News from around our 50 States

Gov. Kay Ivey and the Department of Corrections intend to request bids for the construction of three new men’s prisons. If implemented, the plan would put 3,000 to 3,500 inmates in two facilities. A third would house an unspecified number of inmates with special needs. Early estimates of cost are $900 million, according to Jeff Dunn, the Alabama Department of Corrections commissioner. The department faces rising violence in facilities and lawsuits over inadequate medical and mental health care for inmates. It has previously sought to build new prisons, arguing they would be easier to staff and provide more rehabilitative services. But the proposals have run into opposition from legislators, who question the cost and the effectiveness of new facilities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its agricultural specialists at Los Angeles International Airport are working hard to keep pests and diseases from entering the country with imported Valentine’s Day flowers. The agency said in a statement that between Jan. 1 and Feb. 7, the specialists at LAX processed more than 16 million cut flower stems and intercepted 191 pests. More than 66 percent are from Colombia, 24 percent from Ecuador, 2.5 percent from Mexico and 1.7 percent from the Netherlands. The top imported flowers stems are roses, mixed bouquets and rose bouquets. The most common pests intercepted are species of aphids, thrips, moths, miner flies and mites.

The state will issue food stamps to all recipients March 4, the Department of Health and Social Services announced as the potential for another federal government shutdown loomed. The early issuance aims to reduce the wait time since the last payment. February’s payment was made Jan. 17 to all recipients amid the shutdown. As a result, those who were due for their March food stamps later in the month would have had to wait weeks longer than usual between payments. About half of SNAP recipients in Delaware would have gone 55 days or longer between payments. The average household that receives SNAP uses 90 percent of its funds three-quarters of the way through each month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Single and ready to mingle? A new survey shows the nation’s capital is actually a good place for dating, WUSA reports. But D.C. also takes the title of the loneliest place on Valentine’s Day. The Apartment List ranks Washington as the seventh-best city for dating out of 66 top markets. The district came in at No. 6 for men and at No. 8 for women. But D.C. also happens to be home to the nation’s loneliest group of people, according to Move.org, which factored in U.S. Census Bureau data and “a loneliness index informed by Google Trends data.” Census results show 70 percent of the district’s adult population is single.

Gov. Kim Reynolds will be “breaking bacon” with ambassadors from three visiting countries Friday, the day before the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. At the festival, whose theme this year is “Hello Piggy – East Meats West” in sync with the Chinese zodiac’s year of the pig, international delegations from Belgium, Iceland and Japan also plan to present Bacon Fest co-founder Brooks Reynolds with gifts from their countries to express their appreciation of Iowa’s most loved export. Tickets to the festival are still available online. In addition to endless varieties of bacon, the event includes activities for kids, demonstrations, contests, lectures, and adult fare like craft cocktails and beers, the Club Sizzle nightclub, and an after-party concert featuring Smash Mouth.

Authorities have rescued a deer found trapped in a storm drain, and officials say the animal may have been there for a week. Video of the rescue shows an animal control officer using a long pole with a loop to pull the animal out. After emerging, the doe bounds into a wooded area. Olathe police said in a Facebook post that someone stumbled across the animal Saturday while walking a dog in this Kansas City suburb. Police say the open manhole was about 12 feet deep, and the doe was “very agitated and in distress.” Officials say the animal had likely been there for a week because it was so emaciated. The video shows the manhole cover at the bottom of the drain.

What happens when you flush your pet fish down the porcelain body chute? Apparently, he comes back 20 pounds heavier with a craving for Lee’s Famous Recipe biscuits. At least that’s what a fisherman and his sister are speculating after he snagged a whopper of a goldfish – or perhaps a koi, experts say – in a Danville pond. Hunter Anderson, 22, says he and his girlfriend were driving home from Frankfort over the weekend when they stopped at a private pond in Boyle County, where they remembered it had some goldfish or koi fish. They had a rod in the car – and some leftover biscuits – and decided to drop in a line. Anderson says the golden swimmer weighed about 20 pounds, was 30 inches long and put up quite the fight.

Who says nice guys finish last? New research out of Michigan State University shows that kindness and emotional stability are more important predictors of happiness in relationships than similar personalities. “We kind of started the project looking at whether similar couples were happier. Shockingly, it turned out that they weren’t,” says William Chopik, assistant professor of psychology at the university. Chopik and Richard Lucas, MSU Foundation professor of psychology, reviewed data that examined happiness levels and personality traits among 2,578 heterosexual, married couples. Their findings were published in a report released just before Valentine’s Day.

Bills died. Deadlines passed. A committee meeting left lawmakers exasperated. But now, there is again a possibility farmers in the state will be growing hemp by spring. The House amended and passed a bill Tuesday that would legalize hemp production in the Magnolia State. The amendment was authored by Rep. Dana Criswell, R-Olive Branch. “Hemp is not marijuana,” Criswell reassured his fellow lawmakers. “This will not get you high.” Hemp belongs to the same species as marijuana but contains virtually none of the psychoactive component found in pot and has several industrial uses, including insulation, textiles and rope. For decades before a farm bill passed last year, hemp was classified as essentially the same as marijuana by the federal government.

Ruby Diamond shouted into the crowd Sunday night: “This is not your grandma’s bingo.” “This is my grandmother,” someone yelled back, pointing to an older woman nearby. Diamond, above, a veteran drag queen with many shows under her girdle, rolled her eyes and smiled. Then she warned the audience to toughen up. The drag queens they were about to meet are all “equal opportunity offenders,” she said. “We are here to have fun and raise money for Harmony House,” Diamond said. Drag Queen Charity Bingo – an increasingly popular fundraising event for local nonprofits – happens on most Sundays at Fuzion Night Club. Club owner Vince Edwards says the events raised about $15,000 for charities last year.

Job growth and a manufacturing boom propelled Reno to the No. 11 spot while Las Vegas was ranked 23rd in an annual report that rated the best-performing cities in the nation. The greater Reno-Sparks metro area just missed the top 10 in the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities of 2018 list. The ranking represents a big improvement for the Biggest Little City, which was ranked 37th overall the previous year. New jobs helped propel Reno in the rankings, which led the nation for its job growth rate in the report. The metro area also ranked 10th in the nation for wage growth. Increasing wages is a top priority for Reno-Sparks, which has seen a steep increase in the cost of housing in the past few years – the area’s biggest liability, according to the report.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new state law that makes residency a condition of voting in the state, saying it unconstitutionally restricts the right to vote for students. New Hampshire has been the only state that doesn’t require residency. The lawsuit filed Wednesday against Secretary of State William Gardner and Attorney General Gordon MacDonald was brought on behalf of two Dartmouth College students. They say the law, which takes effect July 1, burdens their right to vote by requiring new voters to shift their home state driver’s licenses and registrations to New Hampshire. Current law allows college students and others to vote who consider the state their “domicile.”

The second annual “Be My Forever Valentine” event at the Bergen County Animal Shelter runs through Thursday and for the first time is allowing potential pet adopters to name their price, dropping the adoption fee as low as $20. The shelter has 171 cats, 50 dogs, eight rabbits and four guinea pigs available during a relatively quiet time for the adoption center, director Deborah Yankow says. She says dogs are more likely to get adopted, but cats are most frequently brought to the shelter. “We have a lot of senior animals. It can be hard to get them adopted,” she says. Any person or family who wants to adopt has to go through the shelter’s matchmaking program, Yankow says. The process includes a comprehensive application and an ideal household evaluation.

Increasing contamination and drastic cuts in materials accepted by China are putting a heavy strain on local recycling programs, city officials say. China once bought 30 to 40 percent of recyclables from the United States but in July 2017 announced it would stop accepting many types of plastics and “foreign garbage,” instead focusing on domestic recycling efforts. That has raised questions about the viability of recycling programs across the U.S. and other parts of the world. That is compounded in Asheville and other places by a rising rate of contamination in recyclables, leading to tangled machinery and low prices for used materials or outright rejection from buyers.

Hip-hop superstar Cardi B (above), jam-pop staple Dave Matthews Band, rock hitmakers The Killers and acclaimed R&B singer Khalid are among the artists set for the 2019 Beale Street Music Festival. The 43rd edition of the multiday concert event will take place May 3-5 at Tom Lee Park. The music fest kicks off the monthlong Memphis in May festivities. Continuing a recent trend, the 2019 fest's lineup has a relative abundance of hip-hop. In addition to Cardi B and G-Eazy, the roster includes Outkast’s Big Boi, Atlanta MC 6lack, Ohioan Trippie Redd, and Memphis stars Moneybagg Yo and Blocboy JB. Typically, Memphis in May selects and honors a foreign country each year. This year, however, the festival will honor Memphis itself, as the city celebrates its 200th anniversary during May. Tickets and passes for the fest are available now.

Signs championed by former Gov. Scott Walker that welcomed visitors to a state “Open for Business” are being turned into detour signs. An official in Gov. Tony Evers’ administration said in a letter this month that the signs donning Walker’s economic development mantra will be repurposed for emergency situations. “Therefore, the old signs will be cut in half with no material wasted,” said the letter from Department of Administration enterprise operations administrator James Langdon to Republican Rep. John Macco of Ledgeview. Walker introduced the signs in 2011 as a symbol of his plan to create thousands of new jobs in Wisconsin. He touted the phrase relentlessly in the early years of his time in office.