Iconic Circle K, rock ’n’ roll fight, firefly lottery: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Pelham: New public access areas will be available later this year at Alabama’s largest state park, which is growing with the purchase of more than 1,600 acres of land in metro Birmingham. The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources plans to expand biking, hiking and horse-riding trails at Oak Mountain State Park with the addition of acreage acquired through the Forever Wild Land Trust, the agency said in a statement. The park, located in heavily populated Shelby County, will encompass more than 11,000 acres with the additional land, most of which is forested. “We’re still doing the environmental and biological assessments to identify those areas where we want to keep the public from disturbing threatened and endangered species,” said Commissioner Chris Blankenship. “So we’ll be looking to open up more public access later in 2022.” The land being added to the park was one of the largest undeveloped tracts near Birmingham along U.S. 280. It was owned by EBSCO Industries. Forever Wild has acquired 285,000 acres of land around the state, and nearly all of it allows public access for outdoor activities.

Alaska

Homer: A trailer containing mail intended for a dozen communities on the Kenai Peninsula caught fire and was destroyed. The driver of the truck hauling the trailer was not injured in the Tuesday incident, the Homer News reports. The cause of the fire is under investigation, the U.S. Postal Service said in a statement. The contract truck left a processing center in Anchorage and caught fire near Mile 38 of the Seward Highway, or just north of the intersection of the Seward and Sterling highways, near Tern Lake. Mail in the trailer was intended for Kasilof, Clam Gulch, Ninilchik, Anchor Point, Homer, Fritz Creek, Halibut Cove, Nanwalek, Nikolaevsk, Port Graham, Nikiski and Seldovia. Anyone who believes they were affected by the lost mail should contact the Postal Service. If a lost package was insured, a claim can be filed online. “The Postal Service regrets this unfortunate situation and any inconvenience it may cause,” USPS wrote in a copy of the letter attached to the press statement. “If you are questioned by a mailer, creditor or correspondent regarding mail or packages that may have been destroyed in this fire, feel free to use this letter as explanation.” The Postal Service should be able to identify lost mail or packages that had tracking numbers by Wednesday, said James Boxrud, an agency spokesperson.

Arizona

Tempe: Whoa. The Circle K that plays an important part in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” is closing, according to employees there. The store is where Keanu Reeves, who plays Ted in the 1989 film, utters the line: “Strange things are afoot at the Circle K.” Employees at the store, at 1010 W. Southern Ave. said they had been notified the store is closing May 19. Circle K’s ownership did not respond to requests for comment. Other Valley locations where the film was shot include Metrocenter Mall – already gone – and Golfland Sunsplash water park. In the film and its sequels, Bill and Ted are high school friends with a band, Wyld Stallyns. They’re also miserable students, and if they don’t pass an upcoming history exam, Ted’s father will send him to military school, breaking up the band. That can’t happen, though, because Wyld Stallyns will eventually unite the world in a utopian society. So George Carlin visits by way of a phone booth time machine to take them back to meet historical figures to help them pass. The Circle K is where Carlin first meets Bill and Ted. And now it’s going away. Sounds bogus.

Arkansas

Mountain View: Authorities say they’ve identified a person of interest in connection with the fatal shootings of four people last week in a rural community. Arkansas State Police say the person is now jailed on unrelated charges. Police did not release that person’s name or say how they may be connected to the deaths last week in rural Stone County, about 75 miles north of Little Rock. According to state police, 77-year-old Shirley Watters and her 55-year-old son, James Watters, were found dead the afternoon of April 21 by a family member. State police said both had gunshot wounds. About eight hours later, investigators were called to a nearby home where William Clinton Trammell, 75, and his wife, Sharon Trammell, 72, were found dead, also with gunshot wounds, state police said. “While area residents should continue to be vigilant at their homes and while traveling through the area, the state police has not found any evidence to indicate an imminent threat related to this particular investigation,” state police said in a statement Tuesday night.

California

Sacramento: The spiraling number of overdose deaths and hospitalizations among prison inmates in the state fell dramatically during the first two years of a program that uses prescribed drugs to treat more incarcerated addicts than any such program in the country, officials said Tuesday. The rate of overdose deaths dropped 58% after the program began in 2020. Hospitalizations were 48% lower among those receiving the anti-craving drugs than among those waiting to begin treatment. The promising results show the program was effective even after accounting for restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, according to doctors and researchers with the state corrections system and the federal official who oversees medical care in California prisons. The report said the large scale results “are trending in a positive direction,” and officials are “cautiously optimistic.” The findings come as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration seeks $126.6 million in the next fiscal year and $162.5 million annually thereafter to expand treatment. The report said expanding the state’s latest expensive attempt to curtail the prisons’ pervasive drug problem is “at the highest priority level,” given the impact on prisoner health, community safety upon inmates’ release, and drug trafficking and violence it brings to prisons.

Colorado

Denver: The head of the state’s parks and wildlife agency has been placed on paid leave after he reportedly referred to a Black colleague across a room as being “in the back of the bus” while on stage during a recent conference. Dan Prenzlow will be replaced by acting director Heather Dugan while a “fact-finding investigation” is conducted, said Dan Gibbs, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which includes Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Gibbs did not explain what Prenzlow was accused of doing, only noting that he had received several complaints last week about “inappropriate comments and interactions” at Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Partners in Outdoors Conference in Vail. According to Alease “Aloe” Lee, the agency’s statewide partnership coordinator and the conference’s organizer, Prenzlow asked 600 attendees to turn their attention to her as she was standing in the back of the room, The Denver Post reports. “There she is!” Prenzlow said, according to Lee. “In the back of the bus, Aloe!” In an open letter to Gov. Jared Polis, Lee said people’s heads turned in shock, and she ran into the arms of another Black woman, crying. Lee also wrote about her experience encountering a lot of people in the outdoor conservation industry “who do not value a Black woman in power.”

Connecticut

Hartford: The state moved closer Tuesday toward placing tougher restrictions on marijuana advertising, including barring ads from cross-border retail cannabis establishments such as the billboard ads that have popped up along the border with Massachusetts. A bill that cleared the House of Representatives on a 98-48 vote prevents anyone without a Connecticut cannabis-related license from advertising the product or cannabis services within the state. The same bill also bars Connecticut licensees from using images of the cannabis plant, advertising on an illuminated billboard between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., or advertising within 1,500 yards of a school or church. These new restrictions would be in addition to the state’s original rules for cannabis advertising that were included in the legalization law that passed last year. While residents over age 21 can legally possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana in Connecticut, retail recreational cannabis establishments are not expected to begin operating in the state until late 2022 at the earliest. Rep. Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, said that rather than an outright ban on the advertising, which would raise constitutional issues, the legislation provides “very reasonable time, place and manner restrictions” while also requiring those who advertise to hold Connecticut licenses.

Delaware

Wilmington: A man who spent nearly half of his life behind bars before convincing the state Supreme Court that the 2008 murder trial that imprisoned him was unfair still hasn’t been able to leave prison. The court agreed last year that new evidence in the case of Mark Purnell, 32, “creates a strong inference that he is actually innocent.” That ruling discredited much of the evidence that convinced a jury to convict Purnell but left the door open for prosecutors to retry him for the 2006 murder of Tamika Giles in Wilmington’s Quaker Hill neighborhood – an opportunity prosecutors said shortly after that they intended to take. Nearly 10 months later, Purnell remains in prison. Prosecutors for the Delaware Department of Justice are arguing that he is too dangerous to be released on bail while also dangling immediate freedom in front of him if he would accept a deal to plead guilty to a lesser crime than murder, according to statements in court. His attorneys say that Purnell is determined to clear his name; that prosecutors likely won’t have a “single credible witness” to testify against him in a new trial, now scheduled for August; and that his continued imprisonment is an “outrage.” They are asking a judge to toss out the case against Purnell entirely or at least allow him out of jail to await a future trial.

District of Columbia

Washington: Rapper Pharrell Williams made an appearance at Ballou High School on Tuesday, alongside Mayor Muriel Bowser, to help highlight summer events in D.C., including his own “Something in the Water” music festival. The festival – formerly held in Virginia Beach, where Williams grew up – will instead happen on the National Mall over Juneteenth weekend, WUSA-TV reports. Tickets for the three-day event June 17-19 go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. Williams said the weekend chosen is no coincidence, meant to highlight the efforts that led to Virginia recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday in 2020 and “recognize that something that has been flowing through the country’s soil for over 400 years.” He has previously said he is moving the festival out of Virginia Beach due to how the city handled the investigation into the shooting death of his cousin by a police officer, according to the Associated Press. “When we hit challenges, you can either stop and stay stagnant, or you rise above it and go onwards and upwards,” Pharrell said. “We chose to take our festival to the highest grounds, in my opinion, in this entire nation: our National Mall.” Williams also said everyone in the room at Ballou would be given tickets to the festival, which will include performances by Calvin Harris, Pusha T, Chloe x Halle, Dave Matthews Band, Ashanti & Ja Rule, Lil Baby and more.

Florida

Pace: A sheriff invited a homeowner who shot at a would-be robber to attend a gun safety course to “learn to shoot a lot better” and “save the taxpayers money.” Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson made the comments during a news conference last Thursday regarding the arrest of a 32-year-old man who was breaking into houses in Pace, in the Panhandle near Pensacola. Multiple residents called 911 on April 20 to report the break-ins, and deputies quickly set up a perimeter, Johnson said. The suspect was jumping over fences and breaking into homes as deputies tried to catch him. “We don’t know which homeowner shot at him. I guess they think that they did something wrong, which they did not,” Johnson said. “If someone is breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot at them in Santa Rosa County. We’d prefer that you do, actually.” He added that the sheriff’s office conducts a gun safety course every other Saturday. After shots were directed at the man, deputies eventually caught up to him, already inside another home. As they broke through a door he was trying to block, the man went head-first through a window to escape, cutting himself on the glass. He had active felony warrants for his arrest at the time of his capture and is being held on a $157,500 bond, facing multiple charges, records show.

Georgia

Atlanta: Board members abruptly fired the leader of the state’s third-largest school system Tuesday, creating further questions about the district’s direction. DeKalb County School Board members voted 4-1 in a virtual meeting to fire Cheryl Watson-Harris immediately, after less than two years on the job in the 93,000-student district. Watson-Harris was DeKalb County’s sixth superintendent in a decade, having worked as first deputy chancellor in New York City’s sprawling school system before coming to Georgia. Watson-Harris said in a statement Wednesday that she was “blindsided” by her firing. “I was unaware that my contract or employment would be discussed during yesterday’s meeting as I was not notified and it was not identified on the meeting notice,” she said. Vasanne Tinsley, formerly deputy superintendent of student support and intervention, was named interim superintendent. The firing came hours after board Chair Vickie Turner appeared to blame Watson-Harris for poor conditions at one of the district’s high schools in a letter to state Superintendent Richard Woods. However, Turner and the majority of the board said in a statement that its “relationship with Mrs. Watson-Harris had been deteriorating for some time to the point the association became irreconcilable.”

Hawaii

Honolulu: Gov. David Ige said Tuesday that the state has agreed to pay $328 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by 2,700 Native Hawaiians who languished on a waitlist to receive homestead leases. Ige said the Legislature must approve the funds for the settlement, and then a Circuit Court judge must sign off on its terms for it to be final. The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 was meant to provide economic self-sufficiency to Hawaiians by supplying them land. Those with at least 50% Hawaiian blood quantum can apply for a 99-year lease for $1 a year. But Hawaii has been slow to award leases. An estimated 28,000 people are on the waitlist. The lawsuit stems from a 1991 law allowing Native Hawaiians to file claims against the state for losses incurred while waiting for a homestead lease from 1959 to 1988. The Legislature created a panel to address claims, but the existence of the panel wasn’t extended past 1999. So the plaintiffs sued. The Hawaii Supreme Court in 2020 voted to allow the class-action lawsuit to continue and for damages to be awarded. Carl Varady, an attorney who has represented the plaintiffs, didn’t immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment.

Idaho

Boise: The trial for a former state lawmaker accused of raping a 19-year-old legislative intern began Tuesday with a prosecutor telling jurors the case was about power imbalances and the defense saying the sex was consensual. Aaron von Ehlinger was charged with rape and penetration with a foreign object, both felonies, last year after the young Statehouse staffer reported a sexual assault in March 2021. “This case is about power – power wielded in the wrong hands,” Ada County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Katelyn Farley told the jury. “The defendant, Mr. von Ehlinger, wielded that power against a 19-year-old intern,” Farley said, telling jurors that they would hear several ways in which the intern tried to resist the lawmaker’s advances. Von Ehlinger’s attorney, John Cox, told jurors the intern and his client had passionate consensual sexual contact. He said the intern stayed at von Ehlinger’s apartment for a time after the sexual contact. The allegations first came to light during the 2021 legislative session after the intern told a Statehouse supervisor that von Ehlinger raped her at his apartment after the two had dinner at a restaurant. At the time, von Ehlinger was a representative from Lewiston, but he resigned after an ethics committee unanimously agreed he engaged in “behavior unbecoming” and recommended he be suspended without pay for the rest of the session. Von Ehlinger, 38, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry maximum penalties of life in prison.

Illinois

Crestwood: A former suburban Chicago mayor was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for taking $5,000 to help a red-light camera company. Louis Presta, 72, resigned as Crestwood’s mayor in November when he pleaded guilty to felony counts of official misconduct and other crimes. According to his plea agreement, Presta took the money in exchange for helping the company, SafeSpeed LLC, put more cameras in the southwest suburb as well as increase revenues from existing cameras by approving more violations. Presta, a Democrat first elected mayor in 2013, held back tears as he spoke to the judge, apologizing to his wife and residents. “I’m so sorry for bringing this scandal to the village of Crestwood,” he said. “I never thought that I’d be a criminal defendant.” U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin said the corruption damaged Crestwood. He could have ordered a longer sentence but noted Presta’s ailing health and several letters of support. Omar Maani was an executive at SafeSpeed. He was cooperating with the FBI, and the exchange of cash was recorded on a camera. “SafeSpeed had no knowledge of this criminal conduct, and SafeSpeed certainly did not authorize it and does not condone it,” the company said.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has suspended the officers involved and launched two investigations after a man in custody died after being hit with a stun gun. The department’s Critical Incident Response Team responded to the scene of the incident early Monday on the city’s northeast side to conduct a criminal investigation. The department’s Internal Affairs department is conducting a separate investigation, IMPD said. The civilian-majority Use of Force Review Board will conduct a separate review after the other two investigations are complete. Officers were told by a father that his son, Herman Whitfield III, 39, was experiencing a mental health issue and needed an ambulance, police said. Officers requested an ambulance after they saw Whitfield moving through the home naked, sweating and bleeding from his mouth, police said. He moved to parts of the home where officers lost sight of him several times. Officers had tried negotiating and using de-escalation tactics for more than 10 minutes when Whitfield moved quickly toward an officer, police said. “The officer activated the Taser twice and the man continued to resist,” police said in a new release. Officers handcuffed the man, but medics received no response from him, and they began CPR, police said. Whitfield was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Iowa

Altoona: A former rides manager at Adventureland told state investigators probing last year’s fatal accident on the amusement park’s Raging River that “duct tape and bubble gum, basically,” were being used to keep rides operating. The spinning Tea Cups children’s ride was propped up with bits of 2-by-4s. The Falling Star “leaked oil and started on fire.” Access hatches popped open on the Lighthouse drop tower. The safety restraints on the Outlaw and the Tornado roller coasters broke. Bolts came out of the Himalaya coaster “all the time.” Adventureland maintenance crews were “using duct tape and bubble gum basically to keep those rides afloat,” Melvin McCollum told Iowa Division of Labor officials in a telephone interview, one of a series of recorded conversations with park employees, witnesses and others in connection with the accident that killed a Marion boy. “It’s such a beautiful park, and I just hope that maybe by me saying something that the accident that tragically happened will never happen again,” McCollum said. A lawyer for the park’s then-owners disputes the allegations and McCollum’s basis for making them. “I’m sorry, but these uninformed sensational comments by Mr. McCollum are untrue,” attorney Guy Cook wrote in an email.

Kansas

Topeka: Gov. Laura Kelly’s campaign to axe the food sales tax ran into a political meat grinder Tuesday when Republican legislators voted down a procedural move from Democrats to advance a plan that has been blocked by GOP leadership since January. House Democrats attempted to force action on HB 2487, Kelly’s plan to cut the state sales tax on groceries to 0% starting July 1. The bill has been stuck in a tax committee, where it never received a vote. The procedural motion from Rep. Jim Gartner, D-Topeka, to pull the bill to the House floor failed 48-74. Ten Republicans sided with Democrats. “What are you doing with that sales tax on food? Are you going to get it done this session?” Gartner said constituents asked him during the three-week legislative break. “I hope we eliminate it totally.” A Republican plan to gradually reduce the food sales tax could still come from the legislative sausage factory. The proposal would wait until after Election Day to make the first installment in cutting the rate to 0% in 2025. That bill, HB 2106, was drafted by a group of six lawmakers in a conference committee after senators indicated that GOP leadership opposed a large cut this summer. It cannot be amended on the floor of either chamber.

Kentucky

Frankfort: Gov. Andy Beshear cleared the way Tuesday for a cannabis research center to open as he reviews whether he has the executive authority to single-handedly legalize medical marijuana in the state. The governor revealed his action on a bill authorizing the research center at the University of Kentucky. The measure won overwhelming approval from lawmakers on the final day of this year’s legislative session earlier this month. In his review, the governor preserved the language creating the center. He said he used his line-item veto authority to broaden the center’s work and allow more leeway in picking an oversight board. The Democratic governor’s line-item vetoes will stand since the Republican-dominated Legislature won’t reconvene until January 2023 for its next regular session. In the final weeks of this year’s session, key lawmakers resisting the legalization of medical cannabis pushed for the research center as an alternative. It would allow more time to study the effectiveness of marijuana in treating certain ailments, they said. A separate bill to legalize medical marijuana passed the state House but died in the Senate this year. The legalization bill would have strictly regulated the use of cannabis for a list of eligible medical conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy and chronic nausea.

Louisiana

Houma: Move over, Memphis and Cleveland. Louisiana’s rock ’n’ roll roots run deep, from New Orleans to Shreveport to Ferriday, and state Rep. Tanner Magee wants to lay claim to what he contends is rock ’n’ roll’s true birthplace. Magee’s House Bill 889 would create America’s Rock and Roll Museum in New Orleans, aligned with the legendary Dew Drop Inn hotel and nightclub on LaSalle Street. Black musicians stayed and performed at the inn from the 1940s until it closed in the ’70s. “You could argue the Dew Drop is where the birth of rock ’n’ roll took place,” said Preston Lauterbach, author of “The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ’n’ Roll.” “The New Orleans culture mixed with the touring artists who were coming through. That’s what really made it a special place.” A second measure from Magee, House Bill 895, would create the LaSalle Cultural Corridor for neighborhood development, anchored by the museum and the under-renovation inn. Magee, a rock ’n’ roll history buff with a dizzying array of albums at his home in Houma, notes New Orleans favorite son Fats Domino recorded “The Fat Man” in 1949, two years before Ike Turner’s “Rocket 88” was cut at Memphis’ Sun Records studio. Sun and other sources cite “Rocket 88” as the first rock ’n’ roll record. “This is categorically untrue,” Magee said.

Maine

Eliot: After fending off death, a critically injured common snapping turtle that became a viral sensation after being struck by a motorist last year has been released back into the wild. The Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick has been treating and rehabilitating the wounded male reptile since late last year, when he was admitted after being found by a mother and daughter on the side of an Eliot road last September. A video of the animal – which sustained a major fracture of his shell and wounds that stretched into his organs – cautiously drinking water last year at the Center for Wildlife quickly went viral on social media. For a substantial period of time, Center for Wildlife employees would carry him from a tub into a private room with a sink so he could take sips of water. The reptile’s deep wounds meant he could not be submerged because he could essentially drown if water seeped into his shell. Two surgeries and several months of incremental progress later, he’s back in an outdoor freshwater setting. Center for Wildlife Executive Director Kristen Lamb said the turtle weighs about 20 pounds and is likely about 40 years old. Before Tuesday’s release, Lamb said, the patient had become a bit more “grumpy” with staff, occasionally snapping in their direction when tending to him. “That means he’ll be ready and do a good job protecting himself,” Lamb said before his release.

Maryland

Salisbury: The decade­long process to finalize the location of the third span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is over, with the site chosen to be within 2 miles of the current Bay Bridge. The Maryland Transportation Authority announced in 2019 that 14 proposed locations had been narrowed down to three. Mounting infrastructure concerns and spot repairs have led to a crescendo of support for the new span, namely from Gov. Larry Hogan, as traffic is only expected to increase on the outdated bridge. While some Eastern Shore residents have decried the amount of potential additional traffic, especially through residential areas while using apps like Google Maps, others welcome the boon for tourist-dependent locations such as Ocean City and Rehoboth Beach. The need for a third span, the transportation authority said, is clear given that summer weekend traffic on the bridge is typically more than 118,600 vehicles. Non-summer weekends dip to more than 68,000 vehicles. By 2040, those totals are expected to balloon to 135,300 vehicles on summer weekends and 84,300 vehicles on non-summer weekends. The selected location runs along the existing Bay Bridge corridor on Route 50/301 to Route 50 between Crofton and Queenstown.

Massachusetts

Pittsfield: The Berkshires, one of the state’s most popular touríst destinations, will be easier to reach for the next two summers with the launch of seasonal Amtrak service from New York City. The Berkshire Flyer service will start July 8 and operate on weekends during the summer with a Friday afternoon departure from New York’s Penn Station to Pittsfield, with several stops including Albany, New York, and a return trip Sunday afternoon, officials said Monday. The service is a collaboration among Amtrak, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and the New York State Department of Transportation. The goal is to boost tourist access to the world-renowned museums, concert venues and outdoor activities in the region, officials said. “Western Massachusetts and the Berkshire region offer a whole host of cultural and recreational opportunities during the summer and we hope this pilot service will encourage even more visitors to this part of our state,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement. The service will be evaluated after the two-year pilot program to determine its long-term feasibility. Tickets will be available starting next month.

Michigan

Detroit: A Saginaw doctor has been charged with a federal hate crime for allegedly intimidating Black Lives Matter supporters in a series of actions involving nooses and threatening messages left for Starbucks employees across the state, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday. According to court documents, Kenneth Pilon, 61, an optometrist, called nine Starbucks stores across the state in 2020 and told the person who answered the phone to relay a specific message laden with hate slurs to any Starbucks employees wearing a BLM T-shirt. He also allegedly told one employee he wanted to lynch a Black person. Pilon left the messages in the summer of 2020, two days after Starbucks announced it would provide 250,000 BLM T-shirts to employees who wanted to wear them during their shifts, according to the documents. One month after making those calls, court records show, Pilon left nooses in Kroger and Walmart parking lots in Saginaw, including one he tucked inside a beverage cooler at a 7-Eleven store with a hand-written note attached that read: “An accessory to be worn with your ‘BLM’ t-shirt. Happy protesting!’ ” Pilon is charged with six counts of interfering with federally protected activities, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.

Minnesota

St. Paul: The Minneapolis Police Department has engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade, including stopping and arresting Black people at a higher rate than white people, using force more often on people of color, and maintaining a culture where racist language is tolerated, a state investigation launched after George Floyd’s killing found. The report released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights following a nearly two-year investigation said the agency and the city would negotiate a court-enforceable agreement to address the long list of problems identified in the report, with input from residents, officers, city staff and others. The report said police department data “demonstrates significant racial disparities with respect to officers’ use of force, traffic stops, searches, citations, and arrests.” And it said officers “used covert social media to surveil Black individuals and Black organizations, unrelated to criminal activity, and maintain an organizational culture where some officers and supervisors use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language with impunity.” Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said during a news conference after the report was released that it doesn’t single out any officers or city leaders. “This investigation is not about one individual or one incident,” she said.

Mississippi

Jackson: The state needs to update its Supreme Court districts to ensure Black voters have a chance to elect a candidate of their choice in a state with a history of racially polarized voting, Black plaintiffs said in a lawsuit filed Monday. Mississippi’s three districts for its high court are all majority-white, and they were last updated in 1987 over the objection of Black legislators, the lawsuit said. It alleges the districts violate the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution by diluting Black voting strength. About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. Eight of the nine current justices are white, and one is Black. Four Black justices have served on the Mississippi Supreme Court – never more than one at a time. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the New York-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett filed the lawsuit in federal court in Greenville on behalf of four Black residents of Mississippi. Ty Pinkins of Vicksburg, one of the plaintiffs and an attorney who works in the majority-Black Mississippi Delta, said it’s important that his relatives and neighbors feel they are fairly represented at all levels of government, including in the judicial system.

Missouri

Jefferson City: The GOP-led state House on Monday voted to limit the public high school sports teams on which transgender athletes can compete. House members voted 93-41 to require transgender students to compete only on teams that match the “biological sex” listed on their birth certificates. The provision was added to Republican Rep. Kurtis Gregory’s bill on public school busing – a tactic often used to pass legislation as the end of session nears. Lawmakers face a May 13 deadline to send bills to Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s desk. Amendment sponsor GOP Rep. Ron Copeland said he wants to ban transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams but doesn’t care if transgender boys compete with other boys, although his proposal would prevent both. “As a father, my daughters should not have to play against a male in sports,” Copeland said. Democratic Rep. Ian Mackey, who is gay, cautioned lawmakers about how a vote against transgender athletes will be perceived in the future. “Your vote on the record will last forever,” Mackey said. “And I can guarantee you that while not all of you will regret it, I know that some of you looking at me right now will. Do the right thing.”

Montana

Missoula: The latest season of “Yellowstone,” filmed near Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley, brought $72 million of qualified spending to the state in 2021. The report produced by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research showed the state’s economy with “Yellowstone” resulted in 527 more jobs, $25.3 million in annual personal income, and $85.8 million in additional gross receipts to Montana businesses and organizations. It also resulted in $10.6 million of revenue to the state government. The MEDIA Coalition of Montana and the Paramount Network paid for the study. Another benefit of “Yellowstone” that was not included in the economic impact study but mentioned in the report is the free advertising Montana gets from the show. “The visual depiction of our state that increases exposure and awareness of our physical landscape, culture and history to audiences that are potentially global. While it is difficult to quantify, the image of Montana that is projected to mass audiences through film production is arguably important in selling the state as a place to visit or even relocate,” the report said. The report comes as the Legislature’s Interim Revenue Committee considers drafting legislation to raise the state’s film tax credit.

Nebraska

Lincoln: The city will pay $497,500 to a woman who says she was injured when police fired rubber bullets during racial justice protests in May 2020. Elise Poole, now 20, alleged in a lawsuit that she was fleeing from tear gas fired by law enforcement officers at protesters near downtown Lincoln on May 31, 2020, when she was hit by a rubber bullet. She required emergency surgery to reattach her nose and will require further surgery to regain normal breathing, according to her attorney. Daniel Gutman, an attorney litigating the case on behalf of the ACLU of Nebraska, said the lawsuit successfully held law enforcement accountable for responding to peaceful protests with dangerous weapons, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. City Attorney Yohance Christie said officials don’t know what caused Poole’s injury. He said that gasoline, fireworks and other dangerous objects were thrown at officers during the May 29-June 1 protests and that more than two dozen officers were injured.

Nevada

Las Vegas: The consensus Republican front-runner for governor drew attention and applause from a GOP luncheon audience Tuesday when he used an expletive to deride Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak’s decision to enact a state-managed public health insurance option. Answering a question about homelessness, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo expressed frustration about people who don’t or won’t accept help from public services. He said he wanted to stop the Clark County jail from being the “No. 1 facility” for mental health services in Nevada. “A very small percentage are homeless due to circumstances out of their control,” said Lombardo, who served two terms as nonpartisan elected head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. “You have to hold them accountable and, unfortunately, society is turning a blind eye to that issue. The governor can make that a priority,” he said, referring to Sisolak. “He said his priority is health. And he’s talking about bull---- things like the public option.” Last year Sisolak signed Nevada’s public health care option into law, amid projections it will lower insurance premium costs 15% for participants by 2026. Sisolak campaign aide Reeves Oyster responded to Lombardo’s comment with a statement saying 350,000 Nevada residents will benefit from the law, pointing to the coronavirus pandemic, and accusing Lombardo of siding with “big insurance over Nevada families in need of health care.”

New Hampshire

Concord: Lawmakers in the state House will vote next week on a congressional map built around the Interstate 93 corridor despite opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu. The House Special Committee on Redistricting voted 8-7 on Wednesday to recommend a plan that creates a new, Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District by clumping together towns and cities along I-93 in the southern half of the state, with the 2nd District reaching up and around it on both sides. Sununu has promised to veto an earlier plan passed by both the House and Senate and has indicated the new one falls short as well. Both seats are held by Democrats, but the new plan would put both their hometowns in the 1st District. It also would move several current candidates for the GOP nomination in the 1st District to the 2nd. Candidates are not required to live in the district they seek to represent. The map’s creator, Rep. Ross Berry, said he did not take incumbency into account but focused on achieving as even a population split as possible, keeping counties intact, and grouping together communities with similar economic interests. The current map hasn’t changed drastically since 1880, but Berry argued it should be abandoned because it was drawn to dilute the Catholic vote. Democrats – who favored moving just a single town, Hampstead, from the 1st District to the 2nd – noted that every map since 1880 has been created by Republicans.

New Jersey

Newark: Residents of a pollution-choked neighborhood said Tuesday that they’re tired of their community being used as a dumping ground for projects that foul their air yet exclude them from the economic benefits of industry. In an online public hearing, residents of Newark’s Ironbound section denounced a plan by a sewage treatment facility to build a backup gas-fired power plant designed to keep the treatment plant operating when the power goes out. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission is seeking a state environmental permit to build the largest portion of the $180 million backup facility. The nation’s fifth-largest sewage treatment plant accepts liquid waste shipped from communities ranging from Maine to Virginia and is the largest single-site user of electricity in New Jersey. But it has become a cause célèbre among community activists and a key test of an environmental justice law that Gov. Phil Murphy signed in 2020. The law is designed to prevent communities already overburdened with pollution from having to accept additional contamination sources. “I have a hard time breathing on a lot of days, and a lot of it comes from your plant,” said Lenny Thomas, who lives in the Ironbound, which got its nickname from the railroad tracks that surround it on three sides. “This has been going on for decades. It’s not just, it’s not right, and it’s not fair.”

New Mexico

Albuquerque: Native American leaders said Tuesday that they were excited about a series of meetings this week with land managers as the Biden administration considers prohibiting new oil and gas development on hundreds of square miles of federal land in northwestern New Mexico that several tribes consider sacred. Top officials with the All Pueblo Council of Governors said during a virtual briefing that they will reiterate their support for the proposal during tribal consultations. The meetings are part of the public outreach being done by the U.S. Interior Department as it considers the withdrawal from nearly 550 square miles around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, from Laguna Pueblo, cited the cultural significance of the area surrounding the national park when she first proposed the 20-year withdrawal during a visit in November. She has said many tribes in the Southwest, including her own, have a connection to the area. Randall Vicente, governor of Acoma Pueblo, said tribes were ready to band together to ensure more permanent protections are adopted for lands outside park boundaries. He said the remnants of stone dwellings, ceremonial kivas, pottery sherds, petroglyphs, shrines and the other cultural resources that dot the high desert around Chaco Canyon were left there by the ancestors of today’s pueblo people. “Together, this area is one irreplaceable, sacred, interconnected landscape unlike any other. We remain tied to those resources,” he said, describing them as “the footprints and fingerprints of our ancestors.” A World Heritage site, Chaco park is thought to be the center of what was once a hub of Indigenous civilization.

New York

New York: Meaningful changes could be implemented within days at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, the head of New York City’s jails told a federal judge Tuesday. The city has insisted that years of failed reforms could be overcome without the court taking control of the nation’s second-largest jail system. “You will see change,” Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina promised Judge Laura Taylor Swain. Molina said he’s “in alignment” with recommendations from Steve Martin, a monitor tasked with reporting on changes that are needed at a jail system which includes Rikers Island, where about 5,500 inmates are held. In a recent report, Martin said about 30% of the workforce at the jails was not coming to work or not available to work with inmates. On Tuesday, he said of Molina: “Every time I’ve called on the commissioner for a remedy or attention, he has stepped up.” Sixteen inmates died at Rikers last year, and three have died so far in 2022. Molina spoke after he was ordered to appear by the judge after she received a scathing letter about the jails from prosecutors, who suggested Molina appear before the court as they warned that court oversight of the jail system might be necessary.

North Carolina

Charlotte: A loaded gun was found in U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s carry-on bag at an airport security checkpoint Tuesday – the second time he has been stopped with a gun at an airport in the past 14 months, officials said. When Cawthorn went through checkpoint D at Charlotte Douglas International Airport with the 9 mm Staccato C2 about 9 a.m., Transportation Security Administration officers notified Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers on standby in the area, TSA spokesperson R. Carter Langston said. Responding officers identified the 26-year-old Republican as the owner of the bag where the gun was found, police said in a statement. Cawthorn acknowledged the gun was his and cooperated with officers, authorities said. He was issued a citation for possession of a dangerous weapon on city property, a misdemeanor. Cawthorn was released, but police held on to the firearm, as is routine. The infraction is punishable by civil penalties, including a fine of up to $13,900 depending on certain factors, such as whether a firearm is loaded and the presence of multiple offenses, Langston said, noting this was the second time in recent history that a gun was found in Cawthorn’s carry-on bag. The first was at an Asheville Regional Airport checkpoint in February 2021.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The state’s oil industry wants lawmakers to change the framework for taxing crude production that abolishes the price-based triggers that have been in place for decades. Unless oil prices suddenly decline, North Dakota’s treasury may start reaping the benefits of a tax increase on drillers that could bump state tax collections by tens of millions of dollars in the current two-year budget cycle. The present situation with high crude prices is in contrast to just a few years ago when low oil prices threatened to trigger a tax break for drillers that would have cost the state lost revenue. Abolishing oil-tax triggers gives drillers certainty and keeps the industry’s jobs and revenue flowing, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, a group that represents several hundred companies working in the state’s oil patch. Companies could leave North Dakota, the nation’s No. 3 oil producer, and focus drilling in other states that have a better and more certain tax climate, he said. “Taxing oil more gets you less,” said Ness, who wants a flat tax on oil production. “The roller coaster prices we’ve seen really mean that we need to be concerned about keeping investment (in North Dakota), “ he said. “Predictability where possible is key.”

Ohio

Columbus: A federal jury has rejected allegations that police used excessive force when they fatally shot a man in 2016 during an undercover operation, an episode that led to heightened criticism of actions by Columbus police. The city has said 23-year-old Henry Green, who was Black, ignored commands to drop his gun by Officers Zachary Rosen and Jason Bare, who are white. Court documents and depositions say Green shot at the undercover officers, who then returned fire. Green’s family has argued Green fired after police shot at him. Columbus, the state’s largest city, has experienced multiple protests in recent years over the killing of Black men and children, including last year’s fatal shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Kiah Bryant. A grand jury declined to indict the white officer who shot Bryant as she swung a knife at a young woman. The officer said he feared for the other woman’s life. A grand jury had also declined to indict officers Rosen and Bare in Green’s killing, and an internal Columbus police investigation cleared them. A federal judge dismissed the excessive force lawsuit brought by Green’s family in September 2019, finding it was reasonable to use deadly force under the circumstances. But a federal appeals court reinstated it a year later, determining a jury could “reasonably conclude” there wasn’t justification for the officers to use force in this context. The first trial ended in a mistrial in November 2021. On Monday, a unanimous jury sided with the city after a short deliberation, acquitting Rosen and Bare of excessive force and assault and battery allegations.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill Tuesday explicitly prohibiting the use of nonbinary gender markers on state birth certificates, a ban experts say is the first of its kind in the nation. The bill followed a flap last year over the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s agreement in a civil case allowing a nonbinary option. The birth certificate in that case was issued to an Oklahoma-born Oregon resident who sued after the agency initially refused the request. People who are nonbinary do not identify with traditional male or female gender assignments. News of the settlement prompted outrage among Republicans, including Stitt, who along with fellow conservatives in a number of GOP-led states has been engaged in a culture war over issues like restricting LGBTQ and abortion rights that drive the party’s base in an election year. Stitt’s appointee to lead the agency abruptly resigned the next day, and the governor then promptly issued an executive order prohibiting any changes to a person’s gender on birth certificates, despite the settlement agreement. A civil rights group has challenged the executive order in federal court, but the state has not yet responded. Many states only offer male or female gender options on birth certificates, but Oklahoma is the first to write the nonbinary prohibition into law, according to Lambda Legal, the civil rights group suing Oklahoma.

Oregon

Coos Bay: Two areas off the state’s coast are being targeted to host offshore wind farms as the Biden administration seeks to ramp up renewable energy production. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Wednesday that the locations being identified to potentially host wind farms are about 12 nautical miles offshore Coos Bay and Brookings. The areas comprise about 1.16 million acres in total. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described the upcoming steps taken toward possible leasing off the coast of Oregon as “another opportunity to strengthen the clean energy industry while creating good-paying union jobs.” Any offers to lease waters off the Oregon Coast would require environmental review and consultations with local, state and tribal governments. The agency is seeking public comments on how wind development would affect marine life and other ocean uses, such as commercial fishing in the areas, until June 29, 2022. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports this is the first big regulatory step toward bringing an offshore wind project to the Pacific Northwest state. Late last year, Interior said that the Oregon Coast was being targeted by the agency for offshore wind energy production because it has some of the best wind resources in the country.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: Police arrested a man Wednesday who is accused of at least two sexual assaults, including one reported Sunday aboard a subway train. A police spokesperson said late Tuesday in an email that officers were looking for 28-year-old Quintez Adams in relation to two assaults this month. Police announced Wednesday afternoon that Adams was taken into custody and had been taken to a hospital for evaluation. Court records did not contain current charges or information on an attorney who could speak on Adams’ behalf. Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority officials confirmed its officers are reviewing surveillance video as part of a police investigation into Sunday’s assault. Police did not release many details of the assault, which came about six months after a much-publicized rape on a commuter train in October while other passengers were present. Fiston Ngoy, 35, is charged with rape and related offenses in that attack. It was unclear whether other passengers were on the train Sunday. Adams was wanted in relation to a reported sexual assault the afternoon of April 4 at 7th and Market streets and in the Sunday assault, which happened shortly after noon. Only one of the sexual assaults happened on SEPTA property, spokesperson Andrew Busch said.

Rhode Island

Providence: Gov. Dan McKee announced Wednesday that he has appointed Lt. Col. Darnell Weaver to be the next superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, making him the first person of color to command the department. Weaver will assume the rank of colonel during a swearing-in ceremony Friday at the State House. He takes over from Col. James Manni, who is retiring to become town manager of South Kingstown. Manni was appointed by former Gov. Gina Raimondo in 2018. Weaver, who is Black, is a Marine Corps veteran who has been with the state police for 28 years, according to the governor’s office. “Lt. Colonel Darnell Weaver has a proven record of public service and strong leadership,” McKee wrote in a tweet. As deputy superintendent and chief of field operations, he oversees patrol, detective and administrative bureaus, the specialty units and the Department of Public Safety, according to the state police website. He has previously served in all the state police barracks and as night executive officer and assistant patrol commander of the Hope Valley and Wickford barracks. He has been a district commander and the officer in charge at the State Police Training Academy.

South Carolina

Columbia: Several civil rights groups are suing the state over conditions at its juvenile lockups, alleging that children in state custody are subject to violence and isolation while deprived of educational or rehabilitative programs. The lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday comes less than two weeks after officials at the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to make changes at its main detention center following a federal investigation that found the state was violating the civil rights of youths housed there. But that agreement doesn’t go far enough because it only addresses issues at the Broad River Road Complex in Columbia, the groups said in their complaint, arguing that the Department of Juvenile Justice also needs to fix conditions at four other facilities across the state. Echoing findings by federal and state investigators in recent years, the complaint describes routine youth-on-youth violence and violence by staff against the youths that agency employees often ignore or enable. Children who commit minor infractions are also placed in isolation for up to 23 hours a day. One officer told a 16-year-old who was assaulted by three other children earlier this year to stay away from facility cameras so he would not be seen bleeding, the complaint alleges. Another child was beaten and choked by five members of the agency’s police force while handcuffed and shackled over accusations of robbing staff; he was then hogtied and blocked from filing a grievance, according to the complaint.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Ranchers say moisture from recent scattered rains is a welcome addition but nowhere near the amount needed to get South Dakota pastures back on track for normal production. The South Dakota Grassland Coalition is urging ranchers to plan ahead. Bart Carmichael, of Faith, a coalition board member, said part of his drought plan included selling half of his cow herd over the last year. “Not planning is a plan to fail; I really believe that,” Carmichael said. Almost 90% of the state remains in severe or moderate drought or is considered abnormally dry, according to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor. Ryan Beer, a rangeland management specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bison, said up to 150% of normal rainfall would be needed in May and June to get back to normal forage production. Carmichael said he looks at drought as a way to improve his management skills, in part by ranking his cows from most to least desirable. Once you put a cow in the cull group, he said, it takes the emotion out of selling them. “It’s hard to look at drought making things better, but that’s our outlook on it,” Carmichael said.

Tennessee

Gatlinburg: The annual lottery to view the synchronous fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park opens Friday. Every year in late May to early June, thousands of visitors gather near the Elkmont Campground to observe the Photinus carolinus, a firefly species that flashes synchronously. Since 2006, access to the area has been limited during the eight days of predicted peak activity in order to reduce congestion and minimize the disturbance to the fireflies during their peak mating period. This year, park scientists predict that period will be June 3-10, according to a park news release. Those wishing for a vehicle pass can enter the lottery on the recreation.gov website. A total of 800 vehicle passes, 100 passes per night, will be issued. All lottery applicants will be charged a $1 application fee. Successful applicants will automatically be awarded parking passes and charged a $24 reservation fee.

Texas

Austin: A Texas National Guard member who drowned on the U.S.-Mexico border while on duty was not equipped with a flotation device when he jumped in the Rio Grande to help a migrant who was struggling to swim across, state officials said Wednesday. Spc. Bishop Evans, who was missing three days before search crews found his body Monday, was among the more than 6,100 Guard members stationed on the border as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s massive border security mission known as Operation Lone Star. The mission has 43 flotation devices for Guard members who are assigned to boat missions, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer said. Evans was not a boat crew member. Requests for more flotation devices were first made in February but have been delayed by supply chain issues, Suelzer told lawmakers in the Texas Capitol while facing questions about Evans’ death, low morale and equipment shortages that have rattled the yearlong mission. Guard leaders defended not issuing all soldiers flotation devices, saying many are stationed on land. Suelzer said that since Evans’ death, Guard members have been instructed not to go in the water unless they have special training. “(He) was a human being,” Suelzer said. “He saw a human being drowning, and he jumped in the water to save them.” Evans is at least the fifth Guard member who has died during the mission, a number that included suicides, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a Democrat has called for an inquest into the deaths.

Utah

St. George: Zion National Park is seeking pets for its newest ranger recruitment. The B.A.R.K. Ranger program, already in place in national parks including Yosemite, Acadia and Glacier, is touted as part of an effort to “protect you, your pet and the park while you are here.” “The park mission is to get folks out here, to preserve the resources that we have and to encourage enjoyment and education and inspiration,” Lead Ranger Ben Gibson said. “And with B.A.R.K. Ranger is just one more way that we can get folks out into the park and better educate them on how to do so safely and responsibly.” B.A.R.K. stands for a reminder to dog lovers in the great outdoors: Bag your pet’s waste. Always leash your pet. Respect wildlife. Know where you can go. With extreme summer temperatures bringing scorching pavement, other unpredictable weather, crowding and cyanobacteria in the Virgin River, Zion officials are hoping the program will help people strategize when and how to bring their pets. “The park is learning a lot about the cyanobacteria issue as the days weeks, months and years go on, and whatever we can communicate to folks just so they can be aware and be safe with their pets in the park is one of the primary goals,” Gibson said. Cyanobacteria, a harmful algal bloom in the Virgin River, was first reported in July 2020 with the death of 6-month-old puppy Keanna after she played in the river along the Pa’rus Trail, the only trail in the park that allows pets.

Vermont

Burlington: Police say they are investigating a broken window at the office of an organization dedicated to the health and safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people as a possible hate crime. Police say surveillance video showed an individual approach the office of the Pride Center of Vermont just after midnight Tuesday and throw two objects. Officials at the Pride Center discovered a broken window in the center’s door when they arrived Tuesday morning. Mayor Miro Weinberger said he was troubled to learn about the vandalism. “Our city is using its full resources to investigate who committed this crime and why,” Weinberger said in a statement. “Acts of hate have no place in Burlington.” Burlington’s acting police chief, Jon Murad, said officers are investigating the vandalism “with an eye toward the very real possibility that it was motivated by malice related to the Pride Center.” Police said that when a crime in Vermont is determined to have been maliciously motivated, it may be enhanced as a hate crime, which means the perpetrator can be given additional penalties at sentencing.

Virginia

Charlottesville: The University of Virginia has renewed an order banning an organizer of the Unite the Right rally from the school’s grounds, a university police spokeswoman said. The department issued a no-trespassing order against Jason Kessler in 2018 after a clash with students at the School of Law library and renewed the order last week, The Daily Progress reports. In the original order, police cited reports that Kessler threatened students based on protected characteristics and said he intentionally misled police about his torch march held at the university the night before the rally. The new superseding notice was issued April 20 for the same reasons, the university said in a statement Tuesday. It will be in effect until further notice. These orders can be reissued before the four-year expiration if a person is “engaged in ongoing conduct that threatens the health, safety, or property of a member of the university or its Medical Center community, a patient or visitor at the Medical Center, the educational process, or for other reasons.” Kessler, a UVa graduate, appealed the order in 2018, accusing students “of being evidence of Jews following him around and harassing him” and saying he was the victim of racial harassment. But an independent consultant upheld the university’s decision that Kessler had intentionally misled police about the march, which ended in violence and turned deadly the next day when a self-avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.

Washington

Seattle: A civilian oversight board says some police officers routinely – and illegally – ignored state and city mask mandates during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and refused to obey direct orders from the chief to comply. The Seattle Times reports that a recently released review by the Office of Inspector General exposed a “serious cultural issue” within the city’s police department. The report says the agency was fined $17,500 last year after receiving two notices of “serious violations” of the Washington Administrative Code over officers’ refusal to comply with the mandates after inspections by the state Department of Labor and Industries. The report noted it was difficult for command staff to demand officers comply with the regulations because some captains and assistant chiefs didn’t mask up, either. L&I concluded the police department “did not provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing, or likely to cause, serious injury or death.” The department’s OIG, one of three civilian-run police oversight agencies, said the police chief gave officers “clear direction” and “explicit orders” about mask-wearing as early as March 2020 – followed by a string of increasingly stern reminders.

West Virginia

Charleston: A political candidate who was not a registered Republican when he filed papers to run for a House of Delegates seat in the upcoming GOP primary said Tuesday that it was a simple oversight and that he plans to continue with his campaign. Bob Fehrenbacher is running against incumbent Del. Roger Conley in the May 10 primary for the District 11 seat representing portions of Wood County. Forms that candidates fill out to run for office must be signed and notarized. They specifically require candidates to attest to their party affiliation. Fehrenbacher said in an interview that when he signed his candidacy papers in January, “I thought in good faith that I was registered as a Republican. Much to my surprise, I was not. And as soon as that came to my attention, I immediately went into the West Virginia secretary of state’s system and changed it. I should have checked, and I did not do that.” The West Virginia Republican Party said in a statement that Fehrenbacher instead was an unaffiliated voter when he filed his papers and did not register as a GOP voter until late March. “Simply put, lying on a sworn statement is not acceptable behavior for those who wish to be elected officials,” GOP chairman Mark Harris said in the statement, calling on Fehrenbacher to withdraw from the race “for the good of the West Virginia Republican Party and our voters.”

Wisconsin

Kewaunee: One of the state’s largest dairy farms is suing the Department of Natural Resources over changes to its wastewater permit that require the operators to limit the size of their herd and begin monitoring groundwater in an area where nitrate contamination has occurred. Kinnard Farms in Kewaunee County said in its complaint that the business will be harmed if it isn’t allowed to expand its herd and will be burdened by the cost of a groundwater monitoring system. Farm operators say the monitoring system will cost tens of thousands of dollars initially, plus the fees indefinitely paid to experts to sample, analyze and interpret data from the wells. The Kinnard operation includes 16 industrial farms with about 8,000 cows. It has struggled with agricultural pollution for years as contaminants began showing up in private wells. In a statement Tuesday, the Kinnard family said it remains committed to regenerative agriculture practices and sustainability. “On-farm practices such as planting cover crops, limited soil tillage (known as no-till), sand and water recycling and more demonstrate our dedication to protecting groundwater in our community,” the family said. “We continue to invest in cutting-edge innovation to protect our environment.” The permit changes are seen as a big win for area residents, who said they felt like it was the first time the DNR had listened to their concerns about their water in public hearings and submitted testimony.

Wyoming

Casper: The state Department of Transportation says work has been bumped up on a highway slide-stabilization project after a weekend rockslide, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. According to K2 Radio News, members of a varsity soccer team from Powell stopped on their way back from a game and helped to move rocks from the roadway.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iconic Circle K, rock ’n’ roll fight: News from around our 50 states