State by state:
News from around the nation
ALABAMA Helena: Alabama authorities say traces of meth found on a child’s lunch money at school led to a woman’s arrest. A cafeteria cashier noticed a powdery residue on the bills and told a school resource officer.
ALASKA Juneau: A proposed ballot initiative would cut off a daily allowance for Alaska legislators if they’re late in passing a state budget and would restrict their foreign travel. Alaskans for Integrity is pushing the proposal, which also addresses conflicts of interest and gifts from lobbyists.
ARIZONA Phoenix: A court ruling overturned the Federal Aviation Administration’s 2014 order that set new flight paths and procedures for aircraft departing Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: Gibbs Magnet Elementary School canceled an Arkansas congressman’s visit after learning that some parents planned to protest, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
CALIFORNIA San Diego: San Diego State University plans to offer a course called “Black Minds Matter,” inspired in part by the Black Lives Matter movement. But a Sacramento-area school board member and gun rights advocate wants it cancelled.
COLORADO Thornton: A dinosaur fossil was discovered in Colorado by construction workers. The bones and skull of a triceratops were found last week where a new public safety building is being built.
CONNECTICUT Tolland: Police say two men used a baseball bat they stole from one home to break into another home and steal part of a wedding cake from a freezer.
DELAWARE Rehoboth: Delaware State Police are looking for a man who robbed the Leather Central sex shop in Rehoboth at gunpoint. Troopers say the suspect brandished a handgun, demanded cash from a clerk and fled when the clerk complied.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Police are looking for a woman who dumped a cup of urine on a bus driver. District of Columbia Metro Transit police say surveillance video shows the woman throwing the cup at the driver before getting off the bus and running away.
FLORIDA Jacksonville: The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has announced the additions of two chicks and three adults to its Magellanic penguin group, The Florida Times-Union reports.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Federal prosecutors say 16 postal workers in the Atlanta area are charged with accepting bribes to deliver cocaine. Authorities say the operation was actually a sting: the supposed trafficker was working with law enforcement and the packages had fake drugs.
HAWAII Hilo: The Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden has long served as a living museum of Hawaii’s indigenous plants. The Hawaii TribuneHerald reports that the garden remains closed to the public as it awaits a buyer.
IDAHO Boise: A toxic landscaping plant blamed for more than 100 wildlife deaths in the past two winters will remain legal for Idaho homeowners. State officials considered a proposed rule banning certain species of yew plants as noxious weeds but declined to create a rule for lawmakers to review.
ILLINOIS Rockford: City Council approval is being sought to tear down 29 vacant and abandoned houses, The Rockford Register Star reports.
INDIANA Bloomington: Officials plan to lower the water level in Lake Lemon near Bloomington for repairs on an aging railroad trestle. Water will be released starting Sept. 5, The (Bloomington) Herald-Times reports. IOWA Waterloo: The City Council has eased procedures for people who want to keep chickens and other traditional farm animals in their backyards, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports.
KANSAS Wichita: A Wichita mother is hoping someone will return a bag with medical equipment designed especially for her toddler daughter, who has Moebius Syndrome. Rachel Butler says someone broke into her car last weekend, KAKE-TV reports.
KENTUCKY Burlington: Officials in Boone and Kenton counties have voted to hire attorneys to file lawsuits against wholesale drug distributors to help pay for the costs of combating the opioid epidemic. Campbell County’s judge-executive says officials there will consider taking similar action.
LOUISIANA Covington: Authorities have accused a Ponchatoula man of sexually abusing five juveniles between 2012 and 2016 in a New Orleans suburb. Ross Patrick Bernard was indicted last week.
MAINE Cape Neddick: A plane crash reported in the waters off Maine wasn’t a crash at all. A California-based airplane manufacturer said one of its amphibious aircraft landed in the water and was lifted by crane onto a yacht — all by design.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The Maryland attorney general’s office has cleared the way for public financing of candidates on a county-by-county basis, The Washington Post reports. MASSACHUSETTS Peabody: Police say a man was crushed to death by falling boulders while working in his backyard. A retaining wall gave way, causing the large rocks to fall on top of the victim.
MICHIGAN Battle Creek: A woman who began panhandling to raise $24,000 for her daughter to attend Michigan State University is calling it quits after raising less than half of her goal. But Lori Truex tells the Battle Creek Enquirer that she raised more than $10,000, and grants, scholarships and loans will help make up the difference. MINNESOTA St. Paul: State conservation officials have expanded a ban on feeding deer after finding multiple captive deer infected with chronic wasting disease, Minnesota Public Radio reports. MISSISSIPPI Monticello: Lake Mary Crawford has been drained so workers can repair fishing piers, boat ramps and other structures. After the work is finished, the lake near Monticello will be refilled and stocked with bass, bream, crappie, and catfish.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Both of Missouri’s urban mayors support letting voters decide if the minimum wage should rise to $12 an hour by 2023. The petition drive for the “Raise Up Missouri” ballot initiative needs 100,000 signatures by May.
MONTANA Helena: Montana lacks a policy requiring state workers to keep text messages they send or receive for official business. That omission was exposed after Gov. Steve Bullock’s office released his text messages concerning budget negotiations, but none of his budget director’s.
NEBRASKA Omaha: In a 2-1 decision, a federal appeals panel sided with Lincoln in the case of a man who was convicted of trespassing for handing out religious leaflets outside the Pinnacle Bank Arena entrance. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said the restrictions were reasonable.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A longmothballed, unfinished casinohotel on the Las Vegas Strip has been sold for $600 million. Property records show that a New York-based real estate company bought the Fontainebleau Las Vegas this week.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Manchester:
A man fell through the ceiling during a failed burglary attempt at a New Hampshire pizza restaurant. Police in Manchester say a worker heard a loud commotion last weekend and went into the bathroom, where he found the suspect on the floor covered in ceiling tiles and debris.
NEW JERSEY Princeton: Princeton University says an out-ofuniform police officer with a holstered gun prompted a warning Tuesday about an armed man
on campus. Officials learned within minutes, however, that the officer was escorting a tour group.
NEW MEXICO Grants: The Cibola County Board of Commissioners has voted to lay off a handful of county employees and take other belt-tightening steps to address a $440,000 budget shortfall, The Gallup Independent reports. NEW YORK New York: Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’ll “definitely” march in New York City’s Columbus Day Parade despite a controversy over statues of the explorer. De Blasio says the Oct. 9 parade is an opportunity to express pride in Italian heritage and contributions, the Daily News reports.
NORTH CAROLINA Durham: The arrest tally of suspects in the Aug. 14 toppling of a Confederate statue in Durham County has climbed to 11.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The North Dakota Wheat Commission is hosting baking company executives from Japan. The commission says one goal is to boost customer relations. Japan imports about 185 million bushels of wheat a year, with just over half from the U.S.
OHIO Toledo: The Toledo Zoo is mourning the death of a 45-yearold orangutan that enjoyed interacting with children and, during private time, watching recordings of football and The Price Is Right. The Blade reports that J.J., who had heart disease, was the oldest male orangutan in captivity in North America.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A former senior airman suspected of setting off a pipe bomb outside an Air Force recruiting office has been declared mentally incompetent for trial. A judge ordered Benjamin Roden committed to a federal mental facility for evaluation. OREGON Salem: An 8,400square-foot ice skating rink is coming to Salem in the fall, The Statesman Journal reports. Salem on Ice LLC’s rink will have a capacity of 160 people per session.
PENNSYLVANIA Tannersville: Police say two women dressed as nuns tried to rob a bank in the Poconos. But they left without taking anything. The FBI is investigating.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Holocaust survivors gathered in Providence for a memorial ceremony on Monday. Speakers at the Rhode Island Holocaust Memorial, including Gov. Gina Raimondo, urged people to never forget the evils of bigotry and hate.
SOUTH CAROLINA Tega Cay: A couple was arrested last weekend after playing around on a golf course, instead of playing a round, The Herald reports. Officials say one witness thought he was seeing a medical situation on the eighth fairway until his binoculars revealed that the two were having sex. They’re charged with indecent exposure.
SOUTH DAKOTA Baltic: Authorities are investigating credit card skimmers found at two local gas stations, the Argus Leader reports. The skimmers were found after the Minnehaha County sheriff ’s office received several reports of fraudulent credit card use.
TENNESSEE Nashville: The State Capitol Commission will meet Friday to consider Gov. Bill Haslam’s request to remove a bust of Confederate cavalry general and early Ku Klux Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest from the building.
TEXAS Dallas: Six high school students from Sendai, Japan, spent a week exploring the Dallas area, checking out City Hall and the Fort Worth Stockyards, among other places. The trip was organized by the Japan-American Society of Dallas-Fort Worth as part of a young ambassadors exchange program, The Dallas Morning News reports.
UTAH Taylorsville: A battery in a small electronic device ignited Tuesday in a student’s backpack at Taylorsville High School, leaving two students with minor chemical burns on their arms and one with smoke inhalation, KSLTV reports.
VERMONT New Haven: The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is surgically implanting radio transmitters in two Eastern Ratsnakes to learn more about the threatened species. The researchers hope the snakes will lead the team to their communal den site.
VIRGINIA Norfolk: The largest container ship ever to reach the United States has docked in Virginia. The French-owned CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Norfolk this week from Asia.
WASHINGTON Pullman: Police at Washington State University arrested a student in connection with a series of bomb threats. Campus police say 18-year-old Jose Andres Tecuatl was a resident adviser at Stimson Hall. WEST VIRGINIA Huntington:
The state ACLU chapter is raising concern about a proposed Huntington ordinance that targets property owners for repeated illegal acts on their premises, The Herald-Dispatch reports.
WISCONSIN Madison: A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld the state’s ban on joint ownership of cemeteries and funeral homes. Highland Memorial Park argues that the joint ownership ban is unconstitutional. WYOMING Yellowstone Na
tional Park: People who want to snowmobile in Yellowstone National Park next winter without a guide can enter a lottery starting Friday. The park requires all non-commercially-guided snowmobile groups to have a permit.