STATE-BY-STATE DELAWARE KENTUCKY MICHIGAN MONTANA NEW HAMPSHIRE NORTH CAROLINA RHODE ISLAND VIRGINIA
ALABAMA Tuscumbia:
The Alabama Music Hall of Fame is getting a facelift. Officials say the Tuscumbia museum’s lobby will get an additional 50 to 60 seats to accommodate larger audiences for concerts, The TimesDaily reports.
ALASKA
Anchorage: An environmental activist wants the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider anchored rafts in the ocean as rest platforms for walruses because of diminished sea ice.
ARIZONA
Phoenix: The Arizona Supreme Court says a lesbian woman who is divorcing her spouse is entitled to parental rights under the U.S. Constitution even though a state law doesn’t recognize those rights. The ruling says U.S. Supreme Court precedent requires that same-sex couples be afforded the same “constellation of benefits” as straight couples.
ARKANSAS
Little Rock: An organization that runs four charter schools in New Orleans has been approved to operate a K-3 school in the Little Rock district.
CALIFORNIA
Sacramento: A big rig carrying 40,000 pounds of dog food overturned in North Sacramento, forcing multiple lanes of the Interstates 5 and 80 interchange to close while crews worked to remove the spilled kibble.
COLORADO
Lafayette: City officials are considering an ordinance to restrict restaurants from advertising sugary drinks to children, The Daily Times-Call reports. The idea is to limit beverage options to water, milk and other non-sugary drinks.
CONNECTICUT
Hartford: A judge is considering whether to dismiss a lawsuit against the state by the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. The tribe is seeking $610 million for land it says that Connecticut seized from 1801 to 1918.
Wilmington: A main sewer line in Delaware’s New Castle County needs $10 million in emergency repairs, The News Journal reports. The damaged main carries some 50 million gallons of waste every dry day to a sewage treatment plant. That climbs to about 150 million gallons on rainy days.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA:
Two people were hurt when they fell off an Interstate 295 overpass onto railroad tracks while being pursued in connection with an armed robbery. Railroad traffic was halted during their rescue.
FLORIDA
Escambia County officials say 33 babies died there last year before their first birthday. About a quarter of those deaths were related to unsafe sleep practices, The News Journal reports.
GEORGIA
Two state hospitals are collaborating on a clinical partnership to specialize in surgeries, The Telegraph reports.
HAWAII
The Island of Hawaii says countyowned gyms can’t host hula dancers overnight because of fire code violations, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. The practice was common during the weeklong Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo.
IDAHO Twin
Some rural Idaho school districts are hiring more unlicensed teachers to fill openings, The TimesNews reports. The Twin Falls School District hired 20 unlicensed educators this year.
ILLINOIS
A home where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debated in 1858 is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
INDIANA
A new Veterans Affairs Clinic opened here this week, the South Bend Tribune reports. The $38 million clinic was under construction for almost two years.
IOWA
A backlog at the state crime lab has put sexual assault cases in Iowa on the slow track, The Des Moines Register
reports. As of the end of August, 405 sexual assault cases were waiting for DNA testing.
KANSAS
Leavenworth: Local officials have backed away from offering revenue bonds for a planned Tyson Foods chickenprocessing plant, The Lawrence Journal-World reports. The decision comes after a town hall meeting persuaded officials to oppose the project.
Lexington: Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear got a first-hand look last week at the opioid epidemic. Beshear and two staffers stopped their car in Lexington to help a man suffering from a drug overdose. The man was revived with naloxone and taken to a hospital, The Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
LOUISIANA
One of Louisiana’s five ferries is closed for repairs, creating a 45-mile detour for drivers in Catahoula Parish. The ferry landing is about 65 miles from Alexandria.
MAINE
A weeklong Coastal Cleanup is underway in Maine. Last year, 1,186 volunteers collected 19,674 pounds of trash from 74.8 miles of state coastline.
MARYLAND
Residents living within a mile of a Baltimore chemical plant were told to stay indoors for about an hour and a half Monday after an acid spill caused a noxious cloud that eventually dissipated. There were no reported injuries.
MASSACHUSETTS
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is kicking off its performance season Friday with a tribute to conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. This season marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Bernstein, a Massachusetts native who died in 1990.
East Lansing: Michigan State University is using a $10 million federal grant to explore ways to boost the yield
of a biofuel crop to achieve environmental and agricultural benefits. Researchers say the crop doesn’t require as much water or fertilizer as food crops, or require special equipment to plant or harvest.
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis: A Minnesota artist has won this year’s federal duck stamp art contest. Bob Hautman, a winner twice previously, offered an acrylic painting of a pair of mallards. The stamp will go on sale next June.
MISSISSIPPI
Oxford: A pickup truck damaged a base extension of a Confederate memorial, but University of Mississippi campus police say it was apparently by accident. Authorities say the driver will be arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, The Daily Mississippian reports.
MISSOURI
Delta: Court records say a man charged with setting fire to a bar posted eight pictures of the blaze on Facebook. Kevin Coomer is charged with arson and burglary in the weekend fire that destroyed the Jax Bar and Grill in Delta.
Hamilton: The Bitterroot National Forest is seeking input on a plan that affects access, logging and prescribed burns near Darby, The Ravalli Republic reports. The project is expected to provide more than 5 million board feet of timber to Montana sawmills.
NEBRASKA
Hastings: A popular antique auto tour is in Nebraska this week, The Hastings Tribune reports. The 72nd Annual Revival AAA Glidden Tour features
130 vehicles, all made before
1943.
NEVADA
Las Vegas: Spring Valley Hospital moved eight patients that were under intensive care after their rooms became damaged by a broken sprinkler head, KSNV-TV reports.
Salem: Police used a stun gun twice on a woman who ignored commands to drop a hypodermic needle at an Interstate 93 rest area. Officers said the syringe was filled with a brown liquid.
NEW JERSEY Wantage:
Someone defaced the Airport Diner with anti-Semitic graffiti. Workers arriving Sunday found swastikas, “Heil Hitler” and “Kill Jews” written on the walls, the New Jersey Herald reports. One employee calls the vandalism “random acts of stupidity.”
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque: A new hotline in New Mexico assists Native American women who encounter domestic violence or sexual abuse. KRQE-TV reports that 56% of Native American women are physically abused by an intimate partner.
NEW YORK
Albany: A report from the Truth in Reporting fiscal watchdog group slams the state’s financial practices, giving New York a grade of “F.” The report faulted the state for its relatively high pension and health care obligations, as well as its high tax burden.
Buxton: A newly formed island off North Carolina’s Outer Banks is now connected to land, The VirginianPilot reports. Shelly Island connects at low tide to Cape Point, part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Shelly Island is about 27 acres and just short of a mile long.
NORTH DAKOTA Wahpeton:
The Chahinkapa Zoo has a new animal that’s considered spiritually significant in several Native American religions. The zoo acquired its white bison, named Ska, from a ranch in Selfridge. Ska is named for the Native American word for white, The Wahpeton Daily News reports.
OHIO Cincinnati:
A new gorilla is making himself at home at the Cincinnati Zoo. Mshindi, a western lowland silverback, is on loan from the Louisville Zoo. He’s the first gorilla added to the exhibit since last year’s death of Harambe.
OKLAHOMA
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says five people in a pickup truck were killed when the vehicle slammed through a guardrail and landed on its top in a creek. All of the victims, ages 18 and 19, died at the scene last weekend.
OREGON
The Coast Guard rescued two people aboard the 58-foot fishing vessel Car Tanya that began taking on water near Coos Bay. The boat eventually lost power and had to be towed.
PENNSYLVANIA
State police say three vehicles were hit with rocks thrown from overpasses along Interstate 78 last weekend. No one was injured, but windshields on a tractortrailer and two cars were damaged.
Gloucester: Authorities captured an alligator hanging out near the Holiday Acres Campground in Rhode Island, WJAR-TV reports. Investigators say it’s unclear how the alligator ended up in the Glocester community.
SOUTH CAROLINA Myrtle
An ex-city police officer filed a lawsuit saying he was passed over for a promotion because of his age and then replaced by the boyfriend of a Myrtle Beach official, The Sun News reports.
SOUTH DAKOTA
The city’s new $8 million public library opened this week, The American News reports. The K.O. Lee Aberdeen Public Library features separate spaces for youth, adult and children’s books. It also has The A Place, a special section dedicated to helping newcomers.
TENNESSEE
More than a week after an explosion at a Tennessee chemical plant, hydrochloric acid is still leaking from the building. The Times Free Press reports that workers have been unable to enter the building for cleanup.
TEXAS
More than 3,000 Texas prison inmates bused from Houston-area units to escape Hurricane Harvey flooding have been returned to their original lockups. The moves were completed last weekend.
UTAH
The Utah Board of Education will hear public feedback Wednesday about a plan to no longer require middle school students to take gym, music and the arts, health, digital literacy and college and career readiness. But schools would have to offer the classes as electives, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
VERMONT Montpelier:
Vermont’s health care regulator has approved fiscal year budgets for the state’s 14 hospitals, The Rutland Herald reports. Systemwide, the increases are about 3%. Rising costs stem from expensive procedures like orthopedic surgery and treatment for mental health and patients addicted to opiates.
Norfolk: The Navy plans to use Xbox 360 controllers to operate periscopes on newer submarines, The Virginian-Pilot reports. Officials say the Xbox devices are more familiar to younger sailors than a standard helicopter-type stick, require less training, and at $30 each are cheaper than a $38,000 hand grip.
WASHINGTON Seattle:
A lawsuit is challenging a U.S. Forest Service decision to let the Navy use Olympic National Forest for electronic-warfare training exercises. The suit says the Forest Service failed to consider whether the required Navy transmitters could be parked on private land instead.
WEST VIRGINIA
Auditors say West Virginia’s Board of Funeral Service Examiners should be disbanded for failing to protect the public. But the head of the board says they’re advised to not take disciplinary action without a complaint and wait for criminal convictions before acting.
WISCONSIN Madison:
A law enforcement memorial in Madison was vandalized last weekend. Officials said the memorial outside the state Capitol was spraypainted with a reference to a Missouri black man who was shot by a white police officer acquitted in the death, WISC-TV reports.
WYOMING Laramie:
City officials have met with University of Wyoming trustees on the possibility of closing the stretch of 15th Street running through the campus. The Laramie Boomerang reports that trustees and Mayor Andi Summerville agree that starting such a project will likely take longer that the Nov. 1 deadline set by lawmakers.