLAND Westerly: Beachgoers are puzzled about an object lodged about 10 feet underwater just off Westerly’s East Beach. The circular object has stainless steel legs and is capped with concrete, The Westerly Sun reports. It was first seen last summer but couldn’t be found on follow-up attempts.

SOUTH CAROLINA Anderson: Authorities say a man who tried to retrieve his cellphone from his burning South Carolina mobile home died in the blaze. Two women who escaped stayed out where it was safe. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The city school system is making progress in teacher diversity, The Argus Leader reports. Sioux Falls schools have raised the total of non-white teachers to almost 70 with new hires this summer. White students make up less than two-thirds of the district’s enrollment, but 98% of teachers are white.

TENNESSEE Kingsport: The cost of repairing the 65-year-old Boone Dam has risen by nearly 50% from what the Tennessee Valley Authority originally estimated, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. TVA now estimates it will cost $450 million and take another five years to fix seepage problems at the dam.

TEXAS Waco: Authorities are investigating vandalism at a predominantly African-American church near Waco. Ketchup and mustard were used to write “Satan” and “Trump” on the fellowship hall floor of Willow Grove Baptist Church, in addition to the drawing of a swastika, The Waco Tribune-Herald reports.

UTAH Spanish Fork: Seven kittens that got stuck in a construction tractor were rescued after a landscaping worker heard their meows. The kittens were placed with the Utah cat rescue organization Ashley Valley Community Cats. They’re being treated for upper respiratory infections.

VERMONT Bellows Falls: This Vermont village has eliminated its four full-time firefighters from its budget, The Brattleboro Reformer reports. The municipal manager says the fire and police departments make up about 89% of the village budget.

VIRGINIA Portsmouth: A program to trim grass at the Craney Island landfill using 10 goats and 10 sheep has ended after many of the animals likely died, The Virginian-Pilot reports. Sixteen goats and sheep have vanished from the Portsmouth facility, and officials say they were likely killed by coyotes or other wildlife.

WASHINGTON Olympia: Grants totaling $2.5 million were awarded to prevent sewage pollution. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grants will focus on coastal and inland locations in Washington where recreational boaters and other vessels pump out sewage.

WEST VIRGINIA Phillippi: Authorities are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged a mid-19th century West Virginia wooden bridge, The Exponent Telegram reports. The Carrollton Covered Bridge completed in 1855 was closed.

WISCONSIN Kenosha: A movie crew spent several months in Wisconsin making an independent film about human trafficking, The Kenosha News reports. The movie focuses on a safe house for victims, a missing girl and a sex-trafficking ring.

WYOMING Casper: Better late than never. July 22 was National Day of the American Cowboy. But the U.S. Senate didn’t pass the resolution until earlier this month because of the flap over health care. Former Wyoming senator Craig Thomas first established the special day in 2005, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.