Around the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Montgomery: The City of Montgomery Public Art Commission is seeking artists to be part of the Montgomery Book Bench Project. The commission wants artists to paint 12 benches in the shape of open books.
ALASKA Unalaska: A record number of cruise ships are expected this year in this city in the Aleutians.
ARIZONA Phoenix: NASCAR will move its season finale race to ISM Raceway west of Phoenix in 2020, the organization announced alongside Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday.
ARKANSAS Fayetteville: Urban foresters are encouraging city residents to chop down invasive Bradford pear trees from their properties and swap them with native ones, offered free.
CALIFORNIA San Diego: The San Diego Zoo is preparing to say farewell to its last two giant pandas. The zoo said Monday that 27-year-old Bai Yun and her 6-year-old son, Xaio Liwu, will depart next month for China.
COLORADO Denver: A study shows marijuana is sending more people to the emergency room in one large hospital in the city.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: The federal government has finally approved a planned satellite tribal casino in East Windsor, but Gov. Ned Lamont still faces the task of trying to negotiate a gambling agreement that doesn’t violate the revenue-sharing deal between the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes and the state.
DELAWARE Dover: State lawmakers are again trying to fine drivers who don’t clean snow and ice off cars.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Unseasonably warm temperatures have pushed up the National Park Service’s estimate for “peak bloom” of the district’s cherry blossoms to Monday, WUSA-TV reports.
GEORGIA Atlanta: The mayor and police chief are leading a push to re-examine evidence from a string of murders that terrorized the city’s black community between 1979 and 1981. Officials have set up a hotline for tips at 404-546-2603.
HAWAII Wailuku: A judge suggested a man not drink his favorite soda during four years of probation on a car theft conviction. Judge Rhonda Loo suggested Christopher Montilliano Jr. refrain from Pepsi because he lied to police during his arrest about taking the stolen car to buy soft drinks, The Maui News reports.
IDAHO Boise: The state Senate will consider legislation to legalize hemp that Gov. Brad Little said could get his signature if amendments sought by law enforcement are approved.
ILLINOIS Springfield: A major local health care provider has donated land to what will be a memorial to the city’s 1908 race riot. The (Springfield) State Journal-Register reports the City Council accepted the land this week from HSHS St. John’s Hospital.
INDIANA Lawrence: Next Generation Farmers Summer Youth Program, accepting applications through Monday, aims to provide residents ages 12-15 with the know-how to choose and grow healthy foods.
IOWA Des Moines: Organizers of this year’s 80/35 Music Festival downtown have unveiled a complete lineup for the July event, led by Portugal. The Man, Elle King, Liz Phair, Iowa’s own Lissie, synth-pop favorite Metric and more.
KANSAS Stafford: A flock of rare whooping cranes is delighting visitors at the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge during a migration pit stop.
KENTUCKY Lexington: The new Railbird Festival, coming in August, has dropped its lineup, with The Raconteurs and Hozier atop the list.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: With the Mississippi River falling in the city, crews have begun closing a historic flood control structure, the Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday.
MAINE Falmouth: The state’s status as having the country’s highest rate of whooping cough is worsening, due to an uptick this year.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A search is underway for “Healthy Holly” – not a fugitive or a missing citizen but a children’s book by Mayor Catherine Pugh. The Baltimore Sun reports at least 50,000 copies are unaccounted for, after Pugh received hundreds of thousands of dollars for selling them to a state hospital network while she sat on its board.
MASSACHUSETTS Wilmington: A spokeswoman for supermarket chain Market Basket told The Boston Globe that “as far as we know all of our stores (are) ghost-free” after someone posted on social media about seeing an apparition at a store in Wilmington.
MICHIGAN Monroe: The River Raisin National Battlefield Park Foundation says most of the construction for the historic site’s estimated $100 million redevelopment will begin next year.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The state Senate has passed a bill to require drivers to use hands-free devices when they want to use their cellphones on the road.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: State House Speaker Philip Gunn says public school teachers will likely get a onetime raise of $1,000 in the next year.
MISSOURI Springfield: From 2011 to 2017, the state Department of Conservation received 1,341 bear reports in 87 counties. Biologists feel these reports underline that bears seem to be doing well in Missouri.
MONTANA Helena: State officials say increased temperatures in the scenic Smith River have likely contributed to the growth of algae blooms considered a nuisance to recreation and wildlife.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: City police officials are considering broadening the scope of the department’s rape kit testing policy to require all DNA evidence to be tested, not just in those cases in which the victim doesn’t know the alleged offender.
NEVADA Carson City: A new state bill seeks to create a process for licensing banks and credit unions that would serve pot dispensaries.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A bill to designate a particular apple brandy as the official state spirit will be aging a bit longer. Republican Sen. Jeb Bradley is sponsoring a bill to bestow the honor on Old Hampshire Applejack, made by Tamworth Distilling. But the Senate voted last week to send the bill back to committee due to concerns about favoring one business over others.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy says he will sign legislation allowing terminally ill patients to seek life-ending medication.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: A new report says near-record heat and persistent drought in the state wiped out more than 120,000 acres of ponderosa pine, spruce, pinon and other trees last year.
NEW YORK New City: Rockland County is banning unvaccinated minors from public places to fight a measles outbreak that has infected more than 150 people since October.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: A pioneering use of drones to fly blood samples across a hospital campus has launched. The short trips between WakeMed buildings mark the first time the Federal Aviation Administration has allowed regular commercial flights of drones carrying products, according to UPS and drone company Matternet.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Soil moisture supplies appear in good shape as the spring planting season nears, the Agriculture Department says.
OHIO Cincinnati: Nnedi Okorafor, an award-winning novelist, “Black Panther” comic author and city native, will visit the Main Library on May 2.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: State lawmakers are considering legislation to prevent cities and towns from imposing fees on single-use plastic and paper bags.
OREGON Salem: Lawmakers are charting a new course on a controversial cap-and-trade bill regulating greenhouse emissions.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: A report by an environmental and consumer advocacy group gives the state an “F” for its efforts to remove lead from drinking water in schools.
RHODE ISLAND Central Falls: The mayor has scheduled an emergency community meeting to discuss a privately run detention center that is again housing people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a decade after a man’s death there ended the practice.
SOUTH CAROLINA Charleston: Visitors to historic Magnolia Cemetery will soon have the option of taking a walking tour, after a policy change.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: National American University is closing its Sioux Falls and Rapid City campuses, as well as others, as the school transitions to online classes.
TENNESSEE Memphis: Volunteer State-made bourbon and beer are coming together in a new brew and booze both being released Friday in a collaboration by Doc’s Wine, Spirits & More and Ghost River Brewing Co. South Main Stinger is a small-batch porter aged in bourbon barrels from Doc’s private-label bourbon, Doc.52.
TEXAS Houston: Four months after his death, former President George H.W. Bush’s office is to close for the last time at 5 p.m. Friday. The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation will be renamed The George and Barbara Bush Foundation.
UTAH St. George: An exhibit called “What Were You Wearing,” organized by the DOVE Center and Dixie State University’s Women’s Resource Center, aims to demonstrate that a person’s clothing has nothing to do with sexual assault.
VERMONT Burlington: An annual state report says police agencies in Vermont have largely stopped using automated license plate readers.
VIRGINIA Blacksburg: An annual run to honor the 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty who were killed in a 2007 school shooting will be held April 13.
WASHINGTON Seattle: Several months after researchers feared the worst for an ailing Puget Sound orca, the whale known as J7 has been spotted in an improved condition.
WEST VIRGINIA Morgantown: A West Virginia University professor has won a $500,000 grant to work on cybersecurity techniques.
WISCONSIN Madison: The gas tax would go up by nearly a dime a gallon by early 2021 under Gov. Tony Evers’ budget.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Scientists from the U.S. and Europe hope to learn more on a dig this summer about a promising new dinosaur site in northern Wyoming known as “Jurassic Mile.”