Memorial service, destructive ‘super weed,’ bear attack: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Trussville: A school district’s superintendent has resigned after it was revealed that school officials had been aware of a student’s notebook filled with threats for a year before taking action to ensure student safety. Trussville City Schools Superintendent Pattie Neill’s contract was scheduled to expire June 30, 2026, but her attorney renegotiated the pact that will now end Oct. 31, 2023. Neill will be paid through that date but will no longer be in charge of the district, which is in a suburb of Birmingham, al.com reports. “It provides us an opportunity to move forward; it provides us an opportunity to have a fresh start,” Trussville City Board of Education Vice President Kim DeShazo said of the negotiation involving Neill. “I am looking forward to our city being in the news for the things that we have to celebrate because Trussville City Schools does have a lot to celebrate and a lot to be thankful for ... I’m looking forward to the next chapter.” The board named Interim Superintendent Frank Costanzo as the district’s acting superintendent as the system begins the search for Neill’s permanent replacement. Since Sept. 30, Neill had been on a 60-day leave of absence.

Alaska

Juneau: Republican Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer said Wednesday that he is satisfied with Alaska’s ballot counting process and that there are no plans for a statewide hand-count audit of a race like the one he called for two years ago. Meyer oversees elections in Alaska and after the 2020 general election announced plans for an audit of votes on a statewide ballot initiative that narrowly passed. He cast the audit, conducted after the race was certified, as a way to address questions that had been raised about the validity of election results tied to vote tabulation equipment used by the state. The audit affirmed the passage of the initiative, which ended party primaries and instituted ranked-choice voting in general elections. This year’s elections were the first held under the new elections process. Meyer and Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai held a briefing with reporters Wednesday, ahead of next week’s election. Meyer said he is “satisfied that the process works and that there’s enough checks and balances in place that if something isn’t quite right, we’ll catch it soon.” In an interview with the Associated Press, Meyer said that with the 2020 review, “we were able to show folks that the machines worked correctly.” He said it has been frustrating to see people get misinformation from social media or from online videos.

Arizona

Phoenix: A planned research center operated by the University of Arizona will get a $150 million allocation of federal money via the state, officials announced Wednesday. The designation comes from money the state received through the American Rescue Plan Act, C.J. Karamargin, a spokesperson for Gov. Doug Ducey, wrote in an email. The funds will go to the UA Health Sciences’ planned Phoenix-based Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies, which will be part of the downtown, 30-acre Phoenix Bioscience Core campus. There are no current cost estimates for the project, UA officials said Wednesday. The Phoenix Bioscience Core includes several education, health care and research entities, including the Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute, the UA College of Medicine Phoenix, and the Dignity Health-Cancer Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. The Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies intends to advance immunology research in four areas: cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and real-time immune system monitoring, UA officials said.

Arkansas

Van Buren: Two former Crawford County deputies fired over excessive force complaints had requested a public hearing Wednesday in efforts to clear their names, but they didn’t show up, the sheriff’s office reports. Neither Levi White nor Zack King appeared at the sheriff’s department lobby Wednesday. Instead, a woman showed up to make accusations that she, too, has been roughed up during an arrest by White. White and King were caught on video making a rough arrest of Randal Worcester on Aug. 21. The video taken by a bystander showed White, King and a Mulberry police officer, Thell Riddle, beating Worcester after a convenience store clerk in Alma claimed Worcester threatened her. Attorney David Powell of Fort Smith, who previously represented Worcester, said he is now represented by another attorney in Oklahoma City. Powell is now representing Tammy Nelson, who said on Aug. 21, she was at her home, where she was involved in a civil matter that resulted in a heated argument that didn’t go well. White was sent to the call, where things escalated for the worse, she said. “I was just attacked by him and violated and thrown to the ground,” Nelson said. She was arrested and jailed on complaints of obstruction of a government operation and harassment. Powell said he has heard from other clients with such complaints.

California

Sacramento: Delays in testing evidence from sexual assaults have been a lost opportunity for investigators and a source of frustration for victims for years, prompting state officials to announce Tuesday that they have created a way for survivors to track the progress of linking their rape kits with DNA evidence. California is also the first state to hire a sexual assault evidence outreach coordinator, Sarai Crain, who will work with investigators, medical facilities and others to help track and process sexual assault evidence. The new online tracking system was required under a law approved by state lawmakers last year. It follows a 2017 California law that requires law enforcement agencies to submit the evidence for testing within 20 days and requires crime labs to test the evidence within 120 days or provide reasons for any delay. The goal is to end the backlog of rape kits by local agencies, make sure they are tested quickly once they are submitted, and keep survivors better informed, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. Of nearly 6,400 kits collected in 2020, 90% were analyzed by May 2021, according to an annual report by the attorney general’s office. The rest were in various stages of processing. About half the tests found DNA that was compared to other DNA on the FBI’s database, and nearly 800 resulted in “hits.”

Colorado

Idaho Springs: The Colorado city of Idaho Springs said Wednesday it has agreed to pay $7 million to a 75-year-old man who said an officer used a stun gun on him without warning and dragged him from his apartment after a dispute with a neighbor, causing a stroke that left him with permanent injuries. Michael Clark alleged in the federal civil rights suit filed last year that he suffered numerous health problems after Officer Nicholas Hanning used a Taser on him in his home in Idaho Springs, causing Clark to lose consciousness, fall and strike his head. Clark also accused Hanning of putting a knee on his neck, depriving him of oxygen and increasing his risk of death. Hanning, who was fired after the May 2021 encounter, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor third-degree assault and relinquished his right to serve as a law enforcement officer in Colorado. He was sentenced in January to two years of probation and community service. The Idaho Springs statement said the city admits no liability but is settling the case “for economic reasons and to bring closure to all involved.” It did say the city and Police Chief Nate Buseck “acknowledge the poor judgment that led to the use” of the Taser against Clark, which Buseck previously described as unacceptable. “He is wheelchair bound and now forever dependent on his family and doctors to survive,” Clark’s attorney, Sarah Schielke, said in a statement.

Connecticut

Hartford: A man who was linked to the sexual assaults of four women in 1984 by information on a genealogy database was convicted Wednesday of all eight kidnapping charges against him. A state jury in Hartford took less than an hour of deliberations to unanimously convict Michael Sharpe after a five-day trial. He faces 25 to 100 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 9. Sharpe, 71, who had been free on a promise to appear in court, was detained after the verdicts because a judge set a new bond at $2.5 million. At least two of the victims were in the courtroom and wept after the verdicts were announced, The Hartford Courant reports. Sharpe’s public defender, Dana Sanetti, said in her closing argument Tuesday that the only evidence connecting Sharpe to the attacks was his DNA, which was only “a piece of the puzzle,” Hearst Connecticut Media reports. Sharpe, of Marlborough, was once the chief executive officer of a group that ran the Jumoke Academy, a tuition-free charter school in Hartford. Prosecutors said he broke into the women’s homes in four different towns and sexually assaulted them at gunpoint in June and July of 1984. Investigators found DNA evidence at the homes, but no matches could be found at the time, and the cases went cold.

Delaware

Wilmington: A big change is coming for the state’s surf-fishing car tag program: There will be no cap on the number of permits issued for 2023, according to an announcement from State Parks Director Ray Bivens on Wednesday. Yes, that means people don’t have to rush to the computer or Delaware State Parks’ gates to snag those coveted surf-fishing tags that allow drive-on beach access. No longer crushed by the “sold out” announcement from State Parks, anyone who wants a surf-fishing tag can now get one. Still, there was a reason the cap was put in place − to protect the natural resources and manage crowds. That’s where another change comes in. After a stakeholder group met this spring, State Parks announced it will be piloting a new reservation system for 36 of the busiest days during the season. The pilot reservation system and lifting of the cap come after the demand for surf-fishing permits has continued to grow in recent years and peaked at unprecedented heights in the past two years. In 2020, the maximum 17,000 tags sold out in just a few months, prompting the state to release an additional 1,000 tags. Eager anglers and beach enthusiasts lined up overnight for a chance to get one of these extra permits.

District of Columbia

Washington: Internationally renowned chef Gordon Ramsay teamed up with Mayor Muriel Bowser on Wednesday for a friendly cooking competition at his newly opened restaurant in the nation’s capital, WUSA-TV reports. Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips opened Oct. 25 in The Wharf area of the city. The location is the third in the franchise, his take on the classic English street food. The menu ranges from classic fish and chips to chicken, shrimp, “dirty chips” and Gordon’s signature shakes: Sticky Toffee and Biscoff. During the competition, Bowser got to try her hand at one of the signature shakes with the help of Ramsay. The famed chef and the mayor competed against Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio and chef Christina Wilson, who won season 10 of Ramsay’s reality show “Hell’s Kitchen,” to see who could make the best Biscoff shake. The Ramsay-Bowser duo claimed victory. There could be a chance for a rematch in the future, as restaurateur Ramsay is not stopping with the Fish & Chips location in D.C. He is also opening his wildly popular Hell’s Kitchen restaurant, inspired by the show of the same name, on The Wharf as well in early 2023. Until then, the Fish & Chips location in D.C. is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.

Florida

Tallahassee: Florida State University held a memorial service on campus Wednesday evening to remember the victims of the 2018 yoga studio shooting in the city. The service marked four years since the mass shooting took place at Tallahassee Hot Yoga, where Scott Paul Beierle killed two women, 21-year-old Maura Binkley and 61-year-old Nancy Van Vessem, and injured five other victims before killing himself. A key part of the service was the announcement of a new initiative called “Florida State United: One Voice Against Hate,” which aims to bring more awareness to hate crimes through research and education. “As Maura and Nancy exemplified in their lives, love is the most important work we can do,” Jeff Binkley, Maura Binkley’s father, said to the FSU and Tallahassee community as they were gathered near the Integration Statue on campus. “Always remember that only love can conquer hate.” Maura Binkley was a senior at FSU double majoring in German and English, and Van Vessem was a chief medical officer at Capital Health Plan, as well as a former faculty member at FSU’s College of Medicine. Signs were placed throughout the area with phrases such as “A Voice for Safety,” “A Voice for Peace” and “A Voice for Freedom.”

Georgia

Atlanta: A state agency has stopped accepting applications from people seeking assistance with their rent payments, saying money from the federally funded aid program has begun to run out. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs posted an announcement on its website last week that the agency is no longer taking rental assistance applications, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The news caught housing advocates off guard and left some tenants scrambling to pay rent with little warning, said Lindsay Siegel, director of housing advocacy at Legal Aid of Atlanta. “The DCA put some tenants in a pretty bad position,” Siegel said. “If they knew they were running out of money, they should have told them so they could plan.” The federal government put $46.5 billion into an emergency rental assistance program in 2020 in hopes of averting spikes in evictions and homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Treasury Department reported a year ago that several states and large cities had already exhausted their share of the funding. Now Georgia is getting close to running out of rental assistance money, prompting the Department of Community Affairs to suspend applications, agency Commissioner Christopher Nunn said.

Hawaii

Honolulu: The ground is still shaking and swelling at Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, indicating it could erupt. Scientists say they don’t expect that to happen right away, but officials on the Big Island are telling residents to be prepared. Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up Hawaii Island, the southernmost in the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s not the tallest – that title goes to Mauna Kea – but it’s the largest and makes up about half of the island’s land mass. It sits immediately north of Kilauea volcano, which is currently erupting from its summit crater. Kilauea is well-known for a 2018 eruption that destroyed 700 homes and sent rivers of lava spreading across farms and into the ocean. Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago. In written history, dating to 1843, it has erupted 33 times. The Big Island is mostly rural and is home to cattle ranches, coffee farms and beach resorts. Mauna Loa’s eruptions differ from Kilauea’s in part because it is taller. Its greater height gives it steeper slopes, which allow lava to rush down its hillsides faster than Kilauea’s. Its enormous size may allow it to store more magma, leading to larger lava flows when an eruption occurs. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has more than 60 GPS stations on Mauna Loa taking measurements to estimate the location and the amount of magma accumulating beneath the surface. There’s also a thermal webcam at Mauna Loa’s summit that will identify the presence of heat. And satellite radar can keep track of ground swelling and deflation.

Idaho

Boise: A high-profile attorney who has defended in state and federal courts some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation is among the latest attorneys to quit state employment. Former Deputy Attorney General Megan Larrondo is one of eight attorneys and a handful of other staffers who have left or are leaving the Idaho attorney general’s office following Raúl Labrador’s win over five-term incumbent Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in the Republican primary in May. More departures are expected. Information obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request shows that Larrondo’s job ended Monday. Court documents filed Friday in both U.S. District Court in Idaho and the Idaho Supreme Court show filings requesting Larrondo be removed as attorney of record in the state’s abortion cases. The state and federal courts have yet to make final rulings in those cases. Labrador, a former U.S. representative who has said voters are looking for an aggressive, conservative attorney general, has promised to make the office more partisan should he win in next week’s general election. In a series of recent interviews, he denigrated attorneys working in the office, telling the Lewiston Tribune that the “Attorney General’s Office needs to have better lawyers.”

Illinois

Chicago: The 2018 killing of “ZackTV,” a trailblazer in a perilous genre of gangland reporting he called “‘hood CNN,” seemed destined to go unsolved, even though gunmen attacked him on a downtown Chicago street lined with surveillance cameras. Police never announced arrests in the shooting of Zachary Stoner, who drew a national YouTube following filling a media niche with up-close stories about the lives and deaths of gang members and affiliated rappers from places other reporters were afraid to go. But police records obtained by the Associated Press reveal investigators believe they solved his homicide years ago when they arrested members of South Side Chicago’s “Perry Avenue” gang. Yet prosecutors in 2019 declined to prosecute, and police were forced to release the suspects. Police say the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office cited the possibility that the two sides in the shooting on May 30, 2018, were “mutual combatants” – a disputed legal concept that’s a throwback to duels between nobles or prearranged gunfights in the Wild West. That prosecutors passed on charges on those grounds raises questions about whether Chicago gangs can literally get away with murder when it’s unclear who initiated a shooting and who returned fire in self-defense.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The governor is planning his fifth overseas trip of the year, this time to attend a U.N. climate conference in Egypt. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office announced Wednesday that he would take part in the COP27 climate change conference. Holcomb’s schedule includes giving a speech about Indiana’s efforts to increase use of clean energy in the state, the governor’s office said. “I look forward to highlighting the ongoing ways Hoosiers continue to pioneer the way forward, develop sustainable solutions, and lead productive global conversations,” Holcomb said in a statement. Holcomb and state Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers will be part of an Indiana delegation arriving Sunday in Egypt and returning to Indiana on Nov. 12. The trip is being paid for with private donations to the Indiana Economic Development Foundation, the governor’s office said. Holcomb also plans meetings with businesses and foreign governments and organizations during the conference drawing leaders from nearly 200 nations. The governor has made four previous economic development this year, including to Germany and Switzerland last month and to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in May. He made two trips in the spring that took him to Sweden, Great Britain, Monaco, Slovakia and Israel.

Iowa

Des Moines: This week the Des Moines Area Religious Council’s network of food pantries broke the record for the number of individuals helped during a single day in the network’s 46-year history. On Tuesday, the network of 15 pantries assisted 1,530 individuals across Polk County, beating the previous record of 1,476 individuals helped in one day Sept. 3, 2019, according to a DMARC news release. Matt Unger, the CEO of DMARC, said even though he expected the record to be broken this month, seeing it happen is still “jarring.” He said he expects this November to be the busiest month in the network’s history. “It’s going to be a big month and it is going to take a tremendous amount of public support for ALL organizations working in the food insecurity space to make sure our community members have AT LEAST the basic groceries they and their households need,” Unger wrote in an email. According to DMARC, rising costs for essential goods such as food and gasoline, coupled with the decrease in benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in April, have contributed to the rise in people in need across Iowa. Michelle Book, the president of Food Bank of Iowa, said 1 in 7 working households across the state cannot cover the costs of their basic needs.

Kansas

Kansas City: A former undersheriff was acquitted Wednesday in the death of an unarmed man he shot with a defective beanbag round five years ago. Virgil Brewer was charged with involuntary manslaughter after he shot Steven Myers using his personal shotgun the evening of Oct. 6, 2017, in Sun City, a rural area about 300 miles from Kansas City, Kansas. A Wyandotte County jury deliberated for four hours after a weeklong trial before returning the not-guilty verdict. It was unclear if Brewer, who has been on unpaid leave from the Barber County Sheriff’s department since his 2018 arrest, would return to his former role. Brewer and two other officers responded to a call about an armed man on a street after an altercation at a Sun City bar. Myers, who was drunk and had been told to leave the bar, was gone by the time officers arrived. They found him in a shed at a Sun City home. He came out of the shed, and Brewer shot him at close range with a beanbag, which split open and emptied pellets into his chest, causing fatal injuries. Medical Examiner Timothy Gorrill ruled Myers’ death a homicide. An expert testified at trial that the beanbag round was defective and should never have been sold or distributed, defense attorney David Harger said.

Kentucky

Louisville: In a move that experts describe as outrageous, the Kentucky Bar Association is seeking to punish a lawyer who brought a scandal to light this summer in which an elected prosecutor was trading favors with a defendant in exchange for nude images of her. An inquiry panel has accused attorney Thomas Clay of violating what is known informally as the “squeal rule” or “rat rule.” The rule says that when a lawyer knows another lawyer has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional Misconduct raising a “substantial question about their honesty, trustworthiness or fitness,” the first lawyer must report it to bar counsel. When Clay learned that Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronny Goldy Jr. had for several years done favors for a defendant in exchange for her giving him nude photos and videos of herself, he reported it to the FBI but not to the bar association’s disciplinary counsel. Clay provided the FBI and the Louisville Courier Journal with 230 pages of Facebook messages documenting the quid quo pro. Just two days after the newspaper published a story that included excerpts of the messages, the bar moved to temporarily suspend Goldy, the elected prosecutor for Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties. Clay’s lawyer, Jon Fleischaker, said his client deserves “praise, not sanction.”

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: A little more than 12% of registered voters in the state have cast their ballots ahead of next week’s elections, keeping up with Louisiana’s steady increase in midterm election turnout. Of the 363,009 residents who participated in the state’s early voting period, which ended Tuesday night, about 42% were registered Democrats, and 43% were Republicans, according to data from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. Most Louisiana voters opt to vote in person on Election Day. But the percentage who vote early has been steadily increasing. During 2018 midterm elections, about 11% of voters cast their ballots early, up from 8% in 2014 and 4% in 2010. Early voting topped 32% in 2020, though presidential election years tend to draw far more voters than midterms. The state has placed a number of restrictions on mail-in voting. Absentee ballots need a notary or witness signature and can only go to older people, those with disabilities or voters who can show they cannot cast a ballot in person on Election Day. This election, absentee ballots went to about 3% of the total number of registered voters in the state.

Maine

Wells: More than $4.3 million in federal funds is on its way to the Wells-Ogunquit Community School District to help purchase 11 new, clean, zero-emission school buses. Such funds essentially will help the district swap out its current fleet of 12 diesel-engine buses. David Cash, the New England regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, made Wells his first stop Monday on his tour of Maine school districts that will be receiving their own slices of more than $13 million from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program. Cash said the buses currently in use create pollution with “long-term impacts on our kids” and contribute to “problematic” issues related to climate change. He called the $5 billion being spent nationwide for new, “clean” school buses “tremendous.” “It’s incumbent upon us to make the right kind of choices and the right kind of investments,” he said. WOCSD is one of 13 school districts in the state that President Joe Biden announced would be part of his administration’s funding for the bus program for the current fiscal year. The funds are a part of the infrastructure bill Biden signed into law last year. WOCSD is receiving the largest share of the $13 million. Overall, the grant funds will help with the purchases of 34 “clean” buses for school districts throughout the state.

Maryland

Montgomery County: Vulgar signs atop a busy roadway are grabbing the attention of drivers and neighbors alike, WUSA-TV reports. Conservative activist Shaun Porter and several other people have recently been holding signs atop the Capital Beltway on the Bradley Boulevard overpass. While holding politically tinged signs near roadways is not a new phenomenon in the D.C. region, Porter’s signs include curse words and sexually graphic language directed at President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. Jobe Lett, an 11-year-old Montgomery County resident who lives nearby the overpass, said the signs have become a distraction in his neighborhood “because of the language that they’re using.” Data provided by the state shows more than 200,000 people drive the beltway around the Bradley Boulevard overpass every day. But some of those drivers honk at Porter’s signs. That has also become a problem for neighbors. Homes surround the overpass on both sides. “Hey, I support everyone’s right to (free speech),” Montgomery County Jesse Sanders said. “I just kind of wish it wasn’t in the most residential of areas.” Maryland State Police said obscenity laws are vague, and they have questions about infringing on Porter’s First Amendment rights by asking him to stop.

Massachusetts

Boston: Authorities who earlier this week said they had finally identified the “Lady of the Dunes,” the woman whose mutilated body was found on Cape Cod in 1974, are now looking for information about a man she may have married. The late Guy Rockwell Muldavin is believed to have married Ruth Marie Terry in February 1974, just a few months before the 37-year-old Terry’s body was found in Provincetown, according to a statement Wednesday from state police, Provincetown police and the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office. Investigators are asking anyone with information about the whereabouts of Terry or Muldavin in New England in 1973 or 1974 to contact them. Muldavin, described as an antiques dealer who also used the names Raoul Guy Rockwell and Guy Muldavin Rockwell, was a suspect in the deaths of a previous wife and a stepdaughter in Seattle in 1960, according to media reports at the time. He was caught in New York City and charged with “unlawful flight.” He died in California in 2002, according to his obituary. The death of the “Lady of the Dunes” was one of the most enduring and frustrating murder mysteries in Massachusetts. A young girl out for a walk found the body in the dunes in Provincetown in July 1974. The woman was naked on a beach blanket with her hands severed – so she could not be identified by her fingerprints, officials said. Her skull was crushed, and she was nearly decapitated.

Michigan

Lansing: A shortage of poll workers has concerned local election officials in some parts of the country, but Michigan is facing a different side of the trend. Conservative groups and local Republican Party operatives who have pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election have recruited poll workers in the state by the thousands. Similar recruitment efforts on the right have bolstered the ranks of poll workers in some other states with nationally watched races. Seeding the ranks of front-line election workers with people recruited by groups promoting election conspiracies has raised alarms among some that the people at the foundation of the election system could try to undermine it. “It concerns me when the motivation to serve as a poll worker is fueled through misinformation and people who have been fed lies, in some cases, for years now,” said Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat. “Since the spring, clerks have come at us with concerning questions they’re getting and, in some cases, hundreds of poll worker applications that seem to be motivated by nefarious intent.” In Oakland County, the state’s second-most populous, Republicans “discouraged about the outcome of the 2020 election” have been urged to sign up as poll workers through a new Republican National Committee recruitment program.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: The City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a former public safety director from New Jersey to take over the city’s police department, as it struggles with depleted staffing and the uncertainty of an ongoing federal investigation following the killing of George Floyd. Brian O’Hara, deputy mayor of Newark, will start serving as Minneapolis’ police chief Monday. “Everyone is hungry for change in this city. I’m not here to maintain the status quo,” he told reporters after the council vote. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey nominated O’Hara to lead the police department in September and said Thursday that the city needs someone like O’Hara right now. “This moment matters,” Frey said. “The act of stepping up for this job – at this time – is an act of courage.” Minneapolis has been at the center of calls for changes in policing since the May 2020 killing of Floyd, whose death under an officer’s knee led to nationwide demands for racial justice and an end to police brutality. Calls to abolish the department or dismantle and replace it with a new department of public safety were rejected by voters in the city last year. The city is also under a federal investigation into its policing practices, and it is expected that court-enforced changes will be ordered through a consent decree.

Mississippi

Jackson: State lawmakers met in special session Wednesday and quickly approved nearly $247 million in incentives for an aluminum plant that is supposed to bring 1,000 jobs to northern Mississippi by 2029. Many legislators voted on the incentives without knowing the name of the company. At a news conference as the session ended, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves acknowledged the aluminum project is being developed by Steel Dynamics Inc., an Indiana-based company that already operates a steel mill near Columbus, Mississippi. “They are a fantastic employer in the Golden Triangle today,” Reeves said. Reeves had previously said a nondisclosure agreement prohibited him from publicly naming the company until the deal was done. Only the governor can call a special session, and Democratic legislators questioned why Reeves has not called sessions to address other issues, including funding for Jackson’s troubled water system or for struggling rural hospitals. “Many Mississippians are suffering and dying. But none of these things, despite being matters of literal life and death, compelled the governor to call a special session,” Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez said Wednesday during a Democratic Caucus news conference. “So, what compelled him to bring us back again? A victory lap being portrayed publicly as an emergency? But this feels a lot more like a campaign event, a political pep rally, than public service.”

Missouri

Kansas City: The city will pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot by a police officer in 2019. The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners approved the settlement with the family of Terrence Bridges Jr. in a closed meeting earlier this week, The Kansas City Star reports. Bridges, 30, was shot and killed after officers responded to a reported carjacking. Police had contended he was resisting arrest and was shot during a struggle with the officer, identified in police records as Dylan Pifer. The officer told investigators he feared for his life because he thought Bridges was pulling a gun from a sweatshirt. Bridges’ family and civil rights activists said he was not armed, not resisting, did not pose a threat to the officer and was not involved in the carjacking. Tom Porto, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement the settlement represents the police department’s acknowledgement of the tragic and significant loss to Bridges’ family. Pifer, who is still on the police force, was not charged in the killing. A year after Bridges’ death, Pifer was with Sgt. Matthew T. Neal as Neal injured a 15-year-old boy by slamming his face into the pavement after stopping a car the teenager was in. Neal left the department after pleading guilty last week to third-degree assault. He was placed on four years’ probation. Pifer was not charged.

Montana

Helena: While Budweiser and Coors Light remain the state’s favorite beers, Gov. Greg Gianforte and Department of Agriculture Director Christy Clark have signed a letter of understanding saying Heineken’s parent company, Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, S.A., will do more business in Montana, including buying more Treasure State barley. The deal was announced Tuesday, The Daily Montanan reports. While the letter of intent didn’t commit the beverage industry giant to specific amounts or prices, it did say the company was committed to using more Montana products in its beer manufacturing. The “intent to procure increased volumes of high-quality Montana barley” will be met with “transparent market information, producer consultations, and continued investments in barley research” by the state, according to the letter. Gianforte, as well as leaders from Heineken and the Montana Wheat and Barley Committee along with members of the U.S. Grain Council, signed the letter at Bos Hay and Grain at Gallatin Gateway. “We’re thrilled Heineken recognized the superior quality of Montana barley and wants to do more business with our farmers,” Gianforte said. ‘This agreement ushers in tremendous opportunities for our ag industry.”

Nebraska

Omaha: In the wake of a Halloween block party where a man drove around barricades and toward the crowd before a police officer shot and wounded him, counselors and government officials have been offering help for those who witnessed the chaos. Therapists were available Thursday evening at Minne Lusa Elementary School for those dealing with stress from Monday night’s incident in the same neighborhood, the Omaha World-Herald reports. Project Harmony Deputy Director told the newspaper that officials were hoping to help kids and adults alike process the experience and normalize their feelings, which she said might include fixating on the event, sleep interruptions, irritability and fearing for their own safety. The shooting happened about 7 p.m. Monday during the annual Halloween block party in the Minne Lusa neighborhood, and no one besides the driver was injured. It capped a chaotic few seconds in which people ran screaming as the car accelerated toward the crowd before shots rang out. Authorities had blocked off the area to traffic to allow trick-or-treaters and their families to mill about the streets safely. Police said the driver, later identified as 31-year-old Dontavius Levering, drove around the barricades and traveled recklessly the wrong way without headlights on Minne Lusa Boulevard through crowds of people, including throngs of children. It’s not clear whether he intended to hurt anyone.

Nevada

Reno: The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada asked the state’s secretary of state Wednesday to investigate what it called a “coordinated partisan election administration effort” during rural Nye County’s hand-count of mail-in ballots that was shut down last week until after polls close. The ACLU said a hand-count volunteer openly carrying a firearm removed an ACLU observer from a hand-count tally room, which the organization said it recently discovered was Nye County GOP Central Committee Vice Chair Laura Larsen. The ACLU said the situation “poses questions” surrounding Nye County interim clerk Mark Kampf’s delegation of authority to partisan officials to remove observers from hand-count rooms, particularly during a hand-count process that deals with tabulation of ballots.

New Hampshire

Rye: A boil water order for customers of the Rye Water District has now stretched into its third week following the detection of harmful bacteria in district water samples in mid-October. A public informational meeting has been set for this weekend to discuss the order. Town leaders are continuing to distribute cases of bottled water to affected residents as Rye Water District leadership awaits the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services’ lifting of the order. Three weeks since the enactment of the order, Rye Water District superintendent Arik Jones said he still feels it could take several more days before it’s over. The cause of the water contamination has not been identified, though Jones stated that potential causes could be from “improper irrigation operation and/or maintenance.”

New Jersey

Delran: A $2.5 million upgrade at a water-treatment plant here is intended to remove a potentially harmful contaminant from a major source of South Jersey’s drinking water. New Jersey American Water said the improvements will target a man-made chemical found more than two years ago in samples taken from the Delaware River. The utility’s Delran plant processes up to 40 million gallons of river water daily for use by hundreds of thousands of customers in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties. The chemical – 1,4-dioxane – is used as a solvent during manufacturing or industrial processes, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. It is also a byproduct of some consumer products, including detergents and cosmetics.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Work to plug hundreds of abandoned oil and gas wells began in southeast New Mexico, amid the U.S.’ most active oilfields in the Permian Basin. The State’s Oil Conservation Division, an agency of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, got about $25 million in initial grant funding via the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed last year, hoping to redouble efforts to plug some of the about 1,700 wells believed to be abandoned throughout New Mexico on state and private land. Operations began Oct. 31 at a well east of Hobbs in Lea County. It was prioritized, the OCD said, as it was reportedly emitting large amounts of methane and hydrogen sulfide within 1,000 feet of local homes. Before the federal funds were granted, New Mexico was able to plug about 50 wells a year, but the OCD estimated the funds would allow the agency to clean up about 200 wells in the next 12 months. The money will also help remediate and restore the surfaces of another 50 to 60 locations.

New York

New York: New York will receive up to $524 million from drugmaker Teva to settle claims that the company contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic, the largest amount secured from an opioid manufacturer or distributor sued by the state, Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday. The state has reached a series of settlements with drug companies following an attorney general’s lawsuit in 2019 accusing them of deceptive marketing and failing to prevent the unlawful diversion of controlled substances. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and its affiliates were found liable last year for public nuisance charges by a jury on Long Island. To resolve the remedies phase, Teva agreed to pay out $313 million over 18 years, James said. New York will additionally receive $211 million from a $4.3 billion national settlement Teva agreed to in July if it is approved by state and local governments and tribes, according to the attorney general.

North Carolina

Raleigh: North Carolina’s health agency is weighing whether to challenge a judge’s order demanding that the state ramp up services for people with intellectual and development disabilities to allow more of them to live at home or in their communities. In 2020, Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour ruled that too many such people were forced to live in institutions in violation of state law. Baddour allowed the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan to address the violation, but recommendations made by a consulting firm haven’t been carried out, the judge wrote Wednesday while directing his own remedies. Baddour ordered that at least 3,000 people must be diverted or shifted to community-based programs by early 2031. Separately, he told DHHS to eliminate before 2032 a waiting list of roughly 16,000 people who are qualified to participate in a Medicaid-funded program that helps them live at home or outside of an institution. A shortage of well-paid direct-care workers also must be addressed by the state Department of Health and Human Services, the judge ruled.

North Dakota

Bismarck: An invasive and destructive weed species threatening North Dakota agriculture has been found in three more counties. That raises the total to 19 counties in North Dakota where the so-called “super weed,” also known as Palmer amaranth, has been found since it was first identified in the state four years ago, The Bismarck Tribune reported. “We think it’s a very significant threat to our growers and ranchers,” said Tom Peters, an agronomist and weed control specialist at North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota. Palmer amaranth can grow as tall as seven feet, even as much as 3 inches per day, and can resist many herbicides, produce hundreds of thousands of seeds and become strong enough to stop farm machinery, according to experts. A heavy infestation can cut soybean yields by as much as 79% and corn yields by up to 91%, according to research by Purdue University. The plants were recently found in Kidder, Williams and Stark counties, according to the state’s agriculture department. The findings were confirmed by the National Agricultural Genotyping Center at NDSU in Fargo.

Ohio

Lancaster: An exhibit in Ohio is evoking Christmas memories with a display of historic storybooks, vintage toys and costumes from the sets of the “Brady Bunch” of TV and movies. The show, “A Storybook Christmas Featuring a Very Brady Holiday,” opened Tuesday at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio and runs through Dec. 31. The exhibition marks the opening of the holiday season at the historic Reese-Peters House that houses the museum. Across five rooms trimmed for the holidays, visitors will be invited to step into the pages of classic Christmas storybooks including “The Night Before Christmas,” “Polar Express” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Some children’s board books and pop-up books will be arranged with pages open for visitors to read, while others will be positioned along with toys under Christmas trees as gifts, replicating what Christmas morning may have looked like for the Bradys and other families in the 1960s and ’70s. Several costumes and props from the “Brady Bunch” sets have been incorporated into the display by co-curator Randall Thropp, who manages the Paramount Pictures Costume Archive. They include a two-piece pantsuit Florence Henderson wore in the episode where the Bradys travel to the Grand Canyon and a horse sculpture that appeared at the base of the Bradys’ staircase.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt granted another temporary reprieve to death row inmate Richard Glossip, pushing his scheduled execution back until February 2023 so that an appeals court has more time to consider his claim of innocence. Stitt, who is locked in a tough reelection contest, issued an executive order on Wednesday that delays Glossip’s execution, which was scheduled for Nov. 21. Stitt’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A clemency hearing for Glossip that was scheduled before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board next week also will be delayed. Glossip received the death penalty for the 1997 murder-for-hire killing of his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. Prosecutors acknowledge Glossip did not kill Van Treese, but maintain that he paid the hotel maintenance man, Justin Sneed, to do it. Sneed, who received a life sentence but was spared the death penalty, was a key witness in two separate trials in which Glossip was convicted.

Oregon

Portland: Portland City Council members voted Thursday to create at least three large designated campsites and ban the rest of the roughly 700 encampments currently scattered across the city. More than 3,000 people are living without shelter in Portland, a 50% jump from 2019, according to the proposal. “People on the streets deserve our compassion. They need our understanding, and many of them need our help to get off and stay off the streets,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said after the vote. “It is my personal view that these resolutions take an important step forward for the city of Portland to be able to do just that.”

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: A measure to help the Pennsylvania Turnpike recover more unpaid tolls was signed into law Thursday, legislation that could trigger the suspension of thousands of vehicle registrations early next year. Gov. Tom Wolf gave final approval to legislation aimed at getting owners or operators of some 25,000 vehicles to pay their overdue bills for turnpike travel. After the law takes effect in two months, the process will start with the Turnpike Commission notifying registrants they are seeking to have their registrations suspended. At least a month later, the toll agency can ask the Transportation Department to start the process, and PennDOT said it will give the owners six weeks’ notice. “The customer is given several notices and opportunities to pay the tolls they owe before their registration is suspended,” PennDOT spokeswoman Alexis Campbell said.

Rhode Island

Providence: Police are investigating an anti-Semitic note left at the reception area of the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design Hillel Center on Sunday. In a letter to the Hillel community, Rabbi Josh Bolton said staff alerted both the campus police and Providence police. “I personally came to campus and met with detectives who opened an investigation into the incident. The investigation remains ongoing,” Rabbi Bolton wrote. Public safety officers, he said, determined there was no threat to Jewish students on campus. Hillel opened its doors Monday at 9 am. “While BRH takes any expression of anti-Semitism very seriously, we will not allow an incident like this to divert our focus from our core mission of building a flourishing Jewish community, and supporting the growth of Jewish students on College Hill,” Bolton wrote.

South Carolina

Chester: A man and his girlfriend suspected of killing five people in three states last year have pleaded guilty to two of the killings in South Carolina and have been sentenced to life in prison without parole, authorities said. Tyler Terry and Adrienne Simpson each pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and numerous other charges Wednesday in Chester County, according to media reports. Prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty in any of the five killings as long as the couple also pleaded guilty to two shootings near St. Louis, Missouri, and another in Memphis, Tennessee. All five deaths happened in May 2021, investigators said.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: The University of South Dakota received $552,381 to research the risk of emerging bed bug disease transmission in households across South Dakota earlier this month. On Oct. 7, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced seven universities were awarded $5.7 million to study populations at higher risk of being affected by home health hazards, like pests, injury hazards and asthma triggers. Those focus populations will be young children and seniors. Although there isn’t evidence that indicates bed bugs are transmitting disease, the goal of the “pro-active” research project is to identify if there’s a risk bed bugs could eventually be contributing to disease in households, said Jose Pietri, the USD assistant professor of microbiology leading the project.

Tennessee

Mt. Juliet: A Tennessee man who fled a traffic stop with an officer in the vehicle and refused to stop has been fatally shot, authorities said. The shooting happened after Mt. Juliet officers stopped a vehicle late Wednesday and asked the passenger, Eric Jermaine Allen, 39, to exit the vehicle, according to preliminary information from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Instead of exiting, Allen moved from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat and began to drive away, the bureau said in a statement. One of the officers attempted to stop Allen by leaning into the vehicle and gave commands for him to stop, but Allen drove away with the officer fully inside the vehicle, the statement said. The officer attempted to use a stun gun, but Allen continued to ignore commands to stop, prompting the officer to fatally shoot Allen. The officer was not injured. Bureau agents are working to independently determine the events leading to the shooting.

Texas

Houston: Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner revealed Wednesday that he underwent surgery and six weeks of radiation therapy during the summer for bone cancer in his jaw. Turner made the disclosure during a question-and-answer session after he delivered his annual State of the City address, the Houston Chronicle reported. Turner said he underwent nine hours of surgery on July 30 to remove the osteosarcoma. “Let me tell you, I have been blessed,” Turner said to applause. Turner missed a few weeks of City Council meetings while receiving his radiation therapy in August and September. His staff said he was undergoing medical treatment but did not specify what for. Turner, who has served as Houston’s mayor since 2016 after 27 years in the Texas House of Representatives, suffered a bout of COVID-19 last December.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The family of a Black fifth grader in Utah who died by suicide last year plans to file a $14 million lawsuit against her school, arguing that an inadequate response to reports of her being bullied over her race and disabilities led to her death. Attorneys representing Brittany Tichenor-Cox on Wednesday said they would seek damages for the 2021 death of her daughter, Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor. In a notice of claim, they said the school had violated state and federal laws, including those that require schools ensure equal treatment, provide educational opportunity and protect students experiencing homelessness. Notices of claim are required before people can sue government entities and the family’s claim said that the lawsuit will seek $14 million in damages. The notice of claim from Tichenor-Cox names Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake City as a defendant, as well as its director and principal. It also names as defendants the Davis School District, school board and superintendent. They have 60 days to respond before the family can file a lawsuit based on the claim.

Vermont

Stratton: Game wardens are investigating a bear attack in the southern Vermont town of Stratton, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said Thursday. Wardens said the victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the Wednesday evening attack and discharged from Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. Officials did not describe the circumstances of the attack, but said more information would be made public as it becomes available. Vermont wildlife officials said earlier this year that the state was seeing a record number of risky encounters between human and bears.

Virginia

Richmond: Seeking to learn more about the election integrity unit of Virginia’s attorney general’s office, the state’s chapter of the NAACP has put down a $20,000 deposit to fulfill a request for unit records. Virginia’s NAACP President Robert Barnette said there’s not enough transparency about the unit and he feels the price aims to discourage the Freedom of Information Act request, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. “Given the importance of fair elections, the attorney general’s stated desire for transparency, we would have thought he would want to make these records public,” Barnette said in a news conference outside the state Capitol on Tuesday.

Washington

Bremerton: The Bremerton City Council on Wednesday approved unanimously a plan to expand property tax exemptions for developers who build affordable housing in the city. The city remains “far behind the curve” in attracting affordable housing proposals and is thousands of units short of the number of people who desire to live in Bremerton, City Council President Michael Goodnow said. “I look at this as one tool in the toolbox toward solving our housing and homelessness issues,” Goodnow said. While beefing up what’s known as the city’s multifamily property tax exemption program, or MFTE for short, Mayor Greg Wheeler and other city council members had differing opinions about the best methods of bringing new affordable housing projects to the city. For now, the council created new property tax exemptions of both 12 and 20 years for developers who devote a fourth of their units to those defined as low income under a calculation using Kitsap County’s average income levels.

West Virginia

Wheeling: A West Virginia elementary school principal has been honored as one of the nation’s top educators. Principal Andrea Trio of Madison Elementary in Wheeling received a $25,000 Milken Educator Award from the Milken Family Foundation on Thursday. Up to 40 elementary educators nationwide will receive the awards this school year. Trio is known for walking through the school halls singing with children, using music and other social-emotional behavioral tools to calm her young students. Trio earned a bachelor’s in music education in 2005 from West Virginia University and a master’s in educational leadership in 2014 from Hood College.

Wisconsin

Madison: The Madison Children’s Museum has fired a Wisconsin man with cognitive disabilities after he wore an Adolf Hitler costume over the Halloween weekend. The museum said the man believed he was making a mockery of the Nazi Party’s leader when he wore the costume on a busy street near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on Saturday. He was fired Tuesday night, after his costume was condemned on social media and by some news outlets, including the Jerusalem Post. The museum said in a statement that it fired the man after it “determined that his continued employment would create an environment at odds with our values and unwelcoming to visitors and staff.” The statement said the man’s costume was “completely unacceptable” and that the museum stands against antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination. The museum also said the man has cognitive disabilities due to a traumatic brain injury and that his work over the last decade has been supervised. “It is our understanding that he believed his costume to be mocking Hitler,” the statement said. The Madison Police Department called the costume “offensive and reprehensible,” but said wearing it was not a crime. Police said they told the man about the concerns his costume raised.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: Sexual assault reports and complaints about equal-opportunity employment in the Wyoming National Guard have increased in the past year, a military official told state lawmakers Wednesday. While Greg Porter, adjutant general of the Wyoming National Guard, noted that sexual assault is a national problem, he told the state’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee that the state ranks “among the top 10 in forcible rapes in the U.S.,” the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports. State Rep. Mark Baker, R-Green River, said while reports in the Guard have risen – suggesting service members feel more comfortable speaking up – he still fears the numbers don’t properly illustrate the scope of the problem, according to the newspaper.

From Paste BN Network and wire reports