Around the nation
News from every state.
ALASKA Juneau: The Blood Bank of Alaska has opened a permanent center in Juneau. The facility plans a grand opening Thursday.
ARIZONA Tucson: Activists are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to make Tucson the first sanctuary city in Arizona.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state Department of Human Services says it will distribute February’s food stamp benefits early as a result of the partial government shutdown.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Health officials say a case of measles has been confirmed in a person who visited several sites in the area late last month, including the Santa Monica Pier and Blue Plate Taco restaurant on Dec. 26; Ralphs and Nordstrom Rack on Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena on Dec. 28; and Paradise Cove Beach Cafe in Malibu on Dec. 29.
COLORADO Denver: Gov. Jared Polis says lawmakers and regulators must make oil and gas drilling safer after the state Supreme Court ruled Monday that regulators can’t make public health and the environment their top priority.
CONNECTICUT Stratford: Investigators are trying to determine whether the historic American Shakespeare Theatre, which has not hosted a play since 1989, was destroyed by arson or accident after it burned to the ground early Sunday.
DELAWARE Dover: State officials have settled a lawsuit that asserted the Roma Italian Ristorante violated child labor laws.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Subfreezing temperatures after dark Monday were expected to create black ice conditions, making for dicey travel. Parts of the city got more than 10 inches of snow in the weekend storm, WTOP radio reports.
FLORIDA Miami: Miami-Dade has tens of thousands of septic tanks, and a new report reveals most are already malfunctioning.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A state report says that Georgia is on track to exceed its goal for expanding opportunities for young doctors, but still lags behind national and southeastern averages for medical residents.
HAWAII Hilo: Hawaii’s trash-collecting boom is busted, so it’s headed to the shop. The 2,000-foot-long floating boom was being towed to Hilo after its support crew discovered that a structural malfunction had caused an 18-meter section to detach late last month.
IDAHO Boise: The Idaho Conservation League says the federal government shutdown is threatening the state’s ability to keep hatchery-based steelhead season open, affecting local families and businesses that depend on the fish for their livelihoods.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The weekend snowstorm has broken snowfall records in central Illinois.
INDIANA Indianapolis: Super blood wolf moon eclipses don’t happen every day, so Butler University wants to make sure Hoosiers get a good look at the one this weekend. The Holcomb Observatory & Planetarium is opening its doors for special shows and access to its telescopes.
IOWA Des Moines: Errors in Iowa’s list of felons cost at least 20 people the right to vote in November’s midterm elections, and officials have
known about problems in the list since 2012, according to a Des Moines Register investigation.
KANSAS Topeka: State officials hope to expand an unconventional housing program for mentally ill homeless people to ease overcrowding at state hospitals. The program is unusual because it has no curfew and sobriety requirements.
KENTUCKY Lexington: A woman charged with drunken driving told police she did it “to teach her son a lesson.” Sunita Jairam, 48, was arrested early Sunday on charges including endangering the welfare of a minor. Her arrest citation says she told police she “drank a bunch of beer” and drove at 150 mph.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana’s latest Political Hall of Fame inductees will include the state’s only “first gentleman” – Raymond “Coach” Blanco, a political adviser, pollster and husband of former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
MAINE Lewiston: Calvary United Methodist Church is keeping Mainers warm and fed this winter, serving two free meals a week and holding “warming center hours” for needy residents.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A Johns Hopkins University scientist hit the gym soon after returning from a trip to South Africa and discovered an unexpected workout partner: an endangered-species toad that stowed away in her sneaker.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The Freedom Trail in Boston is bringing back its African-American Patriots Tours next month.
MICHIGAN Lansing: Enrollment at the state’s public universities has declined for the seventh consecutive year.
MINNESOTA St. Cloud: Even a dog covered with fur may not want to go out in a Minnesota winter. Grey Face Rescue and Retirement to the rescue: This past weekend was the soft opening of its private indoor dog park.
MISSISSIPPI Vicksburg: The city is naming a building after its first Afri-
can-American mayor. Robert M. Walker was mayor from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1997 to 2001.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: State House officials are putting a tight leash on which state representatives and staff members can bring animals to work. Democratic Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, of University City, is among at least two lawmakers who object to the change.
MONTANA Helena: About 2,000 people filled the Montana Capitol for a rally to urge state and federal lawmakers to protect public lands.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: The African nation of Rwanda needs to feed its fast-growing population of 12 million residents and has been sending some of its best and brightest students to study agriculture and related subjects in Nebraska.
NEVADA Las Vegas: The state Board of Regents will consider deferring registration fees and tuition this semester for enrolled students affected by the shutdown.
NEW HAMPSHIRE North Woodstock: A power outage delayed the opening of New Hampshire’s ice castles. The tourist attraction in North Woodstock features more than 20 million pounds of ice that reach heights of around 40 feet.
NEW JERSEY Atlantic City: Two reopened casinos and half a year of sports betting helped push the city’s casino revenue up 7.5 percent in 2018 to nearly $2.86 billion, state gambling regulators say.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: New Mexico’s only commuter rail line has marked another year of shrinking ridership.
NEW YORK Buffalo: A California company plans to build a $200 million cannabis campus in Buffalo if New York legalizes recreational marijuana.
NORTH CAROLINA Corolla: Scientists say warmer winters are sending shrimp further north, contributing to surging hauls off the coast of North Carolina.
NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: The University of North Dakota Aerobat-
ic Team has won its 10th national flying championship.
OHIO Akron: The University of Akron will pay a suburban Chicago search firm more than $146,000 and expenses to help in the search for its next president.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A city-sponsored survey has found that only half of Tulsa residents consider themselves thriving, but many believe things are looking up. About 4,400 Tulsans took the survey.
OREGON Portland: Gov. Kate Brown says her husband, Dan Little, is sending President Donald Trump a $28 bill after he cleaned garbage-filled bathrooms at Mount Hood.
PENNSYLVANIA Pittsburgh: Some of the police officers who responded to the October shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue that killed 11 people were honored at a religious ceremony.
RHODE ISLAND Middletown: Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has bought a house here, and his new neighbor is a familiar face: former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: Frontier Airlines is adding nonstop seasonal flights between Cleveland and Charleston, starting May 2.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: A state Senate panel has unanimously rejected a bill that would have let voters wear political attire while casting their ballots.
TENNESSEE Johnson City: East Tennessee State University is expanding scholarships and waiving out-ofstate tuition for military service members, their families and veterans.
TEXAS Austin: The city has finalized a new moonlighting policy that will tighten rules for city workers who have second jobs.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A Utah couple is on track to open the state’s first tilapia farm after they got an exemption from a law that prohibits commercial farming of the species because it’s a threat to native fish.
VERMONT Bennington: Kiah Morris, a former state legislator who resigned after receiving racial threats was the victim of racial harassment and crimes, but no charges will be filed because of free speech protections and insufficient evidence, state Attorney General T.J. Donovan says.
VIRGINIA Newport News: The three coal terminals in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region saw double-digit increases in exports last year, but a global economy that shows signs of slowing worries some analysts.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Lawmakers return to Olympia with a variety of costly issues on their plate – including finding money to improve the troubled mental health system.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: The state’s public high school four-year graduation rate last school year was 90 percent, up from 89 percent the previous year.
WISCONSIN Madison: City officials have removed a century-old Confederate monument from a cemetery and donated the marker to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
WYOMING Cody: Highway officials say they’re concerned that more rocks could fall on U.S. Highway 1416-20 west of Cody.