4B
L awrence J ournal -W orld - USA TODAY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015
STATE-BY-STATE News from across the USA
HIGHLIGHT: DELAWARE
ALABAMA Tuskegee: Author
Lengthy construction coming to congested I-295
and pundit Cornel West is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Tuskegee University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. convocation, which will be held on Jan. 18 at the Chappie James Arena. ALASKA Seward: The Alaska
Railroad and the company that transfers coal to ships here have reached a settlement with environmental groups that sued over coal falling into Resurrection Bay.
ARIZONA Tucson: The Arizona Game and Fish Department took hedgehogs off the list of restricted wildlife, allowing them to be pets, the Arizona Daily Star reported. ARKANSAS Lowell: J.B. Hunt Transport Services will add employees and expand its corporate headquarters here. The company was incorporated in Arkansas in 1961 and now has about 20,000 employees in 400 facilities nationwide. CALIFORNIA Hemet: A couple
were arrested on suspicion of smuggling more than 900 endangered and threatened sea turtle eggs into the USA from Mexico, The Press-Enterprise reported.
COLORADO Pueblo: The father of two boys who drowned in Las Animas County has been arrested, the Pueblo Chieftain reported. Silvino Garcia, 33, was charged with two counts of child abuse criminal negligence resulting in death. The two children fell through ice in a small pond. CONNECTICUT Stamford: Police
arrested a 53-year-old homeless man after he was discovered to be living on someone else’s boat docked at a local marina, The Stamford Advocate reported.
DELAWARE Millsboro: State Police are looking for a man who robbed Gumboro Liquor Store on Millsboro Highway. Troopers say a man wearing a mask and brandishing a handgun entered the store. The robber demanded money from the clerks, who gave him cash from the register. The suspect then fled on foot. No one was hurt.
Karl Baker
The (Wilmington) News Journal
One of the most congested sections of Delaware highway is getting a $33.7 million surgery that will result in faster and safer commutes by the end of 2018. But to get there, drivers will first endure 34 months of road work, detours and closures. The Delaware River and Bay Authority said the project on the Interstate 95-bound lanes of Interstate 295, mostly between U.S. 13 and I-95, will begin in mid-February. The segment of highway will receive a repaved surface, two rebuilt on-ramps, and an additional lane at a narrow two-lane segment near U.S. 13 where bottlenecks often occur. The highway is a key artery between New York City and Washington that connects the New Jersey Turnpike with I-95 via the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It frequently becomes congested over the holidays and during the summer with travelers heading to and from beaches in Delaware and New Jersey. For instance, roughly 73,000 vehicles used those lanes on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Those I-95-bound lanes of I-295 carry an average of 45,000 vehicles daily. When complete, the project will allow primary goal of reducing response times, The Register reported. Fire chiefs in Clive, Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines say that plans must be made before services become overwhelmed, and consolidation plans could save time and money. KANSAS Lawrence: A Univer-
sity of Kansas information session about guns on campus drew a crowd of more than 200 students, faculty and staff, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Under state law, public universities in Kansas must allow concealed weapons on campus beginning July 1, 2017. But policies that will guide implementation of the law have yet to be written. KENTUCKY Lexington: An Indi-
ana man has been indicted for murder after police say he fatally stabbed a 6-year-old Kentucky boy in the head during a burglary, the Herald-Leader reported.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Sup-
GEORGIA Atlanta: The Georgia
Commission on Medical Cannabis, a panel appointed by Gov. Deal, voted to reject the growth of medical marijuana in Georgia, The Telegraph reported. HAWAII Olowalu: A proposal to
LOUISIANA Lake Charles: The Calcasieu Parish School Board voted to to buy 10 new school buses, costing around $500,000, the American Press reported. A motion to equip the buses with air condititioning failed. MAINE Portland: A spokesman
identified in an email to the Portland Press Herald as “Santa’s media elf Tom” says Secret Santa will be distributing $100 bills here at random this Christmas season.
IDAHO Boise: The City Council
MARYLAND Pigtown: Balti-
ILLINOIS Springfield: State
hunters harvested more than 85,000 deer during the seven-day firearm season — a more than 10% increase over last year.
INDIANA Lafayette: A 14-year-
old suspected in three strong-arm robberies in November and an October theft from a store was arrested Tuesday, the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported. IOWA Des Moines: Fire chiefs
in four Des Moines suburbs have begun discussing consolidating fire department services with the
agencies’ air and water patrol collaboration in a time of potential terrorism, Detroit Free Press reported. MINNESOTA St. Paul: Local
police are investigating whether two shootings that left two men dead and a third critically wounded are related.
MISSISSIPPI Hattiesburg: The
City Council voted to rename Helveston Road, between U.S. 49 and Tuscan Avenue, as William Carey Parkway, The Hattiesburg American reported.
MISSOURI Sedalia: Authorities
caught a suspect who is accused of fleeing when a bailiff attempted to take him into custody, the Sedalia Democrat reported.
MONTANA Kalispell: Officials declared a state of emergency after two days of rain and melting snow caused flooding near Libby and Troy. Sheriff Roby Bowe told the Flathead Beacon six homes near Troy have been damaged.
Davis, highway safety manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation, says Nebraska should not wait for marijuana to become legal before acting to keep drugged drivers off the roads, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
build 1,500 homes here was halted after state officials rejected the developer’s environmental assessment, The Maui News reported. adjourned its meeting early when protesters against the city’s weekend sweeps to clear out a homeless camp overran the meeting.
vehicles to move more efficiently, traffic officials said. The Delaware River and Bay Authority, a bi-state governmental institution that operates the Delaware Memorial Bridge, two ferries and five airports in Delaware and New Jersey, will oversee the project. Authority spokesman James Salmon said drivers should allow extra time during their morning and afternoon commutes. During the construction, there will be two vehicle lanes open at all times, but one will be on the shoulder of the inter-
NEBRASKA Lincoln: Glenn
porters of former mayor Vincent Gray were relieved and bitter, The Washington Post reported, after a nearly five-year investigation against him was dropped.
FLORIDA Estero: The owner of the Shops at Estero Town Commons, who tried to conform to Estero’s aesthetic standards by planting a row of palm trees in front of its building, is appealing to the village for permission to replace the palms with smaller trees, The News-Press reported.
KYLE GRANTHAM, THE (WILMINGTON) NEWS JOURNAL
Traffic drives on the Delaware Memorial Bridge onto Interstate 295, a stretch often congested around the holidays.
more Housing officials have withdrawn a code-violation citation against Maurice Whitehurst, a homeowner who spray-painted “Black Lives Matter” and other messages on the side of his house, The Baltimore Sun reported. MASSACHUSETTS Worcester: A
woman pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of about $3.6 million in food stamp benefits through a scheme she ran out of the convenience store she owns, The Telegram & Gazette reported. MICHIGAN Detroit: Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon deputized members of the Detroit Police Department’s helicopter unit, boosting the
NEVADA Elko: The Elko County School District board of trustees approved an arrangement to offer diplomas to 18-year-old students housed at the Nevada Youth Training Center, the Elko Daily Free Press reported. NEW HAMPSHIRE Con-
state as traffic is shifted to the side, said Brent Van Lith, the project engineer. If a vehicle breaks down along the stretch of highway or if a collision occurs, traffic could back up significantly as there will be no place for a disabled vehicle to go, he said. The construction is the final phase of a $90 million project to rebuild I-295 that began in 2001. That project’s most recent work was completed in 2010 when the New Jerseybound lanes between I-95 and the Delaware Memorial Bridge were rebuilt. NEW YORK Nassau County: The assets of multimillionaire real estate heir Robert Durst should be frozen as he faces a civil lawsuit accusing him of killing his first wife nearly 34 years ago, her relatives argued in new court papers, The Journal News reported. NORTH CAROLINA Asheville: A temporary runway is now in service at the Asheville Regional Airport while a new, permanent runway is built. NORTH DAKOTA Minot: The city and former City Attorney Colleen Auer are heading to court, the Minot Daily News reported. Auer filed a retaliation and whistle-blower complaint with the state Department of Labor and Human Rights after her firing for insubordination in May 2014. OHIO Cincinnati: The City
cluding the state owns too much and is wasting space, The Greenville News reported. SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: The South Dakota Department of Transportation is repairing the shoulder of the southbound lanes of Highway 16 just south of here. The contractor, Zandstra Construction, is removing the material from one of the slide areas. The $223,000 project is expected to be completed Dec 18. TENNESSEE Nashville: The Virgin Hotels Nashville project planned for 1.04 acres on Music Row will now include one tower instead of two, with 15 for-sale condos or penthouse units no longer planned. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group revealed those and other planned changes shortly after paying $11 million for the site at a corner of Division Street and 17th Avenue South, The Tennessean reported.
TEXAS Austin: A new freeway,
Interstate 14, is coming to Texas by way of using mostly U.S. 190 and other existing roads from West Texas to the Louisiana border. The project will take years to build because the existing roads must be brought up to freeway standards, the Houston Chronicle reported. UTAH Logan: A woman drew a rare elk hunting permit, but she still spent four days in jail with her family for illegally shooting an elk. The Herald Journal reported that a conservation officer says Jennifer Goring and her family had strayed far outside the permitted unit when they shot a trophy bull elk in September 2014. VERMONT Burlington: Despite
the best efforts of their snowmaking teams, two Vermont resorts have pushed their planned opening dates back a week because of unseasonably warm temperatures. Q Burke and Bolton Valley plan to spin their lifts to life on Dec. 18 and 19, respectively, Burlington Free Press reported.
Council voted 7-2 to prohibit therapy designed to change sexual orientation or gender identity for minors, and imposes a $200a-day fine on violators, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
VIRGINIA Roanoke: Federal regulators rejected a request to assess the overall environmental impact of several proposed multistate natural gas pipelines, The Roanoke Times reported.
OKLAHOMA Tulsa: Lorna Jean
WASHINGTON Puyallup: Seven
Vanlandingham, a former police officer who once served as treasurer of state and local Fraternal Order of Police chapters, has paid more than $306,000 in restitution and fines since her guilty plea earlier this year. She pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was sentenced in June to 33 months in prison.
OREGON Pendleton: Scientists say the fire-damaged forests are more susceptible to landslides, and another week of rain and snow could heighten that risk, the East Oregonian reported.
cord: The state’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services has developed classes that will train emergency responders to treat victims during an active shooter situation. Currently, responders typically wait until law enforcement has secured the scene, the Concord Monitor reported.
A mother tried to kill her two young children and herself by piping vehicle exhaust into her car, The Citizens’ Voice reported.
NEW JERSEY Evesham: A teenager who brought a realisticlooking replica handgun to an elementary school told police he was trying to commit suicide by forcing officers to shoot him, the Courier-Post reported.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Construction at the site of the nation’s first offshore wind farm has finished for the season. Deepwater Wind is building a fiveturbine wind farm off Block Island.
NEW MEXICO Carlsbad: Residents have been turning in dead gopher tails for money as part of a bounty program established by the Carlsbad Soil and Conservation District to control the pests. The district offers residents $6 for each gopher tail brought in on the first Monday of each month, The Current-Argus reported.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia:
PENNSYLVANIA Swoyersville:
Gov. Haley wants to sell some of the state’s 7,800 buildings and be more efficient in how it uses office space, moves she said could save taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Haley on Wednesday announced the results of an assessment of state properties by the real estate firm CBRE, con-
people were rescued after being swept into the Puyallup River from a riverbank homeless camp, The News Tribune reported. All seven were pulled out of the river by Central Pierce Fire & Rescue and checked by paramedics.
WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit ruled that state jail officials must make public a video depicting a jail guard throwing a flash-bang grenade, the Charleston GazetteMail reported. She found that the video doesn’t fall within exemptions to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. WISCONSIN Marshfield: A
panel voted to recommend Marshfield School District keep a Muppets book about how children experience poverty around the world in elementary schools, despite objections from school board member Mary Carney, who claims the book, For Every Child a Better World by Jim Henson, is too graphic for small children, Wausau Daily Herald reported. WYOMING Casper: Regulators
approved tougher bonding requirements for oil and gas wells in response to a bust that has littered the Powder River Basin with thousands of abandoned coal-bed methane wells. The rules approved by the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission include suggestions from the petroleum industry. Compiled by Tim Wendel and Nicole Gill, with Carolyn Cerbin, Mike Gottschamer, Ben Sheffler and Nichelle Smith. Design by Mallory Redinger. Graphics by Frank Pompa.