STATE-BY-STATE

News from across the USA

ALABAMA Decatur: Authorities say a man accused of trying to hire hit men to have two people kidnapped faces charges of conspiracy and human trafficking. Brian David Boersma, 48, was arrested in a sting conducted by Decatur officers and the FBI.

ALASKA Bethel: Tununak Airport shut down last week because its runway was buckling from changes in the area’s permafrost. Tununak, like most Alaska communities, relies on air travel for many goods and services.

ARIZONA Phoenix: The only rest area along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson is about to close for a $4 million renovation. The project is expected to last six months.

ARKANSAS Van Buren: A man who spent 16 years in prison before his case was dismissed is now free, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. Rickey Dale Newman spent about a dozen years on death row before court rulings barred prosecutors from using incriminating statements he made in a police interview.

CALIFORNIA Sacramento: California has become the first state to ban the sale of animals from puppy mills. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law requiring pet stores to work with animal shelters or rescue operations if they want to sell dogs, cats or rabbits.

COLORADO Denver: Colorado’s ski season is off to an early start with the opening last week of the Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.

CONNECTICUT New London: A man says a lion statue weighing at least 200 pounds was stolen from outside his New London home. Bob Paolino tells The Day that he was shocked to find the statue missing while watering flowers last week.

DELAWARE Wilmington: A former oil recycling company manager was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for environmental crimes. Lance Charen pleaded guilty in June to transporting hazardous waste without a manifest.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A suburban Washington man was sentenced to two years in prison for obstructing justice and making false statements involving international terrorism. Authorities said Michael Queen lied to FBI agents who were investigating one of his friends trying to join the Islamic State.

FLORIDA Boca Raton: Gov. Rick Scott wants to set aside another $1 million to beef up security at Jewish day schools around Florida. Scott says he’ll seek such things as video cameras, fences, bullet-proof glass and alarm systems in response to bomb threats against Jewish community centers and schools.

GEORGIA Snellville: The mayor of the Atlanta suburb of Snellville has been suspended from office by Gov. Nathan Deal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Tom Witts faces more than 60 felony charges, including using campaign funds to purchase a Caribbean cruise.

HAWAII Kailua- Kona: Aerospace experts have their eyes on the Big Island as the potential home of an international moon base prototype, West Hawaii Today reports. The island is being considered because its terrain mimics the moon’s surface.

IDAHO Boise: The family of a rancher who was fatally shot by two deputies have filed a wrongful death lawsuit. Jack Yantis was killed two years ago after one of his bulls was hit by a car and charged emergency highway crews. Yantis arrived with a rifle just as deputies decided to put down the animal and an alterca-

tion ensued.

ILLINOIS Dixon: A documentary detailing former bookkeeper Rita Crundwell’s theft of nearly $54 million from the city will be shown Oct. 28-29 at the historic Dixon Theatre, The Dixon Telegraph reports. Crundwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

INDIANA Indianapolis: A state lawmaker says a mistake in a bill he authored prohibits hunters from using any kind of rifle to hunt deer on public property. Hunting on private grounds isn’t affected.

IOWA Des Moines: The Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office is performing more autopsies with fewer staffers amid state funding cuts, causing delays in bodies being returned to families. The situation may put the office’s national accreditation at risk, The Des Moines Register reports.

KANSAS Topeka: Lawmakers are raising concern that foster children are suffering from a reduction in psychiatric residential treatment facilities and getting shorter stays. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the number of facilities dropped from 17 to 8 from 2011 to this August.

KENTUCKY Louisville: The acting superintendent of the Jefferson County school district says all teachers and employees mentioned in a report alleging abuse and neglect of preschoolers have been fired, The Courier-Journal reports. Seven Head Start employees have been let go since August.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: A plan that would give New Orleans police officers pay raises between 5% and 19% depending on rank awaits passage by the City Council, The Advocate reports. The package would cost the city $9.2 million a year.

MAINE Portland: A marine fisheries board recommends that Maine’s quota in the lucrative baby eel fishery stay the same for the coming year. The baby eels are sold to Asian aquaculture companies and raised to maturity for use as food.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Police are investigating cases of antiSemitic graffiti at University of Maryland campuses in Baltimore County and College Park. The graffiti includes carved swastikas.

MASSACHUSETTS Lakeville: A man who’s charged with killing a neighbor’s dog says he shot the golden retriever in self defense. Mark Vasseur says he acted after Krissy Dashner and Pat Bates’ dog growled and was going after his chickens.

MICHIGAN Ostego: The Environmental Protection Agency has signed off on a five-year, $46 million plan to clean up a stretch of the Kalamazoo River that’s contaminated from past paper production.

MINNESOTA Duluth: Mountain biking is gaining popularity among state high school students as an alternative to mainstream sports, Minnesota Public Radio reports. The Minnesota High School Cycling League has 1,300 student athletes from more than 100 schools.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A woman faces charges in a worker’s compensation fraud case. Authorities say Francine Owens is accused of giving misleading statements about having another job while receiving benefits.

MISSOURI Jefferson City: A national cosmetology group is supporting less-stringent requirements for hair braiders. A Professional Beauty Association lobbyist says it’s not fair to force braiders to get a cosmetology license, as Missouri does.

MONTANA Havre: The city is asking residents to help clean up after an early October snowstorm downed trees citywide, the Havre Daily News reports.

NEBRASKA Chadron: Four people accused of involvement in hazing at Chadron State College are no longer enrolled. Police and the school investigated an offcampus incident portrayed as an initiation rite for members of the wrestling team.

NEVADA Carson City: A state park on Lake Tahoe has an outbreak of white satin moths, KRNV-TV reports. Nevada conservation officials say a survey found the infestation covering 226 acres.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Dixville: The Balsams Grand Resort redevelopment project has been delayed because of changes in financing,

The Caledonian-Record reports. The project’s chief lender still has to submit a loan application to the New Hampshire Business Finance Authority.

NEW JERSEY Lawrence Township: Police say a man who took off his clothes in a massage chair at the Quaker Bridge Mall last week punched a security guard who asked him to put his clothes back on. Joseph Michalski was charged with lewdness and simple assault.

NEW MEXICO Roswell: City employees who have concealedcarry permits can now carry their weapons in the workplace, The Roswell Daily Record reports. The city previously barred employees from carrying firearms on city property or their vehicles while on duty, except for police officers and firefighters.

NEW YORK New York: Police are trying to identify a man who passed himself off as a messenger and stole $58,000 worth of iPhone 7s from a Manhattan Apple store. The man fled in a white Ford van.

NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: Police say a shootout between two men at a gas station ended up with a bullet shattering the window of a nearby school bus. None of the 19 children on the bus was hurt, but the driver suffered minor injuries from broken glass.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Six deputies have left the McKenzie County Sheriff ’s Office since Sheriff Gary Schwartzenberger was reinstated two months ago. The sheriff, who had been accused of bullying and retaliation, says quitting was their choice.

OHIO Sebring: Police arrested a man after receiving random 911 calls for about eight months from his apparently malfunctioning cellphone, The Review in Alliance reports. Police say Nathan Hawkins was warned he would be arrested if the calls continued.

OKLAHOMA Hugo: The Choctaw County sheriff says two inmates briefly escaped to visit their girlfriends and smoke marijuana and then walked back to the jail, The Oklahoman reports. Both men were in jail for drug possession.

OREGON Medford: A student with dyslexia has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Southern Oregon University. The Mail Tribune reports that Mikhail Savona says he failed two classes because the school denied him reasonable test-taking accommodations.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: John B. Kelly Elementary School remains closed as officials work to clean up a mold problem that the teachers union says is longstanding, Philly.com reports.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Health officials have removed hundreds of Rhode Island ambulances from service after inspections turned up critical deficiencies, WPRI-TV reports. More than a third of the 1,462 vehicles inspected since 2012 were pulled for missing or broken equipment, expired medicine and other problems.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The ACLU is suing two towns, Bluffton and Beaufort, in a move to require that lawyers be made available to anyone facing municipal court cases that could send them to jail. The group says most of the state’s 212 municipal courts don’t give defendants lawyers if they ask for one. SOUTH DAKOTA Vermillion: Students at the University of South Dakota’s law school say there aren’t enough bathrooms for women, The Argus Leader reports. The law school has about half the bathroom options for women as it does for men, yet 40% of students are women.

TENNESSEE Memphis: Prosecutors say a man was sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole in the 1990 shooting death of a Memphis liquor store owner during a holdup. Stanley Owens, 61, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter last month.

TEXAS San Antonio: Officials want to talk to dozens of girls placed in foster care with a man facing charges of sexually assaulting five former foster children. Miguel Briseno took in more than 180 girls from 2005 to 2010.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A worker at a smelter outside Salt Lake City died from exposure to sulfur dioxide. The Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division is launching an investigation into the death last week of Albert Lozano, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

VERMONT Ferrisburgh: Dozens of animals including dogs, cats, birds, ferrets, guinea pigs, a hamster and a bearded dragon were seized from a Vermont home because of poor living conditions.

VIRGINIA Alexandria: A federal grand jury indicted a man who allegedly posted threats against the CIA, State Department and others on social media. According to an FBI affidavit, William L. Weaver II was upset in part about denial of a passport.

WASHINGTON Seattle: The Justice Department says Seattle has reached initial compliance with the terms of its 2012 police reform agreement. Officials say the city has eliminated a pattern of unconstitutional policing that resulted in federal intervention.

WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown:

A survivor of the sinking of the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor plans to attend the 150th anniversary of West Virginia University. Retired Navy Lt. Jim Downing, now 104, will be honored by alumni at a Nov. 3 campus ceremony.

WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Scott Walker’s 22-year-old son reimbursed the state $25.08 after being caught using a state van to help a friend move. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Alex Walker was in the van pulled over Aug. 18 about a mile from the governor’s mansion.

WYOMING Cheyenne: A man convicted in the 1970s killing of a nephew of mob boss Carlo Gambino has waived a hearing on drug charges. Henry Sentner was pulled over last month on Interstate 80 in Wyoming for speeding. Charging documents say about 35 pounds of marijuana was found in his vehicle.