50 ★ STATES
ALABAMA Montgomery: The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission is aiming to award licenses to growers and distributors by the end of the year after a bumpy roll out of the state’s medical marijuana program that has included multiple lawsuits over the selection process.
ALASKA Anchorage: A revamped plan for snow removal for the upcoming winter season was announced by Mayor Dave Bronson, Alaska Public Media reported.
ARIZONA Sells: The Tohono O’odham Nation in southern Arizona blasted the decision by the U.S. Attorney’s Office not to prosecute Border Patrol agents who shot and killed a member of the tribe after they were summoned by tribal police.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: The Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the procedural vote that allowed Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ education overhaul to take effect immediately, rejecting a judge’s ruling that threw into question the way state laws have been fast-tracked into enforcement over the years.
CALIFORNIA Sacramento: Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law to make low-income Mexican residents living near the border eligible for in-state tuition rates at certain community colleges.
COLORADO Denver: Jurors delivered a split verdict against two officers charged in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain during the first of several trials over the Black man’s fatal confrontation with police while walking home in suburban Denver, convicting one and clearing the other.
CONNECTICUT Bridgeport: A local Democratic official in Connecticut’s largest city invoked her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions in court about allegations of illegal ballot box stuffing during a recent mayoral primary.
DELAWARE Wilmington: Delaware’s farmland is turning into marsh at an alarming rate, which is impacting crop yield and economic input for the state, according to a new study from the University of Delaware.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington: A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people pleaded guilty to a federal charge in an agreement with prosecutors.
FLORIDA Miami: A suspended Miami city commissioner who is accused of accepting $245,000 in exchange for voting to approve construction of a sports facility has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges, including bribery and money laundering.
GEORGIA Savannah: Supersized cargo ships will need deeper water and a taller bridge to reach the Port of Savannah in the near future, the chief executive overseeing the major U.S. seaport said. Griff Lynch, president and CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, said during his annual “State of the Ports” speech that the $1.9 billion his agency is investing to grow Savannah’s cargo handling capacity will need to be met with taxpayer-funded infrastructure upgrades.
HAWAII Lahaina: The wind-driven wildfire that leveled the historic Maui town of Lahaina this summer displaced many pupils not just from their homes, but from their schools, forcing their families and education officials to scramble to find other ways to teach them. Now, more than two months after the Aug. 8 wildfire killed at least 98 people, the three public schools that survived are set to reopen this week, posing an emotional crossroads for traumatized children and their families as they decide whether to go back to those campuses or continue at the other schools that took them in.
IDAHO Boise: The Meridian Fire Department said a man died after his kayak flipped over on the Boise River, the Idaho Statesman reported.
ILLINOIS Springfield: The shortage of teachers in Illinois has slowed and even improved but gaps in critical areas, such as special education, remain and racial diversity among school leaders lags far behind that of the state’s pupils, according to a study.
INDIANA Hammond: A former northern Indiana police officer who was caught on video repeatedly punching a handcuffed man in 2018 was sentenced to just over a year in federal prison.
IOWA
Mitchell: A northern Iowa man has died after getting trapped inside a grain bin.
KANSAS Topeka: Kansas’ Republican attorney general asked the state’s highest court to reward the GOP-controlled Legislature for following through on a decade’s worth of court-mandated education funding increases by making it harder for local school districts to force higher spending in the future.
KENTUCKY Bowling Green: Voters across Kentucky, from Appalachia to the banks of the Mississippi River, are weighing their decision in the Nov. 7 race between Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Daniel Cameron, the state’s attorney general. Once again, Warren County, which includes the leafy, fast-growing college town of Bowling Green, looms as a potential swing area. It’s also a place that political observers will be watching for an early read on voter sentiment heading into next year’s national elections, though Kentuckians have shown a willingness to look beyond party politics.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: A resurgence in Louisiana’s black bear population has sparked discussion among state officials about a hunting season for the animal, which was taken off the endangered species list in 2015.
MAINE Lincoln: A driver led police on a 55-mile chase after nearly hitting a game warden who was investigating a moose complaint, police said.
MARYLAND Baltimore: A 17-yearold has been arrested in connection with the shooting at Morgan State University that left five people wounded during homecoming celebrations at the historically Black college in northeast Baltimore.
MASSACHUSETTS Stoughton: A confrontational blogger known as “Turtleboy” was charged with witness intimidation and conspiracy related to a criminal case against a woman accused of running over and killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, with her vehicle.
MICHIGAN Pontiac: A judge turned down a request by two parents to leave jail and attend the sentencing of their son who killed four students at Michigan’s Oxford High School.
MINNESOTA Minneapolis: A man charged in the museum heist of a pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in the “The Wizard of Oz” pleaded guilty in a deal that could keep him out of prison due to his failing health, but only cleared up some of the mystery that dates back 18 years.
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: A Mississippi city failed to properly inform property owners in a majority-Black neighborhood that their homes could be targeted for eminent domain under a redevelopment plan, some residents argue in a federal lawsuit.
MISSOURI St. Louis: The Missouri state auditor is investigating the city jail in St. Louis, citing allegations of mismanagement, inadequate nutrition and medical care, and interference with a civilian oversight board.
MONTANA Missoula: TikTok and Montana faced off in federal court in a case filed by the video sharing app and five Montana content creators who want the court to temporarily block the state’s ban on the platform before it takes effect on Jan. 1.
NEBRASKA Omaha: Passenger railroads nationwide will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives, but the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said the new rule is flawed because it excludes freight trains like the one that derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio earlier this year.
NEVADA Reno: Former Vice President Mike Pence will skip the Nevada caucuses run by the state Republican Party, which has adopted rules that critics say favor former President Donald Trump, and will instead compete in a state-run primary contest.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty to making a threatening phone call to a member of Congress.
NEW JERSEY Ocean City: The Danish wind energy company Orsted has put up a $100 million guarantee that it will build New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm. But it will lose that money if the project is not operating by December 2025 – a year after the deadline approved by state utility regulators.
NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: A judge ordered an attempted murder trial for a New Mexico man accused in the shooting of a Native American activist amid confrontations about aborted plans to reinstall a statue of a Spanish conquistador outside a government office.
NEW YORK Albany: Gas and construction trade groups are suing to block New York state’s ban on gas stoves and furnaces in new buildings.
NORTH CAROLINA Raleigh: North Carolina’s state auditor and education leaders are clashing over an audit that found several school districts failed to comply with student attendance laws during the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: North Dakota lawmakers were already scrambling to fill a giant hole in state government operations left by a surprising state Supreme Court ruling that voided a major budget bill, and their job got even tougher when the court issued a new ruling rejecting a request to give officials more time to deal with the budget mess.
OHIO Piketon: Uranium enrichment is getting underway at a facility in southern Ohio, a federally authorized demonstration project considered critical to produce the type of fuel needed for newer, more efficient nuclear reactors.
OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: The city has a shot at getting some muchneeded funding to revitalize impoverished, high crime neighborhoods that planners say have been skipped over by the urban core renaissance. A $500,000 federal Choice Neighborhoods grant will fund the creation of a plan to transform an area of town centered around the city’s oldest public housing.
OREGON Salem: It’s been more than three years since historic wildfires tore through multiple Oregon communities, burning 1 million acres and forever altering the lives of thousands. As communities rebuild, survivors put their lives back together and lawsuits assign blame, one element of recovery remains missing: an official cause for almost all of the fires. Of the nine major Labor Day fires that exploded in Oregon in September 2020, eight remain either under investigation, incomplete or have not been made public.
PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia: Officials say passengers on a Cincinnatibound flight were evacuated after an aborted takeoff at Philadelphia International Airport, but no injuries were reported.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: The Rhode Island Community Food Bank’s latest report on hunger presents an alarming finding: Families are burning through food benefits faster than the federal government can issue them.
SOUTH CAROLINA Aiken: A 79-yearold South Carolina man avoided a possible death sentence by agreeing to plead guilty to ambushing police officers coming to his home, killing two of the officers and wounding five others.
SOUTH DAKOTA Sioux Falls: A Sioux Falls man was arrested after he hit a school bus and fled the scene, according to Sioux Falls police.
TEXAS Dallas: Three people were injured in a shooting resulting in the evacuation of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, police said.
UTAH St. George: Utah’s reservoirs and soil moisture are in good shape as the new water year begins, with reservoirs and streamflows still well above average after a year of record rain and snow.
VERMONT Castleton: More than 150 tips have come in since Vermont State Police released a sketch of a person of interest in the killing of a retired college dean who was shot dead a week ago on a recreation trail in the small college town, authorities said.
VIRGINIA Richmond: A ban on electronic skill games in Virginia went back into effect after the state Supreme Court vacated an injunction that allowed thousands of the betting machines to remain in gas stations, bars and convenience stores. The injunction was issued by a lower court in an ongoing lawsuit that argues the ban is a violation of free speech. But a panel of three Supreme Court justices found that the suit is unlikely to succeed.
WASHINGTON Tacoma: A former sheriff ’s deputy in Washington state who was fired last year has been sentenced to prison for stalking his now ex-wife and repeatedly violating a no-contact order.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: A former Democratic leader in the West Virginia House of Delegates plans to run for secretary of state next year as a Republican. Doug Skaff registered as a pre-candidate for the office Thursday.
WISCONSIN Madison: Republicans who control the Wisconsin state Senate proposed sweeping changes to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ plans to address worker shortages in the state.
WYOMING Laramie: The Wyoming Toad Conservation Area in the Laramie Plains of the Wyoming Basin will provide public access to the Laramie River. Officials say it will help protect the Wyoming toad, an endangered amphibian, while also helping conserve other species including the white-tailed prairie dog and migratory birds. The Fish and Wildlife Service bought 1,078 acres known as Bath Ranch from The Conservation Fund to officially establish the Wyoming refuge, officials said.