Around the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Geiger: For the 300 or so people in Geiger, trips to the grocery store are anything but convenient. The nearest, a Piggly Wiggly, sits 23 miles away. That’s an issue for all the remote towns in Sumter County, where the obesity rate tops 40 percent and 32 percent live below the poverty line. But three years ago, the Sumter County Extension Office and Auburn University worked with Geiger residents to start a community garden. It’s open to anyone who wants fresh produce, and resident Jimmy Williams, volunteer manager of the garden, coordinates efforts to bring food to senior citizens.

ALASKA Fairbanks: A clock from the beginning of the Nenana Ice Classic has come home. “Our family feels it’s a part of Alaska history and that it needs to be up here, not with us,” said Jim Hlavacek, who donated it to the University of Alaska Museum of the North. The clock is stationed on a tripod on the Tanana River each year; the ice classic is a betting pool to see who can come closest to guessing when the ice will break.

ARIZONA Flagstaff: Dozens of cooler-like robots on wheels are rolling around Northern Arizona University’s main campus in Flagstaff to deliver meals from Einstein Bros. Bagels, Cobrizo Mexican Grill and other retailers to hundreds of students a day. San Francisco Bay Area startup Starship Technologies launched the robotic delivery service last week.

ARKANSAS Texarkana: Gnawing rats are being blamed for a blackout on a section of Interstate 30 in Texarkana.

CALIFORNIA Palm Springs: Zelda’s Nightclub, which opened in 1977, is closing permanently after concerns were raised about violent crimes in its parking lot not being captured on security cameras.

COLORADO Durango: Durango’s own Rosie the Riveter, Anne Isgar, turned 99 years old in March, but the longtime city resident still has a keen memory of her time supporting the war effort during World War II. Isgar never shot a rivet, but she did help build P61 Black Widow planes, the first aircraft with radar that were tasked with shooting down rockets headed for Great Britain. CONNECTICUT Storrs: The University of Connecticut is hosting a daylong forum Monday exploring the future of self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles. DELAWARE Dover: Democratic Gov. John Carney has signed legislation adding Delaware to a group of states pledging to give their Electoral College presidential votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of the voters’ will in those states.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: A $15 million memorial honoring Native American and Alaskan Native military members and veterans is set to open next year in the district. The Washington Post says design details for the structure, “Warriors’ Circle of Honor,” are still being finalized. FLORIDA Tallahassee: State Transportation officials fined a contractor, Conduent State & Local Solutions, $4.6 million for problems with the state’s toll road system last year. GEORGIA Savannah: Mayoral candidate Van Johnson has apologized for attending an event that barred reporters unless they were AfricanAmerican.

HAWAII Wailua: An effort to revive the former Coco Palms resort, which hosted Elvis Presley and other stars during its heyday, collapsed because of a loan default by the developers, according to its financial backers.

IDAHO Boise: Some litter is obvious on a hiking trail. But what about the other stuff, the food waste that surely will biodegrade in the woods? After all, apple cores and banana peels and dog poop are natural, right? Nope. “Can something be biodegradable and harmful to the environment? Possibly,” says Evan Worthington, a Boise Bureau of Land Management wilderness ranger. Worthington is an ambassador for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, which says things like cigarette butts, bottles and wrappers can take five years or more to decompose. And don’t leave animal or human waste in the woods, he says. Carry it out with you.

ILLINOIS Chicago: Veterans of the Vietnam War were honored and

thanked during a ceremony at Jesse Brown Veteran’s Health Care System in Chicago. Veterans of the war in Southeast Asia were presented with 50-year commemoration pins.

INDIANA Lafayette: Construction workers have uncovered a time capsule that had long been rumored to be buried near the entrance of the Columbian Park Zoo. The small box contained several newspapers still legible despite spending 88 years beneath the boulder.

IOWA Titonka: A Titonka family raises a rare breed of sheep for their wool, which is prized by fiber artists for its softness. Jeff and Tara Benson founded Buffalo Creek Fibers eight years ago. They have 60 head of Romeldale sheep, the Globe Gazette reports. “We thought it would be a good way to keep the breed going,” Tara Benson said.

KANSAS Wichita: The Kansas Board of Regents has named former regents president and CEO Andy Tompkins as interim president of Wichita State University. He replaces John Bardo, who died in March.

KENTUCKY Lexington: Some University of Kentucky students are on a hunger strike that they say won’t end until the administration creates a “basic needs center” to help lowincome students.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana’s higher education policy leaders have set an ambitious goal, striving for six in 10 working-age adults to hold a college degree or other employment credential beyond a high school diploma by 2030.

MAINE Allagash: Ice fishing in northern Maine will go on three weeks longer than normal this year due to cold weather.

MARYLAND Cecilton: An osprey tangled in bailing twine and dangling from a tree was rescued last week by Delmarva Power workers. Delmarva Power’s Kenny Ervin moved his bucket truck into position and used a pole clip, which is typically used to trim branches from around power lines, to free the bird.

MASSACHUSETTS Peabody: Three dancers who have worked at the Peabody’s Golden Banana strip club say in a lawsuit the club violated state tip-sharing laws and forced them to pay fees to work.

MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Board of Regents has approved the design for a

$10 million upgrade to the Detroit Observatory, the second-oldest building on the Ann Arbor campus.

MINNESOTA St. Paul: Half of Minnesota’s bat species are nearing extinction because of a potentially fatal fungal disease. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found that the disease called white nose syndrome has killed 90 to 94 percent of bats that hibernate in state-monitored caves and abandoned mines, new data shows.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The Mississippi Department of Transportation is closing 27 more local bridges that county officials did not close

after inspectors found the structures to be unsafe. The department announced the new closures Friday, bringing the total announced last week to 61. Jones and Hinds counties have the most.

MISSOURI Republic: A $4.5 million project is planned to make room for more Civil War-era artifacts at the site of the first major battle west of the Mississippi River. The project will add 1,873 square feet of exhibit space to the visitor center at the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in southwest Missouri. There were an estimated 1,200 Union and 1,100 Confederate casualties at the site in August 1861.

MONTANA Missoula: Homeowners in Glacier National Park are seeking the park’s permission to restore a landline that was a lifeline last August when a wildfire raced toward the area. The Missoulian reports that under the residents’ proposal, the Flathead Electric Cooperative would dig a trench from Wheeler Camp at Lake McDonald’s north end, nearly 2.5 miles around the lake’s west shore, to Kelly’s Camp for the restored phone line, which is needed because of the lack of cellphone service in the area.

NEBRASKA Wood River: A cold, snowy winter delayed the migration of sandhill cranes and the tours for those who love to watch them, but the tours are now underway.

NEVADA Las Vegas: The desert tortoise known as Mojave Max has emerged from his burrow, signaling the arrival of spring in Las Vegas.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Hampton Falls: A New Hampshire man placed second in an innovation contest after fashioning a surfboard out of hundreds of used Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cups.

NEW JERSEY Jersey City: A parade of people pushed strollers and clasped the hands of their children Saturday as they entered the bustling Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. Many were wearing shirts and holding pamphlets, pens and little toys, branded with disease names like dup15q, tuberous sclerosis, Angelman syndrome and congenital hyperinsulinism. Never heard of these diseases? Neither had many of the participants of the Rare Disease Day expo at the science center, until they or their children were diagnosed with one of them. The event was free to people affected by rare diseases.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: New Mexico created an independent ethics commission to investigate complaints about the conduct of public officials, political candidates, lobbyists and government contractors, as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed commission guidelines into law.

NEW YORK Albany: Teams of scientists, students and community volunteers are counting baby eels in the Hudson River as part of a longterm research program. The tiny, transparent fish known as “glass eels” swim into North American estuaries along the Atlantic coast each spring after hatching in the Sargasso Sea. The migratory American eel is in decline over much of its range.

NORTH CAROLINA Charlotte: The late evangelist Billy Graham’s archives are being transferred from Illinois to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: A portion of the historic Long X Bridge near Watford City, set for demolition in a project to expand U.S. Highway 85, has been adopted by a man who plans to move the span hundreds of miles to preserve the architecture.

OHIO Cincinnati: Ohio State University collected the most money last year of any entity in the state for specialty license plates, a review of state data shows. Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles data shows Ohio State received a total of $585,800 for 22,055 plates last year.

OKLAHOMA Tulsa: A new grant program hopes to encourage businesses in Tulsa to invest in neon signage to light up Route 66, which could help bring tourism and other investment into the area.

OREGON Portland: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has filed a lawsuit to compel Oregon Health & Science University to release footage of experiments on monkeys at its Oregon National Primate Research Center.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Nearly 5,000 students and faculty members have taken advantage of free vaccine booster shots at Philadelphia’s Temple University as the school tries to contain a mumps outbreak.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Rhode Island has crowned its 2019 “Cherry Blossom Princess,” Margaret Rogers of East Providence.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: A bill offering the Carolina Panthers about $120 million in tax breaks to move its team headquarters and practice facility to South Carolina has slowed down. Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian of Columbia says he won’t let it come to a vote until he gets more information, including a cost-benefit analysis from the state Department of Commerce.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A Sioux Falls woman recently visited the Oh My Cupcakes! bakery, her favorite, on the premise that she had won free cupcakes, but she left the shop with an engagement ring. Paige TeGantvoort, 24, opened the box to find that her name was written on one cupcake, while the rest read “Will you marry me?” She turned around to find boyfriend Chase Weeden, 27, on one knee.

TENNESSEE Chattanooga: Firefighters were responding to a medical emergency on state Route 153 when a fire came to them. The firefighters were on a bridge over the Chickamauga Dam on Friday helping put a man in an ambulance when a flaming truck pulled up next to them hauling a trailer loaded with wood. They quickly suited up and put out the fire.

TEXAS Austin: The University of Texas has suspended its spirit team for six years after an investigation found that a student death could have been avoided if a team retreat marked by hazing had been better managed.

VERMONT St. Albans: One Vermont maple syrup maker’s season isn’t so sweet after 140 of his sap-collecting buckets were stolen off maple trees.

VIRGINIA Richmond: Hundreds of city public schools employees will get an extra week of vacation, thanks to an administrative error.

WASHINGTON Seattle: A new men’s shelter was to open Sunday with a focus on serving the homeless and those suffering with mental health and substance abuse issues.

WEST VIRGINIA Wheeling: A private college in financial crisis says it is cutting more than half its programs next year. Wheeling Jesuit University offered about 30 academic programs this year; next fall, it will offer only 11.

WISCONSIN Whitewater: The state Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater are working together to find a way to save one of the state’s rarest plants, Fassett’s locoweed.

WYOMING Yellowstone National Park: Some roads in Yellowstone National Park have opened to bicyclists willing to brave the unpredictable spring weather and other potential hazards. From staff and wire reports