Across the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Montgomery: The state’s tourism agency has been honored for its work promoting civil rights travel in 14 states. The office was presented with an award recognizing its marketing for the U.S. Civil Rights Trail at an industry trade show in London.
ALASKA Anchorage: Warm temperatures and an abundance of food are keeping bears out of their dens. KTVA reports the Department of Fish and Game warns people to be aware of bears that haven’t begun hibernating.
ARIZONA Phoenix: The Arizona Sikh Community has donated 550 trees to low-income neighborhoods. Local Sikh leaders gathered Sunday with Mayor Kate Gallego and other officials for a tree dedication ceremony.
ARKANSAS Pine Bluff: Mold contamination is so high at an election office in Jefferson County that officials are considering moving.
CALIFORNIA San Francisco: The head of Bay Area Rapid Transit has apologized to a black rider who was detained and cited by police for eating on a train platform after an outcry from people who assailed the selective enforcement as racist.
COLORADO Denver: A state law banning the sale and transfer of largecapacity gun magazines has not stopped the practice. An investigation by 9Wants to Know found examples of gun stores ignoring the law altogether or finding a loophole.
CONNECTICUT Waterford: Environmental groups plan to remove a 1970s dam that has blocked alewife herring from returning from the ocean to freshwater spawning grounds. DELAWARE Wilmington: The Central YMCA downtown will end its housing program for the homeless next spring, cutting 41 guaranteed beds.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Authorities say a man was walking his 4-month-old pit bull when he was robbed of the puppy at gunpoint.
FLORIDA Inverness: Controversy over a county commission blocking a library system from having a digital subscription to the New York Times has spilled over into tourism. The Citrus County Chronicle reports people are canceling trips to the county.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Enrollment at the state’s public colleges and universities is rising again, led by its largest schools. The University System of Georgia reports total enrollment rose 1.5% in fall 2019 from fall 2018.
HAWAII Honolulu: A public health study by University of Hawaii researchers found Native Hawaiians have 14 fewer years of healthy life than other ethnic groups in the state. IDAHO Boise: Federal officials have released a final plan for five open-pit phosphate mines and reclamation work proposed by J.R. Simplot Co.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving Legal Aid Chicago $30,000 to educate farmworkers about and to do research on pesticides.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The state is bringing an exhibition exploring the opioid crisis to the Indiana State Museum early next year. The Indiana Business Journal reports more than 1,700 people in the state died from drug overdoses in 2017. IOWA Fort Madison: A monument marking a battlefield where 23 soldiers died has been installed.
KANSAS Wichita: A cold front that froze much of the state set at least six record lows early Tuesday.
KENTUCKY Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area: The war on feral hogs at Land Between the Lakes has escalated, with plans announced this week to shoot them on sight from helicopters.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The state’s social services agency says 893 children in foster care were adopted over the past year. The Department of Children and Family Services says that’s the secondhighest number of adoptions from foster care in a year in state history.
MAINE Bucksport: A company that intends to create a salmon farm at a former paper mill site is altering the plan to avoid a 19th-century farm that was identified during an archaeological survey.
MARYLAND Westover: Officials gathered over the weekend for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Somerset County Technical High School. The building is eco-friendly and energy efficient, including a “vegetated roof” in some areas to provide insulation.
MASSACHUSETTS Boston: Medical marijuana products are set to become exempt from the state’s fourmonth vaping materials ban.
MICHIGAN East Lansing: A new Michigan State University exhibit is built around a 20th-century guidebook that a generation of black motorists used during the segregation era. The exhibit for “The Negro Motorists’ Green Book” runs until the end of November.
MINNESOTA St. Cloud: The city broke the record Monday for the date’s coldest high temperature – just 16 degrees.
MISSISSIPPI Oxford: The University of Mississippi says a lecture by conservative journalist Elisha Krauss is back on after initially being canceled.
MISSOURI St. Louis: A 12-year-old girl has died from injuries suffered last month when a St. Louis County patrol vehicle struck her.
MONTANA Kalispell: Park officials have closed public comment on a road management plan. The Flathead Beacon reports Glacier National Park officials will begin weighing comments to try to mitigate congestion on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
NEBRASKA Lincoln: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is planning construction of a reflection area for its Veterans’ Tribute project.
NEVADA Reno: Federal land managers have withdrawn more than 500 square miles of public land from a swath of eastern Nevada where oil and gas drilling leases went to auction this week after a judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to ease protection of sage grouse habitat.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Portsmouth: A bridge has been replaced and rededicated to George Laderbush, a World War II submarine crew member who died when the vessel sank in 1944. NEW JERSEY Toms River: Police say a convertible traveling at high speed went airborne and crashed into the second floor of a building, killing both of the car’s occupants.
NEW MEXICO Santa Clara Pueblo: Federal officials say the pueblo will see an increase in federal disaster aid as it continues to recover from flooding several years ago. A significant portion of Santa Clara Pueblo’s watershed was wiped out by wildfire in 2011 and subsequent flooding.
NEW YORK Albany: The state’s court system says it plans to expand gender options on jury documents in an effort to be more inclusive.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: Education officials had to warn parents not to use Google to search for Four Oaks Middle School and South Johnston High School over the weekend because the results included explicit images.
NORTH DAKOTA Grand Forks: A break-in at a sorority house at the University of North Dakota has some students on edge. Police are looking for a man who broke into the Gamma Phi Beta house early Monday and took pictures of a woman who was sleeping.
OHIO Columbus: Tree farmers are joining forces with the state to send a little holiday cheer to troops. The Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Christmas Tree Association are partnering on an effort that will ship more than 100 Christmas trees to military members stationed overseas.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A group working to reduce the state’s prison population is launching a new initiative petition that could lead to the release of hundreds more inmates.
OREGON Portland: A Portland State University study found tiny pieces of plastic in the vast majority of razor clams and oysters sampled along the state’s coast. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports up to 700,000 of the microscopic fibers are shed by yoga pants, fleeces and other active outerwear made of synthetic textiles.
PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: The family of an inmate who died in jail two years ago claims guards and medical professionals ignored and ridiculed his distress but documented his agony. A federal lawsuit filed by the mother of Shawn Kitchen blames Clinton County, jail officials and medical staff for mishandling what began as a urinary tract infection and led to a fatal kidney infection.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Brown University has announced plans to double the number of veterans it enrolls by changing admissions policies, increasing financial support and bolstering recruitment.
SOUTH CAROLINA Clemson: Clemson University and WYFF 4 Greenville are partnering to create an oncampus satellite news bureau.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: Visiting and camping in state parks will be a little more costly after legislators gave a proposed fee increase the final OK.
TENNESSEE Lynchburg: The distillery that produces Jack Daniel’s whiskey is once again teaming up with a military support group to help service members and their families get home for the holidays through the “Operation Ride Home” campaign.
UTAH Salt Lake City: City officials have bought more than 100 new hybrid sedans for the police department, but some warn they’re too small for use as patrol cars.
VERMONT Montpelier: The state auditor says numerous questionable choices were made in the administration of a remote worker program aimed at paying new residents to move to the Green Mountain state.
VIRGINIA Richmond: Confederate monuments could soon start coming down after Democrats won control of the General Assembly. Members of the new legislative majority say they plan to revive proposals to make it easier to remove such statues.
WASHINGTON Seattle: A new federal lawsuit aims to kill plans for building one of the world’s biggest methanol refineries along the Columbia River.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: West Virginians are being told to be on the lookout for spotted lanternflies.
WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Tony Evers has signed an executive order designed to promote diversity and inclusiveness in state government. WYOMING Cheyenne: An interim legislative committee has rejected a proposal to raise state property taxes.