50 States
ALABAMA Montgomery: The state could become the next to require third graders to pass a reading benchmark before moving to fourth grade. The House Education Policy Committee advanced legislation to that effect Wednesday.
ALASKA Bethel: Two Alaska Native tribes say the governor’s administration won’t consult directly with them on proposed projects. Alaska’s Energy Desk reports the Orutsararmiut Native Council and the Chilkat Indian Village say attempts to work with Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration have been rejected.
ARIZONA Mesa: A motorist was stopped by an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper in the HOV lane of a freeway with a mannequin in the passenger seat Wednesday morning, according to a DPS tweet.
ARKANSAS Russellville: A gambling company says it is partnering with the Hard Rock International brand to build a resort in Pope County, but the proposal faces legal hurdles.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A new program in Los Angeles County uses electronic tracking bracelets to help find people with dementia or autism who go missing.
COLORADO Denver: Police have begun using launchable GPS trackers that can attach to fleeing vehicles in an effort to reduce dangerous chases.
CONNECTICUT New London: A man attacked by a rabid bobcat while golfing doesn’t remember much about the incident but says he can still see “this miserable animal coming at me.” Mike Popkowski tells The Day he was on the seventh hole of the Mohegan Sun Golf Club in Sprague when the bobcat jumped on his back and bit his left arm and shoulder while clawing his head.
DELAWARE Dover: State officials won’t allow popular Colorado-based restaurant chain Illegal Pete’s to convert to a Delaware limited liability company because the company’s name has “a negative connotation,” according to a federal lawsuit filed this week.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: American supporters of embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are being warned to end a sit-in protest at the country’s shuttered embassy in the U.S. capital.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: Legislation to restore voting rights to convicted felons except murderers and felony sex offenders, as approved by voters in the November election, has passed the state House.
GEORGIA Columbus: Former President Jimmy Carter and the family behind a camouflage supply store recently went turkey hunting in the city. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Tyler Jordan of Realtree posted about the hunt on Instagram last week, saying Carter was “still bustin’ beaks” at 94.
HAWAII Wailuku: The Maui County Council is considering a resolution to settle a long-standing legal case over the environmental effect of wastewater pumped into injection wells.
IDAHO Boise: Officials with the Idaho Oil and Gas Conservation Commission have vacated an order forcing landowners to sell their natural gas and oil to an energy company following a ruling from a federal judge who found the officials violated the U.S. Constitution.
ILLINOIS Springfield: Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he has “no concerns at all” about a report that federal authorities are investigating a property tax break he got by taking toilets out of a Chicago mansion he owns.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The U.S. president and vice president, country musician Alan Jackson, protesters and up to 80,000 gun-rights enthusiasts will be downtown this weekend for the National Rifle Association’s 148th annual convention.
IOWA Ankeny: MidAmerican Energy is pushing for new rules that could put a screeching halt to the booming market for solar power.
KANSAS Topeka: The state attorney general’s office found that roughly half the participants in certified intervention programs to break cycles of domestic violence dropped out last year.
KENTUCKY Frankfort: Gov. Matt Bevin hasn’t won many popularity contests since being elected in 2015. But now he’s snagged the bottom spot among all U.S. governors in a poll by Morning Consult, which found 33% of state voters approved of Bevin, while 52% didn’t.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: State lawmakers are debating whether to ratify the long-stalled Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a proposal that has taken its first legislative step with a vote by a Senate panel.
MAINE Augusta: The state’s first female governor is backing an effort to change laws that refer to the governor and state justices as “he,” “him” or “his.”
MARYLAND Baltimore: Federal agents raided the homes and City Hall offices of the embattled mayor Thursday amid dramatically widening investigations into whether Catherine Pugh used bulk sales of her obscure self-published children’s books to disguise kickbacks. Gov. Larry Hogan joined calls for her immediate resignation.
Salem: The Satanic Temple says it’s been designated a tax-exempt church by the Internal Revenue Service.
MICHIGAN Detroit: Musician Jack White is set to receive an honorary degree next month from Wayne State University, which he attended for a semester in 1994.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: Republicans who control the state Senate have unveiled a tax bill they say will benefit all taxpayers and provide tax cuts to half of them.
MISSISSIPPI Biloxi: With officials saying some came not for mudbugs but for melees, the city’s crawfish festival is revoking free admission after Wednesday night fights.
MISSOURI Berkeley: A lawsuit claims that billboards towering over an African American cemetery in suburban St. Louis desecrate the memory of the people buried there.
MONTANA Helena: It’s getting to be near the end of a meandering, dusty trail for the National Day of the Cowboy resolution. The Senate on Thursday passed the third reading of the proposal 43-7.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Three years after voters in the state reinstated the death penalty, lawmakers have rejected a new attempt to abolish it.
NEVADA Carson City: Gov. Steve Sisolak is donating his paycheck to the state’s public schools and passed along his first quarterly check for $24,654.79 this week.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Hanover: A team of Dartmouth College engineering students has won a NASA competition that sought innovative ideas for the design of a greenhouse on Mars.
NEW JERSEY Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy has signed two bills aimed at helping student loan borrowers facing financial hardships.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: The U.S. Forest Service is performing another round of thinning in mountains east of the city to reduce the potential for extreme wildfires.
NEW YORK Albany: Farm owners are warning lawmakers that legislation that would give farm workers the right to organize to demand better wages and conditions could devastate the state’s agricultural economy.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: The state’s poet laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, is one of 13 in the country to receive the first Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow awards.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: A citizen group has drafted a proposed ballot measure that aims to restrict the Legislature from making it tougher for voters to change the constitution.
OHIO Columbus: The state is looking for members of the public with expertise in aviation and aerospace technology to serve on a panel.
OKLAHOMA Tahlequah: Mack Vann, among the last members of the Cherokee Nation who spoke and understood only the Cherokee language, has died at the age of 88.
OREGON Salem: The state House has approved a statewide ban on singleuse plastic shopping bags.
PENNSYLVANIA Wynnewood: Police say two men and a woman broke into a hospital and stole $450,000 worth of colonoscopy instruments.
RHODE ISLAND South Kingstown: A hot air balloon festival is coming to an end after 40 years because it has become too expensive to run and has nowhere to stage. Organizers say last year’s South County Balloon Festival was the last.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: Lawmakers are considering legislation that would add firing squads to the state’s execution methods.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Spring planting is getting underway in the state, helped by a wet spring.
TEXAS El Paso: The El Paso Zoo staff is gushing about babies after two new ocelots were born.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A team at the University of Utah is working with regulators to keep future drone traffic in check using a video game.
VERMONT Montpelier: A bill to tax and regulate marijuana faces an uncertain future, with Republican Gov. Phil Scott insisting that it include a saliva test to determine driver impairment and key lawmakers questioning whether a reliable test exists.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The House of Delegates has finished a searchable website that has biographical sketches of every lawmaker who’s served in the body in the past 400 years.
WASHINGTON Olympia: Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a measure aimed at keeping youth who send sexually explicit texts from being charged under adult sex crime laws.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit over the 2015 landslide that collapsed a runway safety overrun at Yeager Airport. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the airport won $14.8 million.
Milwaukee: The city is on the hunt for a new flag. Aldermen at City Hall moved Thursday to go back to the drawing board and look for a new designer, despite a yearslong effort by advocates of the “People’s Flag of Milwaukee.”
Jackson: High housing costs have the commission that oversees the state Game and Fish Department considering moving its workforce out of the region. The Jackson Hole News and Guide reports Commissioner Patrick Crank said the agency can no longer afford to live in the “land of the billionaires.”