50 States

ALABAMA New Hope: Residents of a small mountain community are hoping to get fresh drinking water. Al.com reports Bishop Mountain may be one of the last communities in the region that doesn’t have access to a municipal water system.

ALASKA Juneau: The state has collected $12.8 million in marijuana tax revenue this year, reaping a monthly record of $1.8 million in October.

ARIZONA Phoenix: Maricopa County juvenile probation officials hope growing vegetables and other plants encourages personal growth, too, at the county Juvenile Probation Facility. KJZZ reports the county has a program in which good behavior allows teen offenders to tend gardens.

ARKANSAS Mountain Home: This past summer, Heather Duggins of Mountain Home spent nearly two weeks in the nation’s capital and was reminded of the national program Wreaths Across America. She reached out to WAA and Mountain Home’s two largest funeral homes and got the ball rolling. Wreaths will be laid on veterans’ graves Saturday.

CALIFORNIA Paradise: A family has been reunited with their cat after it stayed behind during a deadly wildfire last month that leveled their home in Northern California. Courtney Werblow and her family returned to her parents’ burned home over the weekend and found their beloved cat, Timber, standing near the ruins.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: The state’s Department of Consumer Protection is urging businesses to verify whether charities are legitimate before allowing them to solicit donations on their property.

DELAWARE Harrington: A total of 1,181 animals found new homes at the Brandywine Valley SPCA’s Mega Adoption Event over the weekend.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washing

ton: A project aimed at teaching the public about the civil rights impact of Jackie Robinson could come to an end at George Washington University.

FLORIDA Tallahassee: The Grammy Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir performs in Tallahassee for the first time at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall.

GEORGIA Athens: Amid concerns that electric scooters being dumped all over the city pose a danger to the public, the local government has temporarily banned them.

HAWAII Kailua-Kona: The Hawaii Department of Agriculture is importing four dangerously invasive brown tree snakes in an effort to prevent the species from establishing in the islands. Jonathan Ho, acting manager of the department’s Plant Quarantine Branch, says the Hawaii Board of Agriculture approved a request for the sterile, male snakes to be used in a dog detection program.

IDAHO Boise: Federal officials will shut down a nuclear waste treatment project after determining it would not be economically feasible to bring in radioactive waste from other states.

ILLINOIS Springfield: Media personality and political commentator Glenn Beck is pitching in to keep a trove of artifacts in the 16th president’s hometown. Beck’s charity, Mercury One, has donated $50,000 toward a $9.2 million debt owed for 1,400 artifacts purchased a decade ago for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

INDIANA Indianapolis: The city’s Monument Circle is getting an upgrade including a nightly patriotic light-and-sound display.

IOWA Iowa City: The state is one of the last few in the country with a child restraint law that doesn’t meet the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. It also has the fourth-highest child car crash fatality rate, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

KANSAS Wichita: Officials are pushing for Amtrak to restore rail service in the city, which hasn’t had passenger trains for nearly 40 years.

KENTUCKY Paris: More than 200 people came out to welcome back an old friend: the Louisville & Nashville Railroad depot, which had stood crumbling since passenger train service ended 50 years ago. After a full renovation, the Victorian-style depot now houses Trackside Restaurant and Bourbon Bar.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Health officials want more people to get a flu shot in a state that has among the highest levels of flu activity so far this season. The state health department says free flu shots will be available Thursday, from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at parish health units.

MAINE Caribou: A panel of judges says the best-tasting water in the state can be found at its northern edge. A representative from the Aroostook County city of Caribou has won an annual water tastetesting competition.

MARYLAND Annapolis: Renovations of the United States Naval Academy’s iconic chapel dome will begin this winter.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The state is extending its electric vehicle rebate program through June 30.

MICHIGAN Bloomfield Hills: Nearly 1,000 volunteers are expected to visit about 40 Detroit-area nonprofits as part of the 22nd annual Mitzvah Day. The Jewish Community Relations Council/AJC says they will work shifts starting early on Christmas Day that will include delivering meals and toys, cleaning out storage closets, and visiting the elderly.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: University of Minnesota students and faculty are working to improve diversity in agricultural studies. Fall enrollment numbers show the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences is nearly 85 percent white.

MISSISSIPPI Pascagoula: Oyster fishermen are trying to increase the oyster population by moving the mollusks to cleaner waters.

MISSOURI Kansas City: A massive tuba ensemble has smashed a Guinness World Record and spread some Christmas cheer. KSHB-TV reports 835 tuba players performed “Silent Night” at a downtown arena Friday.

MONTANA Helena: A decline in enrollment has led to a budget deficit at Carroll College.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Nebraska’s newest state travel guide mistakenly features a picture of a Christmas celebration at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri.

NEVADA Reno: Conservationists are leading opposition to a proposal to triple the size of a U.S. military bombing range and training grounds in a move that could gobble up more than 900 square miles of public land across five counties.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Durham: The state has seen a significant rise in the movement of young adults into the state vs. earlier in the decade.

NEW JERSEY Somers Point: A woman has her wedding ring back, nine years after she accidentally flushed it. Ted Gogol was doing maintenance work near a manhole. He tells the Press of Atlantic City he saw a shiny object in the mud. After boiling it in peroxide and lemon juice, the woman’s wearing it again.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: A metal detector survey of the Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo uncovered evidence that Spanish conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado explored the area, officials say.

NEW YORK New York: The Fearless Girl statue that offers a message of female empowerment has a new permanent home in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

NORTH CAROLINA Louisburg: Rosanell Eaton, an African-American voting rights activist who successfully helped challenge voting restrictions supported by North Carolina Republicans, has died. She was 97.

NORTH DAKOTA Garrison: Weather observer Stu Merry is the latest person to carry on the tradition of volunteer weather reporting at North Dakota’s longest-running cooperative observation station.

OHIO Cincinnati: A film promotion organization is holding a cattle call for actual cattle. Only non-milking brown and white cows need apply.

OKLAHOMA Broken Arrow: Police say an 18-year-old man has been arrested on a first-degree murder warrant in the death of his father.

OREGON Astoria: Oregon’s Dungeness crab fishery will not open until at least Dec. 31 after testing by state fishery managers revealed crabs are still too low in meat yield.

PENNSYLVANIA Lebanon: Has the latest warning against eating raw cookie dough got you down? A Lebanon-based teen entrepreneur can help. Dough & Shake is introducing nationwide shipping.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: The state Department of Transportation will soon begin renumbering more highway exits to conform with federal standards.

SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: South Carolina is dead last in a national ranking of states in protecting its vulnerable elderly citizens from abuse, a new report shows.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: A police dog is learning how to walk a beat in snow boots. The Rapid City police department says it equips all its officers for the chilly weather.

TENNESSEE Nashville: The Metro Historical Commission has unveiled a plaque recognizing The Jungle and Juanita’s as the city’s first gay bars.

TEXAS San Antonio: A catfish farm that brought attention to the region’s groundwater politics is having its well capped after a decade of litigation.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Two new air monitors have been installed to track air pollution in the state.

VERMONT Killington: The Green Mountain Club says it is now offering digital trail maps that people can purchase, download and view on a mobile phone.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Results from the 2016-2017 Virginia Adult Tobacco Survey show Northern Virginia has the state’s lowest smoking rates.

WASHINGTON Seattle: Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed an ambitious package of legislation to tackle climate change, including eliminating fossil fuels like natural gas and coal from the state’s electricity supply by 2045.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: West Virginia’s newest Supreme Court justices are spending their first few weeks in office on a fact-finding tour.

WISCONSIN Milwaukee: StreamingObserver.com compiled a list of the holiday movies each state is “most obsessed with,” and Wisconsinites apparently go for “Die Hard.”

WYOMING Riverton: The City Council has defeated a proposed ordinance barring “habitually intoxicated persons” from purchasing alcohol.