News from across the USA
ALABAMA Mobile: The City Council will begin the new fiscal year Sunday without a budget in place. Members were unable to come to an agreement Tuesday and delayed a vote until Oct. 10.
ALASKA Ketchikan: The city has welcomed more than 1 million cruise ship visitors in a season for the first time. The millionth visitor was given a custom sash, the Ketchikan Daily News reported.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Former U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick says she will donate about $16,200 in campaign contributions linked to Backpage.com to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. The move comes months after other Arizona Democrats unloaded contributions linked to the site, which has been accused of knowingly accepting ads offering sex with underage girls.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: A federal judge has blocked a state anti-loitering law that opponents say unfairly targets panhandlers, calling it “plainly unconstitutional.”
CALIFORNIA San Bruno: Two people were charged after breaking into an apartment, pepperspraying a resident and stealing a cat. Police says the suspects knew the victim and there was a dispute over who owned the cat.
COLORADO Boulder: The U.S. Department of Education has closed its Title IX investigation of the University of Colorado’s handling of a 2013 sexual misconduct case without sanctioning the school, campus officials say.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Hartford’s bond rating for the second time in two weeks, from B- to CC. The Hartford Courant reports that Standard & Poor’s issued a stark report saying “a default, a distressed exchange, or redemption appears to be a virtual certainty.”
DELAWARE Wilmington: Delaware had some of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases in the country in 2016, a study says. The state ranked No. 8 per capita in chlamydia cases and No. 10 in cases of gonorrhea, The News Journal reports.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Ten Confederate flag posters, each with a stalk of cotton attached, were found in four buildings on the American University campus, university President Sylvia Burwell says. The university has released a photo of a suspect, WTOP radio reports.
FLORIDA Ocala: A deputy’s nephew is facing felony charges after authorities say he stole his uncle’s uniform, equipment and patrol car. The Ocala Star-Banner reports that Isael Ibrain Lima, 18, was being held on $33,000 bail.
GEORGIA Stone Mountain:
Police say a newlywed was shot and killed and his husband was tied up after confronting the gunmen during a home invasion. The burglars ransacked the home for more than 90 minutes, taking several televisions.
HAWAII Wailuku: A 55-year-old Molokai man accused of hiding a methamphetamine pipe in his infant son’s diaper while police searched his home has been sentenced to a year in jail, The Maui News reported.
IDAHO Boise: Although Idaho wheat production is down 9% from last year and 5% from the five-year average, growers and industry leaders are reporting excellent overall quality.
ILLINOIS Waukegan: Two suburban Chicago teens were arrested after allegedly crashing a stolen car into a pond and using a stolen credit card to buy dry clothes, authorities say. They were changing in a Walmart
restroom when arrested.
INDIANA Kokomo: Authorities say nine police officers were treated at a hospital after being exposed to an unknown chemical while conducting a drug investigation.
They reported a burning sensation on the skin and shortness of breath. Three others at the house also were treated.
IOWA Clive: The
Iowa Lottery says the Social Security numbers of
2,967 lottery winners were inadvertently posted to a website for about 10 days this month. The information was in data spreadsheets sent to a journalist as part of an open records request.
KANSAS Salina: Saline County commissioners are supporting an effort to bring a $300 million Tyson chicken plant to Cloud County and Concordia.
KENTUCKY Louisville: An investor in the restoration of boxer Muhammad Ali’s boyhood home says he may soon pack up the house and move it to Philadelphia, or possibly Las Vegas, although he hopes to keep it in Louisville, the Courier-Journal reports.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A federal lawsuit accuses state prison officials of violating the rights of penitentiary prisoners by banning them from talking about their crime in interviews. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit Tuesday.
MAINE Augusta: Republican Gov. Paul LePage has sent a letter to county sheriffs directing them to cooperate with federal immigration officials. LePage threatened to remove sheriffs who don’t comply with federal detention requests to hold individuals up to 48 hours.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A massive “fatberg ” made up of congealed fat, wet wipes and other waste has been named as the culprit in a sewer overflow in Baltimore last week.
MASSACHUSETTS Framingham: State police say their crime lab this year has identified a dozen samples of carfentanil, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid sometimes used to sedate elephants, in Boston, Brockton and other communities. Col. Richard McKeon says the lab has detected the powerful opioid fentanyl in 2,300 samples.
MICHIGAN Sterling Heights: Firefighters used cutting tools to free three children, ages 3 and 4, who accidentally locked themselves inside a gun safe Sunday at a suburban Detroit home. MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A Lansing, Mich., man who was a guest at an Airbnb in suburban Minneapolis is accused of trying to sexually assault the host’s 7-yearold daughter. Derrick Kinchen, 28, was charged Tuesday with second-degree criminal sexual conduct. Airbnb says it is has banned Kinchen.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The numbers of Mississippi public school students taking and passing Advanced Placement exams both rose more than 10% in 2016-17, the state Department of Education says.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: State Democrats want to expand who’s eligible for Medicaid and allow people to buy into Medicaid at actual cost. The plan includes requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose price hikes and banning drug companies from giving gifts to doctors.
MONTANA Billings: MontanaDakota Utilities is asking state regulators to let it raise natural gas prices for more than 84,000 customers in the state. The requested hike would increase an average residential customer’s bill by about $30 a year.
NEBRASKA Omaha: The former CEO of Goodwill Omaha who was forced out in a salary scandal says in a lawsuit that the charity owes him more than $1 million.
NEVADA Carson City: The Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners has permanently banned the commercial collection of reptiles in the state.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Pinkham
Notch: Recent hot weather has reached Mount Washington, which experienced three consecutive days of record-high temperatures. It reached 67 degrees Tuesday, the warmest Sept. 26 on record and eight degrees above the previous high, set in 1961.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Termlimited Gov. Chris Christie says he has ordered his Cabinet to begin planning for a “helpful” transition to his successor. Christie leaves office in January.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Xcel is seeking approval for two new wind farms in Roosevelt County in New Mexico and Texas’ Hale County. If approved, they would meet about 40% of the region’s annual needs by 2021, company officials say.
NEW YORK Albany: A state lawmaker has proposed requiring state institutions for the disabled to publish report cards on the number of cases of abuse and neglect after a disabled man was infested with maggots in a state group home last year
NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: A citizens’ review board has ruled 7-1 against the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in response to an allegation of excessive force in which an officer threatened to kill a man. It was the board’s first ruling against the department in its 20-year history, The Charlotte Observer reports.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: State Department of Health records show North Dakota had a pregnancy smoking rate of 11.6% in 2016. That’s down from 13.8% in 2015 but well above the national rate of 8.4%.
OHIO Cleveland: The City Council has approved spending $200,000 to scrap pay phones that have fallen into disuse. Cleveland.com reports that many of the city’s estimated 1,700 outdoor pay phones don’t work. A city official says some are covered with so much vandalism it’s difficult to know who owns them.
OKLAHOMA Norman: A psychiatrist has testified that a man charged with beheading a coworker was insane at the time of the attack. Alton Nolen, 33, is on trial for first-degree murder and five counts of assault for the Sept. 25, 2014, attack at Vaughan Foods in Moore that killed Colleen Hufford, 54, and the attempted beheading of another co-worker.
OREGON Bend: A lobbying group and two hotels are suing the city, claiming it violated state law by using about $350,000 earmarked for tourism marketing on street repair.
PENNSYLVANIA Charleroi:
Federal prosecutors say former attorney Keith Bassi stole nearly $624,000 from a client with dementia and put about $110,000 of it into the Mon Valley Independent, a newspaper he and other businessmen bought last year. Bassi is charged with mail fraud.
RHODE ISLAND Providence:
State taxpayers who pay their back taxes will see penalties waived and interest cut 25% under a tax amnesty program that starts in December.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville:
The Palmetto Restaurant and Ale House in Greenville says it will not show NFL games on its televisions until all players stand for the national anthem.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A federal judge who sentenced a former state’s attorney to serve 12 months in prison, but only on weekends, for tax evasion has stayed the execution of the unusual sentence until it can be determined whether it violates Federal Bureau of Prisons rules.
TENNESSEE Chattanooga: Police were searching for a woman who threw an unidentified liquid Tuesday, injuring five Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority employees and sending one — the apparent target — to a hospital with severe burns.
TEXAS Houston: About 6,000 women and several hundred minors have filed a class action lawsuit against current and former Houston officials alleging that a delay in testing thousands of rape kits allowed perpetrators to remain free and denied justice for victims.
UTAH Salt Lake City: Layton High School in Davis County has closed its bat-infested auditorium and removed about 800 of the animals. District spokesman Chris Williams says it’s estimated there are more than 1,000 bats.
VERMONT Montpelier: The owner of the former Brown Derby restaurant, which has been closed for years, has agreed to tear it down and avoid fines. WCAX-TV reports it was the driving force behind a new city ordinance that aimed to allow the city to fine owners of blighted properties.
VIRGINIA Charlottesville: City police spent nearly $70,000 on security for a white nationalist rally that left one person dead and dozens injured. The costs do not include approximately 600 Virginia State Police personnel who also responded.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A Seattle man paid nearly $500,000 by the state and freed after serving
10 years for a robbery he didn’t commit has been sentenced to
3½ years in prison. Brandon Olebar, 34, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and being a felon with a firearm, The Seattle Times reported.
WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: A lawsuit alleging that former Huntington police Officer Joshua Nield used excessive force and caused the 2014 death of 66-yearold Annie Earle has been settled for an undisclosed amount.
WISCONSIN Madison: Student test results held steady in 2016. Less than half of state public and private school students scored as proficient or advanced in English language arts, math, social studies and science.
WYOMING Laramie: University of Wyoming officials say they have lost 86 faculty members in the past academic year, four times more than in a typical year.