STATE-BY-STATE

ALABAMA Montgomery: Gov. Kay Ivey created a $2.3 million award to help low-income residents find jobs and improve their quality of life, The Montgomery Advertiser reports.

ALASKA Fairbanks: Exclusive Paving was awarded a $52.1 million water utility expansion project in North Pole, The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports.

ARIZONA Phoenix: The state’s minimum wage rose this week by 50 cents to $10.50 an hour, The Arizona Republic reports.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: A draft plan to manage and preserve the Buffalo River is complete, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Highway Patrol officers rescued 17 chickens off of Interstate 605 in the Norwalk area Tuesday after their cage fell from the back of a truck.

COLORADO Durango: Two bus operators, Road Runner Stage Lines and Bustang, are joining forces, The Durango Herald reports. The buses will offer Wi-Fi service, plug-ins for laptops, a restroom and bicycle racks.

CONNECTICUT Mashantucket: The tribe that owns the Foxwoods Resort Casino has sworn in two new members of its leadership council.

DELAWARE Dover: State officials say they intend to sue the Environmental Protection Agency over a failure to rein in power plant emissions from other states.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Three years after the city’s DNA lab lost its accreditation, officials are touting a total turnaround with no rape kit backlog, WTOP Radio reports.

FLORIDA Orlando: Police say five people were wounded in gunfire along two roads, prompting police to briefly close Interstate 4, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

GEORGIA Rossville: Authorities say a Walker County sheriff ’s deputy responding to a 911 call shot and killed a man who pointed a gun at him.

HAWAII Hilo: The number of food stamp recipients on Hawaii Island declined slightly last year, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Benefits totaled $9.1 million.

IDAHO Sandpoint: A 75-year-old man who told authorities that a trespasser confronted him has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm at people walking along a road, The Bonner County Daily Bee reports.

ILLINOIS Utica: Officials say no one was injured in a fire at Grizzly Jack’s Grand Bear Resort near Starved Rock State Park.

INDIANA Indianapolis: The city is being sued by a former courts official who says she was fired for installing air fresheners to cover a co-worker’s “obnoxious chronic body odor,” The Indianapolis Star reports.

IOWA Evansdale: This northeast Iowa town lost its water service Monday when its water tower froze.

KANSAS Lawrence: The city is using old Christmas trees to provide a habitat for wildlife, the Lawrence JournalWorld reports.

KENTUCKY Hopkinsville: A program to help women soldiers is on the way to the Fort Campbell area, The Kentucky New Era reports. Women Elevated will open Jan. 12.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: Police arrested four people after finding a large stash of drugs in a Bourbon Street hotel room, Nola.com reports.

MAINE Augusta: Mainers who want to run for office this year can start gathering signatures. State voters will elect a U.S. senator, governor, two representatives to Congress, state legislators and some county officers.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Authorities say the cold caused 28 water main breaks in and around Baltimore, and some left frozen water on roads.

MASSACHUSETTS Westfield: Police are trying to identify a man who used counterfeit money at a local Walmart last month. The suspect used between $500 and $1,000 worth of fake $50 bills.

MICHIGAN Copper Harbor: The Keweenaw Mountain Lodge on the Upper Peninsula will be open again this summer while a buyer is sought, The Daily Mining Gazette reports.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: A family of 10 was taken to a hospital after being sickened at home by dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, KSTP-TV reports.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The state has an ambitious plan to close student academic achievement gaps by 2025. But a report shows that black and Hispanic students fell further behind their white counterparts last year in English language arts and math.

MISSOURI Jefferson

City: State officials will ban smoking in prisons starting April 1, the News Tribune reports.

MONTANA Helena: Liberian refugee

Wilmot Collins was sworn in this week as mayor of Helena — the first black mayor of any Montana city in the state’s history, The Independent Record reports.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Demolition looms for what was once a haven for people needing mental health services, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. Bryan Health bought the former Lancaster County Mental Health Center in April for $3 million.

NEVADA North Las Vegas: Construction will begin next month on a $58 million freeway project involving Interstate 15 and U.S. 93 in North Las Vegas, The Las Vegas Sun reports.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Lebanon: Some post-holiday school reopenings were delayed this week by the cold weather, The Valley News reports. Broken pipes in the science wing at Lebanon High School required an all-day cleanup.

NEW JERSEY Morristown: Efforts to reattach a restored Lady of Justice statue to the Morris County courthouse are on hold after two unsuccessful attempts to secure the 190-year-old statue.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Police say the home of an elderly woman who’s hospitalized has been burglarized at least five times, KOATTV reports. Two suspects were ar

rested last weekend.

NEW YORK New York: Mayor Bill de Blasio says new protective barriers will be permanently installed in Times Square and other locations around the city to protect crowds from vehicles.

NORTH CAROLINA

Raleigh: Vehicle thefts are up in the state after a decade-long decline. Officials say 15,007 vehicles were stolen in North Carolina in 2016, nearly 4,000 more than in 2015.

NORTH DAKOTA Devils Lake: A 15-year-old boy faces a DUI charge after crashing into two unoccupied Devils Lake police vehicles.

OHIO Columbus: The exterior reno- vation of the city’s tallest building has naturalists hoping peregrine falcons will find a new, temporary roost, Columbus Dispatch reports.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The state attorney general says the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association must open certain records to the public because it’s partially supported by public funds, Oklahoman reports.

OREGON Medford: Local store owners have a new incentive to retrieve abandoned shopping carts — a $50 fine for carts not retrieved within seven days after they’re abandoned, The Mail Tribune reports.

PENNSYLVANIA Easton: Authorities say a man left three children at a McDonald’s and told them to walk home in 14-degree weather, The (Easton) Express-Times reports. Police say only one of the kids had a jacket.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Faith leaders are calling on Rhode Island lawmakers to pass legislation to reduce poverty. A vigil was held at the statehouse this week to support affordable housing, nutritious food and a decent wage.

SOUTH CAROLINA Turbeville: Authorities say an inmate was killed and eight others were injured in fighting at the medium-security Turbeville prison. No prison staff members were injured, and the fight was contained to one housing unit.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A man accused of illegally hunting mountain lions by baiting them with dead deer pleaded guilty, The Rapid City Journal reports.

TENNESSEE Nashville: A new state law passed in response to a 2016 school bus crash that killed six children sets tougher standards for drivers, including five consecutive years of driving experience.

TEXAS Austin: The state temporarily suspended saltwater fishing along parts of the Gulf Coast to protect coastal species amid plunging temperatures. Texas has roughly 2 million acres of bays and estuaries vulnerable to freeze.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Health officials are now reporting 118 cases in the hepatitis A outbreak among Salt Lake City’s homeless population, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

VERMONT Rockingham: The town has welcomed a new finance director after a year without one, The Brattleboro Reformer reports.

VIRGINIA Virginia Beach: Investigators believe that careless smoking caused a fire at the Willow Lake Apartments, displacing up to 19 people, The Virginian-Pilot reports.

WASHINGTON Spokane: Artist Harold Balazs, whose sculptures are displayed in cities across the state, died at his home last weekend. Balazs was 89. Among his public works are the Rotary Fountain at Riverfront Park, the Centennial Sculpture in the Spokane River and The Lantern at the INB Performing Arts Center.

WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: A Marshall University professor is part of an international team of researchers studying the Sumatran rhinoceros, believed to be one of the most threatened mammals. Authorities say only about 200 of the rhinos were thought to be living in the wild in 2011.

WISCONSIN Greenfield: Authorities say a hunter died in Sauk County when he fell out of a tree stand. The sheriff ’s office says the 50-year-old victim was wearing a safety harness, but it wasn’t attached to the tree.

WYOMING Cheyenne: The state says its elected officials and employees are immune from civil action in response to a lawsuit that says the state fell more than $930,000 behind in office space rent, The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports.

Compiled from staff, wire reports.