Mermaid Parade, Lincoln’s Bible, District 12: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Birmingham: Experts estimate more than 670,000 people in the state live in areas currently affected by drought, and conditions are getting worse. The latest assessment last week from the U.S. Drought Monitor program says more than one-third of the state is either abnormally dry or experiencing a drought. That’s slightly worse than last week and much worse than the same time last year. The program says about 672,000 people are in regions affected by dry weather. Many of those are in suburbs east and west of Birmingham in an area that includes parts of Jefferson, Bibb, Chilton, Shelby and Tuscaloosa counties. Extreme southeastern Alabama is experiencing a severe drought. Conditions there are worst north and west of Dothan.

Alaska

Kodiak: After several years of planning, fundraising and landscaping, a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the Alutiiq Ancestors Memorial this month, heralding the official opening of the park to the public. The memorial was spurred by the repatriation of the remains of 109 people from the now-nonexistent Chirikof Tribe. They were Alutiiq inhabitants from Ukamuk Village on Chirikof Island, about 80 miles southwest of Kodiak Island. The final feature to be installed at the park before its opening June 14 was its archway, an art piece titled Cuumillallret Angilluteng, which translates as “Our Ancestors Returning.” The archway has more than 1,200 fish on its interior sides, each representing an Alutiiq ancestor whose remains have been returned to the archipelago for reburial.

Arizona

Phoenix: The Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted Friday to ban organized contests in which hunters try to kill the most coyotes or other predators for prizes like cash or hunting equipment. The 4-0 vote bans contests that require registration and a fee and award prizes for killing the most coyotes or other fur-bearing animals or predators. The ban needs final approval by a council appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey. The ban doesn’t apply to lawful hunting of predators or other fur-bearing animals. The environment group Center for Biological Diversity hailed the vote but said it remained concerned that loopholes will allow some contests to continue. Project Coyote, of the environmental protection group National Coalition to End Wildlife Killing Contests, said the events ignore the key ecological roles played by native predators such as coyotes.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The federal government says Arkansans in some counties affected by flooding could be eligible for temporary assistance through a food funding program. The USDA says residents of 12 counties affected by flooding may be eligible for its Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Households who qualify will receive one month of benefits. Only those in areas declared disasters by the president will be eligible for the program. The department says residents who are not typically eligible for its SNAP funding may still qualify for the temporary disaster assistance if they meet income limits and have qualifying expenses related to flooding. The 12 counties receiving assistance are Arkansas, Conway, Crawford, Desha, Faulkner, Jefferson, Logan, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Sebastian and Yell.

California

Santa Cruz: A university in Northern California removed a bell marking 18th-century Catholic missions that Native Americans say glorifies racism. The University of California, Santa Cruz invited community members to the campus to witness the removal Friday of the El Camino Real Bell. Named after the route taken by Franciscan priests, the bell was one of hundreds displayed across the state. Many Native Americans say the missions cut their ancestors off from their traditional languages and cultures and enslaved those who converted to Christianity. The university’s vice chancellor of business and administrative services, Sarah Latham, says the school listened to members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band as well as students and community members about what the bell meant to them. The bell was placed on the campus in the 1990s and was a copy of an original mission bell.

Colorado

Denver: Paleontologists say fossilized bones unearthed at a suburban construction site are those of a large adult triceratops. Maura O’Neal, a spokeswoman for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, said Friday that the partial skeleton included a limb bone and several ribs of the three-horned dinosaur. The Denver Post reports the bones were found at a construction site near a retirement community in Highlands Ranch in May in a rock layer that dates back 65 million to 68 million years. Construction crews are using heavy equipment to dig a deep trench in search for other dinosaur fossils next to the area where the triceratops bones were found. O’Neal says of all the dinosaur bones discovered in Colorado, the remains of triceratops have been among the most common.

Connecticut

Waterbury: A judge overseeing lawsuits by families of Sandy Hook shooting victims against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones says she has been threatened by people posting on Jones’ Infowars website. Judge Barbara Bellis wrote in a court filing Friday that the FBI contacted Connecticut State Police about the threats and that state police notified her. Bellis did not release details. Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Eight victims’ families and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting are suing Jones for defamation over comments made on his show about the shooting being a hoax. A lawyer for Jones says that the threats don’t appear to be serious but that a review of the website was being conducted.

Delaware

Dover: Earlier this year, lawmakers chose to ban single-use plastic bags at checkout counters across the state. Now, some of them want to ban paper bags, too. Rep. Michael Smith, R-Pike Creek Valley, is sponsoring a bill that would do just that. He wants shoppers to pivot away from single-use bags at grocery stores and switch to reusable bags. Proponents of paper bag bans say that paper bag manufacturing is also harmful to the environment. “If you go anywhere around a liquor store or a supermarket, you can also see lots of brown bags,” Smith said. “Why not ban both?” The proposed paper bag ban, if it passes, would go into effect by January 2021, the same time as the plastic bag ban.

District of Columbia

Washington: One of the U.S. Navy’s newest rescue ships is being named the “Cherokee Nation” to honor the service and contributions the Cherokee people have made to the Navy and Marine Corps. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer announced Friday that Gulf Island Shipyards has been awarded a $64.8 million contract to build the ship, scheduled for completion by 2021. The Navy says the contract includes an option for six additional vessels, each to be named in honor of a prominent Native American or tribe. Navy officials say it’s the fifth U.S. ship to be named in honor of the Cherokee people and the first since a World War II-era tugboat dubbed the USS Cherokee.

Florida

Miami Beach: One of the state’s most famous beaches has had an unwelcome guest for the past several years – smelly, brown seaweed – and now residents want something done about it. Some Miami Beach residents are so fed up with the seaweed washing up ashore that they’re pressing Miami-Dade County officials to come up with a solution to remove the brown nuisance. The Miami Herald reports the seaweed appearance is naturally occurring, but last year it showed up in record numbers. Unlike toxic algae blooms or red tide, the seaweed doesn’t kill marine life, but swimmers find it annoying. Scientists speculate the seaweed blooms on Miami Beach, and elsewhere in South America and the Gulf of Mexico, are connected to rising ocean temperatures and increased nutrients from fertilizers flowing into the ocean.

Georgia

Gray: Some sheriffs in the state are giving away hundreds of gun locks after a toddler was killed in an accidental shooting. The giveaways were announced a week after a 2-year-old child in Jones County was fatally shot by a 5-year-old sibling. Jones County Sheriff Butch Reece said in a news release that he’s offering 100 free gun locks that residents can pick up at his office. U.S. Attorney Charles Peeler of Georgia’s Middle District said free locking devices are also available from sheriffs in Bibb, Muscogee and Dougherty counties. Peeler said the Jones County child’s death serves as a reminder to gun owners “to lock up a firearm and potentially save a child from injury or death.” The gun locks come from Project ChildSafe, a group started by the gun industry’s trade association.

Hawaii

Hilo: Big Island officials are considering a bill to loosen restrictions on plastics used by restaurants and other food vendors. The Hawaii County Council unanimously voted Wednesday for a bill allowing the substitution of plastics the county does not recycle as alternatives to polystyrene, West Hawaii Today reports. The bill must undergo a final reading before it would take effect July 1. Most foam food containers made of polystyrene would remain banned under the proposed law. But the bill would allow the use of alternative plastics, including so-called clamshell containers made of No. 5 plastic, known as polypropylene. Retailers backing the measure say they favor reducing polystyrene but are having difficulty finding suitable alternatives since Hawaii County stopped recycling many plastics as the market for recyclables in China has decreased.

Idaho

Boise: A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to consult with other federal agencies about nearly two dozen water diversion projects in central Idaho’s Sawtooth Valley that could be harming salmon, steelhead and bull trout. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill issued the order last week following a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Conservation League in January 2018. The group said the Forest Service was violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to complete consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries about the water diversions. Sockeye salmon are listed as endangered, while the other species are listed as threatened. All return to the high-elevation Sawtooth Valley after swimming some 900 miles up the Columbia, Snake and Salmon rivers.

Illinois

Springfield: A Bible given to Abraham Lincoln in the final months of the Civil War ties together the 16th president’s budding views on spirituality and his belief that God was calling him to end slavery as well as his widow’s labors to solidify his religious standing, historians say. The King James Bible was eventually given by Mary Lincoln to Noyes W. Miner, a beloved Springfield neighbor and a Baptist minister whose descendants donated it to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which unveiled it to the public Thursday. The gift is a boon for the library and museum, which has been beset in recent years by a political battle for control of the institution and its fundraising foundation’s struggle to pay off a debt of $9 million that had gone toward the purchase of Lincoln memorabilia, including a stovepipe hat of dubious authenticity.

Indiana

Beech Grove: The state is redesigning its driver’s licenses and ID cards with improved security features aimed at protecting identities. The new design includes a laser-engraved photo in black and white. The birth date is now raised and tactile to ensure authenticity. “You can actually feel that on the card. That’s a great tool for law enforcement to use to check the validity of the card,” said Kevin Garvey, the bureau’s chief operating officer. Another noticeable change is the circular window at the bottom right corner of the card that features a sheer photo of the card holder. The image shows on both sides of the card in either a gold or clear background depending on the angle it’s held. Special inks will also help authenticate cards. When cards are placed under ultraviolet light, the Indiana seal with the torch and stars will show up.

Iowa

Des Moines: Nitrate pollution in the state’s drinking water may be responsible for up to 300 cases of cancer annually, a new study shows. Iowa and three other states – Arizona, California and Delaware – have “average levels of nitrate contamination that, at the high end … could cause more than 10 cases of cancer per 100,000 people a year,” according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. The peer-reviewed study is the first to quantify the health and economic impacts of nitrates in drinking water in the U.S., the group says. The federal standard for nitrates in drinking water is 10 milligrams per liter, a level set in 1962 to prevent “blue baby syndrome,” a potentially fatal condition that starves infants of oxygen if they ingest too much nitrate. University of Iowa researchers have studied the effects of long-term exposure to low levels of nitrates and found an association between nitrates and some cancers in women.

Kansas

Manhattan: Heavy rains and flooding that inundated the state in May and early June are slowing down the wheat harvest. The Wichita Eagle reports the wheat harvest usually starts between early and mid-June and wraps up by mid-July. But the Kansas Wheat Commission says only 1% of the state’s wheat crop was harvested as of June 16. Typically, about 12% of the crop is harvested by this time, and last year 20% was harvested by mid-June. The delay comes after the state got 10.26 inches of rain in May, more than double the 30-year average of 4.12 inches. It was the wettest May ever recorded in Kansas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says only 21% of Kansas’ wheat crop is mature, compared with almost 60% at this time last year.

Kentucky

Louisville: The commonwealth’s top justice official says the state is ready to take charge of Jefferson County juveniles charged with crimes if local officials decide to stop running Louisville Metro Youth Detention Services. State Justice Secretary John Tilley tells news outlets that the state can’t operate a local detention center. He says youths being held on charges instead of being released pending trial would likely be transferred to one of six regional juvenile detention centers elsewhere in Kentucky. Tilley’s comments come as Louisville Metro Council is considering whether to disband its youth detention services and hand over the job to the state Juvenile Justice Department as a cost-savings measure. The council estimates it can save about $2.4 million in six months beginning Jan. 1 by shifting youth detention services to the state.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Leaders at the Louisiana Children’s Museum will close its current location one month before opening a new campus. News outlets report the museum says the new complex will have its grand opening Aug. 31 on Henry Thomas Drive. The current location, which has been on Julia Street since 1986, will close July 27. The new Children’s Museum will be a part of an 8.5-acre campus that will include a literacy center, parent-teacher resource center, restaurant and more. Leaders say the new museum will have five interactive exhibits focused on early childhood development for kids ages 8 and under. The museum says the new campus cost more than $47 million to build.

Maine

Orono: It didn’t play to a packed house, but the Mueller report has been aired on stage. Art met reality when actors from the Ten Bucks Theater Company read aloud special counsel Robert Mueller’s “Report on the Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” this month at Hauck Auditorium at the University of Maine. The Portland Press Herald reports that Julie Arnold Lisnet and more than two dozen like-minded volunteers did what few Americans have done: read the entire 448-page report. Attendance was sparse. But Lisnet thought the effort was important. She said all Americans should read the report or listen to it, regardless of which side of the political aisle they’re on.

Maryland

Ellicott City: Howard County has been awarded a nearly $2 million grant to help protect a section of the Chesapeake Bay’s vast watershed. County executive Calvin Ball says the $1.8 million will be dispersed over years through the state’s Clean Water Commerce Act grant. The money will be used to develop strategies to slash nutrient pollutants from treated wastewater entering the watershed. The county’s public works department has requested budget authority for $750,000 for the grant’s first year. Ball says the funding can help “ensure that we can all live healthier lives and better protect a treasured natural resource.” The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary and has a roughly 64,000-square-mile watershed.

Massachusetts

Lenox: The Boston Symphony Orchestra is unveiling a sculpture of its longtime music director at its summer home at Tanglewood. The sculpture of Serge Koussevitzky is scheduled to be unveiled during a ceremony Monday in Lenox. Koussevitzky served as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s music director from 1924 until 1949, the second-longest tenure in its history. He founded Tanglewood in 1937 and the Tanglewood Music Center, the BSO’s influential summer music academy, in 1940. The sculpture will remain on display at the facility’s main gate. The Koussevitzky sculpture is the third and final in a series of sculptures created for permanent display throughout the Tanglewood grounds. A bust of composer Aaron Copland was unveiled in 2011. A sculpture of Leonard Bernstein went on display in 2014. All three were created by Penelope Jencks.

Michigan

Detroit: A graffiti artist commissioned by the city to paint a mural on a viaduct was arrested by police who believed he was committing vandalism. Sheefy McFly, whose real name is Tashif Turner, was arrested Wednesday. Detroit commissioned him as part of a multiyear effort to fight illegal graffiti with city-approved artwork. McFly says he didn’t have his city-issued permit with him. He says multiple police cars arrived on site even as a city official showed up to vouch for him. Police spokeswoman Nicole Kirkwood says officers found McFly uncooperative. She says the disagreement led to McFly being arrested on suspicion of resisting and obstructing and on a warrant for an old parking ticket. McFly says he was treated like a felon and felt threatened.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: A think tank official has been suspended for comments she made about Somali Americans in a New York Times story. The story quoting Kim Crockett, vice president and general counsel of the conservative Center of the American Experiment, examined the resistance to refugee resettlement in St. Cloud. The Star Tribune reports Crockett has been placed on an unpaid 30-day disciplinary suspension, and the center said in a statement that her comments do not reflect its “views and values.” Crockett told the New York Times reporter that she plans to challenge the resettlement program in court. She was quoted as saying: “I think of America, the great assimilator, as a rubber band, but with this – we’re at the breaking point. These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible.”

Mississippi

Jackson: A prosecutor who has tried the same man six times in a death penalty case now will decide whether to seek a seventh trial after the U.S. Supreme Court found racial bias in jury selection. District Attorney Doug Evans faces that decision after the high court on Friday threw out the latest trial results in the case of Curtis Flowers. Flowers is accused of killing four people in a Winona furniture store in 1996. Evans has tried Flowers six times, with four convictions overturned and two cases ending in mistrials. Evans’ efforts to exclude black jurors led to Flowers’ appeal to the nation’s highest court. Victims’ relatives say Flowers is the killer, but the defense says he’s innocent. Evans told reporters he hadn’t decided whether to try Flowers again.

Missouri

Kansas City: Netflix’s show “Queer Eye” is returning to the Show-Me State in its effort to bring fabulousness to the masses for two more seasons. The streaming service announced last week that season four will debut July 19. The eight episodes were shot in the Kansas City area, where last season the stars revamped a prison guard, a children’s camp program director and two sisters who own a barbecue joint. Netflix also says production will begin soon in Philadelphia on season five, which will be released next year. The show features resident fashion expert Tan France, food guru Antoni Porowski, hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness, culture expert Karamo Brown and home designer Bobby Berk. The Emmy-winning show is a reboot of the 2003 series “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

Montana

Missoula: Authorities say a black bear somehow locked itself inside a home and then nestled onto a closet shelf that wasn’t too hard or too soft but just right for a nap. Missoula County sheriff’s officials say the bear just yawned when deputies knocked on the window and unlocked the door in an attempt to coax it to leave Friday morning. They had to call Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department officials, who tranquilized the bear so it could be relocated. Sheriff’s officials say in a Facebook post that deputies responded at 5:45 a.m. to a call that a bear opened the door to the Butler Creek’s mudroom and somehow locked the deadbolt once inside. They say the bear “began ripping the room apart” before climbing up the closet for a nap.

Nebraska

Papillon: This Omaha suburb is a finalist for what some might call a magical sporting event – the Midwest Regional Championship of quidditch. Papillion is vying with La Crosse, Wisconsin, for the honor. Mary Kimball, events director for the U.S. Quidditch organization, says the selections will be announced this week for the 2019 and 2020 events. This form of quidditch is a ground-bound adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s creation in the “Harry Potter” book series, where players from the magic school take to the sky on broomsticks. The full-contact sport combines elements of rugby, dodgeball and tag. A tourism official told the Omaha World-Herald that host cities of previous U.S. Quidditch events have seen an economic impact of $150,000 to $300,000.

Nevada

Stateline: The oldest and largest conservation group at Lake Tahoe and a coalition of water suppliers plan to start distributing 250 cigarette butt collection canisters around the lake this summer to help protect the cobalt blue waters and reduce litter on the shoreline. Leaders of the League to Save Lake Tahoe and Tahoe Water Supplies Association say the thousands of butts collected in recent beach cleanup events served as a call to action. More than 27,600 have been collected in the past year. The bins were obtained through a Keep America Beautiful grant program. The League and TWSA plan to install canisters throughout the Lake Tahoe Basin through 2019. The League will be coordinating on the south shore and TWSA on the north shore. Each canister is designed to be highly visible and include education on how cigarette butts have harmful impacts to the environment and wildlife.

New Hampshire

Moultonborough: The Loon Preservation Committee says it has recorded two cases of loons poisoned by lead sinkers and jigs this year, and it’s reminding fishermen about the ban on the tackle, as well as an offer to buy it back. The ban is on lead sinkers and jigs weighing an ounce or less. It applies to all freshwater in the state. Last year, eight loons were confirmed dead after ingesting lead sinkers and jigs up to 1.03 ounces. Anglers can exchange an ounce or more of the banned tackle for a $10 gift certificate redeemable at eight tackle shops. One exchange is permitted per customer from now through Labor Day, or until the initial 1,200 certificates are claimed. Loons are a threatened species in New Hampshire and are protected by federal law.

New Jersey

Atlantic City: Plans for a $1.6 billion wind-energy farm – the largest of its kind in the U.S. – about 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City won the backing of state regulators Friday, in a big leap forward for clean energy. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities chose Ocean Wind, a proposal by Danish energy company Orsted and supported by PSEG Power, to develop a 1,110-megawatt offshore wind farm. Construction of the energy farm, which would produce enough electricity to power more than a half-million New Jersey homes, is expected to start in 2022 or 2023. The first phase would come online in 2024. The project, the largest offshore wind proposal ever awarded in the United States, is estimated to add $1.46 a month to an average residential electric customer’s bill once the project become operational.

New Mexico

Hobbs: Lea County has shunned a proposal to encourage employees to learn Spanish. The Hobbs News-Sun reports county commissioners turned thumbs-down on the idea that would have given employees paid incentives to become bilingual in a county where nearly 60% of residents are Latino. Under a proposal presented by county human resources director Craig Bova last week, the bilingual policy would offer $1,500 to full-time employees who could successfully pass an annual English-Spanish language proficiency test. But Commissioner Dean Jackson says every citizen should speak English because it’s “the language of the land.” Commission chairwoman Rebecca Long says the money used for the incentives should be used instead to hire “more environmental people” and more sheriff’s deputies.

New York

New York: Woody Guthrie’s children, Arlo and Nora Guthrie, were king and queen of this year’s Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Saturday’s colorful spectacle of participants in zany aquatic costumes ushered in the New York summer for the 37th time. This year, the corner of Mermaid Avenue and West 35th Street in Brooklyn was renamed Woody Guthrie Way. The songwriter famous for “This Land Is Your Land” and his wife moved into a modest first-floor apartment on Mermaid Avenue in 1943, and that’s where the siblings grew up. Arlo is a renowned singer-songwriter in his own right, most famous for “Alice’s Restaurant.” The parade was founded in 1983 to promote the historic amusement park district and what Coney Island advocate Dick Zigun calls its “wacky art.” The parade now has a global following and is staged each year on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice.

North Carolina

Hildebran: District 12 is now on the National Register of Historic Places. State officials announced last week that the Henry River Mill Village in Hildebran now has that historic designation. The village served as District 12 in the 2012 box office smash “The Hunger Games.” Calvin Reyes, his mother and stepfather paid $360,000 in 2017 for the village in western North Carolina that served as the home of Katniss, Peeta and Gale. Since then, Reyes says people from 43 countries have toured it. Reyes says people come for “The Hunger Games” but leave asking about those who lived there. The Henry River Manufacturing Co. established the mill about 1905. It closed in 1970, and the mill burned in 1977. The property includes a company store and 20 textile workers’ homes.

North Dakota

Bismarck: Gov. Doug Burgum says a voter referendum to repeal a budget provision for a proposed Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library would likely have a “low chance” of passing. Those who oppose the Legislature’s approval of $50 million to operate and maintain the library in Medora are petitioning to place a referendum on the June 2020 primary ballot to repeal the state funding, which must be matched by $100 million in private money. The Bismarck Tribune reports one opponent, Riley Kuntz, says the library is a “gross misappropriation of funds” for a project that honors a president who wasn’t even from North Dakota. Roosevelt spent four years on a ranch in the North Dakota Badlands while in his 20s. The area is now a national park and the state’s top tourist attraction.

Ohio

Columbus: The state’s tourism office has made its own launch – a new website focused on events in the state celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing that featured a native son. TourismOhio director Matthew MacLaren says the page highlights Ohio’s central role in the historic mission and also the state’s deep ties to space exploration. Besides Apollo 11 moonwalk astronaut Neil Armstrong, the state has produced two dozen other astronauts. The tourism page lays out road trips, stargazing opportunities, fun foods and space-related attractions that are available. Armstrong’s western Ohio hometown of Wapakoneta has days of celebration planned that will be capped by the July 20 anniversary.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: The governor and legislative leaders have reached a deal with the state attorney general over how an $85 million settlement with an opioid drug manufacturer will be structured. Attorney Bob Burke serves as a spokesman for the court during Oklahoma’s ongoing case against drug makers. He says a revised agreement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals will be presented to the judge in the case Monday. Gov. Kevin Stitt and GOP legislative leaders sought to intervene in the case last week, arguing that the state’s proposed settlement with Teva doesn’t comply with a new state law directing any settlement proceeds into the state treasury. Burke says a retired Oklahoma Supreme Court justice appointed to help resolve the dispute conducted mediation and submitted his report to the judge in the case.

Oregon

Salem: The state Senate was again unable to conduct business because of a Republican boycott of the Legislature over major climate change legislation. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Senate President Peter Courtney announced a lack of quorum Sunday. Republicans fled the Capitol last week to deny the majority Democrats a quorum for the climate bill, intended to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Unlike last week, Courtney didn’t ask the sergeant-at-arms to search the building for absent Republicans. He says staff members to conduct such a search don’t work Sunday. The Capitol was closed Saturday on the recommendation of State Police, after anti-government groups threatened to join a protest planned inside the building. One of the groups, the Oregon Three Percenters, had joined an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: A fire in a refinery struck by explosions and a pre-dawn blaze last week has now been extinguished as an investigation is launched into what caused it, authorities say. The blaze at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refining Complex, the East Coast’s largest oil refinery, was extinguished Saturday afternoon, fire department and city officials said in a statement Sunday. The gas valve that had been fueling the blaze had been shut off and the tank involved in the explosion isolated, officials said. The fire department’s hazmat unit and the public health department are still monitoring air quality, which they said they’ve been doing every two or three hours without finding any threat to public health. The blasts and fire at the plant about 4 a.m. Friday, which shook homes and sent a fireball aloft, occurred at a tank containing a mixture of butane and propane, authorities said. Five workers were treated for minor injuries.

Rhode Island

Providence: The Legislature has passed a bill aimed at cracking down on bridge toll violators and evaders. Both chambers passed the measure last week, sending it to the governor. The bill reduces the number of infractions for a person to be considered a “toll violator,” from 20 to 10. For “toll evaders,” the number drops from 100 to 20. Violators are reported to the Division of Motor Vehicles. They can’t renew their driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations until unpaid tolls and fines are paid. Evaders may receive a traffic violation summons to the traffic tribunal and face a license suspension for up to six months, a fine of up to $500, or both. House Majority Whip John Edwards, a Portsmouth Democrat, and Sen. Louis DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, introduced the legislation.

South Carolina

Charleston: A nonprofit and the city are building oyster shell reefs to lessen the environmental impact of planned construction projects. The Post and Courier reports The Citadel Foundation and the city of Charleston are building the reefs along the Ashley River. The newspaper says entities are often required to mitigate construction projects’ impact on wetlands, and the city and nonprofit are splitting the mitigation project costs. The foundation is a nonprofit that raises money for The Citadel school and plans to use the reefs to mitigate the impact of dredging a channel to the river and constructing a student pier and boating center. The mitigation project helped the city obtain permits for the next phase of a deep-tunnel drainage system along a parkway. The reefs may be finished in August.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Three years after lawmakers overhauled the state’s education funding formula to raise teacher salaries, superintendents say the new system isn’t delivering as promised. And they say they’re trying to figure out how to cope if the underfunding continues. The changes included a half-cent increase in the state sales tax. In the first year, salaries increased an average of 8.8%, raising South Dakota above last in the nation for average teacher salaries for the first time in nearly 30 years. The changes also required the state to provide annual funding increases. The state fully funded them in its first year but not the second or third. There’s now a $3.6 million gap between money promised and received, and superintendents aren’t sure how they’ll handle it.

Tennessee

Gatlinburg: A National Park Service report says visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park spent $953 million in communities near the park last year. A park news release says the spending came from the 11.4 million visitors to the park in 2018. The spending supported more than 13,700 jobs in the local area. The numbers are included in a peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas and Egan Cornachione of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service. According to the report, $20.2 billion was spent directly in communities within 60 miles of a national park in 2018 by more than 318 million national park visitors.

Texas

Waco: Former “Fixer Upper” hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines have introduced a $10.4 million plan to expand on the popular shops they operate in their hometown of Waco. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports there will be a new “retail village” at the Magnolia Market at the Silos featuring more shops, a relocated historic church, a wiffle ball field and other attractions. Construction is already underway on a portion of the development in downtown Waco. Magnolia draws an estimated 30,000 visitors a week. The plan submitted to the city envisions the project as an “economic catalyst” for Waco. The couple was made famous by HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” home improvement show, which ended last year. It was announced in April that the Gaineses will launch their own Discovery-affiliated television network next summer.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The state would charge electric and hybrid vehicle owners for miles driven under a voluntary program intended to compensate for diminishing gas tax returns. The state will be one of the first to collect the road usage charge for such a purpose, The Deseret News reports. The Utah Department of Transportation hopes to enroll 500 hybrid and electric vehicle owners in the program scheduled to begin in January. The state would waive an annual flat fee for those vehicles and charge them 1.5 cents for each mile driven, capping the charge to prevent the cost from exceeding the annual fee, officials said. The Utah Legislature appropriated $755,000 to establish the program and $115,000 annually for its operation. The state also received a $1.25 million federal grant for analysis over the next five years.

Vermont

Barre: The state Agency of Education has launched an online tool to help track public school performance. The “Annual Snapshot” will show data for several measures of school performance for every public school in the state. Education Secretary Daniel French says it “will help communities understand how their schools are supporting achievement for all their students” and provide a new level of data to help schools improve. The Education Agency says the annual snapshot will show a school’s current performance, improvement over the past year and success in achieving equitable education for all students. The portal cost about $1 million to develop. The data currently available is for the 2017-2018 school year. The 2018-19 data will be added in December.

Virginia

Richmond: Groundbreaking black tennis player Arthur Ashe Jr.’s hometown has renamed a major thoroughfare after him, after years of effort. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that thousands of people attended Saturday’s ceremony to celebrate the formal renaming of Arthur Ashe Boulevard. The event drew several elected officials. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, renowned civil rights activist, urged the crowd to remember Ashe’s legacy. U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, a former mayor of Richmond, called the new name “an act of healing.” Ashe was the first black player selected to the U.S. Davis Cup team and the only black man to ever win the singles title at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open. He also was a well-known philanthropist who promoted education and civil rights.

Washington

Olympic National Park: Goats will fly again this summer as the National Park Service continues to transport mountain goats to their native habitat in the North Cascades. Operations to move as many as possible of an estimated 700 mountain goats in Olympic National Park began last year. Using helicopters, tranquilizer darts, nets and refrigerated trucks, crews were able to remove 115 mountain goats from the park in September. This summer, two operational periods July 8-19 and Aug. 19-30 will have visitor impacts throughout the park, spokesperson Penny Wagner told the Peninsula Daily News. The goats were introduced to the Olympic Peninsula as game animals in the 1920s before Olympic National Park existed. Officials say they impact the fragile alpine and sub-alpine ecosystem and have become too comfortable around humans. Some goats have become aggressive in their search for salts in human urine and sweat.

West Virginia

Charleston: A new collaboration between the Charleston Area Medical Center and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine will establish a new regional campus for students. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports a news release says the expanded partnership will take effect next summer and means more students will train at the medical center. West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine President James Nemitz says it will benefit students and the Charleston community. Students currently take clinical education rotations at the medical center. Nemitz said the new campus will allow them to participate in specialized residencies. Medical center spokesman Dale Witte says the more exposure students have there, the more likely they are to stay in the area and the state.

Wisconsin

Madison: The state’s cranberry growers say demand for the fruit is improving after a voluntary move to withhold part of the 2018 crop. Wisconsin Public Radio reports that the latest National Agricultural Statistics Service shows Wisconsin produced 5.55 million barrels of cranberries last year. That’s a 3% increase from 2017, when growers saw a slight production decline due to a late spring frost. The figures don’t include the 25% of production withheld from the market in 2018, thanks to a federal marketing order meant to reduce oversupply and encourage higher prices. Tom Lochner, executive director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association, says the effort has helped. He says growers know it’s part of a longer-term effort to boost prices, and they are trending in the right direction.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: More than $2 million has been directed for the construction of a new auditorium, student learning center and welcome center at the Capitol. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports the Oversight Group on Capitol Building Rehabilitation and Restoration approved the money Wednesday from the $3 million contingency fund set aside by state lawmakers this year. Officials expect work on the projects to begin next month and wrap up in November. The Legislature in 2014 approved a $300 million project that included restoring the Capitol’s interior and foundation and renovating the Herschler Building’s wings. Special Assistant Attorney General Michael O’Donnell says the contingency fund was created to complete any unfinished legislative spaces in the Capitol and the Capitol extension.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mermaid Parade, Lincoln’s Bible, District 12: News from around our 50 states