Around the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Tuskegee: Music legends the Commodores are performing Friday in Montgomery, and members will be at the Commodore Museum in Tuskegee at 1-2:30 p.m. for Commodores Day, a free public event.
ALASKA Anchorage: State officials say they are seeking to remove threatened species protection from the ringed seal.
ARIZONA Tempe: The Tempe Festival of the Arts this weekend will present visual artists from around the country, as well as music and dance on multiple stages, roaming street performers and a kids’ space.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Food and Drug Administration must halt all primate experimentation at a lab in the state until allegations of negligence and abuse are properly addressed, U.S. lawmakers are demanding in a bipartisan call for action.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: Singer Bret Michaels is showing his support for a bill that would require schools to share more information with parents and children about Type 1 diabetes. Michaels, who was diagnosed as a child, joined state lawmakers Wednesday in supporting the bill.
COLORADO Fort Collins: The city’s newest park will be coming together soon, after a groundbreaking Tuesday. Sugar Beet Park is slated to open late this summer.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: Supporters of a woman who was detained for deportation this week rallied on her behalf Wednesday, as a state pardon for her criminal convictions that was approved two months ago took effect. Advocates for Wayzaro Walton protested outside a federal courthouse.
DELAWARE Wilmington: A 90-yearold woman died of the flu last week, according to health officials. With 20 deaths, this flu season has become the state’s third-deadliest on record.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: The city is suing several Maryland families and two current District of Columbia residents that it says falsified residency records to enroll children in D.C. schools for free.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: State agencies would be prohibited from releasing photos, video or audio that record the killing of a person in an act of mass violence, under a bill approved this week by the state Senate.
GEORGIA Atlanta: A state Senate committee has OK’d a limited version of a bill to allow in-state production and sales of medical marijuana.
HAWAII Hilo: Scientists have downgraded the alert level for the Kilauea volcano, saying the next eruption is likely a few years away.
IDAHO Boise: Legislation creating a licensing path in the state for naturopathic medical doctors has been signed into law by Gov. Brad Little.
ILLINOIS Chicago: A team of architects led by Jeanne Gang has been chosen to design a $2.2 billion global terminal at O’Hare International Airport, officials announced Wednesday.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The American Pianists Association is bringing in an oversized piano like the one in Tom Hanks’ “Big” as part of the leadup to the finals for the American Pianists Awards, the major international piano competition the city hosts every four years for five of the country’s best jazz pianists. The winner will be determined after a concert April 6.
IOWA Des Moines: An activist organization and an environmental group have filed suit against the state and several agencies alleging they’ve deprived residents of their right to clean water by failing to adequately regulate pollution from hog operations and crop farms.
KANSAS Overland Park: Shawnee Mission School District has agreed to apologize to three students who alleged their free speech rights were violated during a national classroom walkout for gun control.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Gov. Matt Bevin has signed a bill that outlaws sex between humans and animals.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: Almost 8,000 repurposed Christmas trees are being used to help restore an eroding wildlife refuge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s annual “Christmas Tree Drop” into Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge was conducted Thursday.
MAINE Portland: A federal judge ordered a jail to provide medicationassisted treatment to an inmate who contends it’s necessary to keep her opioid addiction in remission.
MARYLAND Annapolis: The state has become the sixth in the nation to approve a gradual minimum wage increase to $15 an hour, after the General Assembly overrode Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto Thursday.
MASSACHUSETTS North Andover: Professors and students at Merrimack College are trying to find the burial site of Anne Bradstreet, America’s first published poet.
MICHIGAN Detroit: Clothing worn by singer Marvin Gaye will go on display at the Motown Museum as part of the music label’s 60th anniversary celebration.
MINNESOTA St. Cloud: A new report shows that taking action now to protect the Mississippi River’s headwaters can potentially save the state billions of dollars.
MISSISSIPPI Saltillo: A school superintendent says the district is not limiting free expression despite a recent order to remove religious items from areas of classrooms.
MISSOURI St. Louis: A Midwest man who brought his co-workers bagels sliced multiple times like bread is getting an earful from social media. Alex Krautmann on Monday tweeted a photo of his Panera purchase and called the vertical slices “the St. Louis secret.”
MONTANA Missoula: Homeowners in Glacier National Park are seeking the park’s permission to restore a landline that had served as a lifeline last August in the face of a wildfire.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: A University of Nebraska-Lincoln English professor has won a $165,000 prize for his poetry. The university says Kwame Dawes is the first of its writers to win a Windham-Campbell Prize.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Officials say a woman was injured after she fell from a roller coaster in the Adventuredome amusement park at the Circus Circus hotel and casino.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The state Senate has passed a bill aimed at protecting consumers if the Affordable Care Act gets dismantled.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: The sale of Westminster Choir College to a Chinese company has been delayed.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The push to elevate a vast expanse of shifting white sand dunes in the state to national park status was renewed Tuesday as members of the state’s congressional delegation reintroduced legislation aimed at boosting the profile of White Sands.
NEW YORK New York: A 6-foot-10 city councilman has been named tallest politician in the world. Robert Cornegy Jr. was honored at a City Hall ceremony Wednesday after being officially certified by Guinness World Records.
NORTH CAROLINA Durham: A panel of top scientists has concluded the endangered red wolf in the Southeast is a species unto itself.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: An environmental group is taking its battle against an oil refinery being developed near Theodore Roosevelt National Park to the state Supreme Court.
OHIO Cincinnati: Furniture company MGBlair, based in the city, has donated 210 new pieces of furniture valued at nearly $70,000 to New Life Furniture Bank. The contribution will provide furnishings for people working to escape homelessness, domestic abuse and other challenges.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: State Democratic Party officials say the building that houses the group’s headquarters has been vandalized with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti.
OREGON Salem: The state has permanently banned offshore drilling in the midst of a federal push to open 90 percent of federal waters to oil exploration.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: An astronaut on the International Space Station sent a special greeting to young patients in the city. NASA’s Anne McClain sent a video to Hasbro Children’s Hospital in celebration of the “Good Night Lights” tradition, which involves locals shining a light toward the hospital before bedtime, with the children shining lights back in return. Patients were shown the video from McClain on Wednesday night, right before Good Night Lights.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: State lawmakers are considering legislation that would expand the legal reasons someone can seek a divorce.
SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: Ellsworth Air Force Base has been selected as one of three bases that will house the next generation of the B-21 Raider long-range bomber.
TENNESSEE Nashville: Niran, the Nashville Zoo’s first clouded leopard born from artificial insemination, gave birth Sunday to two cubs.
TEXAS Austin: Nearly 50 people who work at the state Capitol have been vaccinated this week because a page contracted whooping cough.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A family that says it has been inundated with hundreds of unwanted service providers unwittingly sent to their home over seven months has a court-ordered protective injunction against a Hawaii man, but police haven’t arrested him and won’t say if he’s a suspect.
VERMONT St. Albans: One maple syrup maker’s season isn’t so sweet after 140 of his sap-collecting buckets were stolen from maple trees. Fred Hopkins says the thief or thieves struck twice.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam has vetoed a bill that would bar convicted felons from being notary publics, even if they’d had their civil rights restored after serving their sentences.
WASHINGTON Olympia: A proposal to raise the smoking and vaping age to 21 in the Evergreen State has passed the Legislature.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: State residents will be able to go to community and technical colleges for free, with conditions, starting June 5.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: Glam-rock band Mott the Hoople is kicking off its first U.S. tour in 45 years in the city next week.
WYOMING Cheyenne: Gov. Mark Gordon and Carbontech Labs announced Thursday they’re providing $1.25 million to help researchers find ways to turn greenhouse-gas emissions from coal-fired power plants into products to be sold for a profit.