Around the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Montgomery: A team of students and professors at the University of Alabama is trying to determine how much untreated sewage gets dumped in the state’s Black Belt from “straight pipe” systems.

ALASKA Anchorage: Scientists who study the northern Bering Sea say they’re seeing changed ocean conditions that were projected by climate models – but not until 2050.

ARIZONA Phoenix: State regulators want to adopt a rule to prohibit hunting contests that give prizes for killing the most predatory and fur-bearing animals or for killing the largest variety of those animals.

ARKANSAS Fayetteville: A new policy rule at the University of Arkansas says students who have other people complete their course work will fail and be suspended for a semester.

CALIFORNIA Santa Rosa: Authorities say part of a giant hammer stolen last year has been returned. The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa reports a local attorney told Healdsburg police Thursday that someone had left the hammerhead portion on Sonoma County property owned by a client.

COLORADO Denver: The state became the 15th in the nation Friday to adopt a “red flag” gun law allowing firearms to be taken from people who pose a danger, securing a deeply emotional victory for an Aurora shooting victim’s father who’s now a first-term state representative.

CONNECTICUT New Haven: Scientists are launching a new effort to track and monitor ticks. The Hartford Courant reports the program by the state Agricultural Experiment Station involves trapping ticks for testing at 40 locations in all eight counties.

DELAWARE Dover: The new state auditor says she has filled 12 positions this year after walking into an office with a 50% vacancy rate. The Delaware State News reports auditor Kathleen McGuiness says that “mandates were going unfilled” because of a lack of staff.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: A second live naked mole rat webcam has been added at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, WUSA-TV reports.

FLORIDA Alachua: A large, flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea attacked and killed its owner when the man fell on his farm, authorities say. The Alachua County Fire Rescue Department told the Gainesville Sun a cassowary killed the man Friday on the property near Gainesville, likely with its long claws. The victim was apparently breeding the birds, state wildlife officials said.

GEORGIA Macon: Some residents are seeing dollar signs as HBO films a new TV series in the city. WMAZ-TV reports production crews are preparing an area of downtown to serve as a backdrop for “Watchmen,” based on the acclaimed DC Comics series from 1986. The production means $150 a day for some residents for the inconvenience and $17,000 for the city.

HAWAII Hilo: A language professor has given a Hawaiian name – Powehi – to the black hole depicted in an image produced in a landmark experiment. University of Hawaii-Hilo Hawaiian Professor Larry Kimura named the cosmic object, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. Powehi means “the adorned fathomless dark creation” or “embellished dark source of unending creation” and comes from the Kumulipo, an 18th-century Hawaiian creation chant.

IDAHO Payette: A U.S. post office in this small town has been named after National Baseball Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew.

ILLINOIS Chicago: Democratic lawmakers want to expand a statewide embargo on private prisons to include detention centers with federal contracts to hold immigrants.

INDIANA Indianapolis: Marion County is launching a needle exchange program that will enlist a vehicle the size of a small school bus to combat the city’s soaring hepatitis C rate by distributing clean syringes and collecting used ones. The vehicle will begin visiting two east side Indianapolis neighborhoods this week.

IOWA Council Bluffs: The city has received a Tree City USA Award from the Arbor Day Foundation and Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

KANSAS Kansas City: The state has abandoned a Prohibition-era rule that restricted certain stores to sell beer only with up to 3.2% alcohol, but the stronger beer that’s now allowed doesn’t contain much more alcohol. Kansas now lets groceries and convenience stores stock beer with up to 6% alcohol. The old law measured alcohol by weight, but it’s now measured by volume, the Kansas City Star reports.

KENTUCKY Louisville: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the state’s plan to meet federal air pollutant and visibility requirements around Mammoth Cave National Park.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: The New Orleans African American Museum has reopened after being closed for six years. The museum, a showplace of art and historical artifacts relating to the city’s African American heritage, first opened in 2000 and closed in 2013 for financial reasons.

MAINE Augusta: The first female governor in the state’s history has signed a bill designed to improve pay equality. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed the legislation Friday that proponents say will help shrink the wage gap because it discourages employers from basing wages on an employee’s salary history.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Motorists using two well-traveled bridges soon won’t be able to pay with coins or bills. Transportation officials say tolls on the Francis Scott Key and Thomas J. Hatem Memorial bridges will go cashless this year.

MASSACHUSETTS Cambridge: Parents whose children fatally overdosed on opioids are demanding Harvard University remove the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin from a building that housed one of its art museums. About two dozen parents protested Friday outside the building that was home to the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

MICHIGAN Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History is reopening to the public in its new building.

MINNESOTA St. Cloud: A high school swimming coach is working to introduce the sport to more students of color and students with disabilities. Apollo High School coach Alex Badger is running a spring camp for students in grades 3-8 intended to encourage those who might not have been involved in swimming to try the sport.

MISSISSIPPI Jackson: Residents of the Belhaven neighborhood are confused by unexplained bowls of mashed potatoes they’re finding on their cars, porches and mailboxes.

MONTANA Helena: The head of the Professional Bull Riders Association thinks state lawmakers really stepped in it when they rejected a measure to recognize the fourth Saturday in July as the “National Day of the Cowboy.” Professional Bull Riders Association CEO Sean Gleason says he “has a burr in his saddle” after the state House vote and considered moving next year’s PBR event from Billings.

NEBRASKA Omaha: The state Republican Party says a Jesuit college, Creighton University, should rescind its invitation asking a former governor and U.S. senator, Bob Kerrey, to speak at its commencement, citing his position on abortion supporting the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

NEVADA Carson City: A church has donated $10,000 to local high school teachers and support staff in $50 increments. The Nevada Appeal reports Pastor Chris White from Fountain Foursquare Church presented workers $50 each this week at a faculty meeting in the Carson City High School library. Every teacher, custodian, kitchen worker, counselor and faculty member received the money and was asked to “pay that forward” if possible, then tell the church about their choice.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Hooksett: The New Hampshire Food Bank is starting its annual “Nothing Campaign,” aimed at raising awareness and funds in an effort to end hunger. People can buy the cans of “nothing” for $5 each at participating supermarkets. Each can bought provides 10 meals and can be returned with donations.

NEW JERSEY Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday signed legislation making the state the seventh to enact a law permitting terminally ill patients to end their lives.

NEW MEXICO Los Alamos: Officials at one of the nation’s top nuclear weapons laboratories say a special indoor facility for shipping radioactive waste is back in operation after five years. Los Alamos National Laboratory says the first shipment was sent off last week to the government’s nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico.

NEW YORK New York: Many jobseekers would no longer face tests for marijuana use under legislation that New York City is likely to enact, taking a novel step as lawmakers and employers around the country grapple with workplace policies about pot.

NORTH CAROLINA Goldsboro: All the roads in the state that were closed by Hurricane Florence are now open. It took seven months after the storm’s historic rains and flooding before the last of 2,500 road closure sites reopened.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The Legislature has handed Gov. Doug Burgum his first veto setback since taking office. The House voted 89-3 on Friday to override the first-term Republican governor’s veto of a bill he has called “legislative overreach.” Senators had voted unanimously to override Burgum’s veto Thursday of the bill that defines the authority of a group of legislators known as the budget section.

OHIO Cleveland: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thinks a proposed expansion would be music to the ears of patrons of the museum and a nearby science center. The rock museum on the edge of Lake Erie is seeking a renewable lease on an acre of city-owned land that separates the museum from the Great Lakes Science Center.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt has taken a shot at the “American Ninja Warrior” obstacle course outside the Capitol. Organizers of the reality TV show say the 47-year-old ex-CEO is the first governor to give the course a try. He bloodied an elbow completing a rope swing to a landing pad after jumping across a pool of water. A spokeswoman says he finished two of three obstacles.

OREGON Salem: Gov. Kate Brown has released her plan to pay down the state’s $26 billion pension debt. She says she wants to raise $3.3 billion over the next 16 years by taking money from other streams of revenue. She’s also asking teachers to contribute a portion of their pay to the fund.

PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: The handwritten notification of President Abraham Lincoln’s death is being offered for sale by a local documents dealer. Nathan Raab, president of the Raab Collection, says the telegram was thought to be lost.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Municipalities in the state have been awarded nearly $25 million in federal funding to help revitalize local neighborhoods and support economic development and affordable housing.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Federal officials say they oversaw a test last week of a jamming technology some hope will help combat the threat posed by inmates with smuggled cellphones. Department of Justice officials say the test took place at a maximum-security prison.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A 94year-old World War II veteran who’s legally blind is not one to back away from a challenge. Navy veteran Warren Heyer, of Sioux Falls, recently went downhill skiing at a special winter sports clinic.

TENNESSEE Memphis: A coyote’s venture into the city’s downtown took an unexpected turn when it got stuck inside a wall in the Memphis Convention Center. An officer with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency rescued the trapped coyote.

TEXAS San Antonio: Hundreds of airmen will line the main entrance of Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on Thursday to salute as the family of the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders arrives for his memorial service. Retired Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole died Tuesday at the age of 103.

UTAH Provo: Several hundred students at Mormon-owned Brigham Young University chanted, “If God forgives me, why can’t you?” during a protest Friday aimed at pushing officials to be more compassionate with punishments for violators of rules banning things including drinking, premarital sex, beards and piercings.

VERMONT Underhill: A local girl isn’t happy that her disabled pet chicken was joked about on “Saturday Night Live.” The chicken, named Granite Heart, is learning to walk with a custom wheelchair. On a recent “SNL” episode, “Weekend Update” co-host Colin Jost said she should “just eat the chicken.” Alora Wood, 10, tells NECN-TV that she knows the segment was meant to be a joke but asks what the reaction would’ve been if the animal in question were a dog.

VIRGINIA Blacksburg: Virginia Tech has named its second-oldest building for an enslaved family whose history was in danger of being forgotten. The Roanoke Times reports a three-room home near the Duck Pond is now named the Fraction Family House.

WASHINGTON Olympia: A bill establishing a network of regional school safety centers and a threat assessment program has cleared its second floor vote in the Legislature.

WEST VIRGINIA Richwood: Glen Facemire, owner of what may be the world’s only ramp farm and the state’s top promoter of the aromatic herb, is planning to hang up his hoe, and he’s looking for a successor, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports.

WISCONSIN Madison: U.S. lawmakers from the state have introduced a bill that seeks to elevate the status of two trails. Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the legislation would designate the Ice Age and North Country national scenic trails as units of the National Park Service.

WYOMING Cheyenne: SkyWest Airlines has won the initial bidding for a state contract to provide commercial air service to as many as four cities.