Utility bill Santa, return of Ceres, Zion path secured: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: The City Council has voted unanimously to repeal a controversial ordinance that required jail time for panhandlers. The ordinance passed in July required a mandatory two days in jail for panhandling but wasn’t being enforced because former Mayor Todd Strange never signed off on the city law. Mayor Steven Reed pushed the repeal through to the council Tuesday, according to a news release from the Southern Poverty Law Center. In November, the Montgomery City Council voted against an amendment that also would have criminalized giving to panhandlers after dozens of people showed up to a meeting protesting the move. SPLC attorney Micah West says repealing the ordinance doesn’t address state laws the city has been using to criminalize begging and soliciting for years. He says the city has issued more than 400 citations for begging or soliciting in the past year and a half.

Alaska

Juneau: An Alaska Native advocacy group is seeking land and the establishment of Native corporations for communities that were omitted from a federal settlement, officials say. Alaska Natives Without Land wants a change to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act on behalf of Haines, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Tenakee Springs and Wrangell, The Juneau Empire reports. Some tribal communities were excluded when the act passed in December 1971, leading to the creation of Alaska Native regional, urban and village corporations. The act also transferred 68,750 square miles of land to those corporations, officials say. A change to the federal act would require a vote in Congress. Alaska Natives Without Land held an event Peratrovich Hall in Juneau last Saturday to build support and share information about the issue, says Todd Antioquia, the group’s campaign and volunteer coordinator.

Arizona

Page: A popular tourist attraction that sometimes requires tourists to wait while professional photographers get the perfect shot is ending its photography-only tours. At the Upper Antelope Canyon, shafts of sunlight descend from the heavens, lighting the towering, multihued walls that flow on either side like molten waves. But the traffic jams from the popular photography-only tours of the slot canyon on the Navajo Reservation near Page are being discontinued Friday. Visitors can still take photos with phones or other cameras on regular tours, but no tripods will be allowed. The canyon’s narrow walls lend themselves to dramatic lighting. Guides often helped visitors get those postcard-perfect shots that made it appear as if the canyon were devoid of visitors. Guides with Antelope Canyon Tours were known to throw sand in the air, filling the shafts of light for a more dazzling effect.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The state Agriculture Department says it has hired a Game and Fish biologist to coordinate efforts to eradicate feral hogs. The department announced Monday that it had hired J.P. Fairhead as its first feral hog eradication program coordinator, a newly created position that’s part of a $3.4 million federal grant awarded to the department. Fairhead has been employed by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission since 2008 as a natural resource program technician and field biologist. He’s also served as its feral hog eradication program coordinator since February 2013. Arkansas was one of 10 states to receive funding through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program. The department says feral hogs are estimated to cause nearly $1.5 billion in damage nationwide annually and approximately $19 million in the Natural State.

California

Citrus Heights: The home of a man suspected of being the notorious Golden State Killer was sold last month to a couple who intend to live there. Joseph DeAngelo’s 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath ranch home in Citrus Heights was sold for $320,000, a price near the bottom of the market for three-bedroom homes in that area, the Sacramento Bee reports. DeAngelo, a former police officer, is awaiting trial on charges that he broke into dozens of homes across California in the 1970s and 1980s, raping and often killing. Police linked DeAngelo to the killings through a DNA database. DeAngelo, 74, lived in the house for several decades and worked as a night mechanic in a Roseville supermarket distribution center. After his arrest, the house was treated as a crime scene by investigators searching for clues.

Colorado

Denver: People who traveled through Denver International Airport last Wednesday afternoon may have been exposed to measles, Colorado health officials say. Three children who were in the airport that day tested positive for the highly contagious disease after traveling to a country where there was an outbreak, officials say. Health officials don’t consider this an outbreak because the children are related, the Tri-County Health Department said in a statement. But they are warning people who were in the airport between 1:15 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. Dec. 11 that they may have been exposed. It’s unclear how many people came in contact with the children. About 179,000 people passed through the airport that day, spokeswoman Emily Williams told The Denver Post.

Connecticut

Newtown: The planned permanent memorial to honor the 26 people killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting will be simpler but maintain the essence of the original design, members of the memorial committee said. “The heart of the memorial is still the sycamore tree with the water around it and the names of the victims inscribed on the side of the water,” Dan Krauss, the volunteer chairman of the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial Commission, told the Connecticut Post. “You still have the engagement with the water and the peacefulness and reflection of walking along side of the ponds.” Changes include eliminating the planned pavilion, narrowing paths and limiting paved surfaces at the donated 5-acre site. The alterations will drop the estimated project budget from $10 million to $3.7 million. The dedication date has also been pushed back two years to December 2021.

Delaware

Dover: Families living in homes on Dover Air Force Base say they have been experiencing ongoing problems with mold and leaks. Some families even speculate that ongoing illnesses are caused by conditions at their Eagle Heights Family Housing homes, managed by Hunt Military Communities. The issues come as lawmakers have begun applying pressure on military officials about persistent problems with privatized family housing at military sites. Hunt Military Communities did not respond to messages seeking comment, but at an October town hall, company representatives told Dover residents they had discovered issues with many of the home’s window weep holes, which are openings on windows designed to drain precipitation that collects in window tracks. The windows have not been replaced, according to residents interviewed.

District of Columbia

Washington: In a few weeks, the D.C. Council is poised to vote on marijuana legislation that is currently in effect for schools on a temporary basis. But a sixth grader from Northwest is lobbying for more permanent legislation from the council because it could very well save her life, WUSA-TV reports. The Student Medical Marijuana Patient Fairness Temporary Amendment Act was passed in September but will go to a full council vote Jan. 7. Zoey Carty has a rare form of epilepsy, and her mother says after six months of using CBD oil three times a day, as well as having an emergency syringe with THC, Zoey’s seizures decreased by 50%. Dawn Lee-Carty and Zoey now grow their own medical marijuana, but Zoey’s school will only allow mairjuana from an authorized dispensary.

Florida

Gulf Breeze: A man who once spent a Christmas without electricity has paid the power bills for 36 families with past-due accounts. Mike Esmond says he will never forget the Christmas he and his three daughters spent in 1983 without heat and power because he couldn’t pay his bill. He says it was one of the coldest days on record in Pensacola at only 9 degrees and remembers icicles hanging off the window. The 73-year-old small-business owner says he doesn’t want any other families to spend the holidays shivering. He went to the city of Gulf Breeze this month and requested a list of all utility accounts at risk of having their gas and water turned off. Then he paid off all 36 of them, totaling about $4,600. Angela Cascio says she was stunned by the stranger’s kindness. The mother of four was struggling to choose between paying bills or buying presents for her kids. She posted on Facebook that “angels absolutely walk among us.”

Georgia

Savannah: The first newborn right whale of the winter calving season has been spotted off the coast of Georgia. The critically endangered whales migrate each winter to warmer waters of the southeastern U.S. coast to give birth. Scientists estimate just over 400 North Atlantic right whales remain, making each newborn calf crucial to avoiding extinction. An aerial survey team spotted the first mother-and-calf pair of the 2019-2020 season Monday in waters off Sapelo Island, about 50 miles south of Savannah, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said in a news release. Researchers have become increasingly worried about right whales’ prospects for survival as deaths in recent years have outpaced births. Seven right whales calves were recorded last winter during daily survey flights offshore of Georgia and Florida.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Police are reviewing body camera footage after fatally shooting a second man in less than 24 hours, amid an apparent uptick in crime in the city. Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard says she is concerned about a 20% increase in the number of violent crimes involving firearms. On Monday, police shot and killed a man who rammed a vehicle at officers, fled and fired at police. On Tuesday morning, an officer shot and killed a 27-year-old man with a stolen moped who lunged at him with a knife. The uptick in Honolulu crime includes the shooting death of a 71-year-old woman over the weekend. But Ballard says murders and rapes have decreased since last year. There have been some increases in aggravated assaults and robberies, according to police statistics. Gun violence is generally rare in Hawaii, where there are strict gun laws. “This is Hawaii; we’re not used to this,” Ballard says. “It’s really sad to see. Please stop. This is getting nuts.”

Idaho

Mullan: Members of a union representing mine workers have rejected a tentative agreement that could have ended a 2 ¹/₂-year strike. United Steelworkers Local 5114 and Hecla Mining Company announced a tentative agreement in November that required ratification by a majority of union members, The Spokesman-Review reports. A third party counted 157 ballots Monday finding that 80 were against the proposed contract, union officials said. United Steelworkers represent about 200 workers at the Lucky Friday Mine near Mullan, officials said. United Steelworkers must notify Hecla Mining and return to the bargaining table, said Timothy Swallow, a union representative. Members have argued about the ability for lead miners to pick their own work crew, which has been a tradition at the 77-year-old mine, union representatives said.

Illinois

Springfield: Hunters took more than 75,000 deer during the state’s seven-day firearm hunting season this fall, according to preliminary totals compiled by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. That number represents a 7% drop in the number of deer harvested from 2018, when nearly 81,000 deer were taken. But the second part of this year’s season, Dec. 5-8, saw an uptick over last year. More than 25,000 deer were harvested during the second season, a 14% increase from 2018. That more than made up the difference from the first weekend of firearm deer season last month, which saw a drop of nearly 9,000 deer taken compared with 2018. State wildlife officials say there are other hunting opportunities underway or approaching. Those include archery hunting and hunting with muzzleloaders, late-winter antlerless-only deer hunting and Chronic Wasting Disease hunting in certain counties.

Indiana

Bloomington: People illegally driving off-road vehicles in the Hoosier National Forest are leaving behind deep tire grooves that are causing erosion, an official says. Mike Chaveas, forest supervisor, told The Herald-Times that the erosion created by the all-terrain vehicles is more of a problem because the national forest, which spans 204,000 acres in southern Indiana from the Bloomington area to the Ohio River, is a patchwork of land sandwiched between private and other public properties. After soil is compacted by the vehicles, water is less likely to filter down off the surface, further into the ground. That leads to water following the trail, producing an artificial drainage path, which can erode the soil. That generates cuts and the formation of gullies. The muddy water and the sediment it carries ends up in the creeks and streams, which empty into larger bodies of water, including Lake Monroe.

Iowa

Des Moines: The City Council has disbanded the city’s Citizen Odor Board. The council took the action Monday after concluding the panel was no longer needed after nearly 30 years of recording complaints. It had no enforcement powers. People still will be able to report stenches to the city’s 24/7 odor hotline: (515) 244-0336. If the city gets 10 complaints about the same smell within six hours, it will investigate the source. SuAnn Donovan, the city’s neighborhood inspection zoning administrator, said an administrative law judge would hear appeals from companies found to be significant odor generators. The council also eliminated the Des Moines Music Commission, which hadn’t met for more than seven years. City staffers said in a document given to the council that Des Moines now has a vibrant live music scene that no longer needs a commission’s help.

Kansas

Lawrence: The University of Kansas plans to close its Confucius Institute in January, in part because federal funding for universities that host the China-linked facilities has been reduced. An email distributed Monday to faculty and staff from University of Kansas interim Provost Carl Lejuez said the school believes strong engagement with China is critical to U.S. higher education, The Lawrence Journal-World reports. “However, a Confucius Institute is not a necessary component for KU to productively engage with China, support collaborative faculty research, and prepare students,” Lejuez wrote. The Confucius Institutes provides education in Chinese language and culture. At one point, China had about 500 Confucius Institutes around the world, but several U.S. universities closed the organizations in response to the criticism about the Chinese Ministry of Education’s possible political influence in academics.

Kentucky

Louisville: A gold bar worth almost $1,500 was found among donations to one of the Salvation Army’s red kettles. Louisville Area Commander Major Roy Williams told WAVE-TV that the bar was found over the weekend in a kettle at the Kroger in Prospect. It was the fourth straight year that a 1-ounce gold piece has been donated anonymously, he said. Other smaller gold and silver coins also have been found in recent days. The Louisville Area Salvation Army said it is still about $70,000 short of its fundraising goal. The charity hopes to raise $500,000 during its annual Red Kettle Campaign, which runs through Christmas Eve.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: The state’s transportation department will boost safety measures at its roadwork sites, the agency’s secretary announced at a ceremony honoring an employee killed on the job this summer. Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Shawn Wilson said Monday that the agency will require a “spotter” on two-person crews to watch traffic. A cone will be placed farther back from a work zone, equipped with an alarm that sounds if hit, to give workers advance warning if a vehicle veers into the area. The agency also said it is buying 70 trailers with flashing arrows to place in work zones, designed to absorb the impact from a crash before it reaches a work crew. In addition, the color of safety vests and uniforms will change from orange to a bright yellow/green mix, and emergency lights on the department’s vehicles will be upgraded to brighter, more visible colors.

Maine

Kennebunk: A lab has become the first to apply for state certification to test recreational cannabis. Nelson Analytics applied to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention for a testing facility certification, the Portland Press Herald reports. The state is taking steps to ensure it has enough licensed labs to test all products prepared in state. The adult-use market does not open until March 2020. Officials say the licensing and regulation of testing labs is essential to guarantee public safety. Testing for pesticides, heavy metals and residual solvents will be delayed until the market is running – likely after a year, according to Maine officials. “It takes time for independent, top-quality labs to establish themselves and develop capacity necessary to support the growing volume of product,” says Erik Gundersen, director of the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy.

Maryland

Baltimore: The city got a needed boost in federal funding to fight crime when the state’s congressional delegation announced a $4.6 million package of grants for public safety initiatives for the region. The city will receive more than $2.9 million, while the rest of the money provided through the U.S. Department of Justice will go to surrounding Baltimore County and other stakeholders. Part of the city’s money is meant to help law enforcement identify and track guns, support children who are crime victims of the opioid crisis, and combat elder abuse. The announcement comes as the city has seen one of its most violent years on record, tallying 327 homicides so far. That’s up from 309 in 2018. Baltimore’s share of grants also will fund efforts at the state’s attorney’s office to address wrongful convictions.

Massachusetts

Cape Cod: Activists are working to ban commercial sales of single-use plastic water bottles at retail stores across the cape. The nonprofit organization Sustainable Practices successfully convinced most municipalities in the county this year to stop buying single-use plastic bottles and stop selling beverages in single-use plastic containers on town property. The organization said Monday that it now aims to have a petition article at the annual town meeting for every Cape Cod municipality this spring to extend the ban to commercial sales of plastic water bottles in stores, according to the Cape Cod Times. It called the municipal ban a “great first step.” Madhavi Venkatesan, the organization’s executive director, said she’s also hopeful the four municipalities that didn’t adopt the plastic bottle ban this year will do so by spring.

Michigan

Detroit: The largest contractor in the city’s demolition program is facing suspension again after it tore down the wrong house – for the second time in just a year. Detroit-based Adamo Group has been awarded more than $58.6 million to perform thousands of federally and city-funded demolitions since 2014. The company also has performed several large-scale, high-profile demolitions, including fulfilling the $5.9 million contract to tear down the former Joe Louis Arena. City officials confirmed Adamo tore down the wrong house, and the company received a violation notice Wednesday morning for the wrongful demolition. The contractor has seven days to appeal. The property was located one block over from the home it was actually contracted to demolish. The company, however, did not notify the city or state until last week.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: John Borger, one of the nation’s preeminent First Amendment lawyers, has died. He was 68. Borger had cancer for 15 years and died Monday night at his home in downtown Minneapolis, said his wife, Judith Yates Borger. Borger represented the Star Tribune and other media organizations for four decades before retiring from the Faegre Baker Daniels law firm in 2017, the Star Tribune reports. Star Tribune senior vice president and general counsel Randy Lebedoff called Borger “a brilliant First Amendment advocate who contributed greatly to our state and country by standing up for freedom of speech when it counted.” He was also the lead attorney representing the estate of “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle, which was sued for defamation by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura.

Mississippi

Gulfport: “Do you recognize me,” pleads a sketch of a young black woman believed to be killed by confessed serial killer Samuel Little. Her mouth is drawn into a frown, her dark hair either short or pinned up in a hand-drawn sketch Little provided to law enforcement. Little began confessing to killings last year and has so far admitted to killing at least 93 people across the U.S. between 1970 and 2005. Five of those killings were of women he picked up near Gulfport, according to the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office. Only three have been identified so far. The sheriff’s office shared the sketch and asked for the public’s help in identifying the woman, believed to have been in her early to mid-20s before she disappeared prior to December 1992. The FBI considers Little the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, and he’s recounted his crimes in near-photographic detail, prompting him to create dozens of color portraits of the women he strangled.

Missouri

Jefferson City: The statue of a Roman goddess that prompted a brief controversy returned to the dome of the Missouri State Capitol on Tuesday. The statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture and grain crops, was taken down last year for structural and cosmetic repairs. A 550-ton crane lifted the 10-foot, 1,407-pound bronze statue back to the top of the dome, the Jefferson City News-Tribune reports. Last week, State Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, asked Gov. Mike Parson to stop the state from returning the “false god” to the Capitol dome, citing his and Parson’s Christian faith. Parson did not respond to Moon’s letter, and supporters said the statue, which shows Ceres holding a bundle of grain, represents the importance of agriculture in Missouri. It was originally installed on the dome in 1924.

Montana

Billings: The Billings Chamber of Commerce has started to remove parts of its campaign that was criticized by a local blogger who said campaign language and imagery was tone-deaf and racist. The Billings Gazette reports blogger Alexis Bonogofsky published an article Monday criticizing three billboards reading “Onward Pioneer” and “Conquer New Endeavors.” Officials say the campaign tagline read, “Today is ours for the taking – and tomorrow too.” Officials say the Visit Billings tourism website also promoted similar language. Bonogofsky says the campaign was not culturally sensitive to hundreds of years of genocide, forced assimilation and racism against Native Americans. Department executives say the “Forge Your Own Path” campaign was used for 18 months, and “Onward Pioneers” was one of the multiple aspects of the campaign set to expire in 2020.

Nebraska

Lincoln: Dozens of people who helped respond to flooding in the state this year were honored Tuesday for work saving lives and rescuing stranded neighbors. Gov. Pete Ricketts and first lady Susanne Shore presented awards to individuals and groups that contributed to the effort. Special accolades went to James Wilke, a Columbus farmer who died trying to save a stranded motorist from floodwaters; the Nebraska National Guard; and a group of firefighters and volunteers whose air boat capsized as they worked to rescue a family from their home. Ricketts also honored air boat owners, a search-and-rescue task force and 45 individuals who assisted in various ways. Ricketts called the group “flood heroes” and said they “showed their strength, grit and compassion in countless ways.”

Nevada

Reno: The Burning Man organization is tired of waiting on a decision that could potentially recover it millions of dollars. Black Rock City LLC, the nonprofit that produces the annual Burning Man event, filed a lawsuit in D.C. District Court on Friday after waiting four years to hear whether the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be required to justify its nearly $3 million in annual charges to Burning Man. “This case is our attempt to break this cycle,” Burning Man spokeswoman Megan Miller said in a statement. The BLM, which oversees public land use, permits Burning Man organizers to hold a weeklong, 80,000-person event each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The Burning Man organization is seeking “relief from defendants’ ongoing, unlawful and prejudicial conduct towards (Black Rock City LLC) that threatens the viability of the iconic Burning Man event,” the lawsuit said.

New Hampshire

Concord: The overall number of people experiencing homelessness in the state is dropping, though four of its 10 counties saw increases in recent years, according to a report released Wednesday by a nonprofit advocacy group. The New Hampshire Coalition to End Homelessness draws on state and federal data for its annual report. Its comparison of the annual “point in time” counts shows the overall number of people experiencing homelessness decreased by 5% to 1,382 from January 2017 to January 2019, but the numbers went up in Carroll, Cheshire Coos and Hillsborough counties. And while the number of families and veterans experiencing homelessness decreased, the number of homeless students increased by 12% to 3,993.

New Jersey

Newark: Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed legislation restoring voting rights to convicts who are out of prison on parole or probation. The measure will restore voting rights to roughly 80,000 convicts. Murphy, a Democrat, cast the measure as part of a progressive agenda aimed at reducing racial disparity in the state’s criminal justice system, which has disproportionately higher rates of incarceration for black residents compared to whites. He also signed a bill aimed at making it easier for people convicted of lower-level crimes to clear their records. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, New Jersey would join 16 other states and the District of Columbia that bar only those convicts who are incarcerated from voting. Most Republicans opposed the bill, saying it lacked common sense since the convicts hadn’t yet paid their “debt to society.”

New Mexico

Tsaile: The first college established by an American Indian tribe in the United States is now working to create a law school. Formal efforts picked up speed with a recent two-day symposium held at Diné College on the Navajo Nation. Officials talked about everything from the college’s original mission and accreditation to student courses, judicial advocates and what community such an institution would serve. Rex Lee Jim, the director of the college’s Navajo Sovereignty Institute, said that ideally, the law school would specialize in emerging areas of Indian law that are significant to the Navajo Nation economy. Jim organized the symposium and will help set up an advisory committee going forward. Diné College began in 1968 as the first tribe-controlled institution of higher learning in the U.S.

New York

Romulus: Tours of a rare white deer herd on a wildlife sanctuary at a former Cold War weapons depot are slated to end soon because of financial troubles, but the property owner says he’ll continue protection of the herd and look for ways to resume public access. The board of directors of the nonprofit Seneca White Deer Inc. voted to end tours Dec. 29 at the former Seneca Army Depot in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes region because donations weren’t meeting expenses, says the organization’s president, Dennis Money. Earl Martin, who is redeveloping the former military facility, told the Canandaigua Daily Messenger he’ll continue protection and management of the deer herd that roam 3,000 fenced acres set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary is home to the world’s largest herd of white deer. They’re not albinos but are leucistic. In the wild, such deer usually succumb quickly to predators and hunters because they’re so visible.

North Carolina

Rocky Mount: A highway marker honoring a Native American Olympic gold medalist has gone missing, officials say. The marker honoring James “Jim” Francis Thorpe was still at its post in Rocky Mount as of last week, news outlets report, citing a state news release. The state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is now asking for the public’s help in recovering the marker, according to the statement. Thorpe was born on an Oklahoma reservation in 1888 and became a professional baseball player in 1909 when he joined the Rocky Mount Railroaders in North Carolina, according to the state’s website about the marker. He also played professional football and was a standout in track and field, winning gold medals in the pentathlon and the decathlon at the Olympics in Stockholm three years later, it says. It was then that he was declared the “greatest athlete in the world” by the King of Sweden.

North Dakota

Bismarck: The state will work with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to help develop a response plan for a potential spill of the Dakota Access pipeline, a state official says. State Emergency Services Director Cody Schulz says tribal leaders recently requested a response plan and resources to prepare for a spill near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the south-central part of the state. Schulz told a committee of state and tribal leaders headed by Gov. Doug Burgum that his agency would be happy to either “participate or facilitate” a training exercise. The state also would work with the tribe to obtain federal grant money for planning and equipment. Standing Rock Chairman Mike Faith, who sits on the panel, said oil spill response training would be “awesome,” and he appreciates the state’s effort to work collaboratively with the tribe.

Ohio

Cincinnati: The name of a slave owner will be removed from the University of Cincinnati’s largest college after a unanimous vote Tuesday by the school’s trustees. The University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees voted to formally end the association of Charles McMicken’s name with the school’s College of Arts and Sciences. The university created a commission last year to examine McMicken’s legacy. He owned slaves and created a will before his 1858 death that set aside funds to create a university for “the education of white boys and girls.” The board agreed with the commission’s recommendation that McMicken’s name be removed from the college, but his name will remain on other spaces on campus. Digital displays outlining his biography will be placed near those areas to more fully and fairly represent the histories associated with McMicken, according to the university.

Oklahoma

Tulsa: Scientists surveying a cemetery and a homeless camp in the city found pits holding possible remains of black residents killed nearly 100 years ago in a race massacre, investigators have revealed. In a report presented Monday night to the 1921 Race Massacre Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee, Oklahoma Archaeological Survey scientists Scott Hammerstedt and Amanda Regnier said forensic archaeologists scanning with ground-penetrating radar at the sites in north Tulsa found anomalies in the ground that they think should be excavated and tested further. “There have been other searches that have found some anomalies, but I think that ours is the most promising one,” Hammerstedt says. “There was a commission in the late ’90s, but their results never went anywhere.” The violence in 1921 left as many as 300 dead on Tulsa’s Black Wall Street.

Oregon

Portland: A city auditor’s report released Tuesday says Portland leaders failed to fully deliver on promises they made to voters as they implemented arts, cannabis, affordable housing and street repair programs funded by voter-approved taxes and bond measures. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the audit focused on measures and taxes passed in 2016. The audit also analyzed the 7-year-old Portland art tax for schools and nonprofit programs that assesses a $35 charge per resident annually. Auditor Mary Hull Caballero’s report says the city has used vague language when laying out commitments to voters, doesn’t consistently determine how realistic it is to keep promises made, lacks consistent monitoring to make sure commitments are delivered on and has diverged from some voter promises due to bureau leadership changes and the city’s commission form of government.

Pennsylvania

Harrisburg: The state’s high court on Wednesday turned down an effort to resume cash welfare assistance to the poor and disabled while litigation continues over a law that ended the payments this summer. The Supreme Court’s six-justice majority said Commonwealth Court had grounds to determine that the groups challenging the law did not prove they were likely to prevail in the ongoing lawsuit. At issue is a Depression-era program, known as general assistance, that typically provided about 11,000 recipients with some $200 a month. The payments stopped in August after Republican lawmakers pushed through a bill that ended the $24 million annual program while also reauthorizing payments to Philadelphia hospitals.

Rhode Island

Providence: A community development organization has announced it’s planning an affordable housing project for young adults who have been in foster care. The Smith Hill Community Development Corporation announced Tuesday that it received a $100,000 grant from the Housing Ministries of New England to pursue the project, The Providence Journal reports. The grant will be used for pre-development costs for the $3.5 million project in Providence, according to the executive director of Smith Hill Development Corporation, Jean Lamb. The target tenants for The Cornerstone of Smith Hill will have experienced hardships in their childhood and be 18-24 years old, the age when people are aged out of the foster system, says Kate Corwin of Smith Hill Community Development Corporation. The development company says it will provide 26 units.

South Carolina

Columbia: University of South Carolina fans will soon join a handful of other SEC schools in allowing alcohol sales at home athletic events. The policy was approved by the University of South Carolina board of trustees Tuesday, news outlets report. Sales of beer and wine will begin at Colonial Life Arena starting with the women’s basketball game against Kentucky on Jan. 2, followed by the men’s basketball game against Florida on Jan. 7, athletic director Ray Tanner says. The rollout will continue into football and baseball seasons at Williams-Brice Stadium and Founders Park. Prices will average about $8 per beer, Tanner says, and he hopes the change could bring in “seven figure” earnings but cautions that it’s hard to predict whether that will happen. Louisiana State University reported earning $2.2 million in alcohol sales this football season.

South Dakota

Rapid City: South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has received its largest gift in the university’s history. The donation of $3.6 million from 1969 graduate Willard Goodman and his wife, Billie Kay Goodman, was made to the school’s Department of Civil Engineering and doubles its annual operating budget that funds scholarships, graduate student stipends, faculty endowments, student activities and lab facilities. Willard Goodman, who grew up in Philip and died in 2013, was appreciative of the support he received as a student from the head of the civil engineering department, Bill Coyle, a news release said. “When he would talk about his professor, Bill Coyle, he would start by saying, ‘I’m probably going to start to cry when I tell you this.’ He was very open about how South Dakota Mines changed his life,” said Brad Johnson, vice president for development of the South Dakota Mines Foundation.

Tennessee

Nashville: The Volunteer State won’t stop resettling refugees, Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday, rejecting the option offered to states by President Donald Trump’s administration. The issue forced Lee, who campaigned on his Christian beliefs, to consider his own experience helping refugees and weigh it against the will of fellow Republicans in the Legislature. GOP lawmakers had sued the federal government over its refugee resettlement program, and legislative leaders hoped Lee would accept Trump’s offer. “The United States and Tennessee have always been … a shining beacon of freedom and opportunity for the persecuted and oppressed, particularly those suffering religious persecution,” Lee said in a statement. In Lee’s conservative state, his pro-refugee decision was viewed as far from a sure thing. He wrote that his decision is initially valid for a year.

Texas

Houston: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is liable for damages to a group of Houston-area homes and businesses that were flooded by two federally owned reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey because the inundation was due to how the federal government built and maintained the dams. The ruling by Senior U.S. Judge Charles Lettow on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., is part of a test case involving 13 properties located upstream of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs that were flooded during Harvey in 2017. Attorneys for the property owners said the Corps of Engineers knew for decades that the reservoirs’ capacity would exceed federal land and inundate homes and businesses on adjacent private property. Their lawyers say structures upstream of the reservoirs were built in areas known as flood pools, where water collects as the dams fill up.

Utah

Salt Lake City: A farming family has reached an agreement with land officials allowing permanent access to a portion of private land along a trail bordering Zion National Park. The Salt Lake Tribune reports the Bulloch family owns about 1.5 square miles of land known as Simon Gulch outside the park’s eastern boundary. Simon Gulch includes a 1-mile stretch of the 16-mile Zion Narrows Trail that starts outside the park, passes through the family’s private property and continues to Zion Canyon, officials say. The Trust for Public Land orchestrated the $1.5 million deal with the family that shields the land from development and guarantees permanent access to the trail, land officials say. The family has allowed hikers to pass through its property but posted for-sale signs last year, officials say.

Vermont

Middlesex: A post-Christmas event will aim to create the world’s largest s’more. The annual S’morestice Celebration will be hosted at Camp Meade on Saturday, Dec. 28. This marks the second time organizers will be attempting to build the world’s largest s’more, inviting the public to be a part of the record-breaking campfire treat, but the event in 2018 did not have a Guinness world record official in attendance. The current titleholder for world’s largest s’more is Deer Run Camping Resort in Gardners, Pa., who in 2014 built a 5-foot by 5-foot s’more weighing in at 267 pounds. To best that, the S’morestice Celebration organizers plan to build their s’more to be 4 feet by 8 feet. Vermont bakeries and chocolatiers have contributed: Crackers and chocolate will be provided by Red Hen Baking and Rabble Rouser Chocolate. Aside from the s’more-related activities, the event will include bonfires, music and food.

Virginia

Richmond: The state is the only one in the country whose workers’ compensation system doesn’t cover injuries sustained through repetitive work activities, like repeatedly lifting boxes over several weeks, a new state report says. The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission recommended in a recently released report that Virginia should allow such injuries to be compensated. Stakeholders argued that potential high costs to employers are why Virginia doesn’t allow such injuries to be claimed through workers’ compensation, the report said. But such injuries are not a “major cost driver” of workers’ compensation premiums in other states, the report says.

Washington

Seattle: Puget Sound has a 75% or greater chance of being struck by a damaging earthquake in the next 100 years, according to a new earthquake danger assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Daily News reports for a region hit by at least three fatal, brick-busting earthquakes in the past 70 years, that might come as little surprise. What the update released in late November does show is that Puget Sound is on par with California in the earthquake danger zone. Only western Nevada and a small area where Idaho, Montana and Wyoming meet share the red zone – the map’s highest level. The rest of western Washington has a 36%-74% chance of being hit by a damaging quake in the next 100 years. The USGS uses the latest research from academics, government and industry to produce the National Seismic Hazard Model.

West Virginia

Charleston: The city is about to get a new park. The City Council has approved a donation of 65 acres of woodlands in South Hills that is set to become a new recreation area with trails and other activities. The land, which comes as three adjoined parcels, was donated by Callen Jones McJunkin and will be called the Herbert and Gloria Jones Woodlands. The purpose of donating the land was to preserve its natural setting and create a passive recreation spot, a news release from the city said. The city will maintain and enhance the area with the help of community volunteers. “Because of this generous donation, members of our community will have greater opportunities to take part in family fun and create lasting memories for generations,” Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said.

Wisconsin

Madison: Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday that the state will continue welcoming refugees, joining several other governors to make such an announcement since President Donald Trump gave states and counties the power to reject refugees. In a letter to the Department of State, Evers said Wisconsin has “a rich history of opening its doors” to people of all backgrounds and has done so for more than 16,000 refugees in the past two decades. Evers, a Democrat who defeated Republican Scott Walker last year, also criticized the Trump administration for creating “an overly cumbersome and inappropriate process” for agencies involved in refugee resettlement, and he said its policies risk discouraging immigration that’s essential to the state’s economy. Wisconsin took in 472 refugees in fiscal 2018 who came from counties including Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and many others.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: The governor says he doesn’t support a proposal to increase his salary and those of the other four statewide elected officials. The Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee on Friday discussed boosting the governor’s pay by two-thirds and the other four statewide officials’ salaries by about 60%, KGAB Radio reports. Those four are the secretary of state, superintendent of public instruction, state treasurer and state auditor. The raises would take effect after the 2022 election. Wyoming’s elected officials have not had pay increases in almost 20 years. Wyoming’s governor makes $105,000 a year and the other four statewide elected officials $92,000 a year. Gordon said Tuesday that he ran for governor to serve the people, not because of the pay. He hasn’t suggested any change to elected officials’ salaries and is more focused on providing appropriate compensation for other state employees, Gordon said.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Utility bill Santa, return of Ceres: News from around our 50 states