Around the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Gulf Shores: Gov. Kay Ivey began her inaugural festivities with a celebration headlined by country music star Neal McCoy. Ivey held a Gulf Coast iaugural celebration Saturday night at The Lodge, the state’s new hotel and conference center at Gulf State Park. She will be sworn in Monday.

ALASKA Fairbanks: Even Fairbanks isn’t as cold as it used to be. Temperatures in some parts of the city reached 40 below recently, but a weather expert who monitors them says the city’s legendary cold snaps are less frequent and less severe.

ARIZONA Tempe: City residents treasure the inverted pyramid-shaped building that’s served as City Hall for nearly 50 years and is regarded as an eye-catching landmark in the Phoenix suburb. But the three-story building hasn’t been updated since the late 1980s, so Tempe plans renovations to reconfigure interior spaces and upgrade its communications system at a cost of about $10 million, the Arizona Republic reports.

ARKANSAS Hot Springs: After over a year’s worth of work, Lakeside High School student Kayla Streepy debuted a feature-length documentary in late December about her school’s cheerleaders.

CALIFORNIA Fresno: A robber who climbed into the Chaffee Zoo and was bitten on his big toe by a lion has been sentenced to probation and told he can’t go anywhere near the zoo.

COLORADO Windsor: As parents and their children filed into Clearview Library on Saturday for Drag Queen Story hour, a crowd of more than 100 protesters and counterprotesters greeted them. For the last month, the story hour has sharply divided town officials and residents.

CONNECTICUT Storrs: Chefs from three UConn dining halls will put their skills to the test in a cooking challenge similar to those on the popular TV shows “Iron Chef ” and “Chopped.”

DELAWARE Winterthur: Not using foam cups, recycling paper and serving some meat-free dishes has helped the Visitor Center Garden Cafe at Winterthur Museum to be named Delaware’s first certified green restaurant.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA American University helped federal workers take their minds off the shutdown by offering free skills and management training courses. The Classes Without Quizzes event, offered through AU’s School of Public Affairs, included courses on how to start a podcast, project management and emotional intelligence.

FLORIDA Marathon: Wounded military personnel and their supporters bicycled across the Seven Mile Bridge and sections of the Florida Keys Overseas Highway during the annual Soldier Ride event from Key Largo to Key West. Some 45 individuals participated in the weekend event.

GEORGIA Lithonia: A video shows two Atlanta-area Waffle House employees putting salt, a slice of cheese and ketchup on an unconscious, intoxicated man’s head, and now the company says the workers have been fired. The video on Instagram also shows the employees playing with the man like a puppet while he was passed out. The chain says it has apologized to the customer.

HAWAII Kailua-Kona: An annual humpback whale count in Hawaii will take place despite the federal government shutdown.

IDAHO Twin Falls: When Alex Frandsen was 18, she was homeless. Now, Frandsen is the first resident of the Twin Falls Optimist Club’s Youth House for young adults who have transitioned out of foster care. Residents will have a two-year lease and pay $100 per month plus 10 percent of the utilities. Life-skills classes, such as how to cook and how to pay bills, will prepare residents for the next step in their lives.

ILLINOIS Chicago: The city set a tourism record last year, attracting more than 57.6 million visitors.

INDIANA Indianapolis: A limestone monument to Thomas Taggart, who was mayor from 1895 to 1901, will be restored and become the centerpiece of an amphitheater that could bring new life to a city park named for him.

IOWA Sioux City: Many people main-

tain a workshop or a man cave in the lower level of their homes. James Rainey keeps state-of-theart recording equipment in his northside Sioux City basement. That’s so Rainey, a Woodhouse Auto Dealership car salesman, can stream gospel music 24 hours a day from an online radio station, GITA Radio (www.gitaradio.com).

KANSAS Topeka: Women needing to breastfeed their babies at the Kansas Capitol now have a private lactation room just for them. Laura Kelly, the incoming governor, says she thought it was about time the Capitol joined more than 300 work sites across the state that accommodate breastfeeding employees.

KENTUCKY Frankfort: A Republican-dominated board of state lawmakers investigating a Democrat’s election by a one-vote margin has obtained 17 unopened absentee ballots from the Daviess County clerk’s office.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A highly anticipated bike share program in Baton Rouge is closer to a reality. Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer says the bikes should be up and ready to ride by March. Five hundred GPS-enabled e-bikes will be installed in 50 locations, including Louisiana State University, Southern University, City Park and the Baton Rouge Lakes.

MAINE Falmouth: Three Maine school districts say they’ve received reports of students diagnosed with whooping cough.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Thousands of Marylanders have died from opioid overdoses in recent years, with a surge in deaths from fentanyl. But the opiate epidemic has a Victorian precursor. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, hundreds, if not thousands, of Marylanders died by overdosing on laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol. Then available at local pharmacies, the drug was used to treat insomnia, headaches, menstrual cramps, colic in babies and more.

MASSACHUSETTS Amherst: The 92-year-old Lord Jeffery Inn in Amherst has changed its name and distanced itself from the negative connotations of its former moniker. The new name: the Inn on Boltwood. Gen. Jeffery Amherst commanded British forces during the French and Indian War. Historians say he suggested wiping out Native Americans by giving them blankets infected with smallpox.

MICHIGAN Detroit: Design options will soon be revealed for a plan that seeks to link nearly a dozen major institutions in Detroit to make the area more walkable and create a cultural campus. The Detroit Institute of Arts and nonprofit Midtown Detroit Inc. are spearheading the project, known as “DIA Plaza and Midtown Cultural Connections,” The Detroit News reports.

MINNESOTA Rice: The new mayor of Rice was arrested for driving under the influence as he prepared to drive an empty school bus.

MISSISSIPPI Meridian: Famed “Ses-

ame Street” puppeteer Jim Henson’s story is being told in a new exhibit at The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian.

MISSOURI Kansas City: Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Jeff Allen thanked the man who helped pull his vehicle out of the snow with tickets to the AFC Championship game this weekend. Allen got stuck on the way to Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, but he made it in time for the Chiefs’ victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

MONTANA Missoula: University of Montana President Seth Bodnar has been sworn in to the Montana Army National Guard.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A free family clinic on ice fishing planned for Saturday at Holmes Lake was canceled because of a lack of safe ice.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Fatalities on state roads hit a 10-year high last year. Preliminary data from the Department of Public Safety show 331 people died in 301 crashes, three-quarters of them in Clark County.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: New Hampshire’s Wine Week, which is next week, is celebrating two “wine dynasties” this year. The husbandand-wife team of Gina Gallo and Jean-Charles Boisset are featuring a guided wine tasting on Jan. 23 at the Puritan Conference Center in Manchester. Boisset was born into the world of wine in Burgundy, France. Gallo is a third-generation winegrower from one of America’s most historic winemaking families.

NEW JERSEY Atlantic City: The blue and gold velvet booth where the “Sex and the City” stars once sat on a trip to a casino is in Bob and Loretta Pickus’ basement now. But the booth, signed by the show’s four stars, is for sale because the couple is moving to a house without a basement. A close look at the restaurant scene in the show reveals Loretta Pickus sitting in the neighboring booth with her back to the actresses. “That’s her big claim to fame, is that her shoulder was on television,” her husband says.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s director is stepping down. Under Robert Kret’s leadership, the museum organized three international traveling exhibits, saw growth in its endowment and established an acquisitions fund to grow the collection, which now houses more than 3,000 works.

NEW YORK New York: “Saturday Night Live” funnyman Michael Che hosted a fundraiser for a cause close to home: New York City public housing. Che’s “Weekend Update” co-host Colin Jost and fellow comedians Amy Schumer and Michelle Wolf joined him at the benefit for the nonprofit Fund for Public Housing. Che grew up in a public housing complex on the Lower East Side.

NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: Another round of renovations will begin Monday at Charlotte Douglas International Airport’s Concourse C.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Six years after the state Legislature pledged $12 million to help develop

a Theodore Roosevelt presidential library that never materialized, lawmakers are being asked for more than four times that amount for a revamped project.

OHIO Sandusky: Cedar Point is removing a couple of employee dormitories that sit near the amusement park’s marina. They have been housing employees for decades, but the buildings actually date to the early 1900s.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The state is set to usher in a new era in state politics with the inauguration of Republican Kevin Stitt as governor. The 46-year-old political newcomer has promised he’ll use his business acumen to make state government more transparent and fiscally sound.

OREGON Portland: The state Fish and Wildlife Commission is expected to vote in March on a plan for managing wolves in the state, after years of contentious meetings.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: An original 1774 Philadelphia newspaper that was discovered at a New Jersey Goodwill is heading to a Philadelphia philosophy society founded by Benjamin Franklin. The newspaper has the iconic “Unite or Die” snake design on the masthead and boasts three items signed by John Hancock.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Gov. Gina Raimondo will propose within the next week that Rhode Island legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use. The state is facing the “inevitable” prospect of being encircled by states that have legalized recreational marijuana, she says.

SOUTH CAROLINA Myrtle Beach: Officials will meet Tuesday to discuss relocating South Carolina’s historic main highway, U.S. 501, into Myrtle Beach.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The city achieved another record year for construction in 2018. The Argus Leader reports that Sioux Falls dispensed building permits worth $787 million, up slightly more than 6 percent over the previous year.

TENNESSEE Memphis: Florida-based Via Airlines says it plans to offer flights from Memphis to Pittsburgh and Austin, Texas, starting June 25. Prices for one-way flights from Memphis to both cities start at about $99.

TEXAS Austin: Richard Overton, the nation’s oldest World War II veteran who at 112 was believed to be the oldest living man in the U.S., was remembered Saturday for his love of country and joy for life. Gov. Greg Abbott was among hundreds of mourners honoring Overton during the funeral at Shoreline Church in Austin. Overton, who died Dec. 27, served in the all-black 1887th Engineer Aviation Battalion.

VERMONT Salisbury: After the quote marks around “Vermont” on its egg cartons made some people on an online forum suspicious, Salisburybased Maple Meadow Farm says the eggs were indeed laid in Vermont. Some on a Reddit forum speculated the quotes may be a way to get around regulation of the Vermont brand, while others charged a general ignorance of punctuation.

VIRGINIA Sterling: A woman whose husband is a furloughed federal employee isn’t feeling the pinch like others who aren’t getting paychecks. Carrie Walls, of Ashburn, won the top prize in the Virginia Lottery’s special drawing. She picked up a Ford Expedition at a Loudoun County dealership and a $100,000 check Friday.

WASHINGTON Everett: The city is offering buyouts to more than 300 workers to help deal with an $11 million budget gap.

WEST VIRGINIA Huntington: Marshall University is honoring NBA Hall of Famer Hal Greer with a statue. The Herald-Dispatch reports Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert wanted to see a statue erected on campus following Greer's death last April at age 81.

WISCONSIN Madison: KimberlyClark Corp. has notified Gov. Tony Evers' administration that it will close its plant in Neenah by May 31. About 100 people work at the plant.

WYOMING Cheyenne: A bill in the state Legislature would override local gun control laws and allow people to carry concealed guns on school grounds and in other public places.