Across the nation

News from every state.

ALABAMA Cullman: Money raised by an 11-year-old girl to help a north Alabama animal shelter is being used to fund animal adoptions as an early Christmas treat. The Cullman Times reported that sixth-grader Denna Chivers has been helping the Cullman County Animal Shelter for three years by holding yard sales and giving the proceeds to the operation.

ALASKA Sitka: The Sitka Planning Commission got its first look Wednesday at how city code could be amended to make room for tiny houses, specifically those on chassis allowing the structures to be moved.

ARIZONA Flagstaff: Democratic U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has introduced a bill that would ban new mining claims around the Grand Canyon. The Obama administration put about 1,562 square miles outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park off-limits until 2032. The bill would make that permanent.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Republican president pro tem of Arkansas’ Senate said Friday he won’t seek another term leading that chamber next year. Sen. Jim Hendren said he’s still seeking re-election to the Senate next year.

CALIFORNIA Los Angeles: At least three unoccupied passenger buses caught fire Saturday night at Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. Shortly after 9 p.m., LAX Airport said on its Twitter account that “No immediate reports of injuries.”

COLORADO Fort Collins: Michelle Lindsay, a Zumba instructor and registered dental hygienist from Fort Collins, became the country’s first avalanche death of the season on Dec. 8. On on her first run down the South Diamond Peak face, Lindsay was engulfed by an avalanche in a narrow gully. Despite efforts to save the 29-year-old, she died from asphyxiation after being buried.

CONNECTICUT Hartford: The Department of Consumer Protection reminded residents that package stores must be closed on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day, under state law.

DELAWARE Dover: The state has confirmed that 26 school-aged children have been infected through a salmonella outbreak that is potentially linked to recalled fruit.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture will extended its hours from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. starting Dec. 26, and patrons won't need a pass to enter.

FLORIDA Yeehaw Junction: A semitruck plowed into a historic inn south of Orlando early Sunday, causing major damage but no apparent injuries. The truck ran through the wall of the Desert Inn and a portion of the building collapsed around it.

GEORGIA Atlanta: A family got a real hoot from its Christmas tree: More than a week after they bought it, they discovered an owl nestled among its branches. The family opened windows and doors near the tree hoping the owl would fly away, but it didn’t. The Chattahoochee Nature Center caught the bird and helped the family release it.

HAWAII Honolulu: An illegal fishing net discovered in Oahu’s Kaneohe Bay was so large that a forklift was needed to move it, state officials said.

IDAHO Boise: The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has rejected a proposal that would have slashed the incentive for the power generated from solar panels.

ILLINOIS Chicago: Metra is buying hundreds of new rail cars and wants passengers to weigh in on what amenities they would like to see in them, from cup holders to power outlets, tray tables or wi-fi. The

INDIANA Terre Haute: Unusually large flocks of seagulls have descended on a western Indiana city, bringing the sounds of the beach to a local reservoir where the birds began gathering in late November.

IOWA Duncombe: After more than a century, a barn near the this community is getting a new home and a new look. Matt and Libby Mitchell acquired the barn built in 1915 and watched it was moved about a mile over fields to a new location. Matt Mitchell plans to restore the barn.

KANSAS Lawrence: The Lawrence library is joining a growing number of libararies that are dropping fines for overdue books. The library’s board voted unanimously Tuesday to make the change, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. Library patrons still be charged for lost or damaged items.

KENTUCKY Louisville: Members of Christ Church United Methodist are collecting and displaying prayers on behalf of abused children in Kentucky, which has the highest rate of child maltreatment in the nation.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Louisiana’s recreational red snapper season likely will continue through 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Surveys indicate that 98% of the state’s quota had been caught as of Dec. 8, with about 16,100 pounds remaining, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

MAINE Orono: A mapping and engineering company is donating about a million aerial images of New England to a University of Maine library. The university said Raymond H. Fogler Library has received 3,000 rolls of film from the James W. Sewall Co. of Old Town.

MARYLAND Annapolis: Salvation Army leaders said a donor recently dropped thousands of dollars worth of jewelry in a red kettle.One of the bracelets, a yellow-gold piece by Tiffany & Co., has been sold for $1,500.

MASSACHUSETTS Boston: The state is using money it received from a nationwide settlement with Volkswagen to help electrify the state’s transportation sector and reduce air pollution. The state has designated a total of $7.5 million toward 98 projects.

MICHIGAN Lansing: A nonprofit distributed nearly 50 bicycles to children after a dozen volunteers spent several weeks cleaning and repairing them. The Lansing Bike Co-op staged the giveaway last weekend, offering the 49 used bikes to anyone on a first-come, firstserved basis, the Lansing State Journal reported.

MINNESOTA Prosper: Authorities said four people were injured, including one critically, in separate vehicle crashes involving horses on the same southeastern Minnesota highway. The crashes happened within an hour of each other Friday night on state Highway 44, the Star Tribune reported.

MISSISSIPPI Columbus: Teachers and staff at two northern Mississippi schools are receiving more than $370,000 in bonuses because their schools have improved under a state grading system.

MISSOURI St. Louis: Mayor Lyda Krewson is pulling the plug on an airport privatization effort because of a lack of support.

MONTANA Billings: A natural gas leak caused an explosion at an apartment complex that sent two people to a hospital with severe burns. Billings Deputy Fire Marshal Jeff McCullough said the explosion at about 9:45 p.m. Friday caused an estimated $250,000 in damages.

NEBRASKA Columbus: Consumers who get electricity from the Loup Public Power District in eastern Nebraska won’t see an increase in their electricity rates this year.

NEVADA Reno: Washoe County Roads has begun posting a snowplow monitoring system featuring an interactive map showing where trucks are operating in Incline Village and Crystal Bay in nearly realtime.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Plaistow: Firefighters said they got to work when a woman arrived in the lobby and announced she was having a baby. Firefighters told WMUR-TV that the woman was put on a stretcher, and the fire station training room became a delivery room Friday night. Seven minutes later, a baby boy was born. An ambulance transported mother and baby to a hospital.

NEW JERSEY Trenton: Two Florida companies failed to comply with subpoenas to turn over records to New Jersey regarding the sale of outlawed large-capacity gun magazines, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Friday in a suit against the firms.

NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said people shouldn’t expect any major administrative changes with White Sands National Monument becoming the state’s first national park since 1930.

NEW YORK New York: Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday he will push legislation banning gender-based price disparities for similar goods and services.

NORTH CAROLINA Manteo: Cold weather is causing a problem for some sea turtles off the North Carolina coast, and an aquarium has taken in dozens of them for treatment. WVEC-TV reported that 96 turtles were taken to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island after a drop in temperatures on Thursday and Friday.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: The Bismarck Park Board has voted to create a formal process for renaming city parks after some residents pushed to have a park stripped of its name because of the “historical trauma” they said is associated with its namesake, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. Rather than immediately change the name of Custer Park, the board voted Thursday to develop guidelines for renaming parks.

OHIO Athens: The Ohio school district where Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow played football has named its high school stadium in his honor. The Athens City School District Board of Education in southeast Ohio posted a proclamation about the naming this week on Facebook.

OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Officials said a privately owned cemetery is blocking efforts to find the remains of black Tulsa residents killed nearly 100 years ago in a race riot. But an attorney for the cemetery said his client submitted a proposal in November that would allow the city to search under certain conditions.

OREGON Salem: Oregon is renowned for its craft beer and increasingly for its high-grade marijuana, but the state is keeping the two apart – for now. In a new ruling, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, which regulates alcoholic products and recreational marijuana, said beer and other alcoholic drinks as of Jan. 1 cannot contain either THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, or CBD, the nonpsychoactive part that is said to relieve stress and pain.

PENNSYLVANIA Harrisburg: Businesses that manufacture frames that can be built into working firearms sued Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Friday, five days after he issued a legal opinion classifying the products as guns under state law.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: State lawmakers are unveiling bills they plan to pursue in the new legislative session that begins Jan. 7.

SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: Tribes in South Dakota are trying again to gain state legislative support to repeal an archaic law that bans them from Minnesota. The State-Tribal Relations Committee voted this week to introduce a resolution during the 2020 legislative session requesting that Congress repeal the 1863 Dakota Removal Act. The law forced Native Americans onto South Dakota reservations following an 1862 conflict that included the mass hanging of 38 Dakota men. Minnesota passed a resolution supporting its repeal in 2009.

TENNESSEE Nashville: Tennessee has landed a $5.3 million federal grant that aims to address opioid misuse among expectant mothers and improve care for their affected children, the Division of TennCare announced Thursday.

TEXAS Houston: Police said one woman was killed and another was injured after they were attacked by three pit bulls. Police said the case will be referred to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to determine if any charges could be filed against the dogs’ owner.

UTAH Hyrum: A northern Utah bank is dismantling and rebuilding a historic small-town grain elevator for its new “Scandinavian-modern” building in Hyrum.

VERMONT Monkton: A general store in Monkton is going to close its doors by the end of the month. The Alderman family, which has managed the store for more than 12 years, said the costs of operating the business are “just too much,” MyNBC5 reported.

VIRGINIA Richmond: State health officials are mounting an effort to identify people who might have recently been exposed to a person with measles. The Virginia Department of Health said in a news release Saturday that the person visited Richmond International Airport on Tuesday night and a doctor’s office in suburban Richmond on Thursday afternoon.

WASHINGTON Seattle: Officials are warning about the Asian giant hornet, a new invasive species found in the state that can pack a powerful sting and be a threat to honeybees. The Washington State Department of Agriculture said the bug was found in early December in Blaine, near the Canadian border. Thehornets are typically 1.5 inches long with large yellow heads.

WEST VIRGINIA Elkins: The U.S. Forest Service has halted a logging project in Monongahela National Forest to protect an endangered fish. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of Blackwater submitted objections in July to the project to protect the endangered candy darter.

WISCONSIN Milwaukee: A judge has reinstated a felony count against a Milwaukee man who was living in an underground bunker that contained a stash of weapons, a generator and various power tools.

WYOMING Saratoga: The U.S. Forest Service has bought the last piece of private land within a wilderness area in central Wyoming. The 80-acre purchase in Carbon County will allow the public to roam the Huston Park Wilderness without worry of crossing into private land, just north of Colorado-Wyoming state line and is part of the Medicine Bow National Forest in the Sierra Madre mountain range.