Charlottesville remembered, drive-thru ban, ketchup karma: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: The state has set its first hunting season for sandhill cranes in more than a century. The state wildlife agency says a limited number of hunters will be allowed to kill the migratory birds over two periods beginning Dec. 3. The state says it last allowed sandhill crane hunting in 1916. It says the species has made enough of a comeback in recent decades to allow hunters to go after them. Kentucky and Tennessee are the only other states east of the Mississippi River to allow hunting of the animals. More than a dozen Western states have crane seasons. The department says it will allow 400 permits for sandhill crane hunters over the season. Some people like eating the big birds.

Alaska

Anchorage: The governor is seeking to tighten the rules for food stamp recipients. The Anchorage Daily News reports Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration wants to implement federal work requirements for low-income adults who receive food assistance. The change would affect recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in a state that has long had a waiver from work or employment program requirements. The Republican governor’s spokesman says the administration wants the change in order “to comply with the spirit and intent” of federal rules. The Food Bank of Alaska says the change will further heighten food insecurity at a time when assistance services are already strained by the governor’s recent, deep budget vetoes.

Arizona

Florence: Pinal County authorities want to prepare inmates with skills to help them have a successful future once they get out of jail. The county Sheriff’s Office is partnering with a technology company to bring computer tablets to the inmates at the adult detention center. The county’s jail houses an average of 500 inmates a day. The tablets are monitored, and the inmates are aware that their activities and all forms of conversations are monitored, which is standard practice at all detention facilities. Sheriff Mark Lamb told the Casa Grande Dispatch that inmates can use tablets to help advance their education and gain skills while they are incarcerated, prepare themselves for a future job or even work toward a high school diploma.

Arkansas

Springdale: Initial information for the Connect Northwest Arkansas transit development plan confirms the region’s residents want a more developed transit system. Tim Simon of Alliance Transportation Group, the consulting firm commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission to do the $280,000 study and plan, recently presented the first draft to stakeholders. A transit plan for the region was last adopted in 2010. The new plan will focus on public education and establishing fixed bus routes throughout the region, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The plan will be developed specifically for the two public transit providers, Ozark Regional Transit and University of Arkansas Razorback Transit, to define their roles in a regional system.

California

Hoopa: They probably don’t train people for this at the Sheriff’s Academy. A patrol car was struck by a falling bear, officials in Northern California say. A Humboldt County sheriff’s deputy was driving on State Route 96 on Aug. 3, answering a report of a drug overdose in the community of Orleans, when the bear fell or jumped onto the car, apparently from a steep embankment, authorities say. The bear smashed the hood and windshield. The patrol car hit an embankment, rolled onto its side and burst into flames. The deputy managed to escape without serious injury. The fire was contained to about half an acre, but the car was gutted. However, the California Department of Transportation offered a reassurance: “Don’t worry, the bear also fled the scene.”

Colorado

Boulder: Another city in the Centennial State is refusing to do business with a company partly due to its ties to immigration enforcement. Boulder police told ankle monitor maker BI Incorporated last week that it will no longer allow off-duty police officers to be hired for extra security at its headquarters. It works with immigration and other authorities and is owned by GEO Group, which operates the immigration detention center in suburban Denver. The decision was prompted by objections from residents and citizens’ groups to the city having contracts with GEO and CoreCivic or its subsidiaries following Denver’s decision to cut ties with the halfway houses they operate. A BI spokesman, Rich Coolidge, says the move sets a dangerous precedent because he says it puts partisan political decisions above public safety.

Connecticut

Hartford: The state’s “distressed” dairy industry will be the subject of an informational forum Tuesday at the Legislative Office Building. Members of the General Assembly’s “rural caucus” have invited dairy farmers from Franklin and Hebron, the executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau, the assistant director of the Cooperative Extension System at the University of Connecticut, and Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt. In Connecticut and across the country, farmers for years have been grappling with low milk prices they cannot control. As of January, there were 108 dairy farms in the state, including cattle, goat and sheep milk producers. Connecticut’s dairy industry has been estimated to contribute more than $1 billion annually to its economy.

Delaware

Dover: Students soon will be able to ride a DART bus with passes paid for by their schools. A new state law will allow district and charter schools to buy and provide annual passes for students to use buses from the Delaware Transit Corp. Sen. Laura Sturgeon D-Brandywine West, the legislation’s main sponsor, says it is designed to make school choice more equitable. It will also help students get to after-school jobs and volunteer opportunities and help a new generation become more familiar with public transportation. “We have school choice in Delaware, but not all students can access it,” she says. The bill is aimed at students in grades six through 12. Schools will not be required to provide the passes. Each district and charter school will negotiate the purchase with DART, but each pass is expected to cost $450 annually, a steep discount, says John Sisson, DART’s chief executive officer.

District of Columbia

Washington: With the district reaching its 100th homicide of the year, one teen is coping by opening up a conversation on YouTube. Sean Johnson, 15, has grown up in southeast D.C., witnessing regular violence, WUSA-TV reports. He tutored 11-year-old Karon Brown, who was shot to death in July. “When I heard about the shooting, it really got me heartbroken because, you know, I used to help this kid,” Sean says. Moments like that pushed him to start the series set up like a Q&A about the neighborhood. “Basically, people who have never been to southeast, they need to know how it is because people are quick to put stereotypes on southeast and say, like, ‘Oh, it’s a bad neighborhood,’ but it really depends,” he says. Sean says kids are afraid to speak up and stand out, thinking they’ll become a target, but it’s important to open up the conversation to create any kind of change.

Florida

Fort Myers: After 2018’s high ecological toll, red tide is at normal background levels this year. A blue-green algae bloom this summer has stayed mostly on Lake Okeechobee since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered lake levels earlier this year to avoid discharging large volumes of water to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. Large fish kills haven’t been reported along the coast in several months, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the number of sea turtle hatchlings across the region may set a record by autumn. “We ended up with 133 (sea turtles) stranding last year, which is really bad. It was a terrible red tide,” says Maura Kraus, with Collier County’s sea turtle program. Sea turtle nesting season runs through Oct. 31.

Georgia

Savannah: A drug charge has been dropped against a Georgia Southern quarterback after a white substance he identified as bird poop on his car’s hood tested negative for cocaine. A Saluda County Sheriff’s Office police report says deputies pulled Shai Werts over for speeding July 31 and noticed two white spots on his car they thought were cocaine. The report says Werts told them it was bird poop he had tried to wash off. The deputies then did a field test that came back positive for cocaine and charged him with possession of the drug. Werts’ lawyer Townes Jones IV told The Savannah Morning News more sophisticated lab testing showed the substance was not cocaine, and the drug charge was dropped. Jones says prosecutors told him the original speeding charge remains.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Astronomers across 11 observatories on the state’s tallest mountain have canceled more than 2,000 hours of telescope viewing over the past four weeks because a protest blocked a road to the summit. The lost research atop Mauna Kea includes work on clouds of gas and dust on the verge of forming stars, as well as asteroids that might come close to or even hit Earth. Mauna Kea is one of the world’s premier sites for studying the skies. Native Hawaiian protesters are blocking the road to prevent the construction of another telescope, which they fear will further harm a peak they consider sacred. Astronomers said Friday that they’ll attempt to resume observations but in some cases won’t be able to make up the missed research. Protesters say they shouldn’t be blamed for the shutdown.

Idaho

Boise: The Nez Perce Tribe is suing a Canadian mining company contending the company is illegally allowing arsenic, cyanide and mercury to pollute a central Idaho area to which the tribe has hunting and fishing rights from an 1855 treaty with the United States. The tribe filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court seeking to force British Columbia-based Midas Gold and three Idaho-based subsidiaries to stop discharging pollutants. Midas Gold has never mined in the area about 40 miles east of McCall but in the last decade has acquired mining claims and developed a plan it says will ultimately clean up the mess left by a century of mining by other companies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spent $4 million since the 1990s trying to clean up the area that includes streams with federally protected salmon.

Illinois

Chicago: The University of Illinois has launched a two-year study and is offering free soil tests to home gardeners and urban farmers across the area. It’s called the Chicago Safe Soils Initiative. Professor Andrew Margenot, the leader of the project, says cities can often be “hotspots” for heavy metals like lead. He and others will be collecting thousands of soil samples from backyards, community gardens and urban farms in the next two years. They plan to map out what they find and make it publicly available. University officials say it’s common to find high lead levels near roads and houses built before 1978, when paint containing lead was banned. Participants will have to fill out a sample soil intake form.

Indiana

Yorktown: Elected officials have come out against a proposed steel dust recycling plant, saying the nearby project would hurt local property values. The Yorktown Town Council posted a notice Friday on the town’s Facebook page declaring its opposition to the plant proposed in adjacent Muncie. That notice says the construction and operation of the hazardous waste recycling plant would harm property values and wouldn’t be “an attractive nor viable partner in the development of our community.” Waelz Sustainable Products has not yet obtained a construction permit from Indiana regulators. The plant would recycle trainloads of steel dust, a hazardous waste. Mercury, lead and other toxic air pollutants would be released during a rotary kiln process to recover zinc and iron.

Iowa

Waterloo: The city has hired an engineering firm to help guide repairs to the inflatable dam on the Cedar River downtown. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the City Council has authorized spending up to $27,500 for AECOM Technical Services to develop plans for a process to determine why the rubber bladder dam is leaking air. The company will prepare a contract for a private contractor that will install temporary gates to keep water away while engineers inspect the dam to find the leak or leaks and make plans for repairs. The city intends to have parts and patches on hand to make repairs while the water is diverted for the inspection. The city has inflated the bladder dam since 2009, raising the Cedar River level by about 4 feet to enhance boating. It’s usually inflated in June and deflated in October.

Kansas

Topeka: Leaders of an anti-vaccination group in the state say their membership numbers are surging in response to two new immunization requirements for schoolchildren. As of Aug. 2, Kansas is requiring students beginning in seventh grade to receive a meningitis vaccine. And students entering kindergarten or first grade need two doses of the hepatitis A vaccine. The shots are required for children in public or private schools. Connie Newcome, president of Kansans for Health Freedom, says the nonprofit group has grown dramatically. She says Kansans want to make their own decisions about vaccines without the government telling them what to do. The Kansas City Star reports the opposition comes as state health officials are trying to improve Kansas’ low ranking for the meningitis vaccine, and an only slightly better ranking for hepatitis A vaccinations.

Kentucky

Cave City: Officials say a section of Mammoth Cave National Park will be closed for more than a year for renovations. Park spokeswoman Molly Schroer told the Daily News that a 2-mile section of cave stretching from the Snowball Room to Grand Central Station will close sometime this fall and isn’t expected to reopen for 18 months. Schroer said the dirt and stone cave floor has become degraded, and the project will make the path smoother and more durable while making steps and handrails more user-friendly. She said the Grand Avenue Tour and the Wild Cave Tour won’t be available for the entire closure. Others tours, including Domes and Dripstones and Frozen Niagara, would be closed for only part of the renovation.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: The state has a new poet laureate, with a background well beyond fine arts. John Warner Smith’s tenure in the two-year position begins Wednesday. He teaches English at Southern University in Baton Rouge and has published four collections of poetry since 2015. But before that, Smith worked as Louisiana labor secretary under former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and he has been a banker. He has degrees in fine arts, business administration, psychology and accounting. Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities announced Smith’s selection. Edwards described Smith’s poetry as passionate and called him a “trailblazer” who is devoted to education. Smith takes over from Jack Bedell, who has been Louisiana’s poet laureate since 2017.

Maine

Portland: Endangered piping plovers have fledged 165 chicks so far this summer for a new record in the state. The Maine Audubon reports that the number of chicks represents a 29% increase over last year. And it follows a 30% increase last year. Laura Minich Zitsk, director of Maine’s Piping Plover Project, tells the Portland Press Herald that the number of nesting pairs is “incredible.” The most recent state tally found 89 nesting pairs of piping plovers on Maine beaches. That’s up from 68 last year. Henry Jones of the Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department says the gains were aided by work by federal, state and local agencies over the past decade. The shorebird has been on the federal endangered species list since 1986.

Maryland

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University has fired an associate research professor over his confrontation with students participating in a sit-in at a campus building where he worked. The Sun reports that a letter written by the university’s vice dean for faculty says Daniel Povey has been fired for jeopardizing student safety. The newspaper says Povey posted his termination letter online. His firing takes effect Aug. 31. Povey initially was placed on administrative leave after the night in May when he used bolt cutters to enter a building and access computer servers hosting his research. Students who had occupied the building for weeks were protesting legislation that would allow John Hopkins to create an armed campus police force. Povey told The Sun he believed protesters “weren’t going to get what they wanted.”

Massachusetts

Boston: The state Registry of Motor Vehicles is holding its annual lottery for much sought-after low-number vehicle license plates. Entries are being accepted online until Aug. 23. Mailed entries must be postmarked by that date. The winners will be announced Sept. 15. Only one entry per applicant will be accepted, and applicants must be a Massachusetts resident with a currently active, registered and insured passenger vehicle. People with suspended or revoked registrations or licenses are not eligible. Applicants are not allowed to request specific numbers. Among the numbers available in this year’s lottery are B1, 3000, 27A and K5. For years, low-number plates were handed out to the politically connected until the lottery system was put into place.

Michigan

Detroit: Wayne County prosecutors are commemorating the 10th anniversary of a push to test thousands of sexual assault kits found in a Detroit police evidence warehouse. Highlights of the initiative will be discussed Wednesday during an invitation-only event. More than 11,000 rape kits were discovered in the warehouse in 2009. Those kits contained DNA and other evidence from rape cases, but a majority of the 11,000 kits were never tested in a lab. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy pushed efforts to test the kits and prosecute old cases. Through May 2018, 130 people had been convicted and 818 serial sex offenders identified after authorities started investigating earlier batches of the kits. Thousands of untested kits also have been found at other police departments across the nation.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: Local planners say the city is the first of its size in the country to ban new drive-through windows. The City Council voted Thursday to ban new construction of drive-through facilities. The existing ones are grandfathered. Council President Lisa Bender proposed the ban last year to cut down on vehicle noise, idling and traffic and to make sidewalks safer for pedestrians. New drive-through windows have already been prohibited in 17 of the city’s 23 zoning districts. The Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan approved by the council last year directs the city to outlaw new drive-through facilities and gas stations.

Mississippi

Biloxi: Tulane University is no longer operating on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. WLOX-TV reports students took their last final exam Thursday – the last day of classes for the campus in Biloxi. The campus has been in Biloxi since 2001. The university announced the closing in 2018. Officials said dwindling numbers of enrollment created the need to close. At the beginning of the 2018 fall semester, 92 students were enrolled. The largest enrollment was in 2011 with 205 students. Media arts instructor Ronald Warr tells the station the closure hurts. He says it feels like he’s been punched in the gut. Affected students have opted to continue with online classes, attend classes at the New Orleans campus, or take their credits and transfer to another institution.

Missouri

Independence: A museum dedicated to the late actress Ginger Rogers will close after only one year of operation. Rogers, who was born in Independence, is most famous as the dancing partner for Fred Astaire in the 1930s and ’40s. Marge and Gene Padgitt opened the museum last year in the home where Rogers and her mother, writer Lela Owens-Rogers, lived. The Independence Examiner reports Marge Padgitt said the museum didn’t have enough visitors and doesn’t have enough space to hold donated items. The museum will be open Wednesdays and Saturdays through September. The couple still hopes to acquire a larger building for a museum dedicated to Jackson County history and celebrities who lived in the area, including Rogers, Walt Disney, actor Jean Harlow, actor William Powell, and Jesse and Frank James.

Montana

Billings: Health officials have proposed a series of rules for schools in the state, including requiring districts to create plans for how they would make buildings airtight. The Billings Gazette reports the state Department of Health and Human Services’ rule for sealing school buildings from the outside air aims to protect against wildfire smoke and other air hazards. The proposal also includes requirements for schools to regularly inspect air systems and to test water for lead. Education groups have been critical of the proposed rules, saying the process was rushed and hoping the department would clarify its expectations. The department says several school groups had the chance to weigh in, and it has considered the economic impact of the rules. The department is taking public comment on the proposal until Sept. 16.

Nebraska

Fairbury: A living history event scheduled for this weekend at Rock Creek Station State Historical Park will show what everyday life was like in the Nebraska Territory in 1864. Historians will inhabit the park’s reconstructed road ranch Saturday, demonstrating haying, carpentry, blacksmithing and stock tending. Rock Creek Station was established in 1857 along the Oregon and California trails. It was a supply center and resting spot for westward emigrants and later became a Pony Express relay station. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission developed it as a state historical park in 1980. The park sits about 6 miles east of Fairbury in Jefferson County. Call the park at 402-729-5777 for more information. A park entry permit is required.

Nevada

Las Vegas: Wild horses are being rounded up throughout the state this summer by federal land managers who say they are preserving land and protecting herds while water and food sources become scarce. A U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman tells the Las Vegas Sun it’s horrifying to see animals starving on the range, and the logical and humane thing to do is manage the population. But some wild horse advocates want to do away with roundups, saying they rely on faulty figures, waste resources and harm horses. They say the bureau already has 46,000 captured horses in taxpayer-funded corrals. The Sun reports the number of mustangs and mares in captivity nearly equals the estimated 48,300 on the range in Nevada, a state with more than half the U.S. wild horse and burro population.

New Hampshire

Pittsfield: The state has put the kibosh on a farm stand’s ice cream made from raw milk. Jill Fudala says her ice cream made from goat milk and sold in cherry walnut, black raspberry and other flavors was a hit – until the state stepped in. The Boston Globe reports that customers could pay on the honor system at her farm stand. That was before the state Department of Health and Human Services threatened to fine Fudala unless she stopped selling the ice cream. The department contends processed dairy products must be made with pasteurized milk. State Rep. James Allard says he hopes to help Fudala return to her ice cream production. He’s exploring whether to submit a bill “to update the language” of the state law.

New Jersey

Lacey Township: Heinz is offering to help a person who fears that the theft of a bottle of ketchup has led to bad luck. The thief took a bottle from a New Jersey restaurant. But when the person got into a car accident and experienced other misfortunes, they returned two bottles to the eatery, with a note of apology. The note said the theft of the ketchup was the worst thing the person had ever done, but he or she was seeking to do something “risky.” Heinz offered on Twitter to pay for the damage from the car accident if the thief contacted the Pittsburgh-based company. The company said: “Heinz makes you do crazy things.” Heinz posted Friday that it found the person, whose identity it has promised to protect.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: Officials believe they may have found one of the missing trees planted in the state from seeds taken to the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. KOAT-TV reports former New Mexico first lady Clara Apodaca and a naturalist identified a tree last week that they believe to be one of those planted in the state four decades ago. Apodaca and the naturalist say a Douglas fir in a grassy area north of the state Capitol in Santa Fe is a moon tree. Apodaca helped plant it. The discovery comes after the Albuquerque station reported that officials where the trees were planted decades ago said they have lost track of the trees. Moon trees were grown from 500 seeds taken into orbit around the moon by former U.S. Forest Service smokejumper Stuart Roosa during the 1971 mission.

New York

Albany: The state is appealing a court decision that has halted trail work in the Adirondacks. The Department of Environmental Conservation is asking the state’s highest court to reverse a mid-level court ruling in a lawsuit filed by the environmental group Protect the Adirondacks. The group sued in 2013, claiming the state was cutting 25,000 trees to make its new “community connector” snowmobile trails. The state said the number was far less. The “Forever Wild” clause of the state constitution prohibits removal of excessive amounts of timber in the Forest Preserve. At issue in the court case is the definition of “tree.” The state says trees less than 3 inches in diameter don’t count, but the lawsuit argued slender trees can be very old and important to the forest ecology.

North Carolina

Raleigh: Thousands of old court documents – some going back 350 years – could soon be more accessible to the public thanks in part to a federal grant. The State Archives of North Carolina is getting $140,000 toward a project designed to expand an online catalog that helps historians and other citizens know names and places within hard-to-decipher records. An improved index means they’ll know which documents they want to go read in person. State Archivist Sarah Koonts says the documents shed light on early North Carolina society and include wills and estates and bridge and road information. A sample of these documents will be posted online as part of the project. Workshops will be held for participants to learn how to transcribe the documents’ elegant cursive handwriting.

North Dakota

Bismarck: As law enforcement agencies across the state begin a concentrated effort to catch impaired drivers, some 60 law enforcement officers will be using their specially trained skills to detect motorists who are high on drugs. About 20 agencies across the state employ officers who have taken the rigorous, internationally utilized program that helps law enforcement identify drivers who are under the influence of drugs other than alcohol. North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper Tarek Chase coordinates the state’s drug recognition expert training program. Chase tells the Bismarck Tribune law enforcement officers statewide have noticed an increase in drug-impaired driving. Agencies statewide begin a “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign Friday. It runs through Sept. 2.

Ohio

Mansfield: It’s been 25 years since Red and Andy were reunited at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, and an event this weekend will reunite many of those who helped film “The Shawshank Redemption” here. Fans can meet cast members Friday through Sunday. The weekend’s festivities start at 6 p.m Friday with a screening of the movie at the Renaissance Theatre. The following two days will be filled with events at the Ohio State Reformatory, the facility also known as Shawshank State Prison. But to the tens of thousands of inmates who lived there between 1896 to 1990, the prison was known as “Dracula’s Castle,” Mark Dawidziak explained in his recently published book, “The Shawshank Redemption Revealed.” Dawidziak will be among those available to meet guests over the weekend, to tell them about his behind-the-scenes look into the making of the film.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: A Democratic lawmaker from the city is joining forces with gun safety advocates seeking a public vote on whether to overturn a state law that will allow people in the state to openly carry firearms without a background check or training. Rep. Jason Lowe announced plans Monday for a referendum petition on the bill that passed overwhelmingly last session and quickly became the first signed by new Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. The bill is scheduled to take effect Nov. 1. Supporters of the repeal will face a tight deadline to gather the nearly 60,000 signatures before the end of August to get the question on ballot in 2020. Lowe’s announcement comes less than two weeks after mass shootings in Texas and Ohio left more than 30 people dead.

Oregon

Grants Pass: A county fair is setting up a “free-expression area,” with restrictions on bullhorns, signs and sound systems. The Daily Courier reports the Josephine County Fair is setting up a 30-by-30-foot outdoor area near two of the entrances to a building where vendors will be set up for the upcoming fair. The fair board recently banned signs except in areas where vendors and others have paid a fee to use them. Fairgrounds director Tamra Martin says efforts have been made to create a “family-friendly,” entertaining event. She says the location of the “free-expression area” provides visibility for those wanting to be heard. Kelly Simon with the American Civil Liberties Union in Portland says limits on free speech must be narrowly tailored to serve a government interest.

Pennsylvania

Wilkes-Barre: Officials say a man broke into a Planned Parenthood office, smashing glass doors and painting graffiti on the walls. Melissa Reed, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Keystone, said surveillance images show a man throwing a brick through a window of the Wilkes-Barre office about 2 a.m. Monday. She said the same man returned about an hour later with another brick, smashed other windows, climbed through the door and spray-painted graffiti including a biblical verse in red. Planned Parenthood Keystone said in a statement that the act was “aimed to intimidate, threaten and instill fear.” Reed said the office offers birth control, cancer screenings, general health care, STD testing, pregnancy testing and the morning-after pill but does not perform surgical abortions on site.

Rhode Island

Providence: The Department of Environmental Management is surveying the state’s lakes, ponds and rivers this summer as part of an annual monitoring program to identify invasive aquatic species. During a survey June 12 in Barney Pond in Lincoln, DEM staff removed several small water chestnut plants that were scattered throughout the pond. Water chestnut hadn’t been previously documented in Barney Pond or its watershed, so DEM alerted the town of Lincoln and searched for the source of the invasive plants. A large patch of water chestnut plants was found upstream in Olney Pond. The invasive plants were removed as part of conservation efforts to protect Olney Pond’s habitat. The public is asked to take photos and report suspected new findings of water chestnut plants to DEM.

South Carolina

York: A 101-year-old farming and fellowship tradition won’t continue this year in rural South Carolina and may be over for good. The Herald of Rock Hill reports the annual Hopewell Day where people in western York County gather to eat beef hash and listen to gospel music and political speeches won’t take place in 2019. Hopewell Day was celebrated the third Wednesday in August after many farmers finished their harvests. But organizer Melvin Howell says attendance is dwindling, and there aren’t enough volunteers because of school starting back. Other organizers say they will discuss moving the event to the weekend if it is held in 2020. Hash is made from beef, onions, butter and salt.

South Dakota

Rapid City: An official of Rapid City Regional Airport acknowledges the airport recently dumped sewage without permission from state regulators. The Rapid City Journal reports the airport dumped about 74,100 gallons of sewage on the northern end of its property this past week without permission of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Airport executive director Patrick Dame says that the airport contacted the department before it dumped the sewage but that the agency did not make it clear a permit was necessary. He says the airport has been looking at ways to remove excess wastewater that accumulated in its septic lagoon due to the combination of heavy rain and increased passenger traffic this summer. A DENR spokesman says the agency is trying to determine if any contamination has occurred.

Tennessee

Red Boiling Springs: News outlets report two former students are accused of breaking into their high school and stealing an AR-15 and bulletproof vests from the resource officer’s gun safe. Clay and Macon County authorities say Lee Clark and Adam Cisneros were spotted on video inside Red Boiling Springs School last week. Deputies say the items were found buried behind Clark’s home. WTVF reports Macon schools director Tony Boles says a sheriff’s department policy allows officers to bring personal guns to campus along with their service weapons. Groups advocating against gun violence are questioning how the kids got into the safe. Beth Joslin Roth of the Safe Tennessee Project says she also wonders why an officer would have an assault weapon at school, given how imprecisely they are designed to fire.

Texas

Houston: Joe Walsh will be joined by ZZ Top, Brad Paisley, Sheryl Crow, and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit at his VetsAid music festival to benefit veterans. The award-winning musician announced Monday that tickets for the Nov. 10 concert at the Toyota Center in Houston will go on sale Friday. In its first two years, net proceeds have allowed VetsAid to disburse nearly $1.2 million in grants. Grants this year will go to Houston-area organizations. In a statement, Walsh says that “all are welcome to celebrate the things that unite us as Americans: good friends, open hearts and great music!” Walsh’s father died while stationed on Okinawa, Japan, when the musician was 20 months old. He offers free guitar lessons to wounded veterans at Walter Reed National Medical Center, outside Washington.

Utah

Salt Lake City: Authorities say the state’s prison population has grown faster than most states in the past few years. KSL-TV reports the Utah Sentencing Commission saw a dramatic surge in prison population as new crimes and drug violations led to more convictions. The U.S. Department of Justice reported in April that Utah’s prison population increased by 4.3% from the end of 2016 to the end of 2017, faster than every state except Idaho at 5.1%. State authorities say the average daily inmate population continued to increase, adding 165 prisoners between August 2018 and July 2019. Authorities say more people returning to prison on technical violations, including nonviolent petty crimes, drove increases. Officials say they expected Utah’s prison population to rise with the increase in the state’s general population.

Vermont

Montpelier: Vermont Fish and Wildlife staff have been busy as beavers this summer trying to prevent flooding on roads and private property. The agency has installed 11 water control devices on beaver dams throughout the state. Known as “beaver baffles,” the devices allow some water to pass through the dam without breaching it and destroying wetlands. Officials say the devices can help reduce flooding and minimize property damage while preserving wetlands that provide critical habitat for songbirds, otters, moose and other wildlife. Beavers had disappeared from Vermont by the early 1700s due to unregulated trapping and habit degradation. Fish and Wildlife reintroduced them in the 1920s, and they are now widespread.

Virginia

Charlottesville: City residents marked the second anniversary of a deadly white nationalist rally with a series of peaceful community events. About 20 people gathered Monday afternoon for a moment of silence at the site where an avowed white nationalist plowed a car into a crowd of people, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens more. Flowers and signs decorated a memorial to Heyer. The Aug. 12, 2017, rally drew a mix of violent far-right extremists. Brawls broke out with anti-racism protesters, and authorities eventually forced the crowds to disperse. The car attack came later as peaceful counterprotesters were marching through downtown. Two state troopers involved in surveillance were killed when their helicopter crashed. Other events marking the second anniversary included a ballet performance and a worship service.

Washington

Metaline Falls: Times are tough in a rural county in the state’s northeast because one of the region’s biggest employers is shutting down. The Pend Oreille Mine, just north of Metaline Falls, closed July 31, at a cost of about 200 family wage jobs in an area of less than 1,000 residents. It’s another sign of the imbalance of prosperity in Washington state. While the Seattle area gorges on high-paying jobs, many rural counties like Pend Oreille County that depend on natural resource industries – logging, fishing, mining – are suffering. This divide is part of a national trend. People in urban areas had higher per-capita income, lower poverty rates, lower unemployment rates and higher education levels than people in rural areas in recent years, according to federal data.

West Virginia

Charleston: Pagan gatherings are scheduled for three parks in the state in coming weeks, but those considering attending the public events and expecting to see witchcraft in action or arcane rituals being observed may be disappointed, The Gazette-Mail reports. “You won’t see any spell-casting or sacrifices,” Gwendolyn Blake of Clarksburg said with a laugh. “But we do have a ceremony where we break bread and have a drink of something from nature, like water or wine.” Blake’s Rowan Temple of Light Coven is organizing Pagan gatherings at Kanawha State Forest on Aug. 17 and at Summersville Lake on Sept. 21. A Charleston Area Pagan Pride gathering is scheduled for Sept. 28 at Ordnance Park, in St. Albans. A Morgantown Pagan Pride Day, held July 27 at Mason-Dixon Historical Park at Core, drew about 300 attendees, according to Blake.

Wisconsin

Milwaukee: Law enforcement authorities in Dodge County say anyone arrested on suspicion of drunken driving will be identified and have their photos posted on social media. The sheriff’s office already releases the names of all alleged drunken drivers to local media. In a statement on Facebook, the office says the new policy on disclosure of drunken driving arrests is legal because records of such arrests are public record. It will begin this month. The initiative is part of the sheriff’s office’s crash reduction strategy that has focused on drunken driving, speeding, stop sign offenses, seat belt violations and other enforcement efforts.

Wyoming

Gillette: Firefighters in the area worry the danger of wildfires could increase after wet spring and summer weather. The wet weather encouraged lush growth on northeast Wyoming’s grasslands. Campbell County Fire Department Operations Chief J.R. Fox says it doesn’t take many hot, dry days to dry out vegetation. He’s especially concerned about heavy growth of sweet clover. Fox told the Gillette News-Record on Friday that fire danger remains moderate. Firefighters quickly put out two small wildfires in Campbell County on Thursday. The department responds to 140 to 150 wildfires in an average year. They’ve responded to just 20 to 30 small fires so far this year.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: News from around our 50 states