Fireflies, National Teacher of the Year, scary doll: News from around our 50 states

Ozone pollution in Maricopa County has declined in the past two decades, but not enough to escape an “F” rating from the American Lung Association, which tracks air quality across the nation. The health organization released its 20th annual “State of the Air” report Wednesday and ranked Phoenix as the seventh most ozone-polluted metropolitan area in the country – one spot worse than last year. “A lot has to do with climate change,” says JoAnna Strother, the ALA’s director of advocacy for the Southwest region. “That and Phoenix has 1.6 million people, and a big chunk of them live in the metro area, where a lot of people are driving and sitting in standstill traffic. All of that contributes to ozone.”

The city will officially unveil Obama Boulevard on May 4 with a daylong festival at the site where it’ll intersect with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The name change honoring former President Barack Obama will replace the current Rodeo Road. Ceremony plans say the event will be free, but tickets must be obtained online. The 3 1/2-mile street runs between LA’s Mid City area and suburban Culver City. Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson spearheaded the renaming, which was approved last August, adding Obama to boulevards already named for George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Late last year, a section of the Los Angeles-area State Route 134 freeway was designated as the President Barack H. Obama Highway. Rodeo Road is distinct from Rodeo Drive, the swanky business district in Beverly Hills.

The state Supreme Court will decide whether a large-capacity magazine ban is constitutional. Colorado’s highest court announced Monday that it will review Rocky Mountain Gun Owners and National Association for Gun Rights’ legal challenge of the controversial 2013 law that banned the sale and possession of rifle and pistol magazines with more than 15 cartridges. People who already owned large-capacity magazines when the law went into effect could keep but not sell them. Lower courts ruled the law is constitutional. The state Supreme Court would have the last word on the law unless it rules in favor of the state of Colorado and the plaintiffs successfully appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The “kissing bug” – which bites people around their mouths and can pass along the fatal disease Chagas – has officially made it to the state. In September, the Centers for Disease Control foreshadowed the deadly bloodsucker’s arrival in Delaware. The federal agency warned that the bug was making its way north from Central and South America and had been reported in states such as Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. But it wasn’t until last week that the CDC confirmed an actual sighting in the First State. The bite is often painless, but it can spread Chagas as the insect’s infected feces flows through the open wound. A Kent County family reports their child’s face was bitten by a bug last summer, and a subsequent investigation identified the culprit.

Middle school students gathered downtown Tuesday night to share their ideas on how to reduce gun violence in the city, WUSA-TV reports. Aliyah Harrison, of West Education Campus, and Michelle Marshall, of the Washington School for Girls, were both named ambassadors in the D.C. division of this year’s “Do the Write Thing Challenge,” part of a larger national essay contest that highlights students’ violence-prevention ideas. Nearly 200 middle schoolers from the district participated in this year’s competition, organized by the office of D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Harrison, 13, said in her Northwest neighborhood, it is not uncommon for locals to be exposed to violence. But she believes they can fix the problem simply by being nicer to one another. Marshall echoed Harrison’s sentiments, lamenting that “all of this violence is picking us off, one by one.”

State auditors have found that a veterans affairs agency may have misspent nearly $775,000 in federal welfare funds. The spending at the Indiana Department of Veterans’ Affairs included more than $20,000 for couple’s retreats at a high-end resort and casino, $56,000 in child care benefits and $683,000 for contract employees at the agency. In each of those cases, auditors could not find documentation that the spending met the program’s criteria or that recipients were qualified. The findings could put a small but significant amount of the state’s federal welfare dollars at risk. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which provides Indiana with $206 million annually through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, can require states to repay misspent funds.

Most players for the Triple-A Iowa Cubs live in hotels or apartments during the season, but one of the team’s minor league pitchers has chosen to live in a self-built, 104-square-foot tiny house this summer. Trevor Clifton was a 12th round draft pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2013. He made his Triple-A debut with Iowa last season after being the Cubs’ top minor league pitcher in 2016. Trevor and his father constructed the tiny home during the offseason and transported it to Des Moines. Clifton bought a $200 camper online, and the pair gutted it until it was just a trailer. They built the tiny home on that. Trevor says it’s the inexpensive housing he wanted and provides peace and quiet.

Officials say 10 fruit tree saplings that were to be planted by students to celebrate Earth Day were apparently stolen before they could be put in the ground. The trees that cost about $200 had been placed outside Battle Creek Montessori Academy in Springfield on Friday in preparation for Monday’s scheduled planting. When Jessica Eldridge, the head of the school, and others went out to get them, they were gone. As word of the apparent theft spread, parents and businesses donated money and replacement trees. Those trees were planted Monday. Eldridge says officials anticipate the school “will have a really good orchard in a few years.” Students will learn to care for the trees and eventually harvest fruit.

A bill that would raise the bed tax in the state to provide funding for the Montana Heritage Center and grants for other museums was passed by a House panel Wednesday as the clock runs out this legislative session. Senate Bill 338, also called the Montana Museums Act of 2020, was approved by House Appropriations 16-6. It would increase the statewide accommodations tax from 3% to 4% to pay for the new home for the Montana Historical Society, which has been collecting historical artifacts since 1865. The bill was heard by the committee on Day 86 of the 90-day session. Several people spoke in favor of the proposal, saying it would benefit the state. A museum official says efforts to provide funding to expand the facility had fallen short over the past 16 years.

The zoo is asking for the public’s help in naming a giraffe born last week. The calf was born April 16 to Dottie, a 19-year-old female giraffe, and Jawara, a 10-year-old male. The third calf born by Dottie, it weighed 152 pounds and measured about 6 feet tall a day after birth. Dottie and the calf are on display to Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium guests in a separate area of the giraffe exhibit before they’re introduced to the rest of the herd in the upcoming weeks. The zoo now has 11 giraffes – one male and 10 female, including the new calf. Name suggestions are accepted on the zoo’s Facebook page beginning Friday through May 10. The winning name will be announced May 17.

The producers of “The Many Saints of Newark,” the much-anticipated big-screen prequel to “The Sopranos” TV series, are looking for extras, seeking people of all ages to play the residents of the Essex County seat in 1967. The casting call is Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Express Newark. “It’s an exciting opportunity for New Jersey residents to be part of TV history, as well as New Jersey history,” says Kenneth Gifford, director of Newark’s Office of Film & Television. “To have ‘The Sopranos’ back in New Jersey is a great thing.” Michael Gandolfini will be playing a youthful Tony Soprano, the role made famous by his late father, James Gandolfini of Park Ridge. The story shows young Tony as a grade school kid in Newark being initiated into organized crime.

The recently approved state budget has $110 million for the state’s parks system, including millions for a new park to be built in Brooklyn. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and fellow Democrats who lead the Legislature announced Monday that upgrades are scheduled this year at 47 state parks and historic sites. The funding includes $20 million to develop a new 400-acre park named in honor of Shirley Chisholm (above), a Brooklyn native who was the first African American woman in Congress. Other major expenditures include $2.2 million for Saratoga Spa State Park, more than $3.8 million for Rockland Lake State Park, nearly $8 million for seven western New York parks and $15.2 million for Long Island’s Jones Beach State Park.

Aging fat men who fish or swim on the coast this summer should be aware that a nasty microbe lurks in the water, looking for out-of-shape guys to infect with potentially lethal toxins. The microbe, called vibrio, has grown more prevalent in brackish coastal waters in the past 20 years as the planet’s climate has changed. Vibrio bacteria can wash into open cuts and rapidly worsen, causing swelling and massive infections. They also can seep into wounds, get into the bloodstream and attack a person’s liver, eventually causing cirrhosis and even liver cancer, according to researchers at the University of South Carolina. Those most at risk are people who already are sick or who have developed a minor liver disease that often results from poor eating habits – and no group appears more susceptible to liver problems than overweight men, USC scientists say.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are announcing the predicted peak dates for viewing the park’s synchronous fireflies this year. A news release says the fireflies are expected to exhibit their unique synchronous flashing between May 30 and June 6. All visitors wishing to view the fireflies during this period must have a parking pass distributed by a lottery, which is open for applications April 26-29 at www.recreation.gov or by calling 1-877-444-6777. The application fee is $1, and successful applicants will be charged a $24 reservation fee. The park has limited access to the Elkmont area during the predicted peak activity of the fireflies since 2006 to reduce traffic and minimize the disturbance to the fireflies during the critical two-week mating period.

A docked replica of a Christopher Columbus ship that sank in 2017 days after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas has swamped again. Officials say divers will examine La Nina at the Corpus Christi Marina before efforts begin to refloat the ship that sank Tuesday. La Nina, although in disrepair, has been a tourist attraction. The 75-foot ship sank in August 2017 after Harvey but was repaired and refloated. The volunteer Columbus Sailing Association said it could no longer maintain the ship after Harvey. Corpus Christi leaders are also trying to find someone to restore the replica built by Spain in the 1980s to mark the 500th anniversary of the Columbus voyage to the New World. Association President Kim Mrazek said Tuesday that donations have funded prior La Nina repairs.

Marshall University’s summer journalism workshop for high school students will use a health and wellness theme to look at opioid recovery efforts in the region. The W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications was selected by the Dow Jones News Fund as one of 10 programs nationally to participate. Marshall’s Carter G. Woodson Professor Burnis Morris will direct the program. He has directed a high school journalism workshop at Marshall since 2009 and says the school will work with The Herald-Dispatch, which has previously funded Marshall’s journalism workshops. Interested students can find more information online. The workshop is scheduled for June 23-28. The application deadline is May 11. Students selected will receive free tuition and room and board. There is no registration fee.

Moving to a new home is not easy – packing and cleaning, then unpacking, more cleaning, getting settled, and figuring out the ins and outs of the new abode. And if you’re a 5-ton African elephant, changing addresses comes with its own set of challenges. Milwaukee County Zoo visitors may have noticed Brittany and Ruth have been AWOL since October. Their exhibit near the hippos, across from the giraffes, has been vacant while the 38-year-old pachyderms are getting used to their new $16.6 million pad that opens to the public May 4. In the massive reconstruction that has transformed roughly one-quarter of the zoo, there’s a 98,000-gallon watering hole for elephants to frolic in their 1.6-acre outdoor habitat that includes feeding and enrichment walls and shade structures. Cleverly disguised in a fake tree trunk is a large back scratcher that used to be a street sweeper.