Boy Scout camp sale, courthouse concerns, Crazy Mountains: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Birmingham: Work has begun on a $34 million project to develop a nearly mile-long area beneath an elevated interstate highway through Birmingham with attractions that include spaces for performances and recreation. City Walk BHAM will be located under Interstate 59/20, which was recently rebuilt and lies between the main downtown area and the city’s civic center, indoor arena and new football stadium, which is opening this fall. Construction began recently, and officials hope the project will be done by July 2022, when Birmingham will host the World Games, an international sporting event. The project will cover the length of 10 city blocks. Plans include areas for markets, sports fields, green spaces, a dog park, a skate park, performances and food trucks. Birmingham-based Brasfield and Gorrie is the main contractor working on the project.

Alaska

Anchorage: The leaders of the state’s Republican Party on Saturday endorsed a challenger to incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been one of the GOP’s most outspoken critics of former President Donald Trump, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The Alaska Republican State Central Committee endorsed Kelly Tshibaka in the 2022 race for the U.S. Senate seat held by Murkowski. The committee approved Tshibaka’s endorsement in a 58-17 vote during a meeting in Fairbanks, the newspaper reports. In a statement, Tshibaka said she will uphold conservative ideals and be a senator who Alaskans “can depend to make every decision based on what is best for our great state.” Tshibaka, who ran the Alaska Department of Administration, announced March 29 that she would run for the Senate seat held by Murkowski, who has been in office since 2002. On March 13, the Republican State Central Committee voted 53-17 to censure Murkowski, citing her vote to impeach Trump and other votes that have broken with GOP leadership. Alaska Republican Party leaders said at the time that they would recruit someone to run against her. Trump has endorsed Tshibaka. “Lisa Murkowski is bad for Alaska,” the former president said in a statement last month. “Murkowski has got to go!”

Arizona

Phoenix: A Boy Scout council that serves most of the state plans to sell its main summer camp near Payson and part of a Phoenix facility to help the national organization settle claims by thousands of victims of child sex abuse. The Phoenix-based Grand Canyon Council said it will sell Camp Geronimo and 10 acres of Heard Scout Pueblo and shift its summer camp operations to Camp Raymond near Flagstaff. “This option leverages the high net value of Camp Geronimo and the rising real estate values in Arizona against our program needs; we will retain the most-used portion of the Heard while giving up the portion under-utilized by us yet highly valued to others,” the council said Wednesday on its website. The council said it must contribute just over $7 million toward the settlement and reviewed its options carefully. “The process has been difficult and at times emotional, as everyone has strong ties to our various camps, and each is loved for its own special characteristics.” The council serves most of central and northern Arizona. The Tucson-based Catalina Council serves most of southern Arizona, while parts of northwestern and northeastern Arizona are served by councils based respectively in Las Vegas and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Arkansas

Fort Smith: The authenticity of a United Nations designation that was given to the city by an artist is now being questioned. At a ceremony last Tuesday, Nigerian artist Ibiyinka Alao announced Fort Smith became the 10th city in the world to be declared a “United Nations international city for artistic and cultural innovation in peace building and economic growth.” Fort Smith Mayor George McGill attended the event. Alao, who is a guest artist in residence with a nonprofit group in nearby Rogers, said the U.N. declaration is given to cities that support the arts. Alao is described as a U.N. art ambassador. But Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the secretary-general of the U.N., said he is not aware of an “ambassador of the arts” in the organization. He also said the U.N. does not designate cities with the title Alao gave Fort Smith. “This has all the hallmarks of a scam,” Dujarric told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He said the U.N. legal team has been notified of the situation. Asked Friday about Dujarric’s statement, Alao said it was simply his assessment. He said the word “designation,” which Dujarric used and has been used in news articles to describe the declaration, is misleading: “It’s just a declaration, which is my assessment of what a city is doing to foster the arts, use the arts as a tool for economic development and peace building.”

California

Indio: Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood and Luke Combs are slated to headline the return of the Stagecoach Festival next spring. Other festival highlights include Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile and country legend Tanya Tucker on Friday, April 29, masked country singer Orville Peck and alternative country vocalist Margo Price on Saturday, April 30, and rock band The Black Crowes and Motown legend Smokey Robinson on Sunday, May 1. A summer announcement is unusual, as the lineup is typically released in October. Los Angeles-based producer Goldenvoice announced on the Stagecoach Twitter last week that it was forgoing an advance sale in lieu of an early lineup release. Both Coachella and Stagecoach were postponed twice before the April 2021 dates were canceled. Some fans hoped the festivals would be rescheduled for October, as the city of Indio has a contract with Goldenvoice that allows for five concerts each year. Rhett and Underwood were announced as headliners for the 2020 festival, along with Eric Church. The previous lineup also included Billy Ray Cyrus, ZZ Top and Alan Jackson and Bryan Adams.

Colorado

Denver: Ahead of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game this week, city officials are facing scrutiny from advocates who accuse them of accelerating the clearing of homeless encampments near Coors Field as the sports world turns its attention to Colorado’s capital city. Mayor Michael Hancock has emphatically denied that the All-Star Game influenced any clearing decisions, saying the city is just getting caught up after suspending cleanups at the beginning of the pandemic. It resumed regular cleanups last summer. Officials knew before the city was chosen as the All-Star host that it faced a big cleanup effort, with more encampments than ever, Hancock said. In cleanups, also called homeless “sweeps,” encampments are fenced off, and the people living in tents there are told to pack up and leave so the area can be cleaned. In March, just before Denver was chosen as a substitute host – Major League Baseball pulled it from Atlanta in April over objections to Georgia’s voting law that critics condemned as being too restrictive – data shows sweeps increased, with cleanups taking place over nine days. The previous peak over the past year was eight days, in October. But the sweeps picked up even more in May and June with 17 scheduled cleanups taking 22 days, according to public records first reported by online news outlet Denverite.

Connecticut

East Lyme: Six National Guard soldiers were sent to the hospital for observation Monday after experiencing heat-related issued during a training march. Maj. Dave Pytlik, a spokesperson with the Connecticut National Guard, said the soldiers were among several dozen participating this week in officer training school at the Guard’s Stone’s Ranch Military Reservation in East Lyme. Monday is what is known as “ruck march” day, when the soldiers carry heavy backpacks on a rigorous 6-mile training march, he said. Pytlik said medical personnel, including a doctor, were on hand as part of precautions for the early morning march and responded appropriately to treat those suffering dehydration and other heat-related symptoms. “The issue is that someone came on the network and used the term ‘mass-casualty incident’ and said someone was unresponsive,” he said. “There was nobody who was unresponsive, and mass-casualty kind of means something different in the world than it means to us.” He said the six soldiers were taken to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London for observation, but nobody was seriously injured. Pytlik said minor injuries and dehydration are relatively common issues during training marches.

Delaware

Dover: The Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles is turning its operations back to pre-COVID-19 “normal” conditions. That means DMV buildings will return to full capacity, among other changes. The Delaware State News reports the changes will be made Tuesday after Gov. John Carney’s state of emergency declaration is lifted. Starting Tuesday, mask recommendations will follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Customers who have not been fully vaccinated will be encouraged to continue wearing face coverings while at the DMV. Driver license and vehicle registration suspensions for bad checks will also resume. So will uninsured motorist customer notifications for any outstanding balance owed to the DMV. Class D road tests and counter eye exams are also set to resume. Specific guidance will be in place from the Delaware Division of Public Health to protect both customers and staff. Marinah Carver, chief of communications for DMV, said staff is to be commended for its service to the public during the pandemic.

District of Columbia

Washington: Drivers who frequent Rock Creek Park’s Beach Drive during late mornings and early afternoons will need to reroute themselves to accommodate an extensive renovation project, WUSA-TV reports. As of Monday, the segment of Beach Drive between Shoreham Drive and Tilden Street Northwest will be closed to traffic daily between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to D.C.’s Department of Transportation. The closures will remain in effect until at least Dec. 20. The detours are part of the city’s larger 3.7-mile renovation project that will consolidate the existing paths into part of the Rock Creek Park Multi-Use Trail and Pedestrian Bridge project. This includes the addition of a 110-foot bridge south of the Smithsonian National Zoo tunnel that will reroute foot and bike traffic off the existing narrow footpath that flows directly adjacent to traffic inside the current tunnel. DDOT expects the entire trail renovation to be completed sometime in spring 2023. The rehabilitation process comes nearly three years after a trail adjacent to the National Zoo collapsed following extreme flooding. Foot and bike traffic have subsequently been forced to use the narrow sidewalk in the Beach Drive tunnel.

Florida

Miami: The Miami-Dade County Courthouse will begin undergoing repairs immediately after a review, prompted by the deadly collapse of a nearby condominium building, found that safety concerns exist within the courthouse, officials said. A joint statement from multiple leaders released late Friday said an engineer’s report recommended floors 16 and above be closed to staff at the courthouse. The leaders decided all courthouse employees would go back to working from home. The statement said workers only recently returned to the building after working remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Court operations will go back to a remote format until the safety concerns are addressed. People with upcoming court proceedings scheduled to take place in person will be receiving a new notice with instructions, the statement said. Specific details about what repairs are needed were not disclosed. The courthouse was built in 1928 and added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1989, news outlets report. The building has 28 floors. The building underwent a review following the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, where the toll is likely to top 100.

Georgia

Macon: A new initiative at the Mercer University School of Medicine conceived by a retired federal judge is helping poor people in rural Georgia erase their medical debt. The Mercer Family Cares Initiative, funded by three families with ties to the university, is retiring more than $4.3 million in medical debt for nearly 3,000 people who live in 33 Georgia counties, according to a news release from the university. The idea came from retired U.S. District Judge William Duffey, who served in the northern district of Georgia and was previously a partner at King & Spalding law firm in Atlanta, after he noticed inflated prices for items on his own medical bills. He did some research and found that the system is needlessly confusing and fraught with undue and unreasonable expenses, particularly for those who are least able to pay. “I’ve always wondered how people navigate the system, especially those who didn’t have the patience, time or resources,” Duffey said in the news release. Mercer’s medical school works on issues related to access to medical care in rural Georgia, and Duffey reached out to two friends who had graduated from Mercer Law, one a current university trustee and one a former trustee, to see about helping to resolve medical debt for people living in poverty.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A nonprofit organization that serves and advocates for the Micronesian and Pacific islander communities plans to open a youth center in Honolulu this month. The center will offer college and career prep, cultural exhibitions, mentorship programs and study areas, We Are Oceania CEO Josie Howard told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. It will have resources for homeless youth and families, she said. “Just like a home means everything to a family, this center will be the same,” Howard said. “It’s a place where they can come and seek help. Somebody is there to help, and somebody is there who understands them.” The Youth Empowerment Center, the first of its kind for We Are Oceania, is located inside a former American Savings Bank branch in Liliha that offered the space to the nonprofit rent-free. University of Hawaii at Manoa undergraduate K-nard Narruhn, who is Chuukese, is recruiting youth mentors and said he is excited to continue working as one himself. The 22-year-old who helps organize and run food drives, vaccination clinics, translation services, and unemployment and housing support remembers getting help from We Are Oceania after he dropped out of high school and was going from job to job feeling unfulfilled. Narruhn earned his high school equivalency diploma and enrolled in college, making the dean’s list.

Idaho

Buhl: A far-right extremist group whose members took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol participated with a float in the town’s July 3 parade. The Times-News reports Proud Boys members were among about 100 floats in the Sagebrush Days parade. The Buhl Chamber of Commerce runs the parade but wouldn’t comment specifically about the Proud Boys taking part. “At this time the Buhl Chamber (of) Commerce will not feed into any negative propaganda,” the group said in a statement to the newspaper. “The Buhl 2021 Sagebrush Days parade saw 90 plus entries who celebrated in a courteous and civil manner.” Chamber officials later told the paper they were looking into the process for reviewing parade entries. On Jan. 6, the Proud Boys marched to the Capitol before then-President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House. The insurrectionists who descended on the Capitol sent terrified lawmakers running for their lives. Twin Falls County, where Buhl is located, overwhelmingly voted for Trump. In Buhl, men accompanying the Proud Boys float wore black and yellow shirts while carrying an American flag and a black flag with the yellow letters “P.B.” “I was surprised as anyone else to see that particular float go by,” said Buhl City Councilman Michael Higbee. Idaho has a history of far-right groups. The neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations was based near Hayden Lake in northern Idaho starting in the 1970s.

Illinois

Carbondale: A Southern Illinois University researcher is tracking coyotes and bobcats to understand the habitats they seek and how they affect them. Nicole Gorman, a graduate zoology student and a research assistant at SIU’s Wildlife Research Laboratory in Carbondale, is studying the movement of bobcats and coyotes in central and southern Illinois. Such midsize predators dominate North America, and it’s critical to understand their impact, she said. “Studying predator movement specifically can provide scientists with more details about their behavior and how they might be interacting with their environments and other species around them,” Gorman said. “This understanding can lead to effective wildlife management, benefiting predator and prey species alike.” Since starting in November 2019, Gorman has captured and tagged 33 of the animals at sites near Makanda and Lake Shelbyville. She said she traps them safely with foothold or cage traps and fits them with GPS transmitters to follow them. She studies the incoming data to determine habitats they like and those they avoid. She also reviews their interaction with deer as part of a project on white-tailed deer movement sponsored by the U.S. Wildlife Restoration Fund and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. She’s found coyotes and bobcats in heavily forested southern Illinois need not travel far to sustain themselves, but in the more agricultural central Illinois, their range can exceed 200 square miles.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The number of abortions performed in the state grew slightly last year, with a new report showing drug-induced abortions made up a majority of the procedures for the first time. The annual report from the state health department shows that the number of abortions in Indiana grew by 119, or 1.6%, to 7,756 during 2020. That increased number remained below the some 8,000 performed in 2018, Indiana’s highest total since 2014. Drug-induced abortions represented 55% of Indiana’s total, up from 44% during 2019 and about double the state’s rate from 2016. Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature passed a law this year aimed at requiring doctors to tell women undergoing such abortions about a disputed “abortion reversal” treatment for potentially stopping the process. That law, however, was blocked by a federal judge just before it was set to take effect July 1. Indiana recorded about 79,000 live births last year. Indiana Right to Life President Mike Fichter blamed the abortion increase on several anti-abortion laws passed by state legislators being blocked by federal courts. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Nicole Erwin said the COVID-19 pandemic added pressure to many women facing unintended pregnancies, and making contraception more accessible and affordable was the best way to reduce such pregnancies.

Iowa

Des Moines: Efforts to reduce overcrowding in the state’s prisons have been continued into a second year after beginning in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from the state. As of June 14, Iowa’s prison population was 7,744 people, the Legislative Service Agency reported. That’s an increase of only 52 people compared to the previous year, a change of less than 1%. In comparison, there were nearly 9,000 people in the state’s prisons in 2011. Since then, 2014 was the last time fewer than 8,000 Iowans were in state prison at the end of the fiscal year. The current numbers mean about 245 out of each 100,000 Iowans are behind bars. The number was last that low in the late 1990s, according to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative. The Legislative Service Agency’s report uses data from the Iowa Department of Corrections and compares Iowa’s prison population, including admissions and releases, in the 2020 and 2021 budget years. The Legislative Service Agency attributed some of the decline in Iowa’s prison population, admissions and releases to COVID-19 mitigation policies. The Iowa Department of Corrections worked with the Iowa Board of Parole and community-based corrections to transition “as many inmates as possible” to community supervision to reduce prison populations, according to the report.

Kansas

Topeka: Health officials are investigating an outbreak of COVID-19 cases at a summer camp in Butler County, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced last week. Thirteen cases were reported in the past two weeks and 23 cases overall at the AGK Ministries summer camp at the Wheat State Retreat Center near Maize held June 21-25, the KDHE reports. State and Butler County health officials are investigating and urging anyone who attended the camp to be tested for the coronavirus. The camp is one of four camps listed by the state Thursday as COVID-19 cluster locations based on cases in the prior 14 days. The others are Christ the King Summer Camp and Early Education Center in Topeka, with nine cases; Moana Camp in Overland Park, with five cases; and West Central Christian Service Camp in the Johnson County town of Missouri, with seven cases.

Kentucky

Louisville: A federal appeals court has ruled the state Department of Corrections can deny a life-saving medication for inmates with hepatitis C because it is expensive – a decision a dissenting judge said will condemn hundreds of prisoners to long-term organ damage and suffering. In a 2-1 ruling, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said last Tuesday that the department can deny the treatment, which cures nearly 100% of patients but costs $13,000 to $32,000. The majority found that denying it to most of Kentucky’s 1,200 inmates with hepatitis C does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. But in a sharply worded dissent, Judge Jane Stranch of Nashville said by “flouting the recognized standard of care,” the Corrections Department “consigns thousands of prisoners with symptomatic, chronic HCV to years of additional suffering and irreversible liver scarring.” She said by withholding medical treatment until the damage has progressed too far to be reversible, Kentucky’s rationing plan “shocks the conscience” and is fundamentally unfair. Louisville attorney Greg Belzley, who represents prisoners in a class-action lawsuit, called the decision “horrendous” and said they would ask for a rehearing or petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Edwin Washington Edwards, the high-living, quick-witted four-term governor who reshaped the state’s oil revenues and dominated its politics for decades in a run all but overshadowed by scandal and eight years in federal prison, died Monday. He was 93. Edwards died of respiratory problems with family and friends by his bedside, family spokesman Leo Honeycutt said, days after entering hospice care at his home in Gonzales. “I’ve made no bones that I have considered myself on borrowed time for 20 years and we each know that all this fun has to end at some point,” Edwards said days before he died, according to his family’s statement. The “Cajun King” was known for delivering a steady supply of memorable one-liners as well as for his deft political instincts. Infamously, the lifelong Democrat said once said that the only way he could lose to a particularly lackluster Republican was if he were “caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy.” A native of Louisiana’s Acadiana region who swore his 1972 oath of office in French and English, Edwards enjoyed renewed popularity after emerging from prison in 2011 at age 83 with his flamboyant character intact. The federal case that led to his May 2000 conviction involved him taking payoffs from interests seeking riverboat casino licenses.

Maine

Augusta: Endangered Atlantic salmon in the Kennebec River can be protected without removing four hydroelectric dams, federal energy regulators said, leaving conservation groups stunned. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reached the conclusion in a draft environmental assessment July 1 in the relicensing of one of four dams owned by the Canada-based Brookfield Renewables. The regulators said the fish can be protected and brought back to a population of at least 2,000, even if the Shawmut Dam in Benton injures or kills as many as 4% of them. That’s a lower bar than both conservationists and Maine’s Department of Marine Resources have called for. “It’s really bad. It’s incredibly bad,” said Nick Bennett, a staff scientist at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, told Maine Public. FERC assessment also failed to meet fish passage standards recommended by its sister agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service, he said. “Both National Marine Services and the Department of Marine Resources recommended dam removal. FERC completely ignored that,” he said. In a statement, a Brookfield spokesman said FERC’s proposed conditions are consistent with most of the company’s own recommendations, including the completion of a fish-lift at the Shawmut dam.

Maryland

Ocean City: A software glitch in some parking kiosks may have cost the city as much as $20,000 in revenue. Flowbird, which runs kiosks in downtown Ocean City, had performed a software update July 1 that led to some customers being charged multiple times, Ocean City spokeswoman Jessica Waters said. When city officials learned of the problem, they shut down paid parking July 5-6. Waters said that resulted in a revenue loss that has been estimated to be as much as $20,000. The problem also affected other communities with Flowbird kiosks, including Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Flowbird has since resolved the problem and is issuing refunds, Vice President of Marketing Sean Renn said. He said that there were no security violations or hacks and that all customer data is safe.

Massachusetts

Boston: The U.S.S. Constitution is returning to its full summer visitation hours this week for the first time in more than a year. Starting Tuesday, the warship known as “Old Ironsides” will be open for free public tours from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. The ship suspended public visits in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic but reopened on a limited basis last August. After a second shutdown, it reopened with limited visitation hours in May. Visitors are allowed to freely explore the top three decks of Old Ironsides and hear active-duty Navy sailors explain the ship’s 223-year history. The ship welcomed more than 600,000 guests in 2019. The U.S.S. Constitution is the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat. It played a crucial role in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812, actively defending sea lanes from 1797 until 1855. The ship was undefeated in battle and destroyed or captured 33 enemy vessels. It earned its nickname during the War of 1812 when British cannonballs bounced off its wooden hull.

Michigan

Lansing: Republicans’ attempts to add an ID component to absentee ballot applications and to institute signature verification at polling places have died in the GOP-led Legislature, amid pushback from election clerks and voting-rights advocates. Rep. Ann Bollin, who chairs the House Elections and Ethics Committee, said she and many other House Republicans oppose a Senate-passed bill that would require absentee ballot applicants to include a copy of their photo ID, their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number. Those who do not would get a provisional ballot and have to either verify their voter registration or their identity and residence within six days after the election for it to count. “There was not support to make it more difficult for voters through the AV process,” said Bollin, of Brighton Township. Nearly 3.3 million people – a record – voted absentee in November. Voters currently seeking an absentee ballot by mail must sign the application, and the signature is matched to the voter file. The Senate, meanwhile, is poised as soon as this week to reject the House GOP’s proposal to require that in-person voters’ signatures be verified before they are given a ballot, by mandating that signatures in Michigan’s voter file be added to electronic poll books.

Minnesota

St. Paul: One of the state’s oddest, perhaps coolest and definitely most historically underappreciated fish – the gar – is about to get some love. The long, slender, toothy and prehistoric-looking fish will, for the first time ever in Minnesota, be protected in ways similar to other gamefish, the result of a bit of an outcry on social media following a series of mass killings that some saw as wantonly wasteful. In a Legislature divided starkly along partisan lines, Minnesota’s gar species found bipartisan support. Officials say they aren’t sure exactly what restrictions they’ll place on catching and killing gar, but the move carries a growing awareness of changing attitudes toward native fish that humbly live on the opposite end of the piscatorial spectrum from celebrated fish like walleye and bass, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The much larger environment and natural resources bill approved by both the House and Senate contains one brief reference to gar: “The commissioner must annually establish daily and possession limits for gar.” Most states, including Minnesota, consider any gar, which are native to North America, as a “rough fish” with no limits for how many can be killed, of any size, any time of year. Two species of gars are native to Minnesota, the longnose gar and shortnose gar.

Mississippi

Gulfport: The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which examines all fatal shootings by police officers across the state, has typically denied requests to release video footage and other evidence. But the commissioner of public safety told the Sun Herald the agency is changing its approach to allow for greater transparency. Sean Tindell, a former state senator and a former judge who became commissioner in June 2020, said he has directed the Department of Public Safety, which includes MBI, to be more responsive to public records requests. In June, the agency released video footage and some investigative material from its investigation of a Harrison County deputy’s shooting of Reginald Johnson outside the Biloxi courthouse in January. “As more and more of these incidents of officer-involved shootings are shared with the public in other parts of the country, I believe we need to be more transparent here in Mississippi as well,” Tindell said. “I’ve always been a big believer in transparency. I believe that if you … maintain a cloak of secrecy, then it lends itself to conspiracy theories and incorrect assumptions. I believe the public should have a right to view the footage and understand exactly what happened.” Tindell said his guidance for transparency applies to all agencies under his department.

Missouri

Kansas City: Five police officers facing criminal charges remain on the job, with four on administrative duty and one still on patrol. Community leaders who have been critical of the Kansas City Police Department say they are particularly angry that a detective charged with manslaughter, Eric DeValkenaere, remains on administrative duty and is being paid, according to the Kansas City Star. “I think it’s despicable,” said Randy Fikki, senior pastor of Unity Southeast, who led several Black Lives Matter demonstrations last summer. Police spokeswoman Capt. Leslie Foreman said the department’s policies give supervisors discretion to determine whether to suspend officers and whether that suspension should be paid or unpaid. That is despite a separate policy that says officers charged with a crime related to their use of a department firearm will be suspended, which would apply to DeValkenaere, who is charged in the 2019 shooting of Cameron Lamb in Lamb’s backyard following a traffic incident. Officials said that policy requiring suspension when an officer’s gun is used is under review. DeValkenaere was suspended with pay after the shooting but returned to work in January. He is the only one charged in an incident involving a gun.

Montana

Bozeman: A subsidiary of the company that owns the Yellowstone Club bought an 18,000-acre ranch at the foot of the Crazy Mountains east of Clyde Park and said it has no plans to develop or change the property. The Lone Mountain Land Company announced the purchase of the Crazy Mountain Ranch last week, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. The company said in an announcement that it doesn’t intend to develop residential subdivisions or a commercial heliskiing operation on the property. “Lone Mountain Land Company will continue to operate the ranch’s cow-calf operation and guest ranch,” Sam Byrne, managing partner and co-founder at CrossHarbor Capital Partners, said in a release. “We look forward to working with our neighbors, the Clyde Park community, and the Forest Service to be thoughtful stewards of the land and good members of the community.” The potential of residential developments and a heliskiing operation had caused a measure of public concern ahead of the sale, said Erica Lighthiser, deputy director with the Park County Environmental Council and member of the Crazy Mountain Access Project. That portion of Park County isn’t zoned, Lighthiser said, leaving any future developments to the sole discretion of the new owners.

Nebraska

Omaha: Storms that knocked down trees and power lines across eastern Nebraska over the weekend left more people without electricity than any area storm in years. The Omaha Public Power District said with 188,000 customers losing power after the storms Friday night and early Saturday, it was a larger outage than any storm since June 2008, when 156,000 customers lost electricity. By midday Sunday, fewer than 60,000 OPPD customers remained without power, but utility officials said it could take several days to restore electricity to everyone, according to the Omaha World-Herald. By comparison, the historic snowstorm that pummeled Omaha in October 1997 left 150,000 in the dark. More recently, a Father’s Day tornado in 2017 left about 75,000 customers without power. The utility set another record after this weekend’s storm. Spokeswoman Laura King-Homan said OPPD deployed more workers in the field than ever before when 539 crew members were out Saturday working to restore power.

Nevada

Carson City: Driver’s licenses and identification cards are getting a new look and upgraded security features, the state Department of Motor Vehicles said Monday. DMV spokesman Kevin Malone said the agency began rolling out cards at a busy Las Vegas office, and the Reno office is due to begin offering the cards Wednesday. By next month, all 18 DMV offices around the state should have upgraded camera equipment to produce the new cards. They represent the first redesign since 2008, although some modifications were made in 2014. DMV Director Julie Butler said in a statement the new licenses and ID cards have enhanced security features that help protect Nevadans against identity theft and aid law enforcement agencies. Malone said the state currently has more than 2.2 million licensed drivers. The officials said existing licenses and ID cards will remain valid until they expire. Customers will receive the new design at renewal or during other transactions such as a name or address change. Card production fees will remain $3.25, Malone said. Nevada’s “Battle Born” insignia is featured on the front of the license in addition to the year of statehood, 1864.

New Hampshire

Portsmouth: An island garden that once inspired one of America’s foremost impressionist painters has been reconstructed on the mainland for a second summer because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the late 1880s, poet Celia Thaxter attracted members of Boston’s literary and artistic societies to her family’s hotel on Appledore Island off the coast of Portsmouth. Artist Childe Hassam kept a studio there and featured Thaxter’s gardens in a series of paintings. The island is now home to the Shoals Marine Laboratory, and hundreds of people visit a recreation of the garden each summer. But the tours have been canceled again this year because of the pandemic. Instead, the garden has been recreated at Prescott Park in Portsmouth. Free guided tours are scheduled for July 16 and 30 and Aug. 6.

New Jersey

Trenton: The state on Monday unveiled a phone app that lets people keep track of their COVID-19 vaccination card digitally. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy announced the app called Docket during a news conference in Trenton. He said it’s not meant to serve as a passport and instead will serve as a backup in case people lose their paper vaccination cards. It’s unclear what the app cost the state to develop, said Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli. She said officials plan to begin allowing people to use the app to track other vaccinations they have, but for now it works just for COVID-19 vaccines. The app is available through Apple and Google Play app stores, the governor said. “To be absolutely clear, this is not a ‘passport,’ ” Murphy said. “Docket is intended solely to give residents easy access to their COVID vaccination record, especially if their vaccination card has been damaged or lost.” Murphy has been reluctant to embrace the idea of vaccine passport, proof of vaccination, in order to enter certain places or take part in certain activities. On Monday, he said he wants to see more vaccine “equity,” particular among African American residents. Objections to passports revolve in part around privacy and security, including how people’s personal information will be stored, and fairness.

New Mexico

Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico will continue to encourage that students, faculty and staff get vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to campus in August for the fall semester but no longer plans to require it. University President Garnett Stokes said in a campuswide email that vaccinations are key to stopping the spread of the coronavirus and that the university is working toward a 100% vaccination rate. However, the vaccine remains under emergency use authorization by the federal government, the university noted in a statement Thursday. The school previously proposed a vaccine requirement and posted a draft policy on its website. “After more than a year of mostly remote learning and working, mask mandates and testing,” the university community views its approaching full return to campus “with a sense of optimism and renewed purpose,” the statement issued Thursday said. UNM officials still urge those who are not vaccinated to continue to wear a mask, the statement said.

New York

New York: A sinkhole on a Manhattan street collapsed under two parked cars Sunday, prompting renewed criticism of the city’s infrastructure several days after heavy rains caused severe subway flooding. There were no injuries reported after the sinkhole on the Upper West Side left an SUV with its back end stuck and the car behind it tilting forward. “But this yet another reminder: NYC simply must invest more in upgrading our outdated infrastructure,” New York City Council member Mark Levine said on Twitter. Levine posted pictures of the vehicles on Riverside Drive days after widely circulated videos showed water pouring into subway stations following heavy rain Thursday. The vehicles had been removed by Sunday afternoon.

North Carolina

Raleigh: A man who served 26 years in prison for a murder he said he didn’t commit is still seeking a pardon and compensation. Dontae Sharpe told The Raleigh News & Observer on Friday that he wants to be able to support a family that includes his daughter and two grandchildren. He said he also wants to help out his mother after she spent her savings sending him money in prison and trying to prove his innocence. “The monetary part, that was the most difficult part of being released,” Sharpe said. Sharpe was 19 when he was sent to prison for the 1994 murder of 33-year-old George Radcliffe. He maintained his innocence throughout, and the NAACP argued for his release for years. He was released from a Pitt County courtroom in 2019 when a judge ordered a new trial at the end of a hearing. The prosecutor then said she wouldn’t pursue a retrial. Theresa Newman, a lawyer who represented Sharpe and a professor emerita at the Duke University Law School, said that a person who receives a pardon can apply to the state for monetary compensation. It has a cap of $750,000.

North Dakota

Minot: A petition backs the idea of a ban on undocumented immigrants and refugees and the notion of declaring Ward County a Second Amendment “gun sanctuary.” Language on the resolution led by county resident Nicole Engberg offers support “to ban sanctuary cities, illegal immigrants, aliens, refugees in Ward County, North Dakota, and add Ward County, North Dakota, as a Second Amendment gun sanctuary county.” Egeberg said the immigration issue on the southern border is relevant to the county. Undocumented immigrants stress the local law enforcement system, schools and tax dollars, she said at a county commission meeting. “They have no respect for our laws, no respect for our border, and it causes pressure. We have drug trafficking, human trafficking, sex trafficking, amongst many other things,” Engberg said. “We want them removed. We don’t want them brought here illegally. If they want to come here legally, appropriately vetted, they are more than welcome here in the county.” Enberg said about 5,000 people had signed the petition, the Minot Daily News reports. The commission did not object to banning illegal immigration and supporting gun rights, which members pointed out are current law. But commissioners sought more specific resolution language than was included in petitions.

Ohio

Columbus: Wind and solar companies hoping to do business in the state will face an additional hurdle, thanks to a bill Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Monday. Under Senate Bill 52, county commissioners could reject particular wind turbines or solar farms, ban the projects entirely, or carve out portions of the county where those facilities couldn’t be built. The change, which takes effect in 90 days, adds a step for solar and wind companies that their coal and natural gas competitors don’t face. But lawmakers who introduced the bill say companies need to involve local residents – not just a little-known Ohio Power Siting Board – to succeed. Under the new law, project developers must notify county commissioners and trustees at least 90 days before filing with the power siting board. The proposal also adds a commissioner and trustee to the board while it reviews the local project. Opponents of the bill say it singles out renewable energy for unnecessary restrictions. Meanwhile, Ohio lawmakers enacted a law to prevent municipalities from banning natural gas in new construction projects and saved subsidies for the owner of two coal plants. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and local development arms opposed the changes because they want to encourage renewable energy projects in the state, which can attract other business activity.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Public school teachers could have their teaching licenses suspended for teaching certain concepts about race and racism under new rules approved Monday by the State Board of Education. With just one opposing vote, the board approved emergency rules to comply with a bill approved by the Republican-led Legislature this year that purports to ban so-called critical race theory. The new law prohibits public school teachers of grades K-12 from teaching eight different concepts about race, including that an individual, by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. It also prohibits teaching that any individual should feel discomfort or guilt on account of their race or sex. The Republican authors of the bill said it targeted critical race theory, which is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism, although there is no mention in the bill of critical race theory, which is not typically taught in K-12 schools. Democrats in the Legislature who opposed the bill argued it was a waste of time and addressed a nonexistent problem. Carlisha Bradley, the only Black member of the board, voted against adopting the rules, saying she believes the new law and the rules are doing a disservice to students and teachers.

Oregon

Medford: Sheriff’s deputies in southern Oregon may start arresting people who refuse to heed evacuation orders issued because of a large, growing wildfire that threatens two small towns. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the wildfire grew to about 231 square miles by Sunday afternoon. The blaze, burning in the Fremont-Winema National Forest and on private land north of Sprague River and Beatty, about 290 miles southeast of Portland, was 0% contained. Fire managers on Sunday extended a Level 3 evacuation zone to unincorporated Beatty, with a population of about 120 people. Level 3 evacuations mean residents must leave immediately. Deputies continued to circle the area to ensure people were contacted, said Stacey Todd, a spokesperson for Klamath County Emergency Management. She couldn’t recall a time the sheriff’s office warned of citations or arrests for failing to evacuate during a wildfire.“I think the message has gotten out that this is a very serious fire that is unpredictable and is very high-risk to the area,” Todd said.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: The state’s Department of Health has reduced the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses that have been administered by about 500,000, saying the numbers were duplicates. The figures, released Friday evening without explanation, also showed an increase of about 60,000 in the number of people counted as fully vaccinated. The numbers include 66 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. They do not include Philadelphia, which is its own vaccine jurisdiction. For all 67 counties, the percentage of people 18 and over who are vaccinated was 61%, up slightly with the change in data. Asked about the changed figures, a Department of Health spokesperson said agency staff had been working to link both first and second doses to individual residents. As a result, they were removing duplicated data that resulted from providers using software that did not include a unique patient identifier or uploading duplicate data, or from people getting first and second doses from different providers. The data now more accurately reflects the number of people who have received the first of a two-dose vaccine, the spokesperson said. Friday’s data showed just under 11.3 million total vaccine doses, down from Thursday’s figure of 11.8 million. It also showed over 5.5 million people fully vaccinated.

Rhode Island

Providence: The state has officially banned the release of large numbers of balloons in a move to protect wildlife. Under a new law signed Friday by Gov. Dan McKee, the state will prohibit anyone from intentionally releasing 10 or more helium or other lighter-than-air balloons outdoors. Supporters say balloon releases are an environmental nuisance and pose a serious threat to birds, marine animals and other wildlife that ingest or become entangled in balloon litter. Violators face a fine of $100 when the new rule takes effect in November. The new law won’t affect hot air balloons, indoor balloon releases, or scientific and weather research.

South Carolina

Columbia: The state is asking for public input on whether state-leased Wildlife Management Areas should be open for hunting on Sundays. The Department of Natural Resources has an online survey up until July 28 as well as four public hearings planned across the state over the next two weeks. The 1.2 million acres public land in South Carolina are also used for fishing, hiking, bird-watching and other ways to observe nature. Hunters can use the public land during season, but state law only allows hunting on Sundays on private land. The first of four public hearings on the hunting changes is set for Tuesday at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence. There is a meeting Thursday at the Clinton National Guard Armory, on July 19 at the Santee Cooper Auditorium in Moncks Corner, and July 26 at a site that hasn’t been determined in Columbia. All the meetings start at 6 p.m.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: As federal officials debate investing billions of dollars in broadband access, the state is planning to invest $100 million as it struggles to extend reliable internet service to every corner of the state. Data suggests many South Dakota schoolchildren and adults who worked from home during the pandemic struggled with subpar access to high-speed internet, particularly in the state’s poorest and least populated counties. Advocates say the “digital divide” across South Dakota and the rest of the U.S. is due largely to two factors: a lack of internet infrastructure in rural areas and relatively high costs that have made broadband unaffordable for many in urban centers. In about half of South Dakota’s counties – 34 of 66 – measured by a Federal Communications Commission study, broadband access is available to at least 88% of residents. Yet in about half of the state measured by Microsoft – 33 of 65 counties – no more than 28% of households actually have high-speed access, a USA TODAY analysis shows. That helps explain why the Legislature and Gov. Kristi Noem earlier this year set aside $100 million, mostly federal pandemic relief money, to help the telecommunications industry build fiber lines and antenna towers in rural areas.

Tennessee

Knoxville: A federal judge in the state has joined other judges in blocking a Biden administration program designed to redress generations of discrimination against some farmers, saying the federal government has failed to show the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminates against people of color today. Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Anderson issued a national injunction that bars the Biden administration from enacting the loan forgiveness plan approved by Congress in March as part of the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package. The injunction is the third to result from litigation filed in seven states, including Tennessee, on behalf of white farmers in the past month, according to court records. The administration said it chose to funnel relief to qualifying farmers because of the USDA’s “long history” of discriminating against Black farmers and the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on minorities. White farmers, including Tennessee rancher Rob Holman, are calling it “reverse racism” in litigation filed by conservative legal advocacy groups, including the Southeastern Legal Foundation and Mountain States Legal Foundation. Anderson agreed in his ruling.

Texas

Austin: Democrats in the Legislature on Monday began bolting for Washington, D.C., and said they were ready to remain there for weeks in a second revolt against a GOP overhaul of election laws, forcing a dramatic new showdown over voting rights in America. One large group was set to leave Austin on private planes before the GOP could pass a voting bill in a special legislative session ordered by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that began days ago. It was not immediately clear how many of the 67 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives planned to go, but it was expected to be enough to bring the Legislature to a halt. “This is a now-or-never for our democracy. We are holding the line in Texas,” said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer. “We’ve left our jobs; we’ve left our families; we’ve left our homes. Because there is nothing more important than voting rights in America.” By leaving, Democrats would again deny the GOP majority a quorum to pass bills, barely a month after their walkout thwarted the first push for sweeping new voting restrictions in Texas, including outlawing 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes and empowering partisan poll watchers.

Utah

St. George: Water managers in the bone-dry state reported last week that 98% of Utah was in extreme or exceptional levels of drought. The state was already 10 inches of precipitation below the “normal” amount expected in a given water year, making it extremely unlikely it would reach its usual count of 27 inches during an average water year, according to the Utah Department of Natural Resources. “Utah’s precipitation is down about 38% this year compared to an average year. It’s extremely unlikely we can make up that deficit between now and the end of the watering year on Sept. 30,” said Brian Stee, executive director of the Utah DNR. “When we consider future patterns, we should not expect an immediate recovery from this extreme drought. We anticipate it will take time, possibly years, to climb out.” In southwestern Utah, water managers had only measured 41% of the precipitation normally expected by this point in the water year. Drought maps produced by the U.S. Drought Monitor showed small pockets of northern Utah were the only places in the state not already at the two worst levels of drought as measured by federal climate criteria, with the entire southwestern section of the state rated as being in “exceptional” drought, the worst category.

Vermont

Montpelier: About 40 homeless people who had been scheduled to lose their pandemic-related emergency hotel rooms in the state on July 1 are seeking to be verified as having a disability, allowing them to stay longer. Late last month, a federal court judge signed an agreement extending the emergency housing for two weeks for some people to show they can remain eligible. That came after Vermont Legal Aid sued the state, alleging the changes violate state law and have a restrictive definition of what qualifies as a disability. About 700 people were expected to lose their hotel rooms at the beginning of the month. The state has extended the hotel voucher program 84 days for families with children, the disabled, pregnant women and other vulnerable people, and it gave $2,500 checks to those no longer eligible. Families with children and some disabled households may be able to stay longer. So far, 37 people who were no longer eligible July 1 have attested that they have a disability while they work to get paperwork from a medical provider, Nicole Tousignant of the Vermont Department for Children and Families said Monday. Vermont spent $79 million on the hotel vouchers program, housing up to 2,000 households on some nights, but the program is not financially sustainable, officials said.

Virginia

Blacksburg: A conservative group is asking a court to temporarily prohibit Virginia Tech from enforcing some of its policies against harassment and discrimination. The Roanoke Times reports the group, called Speech First Inc., has already filed a lawsuit on behalf of three students against the school’s anti-bias policies. Now the group wants a federal judge to temporarily prevent the university from enforcing the policies until he rules on the lawsuit. The group contends that the students hold views that are unpopular on a campus of roughly 35,000 students. Those views include opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement as well as same-sex marriage and abortion. The lawsuit claims Virginia Tech’s policies are overly vague because they forbid “telling unwelcome jokes about someone’s identity” and urging “religious beliefs on someone who finds it unwelcome.” The school has revised one of its policies by clarifying that a ban on speech for “partisan and political purposes” applies only to employees. But Virginia Tech is defending the rest and urged the judge not to grant the group’s request for a preliminary injunction. “It cannot be that Virginia Tech is essentially prohibited in the face of the First Amendment” from having anti-harassment policies, said counsel to the Attorney General Jessica Samuels, who represents university President Tim Sands.

Washington

Seattle: One day after an investigation found that two of six Seattle police officers violated the law while in Washington, D.C., during the Jan. 6 insurrection, lawyers representing the officers in a related public records case filed a motion to withdraw from that case. The six officers had filed a lawsuit in February against a list of people who had filed public records requests seeking the officers’ identities and information about the investigation by the Office of Police Accountability into their activities while in the nation’s capital. After a judge ordered the release of their identities in March, the officers appealed. Sam Sueoka, a Seattle University law student who was named in the officers’ lawsuit, has asked the Washington Supreme Court to decide the issue. The court will consider that request at the end of July. On Thursday, the OPA released a report on its investigation. It found that at least two of the officers had violated the law and department policy by trespassing at the U.S. Capitol while rioters stormed the building. OPA Director Andrew Myerberg recommended that the two officers be fired. On Friday, the officers’ three lawyers, Kelly Sheridan, Victoria Ainsworth and Kayla Higgins, filed a motion stating their intent to leave the public records case. They did not give a reason but said withdrawal would be effective July 19.

West Virginia

Clarksburg: Federal regulators have joined state officials in reviewing lead service lines in the city for elevated levels of the toxin in drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will assist the state Department of Health and Human Resources and the Clarksburg Water System in the review, which was announced July 2, the DHHR said in a news release. Sampling in several homes showed lead levels above a limit set by the EPA. Lead lines were phased out in the 1950s, and it’s unlikely homes built after 1960 would have them. The DHHR is encouraging residents of homes built before 1950 to use bottled water for consumption and have children younger than age 6 evaluated for lead, Dr. Ayne Amjad, the state health officer, said in the statement. The issue of lead service lines was first identified by Bureau for Public Health staff during assessments conducted in the homes of children diagnosed with elevated blood lead levels.

Wisconsin

Madison: Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin’s most-visited park, is set to get larger. The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board has unanimously approved purchasing a 220-acre property for $1.64 million to add onto the park, the Wisconsin State Journal reports. “It is truly a great potential addition to Devil’s Lake State Park,” Jim Lemke, real estate section chief at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, told the board. “The land is very useful. It’s beautifully wooded with mature hardwoods and has potential of many different opportunities for public use.” The parcel is located on the southwestern edge of the park and could be used for hunting and wildlife watching. It could also be developed into hiking and mountain biking trails, according to a memo on the proposed purchase. The money to purchase the land would come from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which the state uses to purchase new land for parks and recreation areas. Located outside Baraboo and 45 minutes north of Madison, the approximately 9,200-acre Devil’s Lake was created in 1911 and is the third-oldest state park. There were 2.1 million visitors to Devil’s Lake last year, making it Wisconsin’s most popular park.

Wyoming

Glenrock: The community is jumping at the chance for a company to build an experimental power source on the edge of town. Before the end of the year, developers of a new type of nuclear power plant will decide which of four Wyoming towns will house their project, and Glenrock wants to be selected, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. During a Wednesday meeting with the heads of TerraPower and Rocky Mountain Power, community leaders listened attentively to the companies’ pitch. Most were already on board with the project. A few safety questions did come up, but Glenrock’s leaders wanted to focus the conversation on logistics – not risk. The town’s coal-fired power plant, Dave Johnston, is set to retire in 2027, taking 191 jobs with it. The Natrium reactor is scheduled to come online the following year, generating an estimated 250 permanent jobs. Its developers intend to establish training programs to help workers in the selected community transition from their current jobs at the coal plant to new roles at the nuclear facility. Glenrock is a town of just 2,600 people; Converse County’s entire population numbers fewer than 14,000. The community’s history is intertwined with that of the energy sector. Many see the nuclear plant not only as a natural transition but a necessary one for their economic survival.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Boy Scout camp sale, courthouse concerns: News from around our 50 states