Across the nation
News from every state.
ALABAMA Huntsville: A state trust is buying a nearly 500-acre tract for $10 million to protect the habitat of a tiny fish that endangered work on a $1.6 billion car plant. Forever Wild Land Trust bought land where the rare spring pygmy sunfish lives near the Mazda Toyota plant being built in Limestone County, outlets report.
ALASKA Fairbanks: The National Park Service plans to limit the opening of the Denali National Park road in 2020 due to the severe collapse of a hillside, officials say.
ARIZONA Phoenix: Uber and Lyft say they are prepared to leave Sky Harbor International Airport after the City Council voted to approve an increase in ride-share fees for dropping off and picking up passengers.
ARKANSAS Fort Smith: A Dallas home linked to the criminal exploits of Clyde Barrow and the 1933 death of Deputy Sheriff Malcom Davis is up for demolition, but a history enthusiast plans to salvage the front of the house and bring it to Fort Smith.
CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: Mayor Eric Garcetti says beginning this spring, the city’s 73 public library branches will no longer collect fines for overdue books.
COLORADO Denver: A local radio station has canceled a program after one of the hosts said a school shooting would help break up media coverage of impeachment proceedings.
CONNECTICUT Hartford: State lawmakers on Wednesday approved a long-awaited $1.8 billion settlement agreement between Gov. Ned Lamont and the state’s hospital association.
DELAWARE Middletown: The town has approved guidelines that would allow the Hummer’s Parade to continue on New Year’s Day despite last year’s controversy over a float that portrayed migrant children in cages.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Two brothers want the rest of the country to experience mumbo sauce, a condiment unique to the D.C. area, WUSA-TV reports. Andrew and Nyles Burton created their own version and named it “Uncle Dell’s Mambo Sauce,” selling it through their company, Andy Factory.
FLORIDA Tallahassee: The state Supreme Court approved ballot language Thursday for a proposed constitutional amendment that would gradually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
GEORGIA Woodbine: A decision that could have determined whether a proposed spaceport site meets environmental requirements to launch rockets was put on hold at the request of federal officials.
HAWAII Honolulu: Hawaii chain Zippy’s Restaurants has signed a deal to continue serving Dave’s Ice Cream in all of its 24 locations, officials say.
IDAHO Coeur d’Alene: Public land managers say the number of eagles flocking to Lake Coeur d’Alene has unexpectedly dropped.
ILLINOIS Chicago: The City Council on Wednesday rejected an effort to delay marijuana sales until July 1.
INDIANA Indianapolis: A member of the state’s congressional delegation is using Legos to explain impeachment proceedings. Democratic Rep. Andre Carson’s Twitter feed has been peppered with pictures of a Lego figurine that bears a striking resemblance to President Donald Trump.
IOWA Waterloo: A man is trying to regain custody of a young coyote he says has become his emotional support animal after a neighbor took it to a wildlife rehab agency.
KANSAS Shawnee: Police have been doling out $100 bills during minor traffic stops thanks to an anonymous $10,000 donation.
KENTUCKY Prestonsburg: At least 15 horses have been fatally shot at a strip mine site, authorities say.
LOUISIANA New Orleans: City officials are fast-tracking work on a broken sewer line that briefly had them considering dumping sewage into the Mississippi River.
MAINE Augusta: Fourteen nonprofit groups are receiving grants to help ensure difficult-to-count communities are included in the census.
MARYLAND Annapolis: As counties and universities in the state face increasing pressure to end their partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Cecil County’s is recently “operational,” according to an ICE spokeswoman.
MASSACHUSETTS Salem: Mayor Kim Driscoll says President Donald Trump needs to “learn some history” after he claimed those accused in the city’s infamous witch trials received more due process than he has in impeachment proceedings.
MICHIGAN Morenci: The American Civil Liberties Union is defending 14 Amish families in a dispute with local officials over outhouses. The Lenawee County Health Department has filed lawsuits asking a judge to order property owners to comply with county waste disposal rules or face demolition.
MINNESOTA St. Paul: The state Department of Health will use a $3.3 million federal grant to minimize lead hazards in older homes across the state’s southeast.
MISSISSIPPI Pascagoula: A wrongful death lawsuit claims a diabetic inmate, jailed for allegedly violating her own protection order, died while pleading for insulin from authorities and medical personnel who largely ignored her.
MISSOURI Jefferson City: A lawmaker wants to put the brakes on playful messages on highway signs, such as “Treat the Road Like a Cat Video … Share It.” Rep. Tony Lovasco, R-O’Fallon, introduced a bill that would limit the transportation department to using the signs only to convey vital information.
MONTANA Missoula: President Donald Trump has signed a bill into law to name a post office in the city in honor of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress.
NEBRASKA North Platte: A truck maintenance shop will be the first new building erected at the city’s airport as part of the relocation of Nebraska National Guard units, the state adjutant general says.
NEVADA Reno: The state wants a federal judge to declare illegal what it calls the U.S. government’s “secret plutonium smuggling operation” and order the removal of weaponsgrade material already shipped to a security site north of Las Vegas.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Bradford: A logger has been ordered to pay $10,000 for repeated forestry law violations.
NEW JERSEY Elizabeth: Immigrants in the state without formal legal status will be allowed to get driver’s licenses after Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Thursday.
NEW MEXICO Las Cruces: A suspected robber who face-planted into a Pizza Hut door before fleeing has been arrested thanks to the DNA evidence he left behind, police said.
NEW YORK Albany: The governor has proposed a ban on single-use food and beverage containers made from polystyrene foam.
NORTH CAROLINA Winston-Salem:
Rainy weather has delayed plans to change the exit numbers on the Business Interstate 40 Improvements Project, officials say.
NORTH DAKOTA Fargo: A popular but cash-poor 3D printer business in Colorado is relocating to North Dakota. Gov. Doug Burgum says the LulzBot brand of 3D printers will be manufactured by Fargo Additive Manufacturing Equipment 3D.
OHIO Columbus: High-speed internet would spread to about 1 million unserved or underserved Ohioans along rural routes and highways previously off-limits to private development under a strategic plan released Thursday.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Education advocates are fighting to keep four-day school weeks as the state school board proposes new restrictions that could threaten the shortened schedules.
OREGON Portland: A transgender woman is suing Miss USA pageants, saying its rule that limits competition to “natural born female” is a form of gender discrimination.
PENNSYLVANIA Erie: A coke plant abruptly shut down Thursday amid mounting regulatory pressure over its environmental record. Erie Coke Corp. employed more than 130 people at the plant, which uses coal to produce foundry coke, a key ingredient in the steelmaking process.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: State Senate leaders say they won’t support legalizing recreational marijuana if Gov. Gina Raimondo chooses to propose it next year.
SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Police Chief Ken Miller has been placed on administrative leave following the outcome of a state investigation into an effort to have a charge against a wealthy businessman dropped.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: A new insect pest, the elongate hemlock scale, is appearing in Christmas wreaths, state agricultural officials say.
TEXAS Temple: A small police department’s silence about what prompted an officer to fatally shoot a man in the head nearly three weeks ago deviates from how some other recent police shootings in the state were handled, and law enforcement experts warn it risks stirring public mistrust.
UTAH Salt Lake City: A new report says the state’s high school graduation rate has increased for the seventh consecutive year.
VERMONT Montpelier: Three public drinking water systems have levels of a class of toxic chemicals above the state standard, the Department of Environmental Conservation says.
VIRGINIA Richmond: The state is going to replace nearly 10,000 highway lights with LED lights that use less energy and increase visibility, Gov. Ralph Northam says.
WASHINGTON Pullman: Police say a man who had just been released from jail helped himself to some presents under a Christmas tree in the police department’s lobby – only to find out they were fake.
WEST VIRGINIA Lewisburg: The West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine says it’s looking for patients for its free annual osteopathic clinic.
WISCONSIN Milwaukee: The state’s residents could be facing their largest property tax increase in 10 years as school taxes rise, a report by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum finds.
WYOMING Yellowstone National
Park: A pair of wolf pups were fatally hit by a vehicle after the animals became accustomed to humans and started hanging around a road near their den, park officials say.