Across the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Birmingham: Work is beginning on a business park that promoters say could mean about 1,200 jobs east of downtown. Officials held a groundbreaking Thursday for Grand River Technology Park, off Interstate 20 near Leeds. It’s planned as a regional site for research, development and light manufacturing.

ALASKA Anchorage: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has extended its deadline to Feb. 28 to review comments submitted for a draft environmental review of the proposed Pebble Mine in the Bristol Bay region.

ARIZONA Scottsdale: A third-grade instuctor for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community is the first Native American to be named the Arizona Education Foundation’s teacher of the year. Lynette Stant works at Salt River Elementary, a Bureau of Indian Education school.

ARKANSAS Yellville: Officials say a hunter died after he was attacked by a deer that he’d shot and believed to be dead. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens says the agency recommends waiting at least 30 minutes before approaching shot animals.

CALIFORNIA Westminster: The remains of 81 South Vietnamese soldiers shot down in 1965 alongside American service members have been interred at Westminster Memorial Park. Richard Spencer, secretary of the U.S. Navy, joined local officials for a procession and ceremony Saturday just outside Little Saigon in Orange County.

COLORADO Denver: A doctor fired by a Christian hospital company after trying to help a terminally ill man obtain drugs to hasten his death, as allowed by state law, has a new job with a community health center. The Denver Post reports Dr. Barbara Morris, a geriatrician, has accepted a job with Stride Community Health Center in Lakewood.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: The city is considering turning five residential streets into “bicycle boulevards.” The Hartford Courant reports the city will hold public meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss repurposing the roads for use mostly by bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

DELAWARE Wilmington: The City Council violated state law when it barred a man from speaking at one of its public meetings last month, the Delaware Department of Justice announced Friday in an opinion.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: President Donald Trump’s company is exploring the sale of its Pennsylvania Avenue hotel, which has been at the center of three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency. The Trump Organization said in a statement Friday that it will consider offers to buy it out of a 60year lease of the building.

FLORIDA Key West: The often-decadent Fantasy Fest 10-day event wrapped up over the weekend, bringing flair to this island town.

GEORGIA Atlanta: Overall grades for the state’s schools fell in the 20182019 school year, with two state leaders repeating their call to overhaul grading methods.

HAWAII Honolulu: A judge says a 93-year-old Native Hawaiian heiress doesn’t need a guardian to take care of her but is ordering a hearing to determine whether she needs a conservator to manage her $215 million trust. Abigail Kawananakoa’s wealth has been tied up in a legal battle since her 2017 stroke. She’s considered a princess because she’s a descendant of the family that ruled Hawaii before the 1893 overthrow.

IDAHO Challis: Officials say they plan to use a helicopter to capture 365 wild horses in the area in early November to reduce the number of horses to about 185.

ILLINOIS Springfield: The Illinois State Museum returned 42 culturally significant items to representatives of two Aboriginal communities in a ceremony last week. A University of Chicago anthropologist who worked in Australia to record indigenous languages had collected the items between 1929 and 1931.

INDIANA Elkhart: Elkhart Municipal Airport’s parking ramp for aircraft will undergo a half-million-dollar repaving job after two jets sank into the too-soft asphalt over the summer.

IOWA Knoxville: A woman has died after an explosion at a gender reveal party created debris that hit her.

KANSAS Topeka: State legislators went too far by criminalizing violent language not backed up by an intent to act, the state’s highest court ruled Friday.

KENTUCKY Burgin: The Federal Aviation Administration says a mysterious object that seemingly dropped from the sky and damaged a mobile home didn’t come from an airplane. Tommy Woosley says a heavy, nearly footlong canister-type object hit his home two weeks ago.

LOUISIANA New Orleans: Former Mayor Mitch Landrieu is tackling the race issue. A report called “Divided by Design,” released Friday, says segregation and inequality remain major barriers to advancement for many and notes widespread, conflicting views on racism among racial groups.

MAINE West Gardiner: Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday unveiled a new fast-charging station for electric vehicles at the Maine Turnpike plaza in West Gardiner, saying it was funded through federal Volkswagen settlement money.

MARYLAND Berlin: A 14-year-old girl has adopted all 75 ponies from the Maryland herd of Assateague Island ponies. Zoe Newman is the first person ever to foster every horse in the herd. The symbolic adoptions provide the Assateague Island National Seashore with education and herd management funds.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: A new study from the University of Massachusetts is recommending state officials address gambling addiction in Asian American communities.

MICHIGAN Lansing: A University of Michigan law school study finds few of the state’s residents are taking advantage of a legal option that allows people to erase their criminal convictions, even though an expungement can open doors to housing, student loans and employment.

MINNESOTA Duluth: A homeless man who pleaded guilty to starting a fire that destroyed a 117-year-old synagogue last month has been sentenced to three months in jail and 192 hours of community service.

MISSISSIPPI Taylor: The site of an elementary school that served black children during segregation is set to become a park. The Oxford Eagle reports the plans for the park at the site of Weems Elementary were approved last week by the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors.

MISSOURI Sparta: The mayor of this tiny town says its hand-activated tornado warning siren needs to be retired. Mayor Jenni Davis is the only person in the town of 1,900 authorized to activate the tornado siren, which created trouble last week as a twister approached.

MONTANA West Glacier: Crews have completed the two-year, nearly $9 million effort of reconstructing the historic Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park after it was gutted by a wildfire.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: A former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy was chosen Friday as the top candidate to become the next president of the University of Nebraska system. The university Board of Regents voted unanimously to nominate Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. as their priority candidate.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Police say a woman who was angered when she was kicked out of the Cannery casino intentionally drove her motorhome into the building, injuring a custodian outside.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Hampstead:

Parents and other visitors to schools in the town are no longer allowed to bring guns onto school property. The Legislature passed a bill this year that would have banned most guns from school grounds statewide, but Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed it.

NEW JERSEY West Long Branch:

The personal stories of people who survived Superstorm Sandy are an integral part of a new art exhibit remembering the deadly storm and the devastation it caused seven years ago. The Monmouth University exhibit also includes an obelisk made from slices from trees that fell during the storm, each inch representing 2,703 lost housing units.

NEW YORK New York: New Yorkers are flocking to greet a new arrival to the city – Wegmans grocery store. The popular regional chain officially opened its first New York City outpost Sunday, a 74,000-square-foot store at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with more than 500 employees.

NORTH CAROLINA Rodanthe: Researchers say they’re seeing a growing number of great white sharks off the coast of the state’s Outer Banks. The Raleigh News & Observer reports four sharks with tracking devices have “pinged” in recent days.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: Democrats in the state Senate have joined the call for a senator to resign his leadership position in the wake of his Facebook posts targeting a Muslim U.S. congresswoman from Minnesota. The Bismarck Tribune reports Democratic senators wrote a letter Thursday to Sen. Oley Larsen, a Minot Republican, asking that he relinquish his position as president pro tempore.

OHIO Columbus: Thousands of acres in eastern Ohio that the state says it’s buying to promote recreation and conservation may still be drilled for oil and natural gas. The Columbus Dispatch reports a draft purchase agreement shows American Electric Power will retain subsurface rights to more than 31,000 acres it’s selling to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for $47 million.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A second police officer has testified that an unarmed man wasn’t a threat when a fellow officer fatally shot him after the victim called 911 threatening suicide. Keith Sweeney is charged with murder in the 2017 killing of 29-year-old Dustin Pigeon, who was apparently trying to set himself on fire with lighter fluid when police arrived.

OREGON Portland: The state’s LGBTQ community has updated rights to equal treatment under an executive order signed by Gov. Kate Brown. America’s first openly bisexual governor said a 1987 order needed to be updated to reflect current law and understandings about sexual orientation and gender identity.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: An internal review of the state’s parole system spurred by five parolees getting charged in quick succession with homicide is, in theory, acknowledging a long-standing complaint of parole agents. It asks lawmakers to update a 2012 law and add a trigger for an automatic six-month to one-year jail sentence for a parolee who continually ignores parole conditions.

RHODE ISLAND Exeter: A memorial was dedicated Saturday for 97 firefighters who have died in the line of duty in the state since the 1800s. North Kingstown Fire Chief Scott Kettelle says firefighters raised more than $300,000 for the memorial at the state Fire Training Academy.

SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia: The state is again requiring all sex offenders to stay inside with their outside lights off and not give out trick-or-treat candy on Halloween.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: The state Transportation Commission has passed rules for truck platooning. The practice links trucks in a convoy, using connected technology and automated driving support systems.

TENNESSEE Erwin: The town is preparing to auction off a herd of brightly painted elephant statues that recall a dark day in local history. The Johnson City Press reports the auction is part of a community initiative called the Erwin Elephant Revival. It honors a circus elephant named Mary who was hanged in 1916 after she killed her trainer.

TEXAS College Station: A charity that trains service dogs for disabled veterans has commissioned a statue of the late George H.W. Bush’s service dog for the 41st president’s library. America’s VetDogs has commissioned sculptor Susan Bahary to create the bronze statue of Sully, the yellow Labrador golden retriever who assisted the former president for the last six months of his life.

UTAH Salt Lake City: A rule that would have allowed ATVs on certain roads in the five national parks in the state has been rescinded by the National Park Service.

VERMONT Norwich: The town lost almost $250,000 in an email scam. A report released by Norwich details how Finance Director Donna Flies ignored instructions to stop unauthorized payments from municipal accounts, believing emails requesting large sums of money were from her boss, Town Manager Herb Durfee.

VIRGINIA Lynchburg: A poet and civil rights activist from the city will be honored in the U.S. Postal Service’s 2020 Forever stamp series. Anne Spencer, who died in 1975, is included in the recently unveiled “Voices of the Harlem Renaissance” series.

WASHINGTON Seattle: Sound Transit board members have abandoned ideas for a $450 million tunnel into the city’s historic central Ballard, a $200 million bored tunnel through West Seattle’s Pigeon Point neighborhood, and a fully elevated trackway in Sodo that would have blocked light-rail travel during construction. The Seattle Times reports cheaper options that serve the same number of passengers and will still cost hundreds of millions of dollars will now gain momentum during environmental studies.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Inmates in state prisons now have access to specially designed tablet computers. The Register-Herald reports the tablets are provided at no cost to taxpayers by Global Tel Link through its inmate banking services contract with the prison system.

WISCONSIN Madison: University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross is retiring. The 71-year-old has served in the role since 2014.

WYOMING Jackson: The Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation reports 28 moose were killed on roads in Teton County from May 2018 through April 2019, the most since 2010-2011.