STATES Across the nation

News from every state.

Mayor Steven Reed was sworn in Tuesday as the capital city’s first black leader.

The city was well represented in pageants this year – the newly crowned Miss Alaska USA 2020 and Miss Alaska Teen USA ALABAMA ALASKA ARIZONA ARKANSAS 2020 Fairbanks: Phoenix: both Montgomery: Little hail Rock: from the city.

The state’s rural students are graduating from high school at one of the lowest rates in the nation, according to a new report.

The Democrat hoping to unseat U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton has dropped out of the race, citing a family health concern, hours after the filing deadline expired.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: A man who spent 11 years in prison for a series of armed robberies he didn’t commit was exonerated Tuesday. The courtroom erupted in applause as Ruben Martinez Jr. walked free.

COLORADO Boulder: The University of Colorado at Boulder says its live buffalo mascot, Ralphie V, will retire. She’ll live on a ranch alongside a companion buffalo.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: A new state report indicates consumers are remembering to bring their own bags to the supermarket. Revenue estimates project the new 10-cent fee for disposable plastic bags will generate far less than anticipated, but officials say that shows the policy is working.

DELAWARE Wilmington: Croda Inc., the company responsible for a toxic gas leak that shut down the Delaware Memorial Bridge for hours last November, has been given the go-ahead to restart its chemical plant along the Delaware River.

Washington:

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

At least half a dozen bars in D.C. have been screening the first public impeachment inquiry hearing into President Donald Trump’s Ukraine dealings and offering related specials.

FLORIDA Gainesville: Donald Trump isn’t the only president facing an impeachment inquiry. The student body president of the University of Florida is facing an impeachment threat for spending $50,000 in student fees to bring Trump’s eldest son and his girlfriend to campus.

GEORGIA Atlanta: The city is seeking an artist to create 30 drawings or paintings of the victims of the Atlanta child murders that terrorized the city in the 1970s and ’80s.

HAWAII Hilo: The Department of Land and Natural Resources is expected to seek legislative funding to establish ocean access at a boat ramp cut off by the Kilauea eruption.

IDAHO Challis: Nearly 300 wild horses have been captured as part of a plan by federal land managers to reduce the number of wild horses roaming the area to about 185.

ILLINOIS Springfield: The state’s environmental agency is enlisting fifth and sixth graders to educate people about how algae affects bodies of water using art or language. The theme for this year’s contest held by the Illinois Environment Protection Agency is “Algae: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly … How Can You Keep Your Local Pond Healthy?”

INDIANA Bloomington: Indiana University officials say enrollment in online courses has soared during the past decade across the school’s campuses even as overall student enrollment has dropped.

IOWA Iowa City: Regulators have recommended a nearly $73,000 fine against the Iowa Department of Human Services after finding serious workplace safety violations at a state-run psychiatric hospital.

KANSAS Topeka: The state transportation agency says Kansas hit a 10-year high for deer-related crashes last year.

KENTUCKY Winchester: A principal who once tried to ban books with what he deemed inappropriate content has been indicted on child pornography charges. News outlets report 54-year-old Phillip Todd Wilson faces 17 possession and distribution charges.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: The state’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation are creating four artificial reefs in Lake Borgne and the Mississippi Sound.

MAINE Lewiston: Regulators are investigating concerns about marijuana-related advertisements at a sports arena where some children play, Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

MARYLAND Baltimore: The Housing Authority of Baltimore City says it will soon stop accepting applications because over 14,000 people are already on a waitlist averaging a wait time of more than five years.

MASSACHUSETTS Uxbridge: The town’s Historical Commission got word last week that the Mrs. Nancy Adams Burial Site, marking the resting ground of a woman who escaped slavery three times, was accepted by the National Park Service into the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

MINNESOTA Minneapolis: More than half of the state’s lakes, rivers and streams don’t meet state pollution standards. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has added 581 waterways to its list of impaired waters in its biennial report to the Environmental Protection Agency.

MISSISSIPPI Greenwood: The Leflore County Humane Society has been over capacity for months, forcing it to stop taking in any animals brought in by the public.

MISSOURI St. Louis: NASA says a meteor seen streaking through the sky behind the Gateway Arch on Monday was a basketball-size hunk of rock that broke off from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

MONTANA Missoula: The state health department has adopted new rules to regulate private alternative residential treatment programs for troubled teens.

NEBRASKA Mitchell: Panhandle conservationists are building a coldwater trout stream in an effort to revive a trout-fishing tradition in this part of the state.

NEVADA Sparks: The Generator art space, known for cranking out Burning Man installations, has signed a three-year lease extension.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: The New Hampshire State Police is collecting new, unwrapped toys to support the U.S. Marine Corps with its annual Toys for Tots Campaign.

NEW JERSEY Newark: The state would become the second in the nation with a publicly run bank under an executive order Gov. Phil Murphy signed Wednesday.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: State officials want to spend an additional $8 million to ensure residents are not left out of the 2020 census.

NEW YORK Albany: The Empire State has raised the minimum age to buy tobacco and electronic cigarettes to 21 years old, from 18. The law went into effect Wednesday.

NORTH CAROLINA Cape Lookout:

A trio of castaway cows has been discovered on the Outer Banks, where they apparently washed up after swimming for miles to escape Hurricane Dorian’s storm surge.

NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: Kris Kristofferson surprised customers by performing at Dempsey’s Public House after a band taped a request to the singer-songwriter’s tour bus.

OHIO Columbus: Resuming the state’s attempt to allow cryptocurrency in tax payments is up in the air after the state’s top lawyer found a Bitcoin program launched by the former state treasurer was illegal.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: A gun rights activist accused of illegally taking a rifle into a restaurant is facing a felony charge. Police say Timothy A. Harper, 52, violated state law.

OREGON Salem: The Vietnam War Memorial proposed for the State Capitol grounds will incorporate six existing trees, including one with giant, almost human-like branches deemed “the embracing tree,” landscape designer Mike Abbate says.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Dauphin County is signaling that it won’t go along with Gov. Tom Wolf’s insistence that counties buy new voting systems as an election-security measure in 2020’s presidential election.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: Council members in Pawtucket, Providence and Woonsocket say they support a New York City program that has moved homeless families to their communities despite pushback from their mayors.

SOUTH CAROLINA Mount Pleasant:

Charleston County has paid $7.1 million to protect a nearly 340-year-old plantation from development. The Post and Courier reports the county now owns development rights to Boone Hall Plantation.

SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is asking for the state’s help to change an 1863 federal law that technically keeps the tribe from owning land in Minnesota.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Forestry officials say a strike team is being created to perform prescribed burning on public and private forest land in the Cumberland Plateau.

TEXAS Fort Worth: A state law that gives families 10 days to find a new hospital if they disagree with doctors who decide to take a patient off life support is under the spotlight after a judge halted a hospital’s plan to remove a 9-month-old girl from a ventilator against her family’s wishes.

UTAH Salt Lake City: State Rep. Phil Lyman has sued the Bureau of Land Management after he spent 10 days in jail for trespassing in an illegal ATV protest ride in a canyon in 2014.

VERMONT Clarendon: State agencies are using aerial drones to discover more about toxic chemical contamination underneath the Rutland Southern Vermont Regional Airport.

VIRGINIA Richmond: The state recycled almost half of its trash last year, setting a record despite China’s ban on importing plastic and other waste.

WASHINGTON Olympia: Voters have narrowly rejected a ballot measure seeking to reinstate the use of affirmative action in state employment, contracting, and admission to public colleges and universities.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: West Virginia State University and the University of Charleston are teaming up to offer a seven-year Doctor of Pharmacy program.

WISCONSIN Madison: Gov. Tony Evers says he doesn’t believe Republicans are “bastards” for firing his agriculture secretary, despite using the saying “don’t let the bastards grind you down” when urging workers not to be deterred by the move.

WYOMING Cheyenne: A legislative committee has advanced a bill that allows Gov. Mark Gordon to explore expanding Medicaid in the state.