Starving manatees, referee protections, alligator float: News from ...

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: The state plans to be the third to carry out an execution during the COVID-19 pandemic and the only prison system to reduce the number of news media witnesses to a single reporter. The Alabama Department of Corrections said because of COVID-19 precautions, only one reporter, a representative of the Associated Press, will be allowed to witness Thursday’s lethal injection of Willie B. Smith. The state in the past allowed five media witnesses, although the number of outlets sending reporters is sometimes less than that. Only the federal government, Texas and Missouri have carried out executions since the pandemic began last year. None reduced the number of media witnesses to a single reporter. There have been 19 executions carried out since April 2020, according to a database maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. All of them were attended by multiple reporters, with the exception of one lethal injection in Texas, where the prison system neglected to notify reporters it was time to carry out the punishment. Paige Windsor, the executive editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, said the news organization disagreed “that the press restrictions were necessary for COVID mitigation, especially once a vaccine was available.”

Alaska

Juneau: A state lawmaker was cited for driving with an open can of beer in his vehicle that another lawmaker said was actually his. Republican Sen. Josh Revak plans to challenge the $220 ticket, which was issued in August, the Anchorage Daily News reports. Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, said the beer was his. Revak, R-Republican, said he used alcohol heavily after returning injured from the Iraq War but hasn’t had alcohol in seven years. He has helped others in recovery programs and said he is proud of his sobriety. A citation “could cause harm to me because I’m in programs of recovery. I’ve been in recovery a long time trying to help other people. Having a violation like this might discredit me, and especially in my job, it certainly doesn’t help, so I felt like it was kind of an injustice,” Revak said. Kawasaki was riding with Revak from Anchorage to a fishing event on the Kenai Peninsula on Aug. 18. Kawasaki the night before had stayed at the home of another legislator and in the morning left with a partially full can of beer. “I didn’t want to waste it, didn’t want to dump it,” Kawasaki said. Both said Revak didn’t realize it was a beer rather than another beverage. Revak is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 27. But the trooper who wrote the citation was recently arrested on child sexual abuse charges.

Arizona

Chandler: The Gila River Indian Community’s gambling operation has begun construction of its fourth casino in metro Phoenix. Gila River Hotels & Casinos on Monday held a groundbreaking ceremony for the planned Santan Mountain casino, which will be located in the Chandler area near Gilbert Road and Hunt Highway. The 160-acre, $150 million project will feature more than 850 slots and table games, a BetMGM Sportsbook and multiple dining options for guests. New games will include mini baccarat, craps and roulette. Two of the tribe’s current casinos also are located in the Chandler area. The other is on the metro area’s southwestern rim. The tribe announced the new casino project last summer after signing a revised gambling compact with the state. Gambling expansion legislation approved by state lawmakers at Gov. Doug Ducey’s behest included provisions allowing tribes to increase their gambling offerings, both in number of casinos and types of gambling games. Arizona currently has 24 tribal casinos statewide, including seven in metro Phoenix. The legislation will allow up to 11 more statewide, include four in metro Phoenix and one in the Tucson area.

Arkansas

Little Rock: Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday backed off plans to call the Legislature back to the Capitol next week to take up income tax cuts as he continued negotiating with lawmakers on how much to reduce. The Republican governor delayed the special session he expected to call for the tax cut proposal, which he said would cost the state $321 million a year once fully implemented in 2023. Hutchinson did not say when he planned to convene the majority-Republican Legislature, though he said hoped to do so before Thanksgiving. “We need more time,” he told reporters. Hutchinson’s proposal calls for reducing the state’s top income tax rate from 5.9% to 5.3% by 2023. It also calls for increasing a tax credit for those making less than $22,900 and for combining the low- and middle-income tax tables. But Hutchinson has faced calls from some fellow Republicans to go further with his tax cut plans and to also include reductions in the corporate income tax rate. Legislative leaders said delaying the special session will give lawmakers the governor more time to work out a deal. Hutchinson ran on a promise to cut income taxes and is pushing for the reduction as the state’s revenue has beat expectations despite the COVID-19 pandemic. But Democrats caution about going too far with reductions.

California

San Francisco: The city will give out cash awards of up to $100,000 for information about the ringleaders of high-level auto burglaries, in yet another push to battle crime in a city marked by attention-grabbing vehicle smash-and-grabs, home break-ins and retail theft. The cash rewards would come from private donors in the tourism and hospitality industry, Mayor London Breed said at a Tuesday news conference where she was joined by San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott. The fund has about $225,000 so far and will pay for information leading to the arrest and conviction of “high-level leaders of organized auto burglary fencing operations,” according to a statement from Breed’s office. Authorities have said they believe fewer than a dozen auto burglary crews are responsible for most of the smash-and-grabs in the San Francisco Bay Area. But news reports and viral video of break-ins have reinforced the perception of San Francisco as lawless and lenient. Last month, Breed and Scott announced the city would dedicate more police to combat retail shoplifting and make reporting of shoplifting cases easier. Breed’s office said auto burglaries reported to police have declined since 2017, when the city recorded about 31,400. More than 15,000 auto burglaries have been reported this year, but 2021 is on track to fall below the nearly 26,000 in 2019.

Colorado

Denver: A state judge was removed from his leadership position after being charged with felony menacing Saturday. Judge Mark Thompson, chief judge for the 5th Judicial District, is accused of using a real or simulated weapon in the alleged July 25 menacing incident, which was investigated by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, according to limited online court records. The case was listed as suppressed from public view, and documents detailing the allegations against Thompson were not available. In a court filing, prosecutors requested the secrecy because Thompson is a public official and “prominent member” of the community, The Denver Post reports. “The release at this time of any of the documents of record in this matter could result in disclosure of information that could result in destruction, or secreting evidence and tampering with identified and unidentified witnesses, which could jeopardize the ongoing investigation and/or interfere with the rights of the defendant, including irreversible harm to reputation, and the defendant’s and the People’s right to a fair trial,” the prosecutors wrote. Judge Paul Dunkelman granted the request in a one-line order Saturday. Thompson is on planned paid time off and will resume his duties as a judge when he returns, judicial branch spokesperson Rob McCallum said.

Connecticut

Hartford: A state legislator who works as an aide to the West Haven City Council was arrested Tuesday by the FBI amid scrutiny of the city’s spending of federal pandemic relief money, officials said. The arrest of Rep. Michael DiMassa, a Democrat, was confirmed by Tom Carson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Connecticut. DiMassa’s arrest affidavit was sealed. Last week, Mayor Nancy Rossi posted a video on the city’s YouTube page saying she had come across several large expenditures that might be fraudulent and had requested a forensic investigation of the city’s spending of federal pandemic relief funds. West Haven’s share of the $2.2 trillion in funding from the CARES Act has been more than $1.15 million so far, according to the state Office of Policy and Management. Rossi, who is also a certified public accountant, last week acknowledged using some relief funding to pay City Hall employees overtime for working on pandemic-related tasks but said that is a proper use of the money. A message was left seeking comment with the mayor. Upon the news of DiMassa’s arrest, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas announced they were immediately removing DiMassa from all committee and leadership assignments.

Delaware

Wilmington: Prosecutors want a judge to make state Auditor Kathy McGuiness accept a public defender or pay for her own defense against criminal corruption charges, according to a Monday filing in New Castle County Superior Court. The filing is a response to McGuiness’ Friday request that a judge allow her private attorney, McCarter & English partner Steve Wood, to represent her at rate of $550 an hour paid for by the public. It sets up in a conflict in which Superior Court President Judge Jan Jurden will need to decide whether to allow Wood to continue to represent McGuiness at private law firm rates paid by the state or whether McGuiness must accept representation from the public defender’s office if she does not want to pay a private attorney. Having pleaded not guilty, McGuiness is in the early stages of defending herself against two felony and multiple public corruption misdemeanors charged by prosecutors in the Delaware Department of Justice – a locally unprecedented indictment of a sitting, statewide-elected official that accuses McGuiness of rigging state contracts to avoid scrutiny and hiring her daughter in a do-nothing job. A Democrat, former Rehoboth Beach commissioner and pharmacist, McGuiness is paid $112,000 a year as auditor and, as a private citizen, likely would not qualify for representation paid for by the public. But Delaware law allows public officials sued or criminally indicted on charges related to their state work to be represented in court by a state-provided attorney.

District of Columbia

Washington: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and manufacturer Kawasaki have known for years about problems with the wheel assemblies in the transit system’s newest $2 million rail cars, WUSA-TV reports. One of those 7000 series rail cars came off the track Oct. 12, and while no one was killed or critically injured, the National Transportation Safety Board said the incident in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, could have been “catastrophic.” “We are fortunate that no fatalities or serious injuries occurred as a result of any of these derailments, but the potential for fatalities and serious injuries, was significant,” NTSB Board Chairman Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference Monday morning at the safety agency’s Washington headquarters. “This could have resulted in a catastrophic event.” The D.C. Metrorail Safety Commission ordered Metro to pull nearly 60% of its rail fleet from service Monday after its safety oversight board found a recurring problem with the axles on the Metro’s newest railcars, the agency said. WMATA said the remaining 40 Metro trains would run every 30 minutes. In a release Monday, WMATA said reduced service is expected to last through at least Sunday. Passengers reported waits of as long as an hour during Monday morning’s rush.

Florida

Tallahassee: Manatees have starved to death by the hundreds along Florida’s eastern coast because algae blooms and contaminants are killing the seagrass the beloved sea mammals eat, a wildlife official told a state House committee Tuesday. Seagrass has been decimated in the 156-mile-long Indian River Lagoon and neighboring areas. The aquatic plant thrives in clear, sandy water, but murkier water because of the algae and pollutants has made it harder for seagrass to survive, said Melissa Tucker, director of the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “Our statewide death count from all sources has been higher than it’s ever been reported before,” Tucker told the House State Affairs Committee. “This is a starvation issue. There’s not enough seagrasses that are available to the manatees.” Officials noticed a sharp rise in manatee deaths from December through May, when the sea cows congregate in warm waters. During that period, 677 manatees died, when typically only 156 die, Tucker said. While manatee mortality leveled out after May, when the mammals extend their range in summer and fall, the state has already recorded 968 manatee deaths in 2021, with more than two months left in the year. The previous annual high was 830 deaths in 2013, Tucker said.

Georgia

Covington: One worker was killed and two seriously injured when part of a bridge collapsed into a river during early demolition work, officials said. The three workers fell into the river Tuesday evening from the Access Road bridge on Interstate 20 in Newton County, east of Atlanta, news outlets report. About 21/ 2 hours after the accident, the Newton County Sheriff’s Office reported that one worker had died. The subcontractors were sawing when the accident occurred, the Georgia Department of Transportation said. A 500-ton crane began removing a truck, excavator and other equipment from the Yellow River accident site Wednesday morning, the Transportation Department said on Facebook. Work started Monday, and authorities had said they expected it to take nine months.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Police officers and officials with the state’s public school system discriminated against a disabled Black child by handcuffing, arresting and interrogating the 10-year-old girl for a “run-of-the-mill” dispute between children, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii said. The ACLU sent a letter Monday to the Honolulu Police Department, the state Department of Education and the state attorney general’s office demanding the statewide school district make policy changes, including forbidding staff from calling police on a student unless the student presents an imminent threat of significant harm to someone. Honowai Elementary officials called police to the Waipahu school in 2020 because the girl allegedly drew an offensive sketch of a student who was bullying her, according to the ACLU letter. The parent of another child wanted to press charges. The girl’s mother went to the school and was falsely imprisoned when school staff and police prevented her leaving two rooms to which she was confined, the letter said. The mother “expressed some concern about being African American in an encounter with the police” and was worried about her daughter’s safety “in light of the police presence given the high rate of police violence against Black people, and the discriminatory disciplining of Black girls in schools,” the letter said.

Idaho

Boise: Officials on Tuesday rejected a plan to raise grazing fees on state-managed land, costing K-12 public schools more than $530,000 annually. The Idaho Land Board voted 2-2 to defeat the proposal, with Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra voting against the plan, citing concerns by ranchers who said drought was hurting their businesses. “I think, like in education, teachers are the experts, and I believe ranchers are the experts,” Ybarra said. The move to stick with the current grazing fee formula appears to call into question whether the state’s top statewide elected officials are meeting their constitutional mandate as Land Board members to maximize profit from state lands over the long term. The current grazing rate formula not only doesn’t raise fees but also cuts them. The formula has been in place since 1993, leading to concern that it’s outdated and that ranchers aren’t paying their fair share. Grazing rates on private land in the state have nearly doubled since then, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Rates on state-owned land have lagged, dropping from about 50% of what private landowners charge to about 38%. The new grazing formula would have put it back to 50%, while the existing formula drops it to about 37%.

Illinois

Chicago: Metra is restoring service on all train lines to pre-pandemic levels and won’t raise fares next year in hopes more and more riders will return to using the suburban Chicago commuter rail service. Metra approved a new, $900 million operating budget for 2022 on Wednesday. It assumes Metra will start 2022 with ridership at about 25% of pre-pandemic levels and will grow to about 35% by the end of the year. “After nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about how and when things will return to normal,” said Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski. He said the most responsible approach is to use cautious assumptions about the growth in ridership while simultaneously ramping up service so Metra is ready when passengers are. The budget projects Metra will bring in about $146 million from fares and other system-generated revenue. The agency also is using about $300 million in federal pandemic relief funding. Metra is introducing a new $6 day pass, which will give passengers unlimited travel among any three zones. It will be sold as part of a one-year pilot program and will replace the current $10 day pass, which provides unlimited travel across all zones.

Indiana

Hammond: A Gary man is suing northwest Indiana police more than a year after he alleged that officers pepper-sprayed and knelt on him when they encountered him near a protest over George Floyd’s death. Randall Smith’s lawsuit, filed Sept. 21 in U.S. District Court in Hammond, names Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez and county police Officer Jay Cruz as defendants and seeks damages “for deprivation of his civil rights.” The federal lawsuit comes more than a year after Smith filed a tort claim notice in July 2020 seeking $700,000 in damages from the Lake County Sheriff’s Department and the county’s commissioners. That claim, a precursor to a possible lawsuit, said Smith was watching a protest May 31, 2020, near Southlake Mall in Merrillville that was spurred by George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody when some officers “forced demonstrators” from a parking lot. Smith’s attorney, James Hortsman, said Smith did not participate in the protest. An officer then “aggressively approached” Smith and “got in his face telling him to leave,” the tort claim states. But as Smith turned to leave, the same officer “pushed him from behind, and several officers took him to the ground,” even though he wasn’t resisting, leaving him with a chipped tooth and other injuries, it alleges.

Iowa

Des Moines: The state’s privatized Medicaid system has illegally denied services or care to program recipients, and both private insurance companies managing the system have violated terms of their contracts with the state, according to a state audit released Wednesday. Auditor Rob Sand released a report from his investigation that examined a six-year period from 2013 through 2019. He said his investigators found a massive increase in illegal denials of care by managed care organizations under the system. “What this means is that privatized Medicaid is less likely to treat Iowans in accordance with the law. It means that the Medicaid MCO’s that we have contracted with are not upholding their end of the bargain,” Sand said. The head of Iowa’s Medicaid program responded within minutes of the audit’s release, rejecting its conclusions and arguing Sand was making an “apples to oranges comparison” that mischaracterized the program. Former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad in 2016 abruptly shifted Iowa’s Medicaid program from management by the Iowa Department of Human Services to private insurers. His successor, current GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds, has continued to support privatization amid complaints that service has suffered, that payments to service providers have been delayed at times and that promised savings never materialized.

Kansas

Topeka: Real estate values in the capital city have been appreciating “at their fastest pace ever,” a report says. Home prices in Topeka are anticipated to end this year having increased by 8.3% and rise by 4.5% next year, according to the 2022 Kansas Housing Markets Forecast Series published this month by the Wichita State University Center for Real Estate. Appreciation figures are even stronger statewide, with anticipated increases of 10.5% this year and 7.6% next year, the study said. “The supply of homes available for sale remains near historic lows,” Stan Longhofer, the center’s director, said in a news release. “Although bidding wars may not be as intense as they were earlier this year, it will continue to be a sellers’ market across most market segments.” Still, longtime Topeka Realtor Helen Crow questioned Tuesday whether the figures used to reach those conclusions may have been skewed by factors brought about by COVID-19. The pandemic has created a situation in which “the wealthier people are buying homes, and the people who are not as wealthy are not,” she said. A disproportionate number of upper-value homes have consequently been sold in the city since early last year, perhaps artificially inflating the median sales value of homes in this community, Crow said.

Kentucky

Louisville: A convicted drug dealer who was a target of the police raids that brought officers to Breonna Taylor’s home has been offered probation for a long list of drug crimes. Louisville police secured a slew of no-knock warrants on the night of March 13, 2020, aimed at breaking up a drug-dealing operation involving Jamarcus Glover. One of the five warrants sent police to the home of Taylor, Glover’s former girlfriend. Officers went to her home, broke down the door and opened fire after Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot at them. The fatal shooting of the 26-year-old Black woman sparked months of national protests and prompted the city of Louisville to pay Taylor’s family $12 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. Louisville prosecutors recently recommended probation for Glover, who was facing a litany of drug-related charges, WDRB-TV reports. He will also be allowed to move out of state. Sam Aguiar, an attorney who represented Taylor’s family in the wrongful death lawsuit, said the plea deal “validates” that Glover was not a drug kingpin requiring several late-night police raids. Last year, Glover was offered a plea deal by prosecutors that would have forced him to implicate Taylor in criminal activity. That offer listed Taylor as a co-defendant in illegal activities. Glover declined the offer.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: The state will introduce an alligator-themed float celebrating its music, food and culture at the 95th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who oversees state tourism efforts, announced the float plans Tuesday. “When it comes to parading, there is one thing Louisiana knows how to do and that’s throwing a party on wheels aboard the biggest float we can build,” Nungesser, a Republican, said in a statement. The Thanksgiving Day parade, scheduled for Nov. 25, airs live across the country from 9 a.m. to noon. Nungesser said the float will be used to promote Louisiana and encourage travelers to visit the state. The “Celebration Gator” float includes a multicolored replication of a French Quarter street view and will include people dressed in baby gator costumes and a team of stilt walkers. “The Macy’s Parade is thrilled to welcome this awe-inspiring and colorful float to our lineup,” Jordan Dabby, producer of the parade, said in the statement released by Nungesser’s office.

Maine

Falmouth: A police department is destroying a cache of weapons that’s going to be melted down to be transformed into peaceful products. Several dozen guns that were seized or turned in were rendered inoperable in the parking lot of the Falmouth Police Department on Saturday. They’ll be melted down and converted into a trademarked steel called Humanium Metal. “Every unwanted gun that we permanently remove from circulation is a win,” Falmouth Police Chief John Kilbride said in a statement. “That’s one less tragedy for a person, family and community.” The event marked the U.S. launch by a Swedish development partner that’s marketing Humanium Metal. The product is being used in a number of products including watches, jewelry and art. Over the next year, the Swedish organization IM aims to partner in at least five major cities with local law enforcement, gun-safety advocacy groups and others seeking to address gun-related violence.

Maryland

Annapolis: Conservation efforts for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed have been bolstered by a $10million grant. According to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the 49 individual grants will generate $12 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of more than $22 million. “The Chesapeake Bay is a natural treasure for Maryland, the country and the world,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “It’s also a fact the health of the economy and our overall public health depends on a healthy bay. The awards cover different areas and differ in size and scope, but all of them are essential to protecting our bay.” Van Hollen added that federal resources were key to multiplying the initial amount awarded to the various organizations. The grant is from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Bay Program.

Massachusetts

Boston: The city declared addiction and homelessness a public health emergency Tuesday – a move that will help it clear a sprawling homeless camp at the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis. Officials said they will get those dependent on opioids into treatment and permanent shelter after removing about 150 tents at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area commonly known as Mass and Cass, said the city’s chief of health and human services, Marty Martinez. The area, home to numerous methadone clinics and social services, has long been a haven for crime and illegal drug sales and use, often in the open. The tents will not disappear overnight, acting Mayor Kim Janey said. “Folks are looking for a magic moment where, ‘poof,’ everything is gone,” she said. “That is not how addiction works. It requires ongoing outreach to individuals. It requires work between the city, the state, and other partners to make sure that there are alternatives.” Officials stressed that the city is not criminalizing homelessness, and no one will be forcibly removed. They said people who live in tents will be given advanced notice and offered treatment or a shelter bed.

Michigan

Detroit: The operator of an oil pipeline said it temporarily shut down Line 5 on Tuesday after protesters warned the company that they planned to turn an emergency valve. Video posted on social media showed someone with a hard hat and a wrench inside a fenced area in Tuscola County, 90 miles north of Detroit. A man outside the fence sang and played an electric guitar. A sign warned against trespassing and said the property belonged to Enbridge Energy. “We respect the rights of others to express their views on the energy we all use, but today’s pipeline tampering incident involving Enbridge was not a lawful protest. It was a criminal activity that put people and the environment at risk,” said Enbridge spokesman Ryan Duffy. He said the pipeline’s flow was temporarily stopped from a control center “out of an abundance of caution to protect communities, first responders and the protesters.” Line 5 moves about 23 million gallons of oil and natural gas liquids daily between Wisconsin and Ontario, traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin. A roughly 4-mile segment divides into two pipes that cross the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, say Line 5 is a threat to the Great Lakes.

Minnesota

St. Paul: The state will offer $200 gift cards and a shot at five $100,000 scholarships as incentives for students ages 12-17 to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Gov. Tim Walz announced Monday. Young people who start and complete their vaccine series over the next six weeks will be eligible for the Visa gift cards. But all Minnesotans ages 12-17 who’ve completed their vaccine series anytime by mid-December are eligible for the scholarships, which will be good at any public or private nonprofit school in the state. The five drawings will be conducted weekly starting Nov. 15. “We’re launching this program to help reward teens for doing their part by getting fully vaccinated and keeping our schools, community, and state safe,” Walz said in a statement. Registration opens Nov. 9 on the state’s Kids Deserve a Shot website. The state is trying to drive up vaccination rates among adolescents, who are the state’s least-vaccinated eligible age group. Only 50% of Minnesotans ages 12-15 and less than 60% of those ages 16-17 are fully vaccinated. But the coronavirus is spreading fastest in Minnesota among young people. The federal government is preparing to authorize vaccines for children as young as 5.

Mississippi

Jackson: The capital city dumped more than 6 billion gallons of partly treated sewage into a river in 2020, seven years after signing a federal court agreement to clean up its act, court records show. The records also show sewer overflows in Jackson released more than 523,000 gallons of untreated waste into the environment last year, WLBT-TV reports. The city had made “only limited progress” toward some requirements in a 2013 agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and had not begun work toward other “crucial” goals, according to an August status report. Jackson has a deadline of late 2030 to meet terms of the consent decree, which was announced in November 2012 and became final in March 2013. Jackson is negotiating with the EPA to amend the order, with EPA and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to assess the city’s financial condition and evaluate its proposed changes, the station reports. The city, which agreed to spend about $400 million to comply with state and federal water laws, now will need nearly $960 million to do so, it said in the report. The untreated sewage in 2020 came from 376 overflows throughout the collection system. Eleven forbidden bypasses at a wastewater treatment plant discharged partly treated wastewater into the Pearl River.

Missouri

Columbia: Help for roughly 100,000 teachers whose Social Security numbers were made vulnerable in a massive state data breach could cost Missouri as much as $50 million, the governor’s office confirmed Tuesday. The estimate includes the cost of credit monitoring and a call center to help affected teachers. Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s spokeswoman on Tuesday confirmed reports from state House budget officials that explained the $50 million price tag. The information was publicized by Democratic House lawmakers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch broke the news about the security flaw last week. The newspaper said it discovered the vulnerability in a web application that allowed the public to search teacher certifications and credentials. Parson, who has deflected his administration’s responsibility for the breach and instead cast blame on the newspaper for identifying the issue and warning the education department about it, last week said the breach “may cost Missouri taxpayers as much as $50 million and divert workers and resources from other state agencies.” Parson declined to answer questions after slamming the Post-Dispatch in a livestreamed press conference last week.

Montana

Helena: Three public officials threatened hospital doctors after they refused to treat a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, a drug to treat parasites that is not federally approved for use in battling the respiratory disease, officials of St. Peter’s Health said. “These officials have no medical training or experience, yet they were insisting our providers give treatment for COVID-19 that are not authorized, clinically approved or within the guidelines established by the FDA and the CDC,” hospital spokesperson Andrea Groom wrote in an email to the Montana State News Bureau on Monday. “In addition, they threatened to use their position of power to force our doctors and nurses to provide this care.” The hospital did not name the elected officials, but Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office confirmed that he participated in a conference call with hospital executives last week after having sent a Montana Highway Patrol trooper to the hospital to talk with the family of the patient. The event unfolded when a Helena woman in her 80s was hospitalized and wanted to be treated with ivermectin. It has been used in other countries, including India and Brazil, and some studies on its effectiveness are underway. Its manufacturer, Merck, has said there is no indication the drug is safe or effective against COVID-19.

Nebraska

Omaha: Union Pacific and its labor unions are suing each other to determine whether the railroad has the authority to require its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The unions argue the Omaha-based railroad should have negotiated with them before announcing it would require all employees to get the shots. The railroad contends in its own lawsuit that it believes it has the authority to require the vaccines under its existing contracts because it can set standards for when employees are fit for duty. Union Pacific announced this month that it would require all employees to be vaccinated by Dec. 8 to comply with an executive order President Joe Biden issued requiring all federal contractors to have their employees vaccinated. The railroad is also offering its union employees a $300 bonus if they get the shots. Nonunion employees at the railroad are being offered a half-day of vacation if they get vaccinated. On the same day the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Transportation Division union filed its lawsuit against the railroad, Union Pacific filed its own lawsuit Friday against SMART-TD and two other unions that objected to the vaccination mandate to force the issue.

Nevada

Las Vegas: Officials say enough money has been raised through donations to start work to rename the city’s main airport after former U.S. Sen. Harry Reid. The Clark County Commission earlier this year approved the renaming of McCarran International Airport to Harry Reid International Airport but with the stipulation that no taxpayer money be used. Donations for the renaming have passed the $4.2 million threshold needed to carry out the first phase, which largely consists of signage outside the airport and approaching it, officials said Monday. However, no actual timetable was announced for the start of work, and officials will next meet with various government agencies to firm up plans. “It allows us to change the name officially,” Commissioner Tick Segerblom said. An additional $2.8 million is needed for two remaining phases for signage inside the airport and for other changes such as stationery, letterhead, business cards and concessionaire-related needs. Reid, a Democrat and the former Senate majority leader, retired from the Senate in 2016 after serving 30 years. The renaming was spurred by the late Sen. Patrick Pat McCarran’s anti-immigrant and antisemitic views.

New Hampshire

Concord: A group of 25 health providers and advocacy organizations is asking legislative leaders to once again allow remote public access to the Legislature during the upcoming 2022 session. “As you often remind us, the State House is the people’s house, and public input and the right to know are critical components of New Hampshire’s legislative process,” the organizations wrote in a letter sent Monday to House Speaker Sherman Packard and Senate President Chuck Morse. “Yet, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging throughout our state, individuals would have to put their own health, and that of their families, friends, neighbors, and communities, at risk in order to attend and testify in-person at legislative committee hearings, meetings, and sessions.” The groups said the last legislative session showed videoconferencing “effectively provides safe and secure access to legislative proceedings to citizens, health care providers and advocates all across New Hampshire.” Among the signers of the letter are the Disability Rights Center-N.H.; NAMI New Hampshire (the National Alliance on Mental Illness); New Futures; New Hampshire Legal Assistance; the New Hampshire Medical Society; and the New Hampshire Public Health Association.

New Jersey

Trenton: Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday ordered that all new state contracts include language requiring workers to get COVID-19 vaccines or undergo regular coronavirus testing. Murphy, a Democrat seeking reelection this year, said the order will be prospective and affect only new contracts, extensions or renewals. He said he couldn’t specify how many state contractors would be affected but estimated it would be in the “hundreds or thousands.” “We must ensure that everyone providing service to the people of New Jersey – whether they are direct or contracted employees – is being held to the same public health and safety standards,” he said. The order mirrors other executive orders Murphy has signed requiring shots or tests for state workers and school employees. The requirement comes just days after a deadline for school and state workers to be vaccinated or undergo coronavirus testing kicked in, but Murphy said he didn’t have details about how many chose which option.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Local governments across the state are seeking to renew property taxes to pay for school buildings, computers and air ventilation systems even as school districts are slated to receive $900 million in federal pandemic aid. Ventilation upgrades are on virtually all lists after state authorities mandated upgraded systems better able to pull tiny virus particles out of the air. They often require new machinery. Due to recent changes in state law, all money raised by local school funding ballot initiatives will go to funding to local schools. Until this year, about 75% of operational funds in mill levies was deducted from state funds, meaning only 25% of local property taxes for schools actually went directly to that district. The legislation benefits districts such as Santa Fe where there’s a strong local tax base, as well as districts serving Gallup, in northwestern New Mexico, where federal funds offset the nontaxable federal and tribal land surrounding it. A few school districts with both low property values and no federal land will likely lose out in the long term under the new formula. But the losses won’t be felt any time soon because of federal pandemic relief.

New York

New York: The city’s Board of Health on Monday passed a resolution that names racism as a public health crisis, joining the growing list of state and local governments around the country that have done so in recent years. The resolution calls on the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to take steps including reviewing the city’s health code to look for structural racism and find ways to make changes as necessary. “To build a healthier New York City, we must confront racism as a public health crisis,” Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said in a statement. Since 2019, when Milwaukee County in Wisconsin was the first to call out racism as a public health issue, dozens of places around the country have followed suit. Supporters have said it’s an important step in addressing problems, while some have questioned whether the declarations will lead to real change.

North Carolina

Raleigh: A federal judge has ruled that the state’s flagship public university can continue to consider race as a factor in its undergraduate admissions, rebuffing a conservative group’s argument that affirmative action disadvantages white and Asian students. U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs ruled late Monday that the University of North Carolina has shown that it has a compelling reason to pursue a diverse student body and has demonstrated that measurable benefits come from that goal. “In sum, the Court concludes that UNC has met its burden in demonstrating that it has a genuine and compelling interest in achieving the educational benefits of diversity,” Biggs wrote. Students for Fair Admissions sued UNC in 2014, arguing that using race and ethnicity as a factor in college admissions violates the equal protection cause of the Constitution and federal civil rights law. The group contended that UNC had gone too far in using race as a factor in admissions and had thus “intentionally discriminated against certain of (its) members on the basis of their race, color, or ethnicity.” The group’s president, Edward Blum, said it would appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. His group already appealed a denial in a similar lawsuit against Harvard University. Blum said he hopes both cases get bundled together so that the U.S. Supreme Court rules simultaneously on private and public universities.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The state can continue to pursue reimbursement from the federal government for the millions of dollars spent policing protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline, a judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor on Tuesday denied the federal government’s motion to dismiss North Dakota’s attempt to recover more than $38 million from the monthslong pipeline protests five years ago. The federal government argued North Dakota’s emergency response expenses are not “money damages” for “injury or loss of property.” Traynor, who is based in Bismarck and was nominated for the judgeship by former President Donald Trump, ruled the state’s claim of damages is permissible. The state filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2019. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has long argued that the Corps allowed and sometimes encouraged protesters to illegally camp without a federal permit. The Corps has said protesters weren’t evicted due to free speech reasons. The $3.8 billion pipeline has been moving oil from the Dakotas through Iowa to Illinois since 2017. Thousands of opponents gathered in southern North Dakota in 2016 and early 2017, camping on federal land and often clashing with police. Hundreds were arrested over six months.

Ohio

Columbus: Assaulting a referee would become a crime punishable by a fine and community service hours under pending legislation in the General Assembly. The bill would make an assault on referees before, during or after a sporting event, or in retaliation for their decisions, a first-degree misdemeanor with an automatic fine of $1,500 and 40 hours of community service. A second conviction could lead to a felony charge that could include prison time if the assault was committed with a weapon or caused serious harm. More than 2 in 3 sports officials quit during their first three years because of spectator abuse, said state Rep. Bill Roemer, R-Richfield, a longtime youth baseball coach. “Sports officials deserve to be safe from undue harm on the job, not just for their safety but for the integrity of sports at large,” Roemer told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The Ohio House passed the legislation in June by a wide margin. Lawmakers considered but failed to pass a similar bill in the last General Assembly.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: A national advocacy group for women on Monday blasted the sentencing of a 21-year-old woman to prison for a manslaughter conviction after she suffered a miscarriage while using methamphetamine. Brittney Poolaw, of Lawton, Oklahoma, was sentenced to four years in prison this month after a jury convicted her of first-degree manslaughter. An autopsy of Poolaw’s fetus showed it tested positive for methamphetamine. But there was no evidence that her meth use caused the miscarriage, which the autopsy indicated could have been caused by factors including a congenital abnormality and placental abruption, a complication in which the placenta detaches from the womb, said Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women. According to the medical examiner’s report, the fetus was between 15 and 17 weeks old, which means it wouldn’t have been able to viably survive outside the womb yet. “This prosecution went forward against somebody who had a pregnancy loss before the fetus was considered viable,” Paltrow said. “In this case, you not only have a miscarriage rather than a stillbirth early in pregnancy, but the medical examiner’s report doesn’t even claim that methamphetamine was the cause.”

Oregon

Portland: The state’s central administrative agency inadvertently released the COVID-19 vaccination status of more than 40,000 state employees to two media outlets. A spreadsheet sent to The Oregonian/OregonLive and the Salem Statesman Journal was supposed to contain the latest vaccination rates and vaccine exemption rates for each executive branch agency overseen by Gov. Kate Brown. Brown issued an executive order in August requiring all executive branch employees – along with individuals working in educational and health care settings – to be fully vaccinated against the disease caused by the coronavirus by Monday at midnight. Instead, Oregon Department of Administrative Services External Relations Director Adam Crawford emailed a file to the outlets Monday containing vaccination status by employee name. Crawford took the blame for the data release and asked that the personal information not be reported. “It’s a mistake on my part,” he said. Ben Morris, a spokesperson for SEIU 503, said the release violates an agreement the union signed with the state that required individuals’ vaccination information to be confidential. Morris said that “more concerning is that one of the main things that we heard from members who were vaccine hesitant is they were concerned about their privacy in this situation.”

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: Prosecutors pursuing the case against a man accused of raping a woman on a commuter train last week don’t anticipate charging fellow passengers for not intervening, a spokesperson for the suburban Philadelphia district attorney said. “It’s still an open investigation, but there is no expectation at this time that we will charge passengers,” said Margie McAboy, spokeswoman for the Delaware County District Attorney’s office. Authorities continue to investigate the Oct. 13 attack, in which a woman was repeatedly touched and groped over the course of a 40-minute ride despite trying to push 35-year-old Fiston Ngoy away, according to an arrest affidavit that detailed the surveillance footage from the train. Investigators say Ngoy ripped the woman’s pants off and proceeded to rape her for somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes before officers boarded the train and detained him. Requests by the Associated Press for surveillance video from the attack on the Market-Frankford line have been denied, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Police declined to say how many passengers may have witnessed the assault but have said it appeared some held their phones up in the direction of the assault, seemingly to film the attack. Police have declined to say whether investigators have found any photos or videos of the attack posted online.

Rhode Island

Warwick: The median price of a single-family home in the state continued to rise in the third quarter, even though the number of sales slowed down, the Rhode Island Association of Realtors said Wednesday. The median price of single-family homes sold in the quarter that ended Sept. 30 was a record-high $385,000, a 15% increase over the third quarter of 2020. However, the number of closed sales was down 8.4% year-over-year, according to association data. “The single-family home market has been incredibly competitive and the properties that are available for sale are put under contract so quickly, that it appears some prospective buyers took a break,” association President Leann D’Ettore said in a statement. “Also, the spread of the delta variant affected the market last quarter, keeping some buyers at home and making some prospective sellers think twice about listing their home.” Sales of multifamily homes, on the other hand, showed no signs of slowing. The median price soared 21% to $375,000 in the quarter compared to the same quarter in 2020, while closings increased 43%. The condominium sector had modest gains in both median price and closed sales. Out-of-state buyers accounted for nearly a quarter of all residential sales during the quarter.

South Carolina

Columbia: A prominent civil rights attorney on Tuesday demanded that a prosecutor revisit a case and criminally charge the two jail employees who stunned a mentally ill Black man 10 times and kneeled on his back until he stopped breathing. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson announced in July that the Charleston County jail deputies who were seen on surveillance video restraining Jamal Sutherland wouldn’t face charges. Wilson called the deputies’ actions “damning” but said she couldn’t prove the guards intended to kill Sutherland, who at the time was refusing to go to his bond hearing. Attorney Ben Crump joined Sutherland’s relatives outside Wilson’s office to call on the solicitor to reconsider her decision, arguing she had gathered enough evidence throughout her monthslong investigation to charge the former deputies with involuntary manslaughter. “We all know what the truth is – that they unjustly killed a young Black man who was having a mental health crisis,” Crump said. “He had committed no crime. It wasn’t like he was a hardened criminal. This was a child who needed a helping hand.” Sutherland, 31, had been booked into the jail the day before his death on a misdemeanor charge. Officers arrested him while investigating a fight at the mental health and substance abuse center where he was receiving treatment for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His death drew national attention after county officials released video of the incident months later.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults while repealing much of the state’s new medical marijuana law. The Adult-Use Marijuana Study Subcommittee, which has been studying the issue since June, voted to recommend a bill that would allow people over 21 to purchase up to 1 ounce of cannabis for recreational use. It would repeal most aspects of the medical marijuana law that voters passed last year but still contain provisions for people under 21 to use marijuana for medical purposes. The bill would still need to be cleared by a pair of legislative committees, the full Legislature next year and the governor to become law. But lawmakers’ willingness to advance the issue showed a growing acknowledgment in the Republican-controlled Statehouse that recreational marijuana legalization has popular support. “Do we want to step forward and regulate it and put forward a good plan?” Republican Rep. Tim Goodwin asked the committee. “Or do we want to go against the will of the people who voted in the last election?” The bill would ban public pot consumption and eliminate criminal charges for possessing any amount up to 4 ounces.

Tennessee

Nashville: Lawmakers on Wednesday committed to spending nearly $900 million on state incentives, infrastructure upgrades and more as part of a sweeping plan with Ford Motor Co. to build an electric vehicle and battery plant near Memphis. It took the Republican-led General Assembly just three days to sign off on the economic package after Gov. Bill Lee called them back to the Capitol for a special legislative session that was supposed to focus solely on the Ford deal. Despite the governor’s directive, some Republicans attempted to jam a number of measures that would undermine protective measures against the COVID-19 outbreak. Those attempts were ultimately unsuccessful after Senate leaders announced the bills would not receive a hearing. The push won’t be dead for long, though, because Republicans mustered enough support to bring the Legislature back in Nashville next week to consider a slew of changes in opposition to COVID-19 requirements. About 10 lawmakers voted against or abstained from voting on the Ford bills. The massive investment in the western Tennessee site sparked praise among Democratic lawmakers, who noted the area containing the state’s largest Black population had been long ignored by Tennessee’s leaders.

Texas

Austin: The state is poised to become the latest and most populous to tighten restrictions on transgender athletes in public high school sports. State lawmakers on Sunday approved a measure that requires transgender athletes to play on teams that align with the gender listed on their original birth certificate, not their current gender identity. The bill pushed by the Legislature’s Republican majority now goes to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law. Texas would join at least five other states that have passed similar measures in recent months, and the bill may yet face legal challenges. Activists for transgender athletes and LGBTQ issues have called the bill mean-spirited and discriminatory. “This cruel and grotesque ban puts a target on the backs of transgender children and adults, erases intersex people, and sends a clear message that transgender and intersex people aren’t welcome or safe in Texas,” said Ricardo Martinez, chief executive officer of Equality Texas. But supporters of the bill said it is needed to protect girls from athletes who might be bigger, faster and stronger. “We have the opportunity today to stand up for our daughters, our granddaughters and all our Texas girls,” Republican state Rep. Valoree Swanson said before the bill passed in the state House last week.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The opening of affordable apartments in a six-story building made out of recycled shipping containers will be delayed because of a shortage of materials. Eco Box Fabricators owner Rod Newman said a delay in getting roofing materials and an elevator have pushed back the opening to the end of the year. The project called Box 500 had been scheduled to open over the summer in Salt Lake City with affordable rents. The coronavirus pandemic has caused global supply change problems, and the shipping container apartments are not the only housing development facing delays in Salt Lake City. “In the (housing) market, we’re seeing shortages across the board,” Orion Goff, deputy director of the Department of Community and Neighborhoods, told The Salt Lake Tribune. The shipping container building, when completed, will have 48 studio apartments, 18 one-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom apartments. Studios are 320 square feet, while one- and two-bedrooms are about 640 square feet. Amanda Best, a specialist with the city’s housing development program, said rents will range from $829 to $1,204 a month based on income.

Vermont

Montpelier: Gov. Phil Scott on Monday extended emergency motel housing for some of the homeless population through the end of the year and urged the Legislature to fully fund his $249 million housing recovery plan that he said includes historic funding for permanent housing for the homeless. In July, the state extended the hotel voucher program for families with children, the disabled, pregnant women and other vulnerable people, and it gave $2,500 checks to those no longer eligible. Scott later moved to keep the program running for those people another 30 days, until Oct. 21. “Those in GA Emergency Housing currently are some of the most vulnerable, including Vermonters with disabilities, families with children, and households who have faced chronic housing instability,” Scott, a Republican, said in a statement. “Demand for emergency housing and shelter is a symptom of Vermont’s current housing crisis. Ultimately, permanent housing solutions, not simply emergency housing and shelters, are needed.” As of last week, the Department of Children and Families was serving 950 families, representing 1,100 adults and 402 children, the administration said. Before the pandemic, the program provided emergency housing to about 2,500 Vermonters a year, officials said.

Virginia

Richmond: The leading candidates for governor have gone quiet on commitments both previously made to disclose at least some information from recent tax returns before the Nov. 2 election. Neither the campaign of Democrat Terry McAuliffe nor that of Republican Glenn Youngkin has responded to recent inquiries from the Associated Press about plans to share the information with voters. While it is not required for Virginia gubernatorial candidates to disclose their returns, there is some limited precedent for doing so. The complete documents could give a more nuanced look at a candidate’s income, deductions and philanthropy than the state’s mandatory disclosures do. In July, in response to questions from the AP, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said the former private equity executive and first-time candidate would release information from recent years’ tax returns before November. Christina Freundlich, a spokeswoman for McAuliffe, said the former governor would share a summary of recent years’ returns before the election. Also on the ballot for governor next month is third-party candidate Princess Blanding, an activist and educator who did not respond to the AP’s initial inquiry about whether she intended to release any tax return information.

Washington

Olympia: Lawmakers and legislative employees in the state House must prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access House facilities through early January, under a rule adopted by a House committee late last month. The policy took effect Monday, the same day a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate deadline passed for many state workers and others to provide proof of vaccination – or an accommodated exemption – in order to keep their jobs. More than 1,800 state workers were fired, resigned or retired due to the mandate. Legislative staff and lawmakers are not covered by Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccination requirement, so policy for the House and Senate facilities is left up to leaders within each chamber. In the House, the Executive Rules Committee – which handles chamber policies – is composed of four Democrats and three Republicans. Bernard Dean, the chief clerk of the House, said that the change in facility access is only for the 2021 legislative interim and that no decisions have yet been made on whether to extend the policy to the legislative session that begins Jan. 10. Secretary of the Senate Brad Hendrickson said the chamber has not adopted a similar interim policy, but decisions on building access and what format the session will take in January are expected soon.

West Virginia

Charleston: Officials are moving forward with initiatives in response to an ongoing HIV outbreak in Kanawha County. The new initiatives shared Tuesday at a meeting of the county’s HIV Task Force include training sessions for stakeholders and doctors and hiring more disease intervention specialists, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. The initiatives are in response to an August report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Kanawha County’s HIV crisis. The findings recommended that people who inject drugs in West Virginia’s largest county should have expanded access to sterile syringes, testing and treatment. The recommendations came in response to one of the nation’s highest spikes of HIV cases. An increase in sterile syringe access for people who inject drugs wasn’t among items discussed Tuesday. “The state is currently trying to prioritize our efforts in response to the CDC recommendations and is fully supportive in working with community partners and local health departments to support current programs that would be in alignment with our current law,” state epidemiologist Shannon McBee said. State lawmakers added new requirements this spring for syringe service programs, leading many organizations to stop offering them.

Wisconsin

Madison: Creating a state hunting season for sandhill cranes drew support at a legislative hearing, with backers of the Republican proposal saying it could be properly managed and help farmers who say the birds are overpopulated and hurting their crops. The bill is one of 13 hunting-related measures introduced by Republicans and supported by the pro-hunting group Hunter Nation that are working their way through the Legislature. Conservation groups complained at a Senate committee hearing Tuesday that they weren’t consulted on the package. Republicans say the goal of the bills, including the sandhill crane proposal, is to make hunting, fishing and trapping more accessible. The bills include stocking more pheasants and brook trout, simplifying turkey hunting seasons, and reducing Department of Natural Resources regulations for hunting, trapping and fishing. Another measure in the package would allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit, but that was not up for a public hearing Tuesday. Hunting sandhill cranes was last proposed in 2011, but the measure never made it out of committee. Rich Beilfuss, president and CEO of the International Crane Foundation, highlighted how the U.S. almost hunted the birds to extinction in the 1800s, requiring them to be protected since the early 1900s. “Hunting is not a solution for crop damage,” he said. “But there are solutions. ... we’re trying to find non-lethal solutions.”

Wyoming

Moose: Rangers in Grand Teton National Park have resumed using body-worn video cameras after a three-year hiatus. Grand Teton rangers stopped using the cameras in 2018 amid problems with aging equipment and being able to store data, park officials said in a statement. Only commissioned law enforcement rangers will use body-worn cameras and only while gathering information during enforcement of laws. Cameras won’t be turned on during other conversations with park visitors, such as when rangers are sharing information, park officials said. In nearby Yellowstone National Park, 90% of commissioned law enforcement rangers, including all field staff, already wear body cameras, according to Yellowstone officials. Yellowstone law enforcement ranger supervisors will be issued cameras in coming weeks.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

News from around our 50 states

From staff and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: After 15 inmate suicides in 15 months, a federal judge ruled Saturday that the state is putting prisoners in danger by failing to provide adequate suicide-prevention measures. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson wrote that there are “severe and systemic inadequacies” in the Alabama Department of Corrections’ care of inmates and that the facts behind recent suicides show unconstitutional conditions persist in state prisons. “It is true that, as in the free world, not all suicides can be prevented. But this reality in no way excuses ADOC’s substantial and pervasive suicide-prevention inadequacies. Unless and until ADOC lives up to its Eighth Amendment obligations, avoidable tragedies will continue,” Thompson wrote at the conclusion of the 210-page opinion. Thompson noted some “promising” measures but said they were “too little, too late.”

Alaska

Bethel: A company is investing in development programs for youths and others to fulfill its promise to hire local workers for a proposed gold mine project. Alaska’s Energy Desk reports Donlin Gold is funding Yuut Elitnaurviat, a workforce development organization in Bethel. Two Native corporations own the mineral rights and land for the prospective gold mine 280 miles northwest of Anchorage. The project is expected to last up to 27 years. Donlin spends $1 million annually on programs like Yuut Elitnaurviat and Excel Alaska, which train rural Alaskans for jobs near home. Excel Alaska takes students as young as seventh grade and tailors sessions to fit the skills each one needs to obtain a job in his or her village, providing training through high school.

Arizona

Phoenix: Time is running out: May 12 is the last day to explore “Electric Desert,” the immersive light-and-sound exhibition at the Desert Botanical Garden. But the garden has already announced its next blockbuster art show, an installation of more than 1,000 animal sculptures by the Italian collective Cracking Art. “Electric Desert,” created by Philadelphia-based Klip Collective, projects kaleidoscopic light designs onto Sonoran Desert flora. It’s the latest in a line of ambitious outdoor installations at the garden, one of the Valley’s top attractions. Next up is Cracking Art’s “Wild Rising,” a menagerie of animals sculpted in brightly colored, recyclable plastic. Opening Oct. 10, it will comprise 13 installations throughout the garden, including penguins hanging out with saguaros, gray wolves on guard duty and snails perched on the butte.

Arkansas

Little Rock: Officials have formally signed off on the state’s first medical marijuana dispensary, and it could be less than a week before cultivators expect to have product ready for sale. Department of Finance and Administration spokesman Scott Hardin said Friday that Hot Springs dispensary Doctor’s Orders RX has been officially awarded the state’s approval. The dispensary had been inspected by Alcoholic Beverage Control, which regulates medical marijuana, and by the fire marshal. Hardin says Green Springs Medical, another Hot Springs dispensary, is scheduled for inspection Thursday. He says if it meets the qualifications, it could receive approval before Sunday, when cultivator BOLD Team expects to have its first harvest ready for sale. Two other cultivators expect to harvest by the summer.

California

Yosemite National Park: Red-legged frogs made famous by Mark Twain are thriving in Yosemite Valley after a decadeslong absence. Officials said Monday that they have documented the first breeding by the frogs in Yosemite since 2017, when adult red-legged frogs were first reintroduced after a 50-year absence. Yosemite National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds says ecologists found clusters of eggs in meadows and ponds this spring even though it normally takes years to see such results. The California red-legged frog is named for its colorful legs and belly. It was featured in Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The frog disappeared from Yosemite in part because non-native, predatory bullfrogs first introduced to a reflection pond spread throughout the valley and, over time, gobbled them up.

Colorado

Silverton: A tourist railroad has commenced service, bringing hope to businesses that have been isolated by weather events. The Durango Herald reports that the first Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad engine of 2019 arrived Saturday in Silverton, depositing dozens of tourists in the mountain town. Business owners in the community 324 miles southwest of Denver have suffered the economic consequences of winter avalanches that closed access along U.S. Route 550 for weeks. That followed a month and a half of train cancellations caused by the 416 Fire, a wildfire that burned 54,000 acres north of Durango beginning in June 2018. Hundreds of people were evacuated. The fire caused tens of thousands of train reservation cancellations, with at least one Silverton business owner reporting sales were down 70%.

Connecticut

Storrs: Firefighters have rescued eight ducklings from a storm drain on the University of Connecticut campus. The school says bystanders walking near the chemistry building called the fire department after noticing a mother duck and two ducklings crying outside the drain Sunday evening. The school says a firefighter attached to a safety rope used a ladder to reach six of the eight ducklings and bring them out. The other two had made their way down a drain pipe. Crews lured those two out using a cord attached to small dish filled with Rice Krispies. The school says the duck family was reunited and has returned to a nearby lake.

Delaware

Lewes: A home on the market for $1.45 million can be tied directly to the American Revolution and the founding of the nation’s government. Dubbed the Thomas Rodney house, it was first owned by a man who was the brother of Caesar Rodney, famously known for riding to Philadelphia despite being very ill to sign the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Rodney’s home was built in 1775. He served as a military leader, Continental Congressman, justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, speaker of the Delaware House and first federal judge of the Mississippi Territory, appointed by then-President Thomas Jefferson. The house was also once the home of the chief diver of the U.S. Navy and, in the 20th century, the summer home of Ben Fogey, then the architectural critic of the Washington Post.

District of Columbia

Washington: A new exhibit at an unconventional gallery in the district celebrates barbershop culture and even offers free haircuts, WTOP-FM reports. The Mobile Art Gallery, from nonprofit organization CulturalDC, has unveiled The Barbershop Project, which artist Devan Shimoyama says was inspired by his own experiences as a gay man of color visiting barbershops. The inclusive exhibit also incorporates paintings and silk flowers alongside the functioning barbershop. “There’s furniture that’s been made specifically for that space so that people can come and hang out,” Kristi Maiselman, executive director of CulturalDC, tells WTOP-FM. “So it’s a welcoming space for people to come and gather and tell stories.”

Florida

Brevard: “The Right Stuff,” a new television series adapted from Tom Wolfe’s iconic account of the early days of the U.S. space program, will start filming this fall on the Space Coast. Leonardo DiCaprio will be one of the executive producers of “The Right Stuff.” Appian Way Productions, a film and television production company founded by DiCaprio, is collaborating on the project with National Geographic Partners LLC and Warner Horizon Scripted Television. Space Coast Film Commissioner Bonnie King believes “The Right Stuff” will be the first scripted television series filmed in Brevard County since “The Cape,” which aired in 1996 and 1997. King says she’s pleased the Space Coast was selected as a filming location because “this is where it all happened.”

Georgia

Atlanta: State transportation officials are planning a series of public meetings amid preparations for new toll lanes on the perimeter that encircles the city. The Georgia Department of Transportation plans seven public meetings to provide information on the proposed lanes on the “top end” of Interstate 285. They’re planned from the stretch from Paces Ferry Road in Cobb County to Henderson Road in DeKalb County. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the plan would add two toll lanes in each direction on that stretch of I-285. Toll lanes are also planned on Georgia 400, from the Perimeter to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s North Springs station. Other plans involve Interstate 20. The meetings are planned May 14-23 in communities including Doraville, Chamblee, Smyrna, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and Brookhaven.

Hawaii

Lihue: Statues of past island royalty will soon begin their reign in front of a museum in the city. The Garden Island reports statues of the last king and queen of Kauai and Niihau were expected to be unveiled in a ceremony Saturday at the Kauai Museum in Lihue. The museum and archive on the eastern side of Kauai focuses on the indigenous and immigrant people of the two islands. Kauai residents Billy and Luella Lemn conceived the idea, and Billy Lemn produced the drawings of King Kaumualii and Queen Deborah Kapule that are being used as a basis for the life-sized statues by Chris O’Conner of Kauai. Prototypes are standing in while the real statues remain under construction. The museum’s director says the project will generate interest in local history.

Idaho

Boise: The governor has announced the pardoning of two men convicted of drug charges in the 1980s. The Idaho Press reports Gov. Brad Little on Friday granted his first two pardons since taking office in January to Fred Charles Wiley of Elmore County and Kenneth James Taylor of Pocatello. Wiley was convicted of delivery of a controlled substance in 1981 and completed parole in 1985. He has since become a successful businessman, running a motorcycle business that has serviced the Boise Police Department’s fleet and donating to local charities. Taylor in 1982 was also convicted of drug delivery, completing his sentence in 1998. Taylor then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees to work as a substance abuse and domestic violence counselor, volunteering with veterans, in Narcotics Anonymous and in jails.

Illinois

Chicago: Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he’s reached an agreement with key lawmakers on a plan to legalize recreational marijuana in the state starting next year. The legislation would allow adults 21 and older to legally buy cannabis for recreational use from licensed dispensaries. Illinois residents could possess up to about an ounce of marijuana, while nonresidents could possess about half an ounce. The measure also would automatically expunge some marijuana convictions. If it passes, Illinois would join 10 other states, including neighboring Michigan, in legalizing recreational marijuana. While the Illinois law would take effect Jan. 1, the first licenses for Illinois growers, processors and dispensaries wouldn’t be issued until May and July 2020, the governor’s office said. The deal comes after years of discussion among state legislators.

Indiana

Porter: Tourism officials are hoping the recent elevation of the Indiana Dunes to national park status will lure more visitors to the scenic stretch of dunes, woods and beaches in northwestern Indiana. The dunes, which were formed over 10,000 years ago, are mounds of sand that can reach altitudes of up to almost 200 feet. The former national lakeshore, which some view as North America’s most biodiverse area, became the state’s first national park in February. Since then, the Indianapolis Business Journal reports that Indiana Dunes National Park workers have received calls from people around the nation wanting to visit the park. The national park includes 15,000 acres of woodlands, prairies, savannas, bogs, wetlands and sand dunes along Lake Michigan just east of Gary.

Iowa

Des Moines: Outdoor enthusiasts will soon have an option to place an organ donor sticker on their hunting and fishing licenses under a new law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It’s called Logan’s Law after Logan Luft, of Charles City, who died at age 15 in 2017 after an all-terrain vehicle crash. Luft, who enjoyed hunting and fishing, had decided to be an organ donor, and his family says that decision saved the lives of five people who received his organs. His father, Leonard Luft, and other relatives sought the bill in his memory after seeing organ donor stickers on hunting and fishing licenses in Minnesota. The bill, which passed unanimously, requires the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to include organ donor information in hunting safety courses and to provide the designation of organ donor on license applications.

Kansas

Salina: Officials estimate it will cost $95 million to clean up pollution at the Schilling Air Force Base. Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials discussed the cleanup with Salina residents last week. The Salina Journal reports once the state finalizes its remediation plan, the federal government and four local public entities will divide the costs of cleaning the soil and groundwater. The pollution happened more than 50 years ago when toxic chemicals were used to clean airplanes at the base, which was operated by the U.S. Department of Defense from 1942 to 1966. Those chemicals ended up in the soil beneath the base. After the base closed, the land was given to the Kansas Board of Regents, the local school district, the Salina Airport Authority and the city of Salina.

Kentucky

Louisville: Tourism advocates are celebrating a win this month after the city posted the nation’s largest increase in hotel demand – 11.4% – during this year’s first quarter. While the data from CBRE Hotels Americas Research focuses on a relatively limited year-over-year snapshot of January through March, convention and hotel industry experts say the fact that Louisville has added hotel rooms and still registered a jump in demand is notable. The numbers didn’t surprise Louisville Tourism, the agency that oversees convention and tourism activities. An increase in overall bookings by leisure tourists and conventions early this year has followed the 2018 opening of the Omni Louisville Hotel and the Kentucky International Convention Center’s relaunch after a $207 million renovation and expansion.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University engineering students have designed and made a motorized wheelchair with three fat wheels so a 23-year-old woman can go to the beach with her family. Last year’s seniors were unable to provide a beach wheelchair for Cheslyn Simpson of Plaquemine but left their plans. This year’s group started with much fatter wheels. They added a cup holder, cooler, Bluetooth music player and headlights. Project leader Daniel Lucas says the students involved the community and raised awareness. They delivered the chair last Tuesday. Simpson has a genetic disease called Friedreich’s ataxia. In 2017, her speech therapists suggested she write an essay asking for help through LSU’s senior capstone design program.

Maine

Portland: Members of the seaweed industry say a court ruling could dramatically change the nature of the business in the state, which has seen the harvest of the gooey stuff grow by leaps and bounds in the past decade. Maine has a long tradition of seaweed harvesting, in which the sticky algae is gathered for a variety of commercial uses, including popular food products. But the state’s highest court ruled last month that permission from coastal landowners is needed for harvesting rockweed, a type of seaweed critical to the industry. The Maine Seaweed Council has called the ruling “a disappointing setback” that will force harvesters to adjust. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling was an outgrowth of a lawsuit involving Acadian Seaplants, a Canadian company with harvesting operations in rural Down East Maine.

Maryland

Baltimore: A once-common farm pesticide may be to blame for dozens of bald eagles poisoned over the past three years in Maryland and Delaware. The Baltimore Sun reports that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data shows pesticides were a suspected or confirmed factor in about 50 deaths of the national bird between 2008 and 2017. There have been about two dozen bald eagles poisoned to death on the Delmarva Peninsula over the past three years, including at least seven in the past two months. Maryland Natural Resources Police Lt. Roy Rafter said the illegal chemical carbofuran killed some of the birds. Authorities say they think old stocks of the pesticide are being used to kill foxes and other farm pests, but it harms the eagles that scavenge the dead animal remains.

Massachusetts

Boston: Wildlife officials are launching a three-year project to help conserve wood turtles in eastern Massachusetts. The turtles were once common in the cool, free-flowing streams of the Merrimack River Valley, but their populations have declined so much that they are now protected under the state’s Endangered Species Act. Populations closest to Boston have experienced some of the biggest declines as residential development has increased. MassWildlife is teaming with Zoo New England to launch the initiative, which includes searching stream habitats to find wood turtles, tracking movement patterns with radio telemetry, and identifying areas where wood turtles might establish populations in northeastern Massachusetts. The turtles grow to 6 to 8 inches long and can live more than 70 years, although few survive to maturity, with many struck by cars.

Michigan

Detroit: A winery that opened last week in an old Stroh’s building has become the city’s first winery in 60 years. Detroit Vineyards opened its doors Friday in the former Stroh’s Ice Cream facility, which still boasts the company’s large, green sign. Winery co-founder by Blake Kownacki says it was essential to keep the sign because “it’s emblematic for the city” and is now being used to the advantage of the new business. The winery is open seven days a week and features wines made from Detroit-grown grapes, including white and red wine, rose, mead and cider. Part of the old Stroh’s building is used as the winery’s barrel room.

Minnesota

St. Cloud: A new pilot program authorized by the state Supreme Court in early March will increase Minnesotans’ access to help with the justice system by early 2020. Legal experts planned to meet last week, according to Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, to begin discussing the possibilities of how the program should be run. The project will be limited to one of three areas of unmet need in civil law, according to the order – housing disputes, family law or creditor-debtor disputes. The pilot project would expand the roles of legal paraprofessionals in the selected area, cutting costs on routine cases and making legal help more accessible for low-income Minnesotans, says Maren Schroeder, the director of positions and issues at the Minnesota Paralegal Association.

Mississippi

Meridian: Singer-songwriter Steve Forbert is being honored in his hometown. Forbert attended a ceremony in Meridian as the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience museum unveiled a star on its walk of fame Saturday. The 64-year-old Forbert is a Meridian native best known for his 1979 single “Romeo’s Tune.” He was joined by relatives and friends, including his 96-year-old father, Sam Forbert, at an event forced indoors by rain. Forbert says he appreciates his Mississippi roots, telling The Meridian Star that “21 years of whatever’s in the water – I got it.” The event was part of Meridian’s Jimmy Rodgers Festival, an annual music festival saluting the country music pioneer. Forbert was the headliner for the festival’s closing night.

Missouri

Springfield: Missouri State University has signed off on a $2.2 million Ozarks Education Center that will be built on the shores of Bull Shoals Lake. The project includes a classroom meeting space that can accommodate about 40 students and two small cabin “pods” where eight to 10 students or researchers can stay while conducting research projects related to the Ozarks’ environment. Janice Greene, MSU professor of biology, says the Ozarks Education Center will be built on land donated to MSU and is situated far from any towns to help produce an atmosphere conducive to field research. It will complement the Bull Shoals Field Station across the lake that has been used for many years to teach about the Ozarks environment and do research on Ozarks environmental issues.

Montana

Heart Butte: A Blackfeet man’s DNA is the oldest ever found on the continent, according to a testing company. Darrell “Dusty” Crawford’s results trace his ancestry back 17,000 years in the Americas. Crawford had his DNA tested through CRI Genetics, which aims to provide customers with a “biogeographical ancestry,” a description of where their genes fit into the overall story of the species. For Crawford, the company traced his line back 55 generations with a 99% accuracy rate – rare, as the ancestry often is clouded that far back, according to the company. It was so unlikely, CRI told him, as to be like finding Bigfoot. Crawford’s DNA story suggests his ancestors likely came not across the Bering Land Bridge but from the Pacific, traveling to the coast of South America and then heading north, according to CRI.

Nebraska

Omaha: Pedestrians and drivers may have to make way for electric scooter riders on the city’s sidewalks and streets as soon as this week. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the City Council will vote Tuesday on a pilot project to bring up to 1,500 dockless scooters to the city through November. Scooter companies Lime and Spin say they could make the electric scooters available as early as Wednesday. The scooters are equipped with GPS so users can track them down for rent through a smartphone app. Many officials have expressed support for the project, but there’s some hesitation about how the scooters are operated and parked. Council member Chris Jerram is concerned about scooters being left on streets, in parking spots or near business entrances.

Nevada

Las Vegas: A casino company and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, say they’re partnering to create a teaching and practice space featuring a mock casino, hotel rooms, sports betting area and esports arena. Caesars Entertainment Corp. and UNLV have dubbed the center “Black Fire Innovation,” and officials say it’ll provide a supermarket-sized space to host, develop and commercialize hospitality products and ideas. It’s slated to be built at UNLV’s Harry Reid Research and Technology Park southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. Officials say the two-story facility will include a student lab, work space, and a replica resort and casino with slot machines and table games. Financial details of the partnership weren’t disclosed. The technology park is a mixed-use center currently home to a charter school and a pharmaceutical company.

New Hampshire

Concord: It won’t take effect in time for this summer’s boating season, but a bill aimed at preventing the spread of invasive aquatic weeds in the state’s lakes is headed to the governor’s desk. The Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would enable state agencies and communities that own public boat access facilities to provide garden hoses and other cleaning equipment to prevent the spread of milfoil and other invasive weeds. Boaters would be required to clean their boats before and after using the lake. Violators would face fines. Sen. Jeb Bradley, whose district includes the state’s largest lake, says prevention is the best and most cost-effective way to limit invasive milfoil. If signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, the bill will take effect Jan. 1.

New Jersey

Lakewood: The public school district’s newest hire has a spiky white mane and apparently can’t tell a carrot from a microphone. Peanut the pony, who strutted into Lakewood High School last week, and his horse pals will be paid $45 an hour to provide therapy to special education preschool students in the public schools. He made his debut in Lakewood the same night neighboring Toms River Regional voted to cut staff – a real-life example of winners and losers in the state’s approach to school funding and a contrast that doesn’t sit well for some. The Lakewood Board of Education will hold a public hearing on its $171.5 million budget, which includes the additional aid, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Lakewood High School. Unfortunately, Peanut is not slated to attend.

New Mexico

Farmington: The stars of the latest installment in the “Jumanji” franchise have posted to social media about their experiences while filming in the state. The cast and crew of the forthcoming “Jumanji” sequel have completed filming in Farmington. Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black shared photos and videos on Instagram and YouTube about their time in the city 182 miles north of Albuquerque. Hart and Johnson expressed gratitude and admiration for the Navajo Nation. Johnson trained at Defined Fitness and said that while he required security to hold back overzealous fans, he can “highly recommend” the gym. Black filmed himself playing – and losing – shuffleboard among the locals at Three Rivers Tap & Game Room. “It’s a rad little town,” Black said.

New York

Albany: Gov. Andrew Cuomo will push lawmakers to pass legislation allowing farmworkers to unionize, the state’s top labor official said during a farmworker rally outside the Capitol on Monday. The bill, known as the Farmworker Fair Labor Practices Act, would repeal an 80-year-old state law that prohibits farmworkers from organizing to seek better wages or conditions. It would also guarantee disability benefits and overtime pay. “Our governor believes farm workers should never be treated as second-class citizens,” Labor Commission Roberta Reardon told a group of a few dozen farmworkers, relatives and labor advocates. Similar legislation never got a vote in previous years, when Republicans controlled the state Senate. Supporters are more optimistic this year, following a Democratic takeover of the state Senate. Farmworkers argue they deserve the same labor rights as workers in other industries.

North Carolina

Tryon: A house in this small town is being restored to preserve the home and honor its most famous ex-tenant – the late music and civil rights icon Nina Simone. The nearly 90-year-old home where Simone grew up in Tryon, north of the city’s downtown, is being stabilized after years of neglect that nearly saw the structure demolished. Workers from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s HOPE Crew plan to spend much of May replacing and painting exterior siding on the 660-square-foot structure ahead of additional work on windows, interior and the roof. Tiffany Tolbert, a senior field officer for the National Trust, says it’s the start of a significant rehabilitation effort that ends with a strategy for implementing arts and culture programming into the home’s future.

North Dakota

Zap: This small community is planning a celebration to remember spring break 1969, when thousands of college students descended for a party that ended with the National Guard clearing out crowds. The Minot Daily News reports organizers are planning a more family-oriented event Saturday to celebrate the original “Zip to Zap” party in the town 90 miles northwest of Bismarck 50 years ago. The idea was hatched by a North Dakota State University student for students across the state who couldn’t afford a spring break trip to Florida. The estimated 3,000 young people who reportedly trashed Zap led to a response by the National Guard and other law enforcement. The anniversary event will involve a 5K race, a car show and concerts.

Ohio

Cincinnati: The Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery, a new permanent space at the Cincinnati Museum Center, opened Monday, celebrating the legacy of Apollo 11 crew members, especially Armstrong, the mission commander and Ohio native. The space includes interactive elements, original artifacts and equipment, as well as an immersive theater. The gallery will expand in 2020 to include more interactive and virtual reality elements, as well as live NASA briefings and information. A lunar sample on view was presented to Armstrong by NASA officials in honor of his role in the pioneering space program and then donated to the Cincinnati Museum Center. Curators even put footprints in the carpet that look like the ones Armstrong left behind on the lunar surface.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Tax officials say medical marijuana sales in the state topped $18 million last month, marking the seventh straight month of growth for the new industry. The Oklahoma Tax Commission reported Monday that the state collected more than $1.2 million in April from the 7% excise tax on marijuana that is in addition to state and local sales tax also collected from medical cannabis sales. Marijuana sales have grown significantly each month since dispensaries began selling the product in October. The number of people eligible to obtain the drug also is continuing to climb. The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority says it has approved more than 104,000 patient licenses since August and has licensed more than 1,400 dispensaries and 2,700 commercial growers.

Oregon

Salem: Turtles illegally dumped at Minto-Brown Island Park are threatening to push out native turtles as the creatures square off over nesting grounds and other natural necessities. The battle has led the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to euthanize countless red-eared slider turtles, which are native to the eastern United States and known for the distinct red stripes near their eyes. Red-eared sliders are vying with Oregon-native western painted turtles and western pond turtles for nesting sites, habitat and food supplies, according to wildlife officials. Western painted turtles and western pond turtles have been listed as “sensitive” species with the state, according to the Oregon Conservation Strategy. The western pond turtle’s federal status is under review, according to the Environmental Conservation Online System.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: One of the spectacles of summer has returned. Through June 20, the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival will defy city noise and traffic to transform a park at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge into something that feels more like a Disney fantasy attraction. Among the 29 larger-than-life displays are a brilliantly lit pagoda, walk-through dragon tunnel and 200-foot-long phoenix. Nighttime guests also will find Asian and American food, Chinese folk crafts and a beer garden, as well as performances and artisan demonstrations each night. Proceeds from the festival go to Historic Philadelphia Inc. and help fund the management of the Franklin Square park and its 80 free events each year.

Rhode Island

Providence: The city is partnering with federal officials to conserve birds and their habitats. Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza joined U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and other officials Monday to sign an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designating Providence as an Urban Bird Treaty City. Thirty cities currently hold this designation. The fish and wildlife service says it aims to bring together government agencies, nongovernmental organizations and schools to create bird-friendly environments and provide residents, especially youth, with opportunities to connect with nature through birding and conservation. Reed, a Democrat, says Providence is getting a $50,000 federal grant to support the effort.

South Carolina

Charleston: Police and other officials in the state are working to bring down a high number of road deaths among pedestrians and bicyclists. The Post and Courier reports a recent report by the nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association ranked South Carolina sixth among U.S. states for pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 people. More than 900 have died on South Carolina roads and highways in the past six years. Capt. David Singletary of the North Charleston Police Department says most such deaths are preventable. His department’s traffic unit plans a public education campaign this summer in which officers plan to stop and speak to anyone they see improperly crossing a roadway. Other groups, like the nonprofit Charleston Moves, are pushing for pedestrian bridges and other infrastructure upgrades.

South Dakota

Madison: Dakota State University says it’s rebranding, noting in a statement Friday that its goal is to unite the university under a look and feel that authentically matches “the essence of Dakota State.” The university will change its logo to a single “D” surrounded by a hexagon and change its colors from blue and yellow to Trojan blue and gray. The rebranding project took a year of research and planning and was initiated by President Jose-Marie Griffiths, who joined the college in 2015. It’s the third school system in a month to do something similar, following in the steps of the University of South Dakota’s efforts to create a community college out of the University Center in Sioux Falls and the renaming of the Sioux Falls Catholic Schools to Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools this week.

Tennessee

Nashville: The Volunteer State’s 56 state parks have been recognized for their efforts to practice environmental sustainability. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation says Burgess Falls State Park in White County achieved platinum status, while nine parks reached gold level status, 24 parks reached silver level and 22 bronze. The nine gold level parks are Bicentennial Capitol Mall, Cumberland Trail, Cummins Falls, Dunbar Cave, Johnsonville, Montgomery Bell, Radnor Lake, Roan Mountain and Standing Stone. The recognition is part of the state’s Go Green With Us program that began in 2015.

Texas

Houston: Lawmakers are considering a bill that could grant homeowners a tax break when their property has been damaged by disasters such as 2017’s Hurricane Harvey. The Houston Chronicle reports bill sponsor Sen. Paul Bettencourt says it would give homeowners an opportunity to challenge unjust property tax bills after a natural disaster. The bill would basically remove cities, counties and other governmental agencies from the disaster reappraisal decision-making process. It also includes guidelines on how appraisers must complete the work. Hurricane Harvey caused widespread damage and flooding along the Texas Gulf Coast, with winds speeds topping 130 mph. Just a portion of the more than 200,000 damaged structures in the state’s 60 counties were reappraised. The proposal has passed the Senate and awaits a vote in the House.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is changing wedding rules in hopes of preventing family members who aren’t church members from feeling excluded. The faith said Monday in a news release that couples who get married in civil ceremonies will no longer have to wait one year to do a temple wedding ceremony that only members in good standing can attend. Church leaders say it will allow “families to come together in love and unity” but doesn’t lessen the temple ceremony the faith believes seals the couple for eternity. Religious scholar Matthew Bowman says the old rule was designed to encourage couples to get married in a temple and have a reception or “ring ceremony” afterward. But he says it caused heartache for some with mixed religious affiliations.

Vermont

Montpelier: The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department is reminding drivers to be alert to moose crossing roadways this time of year. Officials say moose are on the move particularly after dark and early in the morning as they travel from wintering areas to spring feeding spots. The department says more moose are hit by vehicles in the spring than other times of year. Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter says last year drivers hit 61 moose on Vermont highways. He says the department is asking drivers to be especially careful and “for people to enjoy watching moose from a distance.”

Virginia

Lexington: Virginia Military Institute isn’t raising student tuition thanks to increased state funding to the country’s oldest state-supported military college. The Lexington institution’s Board of Visitors decided Saturday to keep annual tuition for state residents at nearly $9,300 and for non-Virginia cadets at about $36,000. But fees will increase by $540 for room and board, auxiliary services and quartermaster charges. Cadets are required to live in the VMI barracks throughout their studies, making room and board a required fee. The higher fees will generate an additional $1.6 million, added to an extra $1.9 million in state funding. VMI’s budget for the fiscal year beginning in July is $96 million.

Washington

Olympia: State legislators have taken substantial steps to reshape the mental-health system, including funding for new facilities, legislation to increase the number of qualified workers, and the creation of new types of treatment centers. The Seattle Times reports lawmakers approved the plan – which sprawls across two different state budgets, as well as several other bills – in the legislative session that ended April 28. The work comes after years of court orders and federal inspections that meticulously documented the poor treatment of psychiatric patients in the state’s care, as well as a steep shortage of treatment beds and staffers to operate them. It remains to be seen how the complex plan comes together in the coming years. Grants will have to be awarded, facilities sited, permitted and built, and staff found to run them.

West Virginia

Fairmont: The Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center at Fairmont State University is looking for volunteers to give tours. The center is offering training for volunteer docents May 20. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact staff at wvfolklife@fairmontstate.edu or (304) 367-4403 by May 17. Docents will provide tours and information about the center’s exhibits to school groups and other visitors. Docents should have flexible schedules and enjoy talking about history and culture, working with groups of all ages, and answering questions. The center is located in a repurposed historic barn on the university campus and has scholarly research, archives, community programs and events, workshops, and exhibitions.

Wisconsin

Madison: The state’s tourism industry generated $21.6 billion last year, according to a new report from the state Department of Tourism. The report says visitor spending rose nearly 5% in 2018 to $13.3 billion. Tourism brought in $1.2 billion in federal taxes, $879 million in state taxes and $703 million in local taxes. Most of the growth is tied to recreational activities. Department of Tourism spokeswoman Kristina LeVan noted several large events drew visitors to the state last year, including Milwaukee Brewers playoff games, the CrossFit Games in Madison and Harley-Davidson’s 115th anniversary celebration in Milwaukee.

Wyoming

Jackson: Biologists estimate the state’s overall wolf population at 286 this year, down 61 animals from a year ago. The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports that’s the fewest wolves counted in the state since the Wyoming Game and Fish Department took over management and initiated wolf hunting seven years ago. State biologists estimate there were 46 wolf packs in the state at the end of 2018. Game and Fish wolf biologist Ken Mills says a combination of hunting, natural mortality and reduced pup production drove down the number of wolves in the state. Although having fewer wolves concerns wildlife watchers and activists, the outcome is what Wyoming wildlife managers have been seeking. With fewer wolves, documented conflicts between wolves and domestic animals fell off last calendar year.

From staff and wire reports

Manure power, snakes under a bed: News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed failed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore’s $95 million lawsuit targeting comedian Sacha Baron Cohen filed after Moore complained he was tricked into an interview that lampooned sexual misconduct accusations against him. Judge John Cronan wrote that Moore signed a clear disclosure agreement that prohibited any legal claims over the appearance. He added that the absurd segment – in which the comic demonstrated a so-called pedophile detector that beeped when it got near Moore – was “clearly a joke” and that no viewer would think the comedian was making factual allegations against Moore. “The court agrees that Judge Moore’s claims are barred by the unambiguous contractual language, which precludes the very causes of action he now brings,” Cronan wrote. The lawsuit centered on Moore’s unwitting appearance on the comic’s “Who is America?” show. The segment ran after Moore faced misconduct accusations that he had pursued sexual and romantic relationships with teens when he was a man in his 30s. He has denied the allegations. Moore, a Republican sometimes known as the Ten Commandments judge known for hard-line stances opposing same-sex marriage and supporting the public display of Ten Commandments, faced the accusations during his 2017 Senate race.

Alaska

Juneau: More than 13 Indigenous communities, including seven in Alaska, will split $12 million for energy cost reduction efforts, officials announced. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the grants during a teleconference Tuesday. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Keolani Booth, a Metlakatla Indian Community Tribal Council member, also participated in the event. They said the grant funds would help American Indian and Alaska Native communities reduce costs and move toward more sustainable energy production, the Juneau Empire reports. “We want to thank the federal government for its investment into our community,” Booth said. “This opens up many new options.” Metlakatla will use its grant of more than $1 million to complete an electrical intertie project to Ketchikan that is expected to lower prices. Booth, in a statement, said the project has been in the works for about 20 years and is becoming a reality because of the assistance of state and federal politicians. Other Alaska communities receiving grants are the Akiachak Native Community; the Native Village of Kipnuk; the Native Village of Diomede; the Native Village of Noatak and the Northwest Arctic Borough; the Village of Aniak; and the Village of Chefornak.

Arizona

Phoenix: A new energy facility scheduled to open in December southwest of the city will capture methane from cow manure and reuse the biogas as renewable natural fuel. Facility stakeholders said the process will capture harmful gases that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere and exacerbate climate change. The project is a partnership between West Virginia-based renewable energy company Avolta and the Butterfield Dairy Farm in Buckeye. Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. will help transport the gas for sale to other outlets. A handful of renewable natural gas facilities have sprouted up in the Southwest, including in Arizona and California in recent months. The Avolta facility is one of at least five renewable natural gas plants in or coming to Arizona. Others are expected to open in Tucson, Gila Bend and Maricopa. Unlike electric utilities in Arizona, which must generate 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2025, Southwest Gas has no such required standard, according to the newspaper. Still, the gas utility is partnering with five facilities in Arizona and California. Spokespeople said the utility company is committed to partnering with more renewable natural gas developers.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The state reported its biggest one-day jump in COVID-19 cases in five months Tuesday as Arkansas held its dubious distinction of having the most new cases per capita in the country. The Department of Health said the state’s cases rose by 1,476 to 358,949 since the pandemic began. It was the biggest one-day jump reported since Feb. 5’s 1,824 cases. Arkansas’ cases have continued to surge, fueled by the delta variant of the coronavirus and the state’s low vaccination rates. The state ranks No. 1 in the nation for new daily cases by population, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers. Only 35% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 41 to 606. Twenty-two percent of the state’s hospital beds and about 6% of its intensive care unit beds are currently available, according to the Department of Health. There are 240 COVID-19 patients in the state’s ICUs. Ninety-eight COVID-19 patients are on ventilators. The state’s COVID-19 deaths rose by 15 to 5,970. Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is touring the state holding town halls aimed at encouraging COVID-19 shots, tweeted that 98.3% of those hospitalized in the state since January were unvaccinated.

California

Sacramento: When the state told school districts they must still require masks for students and teachers indoors, it left no room for doubt about enforcement: If students refused, schools were to send them home. But hours after that announcement Monday, public health officials in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration abruptly changed course and said school districts would decide for themselves how to enforce the mask mandate. The reversal marked a bumpy rollout of the state’s new coronavirus rules for California’s schools, which are required to resume in-person instruction for the upcoming school year. Speaking after an event in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Newsom downplayed the reversal, saying enforcement of mask-wearing has “always been a local responsibility.” “All (the Department of Public Health) did was clarify that local responsibility, which is consistent with all the prior rule-making that has been in effect on mask-wearing going back to last year,” Newsom said. But Troy Flint, spokesman for the California School Boards Association, said the updated rule “is a huge difference in terms of how districts would operate and how the public is going to receive this guidance.”

Colorado

Denver: The state has launched a four-year study of American bald eagles to determine how the protected raptors have adapted to population growth along the metropolitan Front Range and identify planning measures that could ensure the bird’s future. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said the study, involving biologists and volunteers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies among others, will monitor nesting sites, food sources such as prairie dog colonies, reproduction, and migration from the Denver area north to the Wyoming border. Between 25 and 30 eagles are being fitted with transmitters using cellular communications networks to provide real-time data on eagle movements. CPW estimated there are more than 90 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the corridor. There were none at the end of the 1970s and only three in all of Colorado. That recovery – mirroring a nationwide trend – came after federal and state protections including banning the pesticide DDT. The eagle’s growth has coincided with rapid urban development. Denver’s metropolitan area has nearly 3 million people, and CPW said nearly 750,000 additional people are projected to make the Front Range their home by 2029.

Connecticut

Hartford: State lawmakers voted Wednesday to again extend Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency declarations first issued in March 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite pushback from Republicans and some Democrats who argued it’s time to get back to normal. The House of Representatives and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, passed separate resolutions during Wednesday’s special session. “I know that people have COVID fatigue. People want to continue to move back with returning to normalcy, and we are doing that,” said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford. “This resolution will allow that to happen while still allowing us to act in the best interest of public health.” The resolution in the House passed on a 73-56 vote, with nine Democrats joining all the Republicans in opposition. In the Senate, the resolution passed on a 19-15 vote, with four Democrats joining the GOP in voting “no.” The Democratic governor had asked the General Assembly to renew his declarations of public health and civil preparedness emergencies through Sept. 30, noting he is only seeking to extend 11 executive orders. That’s compared to a high of more than 300 at one point during the crisis.

Delaware

Wilmington: DuPont Co. and two spinoffs will pay at least $50million to the state to help clean up toxic chemicals, the Delaware Department of Justice announced Tuesday. It’s the first time the state’s Department of Justice has resolved environmental damage claims on behalf of the state. The settlement will pay for environmental restoration, improvement, sampling and analysis, community environmental justice and equity grants, and other natural resource needs, the department said. DuPont and Corteva, previously the agriculture division of DowDuPont, will each contribute $12.5 million. Chemours, DuPont’s former performance chemicals unit, will contribute $25 million. The three companies reached a cost-sharing agreement earlier this year. They will fund up to an additional $25 million if they settle similar claims with other states for more than $50 million. The settlement resolves their responsibility for damage caused by releases of historical compounds including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They include perfluorooctanoic acid, which was used in the production of Teflon, and have also been used in firefighting foam, water-repellent clothing and many other household and personal items. They are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their longevity in the environment.

District of Columbia

Washington: Nellie’s Sports Bar reopened nearly a month after it closed due to ongoing protests outside after a video showed a security guard dragging a woman out of the establishment by her hair, WUSA-TV reports. But people were outside the establishment Tuesday forming a human chain at the door to dissuade customers from going inside. Nellie’s let go of the security company whose officer was recorded dragging Keisha Young out of the bar June 13, in the wake of the video being released on social media. Protests are planned for Friday evening by a group that is still frustrated about what happened in June, during Pride Month, at the well-known LGBTQ bar. ABRA, the district agency tasked to issue and renew licenses, assigned an investigator to the case. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board held a closed meeting to review the report and referred the case to the District’s Office of Attorney General. Young claimed the issue started when security misidentified her for another woman whom they wanted to leave for allegedly bringing in a bottle from outside. The investigator determined Nellie’s had a difficult time removing patrons through a crowd as they pushed and shoved into other people and got involved in the altercations.

Florida

Miami: Norwegian Cruise Line is challenging a new state law that prevents cruise companies from requiring passengers to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Miami federal court, contends that the law jeopardizes safe operation of cruise ships by increasing risk of contracting the coronavirus. Norwegian intends to restart cruises from Florida ports Aug. 15 with vaccinations required for all passengers. Norwegian wants a judge to lift the ban by Aug. 6. The law imposes a fine of $5,000 each time a cruise line mandates that a passenger provide vaccination proof. Norwegian claims it violates federal law and several constitutional rights. The company, officially known as Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, says it won’t be able to sail from Florida unless a judge acts to block the law. “The result would be a devastating, unrecoverable loss for everyone – not only for NCLH’s business but also for tens of thousands of passengers, employees, and stakeholders who all benefit from NCLH resuming safe operations as planned,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit names as a defendant Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Scott Rivkees. He is an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose spokeswoman said the cruise line’s policy discriminates against children under 12 and others who are not vaccinated.

Georgia

Augusta: In a nightmarish scenario, a couple found 18 snakes under their bed. Instead of killing the creatures, the husband carefully plucked them off the ground, dropped them in a bag and relocated them to a nearby creek. Augusta resident Trish Wilcher told WJBF-TV that as she and her husband, Max, were about to go to bed Sunday, she saw what she thought was some fuzz on the floor. She said it moved when she reached down. “And then a second later another piece moved,” Wilcher said. “And I went to my husband: ‘We have snakes!’ ” The couple found a mother snake with 17 recently hatched babies under their bed. Max Wilcher used a grabber tool to place each one in a linen bag. The ordeal took until around midnight. “He brought them out there to the creek area and released them there,” Trish Wilcher said. Outside of finding a place to lay their eggs, there’s another reason snakes may want to share human spaces. Camilla Sherman, an environmental educator for the Phinizy Center for Water Sciences, said snakes sometimes move into homes to hunt rodents. “If you have a mouse problem, the snakes are going to come and try to help you with that,” Sherman said.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A City Council member has proposed banning unpermitted parking in an Oahu neighborhood while the state closes a popular trail nearby for two years to conduct repairs. The state plans to close Maunawili Falls Trails in Kailua starting Thursday so that it and a private landowner can preserve historic and cultural sites. It also plans to build parking and comfort stations. The trail takes hikers through a lush forest to a waterfall. As the trail has grown in popularity, neighbors have struggled with hikers parking illegally and trespassing, as well as urinating in their yards and leaving behind dirty diapers. Chris Nakamatu of the Maunawili Estates Community Association said about 1,000 people use the trail on the weekends. City Council member Esther Kia’aina, who represents the area, told Hawaii News Now she doesn’t expect people to stop coming when the trail closes, so she’s calling for a ban on unpermitted parking in the neighborhood during the closure. The city already restricts parking for those without permits in a Kalihi neighborhood, she said. “I think that this is the best way to balance the community’s needs with those that are trespassing,” Kia’aina said. Neighbors say they support measures to control the crowds and revive the trail.

Idaho

Boise: Residents and visitors need to help prevent wildfires in what could be a challenging season with continued high temperatures and most of the state in drought, Gov. Brad Little said. The Republican governor said Tuesday that there’s a potential for multiple giant wildfires in Idaho that use up firefighting resources and leave some areas unprotected. He spoke at an outdoor news conference hazy with smoke from wildfires from nearby states. “My fear is that we will have some of these great big mega-fires that start creating their own weather, like the one that is over in Oregon, where I think a lot of this smoke is coming from, that basically endanger communities; they endanger firefighters; they endanger precious wildlife and watershed capacity,” he said. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years, and scientists have long warned that the weather will get wilder as the world warms. Special calculations are needed to determine how much global warming is to blame, if at all, for a single extreme weather event. Little has already tapped the Idaho National Guard in what could be the worst wildfire season in the state in years. That includes the use of helicopters that can fight fires, transport firefighters or deliver supplies.

Illinois

Chicago: Five people were rushed to area hospitals after being shot Wednesday afternoon on Chicago’s South Side, about 12 hours after another shooting elsewhere in the city wounded five other people, police said. Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, said he did not know the conditions of the victims who were shot just after noon. He also did not yet know the ages of the victims, but he said he did not believe that any of them were children. No arrests have been made, he said. Just after midnight Wednesday, five other people – four women and a man – were shot as they stood outside in the Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. “A group was standing outside when they were approached by an unidentified male … who produced a handgun and began shooting. The victims attempted to flee the scene once the shooting began,” police said in a statement. Four of the victims, who range in age from 18 to 29, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries. A fifth victim, a 34-year-old woman, was shot in the leg but refused to be taken to a hospital, police said. And about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 2-year-old boy and 32-year-old man were critically wounded when someone pulled up in front of a home near which they were standing and opened fire.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The leaders of two now-closed online charter schools are accused in a new lawsuit of defrauding the state of more than $150 million by padding their student enrollments and inappropriately paying money to a web of related businesses. The lawsuit announced Monday by the state attorney general’s office comes nearly two years after Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy shut down amid a state investigation that found the two online schools improperly claimed about 14,000 students as enrolled between 2011 and 2019, even though they had no online course activity. The lawsuit seeks repayment of about $69 million it claims the schools wrongly received in state student enrollment payments. It also seeks $86 million that officials say the schools improperly paid to more than a dozen companies linked to them by common business officers or relatives and did so with little or no documentation. “This massive attempt to defraud Hoosier taxpayers through complex schemes truly boggles the mind,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said in a statement. A state audit linked much of the misspending to Thomas Stoughton, who headed the online schools from 2011 to 2017 and owned or had business associates who operated about a dozen companies that received school payments.

Iowa

Altoona: Workers used a crane Tuesday to remove a boat from an amusement park ride as part of the investigation into an accident that killed one boy and critically injured his brother. The boat, which weighs over 1,700 pounds, was removed from the human-made channel on the Raging River ride so that inspectors and engineers could have a closer examination, Adventureland Park attorney Guy Cook said. The boat was placed on a trailer and taken to a secure location, as the investigation into the “tragic and extremely unusual accident continues,” he said. The boat was carrying six members of a Marion, Iowa, family at the park in Altoona when it unexpectedly overturned on the evening of July 3, trapping two brothers under the water for minutes. Michael Jaramillo, 11, died of his injuries the next day, while 16-year-old David Jaramillo remains hospitalized in critical condition. David Jaramillo is still heavily sedated and hooked up to oxygen, unable to talk or see for the moment, said family attorney Ryan Best. His father, also David Jaramillo, was undergoing surgery Tuesday on bones he broke in his shoulder when the boat overturned, before he was able to free himself, Best said. Michael Jaramillo’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday at a Des Moines church.

Kansas

Topeka: A Republican lawmaker questioned Tuesday whether Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration made unemployment fraud worse by not conducting adequate background checks on hundreds of people hired to help with a surge of claims during the pandemic. Sen. Caryn Tyson, of Parker, raised the issue as the state prepared to launch a new investigation of unemployment fraud. Tyson serves on a new council created by the GOP-controlled Legislature to oversee a modernization of the Kansas Department of Labor’s aged computer system and to audit fraud and its effects. The state Department of Labor has estimated fraudulent claims last year totaled $290 million, but a report by the Legislature’s auditing arm estimated $600 million. The council on Tuesday discussed the scope of its audit so the state can take bids from private firms for the work, with a preliminary report due May 1, 2022. The final report is expected by September next year. The council expects to set the audit’s scope next week, but Tyson said auditors should examine possible “holes or flaws in the human side” of computer security, particularly given the big expansion of the department’s workforce.

Kentucky

Louisville: Bourbon tourism is getting another boost from a distillery in the city. Angel’s Envy says it will be able to accommodate twice as many guests once an $8.2 million expansion is completed next spring at its downtown Louisville site. The craft distiller says the project includes a new event space and bar, a larger retail space, and several new tasting rooms. The distillery will remain open to the public throughout the construction. “Angel’s Envy is a prime example of how Kentucky’s signature bourbon industry immensely benefits our commonwealth by attracting visitors to the state while creating quality opportunities for Kentuckians,” Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday. Kentucky is home to 66 spirits operations employing more than 5,100 people full time statewide, Beshear’s office said. In 2020, the industry announced 20 projects in Kentucky, totaling more than $300 million in new investment. Kentucky crafts 95% of the world’s bourbon supply, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Efforts to mitigate COVID-19 at large events – including mask mandates or requirements that attendees be vaccinated or have a negative coronavirus test – will likely continue into the fall because of low state vaccination rates and the spread of dangerous virus variants, the city’s health director said Tuesday. Dr. Jennifer Avegno’s remarks came at a news conference focusing on the city’s efforts to encourage vaccinations in a state that has one of the nation’s lowest inoculation rates. Louisiana health officials on Tuesday said COVID-19 cases are surging, largely among unvaccinated people, as the more easily transmissible delta variant spreads in the state. Avegno’s remarks come as the city looks to a new NFL and college football season and the return of major entertainment events such as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which was postponed from its usual spring dates. The city currently allows major events to have full capacity if there is a mask requirement or if attendees are required to have either a vaccination or a negative virus test. “I think folks should expect that that might the case in the fall,” Avegno said. “We would all love to have large events that did not require some degree of mitigation. And before delta I was maybe a little more confident that we would get there.”

Maine

Augusta: A bill that aimed to eliminate the state’s privately owned electric utilities by buying them out and replacing them with a consumer-owned utility was vetoed Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, likely spelling the end of the proposal this legislative session. Mills acknowledged that the performance of Central Maine Power and Versant Power has been “abysmal” but said the proposal to send them packing – with voters getting the final say – was “deeply flawed” and “hastily drafted and hastily amended.” “I certainly agree that change is necessary. No question about that. And I remain open to considering alternative proposals,” she said. The bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, disputed the governor’s characterization of the proposal, arguing that it was thoroughly vetted over the past three years. And it isn’t going away. A coalition will be launching a referendum drive to put the proposal before voters anyway next year, instead of this fall. Supporters said it’s time to replace Central Maine Power and Versant Power, which are owned by corporations in Spain and Canada, with an entity that works in the interest of Mainers instead of shareholders. The new entity, Pine Tree Power, would keep rates low, respond faster to outages and support clean energy projects, they said.

Maryland

Annapolis: Grow & Fortify is looking to make it easier for craft alcohol fans in the state to track their endeavors. The Maryland-based agricultural cooperative launched the Maryland Craft Beverages app Wednesday. It allows users to plan future stops, track locations they have visited and participate in industry-tailored passports, according to a press release. The app will include trails dedicated to beer, wine, spirits, cider and mead. A directory in the app will feature active members of the Brewers Association of Maryland, the Maryland Distillers Guild and the Maryland Wineries Association. Through the app, Grow & Fortify hopes to connect users with local tasting rooms and boost revenue for beverage producers in Maryland, according to the release. The app will replace the annually printed Maryland Craft Beverage map that Grow & Fortify previously distributed at tourist destinations around the state. Daruma Tech developed the app, which will be available for free in the Apple and Google Play stores.

Massachusetts

Boston: The rise of hybrid and remote work during the past year and a half is just one of the ways the future of business in Massachusetts could change in the post-pandemic years, shifting the state’s economic “center of gravity” away from the greater Boston core, according to a report released Tuesday by the Baker administration. Even as COVID-19 concerns ease, public transit ridership likely won’t return to pre-pandemic levels, with the steepest decline likely in commuter rail, according to the report, which found business travel may also fall compared to pre-COVID-19 levels. The report anticipates that changes in the economic landscape will require sweeping workforce training programs to connect workers with key skills for the future economy, with as many as 400,000 people needing to transition to different occupations or occupational categories over the next decade. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said the state needs to “turbo-charge” those training programs. The governor also said the state needs to increase the production of new housing and support downtown economies, as well as adapt to new transportation demands and promote flexibility in child care options, including increased child care subsidies for lower-income families.

Michigan

Flint: A federal judge listened Tuesday to residents who were victims of the city’s lead-contaminated water, a step in determining whether she should sign off on a $641 million deal that would settle claims against the state. More than a dozen people without lawyers signed up to speak, all in opposition. Thousands more are represented by attorneys who negotiated the settlement with Michigan and other parties and urged approval a day earlier. “This is a little unusual,” said U.S. District Judge Judith Levy, who left her courthouse in Ann Arbor for a courtroom 55 miles away in Genesee County. The settlement fund includes $600 million from Michigan and $20 million from Flint. But attorneys are seeking $200 million in fees. “The lawyers are making out like fat rats,” Audrey Young-Muhammed complained to the judge. Money would be available to every Flint child who was exposed to the water, adults who can show an injury, landlords, business owners, and anyone who paid water bills. More than 50,000 people have filed claims in a city with a population of roughly 95,000. Kids are supposed to get 80% of the money. Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement that the deal provides relief and prevents a “drawn out legal back-and-forth.” But the Rev. Freelon Threlkeld, addressing the judge, described the settlement as “some crumbs.”

Minnesota

St. Paul: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it won’t consider holding a wolf hunting or trapping season until 2022 at the earliest. The agency said in a statement last week that it’s taking longer than expected to update its 20-year-old wolf management plan, and it’s now expected to be done by March. “We will use our updated plan as we determine whether and how to use various management tools to ensure continuation of a healthy and sustainable wolf population in Minnesota,” the statement said. “Consideration of whether to hold hunting or trapping seasons will be guided by the updated plan.” Then-President Donald Trump’s administration in November ended Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in most of the United States, leaving states and tribes in charge of overseeing the animals. Minnesota held wolf seasons from 2012 to 2014 until courts blocked them. Some states moved quickly to liberalize hunting and trapping rules. The Center for Biological Diversity praised Minnesota for moving deliberately. Collette Adkins, the Arizona-based group’s carnivore conservation director, said Minnesota had “wisely prioritized first updating the management plan to reflect new science and the values of all Minnesotans.”

Mississippi

Jackson: Some residents with overdue water bills could be eligible for support through a new program the city announced this week. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba on Monday said the city wants to help residents catch up on past-due bills and offer potential debt forgiveness. It will apply to low-income residents, those with water issues related to faulty equipment and individuals affected by weather events. Lumumba said money recouped through the program could be used to fix widespread infrastructure issues with the water system. City water customers owe more than $100 million in unpaid bills. “The city’s water woes have been well-chronicled,” Lumumba said at a briefing outside City Hall. “I’m asking all residents become a part of the program. If you qualify under the low-income program, you can look forward to turning the page.” The payment plans providing customers with additional time to make payments on their water bills will go into effect July 19. For those with large debt, the plan will allow residents to pay a monthly amount with an additional $10 tacked on over several months to cover past-due bills. Provided the resident pays on a timely basis, some debt can be forgiven, Lumumba said.

Missouri

Jefferson City: College and university officials in the state will be able to raise tuition as much as they want under legislation Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed Tuesday. Currently, public colleges and universities can only raise tuition a limited amount to keep up with inflation, compensate for cuts in state aid, or keep up with the average tuition rates across the state. The new law will allow college officials to raise tuition as much as they want beginning in July 2022. Schools will be allowed to charge different tuition rates for different degrees, a change aimed at letting colleges set higher tuition in fields with higher education costs. The wide-ranging legislation also will let college athletes profit off their fame and celebrity, although the NCAA preemptively scrapped its rules against that earlier this month. Missouri joins a growing list of states that have enacted laws allowing student-athletes to earn money for autographs, sponsorships, or other uses of their names, images, likenesses or athletic reputations.

Montana

Great Falls: Two Native American women are leading cultural hikes throughout the state, sharing Indigenous stories connected to the land and animals who live there. As Lailani Upham and Carrie Bear Chief hiked through Upper Two Medicine in Glacier National Park on July 8, Lailani and Carrie told the story of a young warrior. The man was injured, and his two comrades left him in the park, but the man was later helped by a bear, who communicated with him in the Blackfoot language. They also told the story of a non-Native man who lived among the Blackfeet people. A sharpshooter, this man shot a bighorn sheep in the very spot they stood in the park. Lailani and Carrie collect stories from elders, and they record oral histories and study books that chronicle Indigenous people in Montana. Lailani, a Blackfeet woman who loves the outdoors, in March launched Iron Shield Creative, a platform that aims to “bring Indigenous stories to the world.” The business also offers multimedia storytelling projects and workshops. “I wanted to see people within our tribal communities get to document their own stories,” she said. Lailani said storytelling is crucial because it “brings people together.” Carrie, who works as a storyteller guide for Iron Shield Creative, said storytelling keeps Indigenous culture and tradition alive.

Nebraska

Lincoln: Former state Rep. Ernie Chambers, known for seeking the censure of judges he believes have acted outside the bounds of fairness, is targeting a judge in the state’s northeastern corner who saw the Nebraska Supreme Court overturn his denial of an adoption petition to a same-sex couple. In a complaint filed last week with the Nebraska Judicial Qualifications Commission, Chambers accused Dixon County Judge Douglas Luebe of violating state law requiring judges perform their duties fairly and impartially and without bias, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Luebe described himself as “old-fashioned” in denying an adoption petition for a same-sex married couple last year. His denial was based not on state law but on a legal definition of “wife” that he pulled from a law dictionary. Luebe said the married women who sought to adopt had listed themselves in their petition as “wife and wife.” He balked, saying the dictionary defined “wife” as “ ‘a woman who has a lawful living husband.’ ” Nebraska’s highest court overturned that denial in March, ruling that the plain language of state adoption law does not preclude same-sex married couples from adopting. In his complaint, Chambers called Luebe a “scalawag in judicial robes.”

Nevada

Las Vegas: A Republican pageant winner and business owner is running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto. Sharelle Mendenhall filed as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission earlier this month and is scheduled to officially kick off her campaign Thursday evening with a rally in Las Vegas. Mendenhall was Mrs. Nevada United States in 2020 and Ms. California United States in 2019. She is also the owner of Elite Expo Talent Agency, which hires models and talent for conventions and other events. Her campaign describes her as “a strong Christian, lifelong conservative” and supporter of former President Donald Trump. She joins Reno businessman and Army veteran Sam Brown in the GOP primary. Brown is expected to hold a rally kicking off his campaign July 24. Republican Adam Laxalt, the former Nevada attorney general, has said he’s considering another run for public office and is expected to join the race as well. Cortez Masto, who is seeking reelection, is the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate. She was elected in 2016, winning the seat held by longtime Sen. Harry Reid after he retired.

New Hampshire

Chesterfield: Since the 1960s, visitors along a forest trail could see stone stairs and archways, remnants of a country house that was referred to as a “castle.” That’s now giving way to gravity. The top section of stairs collapsed over the weekend in Madame Sherri Forest in West Chesterfield, named after a Ziegfeld Follies costume designer who lived in the house and threw parties for New York’s theatrical elite in the 1930s, the Brattleboro Reformer reports. The house was lost in a fire in 1962. The land is owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Jack Savage, society president, said with all the rain the area has seen recently, it wouldn’t surprise him to hear the ground under the steps was saturated, and something just gave way. The society recently hosted a work party at the castle, cleaning up graffiti and weeding. “I know it’s a very popular place,” Savage said. “People will likely want to go see what’s there no more, but we ask that they stay away from the rubble so they don’t get hurt.” Madame Sherri, who was born Antoinette Bramare in 1878 in Paris, built her castle in 1929. She eventually abandoned the home and died in 1965 in Brattleboro, Vermont, at age 87.

New Jersey

Trenton: Nearly 88,000 low-level marijuana offenses have been dismissed over the past two weeks, the state Supreme Court said, as the Garden State transitions to legalizing and decriminalizing the drug. The dismissed cases announced late Monday afternoon are the first in a wave of about 360,000 that are eligible to be automatically vacated, dismissed and expunged under the decriminalization law Gov. Phil Murphy signed earlier this year. Although the first batch of cases have been dismissed, they still have to go through the expungement process, which is automatic under the law. Earlier this month, New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner directed that pending cases and warrants for fourth-degree and disorderly persons offenses related to marijuana or hashish – including possession and distribution of small amounts, being under the influence and operating a motor vehicle while in possession of the drugs – be dismissed. The court’s July 1 order also said that related violations of probation or pretrial monitoring will be vacated and that driver’s license suspensions or revocations for failure to appear will be rescinded. Cases of eligible defendants who are pending sentencing or have completed sentencing will also be vacated and dismissed, the court said.

New Mexico

Albuquerque: Some of the state’s top climate and water experts warned lawmakers Tuesday that the effects of the drought on water supplies have been worsened by climate change, specifically an ongoing, long-term warming trend. They told members of a legislative committee that the drought is a harbinger of still more arid conditions to come as temperatures continue to climb and as rainfall becomes more variable. Human-caused climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years. Increasing temperatures also can lead to the snowpack that feeds rivers and streams melting several weeks earlier and more rapidly, resulting in more evaporation. That means less runoff into the Rio Grande, Pecos and other rivers, and that’s not going to change, since the experts said there are no indications that the long-term temperature trend will go away. New Mexico uses all its water and is pretty well tapped out when it comes to new supplies, said retired professor David Gutzler. He said long-term climate change should lead policymakers to expect and plan for diminished surface water supplies in the decades going forward. Groundwater supplies also are being depleted as more people are forced to pump water to make up for dwindling flows.

New York

Albany: It will be weeks before the state issues any payments from its $2.4 billion COVID-19 rent relief fund, state officials said Tuesday, adding to delays in a program that has been beset by technical glitches with its online application portal. At least 1.1 million New York households that rent have at least one family member who was economically affected by the pandemic, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration. But New York is one of four states that did not distribute any of the tens of billions of dollars in rent relief that Congress has paid out to states this year, according to a U.S. Treasury report of spending through May. On June 1, New York launched an online application portal allowing tenants and landlords to apply for rent – nearly two months after lawmakers first created the $2.4 billion fund. The State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance has said it would take four to six weeks to process applications to release payments to landlords. Six weeks later, agency spokesperson Anthony Farmer said Tuesday that first payments are “expected to go out in the coming weeks.” Tenants and landlords alike say New York’s application portal is too difficult, time-consuming and glitch-prone to ensure eligible New Yorkers are getting the help they need applying.

North Carolina

Raleigh: Republicans advanced legislation Wednesday that defines how teachers can discuss certain concepts about race and racism inside the classroom. GOP Senate leader Phil Berger said his chamber is taking action as conservatives across the country seek to counter their understanding of “critical race theory,” a framework legal scholars developed in the 1970s and 1980s that centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions, maintaining the dominance of white people in society. The latest version of the North Carolina bill would prevent teachers from compelling students to personally adopt any ideas from a list of 13 beliefs, even though though they cannot identify a single case of this happening inside the state’s classrooms, which serve about 1.5 million K-12 public school students. “We don’t want to indoctrinate folks in what I think is the core of critical race theory, which is that race is determinative of whether or not someone is going to be successful, that race is determinative of all matter of things that happen in society and that past discrimination justifies current discrimination,” Berger said in an interview before unveiling the updated education measure.

North Dakota

Fargo: City commissioners have directed the police department to present them with hate crime findings. “I’m going to be reporting on the hate crimes in terms of whether or not the city ordinance was issued or reports where the city ordinance was applied or federal law was applied,” said Dave Zibolski, chief of the Fargo Police Department. “Our current hate crimes are reviewed if they meet the elements of the federal law by the U.S. attorney’s office.” Zibolski said the reports will help determine whether the city’s ordinance on hate crimes is effective. “With the new hate crimes ordinance, we’ll have some additional and potential ordinance violations. So we’ll track those as well in terms of how many of those come in, and we’ll add in the prosecution piece. So what was prosecuted so they have reported in terms of is the ordinance is effective in a sense or how often is it used,” Zibolski told KVRR-TV. Eleven cases were investigated as potential hate crimes this year, “but through the course of the investigation, none of those could be shown to be hate crime-related in terms of the ability to prosecute them,” he said. Zibolski said reports of hate crimes are posted on the department’s website monthly.

Ohio

Columbus: Vaccination trends have led to the development of “two Ohios” when it comes to combating COVID-19, increasing vulnerability to the coronavirus’ highly contagious delta variant, the state’s top medical official warned Wednesday. The delta variant is rapidly becoming the disease’s dominant strain and is a real threat to those who are unvaccinated, said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health. The delta variant was first identified in India and is now spreading in more than 90 other countries. Meanwhile, about 5.3 million people in Ohio, or 45% of the population, have completed the inoculation process. “The reality is, we now have two Ohios,” Vanderhoff said. “An Ohio that is vaccinated and protected on the one hand, and an Ohio that is unvaccinated and vulnerable to delta on the other.” About 9 of every 10 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in central Ohio since April have been vaccinated only partially or not at all, said Dr. Andrew Thomas, chief clinical officer at the Ohio State University medical center. The doctors’ remarks came a day after Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio will soon announce a second vaccine incentive program following the Vax-a-Million initiative that offered five $1 million prizes and five full-ride college scholarships.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt was forced to end a forum early after he and a panel of district attorneys were berated as they sought to explain the position prosecutors are taking on the U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision. Stitt ended the “McGirt v Oklahoma Community Forum” roughly an hour earlier than planned Tuesday amid jeering from the audience as he tried to explain how the high court’s decision had unintended consequences for victims of crime regardless of tribal citizenship. The McGirt decision determined that a large swath of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation and that state prosecutors lack the authority to pursue criminal charges in cases in which the defendants or victims are tribal citizens. It has led to dozens of criminal convictions in Oklahoma being overturned, including some death row cases. Most of those cases are having to be retried in federal court. “Nobody on this panel created the McGirt situation,” Stitt said shortly before ending the program. “This is a complicated issue, and we have 400,000 Natives who live in the state of Oklahoma. We’ve got 3.6 million non-Natives living in the state of Oklahoma. We need to keep all Oklahomans safe.” But the main source of frustration for Native Americans who attended the forum was the lack of tribal representation on the panel, the Tulsa World reports.

Oregon

Portland: Residents struggled to get rides to cooling centers during the recent heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds across the Pacific Northwest, officials said Monday, and staffing shortages prevented callers from reaching operators at an information line. State authorities are examining their response to scorching temperatures that broke all-time records across the region late last month as the West struggles with a historic drought and as climate change makes extreme weather more common and intense. Oregon blamed 116 deaths on the heat. “One of the heartbreaking things about this heat wave is that there were resources that were available to communities, whether it was cooling centers or transportation, and folks couldn’t access those resources to protect themselves,” Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, said at a news conference. In the week leading up to the late June heat wave, Oregon officials contacted providers, set up cooling centers and connected with vulnerable populations, including the thousands of homeless people who live on the streets of Portland and in low-income communities. One major complaint from community members was not knowing where to go to cool down and a struggle to find that information.

Pennsylvania

Carlisle: The disinterred remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a government-run school in Pennsylvania were headed home to Rosebud Sioux tribal lands in South Dakota on Wednesday after a ceremony returning them to relatives. The handoff at a graveyard on the grounds of the U.S. Army’s Carlisle Barracks was part of the fourth set of transfers to take place since 2017. The remains of an Alaskan Aleut child were returned to her tribe earlier this summer. “We want our children home no matter how long it takes,” said U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who in June announced a nationwide investigation into the boarding schools that attempted to assimilate Indigenous children into white society. Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, said at the event that “forced assimilation practices” stripped away the children’s clothing, their language and their culture. She said the government aims to locate the schools and burial sites and identify the names and tribal affiliations of children from the boarding schools around the country. In Pennsylvania, the nine sets of remains inside small wooden coffins were carried past a phalanx of tribal members and well-wishers before being loaded into a trailer to be driven to Sioux City, Iowa. The children died between 1880 and 1910.

Rhode Island

Providence: State environmental regulators have denied a permit for a medical waste-to-energy facility in West Warwick. In denying the application Tuesday for MedRecycler-RI Inc., the Department of Environmental Management cited several factors, including a recently passed law prohibiting new high-heat medical waste processing facilities in the state. The agency also cited environmental concerns; a lack of adequate details about testing protocols; the facility’s lack of emergency response plans; a lack of clarity about how much and where medical waste would be stored; the facility’s proximity to residential neighborhoods; and questions about the facility’s technology, which has not previously been used on medical waste. The company planned to use a process known as pyrolysis to break down used gloves, tubing and syringes to generate power. MedRecycler has said the facility will be safe, provide jobs and tax revenue. The site would not accept hazardous waste. The company said it was not subject to the new law because it does not apply retroactively. Nicholas Campanella, chairman and CEO of MedRecycler’s parent company, Sun Pacific Holding Corp., told The Boston Globe that the company is considering its legal options.

South Carolina

Mount Pleasant: An abandoned liposuction machine was the suspicious package that closed one of the state’s busiest bridges for three hours over the weekend, according to authorities. Someone called police Saturday after finding a metal box near a pillar of the Ravenel Bridge in Mount Pleasant, just across the Cooper River from Charleston, investigators said. The caller showed officers pictures of a metal box with a lock, green and red buttons, and a fan. Officers then confirmed the box’s location, and a supervisor shut down the bridge and called the bomb squad, according to a Mount Pleasant Police report. The bridge was opened after about three hours, and officials confirmed Monday that the item was a liposuction machine. The Ravenel Bridge carries about 77,000 vehicles a day on U.S. Highway 17 between Charleston and Mount Pleasant, according to South Carolina Department of Transportation data.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem suspended her Cabinet secretary overseeing state prisons and the warden of the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls, following an anonymous complaint that alleged supervising corrections officers regularly sexually harassed their fellow employees, that employee morale is low and that promotions are plagued by nepotism. The governor said she was briefed about 7 p.m. Tuesday on an internal review from the Bureau of Human Resources that was prompted by the anonymous complaint. Less than three hours later, Noem said she was putting Secretary of Corrections Mike Leidholt and State Penitentiary Warden Darin Young on administrative leave and commissioning an investigation into the allegations. The complaints had been known to state officials for months, according to the organization that represents state employees. The two pages of the complaint released by Noem’s office do not name either Leidholt or Young but allege that supervising corrections officers at the prison were allowed to sexually harass employees and that attempts to report the harassment were ignored. The complaint says schedules at the prison were adjusted so the officers could “work in the same vicinities as their interest/victims.”

Tennessee

Nashville: The federal government will not alert the state when unaccompanied migrant children are brought to Tennessee to be placed with sponsors, officials with Gov. Bill Lee’s administration told lawmakers Tuesday. Brandon Gibson, Lee’s chief operating officer, said that the federal Department of Health and Human Services has largely directed her questions to information posted on government websites and policy statutes. Gibson said it’s her interpretation that the federal government could disclose information to local law enforcement about when immigrant children pass through the state, but federal officials have told her they won’t due to privacy concerns. “The response I got from HHS was that because of confidentiality they would not be notifying local law enforcement,” Gibson said. HHS officials did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Gibson gave her remarks Tuesday before a legislative panel made up of entirely of GOP members. The group is tasked with investigating refugee and immigration settlement in Tennessee after a local television station aired footage of children arriving at a Chattanooga airport and boarding buses in the middle of the night.

Texas

Austin: State officials on Tuesday added 59 deaths to the toll wrought by the Feb. 14 cold wave and the ensuing collapse of the state’s electric power grid. The deaths newly tallied by the Texas Department of State Health Services boosted the toll from 151 to 210 deaths, most from exposure to the sometimes-subzero temperatures. Still, some were blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning as freezing Texans sought warmth from cars and outdoor grills. The count remained preliminary and may change as more deaths are confirmed, the department said. The county with the highest death toll was Harris, where Houston is located, with 43 deaths. Travis County, where Austin holds most of its population, had 28 deaths. Dallas County reported 20 deaths. The toll is a far cry from the initial March 15 report of 57 deaths. The toll was raised to 111 on March 25, 125 on April 6 and 151 on April 28. The collapse of the power grid managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has made electric reliability in Texas an ongoing political question. In early June, Gov. Gregg Abbott declared that state lawmakers had fixed the problem. Since then, two conservation alerts issued by ERCOT during temperate spring weather prompted renewed questions.

Utah

Draper: The drought gripping the West is contributing to an increased number of mountain lion sightings in the state, police said. It appears cougars are being forced into more populated areas to get enough water to drink, Draper Police Lt. Pat Evans told Fox13 News. One recent encounter happened in Coyote Hollow, near the Salt Lake City suburb of Draper. Hiker Sherie Allen said she had just hit the trail with friend Shelli Roberts and Roberts’ small Shitsu Yorkie dog, Buster, when she heard something. “We hear this like, ‘rawrrrr’ – it wasn’t like a growl, it was like that screech,” she said. It was a cougar, about 6 feet away. “She, luckily, grabbed my arm and was like, ‘Whatever you do, do not run,’ and she stopped me in my tracks,” Roberts said of Allen. Roberts picked up Buster, and the big cat tracked them as they backed away slowly and got away safely. Other hikers should be aware of the danger and watch for big cats. In an encounter, people should try to make themselves look big, maintain eye contact and never run away from a cougar. Any small pets or kids should be kept close.

Vermont

Burlington: Some performance venues across the state are preparing to reopen with help from federal money after the coronavirus pandemic forced them to close. So far, 43 Vermont locales benefited from the $13 million from the Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program, part of federal pandemic relief assistance. “From Brattleboro to St. Albans, from Derby Line down to Bennington, there’s gonna be a real shot that your community theater, your community venue will be reopened very soon,” Vermont’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch told MyNBC5. Two Burlington locations are preparing to reopen. The Vermont Comedy Club, which received more than $400,000, is set to reopen Labor Day weekend. The Flynn Center, which received more than $1.8 million, plans to open again in October. “The funding came through right at the perfect time for us to be able to hire our contractors and start booking talent,” said Natalie Miller, co-owner of Vermont Comedy Club. Miller said the club is getting ready for the reopening. “We’re gonna be able to space people out a little bit more because everyone is in there, they’re laughing, droplet city. So we’re gonna make it a lot safer,” she said.

Virginia

Norfolk: An effort is underway to make the larger Chesapeake Bay area part of the National Park Service. The Virginian-Pilot reports it would be called the Chesapeake National Recreation Area. Behind the effort is a group of conservation nonprofits, community leaders and lawmakers who are working to draft legislation in Congress. It’s unclear exactly what the recreation area would look like. Proponents don’t call for the entire bay to be included. But certain land-based sites would provide public access to it. “The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure, and the national park system represents America’s most treasured landscapes,” said Reed Perry, external affairs manager for the Chesapeake Conservancy, which is a part of the group. The idea has been around since the 1960s. And the park service has already established itself along parts of the nation’s largest estuary. For instance, there is the 3,000-mile Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail and the Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton. A federal working group has been formed to explore the possibility of designating the Chesapeake recreation area.

Washington

Yakima: An extreme heat wave damaged cherries grown in the Yakima Valley and the Northwest in late June and early July. The high temperature reached 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Yakima on June 29, an all-time record. The heat caused various issues, such as sunburn and stunted growth that made the cherries unsuitable for the fresh cherry market, The Yakima Herald-Republic reports. Many cherries were left on trees, while others were picked but processed, which provides a lower return to growers. Northwest Cherry Growers is still assessing the damage, but President B.J. Thurlby estimated about 20% of the overall crop was lost. Much of the loss happened in the Yakima Valley, where cherries were about to be picked. The Northwest cherry growing region includes five states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana. In May, the Yakima-based organization estimated a crop of 23.8 million 20-pound boxes in the five-state growing region. Thurlby said the yield this season is now likely in the 18 million to 19 million box range, which would be similar to the 2020 crop. Last year’s crop was affected by frost and wind before harvest. A few cherry varieties received a disproportionate amount of damage: Bing and Skeena, two red-fleshed cherry varieties, and the popular Rainier.

West Virginia

Charleston: The governor has launched a program to showcase chefs across the state. The West Virginia Chef Ambassador Program aims to promote culinary innovation and farm-to-table experiences with the goal of expanding the state’s agritourism industry, officials said. Gov. Jim Justice launched the program Monday in partnership with the West Virginia Department of Tourism. Nominations are open for this year’s inaugural class of chef ambassadors. “West Virginia’s culinary industry is one of our state’s best-kept secrets,” Justice said. “It’s time we take the flavors we all know and love – and the chefs behind our favorite local dishes – and shine a spotlight on the great things happening across the Mountain State.” The initiative will serve as a partnership between the Tourism Department and the top nine chefs to promote dining and Appalachian cuisine. Ambassadors will be selected to serve one-year terms. Each ambassador will be selected to represent a specific travel region.

Wisconsin

Madison: The operators of a startup that allows private homeowners to rent their swimming pools by the hour said Wednesday that Wisconsin regulators are all wet and want them to back off demands that they say would kill their business. Wisconsin is the first state to push back against Swimply, which started in 2018 with just four pools in New Jersey but has taken off during the pandemic as more people looked for private spaces to swim and have fun. The business works like an Airbnb for swimming pools. Private homeowners list their pools on the website and app as available for rent. Most of the pools on Swimply are in warm-weather locations, but it recently dove into the Wisconsin market. It currently has only about a dozen pools available to rent statewide, starting at about $35 an hour, but it’s looking to expand. Wisconsin regulators told Swimply in April that pools offered for rent would have to be treated the same as large, public swimming pools. That means a pool’s owner would have to obtain a license and meet construction requirements that are more onerous. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, which is representing Swimply, said it will file a lawsuit if the state doesn’t back off. Wisconsin is the only state that has challenged Swimply, institute spokeswoman Erin Collins said.

Wyoming

Laramie: The president of the University of Wyoming is proposing several academic changes and up to 75 layoffs as the university absorbs budget cuts due to a decline in state support over the past several years. President Ed Seidel will present the plan to the university’s Board of Trustees this week, and the panel is expected to take public comment before voting on it in November, the university said. The proposal would eliminate some programs with low enrollment and consolidate and reconfigure some of its colleges to better combine degree programs that have overlapping courses while reducing redundancies, officials said. The changes will lead to the layoff of at least 10 department heads. However, the university will look to rehire some of them for new departments that are created, university spokesperson Chad Baldwin said Tuesday. Seidel’s administration is proposing adding a School of Computing, a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Wyoming Outdoor Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality Initiative. Those programs are aimed at training students for future jobs in the state. The university has absorbed $42 million in cuts.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports