Around the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Montgomery: For the next month, Courtney Bassett will be singing her heart out at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, starring as Maria in “The Sound of Music.” But this songbird has a sound all her own. Bassett makes music as half of the New York duo Starbird and the Phoenix, an indie pop/soul band.
ALASKA Juneau: A landmark building has disappeared after giving firefighters a chance to practice their skills. The Thane Ore House, a former restaurant that was unoccupied for six years, went up in flames Saturday as volunteer and staff firefighters practiced hose techniques and other skills, the Juneau Empire reports.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Desert Botanical Garden is giving ticket-buyers for its popular Las Noches de las Luminarias event a chance to support Season for Sharing, the annual fundraising campaign presented by the Arizona Republic.
ARKANSAS Mountain Home: The bird will still be the word next year. The Mid-Marion County Rotary Club announced it will continue to sponsor the Turkey Trot Festival.
CALIFORNIA Oxnard: Forget turkey, ham and pie. It’s all about tamales on Dec. 1 at Oxnard’s Plaza Park. The cornmeal-based treats, a Mexican holiday tradition, are the stars of the Oxnard Tamale Festival, which runs from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
COLORADO Denver: The number of Coloradans whose homes are at risk from wildfires soared 45 percent in five years, reflecting the state’s booming population and changing uses of agricultural land, officials say.
CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: Beardsley Zoo says it has received $1 million from a longtime supporter to fund the creation of a new habitat for a family of tigers.
DELAWARE Wilmington: You do the drinking. They do the driving. That’s the idea behind New Castle County’s first brewery tour, which officially launches this weekend.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing
ton: Melania Trump and Karen Pence are helping to assemble military comfort kits for troops deployed overseas at the American Red Cross.
FLORIDA Yulee: Police say a 36-yearold Florida man is accused of stabbing a woman with a fork over an undercooked potato.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A new study from WalletHub ranks Atlanta as the sixth “Most Sinful City in America.”
HAWAII Honolulu: Researchers are gathering to compare clues on the reasons behind a significant decline in the number of sightings of North Pacific humpback whales in their traditional breeding grounds in waters around Hawaii.
IDAHO Wilder: Ivanka Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook visited a heavily Hispanic Idaho school district Tuesday to trumpet her workforce development initiative promoting science, technology, engineering and math.
ILLINOIS Chicago: Former President George W. Bush will receive the 2019 Lincoln Leadership Prize at a ceremony April 1 in Chicago.
INDIANA Indianapolis: A school bus stop accident that killed three children in northern Indiana is renewing the debate over whether most of the state should remain in the Eastern time zone.
IOWA Sioux City: The city council in this northwest Iowa town has banned people from carrying some types of “toy” firearms.
KANSAS Lawrence: Authorities say 65 faculty members at the University of Kansas are expected to take an early retirement incentive.
KENTUCKY Louisville: The city’s annual comic book and pop culture convention will host a variety of stars this year including Richard Dreyfuss, Star Trek icon William Shatner and Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame. The three-day Louisville Supercon opens Friday.
LOUISIANA Shreveport: Christmas in the Sky: Broadway will be held from Dec. 8, at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs in Bossier City. The Shreveport Regional Arts Council’s grand fundraising gala is famed for its over-the-top theatrics and extensive, high-end auctions.
MAINE Portland: The shutdown of the New England shrimp industry will extend to a limited, researchbased fishery that has helped provide a small amount of shrimp to the public in the past.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The Newseum, in Washington, D.C., has a new exhibit about the shooting that killed five staff members at the Capital Gazette in Maryland in June.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum and the city joined forces to place commemorative markers at the graves of those who participated in the Dec. 16, 1773, protest.
MICHIGAN Detroit: A University of Michigan ensemble is going to play a musical arrangement that hasn’t been heard since it was performed by prisoners at Auschwitz.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system officials are seeking more state funding to make the schools more accessible and affordable, as the state is seeing a surge in skilled trades training.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Get ready to pull out those old tricks and hit the ice! Winter ice skating is back at The Westin Jackson. The Trustmark pop-up ice skating rink is one of the featured events before the Festival of Trees that kicks off Thursday.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: The Missouri Department of Conservation is asking experienced birders for help with an upcoming Christmas bird count. The National Audubon Society’s Annual Christmas Bird Count runs from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5.
MONTANA Bozeman: Members of the Montana Raptor Conservation Center in Bozeman and Montana WILD Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Helena spend countless hours rescuing and rehabilitating raptors that find trouble.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Nebraska Lottery officials are seeking missing tickets from a canceled scratch-off game months after a mishap that disappointed many players who thought they had won large prizes.
NEVADA Reno: A proposal to triple the size of the Fallon Naval Air Station training grounds in Northern Nevada could gobble up more than 600,000 acres of public land.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Hanover: The Department of Energy is awarding Dartmouth College $400,000 to support a new research project that advances early-stage solar technologies to lower electricity costs.
NEW MEXICO Farmington: Documentaries that share stories about uranium mining and its legacy on Native American communities will be shown when the International Uranium Film Festival returns this week to Window Rock, Arizona, less than a mile across the border. Its Southwest tour this year also includes screenings this month in Albuquerque, Grants and Santa Fe.
NEW YORK Albany: In the market for a new home this holiday season? You might be in luck. December is the best time to purchase a home in New York, according to a new report issued by ATTOM Data Solutions.
NORTH CAROLINA Asheville: A teen caught a hungry bear and its three cubs on video breaking into her car to devour dozens of chocolate bars.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The University of Mary is getting more federal funding to continue an effort to boost the number of Native American teachers and administrators on and off reservations across the state.
OHIO Cincinnati: Given all the violence and political hatred plaguing our country, the Cincinnati Black Theatre Company believes the power of love is an appropriate theme for this year’s presentation of “Black Nativity.” The musical being presented this month is based on the Langston Hughes play.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A state council that studies homelessness is seeking the public’s input on a new five-year plan.
OREGON Salem: Commercial crabbers in Oregon are suing 30 fossil fuel companies, claiming they are to blame for climate change, which has hurt their industry.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: An estate sale at the home of former Mayor Frank Rizzo went like gangbusters over the weekend – and just after it wrapped up, an additional treasure trove of celebrity-linked items was discovered in the attic, the agent in charge of the sale says.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: A program in the state has been recognized for its work to help students who are deaf or hard of hearing understand coastal science concepts.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: The city is now dubbed the top child care desert in the state by Care.com.
SOUTH DAKOTA Ipswich: City officials have denied a new resident’s request to allow his pet bobcat to live in his home.
TENNESSEE Whiteville: A group of residents is collecting signatures in an effort to get the state to offer license plates commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.
TEXAS Brownsville: The federal government is demanding “immediate possession” of the site of a historic mission for use in the planned wall along the border with Mexico.
UTAH Zion National Park: Park officials are settling in for a toned-down winter schedule.
VERMONT Bennington: The town’s select board has voted to work with a national law firm that plans to sue opioid makers over the drug crisis.
VIRGINIA Lynchburg: Scientists at Liberty University are trying to find out why some salamander species in the Blue Ridge Mountains are largely resistant to a fungus that’s been killing off amphibians elsewhere.
WASHINGTON Seattle: After a year of promising fast ferry service between Kingston and Seattle, Kitsap Transit has delivered.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The West Virginia Supreme Court has rejected a lawmaker’s effort to force Gov. Jim Justice to live in the capital.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: The annual fall migration of snowy owls is underway in Wisconsin, with most of the big, charismatic birds now being spotted in eastern parts of the state.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Wyoming’s congressional delegation is urging U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to prioritize eliminating the Japanese tariff on U.S. natural soda ash.