STATE-BY-STATE
ALABAMA Prattville: Authorities say a nude man who forced his way into a home is charged with attempted sexual assault and burglary, The Montgomery Advertiser reports.
ALASKA Juneau: The city has removed protections for eagle nests from its land use code, citing too few biologists to plot nest locations, KTOO-FM reports. The protections created a no-building buffer zone around nests.
ARIZONA Phoenix: An Arizona State University professor has received a $6.4 million grant to test canine cancer vaccines. At least 800 pets will take part in testing.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: One of the nine black teenagers who were escorted by federal troops to integrate Central High School 60 years ago has written a book about her role.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: State utility regulators have approved an agreement to retire the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
COLORADO Denver: Authorities say drought conditions have spread across most of Colorado. Snowpack in the mountains that feed the Arkansas River is at 56% of average.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: The state is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the 2015 killing of Ricardo Rivera, who was shot in the head.
DELAWARE Dover: State lawmakers are working to revise the review process for grant applications from nonprofits and community groups. The changes are aimed at increasing the accountability of grant recipients.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Police say human remains discovered in October along a suburban Washington highway were those of a man who went missing in April after meeting a woman he met on an online dating service. A homicide investigation is underway.
FLORIDA On the Silver River: Wildlife managers at Silver Springs State Park want to remove roaming monkeys because some excrete the herpes B virus dangerous to humans.
GEORGIA Decatur: Agnes Scott College has named Leocadia Zak as its ninth president. Zak is a former director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.
HAWAII Honolulu: A man who escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital in November has been returned to the islands from California.
IDAHO Boise: A fund that helps keep rural phone lines affordable is losing revenue despite a surcharge hike as more people switch to cellphones, The Idaho Statesman reports.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The parents of an elementary student sued a Schaumburg school district and the state for the right to use medical marijuana at school, the Chicago
Tribune reports.
INDIANA Winches
ter: Randolph
County and the county seat of Winchester are celebrating their bicentennial this year, The (Muncie) Star Press reports.
IOWA Des Moines: The state’s top election official says he’ll travel Iowa this year to inform voters about a new law requiring identification at the polls starting in 2019.
KANSAS Topeka: A judge has temporarily blocked a new city ordinance that bans tobacco sales to people younger than 21. State law allows tobacco sales to people 18 and older.
KENTUCKY Coalton: Kentucky Electric Steel will permanently close its Boyd County mill in March, putting up to 113 people out of work, The Daily Independent reports.
LOUISIANA West Monroe: Authorities say a woman was attacked and killed by a pit bull at the Happy Hounds Hotel, a pet boarding facility.
MAINE New Gloucester: Officials at Pineland Farms are warning skiers to watch out for an “aggressive divebombing” owl that recently struck a man, cutting his head in the attack.
MARYLAND Baltimore: Officials plan to relocate more than 120 families and demolish six buildings in a public housing area that Mayor Catherine Pugh describes as a hotbed for criminal activity, The Baltimore Sun reports.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A $10 million reward offered by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum for information that leads to the return of more than a halfbillion dollars’ worth of art stolen in 1990 has been extended. It was to expire Dec. 31.
MICHIGAN East
Lansing: Researchers at Michigan State University want to know who’s eating whom in the fish world. Frozen stomachs of fish were donated by anglers and public agencies.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A judge has rejected a state effort to change the water quality standard for protecting wild rice, saying it puts an unfair burden on Native Americans who harvest wild rice for food.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Lawmakers are considering a new education funding formula that would require the state to spend $107 million more than it’s spending this year to aid K-12 schools.
MISSOURI St. Louis: Hair braiders lost a case challenging a state law that they must be licensed like barbers and cosmetologists.
MONTANA Missoula: The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Montana’s request for an additional $44 million in disaster relief. The state spent all of its twoyear, $60 million emergency fund fighting fires in 2017.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Residents near Northeast High School are complaining about students who loiter outside their homes smoking, drinking alcohol and leaving trash, The Lincoln Journal Star reports.
NEVADA Las Vegas: A former city police officer was sentenced to prison for excessive force after his body camera showed him slamming a woman’s head against his cruiser.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A pharmacist pleaded guilty to tampering with pain medications, using syringes to withdraw the drugs and replacing them with saline.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: A man who admitted not reporting his great aunt’s death in order to collect nearly $185,000 in Social Security benefits for nearly 20 years faces up to 10 years in prison.
NEW MEXICO Sunland Park: Former Dona Ana County Manager Julia Brown is the new city manager of Sunland Park. Brown was fired in Dona Ana County in what she described as a political conflict with the sheriff.
NEW YORK Lake George: The Lake George Park Commission finds a slight improvement in the number of boats requiring decontamination to remove invasive species.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The state ACLU wants North Carolina DMV traffic stop guidelines clarified to tell drivers they have the right to remain silent when pulled over, The News & Observer reports. Officials say the guidelines suggest that drivers are required to answer questions posed by an officer during a traffic stop.
NORTH DAKOTA Minot: Officials at Minot Air Force Base have dedicated a $17.6 million B-52 bomber maintenance facility, Minot Daily News says.
OHIO Columbus: An opera company and an orchestra are teaming up to tell the story of the state’s worst weather disaster, a 1913 flood that destroyed more than 20,000 homes and killed at least 400 people.
OKLAHOMA Wyandotte: Classes were canceled in at least 10 public schools here after fire ravaged most of the school bus fleet, The Miami News-Record reports.
OREGON Eugene: Some senior managers will be removed at the Veterans Affairs health care system in Roseburg following a probe of degraded care claims, The Register-Guard says.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Animal welfare groups have banded together to form the Philadelphia NoKill Coalition to end unnecessary euthanizations at animal shelters.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Police say a local high school was placed on lockdown after a student was pistolwhipped by two intruders who tried to rob him and then fled.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: State lawmakers are considering executions of condemned inmates by electrocution. South Carolina’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired in 2013.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Two executives of a company with plans to build an aquaponics farm have been indicted on wire and mail fraud charges, The Argus Leader reports.
TENNESSEE Oak Ridge: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is laying off 100 employees, The Knoxville News Sentinel reports.
TEXAS Fort Worth: Tarrant County Justice of the Peace Russ Casey ended his re-election bid a day after his opponent alleged that signatures on Casey’s candidacy petition were forged, KXAS-TV reports.
UTAH Salt Lake City: The 2018 Tour of Utah pro cycling race will start in St. George and end in Park City, KSLTV reports. The race is Aug. 6-12.
VERMONT Montpelier: The Vermont National Guard and some lawmakers want to offer Guard members free tuition to state universities.
VIRGINIA Norfolk: The Port of Virginia has broken its record for container volume for the sixth year in a row, The Virginian-Pilot reports. The increase was nearly 7% over 2016.
WASHINGTON Port Angeles: It’s called Read to Rover. Every Friday, second graders at Chimacum Creek Primary School read aloud to therapy dogs brought to school. Officials say the program helps calm students and encourages them to learn.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A man accused of stocking his online shop on Amazon.com with items stolen from the University of Charleston has been sentenced to five years probation, Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: The Our Redeemer Lutheran School has apologized for asking fourth graders to list three good reasons for slavery and three bad ones. The mother of a black student shared the assignment on Facebook, calling it offensive. WYOMING Gillette: Joshua Popkin, a former psychologist accused of using his position to have sex with two of his patients, was sentenced to two consecutive three- to five-year terms.