Hot oil burned him when a car struck his food truck in Wilmington ...

When Kahlil "Bubba" Floyd describes what happened to him last month in Wilmington's Trolley Square neighborhood, it's hard not to shudder at the scene he paints.

The chef was frying empanadas in his parked Plum Pit Food Truck for his final customers of the night when a car slammed into the rear of the 28-foot truck.

A Border Patrol tactical unit killed the Texas gunman | CNN

CNN —

When gunfire rang out at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, officials from Customs and Border Protection were among several agencies joining local and federal authorities at the scene.

It’s not unusual: Customs and Border Protection officials can operate within 100 miles of a US border, and have a major presence in many border communities, said Javed Ali, an associate professor at the University of Michigan and a former top official at the Department of Homeland Security.

Uvalde is about 80 miles from the Mexican border and therefore within Customs and Border Protection jurisdiction.

Authorities are still gathering details on the timeline of events leading up to the massacre, but have determined members of the Border Patrol’s elite team – the Border Patrol Tactical Unit – fatally shot the gunman nearly an hour after the shooter raided the school.

Border Patrol is under the umbrella of Customs and Border Protection, in the Department of Homeland Security.

The teenage gunman came out of a classroom closet and began firing when Border Patrol agents entered the room more than an hour after the shooter began his rampage, a source familiar with the situation told CNN Friday. The agents were part of a team that fatally shot the gunman, ending an attack that left 19 fourth-graders and two adults dead Tuesday afternoon.

Before the assault on the shooter, a group of 19 law enforcement officers stood in a hallway outside the classroom and took no action as they waited for room keys and tactical equipment, a state official said at a news conference.

What’s BORTAC?

The US Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) was formed in 1984.

It was initially created in response to rioting at Immigration and Naturalization Service detention facilities, according to Customs and Border Protection officials.

It has since evolved into a highly trained tactical unit with operations both nationally and internationally.

“BORTAC is unique in that it provides a global response capability. The unit has conducted training and operations with foreign and domestic law enforcement and military entities throughout the United States and around the world, including support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom,” Customs and Border Patrol said.

It’s the equivalent of a SWAT

To be a part of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit is no small feat. The course lasts a month and candidates must pass grueling tests similar to the US Special Operations Forces’ selection courses. They have physical tests, including pushups, treading water, advanced weapon skills, defensive tactics, and airmobile operations.

It’s now considered the global special response team for the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Ali compared it to elite Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, the militarylike units within US police forces, using specialized or military equipment.

“Its mission is to respond to terrorist threats of all types anywhere in the world in order to protect our nation’s homeland. Its agents are counted among the nation’s most dedicated and highly trained special operators,” Customs and Border Protection says.

People leave the Uvalde Civic Center following the shooting at Robb Elementary School. William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News/AP

It’s been part of high-profile operations in the US

BORTAC has played a key role in major US operations.

During the 1980s, it worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration in the war on drugs in the United States. In the 1990s, it was deployed to Los Angeles after rioting broke out during the Rodney King trial. In April 2000, it was part of the raid at a Miami home that returned Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez to his family.

And in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, BORTAC officials were deployed to help secure high-risk areas nationwide.

Customs and Border Protection has a local office in Uvalde

Like many Texas towns in the border area, CBD has a checkpoint in Uvalde. It oversees 3,000 square miles of South Texas and conducts traffic checkpoint and freight train check operations. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorka said some of the agency’s officials live in Uvalde and surrounding communities.

It provides a supporting role

In incidents like the one Tuesday, where local authorities are in command of the scene, Border officials often serves in a support role and the agency on command will dictate what they do, a source told CNN, adding they try not to overrule the authorities.

While the team would defer to the local command, if they felt there was a need to they could override it. There is no indication yet it occurred at the school this week.

When US Border Patrol agents who belong to the specialized unit responded to the school around 12:15 p.m., the officer in charge had already made the determination it was a barricaded subject situation, according to a source familiar with the situation.

“They showed up from where they were and put together the operation hastily,” the source added. “Some of the officers came from the field … and some who were off duty also sped in to respond.”

Turning 14 in Cincinnati: 'I worry about surviving'

Krista Ramsey and Cara Owsley

Introduction by Managing Editor Laura Trujillo:On March 21, 14-year-old Jashawn Martin was shot as he passed by a fight on his way to see a friend. Eight days later – a day after she attended Jashawn's funeral – 14-year-old Tyann Adkins was shot to death as she waited to get her nails done. The boy who shot her was 14, as was the boy who called 911 and tried to save her. Not long after, a 14-year-old was part of a robbery at DeSales Market in Walnut Hills that left a father of two begging for his life.

In the newsroom, we routinely deal with crime – shootings and robberies, death and grief. But somehow these violent episodes crept into our heads and we couldn't get them out.

It was the number 14.

All three of us most closely connected to this project – editor, reporter and photographer – have children who are 14 or close to it. We thought we knew 14. But through Jashawn and Tyann, through kids who commit crimes and kids who are their victims, we realized 14 is not easily known.

In some neighborhoods, 14 is the sweet spot between childhood and adolescence, a time of unguarded emotion and untempered enthusiasm. In others, it's an abrupt introduction into a complex, confusing and sometimes even violent world.

This project, which we simply call "14," is a rare chance to view three such neighborhoods – Avondale, Evanston and Walnut Hills – through the eyes of the 14-year-olds who live there.

We don't have the answers to the violence and hopelessness that has taken hold of some young people in those neighborhoods. Neither did the 14-year-olds we interviewed. But as they opened their lives to our questions, we understood that we will never find answers unless we listen better to them.

So this is our start. We invite you to enter the world of 14.

Malik Nu'qman says the three things he values most in life are his brothers, his mother and his bike.

His family, in part because they're the buffer between him and the harsher realities of his Avondale neighborhood. His bike, because it's his means to get around it.

At 14, Malik feels a constant tension between wanting to venture into his community and the fear he'll be jumped or shot if he strays too far. It's not unfounded. This spring, Jashawn Martin and Tyann Adkins – both also 14 – were shot to death within eight days of each other, one in Avondale, the other in nearby Walnut Hills. Malik knew them both.

On a recent Friday afternoon Malik has just ridden his bike back from Bengals Park on Reading Road, where he spends weekends hanging with his friend Jordan until it gets dark and the park is no longer safe because of fights and drug-dealing. He walks the bike up the 24 steps leading to his house, which he says is slowly sliding down the hillside it sits on and will soon force his family to move. The bike can sit on the porch as long as Malik does, but at night it has to be stored in the living room beside the fish tank. In his neighborhood, he says, you don't leave out what you don't want to be gone.

Malik, who is seriously annoyed by years of adults telling him he's smart and has potential, prides himself on not having to learn things the hard way. Since he was 6 or 7, he has studied TV crime shows to prepare himself for unexpected dangers. He has a plan for what he'll do if someone breaks into his home and comes after his family, which he says has never happened. He has a plan for dodging a drug-related shootout, which he says has happened several times. And he has a plan for staying out of fights that break out in front of him, which he says happen all the time. "I've never gotten hit by a car, but if I did, I'd ball up. I'd have some damage but I wouldn't get killed," he says in his slow, deliberate way. "I try to think of things before they hit me."

The approach didn't exactly work four years ago when he was 10 and riding his bike to the store to get chips and fruit punch. A bad group of kids was hanging on Reading Road – "you could say there was a vibe I picked up" – so he turned down Lexington, only to run into a second group who taunted him and started closing in. He flew his bike by them, got to the store and stayed inside for an hour, trying to decide what to do. When he came out, his bike was gone. He made the half-mile trip home on foot, hiding in backyards and dodging across streets in the dark. It took him two hours. "All I remember is my heart was beating really fast. I had to get home."

Home is where Malik feels the safest. Where he can watch Scooby-Doo and play his favorite video game, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 ("It takes my mind off other things because all I'm thinking is fight and kill.") cook with his mother, and figure out how to deal with Ms. Watson, his 24-year-old math teacher who alternately frustrates and fascinates him. "She's like a flickering light," he says. He resents that she sometimes blames him for the trouble caused by the boys who sit behind him. "She points at me. 'Malik, why are you making farting noises?' in this shrill voice." Three times he has gone to the office to report her to the principal. "He really didn't care."

Malik admits that he talks too much, tries to "keep things at average" with his grades so people don't make fun of him and once was suspended five days for punching someone who was capping on him. "It affected their face – I gave this person a black eye and a bloody nose." He was scared to tell his mother, who makes it her business to know where her son is at any given moment and who, after considering one of his ill-advised actions all night, simply walked into his bedroom the next morning and smacked him. This time, she only asked if he had won or lost. He said he believed he had won, and went to his room on his own to reconsider his behavior. "I learned I had to control my temper. You can't get people to slow down and stop capping people and everything will be a happy place – it's never going to be like that."

Making peace with life's realities is something Malik is very good at. The day he stayed too long at the Avondale library, saw people emptying out of a car on Burnet Avenue and a man in a white T-shirt pulling a gun from his pants, he just rode his bike as fast as he could for home and said nothing about it to his mother. "Probably because I was scared she wouldn't let me go outside anymore. I really like to be outside, just not outside to see that."

Overall, Malik, whose name means "the most high" in Arabic, describes himself as calm, brilliant (he says the word slowly), short-tempered, funny, "lazy but not lazy at the same time," kind, caring, loving. His mother says he's a social butterfly and a good boy who comes into her bedroom before he catches the 6:16 a.m. yellow bus to his Bond Hill charter school, asks if she wants a glass of water and goes downstairs to get her one.

That's Malik following his Third Rule for How to Treat Females: Always treat a lady like a lady. If she needs something, go get that need. His first rule is never hit a woman, even if she pushes you to the limit. His second is never use a woman and then drop her by the side.

He says if he ever has children of his own (he thinks he wants two), he will definitely be part of their life. "If I wouldn't, how would that make their mother feel? That would be breaking all my rules at once."

He saw his own father for just two days when he was 12, he says. "He gave me his number before he went back to Florida. He called and asked me if I wanted to talk to my sister. That's when I found out I had a sister. I talked to her. All I remember is I asked her favorite color and she said blue. I asked her name and she said Dazina, and then the phone went off. I think my father hung up the phone. I called back and nobody answered."

Malik kept calling for the next two years. Then he deleted the number. Asked who the father is in his life today, he says, "Nobody."

When he says it, a shadow crosses his face. He says his face goes blank like that sometimes, like when he heard that Jashawn, a boy he used to shoot hoops with in Walnut Hills, had been shot and killed March 21. "I didn't want him to be hurt. I didn't see him being hurt, but he's dead. I didn't want him to be dead." Malik doesn't cry at funerals, in part because there have been so many deaths in his neighborhood and family – including a cousin shot to death in prison – and in part because young males like him have to be smart about when to show their emotions.

"I have two different personalities. When I'm on the street, I turn ghetto so that I won't be beaten up. I try not to stand out. If I'm in a crowd, I try not to be the weird one. I'd look at someone, and if I knew you, I'd try not to show I knew you."

He slides down deeper into a chair on his front porch and hikes his feet up on a pillar. "This is the real me," he says. "I wish I didn't have to be two." His tone is resigned.

Having his feet elevated to eye level reminds him of one of two things he worries about: shoes. Girls cap on boys who have broken-down shoes, he says. He's asked his mother for a new pair but she works 60 hours a week providing home care for seniors and people with disabilities, and there are always bills to pay. He hopes this week there's something left in her paycheck.

His second worry is harder to address. "I worry about surviving. If I make it through a day without getting hurt and it's a happy day, that's the best day of my life – and if nobody gets hurt. But you can't go a whole day without seeing fights or car crashes, or people getting jumped, shot, anything. If you can get through one day without seeing none of that, that's the best day."

His chances of living to adulthood, he says, are 50-50.

Asked if this is hard to hear, his mother Khad'ja Touray, says, "Not hard at all because I only have a 50-50 chance. So it's a reality check."

Like many boys whose fathers are absent from their homes, Malik feels a responsibility to watch out for his family.

When a boyfriend threatened his mother, Malik looked for something sharp to pass her to defend herself. "I was little, but I did what I could do," he says. "She'd tell me to hide but I wouldn't. It's not my nature to sit and hide."

Which brings Malik back to the matter of his bike, being 14 and his neighborhood. He likes the way the trees are planted in Avondale, how they line the streets. He likes all the colors of the houses. "It's beautiful, but every day you have to survive. It's beautiful but these killings have to stop."

Sometimes, if he's unsure if it's safe to go somewhere, he'll cross the street to talk to his mother and make it seem he can't go rather than he's scared to go. "But I am scared. Sometimes, not always."

He has rules for moving around his community . Never go anywhere a crowd is gathered. Don't go into certain apartment buildings, like the Poinciana on Reading Road, where Tyann Adkins was shot and killed in March – except that he goes there anyway to check up on his cousins who live there. And assume that in any gathering of teenagers, at least a third are carrying a gun. "When you're in Avondale, they walk around like they're grown but they're not. Grown men have guns but they keep it close. But these guys walk around and flash it out. They want you to see their guns, like, 'If you're messing with me, I'm going to shoot you.'"

It's one of the reasons his mother constantly reminds him to be careful and to keep his circle of intimates small. Just like violent things happened to these other kids, she tells him, they can happen to you. You are not exempt.

Malik hears her. He says he starts each day not with prayer, but with hope. Prayer sometimes doesn't work, he says, but hope gets you through the day. Hope and your own best instincts.

"If I'm going to the store, sometimes I have to take another way to get there. If I go outside, I have to make my way to a point without getting shot or getting into a fight." He pauses. "And I usually make it there. I mean, I'm here now."

It was a crime people couldn't stop talking about -- three teenagers in Halloween masks barging into DeSales Market in East Walnut Hills in the middle of the day, putting a pellet gun to the owner's head, reducing a customer to begging for his life, stealing their wallets and fleeing to a suburban mall to buy clothes with their credit cards.

It was a ruthless act that belied the boys's age. When their identities hit the street, the name of the youngest - a 14-year-old from Evanston - was passed along as a question.

Malek Green?

Malek Green, the freshman forward who scored 28 points to lift Taft over West High? Malek Green, who gets As and Bs and wants to be a math teacher? Malek Green, known for breaking up small fights and walking away from big ones?

Malek, who didn't have a criminal record and whom nobody thought ever would?

"I thought it wasn't a really big deal at first. I didn't have to do anything. I was just there. They said, just come in there." Two days after his release from juvenile detention, Malek sits at his dinner table, trying to explain his actions. His head is mostly down. His voice is quiet. A monitor is attached to his ankle. His mother, who has made sure Malek has done everything the court asked and apologized to his victims, sits at his side.

One of his two worst moments, he says, was disappointing her. The second was seeing what they put their victims through. Of the customer, Malek says, "He was scared and stuff. He said he had kids right there near. And I know a lot of things was going through his mind, like is he going to lose his life."

Only later did Malek realize how easily he could have lost his own.

Malek says one reason teenagers commit crimes is they fear being viewed as a punk, "getting looked at like a lesser person, or like they're afraid of things."

His mother gives him a long, serious look. "I need to know the people who I be around," he says slowly, soberly. "If I'm around somebody who's talking about negatives, or about doing something wrong, I need to find an excuse to to leave -- or just walk away."

Terri Simpson remembers the moment she first told someone she was pregnant. She was 13, in a summer school program, and she told a friend at the top of a slide.

"She said, 'Quit lying!' and pushed me down the slide."

Terri wouldn't mention her pregnancy again until she was too far along for an abortion.

Now her son Terrion is a toddler who sleeps in her room. "He doesn't usually stay up late, but I do be tired," says the ninth-grader from Avondale, who gets up at 5:10 a.m. to catch a bus to Withrow University High School, leaving her son with her father.

Four days a week, she stays after school until 5 p.m. for tutoring. "Then I go home, play with him for a minute, give him a bath, feed him, and then I've still got homework."

She says it matter-of-factly, and with a smile. On weekends, she relies on help from her vast group of siblings – "I'm like the 14th kid." Her teachers are supportive and, overall, her friends have stood by her. But she admits having a baby and keeping up with ninth grade is harder than she thought.

"If I'm taking a test, and I think I can't do it, I think of my son and I think I can't give up. He motivates me."

She smiles again. "But I don't play a lot."

Tony Hill knows things a 14-year-old shouldn't know.

Like how it feels at age 10 to be sent outside because his mother had a boyfriend there. And to stay outside all night.

Like what it's like to go to the refrigerator and find nothing – really nothing -- there to eat.

Like breaking that news to his six younger sisters and brothers.

Like breaking into cars and buildings to get money to feed them.

"When you finally hit that rock bottom, it's like, wow, I just don't care anymore," says the Taft eighth-grader who moves among Avondale, Over-the-Rhine and other neighborhoods. "And your hands get sweaty, and you just do it. When I was breaking into cars, I didn't care whose stuff it was. It just needed to be mine, just so I could feed my family. The only thing that would have made me stop was money."

He's spent time at 2020, the Hamilton County youth detention center. He's been suspended from school for an altercation with a former girlfriend. But he says jail time isn't the answer for any kid. "When you take somebody to jail, it's not stopping them. It's just making their minds go different – thinking how could I have tricked the cops, how could I have found a different way to run. It's like putting a cover on a fire – it's not going to put it out."

What has put the fire out for Tony is an AAU basketball team called the Cincy Buckeyes and his coach, Jesse Cheatham, "who is right at my shoulder telling me what's right."

Basketball, he says, is "my getaway key. When I play basketball, you can't do nothing but get better. As long as I have Coach Jesse, the chances of my being on TV doing something wrong are zero to none."

Alexis Lindsay's best day of eighth grade was the first day of school, when her friends were excited to see each other and she got to meet new people.

Her worst was the day she came to school knowing her best friend Jashawn Martin wouldn't be there.

Jashawn would walk Alexis home from school, meet up with her at Owl's Nest Park in East Walnut Hills to talk about people or a new song they both liked, and keep an annual Lazer Kraze date on her birthday. Most days they'd stop for a hug on the way to their third bell classes at Withrow University High School.

On March 21, Jashawn was shot to death at the corner of Essex Place and Taft Road in Walnut Hills. Police say he was on his way to see a friend but stopped to watch a fight.

Alexis says she thought about Jashawn's decision recently, when she went back to Owl's Nest Park. "I was sitting in a corner and these girls were arguing and then these boys jumped in. I was like, 'My friend just died from watching a fight. I'm going home."

At her school, she says, sometimes people stand on cafeteria tables to get a better view of a fight.

Alexis has always been the steady, quiet friend who people talk to about their problems – so much so that sometimes she's smiled but not really listened. She's listening now.

"I want to help people," she says, wiping tears from her cheeks. "I want to be there for them to talk to. I want to listen – cause it's hard out here these days."

It was the best moment of Armanie White's junior high football career. Maybe, he says, one of the best of his life. The sixth game of the season for the Withrow Tigers. The coach calls for Number 30. Long, lanky Armanie goes in and catches a Hail Mary pass – with one hand.

"Everybody was hurraying me, and hitting my shoulder pads and saying good catch." Armanie's practiced-passive gaze is gone and he breaks into a smile.

At 14, being known is an important thing in Avondale, and Armanie White is a kid everybody knows. As soon as he checks in at home after school, "I leave back out," he says. He tries to stay out of the way of bad things, he says, but sometimes they find him. He has a July 5th court date for the theft of a bicycle. He's been to juvenile detention. He's had a warrant out for his arrest.

His parents warn him. A lot. They tell him bullets don't have names on them, that they can hit anybody. They tell him to be aware of what's happening around him. They tell him to not to hang out at certain spots.

"And I don't," he says. "But sometimes I'm just there on accident."

That's what he believes happened to his friend Tyann Adkins, who was killed in an Avondale apartment on a Saturday afternoon, waiting to have her nails done. The two had gone to school together since preschool. He calls her "my little baby."

Sometimes he hears gunshots when he gets up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. "I think, somebody's getting shot. Or what if one day that was me? Or, I could get shot just being somewhere at the wrong time."

"Stuff happens anywhere," he says, shrugging his shoulders. "But I'd like to live somewhere peaceful – if I could just find somewhere out there that's peaceful."

Grady Chapel lives in Avondale but he hangs out elsewhere – Newport on the Levee, Downtown on Fountain Square, Tri-County Mall. And he always hangs with the same four guys. His brothers.

"I don't really have friends," he says. "I think of them as associates. I don't think I should have friends. I don't trust nobody, really. You get close to somebody, and they turn their back on you."

At Hughes High School, where he's an eighth-grader, he's an outfielder on the baseball team and an offensive and defensive lineman in football. He says if he had to name an actual friend, he'd probably pick someone he plays sports with. But an incident last year at Bengals Park in Avondale convinced him that his mother was right about never letting your guard down.

A group of teenagers "came out of nowhere," and told Grady they wanted to fight him. An acquaintance who was with Grady said he wouldn't let the fight happen, but didn't have the power to stop it. Grady saved himself by running to a stranger and asking to use her phone to call his mother. "It was her daughter's birthday, and she didn't want something bad to happen," he says.

For Grady, it was a turning point. "I don't want to be in Avondale all my life. Nothing's really out there, and something's always happening," he says. "My three oldest brothers have jobs. They're all trying to get money, and that's my plan – to get a job and get money. I trust my mama, my grandparents, my brothers, that's it. I don't really need friends."

"I don't understand how somebody can take somebody else's life."

Jalen Owensby says out loud what students at her school have been thinking since two of their Withrow classmates, Jashawn Martin and Tyann Adkins, were shot and killed in March.

But Jalen, who lives in Evanston, has been trying to make sense out of losing people to violence since she was six years old.

"My uncle came and picked up my cousin and me at school and took us to the hospital," the eighth-grader says, remembering back to 2006. "I saw my brother in the room. I went over to hug him, and he didn't hug me back. And I realized he wasn't there any more."

Her 20-year-old brother, Rodney Owensby Turnbow died a day after being shot by an acquaintance. His death came seven years after a cousin, Roger Owensby, died after a struggle with Cincinnati police officers – a death that led up to the 2001 riots. Last summer, another cousin, Justin Owensby, was found shot to death in Westwood.

"To me, it's a curse, because a lot of my family members are getting killed back to back to back," she says. "If I got shot and killed, it would be hard on my parents. I'm the only kid in the house and my dad already lost one. I plan on moving to Atlanta. I don't want to live in Cincinnati because I don't want to be an innocent female who gets killed."

Some of Jamir Parker's friends have started smoking. It's making him think he should be hanging around more positive people. Meanwhile, he's working on stuff of his own. "I go to school to work on academics. I'm working on basketball and other sports, and on getting taller."

Jamir, a ninth-grader at Withrow, thinks people his age shouldn't have to act older. "I mean, it's 14," he says. He likes roller skating, going to Kings Island and going to the movies – with females.

Do females like him? His smile is immediate. "Of course," he says.

One of Jamir's big dreams is getting his mother out of Evanston. He'd like to be a professional athlete, or maybe join the U.S. Army or start his own sporting goods company. "The first paycheck I get is going to my mother."

Kids at school joke about selling weed to make money. Jamir says it's something he'll never do.

"I won't because my dad did it – he sold drugs. I haven't seen him half my life. He should be coming home (from prison) in a couple months or a year. I remember a couple times of seeing him."

But his mother, he says, has always been there. "We talk all the time. I tell her everything I do in school – if I do something stupid or get in a fight. And I tell her what I'm going to do in my life so I don't turn out like my father."

The fourth Sunday of every month, young people at New Friendship Baptist Church are called to the front of the sanctuary, where they give an accounting of their grades and activities. Jazonee Burton never leaves the podium without a standing ovation.

Her 3.8 grade-point average in double-accelerated classes and her acceptance at Walnut Hills High School bring tears to the eyes of some church members. They've been watching Jazonee grow up since the age of four.

They've lost neighborhood youth to drugs or violence, so Jazonee's success feels personal, like an answer to prayer.

She looks across the sanctuary where she regularly sings and performs what she calls "praise dance." "This church is very important to me. I've learned to know a lot of people here, and I love a lot of people here."

Jazonee, who lives in Evanston, doesn't hang out on the streets. She doesn't smoke or drink. She doesn't rebel against her mother. She doesn't have a boyfriend.

"A lot of boys at my school are pretty disrespectful with touching girls. I don't think it should be allowed. I try to keep myself distant from that. I have a lot of friends, but if a boy does something I think is inappropriate, I'll talk to him about and if he does it again, I'll go to an adult."

What influenced her was one of her pastor's sermons. "He said we should respect ourselves, to make sure others respect us."

Kimera Starnes' grandmother used to tell her that God gives his hardest battles to his toughest soldiers.

She smiles. "So I thought, I'm the strongest soldier."

The crutches beside her are evidence of her newest battle, a hip fractured while running track for Clark Montessori. Her doctor said it could take weeks to heal; the seventh-grader started walking the next day.

Other wounds, however, took longer.

Her family still mourns the death of her sister, who was killed 11 years ago by her husband. Then two years ago, Kimera's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, her father with lymphoma, and a favorite aunt with diabetes. "My family was kind of falling apart, and school just wasn't a priority. I got held back."

The tough little tomboy who'd take on kids who taunted her for being dark-skinned turned into a determined adolescent who "knew how to deal with a setback." Kimera, who lives in Walnut Hills, entered therapy, caught up on her studies, ran track, played soccer and volleyball.

Now, among her friends, she's known as a peacemaker. "When somebody says something to one of my friends, they want to fight. But I'm the one who says, 'Let's just think what happens if you do this.' I come from a family where violence is kind of like a big thing."

By the time he gets to his Walnut Hills Metro stop for the 6:33 a.m. bus that takes him across town to Aiken College and Career High School, Lamon Owens has already put in a decent morning's work.

Up at 5 a.m. three mornings a week and 4 a.m. the other two, the seventh-grader is in charge of getting his three younger siblings up and ready for school. He wakes them, tells them what they're supposed to wear, calls them down to breakfast, pours their cereal.

Before he and his 12-year-old brother walk out the door, they've done the dishes, wiped out the microwave, sprayed down the counter and swept the kitchen floor. The two switch additional bathroom and kitchen jobs every other week, and they both wash their own clothes.

His family and friends call Lamon "Easy," and after seven family moves, he knows how to get along with almost anybody, and he's almost always exactly where he's supposed to be. Four nights a week that's at the US Bank Boys and Girls Club in Avondale, and the fifth, he's serving on the Avondale Youth Council.

A part-time job at the council nets him up to $40 every two weeks. Earlier this year, after paying off the last $7 he owed on a bike he bought for himself, he got out of his mom's car at a Walnut Hills gas station, walked up to three homeless people on a nearby street corner and handed each one $10.

"My sister and brothers were in the car and the second oldest one was like, 'Dude, you could use that.' I was like, I've already gotten the bike I wanted. I don't need the rest."

Nayla Armstrong has thoughts about being 14, and she is happy to talk them out. She just has to do it quickly because she's leaving for a school field study.

To the Bahamas.

"We're studying marine life," she says, seated in the lobby of her school, Clark Montessori. "But it's bittersweet – I'll be away from my family for 10 days."

When it comes to the worlds of bitter and sweet, Nayla's life has largely been sweet. She's a "sporty kind of girl," she says, who's been swimming and playing basketball since she was 6. Her biggest concern is grades. "Honestly, I struggle with my grades because I have so much to do." Her biggest fans are her parents, 22-year-old sister and 2-year-old niece. "Everybody in my family takes a part in my life. If they can't do much, they'll show up at a basketball game or a volleyball game. I feel blessed."

Nayla, who lives on the border of North Avondale and Avondale, is cautious – she calls her mom to tell her where she's going when she walks the family dog, Red – but she feels safe at home and school. "If there's a conflict, teachers talk to the people who are angry separately, get both sides of the story, then settle it then and there. Usually people get along well here."

While she loves athletics, she plans on being a veterinarian. "Sports can get you educated, but it can't get you educated with a degree – and I want a degree."

Savannah Howard doesn't it find it hard to picture herself at 19, holding down a job, living in an apartment and going to college at Xavier University or somewhere "far out" – which to Savannah means anywhere outside Cincinnati. "I've never been far out to other places," she says somewhat shyly.

What's harder for Savannah is figuring out how to navigate her world right now. Every morning she takes Metro bus 11 downtown from her home in Avondale, and catches the 34 to Withrow University High School, where she's a seventh-grader. Every afternoon, after track practice, she and her best friend Destiny reverse the process, hopping off at the Hirsch Recreation Center for dance practice or to rehearse for the Miss Hirsch Beauty Pageant.

But then comes a 15-minute walk home, during which the girls pass apartment complexes known for drug-dealing and violence.

"Sometimes when it's not crowds, I feel safe. But when it's crowds, I call my mama."

Savannah knows that she is fortunate. Her family lives in a house, not an apartment. Savannah has only moved once in her entire life. And every time she calls, her mother comes for her.

But some days – not every day – Savannah is still scared in her neighborhood. "I fear losing my life, losing my mama, my grandma, everybody in my family. I fear guns and knives. I've never seen a gun, except on TV, but I know people who have been shot. And my mom tells me, when the sun comes down, come in. Cause when the sun goes down, bad things happen."

A closing note from Krista Ramsey

At some point in almost every interview Cara Owsley and I did for this project, these 14 year olds broke our hearts. They're programmed to hope, like any young teenagers, but they live in neighborhoods where hope is at best a gamble.

What could save them is a community that provides the support, structure and safe spaces to help them save themselves. If you'd like to be part of that support, here are three things you can do:

Help with summer learning programs, service projects or everyday recreation at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, or help fund their programs. To volunteer, call 513-421-8909, ext. 19, or www.bgcgc.org. To give, make checks to Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati, 600 Dalton Ave., Cincinnati 45203.

Change two lives – a young person's and yours – by becoming a mentor with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. More than 977 kids are waiting on you. Or sign up to speak about your career or invite a teen to job-shadow. Call 513-363-5203.

Tutor, help with projects, donate or just hang out with kids at the Avondale Youth Council. Information, 513-281-0599. Checks payable to Avondale Youth Council, 3618 Reading Road, Cincinnati 45229.

Contact Krista at kramsey@enquirer.com. Read more of her stories here.

2019 Detroit Marathon: These are our favorite tales from the race

Bill Laitner, Brandon Folsom, Wright Wilson

Detroit Free Press

More than 26,000 runners participated in the Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon this weekend. Here are some of our favorite stories from Sunday's marathons:

[ 2019 Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon results ]

Newbie does it on new wheels

He was featured on Friday's front page of the Free Press. And to hear friends tell it, the entire towns of Flat Rock — where he grew up — and Woodhaven, where he trains, were pulling for Sallah Mohamed, 23, who battled back from paralyzing injuries from a 2017 motorcycle crash to make his marathon debut Sunday on a handcycle.

But not just any handcycle. It was a new $6,000 racer, the gift of Planet Fitness branches across Michigan, presented to Mohamed just three weeks ago at the Woodhaven branch of the fitness chain. That's where he has been a regular, training his upper body with weights while tooling around his neighborhood on a creaky, old-style handcycle. Still, he'd entered the Free Press event, and word of his goal reached the fitness franchise owners.

"This has been so great," he said, as family and friends encircled him outside the tent Disabilities Division athletes. Living up to expectations, Mohamed turned in a respectable 16th place with a time of 1:54:49 on the full marathon's 26.2-mile course.

Now there are (just) two

Two amazing devotees of Detroit's marathon kept alive their amazing streaks for finishing every full marathon since the first one in 1978.

Ed Yee, 67, of Plymouth finished just a few yards ahead of Mark Bauman, 69, of Flushing, but Bauman actually beat his younger counterpart because they were in different staggered starts. Yee finished at 6:35:49, edged by Bauman at 6:24:10.

But at this point in their running lives, "the time doesn't matter, not at all," Bauman said. Both were elated to finish their 42nd consecutive Free Press marathons. Yet, a bit sad too, that fellow streaker Garry Watson, 76, of Rochester Hills wasn't with them. Watson, reached Sunday night, said he'd entered but scratched, thinking a recent injury would lead to a DNF — did not finish.

"I'm hoping to get back in the saddle next year," he said.

Still married after all those miles

At last year's Detroit marathon, they each collected serious hardware. No, not the finisher medals — wedding rings!

And this year, they renewed their vows at — why not? — the halfway checkpoint. Running has been great for their marriage, said Whitney Phillips, 32, and Steven Phillips, 34, who live in Kentwood, outside Grand Rapids.

"It's a bonding thing," Steven said, sounding quite commitment-oriented, as they hugged at the finish line. Chiming in with an equally partner-enhancing comment, Whitney said: "I couldn't do it without him. He slows down for me."

Putting his race pride out there

Some wear their hearts on their sleeves. Dave Maddix wears his marathon history.

Lettering in tattoo-blue makes it plain exactly how many marathons he's notched. And Maddix, 66, of Gaylord, said he's champing at the bit to add another hash mark following Sunday's finish in another full marathon.

"Everybody keeps saying, 'You're too old.' My wife's afraid I'm going to get hurt. I said, 'You want me to go back to smoking and drinking?' "

He said he was limping a little but the satisfaction is well worth it — at the tattoo studio.

Pushing for a daughter

To finish a marathon or half-marathon, you've gotta be on the thin side, right? Wrong.

All it takes are the right shoes and determination, said Shanna Newbold, 38, of Toledo, Ohio.

She walked Sunday's half-marathon with a body type that's definitely not typical. But Newbold had a reason — a 13-year-old daughter at home, expecting her mom to return with a finisher's medal.

"I have a child with special needs and she's very self-conscious. I realized that, if I was going to teach her to love herself, I had to learn how to love myself, by example," Newbold said.

Newbold said she knows that running, alone, isn't ideal for shedding weight, but said: "That's not why I do it. I do it to teach myself to do hard stuff."

She's a big lady with big plans. "I'm going to do my first half-Ironman, in Grand Rapids," she said. That means tacking a 1.2-mile swim and 60-mile bike ride in front of a half-marathon — not easy for any body type. Unless you add good shoes and determination.

Pack pickers

After winning the international half-marathon, Juris Silenieks was in the middle of an interview with Fox 2 Detroit when Scott Lieberman hugged him from behind.

Silenieks, 26, crossed the finish line in 1:06:24 to take home $2,000 in prize money. Lieberman, 24, placed third with a time of 1:07:38, which was a personal best for the Ann Arbor native and former Michigan State distance runner.

When the two left Canada and crossed the Ambassador Bridge back into the U.S. on Sunday, they said they looked at each other and agreed to start picking off the pack.

"Let's go get the weak guys," Lieberman said of their plan. "Juris got them all, and I was just one person short. It was super fun."

Silenieks holds the world record for the fastest half-marathon completed while wearing dress shoes. He won the Hotlanta half-marathon with a time of 1:17:05 while wearing a pair of Wolf & Shepherd's Honey Captoes in 2016.

Lost in translation

It's amazing Russian runner Pelageya Budankova finished the race as quickly as she did.

The 33-year-old from Moscow thought she was signing up for the international half-marathon only to find out — at the Canadian border — that she had actually signed up for the U.S.-only half. Police saw her wearing the wrong-colored bib and demanded to see her visa.

After about a five-minute talk, authorities realized the mishap and directed Budankova to the correct route. She finished the race in 1:13:10, which would have been fast enough to win the women's U.S.-only half had she not received a DNF in the official results.

Her time was about 3 minutes faster than women's U.S.-only half winner Stephanie Pezzullo, of Ocala, Florida (1:16:19), who earned $800 for the victory.

"This morning, I talked in English, and (race administrators) said I can run," Budankova explained, thinking she was supposed to run the international race. "(They said), 'Yes, it's OK, no problem.' "

All in the family

Only one thing went wrong for Jordan and Amanda Eccleston as the husband-and-wife team completed their first half-marathon together.

The race emcee announced them as brother and sister when they crossed the finish line.

The Ann Arbor residents met when they were runners at Hillsdale College. They've been married for seven years.

Jordan, 29, grew up in Sterling Heights and has always been a distance runner, but Amanda, 29, from Tecumseh, was a miler on the track team.

Both were proud of their efforts on the international course.

Bloody finish

Clumpable cat litter

Megan O'Neil had never competed in a race as long as the international half-marathon, but that didn't stop the former Central Michigan University runner from becoming the women's winner. Even if it led to her throwing up.

As soon as the 23-year-old crossed the finish line, race officials had to quickly spread cat litter on her vomit.

"It happens sometimes," the Stanwood native said. "The longest distance race you do in college is a 10K on the track, so I've only built up to that. So it was a big jump."

"(Puking) happens when you're kicking really hard, or for me, it was doing this new distance. My body is not used to racing this long. I just got used to a 30-minute race in spring, so being out here for well over an hour is definitely something I'm still getting used to."

She finished in 1:18:12 but was trailing the lead pack for almost the entire race. During the final 5 miles, she started picking off runners. She got the final runner ahead of her in the last 600 meters.

"I'm a little bit shocked that I won because this was my first half," she said. "It was really just about going out there and exploring the distance."

A zip code away ...

With Christopher Kipyego finishing 11 minutes ahead of any other competitor, the real battle was for second place. That went to Bryan Burk, who clocked in at 2:30:30, 23 seconds ahead of Samuel Skeels.

Both Burk and Skeels were hoping to break 2:30, yet both were happy to get personal-best times. Neither of them ran together, and both moved up late in the race from farther back.

“I felt really rough halfway through,” said Burk, 29, the women's cross-country and track coach at Spring Arbor University near Jackson. “I didn’t even know what place I was in until mile 18, and when they told me I was fifth, that’s when I just started going after some people.”

A veteran of eight marathons, second is Burks' best finish.

“Honestly, I was like top three would be sweet because I was fifth four years ago, so I’m super happy to be top five, and top three is incredible,” he said.

“I was in seventh or eighth a couple of miles before Belle Isle,” said Skeels, 41, of Adrian. “I’ve always thought Belle Isle makes or breaks it here, and sure enough, coming off Belle Isle is when I ran a couple of guys down.”

While the duo peaked late in the race, they were about 2 miles behind Kipyego at the finish — not even in the same ZIP code, literally.

“That’ guy was haulin’, he’s good,” Burk said. “I didn’t even see him.”

Quite the KONUNDRUM

It’s 7:45 in the normally quiet Indian Village. Do you pump up the runners or wake up the neighbors?

That’s a conundrum.

But if you’re Mick Robinson, you do both, because your entertainment handle is KONUNDRUM.

The 26-year-old Detroit DJ served an upbeat mix of techno, house and electronic music for the competitors as they passed by Mollicone Park.

It was a party atmosphere 17½ miles into the course — the point where runners begin battling mental fatigue, so any form of inspiration helps.

“It’s a chill vibe, literally chill because it’s cold out here,” he said. “I want to pump them up a little bit, maybe have them dance a little bit while they stretch their legs out and take off to the next destination.”

KONUNDRUM spins tunes full-time at raves, clubs, festivals and special events, but he said he’s more in tune with gigs that end late at night.

Daddy-daughter dance

Miranda Fraser is sure to remember her first trip across the Ambassador Bridge – she ran across it Sunday stride-for-stride with her dad, Rodney.

They crossed the finish line next to each other while clad in matching black singlets. The only variation was that Miranda’s said “Daughter – 1st Marathon,” and Rodney’s said “Father – 42nd Marathon.”

“He’s been trying to convince me for a few years to run one; he finally broke me down,” said Miranda, 36, of Corunna, Ontario. “We did a couple halfs, but I’ve got two young kids and it’s the time, it’s the effort. I kept joking he caught me in a mental weakness when I agreed, and I had to commit to it,”

Not only did the duo run the race together, they did all their training together as Miranda’s mom watched her kids during all the long runs.

“Every long run I’ve ever done, I’ve done with my dad,” Miranda said. “It’s his determination, and the way he supports me is amazing.”

“She did great,” the proud 63-year-old father said. “It was an awesome day, the weather was perfect, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

Scouting around

It’s hard to know who gets the bigger rush from the Indian Village aid station — the runners who grab water while passing by or the Girl Scouts staffing it.

“It’s just the excitement of the girls, the runners, the excitement that they bring, the different age groups that’s out here running, the cyclers that come through,” said Caren Triggs, leader of the troop based at Detroit’s St. John Lutheran Church. “It just builds you up, makes you feel so good inside to come volunteer and donate your time. I’ve been coming here for 20 years now.”

Over time, the Girl Scouts' mission has remained constant. On Sunday, they were stationed on Burns, in front of Detroit Waldorf School.

“This is a good spot for us, because we like cheering them on, getting them excited, keeping them moving, keeping them going,” Triggs said. “We’ve also have had the last people that come through and they say we are the last station that’s still set up, so they’re excited. We’re still cheering them on all the way through the end.”

Eleven-year-old Clara Antaki, from a troop in Birmingham, enjoyed her first opportunity to work the marathon, even though she didn’t know any of the runners personally.

“It’s different from what we’ve usually done, but we want to start doing things like this to help out more people and try to be more of a community,” she said.

Quite the feet

As a resident of Detroit’s West Village, Penn Greene ran past his parents’ house and his own house.

But he didn’t think for one minute about grabbing a fresh pair of shoes.

The 31-year-old Greene ran the entire marathon route in sandals, finishing in 3:14:51.

“My feet feel great,” he said. “I have all of my toenails, which is really nice.”

A veteran of 11 Detroit Marathons, Greene started running in sandals several years ago.

“I was running on the beach and loving the feeling of being kind of unburdened, but you can’t really run barefoot in the city because of broken glass,” he said. “They’re usually pretty good for summer running, fall running. They’re 40 bucks for a pair and I run through them, it’s good.”

What does Greene look for in a running sandal?

“Thinner is better, no arch support, cheap,” he said. “Once it starts snowing, I’ll switch into shoes.”

Diving right in

What did Adrianna Waack get for finishing 26.2 miles?

A medal, a banana, a bouquet of roses — and a shower of glitter confetti from her Wayne State University swimming teammates.

“It looks like the majority of my team came out to support me,” said the 20-year-old from Auburn Hills. “Swimmers don’t really run, so I definitely needed the support.”

The Warriors volunteer at the marathon — they staffed the first-aid station just before the 2-mile mark on Fort St. approaching Mexicantown — but Waack decided to take things several thousand steps farther.

“It was fun just to be able to run past them at the beginning,” she said. “The first third I was definitely going too fast, but I felt really good and I might do it again. Toward like a little bit past halfway, I was thinking it’s hurting a little bit now. And then the hardest part might have been the last five miles.”

Waack’s main event in the pool is the mile, so doing an endurance event is nothing new for her. There are several similarities.

“I think it’s just being able to stay headstrong,” she said. “Swimming the mile does not take four hours, but you definitely have to know to pace yourself and stay strong, and you’ll finish.”

We are the world

Nicaragua and Lebanon are half a world away from each other, but they share many of the same struggles, two marathoners discovered Sunday.

Danys Novoa, originally from Nicaragua but living in Grosse Pointe Woods, and Rami Haddad, originally from Lebanon but living in Novi, crossed the finish line flying the flags of their homelands. The men finished within minutes of each other before meeting for the first time.

“We just came to participate in the race all the way from Nicaragua and here we are in Detroit having fun, and giving all the energy for my country,” Novoa said. “When we put the flag like this way (upside down), it’s a way to protest against our president, who’s a dictator, that’s how we spread the message of peace for Nicaragua. We’re going through a very difficult process of a revolution and I was persecuted in my country but I came to represent, and say we’re representing freedom.”

Haddad said, “I’m running for Lebanon for sure today because we have over 1.5 million people on the streets right now. We’re going to Dearborn in one hour to protest against the corruption in Lebanon. We have billions of dollars in debt because we’ve had the same corrupt government (there) for over 20 years. I wish the best for Lebanon.”

Novoa and Haddad had not met before Sunday’s race.

“Our values are the things that connect us as humans, we all want to be healthy, we all want to be wealthy, we all want our country to be safe,” Novoa said. “This is why we’re running today. For peace, for harmony.

Iowans help clean up, recover along 2022 tornado's deadly path

Editor's note: The Register is bringing back these stories around the anniversary of the Winterset tornado that killed six people on March 5, 2022.

Betty Hope stood on the rubble of her home listening for the desperate whines of her missing cat.

What remained of her worldly possessions — rugs, books, papers, family knickknacks — splayed out in all directions, items left strewn throughout her yard like pick-up sticks by Saturday night’s powerful tornado.

Monument to women, playground scare: News from around our 50 ...

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Birmingham: The National Park Service has named a superintendent to oversee new civil rights historical sites in Birmingham and Anniston. The federal agency says Kris Butcher will take over at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Freedom Riders National Monument starting Oct. 27. Both sites were created during the final days of the Obama administration, and both are undergoing work to get them ready for the public. The Birmingham site encompasses parts of the city’s historic downtown black business district, including the hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed during demonstrations in 1963. The Anniston site marks the bus station where interracial Freedom Riders were attacked in 1961. Their bus was attacked again and burned a few miles away.

Alaska

Kodiak: Wildlife authorities have warned residents to be aware of Kodiak bears after multiple sightings and encounters were reported near residential areas. Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Friday that Alaska Wildlife Troopers confirmed at least three bears could be recognized as frequent visitors to areas inside Kodiak city limits. Troopers say Kodiak bears often break fences and gates and enter vehicles in search of food. Authorities say the animals are learning to break into unlocked vehicles by opening the doors with their teeth. Wildlife officials say Kodiak bears are a subspecies of brown bears and are known as the largest bears in the world. Officials say residents are urged to carry pepper spray and bells especially when hiking, walking a dog in the dark or on foggy days with low visibility.

Arizona

Grand Canyon National Park: Invasive fish species have long been a challenge for scientists in the Grand Canyon because they attract fishermen but can devour threatened native species. Now, the National Park Service is ready to try a new approach to keeping things in balance: paying people to harvest one of the worst offenders, the brown trout. These invaders like to eat other fish, including the canyon’s endangered native species, the humpback chub. Anglers already have to have a fishing license, and many simply fish for sport, using the “catch and release” practice. The new plan would have them catch the fish and remove them – and pay for the effort. Also, according to a Park Service statement, tribal youth from the 11 tribes with cultural and historic ties to the Grand Canyon will be offered guided fishing trips to Lees Ferry Reach, where the incentives will be offered.

Arkansas

Norfolk: State and local officials have dedicated a new historical marker at the Jacob Wolf House. The double-sided sign briefly explains the history associated with the structure, originally built by Jacob Wolf in 1829 to serve as the first permanent courthouse for what was then Izard County. The two-story structure was built overlooking the White and North Fork rivers in the now-defunct town of Liberty, whose land now is part of the modern city of Norfolk. The building has a central breezeway on the first level, often called a dogtrot. The large upper room that extends over the breezeway was used as a courtroom, while rooms on the ground level were used as the county clerk’s office and as a post office. In 2012, the National Park Service declared that the Wolf House was the last remaining two-story, dogtrot public structure left in the United States.

California

San Francisco: Authorities say a brazen thief stole a Salvador Dali etching valued at $20,000 from a gallery, then walked off down the street with the work in his hand. KGO-TV says the etching entitled “Burning Giraffe” vanished Sunday afternoon from an easel at Dennis Rae Fine Art off Union Square. Gallery Director Angela Kellett says the 1960s etching was normally secured with a lock and cable, but they’re missing. It’s unclear whether the thief cut them off earlier or during the bare 30 seconds he was in the store before stealing the piece. Surveillance cameras caught the man strolling down Geary Street with the etching. Kellett says the limited-edition piece is very well known and unlikely to be sold online. Anyone with information on the theft can contact police.

Colorado

Fort Collins: A woman who was arrested outside her apartment complex by an off-duty Fort Collins police officer has sued both the officer and the city. Attorney David Lane filed the lawsuit Oct. 4 on behalf of 27-year-old Kimberly Chancellor seeking compensation and damages for physical injury, emotional distress, and other pain and suffering. Chancellor says officer Stephen Sparacio used excess force during the October 2017 arrest at a parking lot near Colorado State University. Authorities say Sparacio followed Chancellor on his motorcycle after reporting careless driving. Witnesses say Sparacio pinned her to the ground before calling on-duty officers. An internal police department review and a review by the Citizen Review Board determined Sparacio violated policies during the arrest but couldn’t say if he used unnecessary force.

Connecticut

Hartford: A preliminary report by investigators on the B-17 crash that killed seven people at the city’s airport this month does not shed light on the possible cause. The National Transportation Safety Board said in the report Tuesday that the wreckage has been kept for further examination. The World War II-era bomber crashed and burned after experiencing mechanical trouble on takeoff from Bradley International Airport the morning of Oct. 2. The plane was carrying 13 people, and the two pilots were among those killed. A third member of the flight crew and four passengers were seriously injured. Another passenger and one person on the ground suffered minor injuries.

Delaware

Dover: Some schools in the state have incorporated breath work, mindfulness and meditation practices into their everyday offerings. Delaware State News reports such techniques have made their way into districts that say the practices help both students and teachers. Smyrna School District Superintendent Patrik Williams says the district is incorporating mindfulness techniques in the hopes of supporting social and emotional learning in the classroom. He said such techniques reduce stressors and distractions while allowing participants to better concentrate. The Milford and Caesar Rodney school districts and the Red Clay Consolidated School District in New Castle County also have added the practices to their repertoire. Principal Karin Jakubowski, of North Star Elementary in Red Clay, says the practices are critical to the district, which has seen a drop in behavior referrals.

District of Columbia

Washington: Public and charter schools in the district are set to get at least $20 million more in funding this academic year. The Washington Post reports the funding increase comes after the public school system struggled with a $25 million deficit in the fiscal year that ended last month. District Deputy Education Mayor Paul Kihn says all schools will get increased per-student funding in fiscal year 2020 as a way to prevent another budget gap. Kihn says the system reduced the gap through non-personnel savings and strategic hiring. He says officials will continue to work on resolving the gap, which Kihn says was influenced by the hiring of more experienced teachers than anticipated. The city has until Nov. 7 to finalize its books. District law bars agencies from carrying debt between fiscal years.

Florida

Dade City: Authorities say a Florida man repeatedly called 911 to report that his roommate had stolen his marijuana. A deputy for the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office posted a Twitter response to the man’s calls Saturday night: Stop calling. Deputy Neal Zalva says in the Twitter video that he called the man back to tell him to quit contacting the sheriff’s office about his stolen marijuana. Zalva recorded the video as part of the agency’s #TweetAlong program, which allows viewers to get a behind-the-scenes look at the police work by the deputies. Recreational marijuana use remains illegal in Florida. A sheriff’s office spokesman says no charges were filed against the caller. Sheriff’s office communications director Kevin Doll said Tuesday they just wanted the man to stop calling about the stolen weed.

Georgia

Atlanta: Alarmed by a rash of recent hospital closings, state lawmakers are requiring rural hospital executives to receive training on subjects including financial management and strategic planning. Nearly all of the scores of rural hospitals in the state must ensure their board members, CEOs and chief financial officers complete at least eight hours of classes by the end of 2020 or risk fines and the loss of a tax credit. The requirement included in legislation last year aims to improve their decision making. Health care experts say they are not aware of any other state that requires training solely for rural hospital officials. Many rural hospitals in the U.S. are struggling amid changes to health care markets. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 – seven in Georgia.

Hawaii

Honolulu: State officials say an increase in sexually transmitted diseases to the highest numbers reported in decades can be linked to the prevalence of online dating. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have increased significantly in Hawaii. The state Department of Health’s Harm Reduction Services Branch says all three infections were at or near their highest rates in about 30 years. State health officials say more connections with many more people are made rapidly through online dating services. Officials also say there has been decreasing reliance on condoms or prophylactics for protection against acquiring or spreading STDs. Officials say the Hawaii figures correspond with the national rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections, which have risen for the fifth year in a row.

Idaho

Boise: A utility has reached an agreement involving paying homeowners who generate electricity with rooftop solar panels and other renewable energy methods. Idaho Power and the staff of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission have submitted the agreement to the commission for its possible approval. The Sierra Club, the city of Boise, the Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association and others also took part in the negotiations. An increasing number of Idaho Power’s 560,000 customers are generating power and being credited for extra power sold back to the utility. Idaho Power says the current system allows homeowners to sell power without paying their fair share to maintain the company’s vast electric grid. Solar power backers fear killing incentives for homeowners to produce clean energy. The agreement calls for the commission to hold public hearings.

Illinois

Rockford: A local manufacturer’s polymer 3D printer has been declared the globe’s largest by the Guinness Book of World Records. The Rockford Register-Star reports Ingersoll Machine Tools’ printer dubbed MasterPrint was sold to the University of Maine. The school produced a boat measuring 25 feet long and weighing 5,000 pounds in less than 72 hours. That earned two more Guinness records: largest 3D-printed boat and largest 3D-printed object. Ingersoll engineer Nate Hang says the university intends to make molds for the boat-building industry. It will work with the federally sponsored Oak Ridge National Laboratory to create a plastic containing wood fibers. That’s safer for the environment than other materials. Ingersoll CEO Chip Storie says the primary goal for MasterPrint’s development was to create large aerospace tools.

Indiana

South Bend: The University of Notre Dame is shuttering its coal-fired power plant a year ahead of schedule thanks to a sustainable energy plan that’s seen the campus embrace renewable energy. Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins got behind the wheel of a truck Monday and dumped the final load of coal, which will likely burn through Wednesday. Jenkins announced in 2015 the school’s target of ending coal use at the plant by the end of 2020 and reducing its carbon footprint by at least half by 2030. Currently, Notre Dame has cut its carbon emissions by 50% from 2005 levels. The plant will be replaced by two 5.5-megawatt natural gas turbines, which Notre Dame started using earlier this year. Jenkins says it’s important to nurture the environment for future generations.

Iowa

Sioux City: The city has taken its first formal step to lift its ban on pit bulls. The City Council voted 4-1 on Monday for an ordinance that would remove the ban adopted in September 2008. It came after pit bulls or mixes accounted for a high number of dogs in the city that had been declared vicious or at risk. The current ordinance describes a pit bull as an American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, or any dog that looks like or has characteristics of being one of those breeds. Two more readings and votes on the new ordinance are required for the new policy. City staff research says animal control regulations across the country are moving away from breed-specific provisions.

Kansas

Topeka: A handful of counties in the state are being urged to upgrade their voting machines to a voting system that creates a paper record of each vote. The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports the American Association for the Advancement of Science urged Geary, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Harvey, Sumner, Wallace and Wilson counties to upgrade to newer voting machines. Those eight counties currently use machines that record voter choices electronically without creating a paper record. Katie Koupal with the Kansas Secretary of State’s office says fewer than 10 of the state’s 105 counties use election equipment that doesn’t create a paper trail. She says several counties are planning to buy new equipment before next year’s presidential elections.

Kentucky

Rogers: An 18-foot replica of President Donald Trump’s border wall in the Red River Gorge area is being scaled not only by experienced mountain climbers but also by novices and young children. One climber even scaled it while juggling. “You don’t tell a climber that something can’t be climbed or that it’s impossible,” says Rick Weber, the 75-year-old mountain climber who built the replica. Weber, a retired engineer from Indianapolis, decided to create the wall after hearing Trump claim in September that a new section of the wall along the boundary with Mexico is “virtually impenetrable” and “can’t be climbed” because, the president said, 20 mountain climbers struggled to climb a prototype. So a skeptical Weber built his 18-foot wooden replica of the steel border wall at Muir Valley, a nonprofit nature preserve and rock-climbing park he founded along with his wife.

Louisiana

New Orleans: The city’s fire chief says chances of a rescue are diminishing as a search through unstable wreckage continues for a man missing since a hotel under construction collapsed Saturday. Chief Tim McConnell gave an update Tuesday, saying authorities are still hoping for the best. Parts of the 18-story Hard Rock Hotel gave way Saturday morning. Two workers died at the scene. Two construction cranes and the remaining part of the collapsed building remain in danger of toppling. The situation could take weeks to resolve. That means indefinite closure of two major thoroughfares, streetcar lines and bus routes adjacent to the French Quarter and business district. Among businesses affected are those operating in two 1920s-era historic sites: the opulent Saenger Theatre and the New Orleans Athletic Club.

Maine

Augusta: Agriculture authorities say an invasive pest that can damage crops such as cabbage and broccoli has been found in the state for the first time. The pest is an insect called the Swede midge. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry says the UMaine Cooperative Extension made the discovery, the first confirmed appearance of the midge in Maine. The department calls the midge a “serious insect pest” because its larvae feed on the growing tips of plants and disfigure them or prevent their proper growth. It says there have been reports of broccoli damage in some parts of the state stemming from the pest. The Swede midge is native to Europe and Asia and was first found in the U.S. in New York in 2004.

Maryland

Annapolis: An education panel has voted to recommend updating the state’s funding formula between the state and local governments to phase in a major increase in money for schools. The work group is recommending that a state commission phase in new spending that will reach about $4 billion a year for K-12 a decade from now. Under the proposal, the state would contribute about $2.8 billion and local governments would contribute $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2030. The recommendations will go to the full Kirwan Commission, which has been working on investing in early childhood education and increasing teacher pay. It also has focused on implementing rigorous curricula, providing more support to struggling schools and creating accountability for underperformance. The commission will make recommendations to lawmakers this year.

Massachusetts

Eastham: Cape Cod officials are expected to release a long-awaited report on ways the tourist destination can deal with a growing population of great white sharks. The Woods Hole Group will present its findings Thursday at Nauset Regional High School in Eastham. Cape Cod National Seashore officials, state lawmakers, town administrators and representatives from the nonprofit Atlantic White Shark Conservancy will also be present to take public comments and answer questions. The Bourne-based Woods Hole Group was tapped for the $49,950 study after two shark attacks on humans last year, including Massachusetts’ first fatal attack in more than 80 years. The study is expected to examine a range of strategies including deploying sonar detectors, using aerial drones, installing shark barriers, and culling seals and sharks.

Michigan

Detroit: A City Council member is hosting a community forum on the use of facial-recognition technology by police. The event by Roy McCalister Jr., planned for Thursday at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall in Detroit, is expected to focus on how the software will be implemented. The city’s Board of Police Commissioners has approved the police department’s use of the technology to investigate crimes. Images from video surveillance are fed into software, which can search databases and social media for a possible match. The software has been used since 2018, but Chief James Craig had sought a permanent policy. Critics say facial recognition amounts to mass racial profiling in a city that is about 80% black.

Minnesota

St. Paul: When former Gov. Mark Dayton’s official portrait is unveiled this week, it will feature the two-term Democrat in front of the Capitol building. Dayton tells Minnesota Public Radio he wanted a strong “supporting cast” in the painting to be unveiled Thursday, and the Capitol fit the bill. The building got a $300 million restoration during his time in office. Dayton told MPR the best advice he got on leaving office was to take six months to decompress before jumping into other commitments. He says he’s largely done that, enjoying time spent with his grandsons and feeling no urgency to do anything. Dayton did recently accept a fellowship at the University of Minnesota. He’s also being careful to stay out of politics, including staying neutral on the Democratic field running for president.

Mississippi

Jackson: The new Mississippi Lottery will start selling scratch-off tickets Nov. 25. That’s the Monday before Thanksgiving, slightly earlier than expected. The lottery corporation had said for months that the sales probably would begin by early December. The corporation, which announced the start date in a news release Tuesday, also is starting to let convenience stores and other retailers know they have been accepted to sell lottery tickets. Mississippi has been one of six states without a lottery, but lawmakers met in 2018 and authorized the games of chance to help generate money for highways. The Mississippi Lottery Corporation said in August that the Multi-State Lottery Association approved Mississippi for Powerball and Mega Millions. Sales for those games are expected to begin during the first three months of 2020.

Missouri

Jefferson City: State officials are developing a public safety campaign aimed at making young people aware of the risks of vaping. Republican Gov. Mike Parson said at a news conference Tuesday that he is directing leaders of the state health, education and public safety departments to develop a statewide campaign within 30 days. The goal is to educate, warn and discourage vaping. State health director Randall Williams says there has been an “explosion” in the number of youths vaping in Missouri and across the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that nationwide, vaping is now blamed on about 1,300 illnesses and at least 26 deaths. Missouri has reported nearly two dozen vaping illnesses and one death. Parson calls the campaign a “first step.”

Montana

Helena: Authorities evacuated an elementary school Tuesday after officials found what they thought were the remnants of a homemade bomb that exploded, but it turned out to be a plastic bottle filled with nuts and bolts left in the schoolyard. School officials made the discovery shortly before classes began at Rossiter Elementary School. They blocked off the area and called 911, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said. An investigation found the plastic bottle wrapped in black electrical tape was full of washers, nuts and bolts, along with a non-flammable unidentified liquid, Dutton said. There was no detonator. A homeless person found the bottle at a construction site and left it at the playground, Dutton said. No threat had been made against the school, and there were no injuries or damage. “Pretty much it’s solved,” Dutton said.

Nebraska

Lincoln: Youths 15 and younger are encouraged to participate in this weekend’s statewide youth pheasant, quail and partridge season. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission says rooster pheasants will be released on 14 wildlife management areas before the 2019 youth season this Saturday and Sunday. Special youth hunts will be held only on the management areas. The hunts are open to the public, and no registration or special permit is required. The management areas are Powder Creek, Oak Valley, Wilkinson, George Syas, Sherman Reservoir, Pressey, Cornhusker, Kirkpatrick Basin North, Branched Oak, Yankee Hill, Arrowhead, Hickory Ridge, Twin Oaks and Rakes Creek. Accompanying adults must be licensed hunters age 19 or older.

Nevada

Carson City: A group of history buffs has formed Friends of Sutro Tunnel to restore the remains of the abandoned, deteriorating town of Sutro at the entrance to a 150-year-old, historic mining tunnel. “We’re restoring the buildings and grounds, not the tunnel,” Kit Carson Weaver, former Carson City assessor and a principal in the group, told the Nevada Appeal. “The tunnel is far too dangerous to allow anyone in there for a tour.” He said restoration is costly, so the group has scheduled a fundraising dinner for Friday. Skilled volunteers are needed, said Pam Abercrombie, a member of the Friends committee, including masons, plumbers, electricians, professional landscapers, equipment operators, contractors and engineers, along with people with less specific skills but a passion for Nevada’s mining history.

New Hampshire

Concord: The head of the largest agency in the state’s government is heading to the private sector. Jeff Meyers has been commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services since early 2016, when he was appointed by former Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan. In a letter to employees, Meyers said he will not seek reappointment when his term ends in January and instead will pursue private-sector opportunities. Meyers previous served as legal counsel to the state Senate, legal counsel to former Gov. John Lynch and director of intergovernmental affairs at the health department. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu on Monday called Meyers a tireless advocate for vulnerable children and praised him for overseeing expansion of the state’s Medicaid program and prioritizing improvements in its mental health system.

New Jersey

Ventnor: The high tides and strong winds that lashed the Jersey shore over the weekend took a piece of it with them. Conditions that pummeled the beaches from Thursday through Sunday morning caused beach erosion that varied in severity along the coast. Some saw large cliffs gouged into the side of what had been large beach berms during the summer. Stewart Farrell, a beach expert with Stockton University, says virtually all the state’s ocean beaches are flatter as a result of the wind and waves. “Sand was shifted seaward into about 10 feet of water,” he said. “These deposits will form offshore bars in a few weeks.” At least some of that sand is expected to be returned to the shoreline over the winter by wave action. Farrell, director of Stockton’s Coastal Research Center, said the northeast part of every barrier island in the state except Long Beach Island “took a hit of significant scale.”

New Mexico

Las Cruces: The state is expected to lead the U.S. in pecan production this year as growers prepare for the upcoming harvest. The U.S. Agriculture Department’s statistics service says production in the Southwest state is forecast at a record-high 97 million pounds. That would mark a 6% increase over 2018. Production in Georgia is expected to hit about 76 million pounds, followed by Texas at 47 million pounds. Pecan production in the United States overall is expected to increase this year by more than 20%, with growers harvesting an estimated 281 million pounds. New Mexico agricultural officials say they’ve been working to build relationships with pecan buyers in other countries amid a tariff war with China.

New York

New York: A pack of handsome brothers is getting settled at the Bronx Zoo. The foxlike wild dogs – called dholes – were born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2016. The trio, named Roan, Apollo and Kito, have brownish-red coats dappled with white markings, as well as bushy tails. Dholes are native to parts of southern and central Asia. The Wildlife Conservation Society says populations of the pups are endangered by development, hunting and diseases from domestic dogs. The society’s long-term plans include acquiring female dholes for a breeding program. An exhibit formerly occupied by polar bears has been repurposed for the dholes’s habitat. The Bronx Zoo’s last polar bear, Tundra, died in 2017 at age 26.

North Carolina

Casar: A man says he plans to spend a night hunting for a fabled North American creature because he found a footprint that seemed to be larger than a human could make. Electrician Joe Scarborough tells WCNC-TV that he was working near Casar last week when he spotted what appeared to be fresh footprint about 13 to 14 inches long. “I was looking at that real close and … I said ‘Somebody’s got a big foot,’ ” he says. Scarborough says he now plans to spend the night in the area with some game cameras to see what happens – because “why not?” He says it’s hard to believe in any sort of supernatural finding until you see it for yourself.

North Dakota

Grand Forks: A University of North Dakota political science major has been chosen to fill a Grand Forks House seat left open by the Republican incumbent who resigned to take a job in Minnesota. Twenty-one-year-old Claire Cory was chosen by party activists Friday to fill out the remainder of Jake Blum’s term, which ends next year. Blum was first elected in 2016. UND junior Cory says she has lived her entire life in House District 42, which covers northern Grand Forks. She says she will run to keep the seat in next year’s election. North Dakota law allows local party district organizations to choose a successor for an incumbent legislator who dies or resigns. Activists from the departing legislator’s own party are put in charge of finding a successor.

Ohio

Whitehouse: A wildlife rehabilitation center says this year has been its busiest ever and is looking for more space. Nature’s Nursery near Toledo says it has taken in more than 3,000 animals this year. The nonprofit center gives medical care to injured and orphaned animals with the goal of releasing them back to the wild. Officials with the organization say they’ve outgrown their current location in Whitehouse and plan on beginning a search for a new location next year. They tell The Blade that the ideal location would be 3 to 5 acres in a country setting with an existing building or where a new facility could be built. The organization also is looking for corporate sponsorships to increase its funding, which largely comes from donations.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: The board that sets the salaries of state lawmakers has voted to boost legislative pay by 35% next year, just two years after cutting lawmakers’ pay. Jake Lowrey, spokesman for the Office of Management & Enterprise Services, says the Legislative Compensation Board cut legislators’ pay by 8.8% in 2017. Board Chairman Wes Milbourn said at the time that Oklahomans were frustrated with the Legislature. But since then, the board membership has changed. The new board voted 7-2 Tuesday to authorize the raises from $35,021 to $47,500. The legislators’ first pay raise since 1997 will take effect Nov. 18, 2020. The legislative session typically runs for four months. The Legislative Compensation Board is appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate pro tem. The board also has two nonvoting members.

Oregon

The Dalles: Two Pacific Northwest tribes are calling for the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River. The Lummi Nation and the Yakama Nation said Monday that the U.S. government violated a treaty from 1855 when it built the concrete dams on the lower Columbia River. The construction of the Bonneville, John Day and Dalles dams destroyed important native fishing sites and deeply impacted the migration of salmon. The Yakama traditionally fished for salmon along the river, and the Treaty of 1855 guaranteed the tribe access to those sites even after the tribes ceded 11.5 million acres to the United States. Salmon are also the preferred prey of endangered orcas, which were traditionally hunted by the Lummi Nation.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: Gov. Tom Wolf is telling President Donald Trump he won’t be using state authority granted last month to refuse to accept refugees. The Democratic governor wrote Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday to say his state will continue to welcome those facing persecution and danger, including people whom other states won’t accept. Wolf’s letter says refugees have long improved communities, and he’s dismayed that the United States is “sharply reducing” its commitment to vulnerable families around the world. Trump, a Republican, last month slashed the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. and for the first time gave state and local governments the authority to refuse to accept them. The president’s order requires state and local officials to provide public written consent to receive refugees.

Rhode Island

Providence: The mayor says he would consider moving a Christopher Columbus statue that was vandalized. Democratic Mayor Jorge Elorza told WPRO on Tuesday that he’d entertain the idea of moving the statue from the city’s Elmwood neighborhood to the Federal Hill neighborhood, which is known for its Italian American community and Italian restaurants. His spokeswoman later said that any move would require input from the community. “It is a treasure,” Elorza said. “So if there’s a way that we can preserve it in a way that makes more sense and satisfies all the constituencies, then I’m all for that.” The statue was one of several Columbus statues around the nation vandalized with red paint and messages against the 15th-century Italian navigator Monday, when the U.S. holiday named for one of the first Europeans to reach the Americas was being celebrated.

South Carolina

Columbia: The U.S. Supreme Court has shut down the state’s attempt to complete a nuclear fuel facility. The justices declined Tuesday to hear the state’s appeal of a ruling allowing the federal government to stop construction. The government has already spent $8 billion on the plant, under construction at the Savannah River Site near Aiken. The U.S. Energy Department has said it should cut its losses because the plant is over budget and decades away from completion. A federal appeals court ruled last October that the department could stop construction. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility would have taken plutonium used in nuclear weapons and processed it into nuclear plant fuel. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says the government is still obligated to remove plutonium from the site somehow.

South Dakota

Rapid City: The Internal Revenue Service has hit Pennington County with more than $87,000 in penalties for mishandling payroll taxes. The Rapid City Journal says county auditor Cindy Mohler has asked the Pennington County Commission to authorize payment of the penalties. The IRS imposed the penalties this month after examining the county’s employment tax records from 2016 to 2018. Officials say the penalties are the result of a long-standing payroll-tax practice. Mohler says county employees have the option of being paid twice a month, instead of monthly. The IRS says the county wrongly did not withhold payroll taxes from the mid-month checks. Instead, the county waited until the end of each month to withhold payroll taxes from employees’ total monthly pay.

Tennessee

Memphis: The Memphis Zoo has introduced its first newborn jaguars in more than 25 years. The Daily Memphian reports the two sister jaguars were born Sept. 4, but their gender wasn’t revealed until last week. Head veterinarian Felicia Knightly said they’re in great shape and “look absolutely perfect.” The cubs’ parents, Philomena and Diego, are on loan for breeding as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for jaguars. The cubs’ progress will determine when they make their debut to the public. A contest will be held to decide names for the cubs. The zoo will post social media updates on the cubs’ development and is considering putting in a live webcam to show the cubs.

Texas

San Antonio: A Native American group is calling on officials to slow down the renovation of the Alamo church, after archaeological reports showed human remains were found at the property. The Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation filed a federal lawsuit last month seeking to halt the $450 million makeover of the sacred shrine that’s on track to be completed by 2024. The San Antonio Express-News reports the group wants a say in what happens to unearthed human remains because many group members are descendants of people who lived near the site. Ramon Vasquez, an executive member of Tap Pilam, said Monday on Indigenous Peoples Day that the discovery of bones and bone fragments validate his group’s concerns. The Texas Historical Commission has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Utah

Orem: A state records committee has ruled that Utah Valley University Police can no longer charge student reporters for incident reports. The Daily Herald reports the committee unanimously voted in favor of making the incident reports free to UVU student journalists. Police used to provide the documents to student reporters for free but began charging them $5 per report in 2017. The Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists helped students at the UVU Review, the campus newspaper, challenge the move. Chapter President Eric Peterson said the decision will help students keep the public safe and informed. He said campus police shouldn’t “price reporters out of doing their jobs.” UVU spokesman Scott Trotter said the school respected the committee’s decision and would abide by it.

Vermont

Montpelier: A local middle school teacher is the state’s 2020 teacher of the year. The Vermont Agency of Education announced Tuesday that Elisabeth Kahn, a French and Spanish teacher at Main Street Middle School, has earned the title. Education Secretary Dan French says Kahn is an inspiring and talented teacher who is focused on the success of her students. He says she is also a leader working to help her colleagues implement best practices. Kahn will start her tenure as Vermont Teacher of the Year on Jan. 1. She says she is particularly excited to work with colleagues around the state to identify ways to help struggling students overcome barriers to education.

Virginia

Richmond: About a thousand people filled Capitol Square on Monday for the dedication of statues honoring some of the state’s trailblazing women, part of a monument organizers say is unlike any other in the country. The new women’s monument, about a decade in the making, will eventually feature a dozen life-sized bronze statues dotting a granite plaza a short distance from the Capitol in Richmond. Girl Scouts pulled blue drapes off the seven figures being dedicated Monday, including Native American chieftain Cockacoeske and Jamestown colonist Anne Burras Laydon, as the women’s names were read aloud. Sculptor Ivan Schwartz called it “a new beginning, a deeply significant moment in the history of the nation, as we begin to address centuries-old sins of omission.” The women – who also include a frontierswoman, a dressmaker and confidante to Mary Todd Lincoln, an entrepreneur, and educator and a suffragist – were chosen from more than four centuries of Virginia’s history.

Washington

Bremerton: A man was charged with a felony assault after police say he attacked his roommate believing he acknowledged being a vampire. A Kitsap County court charged the 40-year-old Bremerton man Monday after he was suspected of using a metal rod to nudge his roommate in the chest. The roommate told county deputies that the suspect accused him of being a vampire, threatened to kill him and struck him with a metal rod. The roommate says he feared his life because the suspect has severe mental health issues and is physically larger. The suspect’s brother told deputies the roommate jokingly said, “Is that what the kids are calling me these days?” Authorities say the suspect believed the roommate acknowledged being a blood-sucking creature.

West Virginia

Morgantown: Farmers more than quadrupled the state’s industrial hemp crop this year. Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt’s office says about 130 farmers grew 641 acres of industrial hemp in 2019, up from 155 acres in 2018. And more is coming: The department’s statement says more than 400 applications have been submitted for the 2020 growing season, double last year’s numbers. Licensed grower Mary Hastings told The Dominion Post that it’s great news for farmers, showing real potential for profit. Hemp is a type of cannabis from the same plant species as marijuana that mostly lacks intoxicating compounds. It’s used to make textiles, plastics and cannabidiol products.

Wisconsin

Madison: The nation’s largest independent spice retailer is peppering Facebook with ads calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Wisconsin-based Penzeys Spices spent nearly $100,000 on Facebook ads last week calling for Trump’s impeachment, making it one of the largest social media spenders on impeachment to date. And the company plans to spend another $397,000 on Facebook posts encouraging the impeachment of Trump. Facebook says Penzeys already spent nearly $96,000 on ads supporting impeachment between Oct. 4 and Oct. 10. Penzeys CEO Bill Penzey says the attention his unusual stance is attracting will boost his company’s brand and lead to increased sales. House Democrats are pursuing an impeachment inquiry to investigate Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine investigate the business dealings of Joe Biden’s family.

Wyoming

Casper: A recent analysis by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit RepresentWomen ranks the state 26th in the nation for gender parity in elected office. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that in a state known as the Equality State for being the first to give women the right to vote, women currently hold just 16% of the available seats in the Legislature and just 20% of all positions on the county commissions of the state’s five most populous counties. The state has made additional strides in recent years, including the election of the first female mayors in the history of two of its largest cities. However, Jen Simon of the Wyoming Women’s Action Network noted a relative dearth and recent decline of women in elected office at the state levels.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Arizona water bill set aside, averting a showdown

Proposed water legislation that might have upended Arizona’s Colorado River drought plan was set aside by a leading Republican lawmaker following a day of tense debate.

The dispute over the bill pitted House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who introduced the measure on behalf of a group of farmers and ranchers, against the Gila River Indian Community, whose leader threatened to pull out of the drought deal if the bill went forward.

Bowers’ decision to yank the bill from consideration on Tuesday appears to clear the path for Arizona to take a series of steps to finish its piece of the Drought Contingency Plan, which involves taking less water out of Lake Mead to prevent the reservoir from falling to critically low levels.

But even with what had seemed a difficult snag now somewhat smoothed over, Arizona still needs to finish a list of about a dozen water agreements to make its piece of the Colorado River deal work. And Arizona’s top water managers said they expect completing those deals will take longer than a March 4 deadline set by the federal government.

If Arizona and California miss that deadline and don’t sign the Drought Contingency Plan, the seven Western states that rely on the Colorado River face an uncertain process. Federal officials have said they plan to ask the seven governors for input on steps that should be taken to prevent the levels of Lake Mead from continuing to fall. It’s not clear how that process would end, or whether it would spark more disagreements.

On Tuesday afternoon, though, one big potential obstacle appeared to be out of the way after Bowers announced at a House committee hearing that he was pulling House Bill 2476.

The legislation would have repealed the state’s water-rights forfeiture law, a measure often called "use it or lose it,” under which water rights may be forfeited if water hasn’t been used for more than five years. The bill would have changed the law so that not using a water right wouldn’t result in automatic forfeiture.

The legislation was aimed at addressing the concerns of farmers and ranchers in the Upper Gila Valley in southwestern Arizona, where the Gila River Indian Community has filed forfeiture cases against some landowners.

Bowers said in a statement that he will not move forward with the bill but will “continue to fight” for landowners in the Upper Gila Valley. He said because the bill “has nothing to do with the Drought Contingency Plan, I refused to include it in those discussions.”

Bowers said he didn’t want to give the Gila River Indian Community “veto power” over water legislation, but that he also didn’t want to interfere with ongoing litigation that may affect well owners along tributaries of the Gila River. He said those factors, as well as the deadlines the state is facing, led him to hold the bill.

Bowers said he still thinks the bill focused on an important issue that has yet to be resolved.

“The concept of forfeiture of water rights is a terrible possibility for these thousands of rural folks across Arizona,” Bowers said in a statement. “And it deserves the attention of the Arizona Supreme Court in seeking a just and reliable remedy.”

Water rights are 'most important thing'

He pulled the bill after a committee hearing where farmers and ranchers spoke in support of the proposal and said cases brought by the Gila River Indian Community are hurting their livelihoods.

Tim Klump, a rancher who works in Cochise and Greenlee counties, said the legislation would help strengthen water rights in the state.

“To me and my family, water rights are the most important thing a landowner can have in Arizona,” Klump said. “And no one should be able to take your water rights just because you don’t use your water. Just like you shouldn’t be able to take my truck if I don’t use my truck for five years.”

Members of the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee listened while Lois Reynolds stood at the microphone beside her husband, Leon, and explained their concerns. She said the Gila River changed course over the years and took over about 20 acres of their farmland. When they tried to move the water rights from that portion of the farm to adjacent land, they were denied.

“Please repeal this law,” Reynolds said. “We will be losing everything if we’re next on the list to be sued by the Gilas in a forfeiture action.”

As she made her appeal, her voice quavered with emotion and tears welled in her eyes.

“This not only affects us, but it affects our children and grandchildren,” Reynolds said, “who have farming in their blood and would love to continue our family farming operation.”

Bowers voiced support for the couple. He also took aim at an earlier remark by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community, who said the bill was introduced because his community sought to enforce the forfeiture law against a group of “powerfully connected parties.”

Bowers asked Reynolds: “I’ve met you. Is that a powerful connection?”

“As much as I would like it to be, I don’t think so,” she replied, as laughter erupted in the room.

Bowers denounced the court cases that the Gila River Indian Community has brought against landowners under the forfeiture law.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these and others in my view are the salt of the earth, and I do not understand, outside of vengeance, if there’s no water to be gained, why does this happen? Why now are people being sued?” Bowers said. He said nothing the legislation does should affect pending litigation. But in the future, he said, “I do not see how anyone is harmed by removing a law that has never been exercised except for vengeance.”

Emphasizing his frustration with Lewis' description, Bowers also asked Greenlee County Supervisor Richard Lunt: “Do you as a supervisor feel that you’re a powerfully connected party?”

“I hate to beat that drum, but it just grated me so bad,” Bowers said.

When Lewis stood to speak, he said the legislation would represent an assault on his community’s water rights, which were secured in a 2004 settlement. He reminded the lawmakers that his late father, Rodney Lewis, helped win that historic settlement after a decades-long legal fight.

“It's a matter of principle that we're talking about here. It's also a matter of law,” Lewis said. “We are a sovereign nation. We don’t take this lightly.”

When Lewis took questions from the lawmakers, state Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, asked him pointedly: “Gov. Lewis, would you say that you’re powerfully connected?”

Lewis paused, looking irritated by the question, then answered.

“I would say that I am powerfully connected to our land and to our water, for over thousands of years,” Lewis told him. “Connected to our creator, yes.”

Speaking earlier Tuesday during a committee meeting focusing on the drought plan, Lewis called Bowers’ bill unconstitutional and said it represents a direct “attack” on the community’s water rights.

“We view this as a slap in the face of the community,” Lewis said while Bowers listened several chairs away at the same table. “I am confident that the Arizona Legislature will do the right thing and reject this bill outright.”

'Use it or lose it'

Lewis argued the bill would interfere with a 2017 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that a group of farmers and ranchers near Safford gave up rights to Gila River water under the law because they hadn't diverted the water for more than five years.

Lewis called the bill “the epitome of special-interest legislation that undermines critical principles of Arizona water law.”

“The Community cannot be singled out for legislative attack by the most powerful members of the Arizona House of Representatives, and still view itself as a genuine partner in solving the state’s water crisis,” Lewis told the drought committee, which includes representatives of water districts, cities, farmers, tribes and businesses.

He said the bill was introduced because the Gila River Indian Community has sought to enforce the forfeiture law against a group of “powerfully connected parties” in the Gila River’s Upper Valley.

Lewis said the community has brought a limited number of cases so far to defend its water rights.

“But I can no longer promise that we will hold back any longer,” he said. “My council and my people will not sit idly by while attacked in this way.”

The Gila River Indian Community’s involvement in the Colorado River drought plan is key because the community is entitled to about a fourth of the water that passes through the Central Arizona Project Canal, and it has offered to kick in some water to make the drought agreement work.

'We have made a great plan'

When Lewis had finished reading his statement, Bowers responded. He insisted the water legislation is a separate matter and shouldn't be linked to the proposed Drought Contingency Plan.

“I am surprised at the use of this venue to make this the focus of what should be a more celebratory situation,” Bowers said.

He defended the bill, saying the forfeiture law has only recently begun to be enforced in Arizona, and it presents a “burden” for thousands of well owners.

The Mesa Republican said he still wants to see the completion of Arizona’s drought plan, which was negotiated during months of talks.

“We have made a great plan,” Bowers said. “It is not connected with others, either legislative actions or priorities.”

March 4 deadline for deal

The spat erupted just as Gov. Doug Ducey and other state officials were expressing optimism about putting the finishing touches on Arizona's plan for taking part in the Drought Contingency Plan along with California and Nevada.

Arizona’s Legislature passed a package of legislation on Jan. 31 approving the state’s participation in the plan. The deal would involve taking less water out of Lake Mead, which is now just 40 percent full, to prevent the reservoir from falling further.

Arizona officials are still working their way down a list of more than a dozen internal water deals that need to be signed to make the plan work. Two of those agreements would require the approval of the Gila River Indian Community.

Federal Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman has been pressing for the states to finish the drought plan. She initially set a deadline for Jan. 31 for all the states to have the deal done. When that didn’t happen, she announced another deadline: March 4. If California and Arizona don’t finish drought plans by that date, Burman warned, the Interior Department will start receiving input from the governors of seven Western states about the steps it should take to prevent Lake Mead from falling to perilously low levels.

Burman has said if all seven states are able to finish drought plans before then, the government would call off the process.

But that’s looking increasingly difficult. Arizona’s top water officials told Burman in a letter last week that while they are working as quickly as they can, they are unlikely to finish all the necessary agreements by that date.

“We will do our utmost to complete all intrastate agreements as soon as possible, and some of them are very likely to be completed by March 4, but not because of any Federal deadline,” Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Ted Cooke of the Central Arizona Project wrote in the letter. “While deadlines can be useful to bring things to completion, the imposition of another deadline, March 4, is counterproductive and a potential distraction to completing the intrastate agreements within Arizona.”

'A lot of fluidity'

The Colorado River irrigates more than 5 million acres of farmlands and supplies about 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles. Nineteen years of drought and chronic overuse, combined with the worsening effects of climate change, have pushed the levels of the river’s reservoirs lower and lower.

A first-ever shortage could be declared in 2020 if federal officials determine this August that the lake is projected to be below elevation 1,075 feet at the start of the year.

Under the Drought Contingency Plan, Arizona's total use of Colorado River water would decrease by more than 500,000 acre-feet, or 18 percent of the state's legal entitlement, during the first year of a shortage. That will mean taking less water from Lake Havasu and pumping less into the 336-mile CAP Canal, which cuts across the desert, passes through Phoenix and ends in Tucson.

Farmers in central Arizona face the biggest water cutbacks under the plan, and the Legislature has approved funding to help their irrigation districts drill new wells and build other infrastructure as they begin to rely entirely on groundwater.

The package of legislation that was passed last month appropriated $9 million for this groundwater fund for Pinal County growers.

During Tuesday’s House committee hearing, lawmakers voted 8-4 to endorse a bill that would give an additional $20 million to the farmers' irrigation districts for groundwater infrastructure. The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, said the state money would be used as matching funds while the growers apply for federal grants.

One of the Democrats who voted against the measure was Rep. Andres Cano, D-Tucson, who called it “a lot of money” and said it would go against the terms of previous negotiations on the legislation that passed last month.

Arizona's plan for divvying up the water cutbacks during a shortage involves deliveries of “mitigation” water to help lessen the blow for some farmers and other entities, as well as compensation payments for those that contribute water.

Those payments are to be covered with more than $100 million from the state and the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which manages the CAP Canal. Much of the money would go toward paying for water from the Colorado River Indian Tribes and the Gila River Indian Community — if the community doesn’t pull out of the deal.

After Bowers announced he wouldn't move forward with his bill, Lewis said it was too soon to say what comes next.

"We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll see how much of a change it makes," he told reporters in front of the Legislature. "It’s hard to say at this point. There is a lot of fluidity here."

Reporter Andrew Nicla contributed to this article.

Environmental coverage on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust. Follow the azcentral and Arizona Republic environmental reporting team at environment.azcentral.com and at OurGrandAZ on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Sequoia toll, Daffodil Project: News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: A television station has donated thousands of items including historic footage from the civil rights era to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, which will make the material available to the public. WSFA-TV in Montgomery announced it had given the agency materials dating to the 1950s, including footage from news conferences by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., coverage of the Freedom Riders in 1961 and original film from the “Stand in the School House Door” by then-Gov. George C. Wallace in 1963. The video also includes scenes from a visit to the NASA center in Huntsville by the President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson in 1962 and special reports on the death of former University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1983. As the TV station was planning to switch locations, managers determined it wasn’t practical to move the large numbers of delicate film reels and boxes full of video and other items. Steve Murray, the state archives director, said archivists had long suspected the WSFA studios held valuable content for historical preservation, and his department jumped at the opportunity to add to its collection when a phone call came in late 2019.

Alaska

Juneau: Members of the Biden administration have launched a series of events aimed at exploring the Arctic’s potential to act as a “living laboratory of clean energy innovation.” Officials participating in the online event, billed as “ArcticX,” spoke of the challenges faced by remote communities in Alaska’s Arctic region, such as high energy costs and impacts from climate change. During the event’s broad discussions, they said they see opportunities for sustainable or renewable energy systems. Wednesday’s meeting was the first of four planned online events, with an in-person gathering set for May in Alaska. Among the speakers was U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Offices that fall under the department co-hosted the event. “We hope to combine the world-class expertise of our national labs, of our 17 national labs, with the know-how that Arctic communities have developed over centuries of innovation in the far north so together we can get new technologies out of the lab and into the field and onto the market and support communities in taking control of their own clean energy future,” Granholm said. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewable sources accounted for about 30% of Alaska’s electricity generation in 2019. Many rural communities rely largely on diesel electric generators for power.

Arizona

Phoenix: The state’s Motor Vehicle Division failed to notify more than 34,000 drivers that their licenses had been suspended, revoked or canceled and also lagged for months in alerting prosecutors. The MVD notified county attorney’s offices around the state of the problem Wednesday, saying in an email that notices weren’t mailed “beginning in late 2020 and ending in March.” A glitch with the agency’s mailing process was the cause. “When MVD discovered this issue in February 2021, the first step was to understand what caused the problem, the extent of customers affected and how to resolve the problem,” MVD spokesman Doug Parcey said in an email. “Once those were known, the affected customers were immediately notified.” Some prosecutors learned about the issue from defense attorneys. Potentially thousands of drivers might have been arrested and prosecuted or paid hefty fines because they unknowingly drove with a suspended license. Prosecutors in Maricopa and Pinal counties have already flagged more than 1,000 cases. Municipal and justice courts will also have to review cases involving suspended licenses. “Our first priority is to look at convictions,” said Rachel Mitchell, acting division chief of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. “We are focusing on prison. … It is certainly scary for me as a prosecutor.”

Arkansas

Little Rock: State lawmakers on Friday delayed a vote on whether to allow state-run health care facilities to require employees to get COVID-19 vaccines – a move officials say is needed to protect millions of dollars in federal funding. The Arkansas Legislative Council voted to delay considering the requests by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs for an exemption from a state law banning vaccine requirements by government entities. The law conflicts with a federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement for health care workers issued by President Joe Biden’s administration that’s set to take effect in January. A group of Republican-led states, including Arkansas, have asked a federal judge to block its enforcement. UAMS could lose $600 million in Medicare and Medicaid funding and another $100 million in federal contracts if it doesn’t comply with the federal rule, Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson told the panel. Patterson said the exemption was needed to ensure that the university’s workers are in compliance with the federal requirement and that funding isn’t threatened. The panel did not set a date for considering the exemptions. But legislative leaders said they hoped to meet before Dec. 5.

California

Los Angeles: Lightning-sparked wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, leading to a staggering two-year death toll that accounts for up to nearly a fifth of Earth’s largest trees, officials said Friday. Fires in Sequoia National Park and surrounding Sequoia National Forest tore through more than a third of groves in California and torched an estimated 2,261 to 3,637 sequoias, which are the largest trees by volume. Nearby wildfires last year killed an unprecedented 7,500 to 10,400 giant sequoias that are only native in about 70 groves scattered along the western side of the Sierra Nevada range. Losses now account for 13% to 19% of the 75,000 sequoias greater than 4 feet in diameter. Blazes so intense to burn hot enough and high enough to kill so many giant sequoias – trees once considered nearly fireproof – put an exclamation point on climate change’s impact. A warming planet that has created hotter droughts combined with a century of fire suppression that choked forests with thick undergrowth have fueled flames that have sounded the death knell for trees dating to ancient civilizations. “The sobering reality is that we have seen another huge loss within a finite population of these iconic trees that are irreplaceable in many lifetimes,” said Clay Jordan, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Colorado

Denver: The Denver suburb of Aurora has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of Elijah McClain, a Black man who died after police stopped him on the street and put him in a neck hold two years ago, the city and family attorneys announced Friday. A federal magistrate judge accepted terms of the settlement after a mediation session, said Qusair Mohamedbhai, an attorney for McClain’s mother, Sheneen McClain. Outside court, Sheneen McClain said she was glad to have the agreement finalized but noted the work of fighting for justice for her son just makes her miss him more. “The money is just the world’s way of saying, ‘We’re sorry,’ but it’s not going to help me heal the hole in my heart,” she said. The settlement amount was agreed to in July but not officially disclosed until now because of a dispute between McClain’s parents about how the wording of the agreement could affect their dispute over how the money should be divided. Sheneen McClain said Elijah’s father, LaWayne Mosley, was not involved in raising him. How the money will be divided will be addressed separately. In a statement, Mosley did not address the dispute but said he hoped the settlement would send a message to police. “I hope Elijah’s legacy is that police will think twice before killing another innocent person,” he said.

Connecticut

Plymouth: Officials believe nearly 40 drug overdoses across the state since July may be linked to marijuana laced with the powerful opioid fentanyl and are warning the public about the potential danger. State health officials said marijuana seized in Plymouth after an overdose in early October tested positive for fentanyl at the state crime lab. “This is the first lab confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” Dr. Manisha Juthani, the state’s public health commissioner, said in a statement Thursday. Officials had been investigating reports of people across Connecticut who overdosed and were revived with naloxone but denied using opioids. They told authorities they only smoked marijuana. There were 11 such overdoses in July, nine in August, nine in September and 10 from Oct. 1 to Oct. 26. No deaths were reported. Brian Foley, an aide to state public safety Commissioner James Rovella, said the state crime lab will now be testing all marijuana that police submit for fentanyl. An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in a recent one-year period – a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.

Delaware

Wilmington: In October, as the state allocated $78 million in federal money to health care facilities struggling with staffing shortages, hospitals received $25million total – only about one-third of what they requested. Health care workers, who have been fighting the coronavirus for nearly two years, have said they’re burned out and exhausted. Some chose to leave the hospital bedside or the profession entirely. Others declined financial incentives of several hundred dollars offered to fill shifts, citing mental health reasons. Many are jumping ship to other hospitals in Delaware or the Philadelphia area because health systems are providing hefty signing bonuses and significant increases in pay. Hospitals are also relying on travel nurses, who work in three-month shifts, to fill the gaps. Travel nurses can make twice as much or more what permanent hospital nurses take home in pay. ChristianaCare requested $40 million in federal aid, according to documents provided by the governor’s office. Instead, the state’s largest hospital and private employer received $12 million, the biggest sum any health system received. ChristianaCare, like others, continues to offer $10,000 signing bonuses for a number of open nursing positions.

District of Columbia

Washington: Mayor Muriel Bowser’s decision to ease mask requirements in the nation’s capital has sparked a public debate about timing, with the majority of the D.C. Council pleading with her to reconsider. It’s a localized debate that reflects a broader national dynamic in the country’s coronavirus-mitigation stance, with some leaders and businesses pushing for more normalcy after the successful reopening of schools and others preaching caution against reckless pre-winter moves. Starting Monday, masks will no longer be required in many indoor spaces in D.C. They must still be worn in multiple settings, including schools, libraries, public transportation, ride-share vehicles, and group-living facilities like nursing homes, dorms and jails. Private businesses will still be able to require customers to wear masks. Bowser has cautiously hailed the step as a “shift in where we are with the pandemic,” saying the return of the mask mandate earlier this year helped blunt the late-summer surge of the delta variant. The nation’s capital originally lifted its indoor mask requirement for fully vaccinated individuals in May but reinstated it in late July as cases began to rise again. According to D.C. Health Department statistics, the current seven-day average of new cases is higher than it was in May but still well below the late-summer delta-variant peak.

Florida

Stuart: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed work on a $339 million Everglades restoration project aimed at cleansing water runoff before it flows into a troubled river. Corps and local officials held a ceremony Friday for the 12,000-acre project in Martin County known officially as the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area. It’s a key part of a broader effort to restore the vast Florida Everglades. The reservoir will capture, store and clean fertilizer-laden runoff from farms and development before it is routed into the St. Lucie River and ultimately the Indian River Lagoon. Both have been plagued by harmful algae blooms and other long-term problems associated with water pollution that threatens wildlife and human health. “I think it’s huge” for the east coast, said Chauncey Goss, chair of the South Florida Water Management District. “Not only symbolically, but it’s also going to be taking water, cleaning it up and helping to get rid of some of these discharges, which is really the goal of all of this.” The project can store 19.7 billion gallons of water, according to state water managers. It will use plants such as cattails to suck up about 35 metric tons of phosphorus every year before the water makes its way into the St. Lucie River.

Georgia

Cumming: Leaders with Forsyth County Schools, Congregation Beth Israel and the OneForsyth Council have planted 500 daffodil bulbs outside the school district’s new Forsyth County Arts and Learning Center as part of the Daffodil Project, a worldwide initiative aiming to plant the flowers all over in honor of each of the 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust. Thanks to the partnership, Forsyth County will now be home to 500 of those daffodils, which will bloom in the spring on Holocaust Remembrance Day. FCS Superintendent Dr. Jeff Bearden, Rabbi Levi Mentz with Congregation Beth Israel and OneForsyth Council Chair Kristin Cook all gave opening remarks at a Nov. 8 ceremony before county and school district leaders began planting each of the bulbs. Cook said she was proud to be there, speaking on behalf of OneForsyth, the Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce’s diversity initiative, and modeling their guiding principles of uniting, celebrating and promoting inclusion in the county. “Our hope is that, by continuing to support events like these, we will all grow to appreciate the unique identities that embody us all,” Cook said. Metz said he was overjoyed to see the project coming to Forsyth County, his involvement feeling personal to him and his family since his grandfather was a survivor of the Holocaust.

Hawaii

Honolulu: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering additional protections for waters off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. NOAA announced the proposal to designate oceanic areas of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, which is already one of the largest protected natural areas in the world, as a national marine sanctuary on Friday. The agency opened the plan to public comment through January. The designation would build on existing protections meant to maintain marine habitats and wildlife. The new rules would apply only to oceanic areas, not the islands that are already part of the monument. “Papahānaumokuākea’s ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from threats such as marine debris, invasive species, and climate change,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state of Hawaii and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs currently co-manage the monument. Papahānaumokuākea is larger than all other U.S. national parks combined and is home to endangered Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles, seabirds and extensive coral reef ecosystems. The area is home to many species found nowhere else on Earth.

Idaho

Boise: If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it. NASA and the nation’s top federal nuclear research lab on Friday put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade. “Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp,” Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a statement. If the effort is successful in supporting a sustained human presence on the moon, the next objective would be Mars. NASA says fission surface power could provide sustained, abundant power no matter the environmental conditions on the moon or Mars. “I expect fission surface power systems to greatly benefit our plans for power architectures for the moon and Mars and even drive innovation for uses here on Earth,” Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. The reactor would be built on Earth and then sent to the moon.

Illinois

Springfield: A new store at the Illinois State Museum will feature products from the state, along with themed souvenirs, specialty foods and toys. The Shop opened to the public Saturday. Families were invited to attend an opening event in their flannel and fleece pajamas. The store is located in the first floor of the Illinois State Museum, which owns and operates the Shop to fund programs and research. Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko, the museum’s director, called the opening an important moment in the museum’s return to operations. Former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration shut down the museum in 2015 during an ongoing budget impasse. It reopened the following year but since then has seen closures related to the coronavirus pandemic. The museum was established in 1877 and has branch facilities in Lewistown and Lockport.

Indiana

Indianapolis: A renewed push for the state to join more than two-thirds of states with some form of legalized marijuana use appears to face the same roadblock from Statehouse Republicans who have opposed such a step for many years. Legislative Democrats and the state Democratic Party united last week in urging approval of marijuana legalization during the legislative session that starts in January, arguing that it could benefit those wanting to use it for medical purposes, create new jobs and become an additional state tax revenue source. The Republican-dominated Legislature has not taken any action on bills submitted over the past decade for allowing medical marijuana or removing criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of the drug, even as recreational marijuana sales have won approval in Michigan and Illinois and as medical use is allowed in Ohio. Legalization advocates haven’t yet changed the minds of legislative leaders, who reject arguments that Indiana is losing money to neighboring states and point to pot still being illegal under federal law. “I think when you make the argument about having that substantial a public policy change just because you’re trying to chase dollars makes no sense to me, so I’m in the same place I’ve been,” Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said.

Iowa

Ames: A city park will now be named Ioway Creek Park to align with the creek’s name change earlier this year. The Ames City Council voted unanimously last week to change the name of Squaw Creek Park to Ioway Creek Park. In February, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names changed the name of Squaw Creek, a 42-mile-long tributary of the South Skunk River, to Ioway Creek, as the original name is considered derogatory to Native Americans. The Ames Tribune reports that an Indigenous teen, Fawn Stubben, pushed for the change in the 1990s, but the proposal wasn’t considered until Ames resident Jasmine Martin applied to the federal board in 2019. The Ames City Council and Story County Board of Supervisors both voted in support of the change. The current name honors the Ioway, an Indigenous tribe that once lived in parts of Iowa. Creek sign names have since been adjusted around Ames, but there were still remnants of the former name, including Squaw Creek Drive. The street was renamed Stonehaven Drive as part of the meeting’s consent agenda. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday formally declared “squaw” a derogatory term and said she is taking steps to remove it from federal government use and to replace other derogatory place names.

Kansas

Topeka: Next year, the state will start requiring employers, individuals and health insurance companies to pay some costs associated with coronavirus testing. The state Department of Health and Environment announced Friday that it will start phasing out free screening tests for people who aren’t showing COVID-19 symptoms or haven’t potentially been exposed. The agency said it expects the policy to begin in March 2022. The department said it can’t sustain having public health agencies cover the cost of all testing indefinitely. The agency said it initially allocated $141 million in federal funds to make coronavirus tests available and support commercial and university labs to expand processing and sampling capacity. But the department said infections from the delta variant depleted the funds faster than expected. “Testing has become an increasingly important way in which those who choose to be unvaccinated may still be able to work, attend events, and travel,” Ashley Goss, the department’s acting secretary, said in a statement. The changes will mainly affect programs used by employers to test 10% of their workers on a regular basis and programs by community organizations to offer free rapid tests.

Kentucky

Lexington: The city has received a perfect 100 score from the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, for its laws, policies, services and programs to protect and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The city received a total score of 106 for additional steps it has taken over the past few years to benefit the LGBTQ community. It’s the highest ranking of any city in Kentucky, though Louisville has received a perfect score for several years. A 100 is considered a perfect score, but cities can earn up to 122 additional points for programs and services. “We’ve worked hard to create an atmosphere welcoming all people,” Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton said. “That hard work has resulted in the highest score received by a Kentucky city.” It’s the first time since the rankings began eight years ago that Lexington has earned a perfect score. In 2020, it received a 95 out of 100. Lexington received high marks despite Kentucky not having a statewide LGBTQ nondiscrimination law. The Human Rights Campaign evaluated more than 506 cities across the country. Other evaluated Kentucky cities include Berea, Bowling Green, Covington, Frankfort, Morehead and Owensboro. Covington’s score was 96. The lowest-scoring Kentucky city was Owensboro with 18.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: State lawmakers on Friday lambasted Louisiana’s temporary housing program enacted after Hurricane Ida, saying it continues to move too slowly to help people living in damaged homes and tents since late August. “We’re moving at a snail’s pace. It’s just unbelievable,” said Sen. Mike Fesi, a Houma Republican who represents Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, which were among the hardest hit by Ida. The state has spent $90 million in federal disaster aid on more than 2,000 trailers to provide temporary shelter to residents in southeastern Louisiana. Half have been placed on residents’ properties and other community housing sites, and 653 families have moved into the trailers so far, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told lawmakers. The program has received near-constant criticism about the time it’s taking to place trailers since Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration launched the Hurricane Ida Sheltering Program on Oct. 4. That critique spilled over into Friday’s meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, as the homeland security agency asked lawmakers to approve $500 million in authority to spend federal disaster recovery aid. Director Casey Tingle defended the housing program, telling lawmakers: “We have a brand new program that’s never been done before.”

Maine

Portland: The developer of a $1 billion electric transmission line is suspending construction at the request of the governor after she certified election results Friday in which residents firmly opposed the project. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills had urged New England Clean Energy Connect Transmission LLC to stop construction on the 145-mile project until legal challenges are resolved. Thorn Dickinson, president and CEO of NECEC, said work will be temporarily halted until a judge rules on a request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit contending the referendum was unconstitutional. “This was not an easy decision. Suspending construction will require the layoff of more than 400 Mainers just as the holiday season begins,” Dickinson said in a statement Friday evening. Mills supports the project but said she also supports “the rule of law that governs our society and the will of the people that informs it.” Funded by Massachusetts ratepayers, the project would supply up to 1,200 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the New England power grid. That’s enough electricity for 1 million homes. Critics said the project is damaging the woods and changing the character of a part of western Maine with little if any benefit for its residents.

Maryland

Frederick: With sailboats taking over Carroll Creek, a unique holiday tradition has returned to downtown Frederick for its sixth year. About two dozen sailboats were launched in the creek Saturday as part of the annual Sailing Through the Winter Solstice project. Volunteers rushed about Saturday morning, lowering the boats off the banks of the creek into the water. Some volunteers had the unenviable task of wading through the water on the chilly November morning to ensure the boats were anchored in place. Peter Kremers, who co-founded and serves as the chair of the event, said there were about 25 sailboats in and around the creek this year. Now in its sixth year, the project has quickly grown into a beloved part of the holiday season in the city. This year’s event has more sailboats than ever. “We started with one boat in ’16,” Kremers said of the project’s speedy growth. “I think last year we had maybe 19 in the water; this year we have 22 boats in the water and three on land.” The sailboats will stay on Carroll Creek until March, each fitted with lights and decorations to brighten up the dark nights of winter. But the goal isn’t just to make the downtown look nice. The project also helps raise a significant amount of money for a number of local charities.

Massachusetts

Boston: A 48-foot white spruce chosen as the city’s Christmas tree has arrived from Nova Scotia as part of a decades-old tradition. This year’s tree was donated by L’Arche Cape Breton, a nonprofit that provides homes and work for people with disabilities. The 60-year-old tree was on the nonprofit’s property on Canada’s Cape Breton Island. A police escort brought the tree to Boston Common on Thursday, WCVB-TV reports. Nova Scotia donates a tree to Boston every year as a token of gratitude for relief efforts by Bostonians after a munitions ship exploded in Halifax Harbor in 1917, killing or injuring thousands of people. It will be lit Dec. 2. For Massachusetts residents buying a Christmas tree locally, finding the perfect one may prove difficult this year. Tree sellers are expecting one of their busiest and most challenging seasons yet, The Boston Globe reports. Last year, with many people cooped up at home during the pandemic, everyone wanted a tree – sometimes more than one, the National Christmas Tree Association said. Many local Christmas tree farms cut and sold trees they normally would have left in the ground. That means some sellers this year have fewer, shorter trees.

Michigan

Lansing: Pure Michigan is marketing the state’s upcoming winter season in an advertising campaign running in key regional and state markets. The Still Pure Michigan campaign is expected to run through the end of February and use broadcast and connected television, online video and digital ads, and social media, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. said. Much of the focus of the tourism and marketing campaign will be on travel and shopping. Advertising spots will run in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Lansing, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Traverse City, Cadillac, Marquette and Alpena. They also will be seen in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky. This year’s total winter advertising budget tops $3 million. The launch of the Pure Michigan campaign comes just ahead of the opening of many of Michigan’s ski resorts for the year, according to the MEDC. “As winter approaches, adventure awaits us in the form of downhill skiing, fat-tire biking or snowshoeing epic backcountry landscapes,” Travel Michigan Vice President Dave Lorenz said.

Minnesota

St. Paul: Farmers across the state who grow about 45 million turkeys annually will benefit from higher prices this year, according to agriculture experts. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture said the price of turkeys has steadily increased as demand has risen following a year when there were fewer family gatherings, and restaurant traffic was down due to the coronavirus pandemic. “USDA is actually predicting this year to be a record-high price for turkeys,” said Tim Petry, a livestock marketing economist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service. “From a price standpoint, these are the best prices they’ve seen for a number of years. So, you know, that’s good news for producers.” The good news on prices is tempered somewhat by rising costs to raise the birds on more than 500 farms in the state, Minnesota Public Radio News reports. Higher prices for corn and soybeans to feed the turkeys are cutting into profits, growers said. “Those are our two biggest ingredients, and and those prices were substantially higher than last year or past years,” said Jessica Westbrock, the president of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. While turkey prices are up 17 cents a pound from last year, Petry said consumers are still likely to find bargains, as many stores sell turkeys below cost.

Mississippi

Jackson: The Mississippi School Boards Association is joining a handful of other states in breaking ties with the National School Board Association after the nonprofit sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking for federal support investigating harassment and threats of violence against school board members. Mississippi School Boards’ leadership wrote this week in a letter explaining the decision that the National School Boards Association’s “inflammatory language and the request for federal agencies to intervene in our communities, was just one in a series of lapses in governance.” It said Mississippi will end its relationship with the nonprofit NSBA on June 30, 2022, the end of the term for which the Mississippi School Boards Association has paid its dues to the national organization. Mississippi will then work with school board associations in other states to form a new organization that “will provide services to its member state school boards associations which are requested by and tailored to each member state school boards associations’ unique needs.” Local school boards across the country have become political battlegrounds over issues such as COVID-19-related mask rules, the treatment of transgender students, and how to teach the history of racism and slavery in America.

Missouri

St. Louis: A couple who gained fame after waving guns at protesters near their home in 2020 are seeking to keep their law licenses by arguing their actions were justified because they were defending their property from a violent and threatening mob. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who are both lawyers, made that claim in response to a complaint asking the Missouri Supreme Court to suspend their licenses. The demonstrators went past the McCloskeys’ home June 28, 2020, at the height of racial injustice protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The couple, who were eating dinner on the patio with their daughter, responded by waving two weapons at the protesters. No shots were fired, and no one was hurt. Their actions gained praise from conservatives, including then-President Donald Trump. Mark McCloskey is now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. They contend in their legal response that the demonstrations “involved significant unlawful and violent conduct,” KCUR reports. The response cites a report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association finding nearly 89% of protests in St. Louis in June 2020 involved unlawful activity, and 11% involved some level of violence. Still, special prosecutor Richard Callahan has said his investigation determined the protesters near the McCloskeys’ home were peaceful.

Montana

Billings: The Biden administration on Friday said it will consider new measures to protect greater sage grouse, a bird species once found across much of the West that has suffered drastic declines in recent decades due to oil and gas drilling, grazing, wildfires and other pressures. The announcement of a range-wide evaluation of habitat plans for greater sage grouse came after the Trump administration tried to scale back conservation efforts adopted when Biden was vice president in 2015. A federal court blocked Trump’s changes. But Biden administration officials said the attempt set back conservation efforts – even as the chicken-sized bird’s habitat was further ravaged by wildfires, invasive plants and continued development. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he believed Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning – a former aide to the lawmaker – would pursue a collaborative, balanced approach that will keep sage grouse from becoming an endangered species. But Gov. Greg Gianforte and Sen. Steve Daines criticized the action, saying states should be given deference to manage wildlife and federal lands kept open for energy exploration and grazing. Daines said state and local conservation efforts needs to be protected from “federal overreach,” while Brooke Stroyke, a spokesperson for Gianforte, said Montana already has a plan that balances conservation and rural economies.

Nebraska

Omaha: The state’s unemployment rate fell to a mere 1.9% last month – the lowest any state has reached since data collection began in 1976, according to labor statistics released Friday. The October rate reported by Nebraska’s labor department and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics marked the first time any state’s unemployment rate dropped below 2%. Spokespeople for both agencies confirmed that Nebraska’s rate is the country’s lowest on record. Nebraska has maintained its status as the state with the lowest rate through much of the pandemic. Its 1.9% rate for October was down slightly from the September rate of 2%. Nebraska Labor Commissioner John Albin said total nonfarm employment has risen by more than 30,000 from October of last year. The state reported 1,031,001 filled jobs in October, which was 10,718 more than the previous month. Nebraska has struggled with a chronic worker shortage since even before the pandemic, and it has driven up wages and made it difficult for employers to hire and expand. Earlier this month, the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry released a survey of its members in which 92% said finding skilled workers was a top priority.

Nevada

Las Vegas: A big southern Nevada sewage pumping facility failed last year, spewing an estimated 500,000 gallons of wastewater and leaking into a creek that leads toward the Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River, a television station investigation found. Officials want to spend $40 million to rehabilitate the Clark County Water Reclamation District wastewater lift station, where the January 2020 spill was blamed on a corroded underground pipe, KLAS-TV in Las Vegas reports. Most of the spilled sewage was vacuumed up from land outside the Whitney Lift Station, KLAS-TV reports, citing documents, photos and emails obtained with a public records request. But an estimated 10,000 gallons – about enough water to fill an average kidney-shaped backyard swimming pool – went into a nearby creek that feeds the Las Vegas Wash. The wash flows to Lake Mead, the drought-stricken reservoir that provides about 90% of the Las Vegas-area drinking water supply. The Whitney Lift Station is one of 24 similar facilities operated by the reclamation district, which was formed in 1956 to reclaim wastewater from unincorporated Clark County, the largest jurisdiction in the Las Vegas area. The district treats nearly 106 million gallons of wastewater per day, according to its website.

New Hampshire

Concord: State lawmakers accepted $22.5 million in federal COVID-19 vaccine funding Friday that has sparked intense debate and angry protests for the past two months. The Joint Fiscal Committee had tabled a request from the Department of Health and Human Service in September to spend the money to hire new workers to promote the vaccines and help providers comply with the state’s new vaccine registry system. Meanwhile, the Executive Council, which approves state contracts, initially rejected the money before reversing course earlier this month. On Friday, three Republicans joined the committee’s three Democrats in voting to accept the money. Four Republicans voted no, with some citing concerns that language in the grant would require the state to follow future federal directives and mandates related to COVID-19. “The action we take today will be historic,” said Sen. Bob Giuda, R-Warren. “It will be historic because we will either reject the notion of subservience to government coercion, or it will be historic because we accede to that notion and violate the most fundamental premises of freedom upon which our state and nation were founded and which are imperiled as never before in our nation’s history.” Giuda predicted the vote would become a campaign issue next year. At least one audience member agreed, shouting at Sen. Chuck Morse, R-Salem: “Treason! You will never get elected again, Morse! You’re done!”

New Jersey

Jersey City: The decadeslong odyssey to find the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, a tenacious leader of the Teamsters union, apparently has turned to land next to a former landfill that sits below an elevated highway in the Garden State. The FBI obtained a search warrant to “conduct a site survey underneath the Pulaski Skyway” last month, said Mara Schneider, a spokeswoman for the Detroit field office. She didn’t indicate whether anything was removed. The FBI’s disclosure is another turn in a mystery that has gripped law enforcement for more than 45 years. Hoffa was last seen July 30, 1975, when he was to meet with reputed Detroit mob enforcer Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and alleged New Jersey mob figure Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano at a restaurant in suburban Detroit. The focus now is in Jersey City, below a four-lane bridge where the sound of cars and trucks doesn’t stop. Wild overgrown brush thrives in the gritty industrial area, and green dumpsters abound. No one nearby at Interstate Waste Services offered a comment. “I’ve been assured that the body hasn’t been dug up yet,” journalist Dan Moldea said, referring to the FBI’s work in October.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Internet problems continue to slow down many students in the state, but a pilot project using TV signals to transmit computer files may help. On Thursday, state public education officials distributed devices to eight families in Taos that allow schools to send them digital files via television. The boxes the size of a deck of cards allow digital television receivers to connect with computers using technology called datacasting. Many rural areas of New Mexico are too far from internet infrastructure such as fiber cables and cell towers but do get TV reception. In October, local broadcasting affiliates of New Mexico PBS finished testing the technology to make sure they could set aside bandwidth not taken up by TV show broadcasts and dedicate it to broadcast downloadable digital files. The pilot program in Taos relies on a broadcast from northern New Mexico PBS affiliate KNME, while two others are planning to roll out pilot programs in the cities of Silver City and Portales. Remote learning during the pandemic highlighted the digital divide for New Mexico students, many of whom had to learn using paper packets while their peers could participate in virtual lessons via video chat.

New York

Albany: The New York Assembly’s investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s conduct in office concluded the Democrat’s administration misrepresented how many nursing home residents died of COVID-19, according to a lawmaker who reviewed the committee’s still-secret report. Assembly Member Phil Steck was among the Assembly Judiciary Committee members who were able to review a copy of the approximately 45-page report Thursday and Friday in advance of its public release, possibly as soon as this week. The report, compiled by the New York City law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, covers a wide array of allegations of misconduct by Cuomo, including sexual harassment claims and the participation of his staff in writing his book on the coronavirus pandemic. Other topics include the Cuomo administration’s manipulation of data on COVID-19 deaths as presented to the public. Gaps in the state’s statistical accounting of fatalities include the administration’s decision to exclude from its nursing home death totals thousands of patients who died after being transferred to hospitals. The Davis Polk investigators confirmed press reports that the state Department of Health wanted to include those hospital deaths in the state’s nursing home fatality count.

North Carolina

Asheville: A bear cub wandering around a neighborhood with a jug stuck on its head is running free in the forest again thanks to wildlife biologists and some observant residents. Wildlife biologists with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission spent two days searching for the bear cub, according to a news release. The commission said the bear likely got stuck while going through some trash and was wandering around an Asheville neighborhood. District Biologist Justin McVey got the initial report about the bear Monday night. Commission officials reached out to the public to help identify its location. McVey said a combination of responses to a message posted to NextDoor by the commission and direct calls to biologists, local residents led personnel directly to the bear cub. The bear was anesthetized before the jug was taken off its head. Biologists performed a health check before relocating it to a remote area in western North Carolina.

North Dakota

Medora: The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library has agreed to take a controversial equestrian statue of the 26th president that has stood on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City since 1940. The bronze statue, designed by James Earle Fraser, was commissioned by the Board of Trustees of the New York State Roosevelt Memorial in 1929. The library opening next year in Medora will be getting it as a long-term loan. The statue, which depicts the former president on horseback with a Native American man and an African man flanking the horse, has been the subject of years of criticism that it symbolizes colonial subjugation and racial discrimination. Objections grew more forceful after the death of George Floyd sparked a racial reckoning and a wave of protests across the U.S. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to remove the statue in 2020, calling it “problematic,” which drew an angry response from President Donald Trump, who tweeted: “Ridiculous, don’t do it!” With the support of members of the Roosevelt family, the North Dakota library will establish an advisory council composed of representatives of Indigenous and Black communities, historians, scholars and artists to “guide the recontextualization” of the statue.

Ohio

Columbus: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law a map of new congressional districts Saturday that will be in effect for the next four years, despite objections from Democrats and voting rights groups. DeWine said in a statement that, compared with other proposals from House and Senate lawmakers from both parties, the Senate legislation he signed “makes the most progress to produce a fair, compact, and competitive map.” The redistricting measure cleared the Legislature along party lines with House approval Thursday after a breakneck sprint through both chambers, amid praise from majority Republicans. Democrats blasted the Republican-led mapmaking process as unfair, partisan and cloaked in secrecy. The Senate approved the bill Tuesday, only about 16 hours after the new map was released. The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the map an F grade. The new law creates at most three safe Democratic districts out of 15 new U.S. House seats in a state where voters are split roughly 54% Republican, 46% Democratic. Populous Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties – home to Cleveland and Cincinnati, respectively – are divided three ways each. Franklin County, home to Columbus, is divided two ways, and the western Cleveland suburbs in Lorain County are part of a district that stretches to the Indiana border, a nearly 3-hour drive.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: The state’s building code commission has undermined the efforts of its own committee tasked with reviewing energy conservation standards by shooting down proposed changes and completing a takeover of the committee itself. Last week’s actions leave green building in Oklahoma a dozen years behind, stuck in 2009, standing pat with current minimum standards, said Kelly Parker, chairman of the committee whose months of work was spurned. The committee started its work in May as part of a state-mandated code review every six years to update the state’s modified versions of various building codes. But committee members had not seen the commission’s recommendations on energy conservation until they were presented Tuesday. Commission Chairman Cary Williamson, Ardmore’s fire chief, wondered why and argued that the energy committee, effectively shut down in October, should have been allowed to do its job. Commissioner Kyle Lombardo, an architect with Rees Associates, complained that he was not given time to review the complex, technical recommendations, which will go to state lawmakers next year. The Oklahoma Uniform Building Code Commission further eroded efforts to make home construction in the state more environmentally friendly, Parker said.

Oregon

Portland: A man who was protesting outside the city’s federal courthouse when a federal law enforcement officer shot him in the face with a “less lethal” impact munition is suing in federal court. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports the lawsuit filed by Donavan LaBella calls the unnamed officer’s actions “unprovoked, unjustifiable, and unlawful.” LaBella’s injury July 11, 2020, was captured on video and shared widely. The video depicts then-26-year-old LaBella holding a speaker over his head, pointed at the courthouse. Federal officers turn on a bright light, and then an officer fires a less lethal munition striking LaBella. Like other protesters who have tried suing federal law enforcement agencies over injuries at protests for racial justice, LaBella’s attorneys have struggled to identify the officers. The lawsuit names “John Does 1-10″ as unknown federal law enforcement officers, believed to be with the U.S. Marshals Service, present or responsible for shooting LaBella. Desiree LaBella, Donavan’s mother, said the people responsible for injuring her son need to be held accountable. “As much as we wish it didn’t have to come to this, he’s irreparably damaged,” she said. He now suffers from a debilitating, permanent frontal lobe brain injury that has negatively altered the course of (his) life,” the lawsuit says.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: Frozen vials labeled “Smallpox” that were discovered in a freezer at a vaccine research facility in the state “contain no trace of virus known to cause smallpox,” federal health officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that testing showed the vials contain “vaccinia, the virus used in smallpox vaccine,” and not the variola virus, which causes smallpox. The CDC had said Monday that the vials “were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker” who was wearing gloves and a face mask while cleaning out the freezer. The CDC said no one was exposed to the contents. Mark O’Neill, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, told the New York Times that the vials were found at a Merck facility in Montgomery County. It was not clear why the vials were in the freezer. The CDC said it was “in close contact with state and local health officials, law enforcement, and the World Health Organization” about the findings. Smallpox is a deadly, infectious disease that plagued the world for centuries and killed nearly a third of the people it infected. Victims suffered scorching fever and body aches, followed by spots and blisters that would leave survivors with pitted scars.

Rhode Island

Providence: The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority is getting a $900,000 federal boost to develop plans for a high-capacity transit corridor to connect Central Falls to Warwick via Providence, according to the state’s congressional delegation. The corridor was one of five goals included in RIPTA’s Transit Master Plan for the next 20 years. The planning grant could enable RIPTA to complete the preliminary work needed to eventually bring a bus rapid transit or light rail project to the region. The $900,000 planning grant is made available through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability & Equity grant program, for capital investments in surface transportation that will have a significant impact on or directly benefit areas of persistent poverty. The state’s congressional delegation and RIPTA CEO Scott Avedisian have scheduled a news conference for Monday at the agency’s Chafee Transportation Center in Providence to discuss the study and its potential impacts.

South Carolina

Seneca: One of the most wanted fugitives in the United States apparently died about four months ago in a South Carolina home about 16 years after he was first wanted in San Diego for sexually assaulting children, investigators said. Frederick Cecil McLean, 70, died of natural causes in July, but his body wasn’t found until Nov. 6, when someone asked deputies to check on a neighbor who hadn’t been seen in a while, Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis said. McLean has been on the U.S. Marshal Service’s 15 Most Wanted list since 2006, a year after the San Diego Sheriff’s Department issued arrest warrants for sexual assaults on a child and determined he was a high risk to continue attacking girls. One girl was assaulted more than 100 times before she turned 13, marshals said in a statement. McLean had been living in South Carolina for 15 years, going by the name of James Fitzgerald, marshals said. “The discovery of Frederick McLean’s body marks an end to the manhunt, but the investigation continues,” U.S. Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said. Investigators are now trying to determine if anyone helped McLean avoid being found by police. They have determined he used several other aliases and also lived in Anderson, South Carolina, and Poughkeepsie, New York.

South Dakota

McIntosh: The work of two wildlife management agencies has resulted in the release of 28 endangered black-footed ferrets on the South Dakota side of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which straddles the Dakotas. The push behind the effort by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is twofold: to maintain control of black-tailed prairie dogs in an area of the reservation used primarily for grazing and to save from extinction the black-footed ferret, considered the most endangered mammal in the U.S. They are yellowish-buff in color and weigh 11/ 2 to 2 pounds. The forehead, muzzle and throat are white, and the feet are black. They have a black mask around the eyes that is well-defined in young ferrets. The ferrets were released Oct. 20 in prairie dog towns between McIntosh and Bullhead, said Michael Gutzmer, ecologist with New Century Environmental, the Nebraska company that provides biological services to the tribe, The Bismarck Tribune reports. Prairie dogs make up 90% of the black-footed ferrets’ diet. The ferrets live in prairie dog burrows, and each eats a prairie dog about every three days, said Seth Gutzmer, biologist on the Standing Rock project and Michael Gutzmer’s son. The ferrets were considered extinct in the wild in 1987.

Tennessee

Memphis: Friends and associates of slain rapper Young Dolph handed out Thanksgiving turkeys at a neighborhood church Friday, two days after he was gunned down in broad daylight inside his favorite bakery. Known for acts of charity in his hometown, the hip-hop artist and label owner had helped organize the event at St. James Missionary Baptist Church and was going to participate before he was fatally shot Wednesday. Undaunted, members of his music label, Paper Route Empire, along with church volunteers and community activists, distributed dozens of turkeys, stuffing mix and cranberry sauce to people driving past the church. It was the type of event Young Dolph, who grew up in the Castalia neighborhood where the church is located, has been organizing for years, often without the reporters and cameras present Friday. Before the event, volunteers spoke quietly among themselves or sat in solemn reflection as his music played outside the church on the sunny afternoon. Label employee Bee Bee Jones, 38, helped hand out the food, honoring his friend of 30 years. “When I hear his music, I just break down,” Jones said. “The truth in all of it, and where he came from, that’s what really gets to me sometimes. This is what he would want us to do right here, still keep on giving. He came from nothing, but he wanted to make sure everybody got some.”

Texas

Big Spring: A pickup truck heading the wrong way on a West Texas highway slammed into a bus carrying members of a high school band, killing three people, officials said Friday. Two students from the bus were critically injured in the late Friday afternoon crash on Interstate 20 in Big Spring, about 250 miles west of Fort Worth, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The bus from Andrews High School was headed to a football game with 25 students aboard when it was hit by the wrong-way truck, which burst into flames, killing the truck’s driver, said DPS Sgt. Justin Baker. One of the adults from the bus was also pronounced dead at the scene, he said. A third adult and two students were airlifted to University Medical Center in Lubbock, 95 miles north of the crash site. The adult died at the hospital, and the two students were listed in critical but stable condition, Baker said. Other students were taken to the Scenic Mountain Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries, he said. The football playoff game between Andrews and Springtown in Sweetwater was postponed.

Utah

Beaver County: Climate change has been making droughts more frequent and intense and limiting Utah farmers’ ability to grow crops. In the past two years, a growing number of farmers have signed up for a state program that helps fund projects to increase their water use efficiency, KUER-FM reports. Among them is Trent Brown, a longtime rancher and farmer in Beaver County who’s also the county assessor, since farming doesn’t pay all the bills. It’s a family tradition: His father and grandfather were ranchers and farmers and worked government jobs, too. Brown finished the switch from growing alfalfa to grass five years ago to save water, but it wasn’t enough to overcome this summer’s drought. Earlier this year, he used a grant from the state’s Water Optimization Program to replace the cement in a ditch that brings water from the nearby Manderfield Reservoir to him and other farmers in the valley. “The concrete ditch was put in in the ’60s, and it was just falling apart, failing,” he said. “We were losing a lot of water. We figure probably 20%.” Utah established the Water Optimization Program in 2020. It got $3 million in state funding that year and another $3 million in 2021. During the latest round, the program got 81 applications totaling $10.6 million – more than triple the money available to spend, according to the program’s director, Jay Olsen.

Vermont

Montpelier: Captain Snowpants; Yo Bro, No Snow; Plow-A-Tron 6,000; and Jennifer Snowpez are among the names that will be on some of the state’s snowplows this winter. Vermont school students participated in the state transportation department’s Name a Plow contest to come up with names for the plows serving their communities. The entries ranged from “creative and clever to cute and silly,” the agency said. Participating schools got a visit from their newly named plows last week. One child was so upset she had missed the visit from the snowplow named Super Snow Storm that the driver and plow will visit again, said Amy Tatko, spokesperson for the Vermont Agency of Transportation. The full list of the Vermont names – including Snowbegone Kenobe, Plowy McPlowFace, Brr-rito and Steve – can be found on the transportation department’s website.

Virginia

Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order Thursday aimed at improving how the state receives and evaluates input from tribal nations when making decisions about permits related to environmental, historical or cultural resources. The order directs four agencies to draft their own policies within 90 days for working with tribal nations before a permit is approved or denied. The Northam administration said this would help Virginia identify and understand concerns from tribal nations before finalizing permits, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The directive applies to the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Historic Resources, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Northam’s executive order also directs the secretary of the commonwealth to appoint an ombudsman who can work with both state agencies and tribal nations. Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin will take office a month before Northam’s deadline and could potentially cancel the executive order. The Youngkin transition team didn’t immediately respond to the Times-Dispatch’s requests for comment.

Washington

Olympia: As lawmakers prepare for a new legislative session to craft and pass a supplemental budget, they’ll have more money to work with thanks to a steady increase of state revenues over the past year. Updated numbers by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released Friday show that projected revenue collections for the 2021-2023 budget cycle are $898 million above what had been originally forecasted in September. And projections for the next two-year budget cycle that ends in mid-2025 increased by more than $965 million. Revenues for the current budget cycle that ends mid-2023 are now projected to be $60.2 billion. And projected revenues for the next two-year budget cycle that starts July 1, 2023, are projected to be about $64 billion. Steve Lerch, the chief economist and executive director of the council, said compared to the first forecast this year in March, overall revenues increased $3.6 billion for the current biennium and $4.1 billion for the next. Republican legislative members of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council said in response to the strong growth, tax cuts should be part of any final plan. Democratic budget writers said nothing is off the table but expressed caution.

West Virginia

Bramwell: A 128-year-old church collapsed suddenly in the middle of the night Thursday, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. Bramwell’s historic Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, which has stood since 1893, caved in about midnight, Mayor Louise Stoker told the paper. The church’s original congregation included many of the town’s first residents, Stoker said. The Independent Bible Church later occupied the building before donating it to the town, which had been planning to conserve the historic structure. “I’ve been in dialogue with a preservation contractor,” Stoker said. “This week, in fact, we had sent him photos.” Workers clearing the debris noted things that could be saved such as large wooden beams and the old church bell. Some of the church’s Queen Anne-style stained glass windows were also mostly intact. Stoker said the town council will discuss what to do next, but it’s possible that a portion of the building that didn’t collapse will have to be taken down. Standing outside the church Friday, she pointed out six circular stained glass windows in the remaining structure. “Not one of them has a broken piece,” she remarked.

Wisconsin

Milwaukee: As the state kicked off its 170th deer gun season Saturday, some hunters were feeling ill-equipped for the second straight year. A nationwide ammunition shortage due to the supply chain issues affecting other products has left hunters searching far and wide for ammo in the first place and then shelling out more money if they do find it. Randy and Tiffani Rogness, who own Paddock Lake Sporting Goods in Salem, had empty ammunition shelves Friday. When a new supply is delivered, it lasts two to three hours, even with a one-box limit per customer, they said. “We search everywhere. We’ve ordered so much, and it’s just not coming in,” Tiffani Rogness said. One of the nation’s biggest ammunition manufacturers, Vista Outdoor in Anoka, Minnesota, said it’s “ramping production ahead of schedule at its Remington facility to meet unprecedented demand.” The price of almost any caliber ammunition is double what it was a year ago. Manufacturers say the pandemic created new gun buyers, along with more hunters looking for something to do outside, WISN-TV reports. More than 570,000 deer hunters from around the world are expected to try their luck in this year’s nine-day season, Department of Natural Resources officials said. Wisconsin has more than 7 million acres of land open for hunting.

Wyoming

Gillette: For the past four months, people have been protesting the presence of sexual education and LGBTQ books in the children’s and teen sections of the Campbell County Public Library. The movement, part of a national trend, is being led by the Wyoming chapter of MassResistance, a national group headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, that prides itself on “pro-family activism.” The local chapter was formed in July. Since then, the group has worked to get its message out to the community that the library is actively corrupting the youth with its books, the Gillette News Record reports. “It’s been hard on the library staff,” said library director Terri Lesley. “It’s been a long time, and I’m very proud of them for how well they’re doing, how well they’re holding up. It’s not easy to be in the middle of a big controversy.” MassResistance’s goal is to protect “the traditional family, school children, and the moral foundation of society.” It believes in marriage between a man and a woman and that people are not born homosexual. Library board member Charlie Anderson said he’s been called names, and Lesley said she and some of her staff have received angry emails and letters, some from out of state. Lesley said she’s also received a lot of support, which has helped balance out the calls for her resignation.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Deepening droughts, Saharan dust: News from around our 50 states

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Alabama

Montgomery: Money from a legal settlement will be used to provide funding to add charging stations for electric vehicles at 18 sites in seven Alabama counties. The governor’s office says grants totaling $4.1 million will help fund installing of chargers at fueling stations near interstates and other major highways. The money will provide as much as 80% of the cost of installing stations at existing sites in Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Calhoun, Cullman, DeKalb, Greene and St. Clair counties. Many of the chargers will be along Interstate 20 from the Georgia line to Tuscaloosa. The money is from a settlement involving Volkswagen and the Environmental Protection Agency over the automaker’s violation of the federal Clean Air Act. In a statement, Gov. Kay Ivey said the grants will help with state move toward electric vehicles. Auto plants located in the state already have started the transition toward vehicles powered by electricity, she said. “This program will have a range of positive impacts in Alabama from creating cleaner air to helping to sell more vehicles manufactured right here in Alabama,” said Kenneth Boswell, director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, which will administer the grants.

Alaska

Juneau: The state House late Tuesday passed a state budget that would result in a $525 dividend to residents this year and leave in doubt funding for a number of programs and infrastructure projects after it failed to garner sufficient support on a key vote. House leaders left open the potential for continued talks or even possibly another vote as the special session neared its end. Special sessions can last up to 30 days. That limit would be reached Friday. “We’re gonna look for a resolution that we can all live with and be happy with, and the people of Alaska will be very grateful to us,” said House Speaker Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak. “My hope is that the talks don’t stop,” House Minority Leader Cathy Tilton told reporters after the floor session, adding later: “I would hope that we would come together and have serious conversations, where all voices are being heard.” Dividends typically have been paid using earnings from the state’s oil-wealth fund. But the budget agreement that advanced from a six-member conference committee Sunday cobbled together money for dividends of about $1,100 from various sources, including the constitutional budget reserve fund that requires three-fourths support in each the House and Senate to tap. That vote failed Tuesday night in the House. The last time the check was in the $500 range was in 1986.

Arizona

Phoenix: Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday blocked a new Arizona State University policy that would have required unvaccinated students to submit to twice-weekly coronavirus testing and wear a mask, calling the decision “bad policy.” The Republican governor issued an executive order saying students at the state’s public universities and community colleges can’t be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine, submit vaccination documents, or be tested or forced to wear masks. ASU and the Board of Regents said they would comply with Ducey’s order. An ASU statement noted that it never issued a vaccine mandate but was following guidelines for universities from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by ensuring unvaccinated people continue to follow protocols like masking. Ducey’s order came after he criticized the policy in a series of tweets Monday night. He said that the rules for students attending class in person this fall have “no basis in public health” and that even the Biden administration has been more reasonable. But the governor also included a screenshot of a quote from the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, that appeared to contradict his own position. “It is the people who are not fully vaccinated in those settings, who might not be wearing a mask, who are not protected,” Walensky is quoted as saying.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday asked a federal judge to prevent the state from enforcing its ban on gender-confirming treatments for transgender youth while a lawsuit challenging the prohibition proceeds. The ACLU requested a preliminary injunction against the new law, which is set to take effect July 28. It will prohibit doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the ban last month on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, as well as two doctors who provide the treatments. The ban is forcing some families of transgender youth to move out of state to continue their children’s treatments, if they can afford to do so, the filing contends. “The threat of harm to plaintiffs is concrete, imminent, and devastating, and far outweighs any conceivable cost to the state of maintaining the status quo while this case proceeds,” the filing says. Republican lawmakers enacted the ban in April, overriding a veto by GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson following pleas from pediatricians, social workers and the parents of transgender youth who said the measure would harm a community already at risk for depression and suicide.

California

Sacramento: Thousands of Central California farmers were warned Tuesday that they could face water cutoffs this summer as the state deals with a drought that already has curtailed federal and state irrigation supplies. The State Water Resources Control Board notified about 6,600 farmers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed who have rights to use water from the Central Valley estuary of “impending water unavailability” that may continue until winter rains come. “This is how dry things are,” water board Chairman Joaquin Esquivel told the Sacramento Bee. “The hydrology that we’re seeing is not there. … There will not be enough natural flow.” The state also must provide enough flow in the rivers to maintain populations of protected fish species in rivers while keeping “cities and communities from running out of water,” Esquivel said. It’s unclear when the allocations will be cut or whom it will affect. Some farmers have first crack at supplies under a complicated distribution system involving rights-holders. Many farmers already have been told they will get little or nothing from two large allocation systems, the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. “The 2021 water year for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin is currently the driest since 1977,” the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has warned.

Colorado

Denver: Gov. Jared Polis said he will begin phasing out the executive authority he has been granted during the coronavirus pandemic after creating, amending and extending about 400 orders since March 2020. The Democrat told The Denver Post that he’s now ready to let go of his unprecedented authority. “The pandemic still exists,” he said, but “our hospital capacity is no longer threatened. We have 60% of the population vaccinated. So at this point, we would go to kind of regular order, which means the Legislature passes laws, I can sign laws, and you can see the phaseout of those executive powers over time.” Polis has continued to exert his executive authority through multiple emergency mandates, enacting 17 orders in March, 13 in April, 10 in May and six so far this month. “In general, the time for these emergency actions is over, or near over. I believe in a republic, and I believe in three branches of government,” Polis said. “It’s not the role of the governor to do that long-term. It’s the role of the governor to react in an emergency.” Polis’ promise to phase out his powers was well-received news among Republican state officials who have worked for months to remove his additional authority. Republican state Sen. Paul Lundeen said he will believe it when he sees it.

Connecticut

Hartford: The state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation for the second time in about a week that legalizes the recreational use of cannabis for adults. But Gov. Ned Lamont is threatening to veto the retooled bill, arguing it opens the industry up to tens of thousands of people previously ineligible to get priority for licenses. Shortly before the bill cleared the Senate on a 19-12 vote, Paul Mounds, the Democratic governor’s chief of staff, issued a statement promising Lamont would nix the bill in its current form. The House was scheduled to take up the same legislation Wednesday, but it was unclear what would happen given the veto threat. The legislation “simply put, does not meet the goals laid out during negotiations when it comes to equity and ensuring the wrongs of the past are righted,” Mounds said in a statement. “To the contrary, this proposal opens the floodgates for tens of thousands of previously ineligible applicants to enter the adult-use cannabis industry.” He said the bill, which was amended twice Tuesday, allows “just about anyone with a history of cannabis crimes” or a member of their family, regardless of their financial means, who was once arrested for possession of drugs to be considered an “equity applicant,” given the same weight as someone from a neighborhood hit hard by the war on drugs.

Delaware

Wilmington: Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that would bar police from releasing juvenile mug shots for minor crimes. House Bill 243 by Rep. Franklin Cooke, D-New Castle, would apply to booking photos of children 17 or younger. According to the bill, mug shots could still be published if the juvenile is charged with a violent felony and if the mug shot is necessary to protect the public’s safety. The Delaware Police Chiefs Council, which represents all police departments in the state, supports the bill, according to its chair, Patrick Ogden. Jamie Leonard, president of the Delaware Fraternal Order of Police, the officers’ union, said his organization has yet to take a stance on the bill. In a Statehouse where several lawmakers in both parties – including sponsor Cooke – are retired officers or affiliated with police, proposed changes to policing laws historically need support from the police themselves. Cooke has argued that, because information such as mug shots lives forever on the internet, teenage mistakes come back to haunt people in adulthood. “I think everyone can agree that in the vast majority of circumstances, there’s no benefit to publishing juvenile mug shots – only damage to young people,” Cooke said. “I’m committed to getting this bill passed this year and ending this practice.”

District of Columbia

Washington: With all capacity limits and restrictions lifted in the district, plans for Fourth of July celebrations are back in full swing. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will host essential workers and military families on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s birthday, WUSA-TV reports. “D.C. is open and ready to welcome back visitors to celebrate the way we came together as a city and as a nation this year,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We have shown once again that when we come together, there is nothing we can’t do.” With the nation inching closer to Biden’s vaccination goal, the country is gearing up for an Independence Day celebration like no other. “We thank President Biden and his team for acting with urgency to get the vaccine to the American people so that we could save lives, get our country open and celebrate together once again,” Bowser said. The district will support the White House and host the annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration on the National Mall. The 17-minute display will be held Sunday, July 4, starting at 9:09 p.m. and will be launched from both sides of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The city also plans to celebrate the return of the Barracks Row and Palisades 4th of July Parades.

Florida

Tallahassee: Sunsets across the state in the coming days could become even more spectacular, as clouds of dust from the Sahara desert sweep in across the Atlantic coast. The plume is expected to dampen storm activity but worsen air pollution, causing trouble for some people with allergies and other respiratory problems. Some health experts say symptoms could mimic those from COVID-19. NASA is monitoring the dust, which was swept off Africa by strong winds swirling across the deserts of Mali and Mauritania. Trade winds are carrying the plume across the ocean, with the leading edge expected to arrive in Florida in the coming days. “It’s going to be a major dust outbreak,” Joseph Prospero, professor emeritus at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Prospero pioneered research into African dust clouds. Dry winds carrying the particles could help smother storm systems by drying out the humid tropical air that feeds turbulent weather across a well-traveled route for hurricanes, experts said. “It’s been moving across the Atlantic for the past several days, and it’s expected to be in the area around Friday or Saturday,” Sammy Hadi, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami, told the paper.

Georgia

Trenton: A nursing home director in northwestern Georgia was charged with cruelty after a sheriff said authorities discovered the facility didn’t have working air conditioning and had only one staff member looking after residents. Dade County deputies arrested Kent Allen Womack on Monday night, news outlets report. The 55-year-old was in custody at the county jail, and Sheriff Ray Cross said more charges were pending. Authorities reported to Woodhaven Senior Living in Trenton after receiving a call from a family member about the residents, from 61 to 97 years old, being evicted and having an hour to pack their belongings. Deputies who went to the nursing home learned one staff member – who wasn’t a trained nurse – had been watching the residents for 32 hours straight, according to news outlets. Every other employee quit because of the conditions. It was also discovered that the air conditioning in the building only worked near Womack’s office. “We checked the temperature in one of the air units in there, and it registered over 100 degrees,” Cross said Tuesday. The sheriff said Womack smelled of alcohol when he arrived at the facility. Cross asked if he had been drinking, and the nursing home owner responded: “I didn’t drive here.” Authorities found two small bottles of alcohol in Womack’s pocket, Cross said.

Hawaii

Hilo: Eleven inmates at a state jail have asked a judge to release them early for public health reasons amid a COVID-19 outbreak. Hilo Circuit Judge Peter Kubota granted five of the motions but denied or postponed the rest, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Most of the cases he denied were for offenders who had repeatedly violated probation in the past. As of Friday, nearly 200 inmates at the Hawaii Community Correctional Center had tested positive for the coronavirus since May 24. There were seven active cases among staff. The outbreak occurred as the jail struggled with overcrowding. The jail population exceeds operational capacity by more than 100 inmates. Deputy Public Defender Patrick Munoz, who represents some of the people asking to be released early, said the increasingly intolerable conditions at the jail represent an undue hardship for inmates. “Not only are individuals being exposed to the effects of this potentially life-threatening and long-lasting virus, but there’s also the effects on people being in an overcrowded prison afraid for their lives,” he said. “It’s like they’re on a sinking ship. Fear is overcoming them;people are beginning to panic.”

Idaho

Boise: Unemployed residents could get kicked out of a state benefits program if they don’t follow new job-seeking requirements that went into effect this month. People receiving unemployment benefits now have two business days to apply for a job opening after receiving a referral from the Idaho Department of Labor, the Idaho Statesman reports. If they don’t, they could lose their unemployment benefits. “Once a job is referred, the claimant must apply for the job or act on that referral,” Idaho Department of Labor director Jani Revier said. “In the past, when referrals were made, there were no consequences if they didn’t follow up.” State workforce consultants will check with the potential employer to verify that the person applied for the referred job. Previously, the labor department didn’t track whether people followed up on referrals. In March, there were 1.4 available jobs for every unemployed Idaho resident, Revier said. Property values and housing costs have climbed dramatically across much of the state in recent years, particularly during the pandemic. Idaho’s minimum wage of $7.25, meanwhile, hasn’t increased since 2009. A full-time minimum-wage worker would earn about $1,250 a month before taxes. Online rental agency ApartmentList.com says median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Boise is just over $900.

Illinois

Chicago: A nonprofit formed to highlight the lack of leaders of color within the city’s arts and cultural systems is asking artists of color to imagine what the nation’s third-largest city could look like without stubborn inequities in art, theater and other institutions. The first phase of Enrich Chicago’s new program, called Imagine Just, begins this month. The series of brainstorming sessions will ask artists, performers and other Chicagoans to imagine what an equitable arts and cultural scene could look like. Nina Sanchez, co-director of Enrich Chicago, sees the project as an expansion of the organization’s focus on anti-racism training and education within Chicago’s arts and cultural community. The organization was founded in 2014 by former leaders of the influential Joyce Foundation and the Auditorium Theatre. It now counts more than 50 arts and cultural organizations as partners. But the coronavirus pandemic and widespread activism during the past year in response to George Floyd’s death highlighted stubborn inequities in all aspects of life, prompting conversations about what else the organization could do to force change in Chicago’s arts and culture community, Sanchez said. Imagine Just is the result, attempting to amplify the voices of artists of color and reach leaders of local institutions that can feel out of reach, she said.

Indiana

Indianapolis: Several teachers unions are seeking to block a new state law, set to take effect next month, that they say unfairly targets teachers and makes it harder for unions to collect dues. The unions representing Anderson, Avon and Martinsville school districts and the teachers that lead them filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Indiana’s federal Southern District court challenging Senate Enrolled Act 251. The law, which will go into effect July 1, sets out a new process for the collection of teachers union dues, requiring teachers to annually complete a three-step process to have union dues deducted from their paychecks. Jeff Macey, the attorney representing the teachers and their unions, said no other union or organization that allows for wage deductions is required to follow the same process. The law violates the constitutional rights of teachers, he said. “Why are teachers being singled out for these onerous restrictions?” Macey said. “No other union, no other charity, no other organization in the state has to do this to assign a portion of your wages to (them).” The lawsuit names Attorney General Todd Rokita, Secretary of Education Katie Jenner and Tammy Meyer, chair of the Indiana Education Employment Relations Board, as defendants.

Iowa

Lake City: A fire destroyed an internationally renowned western Iowa business that makes pipe organs for churches, schools and other customers around the world. The fire at Dobson Pipe Organ Builders in Lake City was reported about 4 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. Firefighters who arrived on the scene found the building engulfed in flames, which caused the building’s exterior walls to collapse. One employee of the company was burned when he discovered the fire and tried to put out the flames, according to authorities. The State Fire Marshal’s Office said it believes the fire was started by a malfunctioning fan that caused sawdust to ignite. Dobson Pipe Organ Builders was founded in 1974 by Lynn Dobson, a Carroll native who attended Wayne State College in Nebraska, according to the business’ website. During his years at the college, he built his first 12-top mechanical action organ in a shed on his family’s farm that he sold to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux City, where it is still played. Dobson opened the Lake City factory in a former farm implement dealership on the town’s square in 1974. The company installed its 98th organ this year at St. Christopher’s Church in Chatham, Massachusetts, according to its website, and planned its 99th for Saint James Church in Sydney, Australia.

Kansas

Topeka: The Kansas Statehouse, often dubbed the people’s house, was missing one thing for the past year: the people. Lobbyists and staff joined elected legislators in the building for the January session, but pandemic-related limits on visitors meant no school groups, curious tourists or children standing in front of John Steuart Curry’s epic painting “Tragic Prelude,” a history book textbook brought to life before their very eyes. That changed Monday, when the Statehouse once again resumed tours, bringing a sense of normalcy back to downtown Topeka as a trickle of visitors to the seat of state government turned into a waterfall. Only one person showed up for a 9 a.m. tour, leaving staff wondering how many onlookers would show throughout the day. But almost two dozen visitors came for a tour two hours later – numbers that would have been above average even before COVID-19. Not everything is fully back to normal, though. Tours to the top of the Statehouse dome have yet to resume, with staff hoping to have them back up and running later this summer. And the four-times-a-day tours require juggling for workers, with many part-time guides still laid off.

Kentucky

Louisville: A 25-foot-tall nest is being pieced together on a massive scale at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, already home to a family of giant wooden trolls. Artist Jayson Fann is constructing his “Spirit Nest” creation as part of a new “Playcosystem,” a new 10-acre natural playground that stresses the importance of free play and connecting children with nature. The enormous nest’s spiraling branches resemble a prehistoric bird’s nest or a massive clock face to be ogled, climbed on and enjoyed. Fann is working on 12 Spirit Nests this year, with the pandemic slowing his output in 2020. An amphitheater made from salvaged forest wood will encompass the Bernheim nest, providing a place to educate and entertain visitors in the forest. A large drum made from the hollowed stump of a fallen maple tree will sit in the center of the nest. A percussionist himself, Fann’s goal is for the project to be a link to the Indigenous people and African Americans who have a history with the land at Bernheim. It is a nest for all people. “That’s what the nests are. They are storytelling spaces, to bring people together, in the spirit of community. Imagine a full moon and kids are here; maybe there is a campfire, and you’ve got people from different cultures sharing their life story, connecting and healing. That’s a space I want to hang out in,” he said.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: The state has created a framework for self-driving delivery robots to drop off packages and navigate streets, under a bill backed by lawmakers and Gov. John Bel Edwards. The new personal delivery device law sponsored by state Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, took effect immediately after the Democratic governor signed the legislation. Grocery stores, pizza delivery restaurants and Amazon have started working on delivering items with self-driving robots. Ward told his colleagues he envisioned pharmacies, restaurants or other stores near local neighborhoods possibly using the devices to make short-distance deliveries. “Your constituents would be able to place an order for any number of things, and that personal delivery device would be able to pick that up from a store location and go throughout the neighborhood and deliver it along the way,” Ward told the House transportation committee when it debated and approved the measure. Under the new law, self-driving delivery robots must run at low speeds – up to 12 miles per hour in pedestrian areas and up to 20 mph in others. They must yield to pedestrians and can’t obstruct traffic or transport hazardous materials. Companies using the delivery vehicles must have lights on the front and rear of each device and maintain at least $100,000 of insurance on each one.

Maine

Augusta: A proposed constitutional amendment to require popular elections for Maine’s attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer has fallen short in the state House. A two-thirds majority is required in both chambers to send the proposed amendment to the voters for approval. The bill won 27-7 support on Monday in the Senate, which approved an amendment to ensure the use of ranked-choice voting. But the House, which previously narrowly approved the measure, rejected the amended version by an 81-62 vote Tuesday, the Bangor Daily News reports. Maine is among a handful of states that do not hold statewide general elections for so-called constitutional officers. The positions are chosen by the Legislature and typically are filled by the party in power. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage called for a similar change in 2015, when he was involved in a political dispute with then-Attorney General Janet Mills. But Republican support eroded with the ranked-choice voting provision. Republicans have decried the voting system since GOP U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin lost his reelection to Democrat Jared Golden despite winning the plurality of first-place votes. Golden was declared the majority winner after an additional voting round in the three-way race.

Maryland

Ocean City: Videos showing police officers kneeing one Black teen and using a Taser on another on the beach community’s Boardwalk in separate confrontations that began over vaping are stirring criticism of the department’s use of force in such cases. On June 6, officers tried to stop a teen because he was vaping, police said in a statement. When he pulled away from an officer grabbing him in a “bear hug” and began threatening to kill them, an officer used a Taser, according to charging documents. Video of the encounter shows the teen with his hands up, but as one hand drops toward his backpack, an officer fires a Taser, and he falls to the ground. Other videos show the teen being carried away by officers with his hands and feet tied. Court documents state that the 18-year-old from Perryville teen is Black. A video of another Boardwalk confrontation Saturday shows another Black teen being held by several officers while another knees him repeatedly as a dozen officers and public safety aides hold back an angry crowd. One teen is taken into custody after lifting one of several police bicycles encircling the officers, and another is Tased as he struggles with officers. That confrontation began after officers approached a large group of people vaping to tell them it was prohibited, then returning when they saw one begin to vape again, police said.

Massachusetts

Boston: A company that authorities say failed to deliver on a contract to supply 1 million N95 face masks to the state and then made false statements in connection with its obligation to refund the state has agreed to pay nearly $3.5 million to settle the allegations, the state attorney general’s office said Wednesday. The company, Salem-based Bedrock Group LLC, signed a $3.6 million contract with the state in April 2020 in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic to supply the masks, essential for health care workers, according to a statement from authorities. The state made the purchase after it was contacted by the company’s president with an offer to supply the masks, which the president said would come from a reputable manufacturer in China. The masks were supposed to be shipped to the state in mid-April 2020, but the order was terminated in June after fewer than 100,000 of the masks were delivered. Bedrock repeatedly acknowledged its obligation to refund the state but failed to do so, according to the attorney general’s office. “This company tried to take advantage of the state by holding onto millions of taxpayer dollars it owed for masks that it never delivered,” Attorney General Maura Healey said. In addition to repaying the money, Bedrock is not allowed to seek another state contract for five years.

Michigan

Lansing: A school district that never returned to classrooms in the 2020-21 academic year will embrace online education again in the fall and open it to more students. Lansing said it will keep online classes as an option and invite families from other mid-Michigan districts to participate. The district also plans to open schools in a traditional way as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. “We had a number of students who were doing very well” online, said Superintendent Sam Sinicropi. “So we decided to explore what it would look like to offer a virtual option.” The district expects to enroll up to 600 students and hire 15 new teachers, who will teach solely online. Students will be allowed to participate in sports and other activities at Lansing schools. “There are some families that prefer this, and hopefully this will be the answer for them,” Sinicropi said. The capital city’s district has more than 10,000 students.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: A bankruptcy trustee’s search to recover assets linked to one of the largest financial crimes in state history has netted $722 million. Doug Kelley said his work to collect assets from Tom Petters’ $1.9 billion Ponzi scheme is nearly done 13 years after the search began. A motion filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis last week shows the amount recovered and returned to victims and creditors, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel here,” Kelley said. “It has been a long and arduous process that was at times bumpy, but I am quite pleased with the collective return of $722 million.” Petters, now 63, was indicted in 2008 on multiple counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy for operating the scheme that spanned 26 countries, including the the Cayman Islands, Germany and Switzerland. A federal jury found him guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. He is currently an inmate at the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. Kelley said just four or five cases remain, including one filed against the Bank of Montreal in Canada.

Mississippi

Booneville: Friends, family and former colleagues gathered in the city Monday to remember former Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy and unveil a sign that names a segment of a highway in his honor. McCoy was 77 when he died in 2019. The farmer from Rienzi was a self-described Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal Democrat who was first elected to the state House in 1979. McCoy was speaker during his final two terms, ending in 2012. McCoy – known for down-home turns of phrase and the occasional flash of temper – was instrumental in passing the 1987 Highway Program that led to construction of hundreds of miles of four-lane roads across Mississippi, including in rural areas struggling for economic development. Legislators in 2020 passed a bill naming segments of highways, including the stretch of U.S. 45 in Prentiss and Alcorn counties, in honor of McCoy. Both counties were in his House district. Democrat Steve Holland of Plantersville, who served in the House from 1984 to 2020, said McCoy would pick him up in an old blue Oldsmobile, and they’d ride the backroads of Mississippi together, stopping at country stores to see what was on people’s minds. “I don’t need a sign to remember him,” Holland said. “But, my goodness, what a wonderful way because the guy loved the roads. He loved riding them, and he loved seeing people.”

Missouri

St. Louis: Two of the area’s largest employers have announced they will require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by fall. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports BJC HealthCare and Washington University both announced the requirements Tuesday. The decision comes at a time when demand for vaccines is waning in Missouri, a state that already lags the national average with its COVID-19 immunization rate. The St. Louis region’s three other major health systems – SSM Health, Mercy and St. Luke’s Hospital – have not issued vaccine requirements but said they were discussing the issue. Missouri Hospital Association President and CEO Herb Kuhn said hospitals across the state have “seen COVID-19’s devastation in lives and health lost,” and many are evaluating vaccine requirements. Washington University will require all faculty, staff and trainees to be vaccinated by Aug. 30. BJC will require employees to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 15.

Montana

Helena: The state Department of Corrections will pay $250,000 to settle claims from a guard who claimed he was retaliated against after reporting rape allegations at Montana Women’s Prison. Daniel Root claimed he was passed over twice for a promotion after reporting in 2017 allegations of his supervisor’s sexual misconduct with inmates. The results of an investigation into the claims have not been released, but the lieutenant accused of having sex with an inmate resigned in 2019, the Montana State News Bureau reports. Root said in court filings that he was told filing lawsuits and talking to the press about issues of public concern reflected negatively on his chances for promotion. He resigned under the terms of the agreement. His attorney told the Montana State News Bureau that Root wanted to put the case behind him. Attorney Kevin Brown said he hopes the case will spur other corrections employees to step forward and report violations of rape reporting requirements. The Department of Corrections settled a separate retaliation claim from an agency employee earlier this year, also for $250,000. In that case, a former corrections employee said he faced discrimination and retaliation in 2016 for his post-traumatic stress disorder while working at the men’s state prison near Deer Lodge.

Nebraska

South Sioux City: The City Council has approved a payment of $500,000 to settle its part in 16 lawsuits filed against the city and a now-defunct biogas plant by homeowners who accused the plant of sending rancid fumes through the city sewer system and ruining their homes. The settlement calls for the city, Big Ox Energy, three insurance companies and two other companies to pay a combined $1.75 million, which will be divided among the homeowners. The City Council approved South Sioux City’s portion Monday, the Sioux City Journal reports. Big Ox began operations in September 2016, separating solids from industry wastewater to create methane. The plant sold the methane and injected it into a nearby natural gas pipeline. Big Ox was subject to odor complaints soon after it began operations and was cited for numerous environmental violations until it shut down in 2019. Neither South Sioux City nor Big Ox, which have both denied the homeowners’ claims, admit liability in the settlement. After the complaints and lawsuit, Big Ox in turn sued two other companies. The first was former soybean processor CHS Inc., which it said illegally released acidic wastewater into the sewer system. The second was Olsson Inc., an engineering firm Big Ox said recommended wastewater from its plant be routed through a sewer main.

Nevada

Reno: A battery recycling company founded by a former executive at Tesla Inc. broke ground on 100 acres of land at an industrial park near the city as part of its expansion plan. Redwood Materials, founded in Nevada in 2017, is expecting its operations to continue growing with a boost in used battery packs from older electric vehicles. As a result, the company plans to expand its facilities and increase its workforce from just over 100 employees to more than 600 in the next couple of years. In addition to the acquisition at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, the company is also undertaking a major project in Carson City to expand its 150,000-square-foot facility to 550,000 square feet within the next two years. “We’ve been on the quiet side because we prefer to make progress and get things done,” Redwood Materials CEO JB Straubel said. “We felt it was time to connect a bit more with the local community and help raise awareness for hiring and make sure people realize this is a worthy and unique opportunity here as well.” Straubel is known for helping launch Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer that has been operating out of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center for nearly seven years. Tesla works with Panasonic to create battery packs from various components. Redwood Materials, Straubel’s new venture, does the reverse.

New Hampshire

Concord: Budget negotiators in the state House on Tuesday went along with the Senate version of a provision that would prohibit teaching schoolchildren or public employees that one race is superior to another or that one inherently discriminates against another. The House had included language in its budget defining numerous “divisive concepts” that would be banned from being taught in schools or by public employers during diversity and inclusion training. The Senate overhauled the language in the face of opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu, framing it as an anti-discrimination measure that would not prohibit discussions about history or current events. But opponents have argued it still would limit First Amendment rights by banning discussions about important topics including racism and sexism. Rep. Lynne Ober, R-Hudson, who is leading the committee hashing out a compromise on the budget, said Tuesday that the House acceded to the Senate’s language. There was no debate. Work continued on the larger bill Wednesday.

New Jersey

Atlantic City: State lawmakers are considering a bill that would fast-track offshore wind energy projects by removing the ability of local governments to control power lines and other onshore components. The bill, introduced last week and advanced Tuesday, would give wind energy projects approved by the state Board of Public Utilities authority to locate, build, use and maintain wires and associated land-based infrastructure as long as they run underground on public property including streets, though the BPU could determine that some above-ground wires are necessary. It appears to be an effort to head off any local objections to at least one wind power project envisioned to come ashore at two former power plants and run cables under two of the state’s most popular beaches. At a virtual public hearing in April on the Ocean Wind project planned by Orsted, the Danish wind energy developer, and PSEG, a New Jersey utility company, officials revealed that the project would connect to the electric grid at decommissioned power plants in Ocean and Cape May Counties. The northern connection would be at the former Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township; the southern connection would be at the former B.L. England plant in Upper Township.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Democrat-backed efforts to expand voter access in the state are coming to fruition, with the rollout of same-day voter registration this month. The first trial run took place in a low-turnout special congressional election June 1, allowing voters to register at early voting centers in the final weeks of balloting and Election Day. In all, 2,012 residents took advantage of the opportunity to register during the final four weeks of the election, according to the New Mexico secretary of state’s office. Late-registering voters flocked primarily to the Democratic Party, accounting for about 53% of those registrations – and 50% of those on Election Day itself. About 32% of the later registrations aligned with the Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat, won the June 1 election with 60% of the vote to fill the 1st Congressional District seat held previously by Deb Haaland. Same-day registration is likely to be an option in future New Mexico elections, but it requires approval every two years by a panel of voting systems regulators. Approval is pending for the November local election to pick mayors in cities including Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

New York

New York: A former Shake Shack manager has filed a lawsuit against the Detectives’ Endowment Association, the Police Benevolent Association, and about 20 unnamed New York Police Department officers accusing them of false arrest and defamation. Marcus Gilliam and other employees were accused by officers of serving them poisoned milkshakes last June. In a lawsuit filed Monday, Gilliam said the subsequent interrogation caused him “emotional and psychological damages and damage to his reputation.” Three officers complained that their shakes made them sick and had a bitter and unusual taste. Two hours later, 20 officers approached the establishment and began to treat the store as a crime scene, The New York Times reports. As the investigation unfolded, police unions announced on Twitter that officers were intentionally attacked. “Tonight, three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned by one or more workers at the Shake Shack,” the detectives’ union tweeted. The Police Benevolent Association made a similar post later alleging that the drinks were intentionally spiked with “a toxic substance, believed to be bleach or a similar cleaning agent.” Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s chief of detectives at the time and now chief of the department, eventually tweeted that the investigation found “no criminality” by the employees.

North Carolina

Raleigh: The state’s ban on most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy must remain unenforceable, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, rejecting arguments that the law should be left intact because prosecutors aren’t going after doctors who violate it. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, upheld a 2019 lower-court decision striking down the prohibition, which has been on the books since 1973. The Republican-dominated Legislature in 2015 narrowed the scope of medical emergencies under which a woman would be exempt from the 20-week limit. That meant more abortions involving unviable fetuses could be considered criminal, raising the fear for abortion providers that they could face prosecution. A U.S. District Court judge in 2019 agreed and blocked the law’s enforcement in situations where the fetus would be considered not viable. State government lawyers representing some district attorneys and state health officials who were sued have argued the abortion providers lack legal standing to challenge the law. Their arguments for the law’s reinstatement are based on the fact that North Carolina has not charged any abortion providers under a pair of laws being challenged and that prosecutors currently have no plans to do so.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The number of wildfires this year in the state has increased significantly, officials say, citing extremely dry conditions. Data collected by the North Dakota Forest Service and the state Department of Emergency Services shows nearly 1,400 fires have consumed about 156 square miles since the beginning of the year. Last year, about 921 fires burned approximately 18 square miles. North Dakota has experienced some of the driest winter and spring months this year. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows more than two-thirds of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought. State Forester Tom Claeys said limited moisture along with warm temperatures have increased the intensity and size of wildfires this year. “This year, it’s imperative that we all know how to mitigate against wildfires, especially as we make plans to enjoy the summer months by recreating outside with friends and family,” Claeys said. “With Independence Day right around the corner, we need to raise awareness now to reduce wildfire risk. We all can do our part to practice fire safety and protect property and lives.” Tribal, state and federal agencies responded to two large wildfires April 30 through May 2. The Roosevelt Creek Fire in the Little Missouri National Grassland and one on the Fort Berthold Reservation have each burned about 15 square miles or more.

Ohio

Columbus: Republican former Speaker Larry Householder was expelled from the state House in a vote Wednesday following his indictment in an alleged $60 million federal bribery probe – only the second time the Legislature has pushed out a member and the first time in 150 years. The Republican-led House voted 75-21 to remove Householder, of Perry County, approving a resolution that said he was not suited for office because of the indictment. The full House voted after lawmakers forced the measure to the floor instead of waiting for the expulsion resolution to work through the committee process. Reps. Brian Stewart and Mark Frazier, both Republicans representing districts that border Householder’s, encouraged their colleagues to “do the right thing” and vote to expel. “This has been a distraction. This has been a stain on the institution, and it is time for us to come together as one body,” Frazier said, adding that “this institution is greater than any one man.” Householder and four associates were arrested in July in an investigation connected to legislation containing a ratepayer-funded bailout of two Ohio nuclear power plants. The $1 billion rescue would have added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: A 24-member joint committee of state House and Senate members has been selected to consider proposals for Oklahoma’s share of funds from the latest federal coronavirus relief legislation. House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, both Republicans, announced the committee Wednesday. “This is an opportunity to address needs exposed by the pandemic and support economic recovery without growing state government’s financial obligations,” McCall said. Treat said the one-time funds provide “the opportunity to further strengthen Oklahoma’s position through targeted investments in projects across the state.” Gov. Kevin Stitt said the money can be used to improve the state’s infrastructure and workforce, as well as the health of residents. The state is to receive about $1.9 billion of the total $1.9 trillion in federal funds approved by Congress in March. The bill, among President Joe Biden’s top priorities in addressing the coronavirus pandemic and economic crises, was unanimously opposed by Republicans in Congress. The Oklahoma committee will be co-chaired by Sen. Roger Thompson and Rep. Kevin Wallace, both Republicans.

Oregon

Portland: Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill passed by the Legislature legalizing human composting. The measure signed Tuesday will legalize what’s also known as natural organic reduction, KOIN-TV reports. It also clarifies rules surrounding alkaline hydrolysis, known as aqua cremation. The law goes into effect July 1, 2022. Rep. Pam Marsh, from in Southern Jackson County, who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Brian Clem, said she decided to sponsor the bill because her constituents are interested in alternative after-death options. “My colleagues could see as well that in addition to providing families with a choice, it also is a business opportunity,” she said. Elizabeth Fournier, owner of Cornerstone Funeral Services in Boring, Oregon, and author of a green burial guidebook, provides “green” and eco-friendly after-death services and has given clients the option of natural organic reduction since it was legalized in Washington state in 2020. Fournier takes bodies to Herland Forest in Wahkiacus, Washington. It’s a natural burial cemetery about 100 miles east of Portland. In 2020, Fournier witnessed her first natural organic reduction and said seeing the process for herself made her more comfortable in talking to her clients about that option.

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh: A western Pennsylvania judge will mediate a dispute over a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus in a city park. Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay declared an impasse in the dispute between the city of Pittsburgh and the Italian Sons and Daughters of America over the Columbus statue in Schenley Park, the Tribune-Review reports. McVay issued an order last week instructing the parties to identify who will participate from each side during the mediation. City crews last fall covered the 13-foot statue, which was erected in 1955, in advance of Columbus Day. The Pittsburgh Art Commission voted unanimously to remove the statue, and Mayor Bill Peduto agreed, but the Italian Sons and Daughters of America filed a lawsuit. McVay granted an injunction halting the removal but urged the parties to try to reach consensus, saying that “historical figures are people and necessarily come with heroic qualities along with character flaws” but also saying that “racism, slavery and prejudice must always be condemned and rejected by our city.” The group then asked the judge to remove himself, saying the court had adopted “its own beliefs” on settlement discussions that “are based on demonstrably false and biased recitations of history that are swiftly disproven by the primary sources of Columbus’s time.”

Rhode Island

Providence: A doctor has been cited by federal labor officials for failing to take steps to protect his medical office staff from exposure to COVID-19 even after he and other employees contracted the coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Farina Jr. “willfully exposed” his workers to the virus when he decided to continue working. The agency said he also failed to fully implement safeguards such as cleaning and disinfecting regimens, screening all employees for symptoms, or mandating contact tracing or quarantining after exposure. Labor officials said they’d seek a $136,532 fine against Farina, who runs four medical practices: North Providence Urgent Care Inc., North Providence Primary Care Associates Inc., Center of New England Urgent Care Inc. and Center of New England Primary Care Inc. Farina’s lawyer, Michael Lepizzera, said his client will contest OSHA’s findings and proposed penalty, which he said is “legally excessive.” State officials in January suspended Farina’s license under emergency order, saying he posed a danger to the community, though they restored it the following month. Farina also faces federal allegations that he violated fair labor laws by failing to pay overtime to more than 100 employees.

South Carolina

Columbia: As the state nears its first execution in a decade, death penalty opponents are renewing calls for South Carolina to toss out its capital punishment statute. A group of faith leaders, academics, organizers and others delivered a letter Wednesday to Gov. Henry McMaster and the General Assembly calling for a halt to two upcoming executions and the repeal of the state’s death penalty law. Group members acknowledge it’s unlikely that the politicians who ushered in a new law aimed at restarting executions after an involuntary 10-year pause will now turn around and repeal that law. Their group, South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, was formed in light of two upcoming executions this month. “We don’t expect that we’re going to stop an execution,” said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group that helps local organizations oppose capital punishment. “What we do expect is that we’re going to create the organization that’s going to abolish the death penalty in this state. It might take two years, it might take 10 years, but that’s what this organization is designed to do.” State prisons officials are planning Friday to electrocute Brad Sigmon, 63, who has spent nearly two decades on death row after he was convicted in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Gov. Kristi Noem indicated Tuesday that she will try again to hold a fireworks display over Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day on the heels of President Joe Biden’s announcement that the White House will be hosting its own “independence from the virus” bash. The National Parks Service in March denied the state’s application to hold the pyrotechnic display, reasoning that fireworks caused safety concerns at the monument, that local Native American tribes objected to the celebration being held on land they hold as sacred and that a mass gathering could still defy coronavirus precautions. In an effort to overturn that decision, the Republican governor has written a letter to the president, bashed Biden in the media and sued the U.S. Department of the Interior. All of those efforts have failed. But after Biden announced Tuesday that he would be encouraging nationwide celebrations to mark the country’s effective return to normalcy, Noem said on Twitter that she would resubmit a request to hold fireworks at the monument on Saturday, July 3. However, even if the federal government reversed its decision, the state would struggle to pull the event together with July Fourth weekend just weeks away. Noem’s administration previously said in court that the state would have to know by June 2 to have ample planning time.

Tennessee

Nashville: Amazon on Wednesday announced a commitment of $75million for developers to create affordable homes in the city near WeGo Public Transit high-capacity corridors. The company reported 800 homes will be built on private land, and the investment is part of Amazon’s more than $2 billion Housing Equity Fund to preserve and create over 20,000 affordable homes through below-market loans to housing partners, traditional and nontraditional public agencies, and minority-led organizations. The Music City is one of three cities hosting the company’s new headquarters, where Amazon hopes to infuse communities with cash and support over the next five years. Transportation and housing costs account for a significant portion of the average person’s expenses, said Jay Carney, Amazon’s senior vice president of Global Corporate Affairs. “We hope this will pave a path for more inclusive communities,” Carney said. WeGo, the primary regional transit agency operating bus and paratransit service across Nashville, serves close to 30,000 riders daily. Amazon will focus on affordable properties within a half-mile of transit stops and “prioritize opportunities to invest in minority-led organizations and racially and economically diverse communities,” the company reported.

Texas

Dallas: The developer of a long-planned – and controversial – high-speed rail line that would get passengers from Dallas to Houston in 90 minutes announced Tuesday that it signed a $16 billion contract with an Italian company to build the project, in what could be a step toward realization. Webuild, based in Milan, will oversee heavy construction of the planned 236-mile project for developer Texas Central, the companies said in a news release. Webuild will operate through U.S. subsidiary Lane Construction Corporation, based in Cheshire, Connecticut. Nearly half the distance the bullet train will cover – at speeds up to 200 mph – will be elevated to reduce the impact on property owners, the companies said. Residents have fought the high-speed train, which has been discussed for decades and would rely on acquiring land through eminent domain to construct the rail line. Trey Duhon, who heads a group called Texans Against High-Speed Rail, criticized Tuesday’s announcement, saying it was just the developer continuing to try to drum up support for an unpopular project. “Texas Central takes every opportunity to generate what sounds like progress to keep interest and investments alive,” said Duhon, who also is the highest-ranking elected official in Waller County, outside Houston.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The state’s ski resorts set a record for visitors this past winter despite coronavirus-related restrictions and a below-average snowfall, according to industry data released Tuesday. A news release from Ski Utah shows the 5.3 million skier days marked a major rebound from the previous winter, when the state registered 4.3 million after the season was cut short by the pandemic. The industry association said this winter’s figure also surpasses the previous record of 5.13 million skier days set during the 2018-19 ski season. Utah resorts were forced to implement COVID-19 safety protocols, including capacity limitations and mask mandates, but the industry association said those didn’t stop skiers and snowboarders from visiting. “Throughout the season it became clear that skiing provided a respite from the day to day realities of the pandemic and allowed an option for guests to safely socialize outside,” Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah, said in a statement. Utah’s big year mirrors a banner season for ski resorts around the country. The National Ski Areas Association’s said the 59 million skier visits nationally are the fifth-most overall.

Vermont

Brattleboro: A refugee resettlement nonprofit has plans to start a new program in the state to relocate refugees in smaller, more rural communities across the United States. The Ethiopian Development Community Council, a nonprofit agency that partners with the State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S., wants to launch its program in Brattleboro because of the city’s support. The first families should arrive in the city before the end of the year if the program is approved by the federal government, Vermont Public Radio reports. The nonprofit has also chosen Wausau to test out the program, pending federal approval. The nonprofit is preparing for an influx of refugees because the Biden administration has promised to increase the number of refugees allowed in the country and reopen the refugee resettlement program on which the Trump administration imposed restrictions, the radio station reports. “If we want to create integration of refugees, having them only in big cities where they would be congregating among themselves, only, is not going to help long-term integration,” said Tsehaye Tefera, founder of the Ethiopian Development Community Council. Brattleboro town manager Peter Elwell said he knows there could be opposition to the program, but the plan is in line with the town’s priority to improve equity in one of the nation’s whitest states.

Virginia

Richmond: Riders on the city’s transit system won’t have to dig into their pockets for another year. The board of directors of Greater Richmond Transit Company announced Tuesday that the system will remain fare-free through June 30, 2022. The system said in a news release that it has used state and federal COVID-19 relief funds since March 2020 in response to public health measures. GRTC also has sponsored the fare-free rides in the interest of economically distressed communities who rely on public transit to reach jobs, food and other resources. Free fares include rides on local buses, the Pulse, Express Bus, and CARE/Paratransit vans, the news release said. A spokesperson said workers who collected fares were offered other jobs within the company.

Washington

Spokane: Scientists have found a dead Asian giant hornet in Marysville, north of Seattle – the first so-called murder hornet discovered in the country this year, federal and state investigators said Wednesday. Entomologists from the state and U.S. agriculture departments said it’s the first confirmed report from Snohomish County and appears to be unrelated to the 2019 and 2020 findings of the hornets in Canada and Whatcom County, along the Canadian border, that gained widespread attention. The 2-inch-long invasive insects, first found near the U.S.-Canada border in December 2019, are native to Asia and pose a threat to honeybees and native hornet species. While not particularly aggressive toward humans, their stings are extremely painful, and repeated stings, though rare, can kill. The world’s largest hornet is much more of a threat to honeybees that are relied on to pollinate crops. They attack hives, destroying them in mere hours and decapitating bees in what scientists call their “slaughter phase.” How they got here from Asia is unclear, although it is suspected they travel on cargo ships. “Hitchhikers are a side effect of all the commerce we do globally,” said Sven Spichiger, an entomologist with the state Agriculture Department who is leading the fight to eradicate the hornets.

West Virginia

Charleston: Gov. Jim Justice’s nomination of a Republican Party operative to a public broadcasting oversight board has prompted concern about the appointee’s credentials and whether the GOP governor will use his political muscle to fill multiple expired seats. Members of the state Senate Confirmations Committee received notice Friday of the pending appointment of Greg Thomas to the state Educational Broadcasting Authority, which is the governing body of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier County, said Monday that Thomas’ background doesn’t make him a good fit for the authority. The pending appointment “stood out like a sore thumb,” Baldwin said. “You’ve got an outwardly partisan political operative being nominated to a position that doesn’t call for that at all.” Thomas has worked for several GOP politicians, including the campaign of convicted former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s failed U.S. Senate run in 2018. He also works for the nonprofit group West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

Wisconsin

Madison: The state is on track to scrap a requirement that has been a singular rite of passage for generations: the behind-the-wheel road test for teenagers. The Legislature’s Republican-controlled joint finance committee last week approved the state Department of Transportation’s proposal to continue its program of waiving road tests for 16- and 17-year-olds who have completed all driver’s education requirements. If approved as part of the budget by Gov. Tony Evers, the current pilot program would become a permanent part of how the Department of Motor Vehicles allocates licenses beginning July 1. DOT first began to pilot the waivers in mid-May of last year, citing its desire to reduce interactions between its employees and members of the general public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Department officials also said they hoped the waivers would allow DMV offices to focus on the backlog of adult driver’s tests that had accumulated amid the pandemic. Under state law, those over the age of 18 only require a passing multiple-choice knowledge test before taking the road test. The DMV has said these people cannot waive their road test because they are not required to complete a driver’s education course and behind-the-wheel training with an instructor.

Wyoming

Casper: Lawmakers are pursuing two possible hate crimes bills for next year’s legislative session. One bill to be drafted would require law enforcement to report hate crimes. The other would extend protections to more groups. “I want a starting point to move forward,” state Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, told other members of the Joint Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. At least 47 states have adopted hate crimes legislation since the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. National groups such as the Brennan Center for Justice do not classify Wyoming as having a hate crime law, though the American Civil Liberties Union does. The statute makes it a misdemeanor to deny anyone “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness or the necessities of life” due to their “race, color, sex, creed or national origin.” The statute does not require police to report hate crimes and does not protect all vulnerable populations, according to testimony at Tuesday’s hearing. Wyoming has recorded 13 hate crimes since 2015, but the number is believed to be underreported.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Lawmakers eye caps on changing payday lending industry

Jessica Masulli Reyes

The News Journal

Delaware legislation passed in 2012 limited the number of payday loans a person could get each year.

Lenders responded by changing the types of loans they offer.

Delaware had 142 stores registered in 2015 that offer short-term consumer loans.

State lawmakers thought they were cracking down on predatory lending when they passed legislation in 2012 that limited the number of payday loans a person could get each year.

But payday lenders in Delaware and nationwide responded by changing the types of loans they offer to avoid strict laws that only apply to payday advances.

This means that, despite the state's efforts, thousands of Delawareans are still paying three- or even four-digit interest rates on loans that are supposed to help them in financial emergencies but can leave them in a cycle of debt.

Paul Calistro, executive director of West End Neighborhood House, a Wilmington organization that offers a low-interest payday loan as an alternative, said it amounts to predatory lending.

"This is about greed," he said.

Take, for example, Mary Tucker.

She is a single mother who has owned her one-story brick house in New Castle for nearly a decade. After falling behind on the mortgage payments, she applied for a loan from LoanMe, an online lender in California that advertises itself as a fast and easy way to get $2,600 to $50,000.

She was approved for an installment loan. Unlike a payday loan, which is meant to be paid back with a person's next paycheck, installment loans have higher dollar amounts and longer periods for repayment.

Tucker, who works part-time as a dietary aid and receives disability payments, immediately put the money toward the mortgage and repaid the loan in the first month to avoid paying high interest, she said.

It still wasn't enough to make her current on the mortgage, so she applied for a second loan in the spring.

This time, she was approved for $3,100 with an annual percentage rate, or APR, of 135 percent. She has up to 47 months to repay the loan – meaning that she will pay approximately $16,500 in principal, fees and interest if it takes her the entire time.

"I make monthly payments to make sure they are not coming after me, but with interest that won't do much," she said. "Now I'm left with this bill, plus my mortgage. I'm in worse shape now."

To fight this loophole that is giving lenders free rein with installment loans, state Rep. Helene Keeley, D-Wilmington South, introduced a bill that would cap the APR for both payday and installment loans at 100 percent. Last year, the average APR on payday loans in Delaware was 532 percent, state data shows.

Advocates for reform said the rate ceiling doesn't go far enough to curb abuse. They think a 36 percent APR is more reasonable. Lenders said, either way, the legislation could put them out of business.

"Consumers lose any time the regulatory market place tries to impose arbitrary restrictions on them," said Jamie Fulmer, senior vice president of public affairs for Advance America, a lender with approximately 10 locations in Delaware. "What I fear is going to happen is that the biggest winners will be the illegal actors who have long flouted the law and are not interested in providing the safe and reliable services we provide."

When the bill is considered in January, lawmakers will have to weigh consumer protections with the interests of not only payday lenders, but the banking and credit card giants who have called Delaware home since former Gov. Pierre S. du Pont IV signed the Financial Center Development Act in 1981. The act eliminated caps on interest rates and fees for consumer loans – and immediately drew banks to Delaware, forever changing the skyline of Wilmington and providing a stream of jobs and revenue.

"I'm not trying to disrupt our usury laws here in the state," Keeley said. "I don't believe any of those banks are charging 100 percent interest by any means, but there could be a bank that issues a credit card at 36 percent."

Delaware: A payday lending island

Tucker's is a familiar story within the world of high-interest loans, where lenders view themselves as critical lifelines for those struggling to make ends meet, where their services help people when there are few other financial options.

Scattered along Delaware's main arteries and on street corners in low-income neighborhoods are neon signs for "EZ Cash" or "CA$H Loans." Borrowers using these services span all races, ages and genders. They live in every county and earn on average approximately $33,000 a year.

The state had 142 stores registered in 2015 that offer short-term consumer loans.

The premise of each is the same. Customers need emergency cash. Their car broke down and needs to be repaired. Their children need uniforms and supplies for the start of school. Their electric bill doubled after one of the hottest summers on record.

But they have no credit card or way to get a loan from a family member or bank, and must turn to a payday lender. They show proof of income, a driver's license and fill out an application and, within 30 minutes, they have the money they desperately need.

The problem can come a few weeks later. If the customer does not have enough money to repay the loan, the lender can attempt to make automatic withdrawals from the person's bank account. This can incur bank overdraft fees or declined withdrawal fees.

In other cases, the customer may pay the loan off little-by-little, paying high interest, or may be the subject of court action if they fail to pay.

"Payday loans are debt traps by design," said Diane Standaert, state policy director at the Center for Responsible Lending. "They put people in a worse financial position than when they started."

This has led 14 states, including the three states that border Delaware, to eliminate payday lending. Other states could follow.

South Dakota voters will decide in November whether to cap APRs at 36 percent. Voters in Ohio, Arizona and Montana passed similar laws in recent years.

The lending industry has fought back. Lenders in Ohio switched to installment loans with equally high interest rates. They've hired Native American tribes to use tribal immunity to avoid rate cap laws in Pennsylvania. And, they've lobbied for legislation that would exempt installment loans from strict regulations.

Financial handcuffs

The Delaware legislature enacted modest reforms in 2012 that stopped borrowers from taking more than five $1,000 payday loans each year and created a database to track the industry.

Gov. Jack Markell said when he signed the bill that the new law would help remove the financial hand-cuffs that these loans can sometimes turn into, while also recognizing that some people still need immediate access to loans.

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As soon as the law went into effect, the number of short-term, payday loans plummeted – and has stayed low ever since. The number fell from 36,675 in 2013 to 6,219 in 2015, even though the number of lenders statewide held steady.

The state does not track the number of installment loans or limit those borrowers, but lenders and state officials confirmed that much of the decline can be attributed to the repackaging of payday loans as installment loans.

Dan Gardner, vice president of Atlantic Finance, a lender with six locations in Delaware, said he moved to installment loans in direct response to concerns his customers had about the new regulations.

"When Delaware citizens found out that they could only get five loans a year, that was a problem," he said. "The fact that all their personal information had to be transmitted to the state when they applied for a loan also turned people off. Why should I try to push against that?"

This installment loan practice in Delaware came under scrutiny in March when Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled in favor of Gloria James, a part-time housekeeper at the Hotel DuPont who sued a loan company that demanded she pay $1,820 for a $200 loan.

Laster said in a 72-page court decision that it was "unconscionable" and a violation of the federal truth in lending act when National Financial LLC, a Utah company with a storefront called Loan Till Payday in Wilmington, charged James a 838.45 percent APR.

"When the vice chancellor wrote his decision and [House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf] and I read it, we both felt he was telling the General Assembly you made a good shot at this, but it really didn't do what you had intended to do and you need to take it a step further," Keeley said. "If we don't do anything further we will continue to see these lawsuits from customers who are using these businesses for short-term loans."

Filling the oil tank in winter

The legislation now under consideration would do two things. It would cap the APR at 100 percent for payday and installment loans and would prohibit lenders from repeatedly attempting to make automated withdrawals on short-term loans, unless the borrower authorizes another attempt in writing.

At the same time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency created in 2010 in response to the 2007 financial crisis, is seeking public comment until November on its recently proposed rules for payday loans. The agency is prohibited from enacting a rate cap, but is considering nationwide regulations that would require lenders to determine whether borrowers can afford to pay back a loan and create a mandatory cooling-off period before customers can get another loan.

These types of state and federal regulations could impact people like Kelly, a 45 year old from Newark who asked that her last name not be used in this article.

She and her husband both work, but because her husband's jobs as a mechanic and landscaper can be seasonal or unsteady, they frequently find themselves in need of cash before the next paycheck.

The reasons vary. One month it cost $700 to replace the clutch in her car. Another month it was that the oil tank needed to be filled in the middle of winter. And last year it was that her children needed school uniforms.

"I'm not going to say to my kids 'you cannot have new uniforms this year,'" she said. "I'm going to do whatever I have to to make it work."

In the past, Kelly turned to various payday loan shops in Delaware for the money. She always paid them back as quickly possible – usually within a few months to avoid high interest and other fees.

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But now she hasn't been to a payday lender in over a year and relies on Loans Plus, a program at the West End Neighborhood House in Wilmington. The program offers payday loans backed by M&T Bank with a 9.99 APR.

The program has since 2007 provided 2,678 loans totaling over $1 million. The program also offers each customer assistance with creating a budget.

"People need access to credit," Calistro said. "In today's world, a lot of jobs don't give you sick or vacation time. A lot of hardworking people are taking two jobs with no benefits."

Kelly borrows the maximum amount of $500 and makes three monthly payments of approximately $170 whenever she needs cash.

Loans Plus has given her a different perspective on the high-interest payday loans she once relied on.

"It shouldn't be legal for people to get a loan that charges them so much interest that they cannot pay it back," she said. "It is robbing people."

The difference in online lenders

Gardner said a model like Loans Plus is not sustainable for making a profit.

"There has to be some kind of an opportunity to make a living," Gardner said.

Industry lobbyists and lenders like Gardner panicked when Keeley introduced the rate cap bill on June 30, the last day of the legislative session. Gardner plans to fight House Bill 446 when the issue is raised next year.

He has been collecting letters from his customers that oppose the rate cap to send to lawmakers. A 100 percent rate cap, he said, means he would only collect $45 in interest on a $300 payday loan that is paid back in 14 days. That is not enough to pay the staff and bills, while also making a profit, he said.

Fulmer agreed.

"An arbitrary rate cap ... doesn't address the cost of offering the product," Fulmer said. "You are going to arbitrarily cut the revenue of our stores in Delaware, but you are not going to reduce the rent we pay our landlords, an abatement in our utility bills or lower waters for our employees."

He and Fulmer said an end to payday lending would mean more money for banks who collect revenue from bounced check fees or over-draft fees from people when they cannot get emergency cash.

"In many cases, consumers decide our products are often the more financially attractive option for them given the higher costs they are faced with," Fulmer said. "While [a rate cap] may sound good in theory, it is not a practical approach to properly regulating financial services product."

Gardner said that, as a "local guy," his business operates differently than large national chains or internet payday lenders.

He focuses on building relationships with customers. Gardner only gives customers as much as they can afford to pay back and encourages them to pay the loan off sooner, he said.

The default rate at Atlantic Finance is about 15 percent, although many who default end up paying later through collections, payment arrangements or court filings. West End Neighborhood House's Loan Plus said their default rate is about 8 percent.

"Education is the thing," Gardner said. "You have to have people start planning for the future and have people who make good decisions, but sometimes people make bad decisions and sometimes people make dumb decisions. And until the government can protect people from making those choices, there is a need for what we do."

Tucker is all too familiar with what it can be like to receive a loan from an online lender. The only reason she went with LoanMe was that they texted her constantly, she said, and her disability payments are not enough to cover the expenses for her and her 14-year-old son.

Tucker said that after the mortgage company threatened to lock her out of their house if she didn't pay, she signed up for LoanMe.

"You have to make choices," she said. "When you are threatened by your creditors, the only option you have is a payday loan."

The decision put her even deeper into financial trouble – and even with coaching from Stand By Me, a free service offered by the state and United Way of Delaware, she is struggling to get out from under the debt.

One night this week, as she prepared dinner for her son, her phone rang. The number was from California, and she believes it was a LoanMe representative.

She didn't answer.

"I don't have enough money at the end of the month to cover all my bills," Tucker said. "It is not that I don't want to pay my bills. It is just that I cannot. I just don't have it."

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.

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By the numbers: Payday loans

36,675

Payday loans in Delaware in 2013

6,219

Loans in 2015

22.1

Days, on average, Delaware borrowers took to pay off short-term loan in 2015

2,614.76

Average gross monthly income of borrowers, in dollars, in 2015

3,650

Maximum percentage APR on payday loans in 2015

100

Maximum percentage APR proposed in House Bill 446