Underwater art, tomato fight, lawn mower racing: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: The state House of Representatives has passed legislation allowing residents to purchase wine and have it shipped directly to their house. The bill by Republican Rep. Terri Collins would allow licensed wine manufacturers to obtain a permit to deliver limited quantities of wine directly to Alabamians. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board doesn’t allow such shipments now. The bill passed 77-11 and now heads to the Senate. Democratic Rep. Thomas Jackson jokingly shouted during Thursday’s debate, “What’s wrong with the wine we got now?” – a reference to former Rep. Alvin Holmes, who famously asked in a 2008 debate about allowing stronger beer: “What’s wrong with the beer we got? I mean the beer we got drank pretty good, don’t it?”

Alaska

Akiak: The community has quickly lost entire buildings due to erosion along the banks of its river, officials say. Residents of this southwest Alaska town awoke last week to find that smokehouses built along the Kuskokwim River had fallen into the water along with stretches of the riverbank, KYUK-AM reports. The community 42 miles northeast of Bethel lost between 75 and 100 feet of the riverbank, according to Akiak City Administrator David Gilila. “That’s just in one day; that’s just in a matter of hours,” Gilila says. Akiak has experienced erosion problems before but now faces damage to about a mile of riverbank. “There’s no comparison to it,” Gilila says. “Before, it was just certain spots. Today, it’s the whole bank from the upper end of Akiak to the lower end of it.” Houses now face possible destruction.

Arizona

Phoenix: The Republican-led Legislature has proved receptive in recent years to certain proposals offered up by teenagers, passing laws to designate lemonade as the state drink and copper as the state metal. But some students who went to the Capitol this year say they got a different type of reception – if they got one at all – when they tried to pitch proposals on meatier public-policy topics. The Arizona Capitol Times reports that those topics include gun control, school safety and climate change. While GOP legislators said refusing to sponsor progressive bills doesn’t amount to disrespect, some teenage policy advocates said some lawmakers were condescending at times but gushed about the civic involvement of young people who pushed innocuous bills sponsored by Republicans.

Arkansas

Hope: The publisher of the largest newspaper in the state has said by the end of the year, the publication will no longer print or deliver daily editions and will instead distribute iPads for subscribers to access a daily digital replica. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will still print a Sunday edition but will urge subscribers to convert to the daily digital replica, accessible via the newspaper’s app. The newspaper’s publisher, Walter Hussman, has said that if 70% of subscribers convert to the digital version, the paper will be profitable for the first time since 2017. Some subscribers who converted say they prefer the digital paper, which can be enlarged and which is easily transportable. But it remains to be seen if the program will also appeal to younger generations.

California

Anaheim: Massive crowds are expected at Disneyland when its Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge land opens this week, but park officials have a plan to manage them – and it involves Stormtroopers. Park employees dressed as the white-armored foot soldiers may be used to encourage guests to “move along” to other parts of the theme park if they’ve overstayed a four-hour limit inside Galaxy’s Edge. The time limit will be in place from the area’s opening Friday until June 23. Reservations and a special wristband are required to visit the area at the Anaheim theme park for the first three weeks. Galaxy’s Edge is the largest single-theme land created inside a Disney park. The 14-acre land’s marquee attraction is a ride inside a replica of the Millennium Falcon.

Colorado

Boulder: The state has a new law on the books that legislators say expands protections for mobile home residents and leads to better enforcement of those regulations. The Daily Camera reports Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law Thursday that sets up a resolution process for disputes between mobile home residents and park owners. The law allows the state Division of Housing to accept complaints and begin the mediation process. The law also gives residents 30 days to leave properties when evicted, instead of the previous 48 hours. Democratic state Rep. Edie Hooton says the state will likely see a spike in complaints during the law’s first year, but lawmakers expect the volume to subside as “park owners start to see that the rules are being enforced.”

Connecticut

Torrington: Police are still searching for a fugitive who failed to honor an agreement and surrender once enough people responded to his wanted poster on social media. Jose Simms is being sought as a fugitive after failing to appear in court on charges that range from breach of peace to risk of injury to a child. He is believed to be in New York state. Torrington police Lt. Brett Johnson posted on the department’s Facebook page last week that Simms had contacted him through the site and agreed to turn himself in if the post containing his poster received 15,000 likes. The page has far surpassed that number, but still no sign of Simms. Maki Haberfeld, an expert in police ethics and procedure at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says Simms is using social media to manipulate the news media and police, who she said have no business negotiating a deal with a suspect, never mind one that involves likes on Facebook.

Delaware

Georgetown: A church has been badly damaged by a fire, though no injuries have been reported. The blaze engulfed Saint Mary’s Holy Church near Georgetown on Sunday. State investigators are trying to determine the cause of the destructive blaze. Delaware’s office of the state fire marshal says the “heavy damage” at the church was estimated at $50,000. The Georgetown Fire Company responded to the early Sunday blaze. It was first reported shortly after midnight.

District of Columbia

Washington: Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory welcomed parishioners to his first Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle over the weekend, WUSA-TV reports. D.C.’s newest archbishop officially took possession of the cathedral during the Mass, welcomed by Monsignor Ronald James in a celebration of the beginning of the new ministry. Gregory expressed his joy, saying, “We are beginning something new – a new friendship and relationship that we pray will be fruitful and filled with joy.” He then asked the parishioners for their faith and prayers. Following the Mass, Gregory introduced himself, shaking hands and talking with the Catholic parishioners he will serve in his new position. He was formally installed last Tuesday as the first African American leader of the district’s Catholic community.

Florida

Key West: Divers off the state’s far southern coast can now visit an underwater art museum. Divers finished placing a series of artworks on a sunken ship Saturday about 7 miles south of Key West in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The project consists of 24 large photo illustrations created by Austrian artist Andreas Franke. They were placed on the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a former U.S. Air Force missile tracking ship that was intentionally sunk 10 years ago to create an artificial reef. Franke calls it the “Plastic Ocean Project” and says he wants it to draw attention to the need to eliminate plastics in the world’s oceans. On Monday, divers unfurled a giant American flag on the 523-foot long ship to commemorate Memorial Day and the 10th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

Georgia

Valdosta: A civil rights activist is clashing with the mayor over a proposal to rename a street for former President Barack Obama. The Valdosta Daily Times reports police escorted the Rev. Floyd Rose, 80, from a city council meeting Thursday after Mayor John Gayle said he kept talking beyond his public comment time. Rose wants Forrest Street renamed to honor the nation’s first black president. He says it was named in 1883 for Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Ku Klux Klan leader. Gayle said petitioners need to follow a new ordinance, but Rose said it was designed to thwart the name change. It says only one signature can come from each parcel along a road, so multiple signatures from a single apartment complex don’t count.

Hawaii

Keauhou: Federal officials are in the final review stages for rules that would ban swimming with Hawaiian spinner dolphins. West Hawaii Today reported last week that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials are nearing completion of regulations proposed almost three years ago that would create a 50-yard barrier around the mammals. Officials say the rules would outlaw coming within the protected area around Hawaiian spinner dolphins – or “naia” in the Hawaiian language – by any means including swimming or using a boat to intercept the animal’s path. The prohibition would cover all persons, vessels and objects and extend 2 nautical miles from island coastlines, including waters bounded by Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe. The regulations would include exceptions such as dolphins approaching swimmers and boats and safe navigation.

Idaho

Meridian: Federal data shows the state’s largest cities have grown larger, with a second city now seeing its population topping 100,000 residents. The Post Register reports new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau show the most dramatic growth was in this city neighboring the capital, Boise. Meridian’s population has jumped nearly 39% since 2010, with a population estimated at nearly 107,000. The data indicates Meridian grew the seventh fastest of the major cities across the country. Meridian is now second to Boise, which recorded a population of nearly 229,000 residents last year. Behind Meridian is Nampa with 96,000 people and Idaho Falls with 61,000.

Illinois

Joliet: The head of the Army Corps of Engineers has sent Congress a $778 million plan to fortify a waterway in the state with noisemakers, electric cables and other devices in the hope that they will prevent Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes, where the aggressive invaders could leave other fish with too little to eat. Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite on Thursday approved the plan to install defenses at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, about 40 miles from Lake Michigan. The site is a crucial choke point in an aquatic pathway between the lake and the carp-infested Illinois River. Although only a few live Asian carp have been found past the barrier, the fish’s DNA has turned up there as recently as April, when water samples were taken from Chicago’s Lake Calumet.

Indiana

Clarksville: A former Colgate-Palmolive factory could become the home of a hotel, housing and commercial space. The factory in this Ohio River town in southern Indiana made toothpaste and other personal hygiene products for decades until it closed in 2007. A plan recently approved by Clarksville officials and the Clark’s Landing development group calls for redeveloping the building, which is known for its large, iconic clock. Clarksville redevelopment director Dylan Fisher tells the News and Tribune the project is expected to include a hotel, multifamily housing, commercial space and a civic center. That proposal is part of a redevelopment planned for Clarksville’s south side. It will have elevated bike trails, a revamped riverfront area, and a mix of businesses, residential spaces and community spaces.

Iowa

Des Moines: Gov. Kim Reynolds has vetoed a bill that would have lifted a cap on the potency of medical marijuana products available in the state. Reynolds vetoed the bill Friday afternoon, saying the state must proceed cautiously in any expansion of its medical marijuana program. Reynolds says she could support in the future a more limited effort to increase the potency of products. Democratic lawmakers who have supported expansion of the program criticized Reynolds’ decision, saying it would hurt sick people who get little benefit from products now available that have low levels of THC, the compound that causes a high. Rep. John Forbes, an Urbandale pharmacist, called the veto “distressing news for thousands of sick and vulnerable Iowans who deserve greater access to this life-changing medication.” The bill had been approved overwhelmingly in both legislative chambers.

Kansas

Hutchinson: Restored mission control consoles used by NASA to guide trips to the moon will soon be shipped from the state to the control room where they were used from the 1960s through the 1990s. The Hutchinson News reports that Cosmosphere’s SpaceWorks experts have restored 19 consoles in Hutchinson over the past year and a half. NASA picked up 10 of the consoles last year, and the remainder will be sent to the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Friday. The consoles, which will be unveiled in June ahead of the 50-year anniversary celebration of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, were used for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. They also helped communicate with astronauts to fix an oxygen tank that exploded on Apollo 13.

Kentucky

Williamstown: In the Bible, the ark survived an epic flood. Yet the owners of the Noah’s ark attraction in the state are demanding their insurance company bail them out after heavy rains caused nearly $1million in property damage. The Ark Encounter says in a federal lawsuit that rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its access road. The attraction’s insurance carriers refused to cover the damage. The 510-foot-long wooden ark has been a popular northern Kentucky attraction since its 2016 opening. The lawsuit says the road has been rebuilt. The ark was not damaged. The suit names Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings of Switzerland, its use company and three other insurance carriers. Ark Encounter seeks compensatory and punitive damages. The Swiss company hasn’t responded in court filings.

Louisiana

Metairie: A young bald eagle found soaked and stumping along a street in the neighborhood where it hatched will be released Tuesday in the same area. A resident brought the mottled brown eaglet to the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine’s Wildlife Hospital on May 11, after making sure it needed help. Another neighbor has been collecting money for its care and posting health updates outside her home. Coastal consultant and photographer P.J. Hahn says it was on the ground, barely able to fly, and appeared to have a wing injury. Veterinary school spokeswoman Ginger Guttner says the eagle needed supportive care and has been in the school’s flight cage since May 20 so veterinarians could be sure it flies well enough to be released.

Maine

Kennebunkport: Local Memorial Day celebrations have noted the absence of a particularly prominent veteran who died last year. The American Legion had two empty chairs in Kennebunkport’s Dock Square on Monday in memory of all of the times former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, watched the Memorial Day parade from that spot. Mark Matthews from American Legion Post 159 said organizers wanted to acknowledge the absence of Bush, a longtime summer resident and a Navy veteran. He missed last year’s parade after falling ill after attending an American Legion pancake breakfast earlier in the weekend. He died at age 94 on Nov. 30, months after his wife’s death. Town Manager Laurie Smith said the Bushes’ absence is felt every day. She said it will be a “strange” summer without their presence.

Maryland

Baltimore: To Marylanders, Old Bay is more than a seasoning – it’s a symbol of state pride. The yellow and blue tin with a red lid is tattooed on calves or placed in windowsills along with a crab and decorative mallets. A T-shirt proclaims: “I put Old Bay on my Old Bay.” Eighty-three percent of the state’s residents reported a favorable opinion of Old Bay, according to The Goucher Poll, a political survey of 808 adults. Yet the seasoning’s popularity belies a little-known truth: Cooks in restaurants and crab shacks rarely use Old Bay to steam crabs. The Baltimore Sun called dozens of crab houses in the region, and the majority – 18 out of 30 – said they steam crabs with either J.O. No. 2 seasoning or a custom blend made by the Halethorpe-based spice company.

Massachusetts

Boston: Authorities say a group of Jewish teens played a key role in saving the life of a drowning man with a tattoo of a swastika. NBC Boston reports it happened Thursday night as the four youths – all students at an Orthodox Jewish high school in suburban Brookline – spotted the body of a man partially submerged in Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Boston College police officer Carl Mascioli says two of the teens ran to his patrol car to alert him. Mascioli says he rushed down the embankment, pulled the man from the water and noticed the Nazi symbol tattooed on his hand. He says the unidentified students told him they don’t regret helping the man despite his anti-Semitic tattoo. Officials say the man is expected to make a full recovery.

Michigan

Detroit: Pvt. James Robinson played an important role in the final battle of the Revolutionary War, but like many African Americans who took up arms against the British, he received little lasting recognition. That’s about to change. Members of two patriotic lineage societies linked to historic wars are planning to unveil a special grave marker and give Robinson, who died in 1868, military funeral honors during a ceremony next month at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit. “Over 5,000 African Americans served in the Revolutionary War, and Robinson is one of the most consequential figures of the period,” said Elijah Shalis, secretary of the Michigan Society Sons of the American Revolution. “He deserved this honor 151 years ago.” Robinson led a remarkable life. He was a slave and a minister who fought in two wars and died at age 115 as the last known living African American veteran of the Revolutionary War.

Minnesota

Cook: A woman in northern Minnesota has donated a kidney to a volunteer firefighter who was the first responder when she and her child needed help. KARE-TV reports that their paths first crossed in 2016 when Becca Bundy’s 1-year-old daughter was having a seizure. She dialed 911, and Bearville volunteer firefighter Bill Cox was the first on the scene. Last fall, Bundy came across Cox tending bar and wearing a T-shirt that said he was in end-stage kidney failure and needed a donor. Bundy was a match, and the transplant took place in February. The 66-year-old Cox, who is now free from dialysis, says Bundy is his angel. She says she feels blessed to be on his journey with him.

Mississippi

Jackson: A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked a state law that would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy. “Here we go again,” U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his order. “Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions prior to viability.” His new order stops the law from taking effect July 1. Reeves is the same judge who struck down a 2018 Mississippi law to ban abortion at 15 weeks. The Magnolia State is one of several states that have pushed this year to enact bans on early abortions. Opponents of abortion are emboldened by new conservative Supreme Court justices and are looking for ways to challenge the court’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

Missouri

Kansas City: The state has become the 20th to join a nationwide sex offender registry. OffenderWatch said in a news release last week that every Missouri law enforcement agency that manages or investigates registered sex offenders will be able to collaborate on offender records, aid each other in investigations and share notifications with the public. It won a five-year contract from the Missouri Highway Patrol. Missouri has about 16,000 registered sex offenders. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says there are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. OffenderWatch says its service allows different law enforcement agencies to collaborate on a single offender record, improving accuracy and aiding in public safety. Its technology is used by more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies in 37 states.

Montana

Helena: The state will install a permanent monument on the Capitol grounds recognizing Native American contributions to the state and nation. Gov. Steve Bullock on Thursday held a ceremonial signing of legislation to erect a monument and display the flags of the state’s eight recognized Native American tribes. The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Marvin Weatherwax of Browning, called it a big honor and “well overdue.” Bullock says the monument will be a symbol of respect and understanding, as well as a recognition that the Capitol belongs to everybody. The measure was part of a package of bills Bullock signed dealing with Native American issues, including legislation meant to improve the response to reports of missing American Indian women.

Nebraska

Omaha: It’s not very often you get to touch a dinosaur. But that’s just one of the many cool things about the newly renovated Schramm Education Center at Schramm Park State Recreation Area near Gretna, the Omaha World-Herald reports. The pallid sturgeon touch tank lets kids feel the unique fish, which outdoor education specialist Amber Schiltz says is like a living dinosaur. That fish family has been around for 70 million years. School kids who recently visited loved to touch the bony plates of sturgeon when a curious one swam up to their hands. “They were squealing and getting excited,” Schiltz told the paper. “It was really fun.” The center will soon hold its grand opening after an almost two-year renovation that cost several million dollars, much of it funded by donors. The building, previously called Aksarben Aquarium, was gutted and expanded by about a third.

Nevada

Reno: Lake Tahoe’s clarity rebounded last year from its worst level in a half-century of record-keeping as weather and streamflow returned to more normal conditions. Scientists at the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center say the dinner plate-sized disc used to measure clarity was visible at an average depth of 70.9 feet in 2018. That’s 10.5 feet better than the year before. The new clarity measurement is in line with the five-year average of 70.3 feet, which is an increase of nearly a foot from the previous five-year running average at the alpine lake that straddles the California-Nevada line. Scientists hope efforts to combat threats to lake clarity posed by development and climate change will eventually return the lake to its historic clarity level in excess of 100 feet.

New Hampshire

Isles of Shoals: The state has had an artist in residence at the White Mountain National Forest for years. Now it will have one at an island off its coast. The nonprofit Star Island Corporation is launching a weeklong Artist-in-Residence program. Star Island is one of a group of small islands among the Isles of Shoals, an hour’s boat ride from the New Hampshire and Maine coasts. A formal application process is being worked on for the program for next summer. For centuries, the Shoals have attracted artists drawn to the rugged beauty of the islands. The residency will require artists to share their time and talent with conference guests, day visitors and staff of Star Island. Exhibit space for artwork will be provided in the lobby of the 19th-century Oceanic Hotel.

New Jersey

West Deptford: The largest U.S. seller of San Marzano tomatoes, known to food lovers as the best tomatoes to make pasta sauce, has been hit with two federal lawsuits claiming what’s inside the can isn’t the real thing. New Jersey-based Cento Fine Foods called the claims “wrongful” last week and assured the company’s tomatoes are true San Marzanos, meaning they were grown at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Campania in Italy. One suit filed in February alleges fraud, saying there’s no way Cento can produce that many San Marzano tomatoes. Another suit says the cans lack certain labeling that qualifies them as true San Marzanos. The company says that isn’t a requirement. San Marzano tomatoes are a favorite among foodies for their sweet flavor, stronger taste and low acidity.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: John Pinto, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II who became one of the nation’s longest-serving Native American elected officials, has died at age 94. State Senate colleague Michael Padilla confirmed Pinto’s death in Gallup on Friday after years of suffering from various illnesses that rarely kept him from his duties. After serving as a Marine, Pinto was selected to the New Mexico Senate in 1976 and represented a district that included the Navajo Nation for more than four decades. The region is one of the poorest in the country. Born on the Navajo Nation to a family of sheep herders, Pinto didn’t start formal schooling until he was nearly a teenager. “At the age of 12, I was in kindergarten,” Pinto told the Albuquerque Journal in a 2007 interview. “I guess I did all right.”

New York

Cobleskill: The State University of New York at Cobleskill is launching a new four-year program in “canine training and management” amid a surge in demand for specially trained dogs to detect threats and assist veterans in the wake of 9/11. While several institutions hand out training certificates, and at least one small private college awards a bachelor’s in dog handling, the program at Cobleskill is more ambitious in its scope. Professor Stephen Mackenzie says he developed Cobleskill’s Bachelor of Technology degree partly in response to a heightened demand for dogs capable of sniffing out explosives in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The need for service dogs trained to assist those with post-traumatic stress disorder or reduced mobility has also expanded as veterans started returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

North Carolina

Raleigh: As the 75th anniversary of D-Day approaches, historians and educators worry that the World War II milestone is losing its resonance with today’s students. In North Carolina as in many other states, D-Day isn’t part of the required curriculum, though some teachers do use the anniversary to spend extra time on the June 6, 1944, battle. It’s not a stand-alone topic in France, which was liberated from German occupation. German schools concentrate on the Holocaust and Nazi dictatorship. Schools in Russia avoid D-Day because they believe the victories on the Eastern Front won the war. In Cary, North Carolina, Kasey Turcol taught her students at Crossroads FLEX High School about D-Day, including lesser-known aspects like tales of a Spanish spy.

North Dakota

Fargo: A group raising awareness about post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide among combat veterans has finished a 400-mile walk. Brady’s Border2Border Ruck March began on the state’s western border Tuesday and concluded Saturday in Fargo. The event honors Brady Oberg, who served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. After coming home, Oberg suffered from PTSD and killed himself in 2015. KFGO- AM reports that a group of 16 family and friends participated in the march. They each carried a bag with 20 pounds to represent the 20 veterans with PTSD who take their lives every day. The first march took place a year ago. Oberg’s family started the Brady Oberg Legacy Foundation to raise awareness of PTSD.

Ohio

Cleveland: The city is working to preserve the heritage of century-old trees planted to commemorate area soldiers who died in World War I. The planting of the 9-mile stretch of red oaks that runs through Cleveland and into suburban Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights marked its 100th anniversary on Memorial Day. Local officials are taking an inventory of remaining Liberty Row trees, many of which have died over the years, with some plaques lost or damaged. The greater Cleveland area was one of the first communities nationally to envision a multi-mile stretch of trees as a memorial to fallen soldiers. Between 1919 and 1924, more than 800 oak trees were planted, each with a bronze plaque at its base engraved with the name of a fallen soldier.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed the state’s largest-ever appropriations bill, an $8.1 billion spending plan that funds pay raises for teachers and state workers and pumps tens of millions more dollars into public schools. Flanked by Republican legislative leaders, the first-year governor signed the bill Friday, a day after the Legislature adjourned the 2019 session. The deal also socks away an additional $200 million into a state savings account. When combined with additional revenue in the state’s Rainy Day Fund, the savings will give the state more than $1 billion in reserve funds. Democrats criticized the plan as not doing enough for working-class Oklahomans and argued the additional $200 million was needed to shore up previous cuts to core services.

Oregon

Salem: A judge on Friday ordered a man to learn about the Sikh religion and submit a report to the court as part of his sentence for an attack on a Sikh shopkeeper in Salem, a civil rights group said. Andrew Ramsey pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of intimidation and assault in the Jan. 14 incident targeting Harwinder Singh Dodd, according to a release from the Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the U.S. The intimidation count is considered a hate crime, the group said. Witnesses said Ramsey pulled on Dodd’s beard after he refused to sell him cigarettes without an ID, punched him and pulled him to the ground. Bystanders restrained Ramsey until police arrived. Dodd, who came to the U.S. from India and owns the convenience store, noted in a written statement to the court that hate crimes are on the rise in America. The FBI says hate crimes increased by 40% in Oregon from 2016 to 2017.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: Weather officials say the state has already recorded the average number of tornadoes for a year even before the summer period in which severe weather is most common. Meteorologist Sarah Johnson of the National Weather Service says 16 tornadoes – the yearly average – have had preliminary confirmation in the commonwealth so far this year. Severe weather is more common in June and into July, but that’s not a hard and fast rule. For example, Johnson says, a large outbreak of severe weather occurred Oct. 2 across Pennsylvania. In recent weeks, Johnson says, the high plains and Mid-Atlantic have been getting the brunt of low-pressure systems bringing precipitation. On Thursday, six tornado warnings were issued across the commonwealth in a span of just two hours.

Rhode Island

Newport: The mansion once owned by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Edith Wharton is on the market for nearly $12 million. The Providence Journal reports that Land’s End in Newport, where Wharton and her husband lived in the late 19th century, is for sale at $11.7 million. It was more recently owned by socialite Marion Oates Charles, who died there in December. The 24-room mansion on a 5.6-acre estate was built in 1880. It’s located on a street that runs between two of the city’s most famous thoroughfares, Bellevue Avenue and the Cliff Walk. Kendra Toppa, the listing agent, said the property “truly epitomizes Newport real estate at its finest.” Wharton won the Pulitzer for 1920’s “The Age of Innocence” and also wrote “Ethan Frome” and “The House of Mirth.”

South Carolina

Charleston: The city kicked off 17 days of operas, plays, chamber music and jazz Friday as the world-renowned Spoleto Festival USA returns. The 43rd season of the arts festival began with the opening ceremony from Charleston City Hall. It will run through June 9. The spotlighted performance is the opera “Salome.” Spoleto plans a contemporary retelling of the 1905 Richard Strauss opera, based on an Oscar Wilde play of the same name about the Biblical story of the woman who asked for the head of John the Baptist. The Spoleto Festival USA choir will join the festival’s orchestra and the Charleston Symphony for a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion on June 4. The festival will take place in 11 indoor and outdoor venues.

South Dakota

Houghton: An 88-year-old man has made his mark on this farming community as a prolific gopher killer. Clayton Sanderson of Houghton estimates he has caught 22,000 of the varmints since he started hunting them down in 1997. Sanderson told the Aberdeen News he doesn’t poison the animals because poison is expensive, and he can’t reach their bodies if they go deep into their gopher holes to die, making it harder for him to turn them into profit. So he widens the top of the hole and sets a trap with two pressure-triggered arms. He says he’s been bitten only once in 22 years. Farmers hate gophers, he said, “with a passion,” because of the damage wrought on their farm equipment when they hit the mounds at the entrance of the gopher holes. Sanderson said he earns $3 for every set of gopher front paws he hands over to Shelby or Lansing township officials.

Tennessee

Jasper: A University of Tennessee doctoral student is resurrecting research that was abandoned nearly 80 years ago that could be crucial for Tennessee Valley Authority’s understanding of long-term weather patterns that factor into the agency’s decisions regarding water. Scientist Florence Hawley began research in the 1930s studying tree rings to understand long-term weather patterns in the Norris Basin, The Times Free Press reports. She worked at TVA in its earliest days but faced sexism on the job and was never allowed to publish her results, according to TVA officials. She abandoned TVA in the 1940s and went to work in the Southwest. Her research was recently found in the TVA archives. The utility provider approached the University of Tennessee about finishing the work, and doctoral student Laura Smith has taken on the task.

Texas

Dallas: The police chief has announced a youth jobs program meant to give children something to do during high-crime summer months and better connect officers to underserved areas. The Dallas Morning News reports Chief U. Renee Hall says the DPD to You(th) initiative will focus on students from schools with higher rates of crime and arrests. The project involves recruiting 50 students, from schools primarily in South Dallas, and inserting them in occupations with city government agencies, nonprofits and the Dallas Police Department. Volunteers will mentor the students in the program. Assistant City Manager Jon Fortune says the program “is critical as we look for ways to have a greater impact on the lives of teens.” Police officials also aim to host a citywide youth community service day.

Utah

Utah Lake: On a recent visit to Utah Lake’s west shore, Alison Green scrutinized sandstone outcrops, measuring lines chiseled into the stone by ancient hands, then doing her best to replicate them on gridded sheets. The 12-year-old from Sandy inspected one petroglyph cut into rock hundreds of years ago by Fremont Indians. “It shows the person has braided legs, and that could be a birthing scene,” she said. “That could mean it was a fertile area.” Green was among two dozen middle schoolers from Sandy’s Blessed Sacrament Catholic School recently doing archaeological surveys at the Adelbert Doyle Smith Family Preserve as part of an effort to list the 196-acre site on the National Register of Historic Places. “The kids are doing the work the way an entry-level archaeologist out of college would,” says John McHugh, a science teacher at Blessed Sacrament leading the expedition. He calls the school’s archaeology club the Shovel Bums, after the moniker given to rookie archaeologists who do the grunt work at excavation sites.

Vermont

Montpelier: Seven historic sites owned by the state are now open for the season. The sites include more than 80 historic structures and hundreds of acres of forest and farmland that opened Saturday. State Historic Preservation Officer Laura Trieschmann says the historic sites include prehistoric camps, Revolutionary War sites and the homes of U.S. presidents. She says they all shed light on the history of Vermont. Among the sites that opened include the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch, the Old Constitution House in Windsor and the Hubbardton Battlefield in Hubbardton. More than 70 public events and programs are scheduled this season at Vermont’s State Historic Sites.

Virginia

Richmond: A new television series with Ethan Hawke starring as the fiery abolitionist John Brown is set to film in the state. Gov. Ralph Northam’s office announced Thursday that production of the eight-part series will start in central Virginia this summer. The show is based on the novel “The Good Lord Bird” by best-selling author James McBride and is set to air on Showtime. Brown led a raid in 1859 on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, hoping to start an armed slave rebellion. The rebellion didn’t happen, and Brown was later hanged for treason. Before the raid, Brown and a group of abolitionist settlers killed five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in the Pottawatomie massacre.

Washington

Spokane Valley: Proponents of creating a 51st state have held a bake sale to raise money for their cause. The Spokesman-Review reports that supporters of the proposed Christian conservative state, which would span parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, raised money by auctioning pies and other desserts. The Liberty State Gala drew about 200 people in the city of Spokane Valley on Thursday evening. Speakers included Washington state Rep. Matt Shea, a Spokane Valley Republican who has championed the Liberty State movement. Shea spoke of the cultural and political differences between eastern and western Washington, denied the existence of global warming, and claimed the United States is “a Christian nation” under siege by atheists and Communists. Spokane City Councilman Mike Fagen and county Prosecutor Larry Haskell also attended.

West Virginia

Charleston: Republicans in the state Senate have pitched a broad-based education plan that allows for charter schools but doesn’t include vouchers. Senate President Mitch Carmichael released a lengthy draft of the proposal late Friday and said it’s a compromise that folds in many ideas backed by Democrats. “Nobody gets everything they want,” he said. The legislation includes a pay raise for teachers, mental health services for students and a provision that would withhold pay for teachers if a school is closed because of a strike. The proposal comes as the GOP-led legislature nears special session debate on education measures. Carmichael said he put out the draft of the bill Friday to give lawmakers time to read it so they can come back this week and propose changes before the Senate reconvenes. Republican Gov. Jim Justice issued a statement praising the bill.

Wisconsin

Fifield: Rock music blared from speakers as spectators watched speedsters zoom around a track Sunday afternoon. It was a big day for racing, with NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 and the Indy 500, but the races in this northern Wisconsin community featured machines a bit slower than Indy cars – lawn mowers. While all the vehicles must start their careers as actual riding lawn mowers, racers make a few adjustments, resulting in mowers that can travel as fast as 60 mph. At Sunday’s races, which were a fundraiser for the Fifield Fire Department, 30 mowers competed in five classes on a dirt track an eighth of a mile long. Blades are removed from racing lawn mowers and steel welded on the frame for stability. In some classes, machines must run on original lawn mower engines. All must have hydraulic brakes.

Wyoming

Casper: The Wyoming Symphony Orchestra has named Christopher Dragon as its new conductor and music director after a search lasting a year and a half. The Casper Star-Tribune reports the Casper orchestra announced Thursday the selection of the Australia-born conductor, who was one of four finalists for the job. Dragon programmed and performed a concert in January with the orchestra. Search committee chair Eric Unruh says Dragon was a hit with the audience and musicians, and his creativity and innovation stood out. Dragon has been an associate conductor with the Colorado Symphony for four years. He will be the Denver orchestra’s resident conductor for the next two years. Dragon says every concert in Casper next year will feature a Beethoven piece in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

From staff and wire reports