Pipeline penalties, climate change symphony, library leniency: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: The state intends to move quickly on building new prisons under a plan that taps pandemic relief funds and could skip the normal bidding process for the construction of two supersize facilities. Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday signed into law the $1.3 billion construction plan to build two 4,000-bed prisons and a new prison for women and to renovate other facilities. The plan taps $400 million from the American Rescue Plan – money the state has already received – and could steer the construction contracts toward companies that previously qualified for the work. Those include Birmingham-based construction giant BL Harbert International and Montgomery-based Caddell Construction. Caddell and BL Harbert are expected to be the main contractors for the two prisons, Republican state Sen. Greg Albritton said. Lawmakers said working with those companies will allow the state to incorporate prior work. “This is going to enable us to start these projects 12 months in advance, and time is money,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Steve Clouse. Officials will have the money to start construction after lawmakers approved $400 million in coronavirus funds and another $150 million from the state’s general fund, in addition to agreeing to borrow $785 million through a bond issue.

Alaska

Juneau: A Canadian mining company has been looking for precious metals on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska. Millrock Resources, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based company, several years ago applied to the U.S. Forest Service for drilling permits to renew exploration on claims that once made up the historic Apex and El Nido gold mines. However, the exploration never happened. CEO Gregory Beischer said the company wasn’t able to secure financing. The mines produced precious metals in the early 20th century. Some exploration resumed in the 1980s. “But it really has been dormant since the mining activity took place in the ’20s and ’30s,” Beischer told CoastAlaska. Millrock has formed a partnership with another company, which has allowed it to take soil samples on claims less than 3 miles from Pelican, a community with fewer than 100 year-round residents. The operator of Kensington Mine north of Juneau, which is a subsidiary of Coeur Mining, invested about $200,000 for a small team of geologists based in Pelican. Beischer said soil sample results are pending. But he said geologists hope they will show that gold-bearing quartz veins continue down the mountain. Taking soil samples doesn’t require permits, according to state and federal regulators.

Arizona

Phoenix: U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said Monday that activists who confronted her outside an Arizona State University classroom and filmed her inside a restroom were not engaging in “legitimate protest.” The Democratic senator said the immigration reform activists unlawfully entered the suburban Phoenix campus building, which was only open to ASU students and faculty, and recorded her and her students. Sinema, a former social worker, is a lecturer at ASU’s School of Social Work. “In the 19 years I have been teaching at ASU, I have been committed to creating a safe and intellectually challenging environment for my students,” Sinema said. “Yesterday, that environment was breached. My students were unfairly and unlawfully victimized.” Living United for Change in Arizona posted video of the Sunday encounter on social media. The video showed LUCHA members chastising Sinema on accusations that she did not adequately support expectations of a pathway to citizenship for people in the country illegally and has not been supportive enough of President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure proposal. LUCHA said its members were forced to confront Sinema at ASU because she has been inaccessible. Sinema said in her statement she has met with the group multiple times since she was elected to the Senate.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The state Senate has advanced a measure that would require an exemption process for workers who face a COVID-19 vaccine mandate from their employers. The vote Monday came during a special session that was called to redraw the state’s congressional maps. The measure from Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, says any employer that mandates the vaccines must also offer an exemption process that includes coronavirus testing or proof of antibodies. If enacted, the requirement would end July 31, 2023, unless extended by lawmakers. Republican lawmakers have filed numerous bills targeting vaccine mandates for the special session, which began last week. The proposals are primarily in response to President Joe Biden’s order requiring workers at businesses with at least 100 employees to get vaccinated or tested regularly. The discussion about vaccine requirements comes as coronavirus cases continue to decrease from their summer peaks in Arkansas. According to Johns Hopkins University, the state had 529.7 new cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks, which ranks Arkansas 28th in the country for new cases per capita.

California

Los Angeles: Weeks before a leak from an oil pipeline fouled beaches to the south in Orange County, Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously to phase out oil and gas drilling and ban new drill sites in the unincorporated areas of the nation’s most populous county. Over 1,600 active and idle oil and gas wells could be shuttered after last month’s 5-0 vote by the board of supervisors. Among the sites is the Inglewood Oil Field, one of the largest U.S. urban oil fields. The sprawling, 1,000-acre site, owned and operated by Sentinel Peak Resources, contains over half the oil and gas wells in the county’s unincorporated areas. The field produced 2.5 million to 3.1 million barrels of oil a year over the past decade, according to the company. “The goal is to provide direction to county departments to begin addressing the variety of issues, environmental and climate impacts created by these active and inactive oil and gas wells,” said Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, who represents the district where most of the Inglewood Oil Field is located. The California Independent Petroleum Association, representing nearly 400 oil and gas industry entities, opposed the measure.

Colorado

Denver: Three Front Range ski areas vying for the annual distinction of being the first to open for the season could begin snowmaking operations very soon. They just need Mother Nature to cooperate. In 15 of the past 20 years, at least one of those areas – Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and Keystone – has opened during the second or third week of October, usually relying heavily on manmade snow, The Denver Post reports. But October this year is likely to have above-average temperatures with average or slightly below-average precipitation, said Kari Bowen, a National Weather Service meteorologist. That doesn’t necessarily mean the resorts won’t be able to make snow, but a cold October doesn’t appear to be in the forecast. Beyond that, the weather service’s Climate Prediction Center says there is a 60% chance of above-normal temperatures for the northern and central mountains over the next three months, with a 60% chance of below-normal precipitation. From the early 1980s through 2001, the rivalry to become the first Front Range ski area to open was between Keystone and Loveland. Then, in 2002, Arapahoe Basin installed snowmaking equipment, and the race became a duel between A-Basin and Loveland. In 2019, Keystone added 53 automated snow guns with 11,000 feet of pipe and 15 miles of electrical cable.

Connecticut

Hartford: The state’s attorney general is asking leadership of TikTok, a video-sharing service, to come to Connecticut and meet with educators and parents to discuss the “harmful impact” the popular app is having on the mental and physical safety of students and educators. Attorney General William Tong, who sent a letter Monday to TikTok’s CEO, said there’s concern that a current viral challenge known as “Slap a Teacher” could put educators at risk. His request comes after New Britain High School temporarily closed last month due to student misbehavior that was attributed in part to the viral “Devious Licks” TikTok challenge, which led to damage at schools across the U.S. Students took videos of themselves vandalizing school bathrooms and stealing soap dispensers, among other acts of destruction. “With new reports of the “Slap a Teacher” challenge, it is clear that TikTok is unable to control the spread of harmful content,” Tong wrote, noting that TikTok had identified and removed “Devious Licks” content from its platform. “Simply put, whatever TikTok has been doing to enforce its terms of service has not been working and merits serious review and reform.” A message was left seeking comment with a TikTok spokesperson.

Delaware

Newark: A school bus with students on board crashed into parked cars, went off the road and struck a pole Tuesday morning as it pulled into a school campus, but there were only minor injuries, police said. The crash happened just before 9 a.m. at the Newark Charter School campus on Patriot Way, Newark police said in a news release. Elementary and middle school students were on the bus at the time of the crash. When police officers arrived, a school nurse was treating some students who received minor injuries, but no students needed to be taken to a medical facility, police said. The school notified parents of the incident. The driver was not injured, police said.

District of Columbia

Washington: A plan to remove homeless encampments at two underpasses in the NoMa neighborhood near Union Station paused Monday after a bulldozer driver began clearing out a tent with an unhoused resident still inside, WUSA-TV reports. Witnesses described the moment as a chaotic scene, with advocates rushing to prevent the man from getting seriously hurt. Community advocates said he was taken to a hospital by ambulance for extra medical attention and was expected to be OK. “They had to cut a hole to make sure this person was OK, and they brought in the fire department, who actually got him out,” witness Andrew Anderson said. “They didn’t actually take any time to make sure anyone was in there; they just grabbed the tents and took them out.” Anderson is part of the nonprofit organization People for Fairness Coalition, which provides services to homeless encampments. He and other activists spent much of the day at the sites at the L and M Street underpasses – one of four areas on which the city is focusing as part of the new Coordinated Assistance and Resources for Encampments pilot program aimed at relocating more than 100 unhoused residents to apartments and connecting them to resources while closing down the homeless encampments for health and public safety reasons.

Florida

Tallahassee: Florida first lady Casey DeSantis has breast cancer, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday. DeSantis, 41, is the mother of the couple’s three children, the youngest of whom was born after the governor took office in January 2019. “As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will … not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state. Casey is a true fighter, and she will never, never, never give up,” Ron DeSantis said in a statement. Casey DeSantis has played an active role in her husband’s Republican administration, advocating for people with mental health issues. She often appears with him, children in tow, at bill signings and other official events. Republican and Democratic leaders put partisanship aside during an outpouring of support for Mrs. DeSantis on social media. “As a #breastcancer survivor also diagnosed at 41 and a 14 year survivor, I’m wishing you the strength you need to fight and win this battle,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wrote on Twitter. “The breast cancer survivor sisterhood knows no party. Please reach out if I can help in any way.”

Georgia

Atlanta: A new photo and video project celebrates Hispanic workers in the state who were required to keep going to their jobs during the pandemic, even when a lockdown let many other employees stay home. Photographers Hector Amador and Miguel Martinez document the experiences of these essential workers in the online exhibition “Our Essential Heroes,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The project, which includes interviews with a farm worker and janitor, is part of the Latino Community Fund Georgia’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations. “We realized a lot of people were sort of invisible when it comes to essential work,” Amador told the paper. “Miguel and I are both immigrants. We know what it’s like being trapped between two cultures. We know what it’s like being treated like a second-class citizen sometimes.” Maria Fajardo, a farmworker in Glennville who contracted the coronavirus, said in an interview featured in the project that work harvesting crops is not appreciated, and farmworkers are not valued. “We have to be here,” she said. “We could be sick, but we are still expected to keep working, harvesting the food so that people can eat.” To view the project, visit unidosgeorgia.com/heroes.

Hawaii

Honolulu: The Hawaii Tourism Authority plans to seek $64 million from the state’s capital improvements budget to fix a leaky rooftop deck at the Hawaii Convention Center. That’s more than double what the agency had last anticipated it would cost to complete the largest deferred maintenance project at the building, which opened in 1998, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. It’s a substantial reinvestment in a center that cost $200 million to construct. Julian Anderson, who presented recommendations to the Hawaii Tourism Authority board Thursday on behalf of Honolulu-based property manager Rider Levett Bucknall, said the deck was still structurally safe. However, he said, components of contractor Nordic/PCL’s design were guaranteed for only 15 to 20 years, so it’s well past time to address the leaky rooftop. “This is an issue that has existed since the building was designed. Repair is not an option; replacement is required,” he said. “If work is not done, the amount of damage will continue to increase, and more rentable space will be taken out of inventory.”

Idaho

Boise: A constant barrage of misinformation has health care workers facing increased animosity from some patients and community members, officials say. It’s gotten so bad in northern Idaho that some Kootenai Health employees are scared to go to the grocery store if they haven’t changed out of their scrubs, hospital spokeswoman Caiti Bobbitt said. Some doctors and nurses at the Coeur d’Alene hospital have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who don’t believe COVID-19 is real, Bobbitt said. Others have been the subject of hurtful rumors spread by people angry about the pandemic. “Our health care workers are almost feeling like Vietnam veterans, scared to go into the community after a shift,” Bobbitt said. Similar instances are happening across the state, said Brian Whitlock, president of the Idaho Hospital Association. “We’ve had reports of physical violence, verbal abuse, demands for alternative treatment that are not acceptable or approved. And those become very difficult conversations to have as the patient continues to decompensate,” Whitlock said. “We’re not frustrated with the misinformed. We’re frustrated with those who propagate the misinformation because it’s costing people their lives.”

Illinois

Chicago: A federal agency has recommended that Tootsie Roll Industries pay more than $136,000 in fines after a machine at its Chicago plant cut off part of an employee’s finger earlier this year. In a news release, the U.S. Department of Labor said its Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued one willful violation “for inadequate machine guarding” and proposed the fines after an investigation into the April 19 incident. According to the release, a 48-year-old employee had reached into a machine to remove stuck paper debris when a bag sealer snapped shut on one of his fingers. And the Labor Department said the incident happened after the company had allowed the machine’s access doors to remain unguarded. “Hundreds of workers are injured needlessly each year because employers ignore safety guards, often to speed up production, and that’s exactly what happened in this case,” OSHA Chicago South Area Director James Martineck said in the release. Calls to the company for comment were not immediately returned Tuesday. According to the Labor Department, the company has 15 business days to comply with the recommended fines, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent OSHA review commission.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The governor gave his approval Monday to the Republican redrawing of the state’s congressional and legislative districts that critics argued gives the party an excessive election advantage for the next decade. Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s signature was the final step in the redistricting for Indiana’s nine congressional seats and 150 seats in the Legislature that were drawn by Republican leaders behind closed doors and adopted Friday in the Legislature without any support from Democrats. The maps faced intense criticism as diluting the influence of minority and urban voters in favor of white voters living in rural areas to bolster the election prospects for Republicans. That came after the 2020 census found that the state’s white and rural populations both shrank over the past 10 years. Holcomb said in a statement he believed that legislators completed the redistricting work in “an orderly and transparent way.” Political analysts say the new maps that will be used through the 2030 elections protect the Republican dominance that has boosted them to a 7-2 majority of Indiana’s U.S. House seats and commanding majorities in the Legislature. Opponents pointed to Donald Trump winning 57% of Indiana’s presidential vote last year as Republicans captured 71 of the 100 Indiana House and 39 of 50 state Senate seats.

Iowa

Davenport: The city is making a million-dollar investment in a riverside park as part of an effort to get ready for an expected increase in cruise ship traffic. The Quad-City Times reports the city has repaired the seawall and is extending the river walk and promenade that runs the length of the riverfront at River Heritage Park. The promenade includes a decorative walkway, lighting and benches. The latest Mississippi River cruise schedule shows large passenger vessels from two cruise lines anchoring simultaneously next year along the seawall. Davenport was a stop this year for boats from American Cruise Lines, including classic paddlewheelers and modern riverboats. Passengers typically get off the boat at Davenport and board buses for tours of Quad City destinations. New riverboats from Viking Cruise Lines also will be anchoring next season in Davenport.

Kansas

Topeka: Some local governments are operating with 10% of their positions unfilled, making it hard to deliver the services that citizens expect. Across the state, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that Kansas has seen a 4.7% drop in the number of public-sector workers, which translates into about 12,000 vacant jobs, but some towns are being hit harder. The pandemic has compounded the situation because the competitive labor market has made it hard to replace older employees who decided to retire. And private companies, which are also struggling to hire, have more flexibility in pay and benefits than city governments generally do. In Concordia, city manager Amy Lange said the government is down to the bare minimum needed to perform city functions, but with six positions open – which accounts for 10% of its workforce – workers are stretched thin. The problems become more serious in the area’s pool of emergency medical technicians, where the pool of part-time EMS workers has dwindled. Elsewhere, Lawrence has over twice the normal number of vacant positions. In Winfield, the city had to overhaul its pay structure for utilities workers in an effort to avoid being short-staffed. And officials in Shawnee County and across Kansas have struggled to hire corrections and public safety workers.

Kentucky

Frankfort: Gov. Andy Beshear recommended Monday that the state use $400 million in federal pandemic relief assistance to provide bonuses next year for beleaguered health care staff and other front-line workers who provided essential services during the COVID-19 outbreak. The Democratic governor said he intends to send a framework of the plan to the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature within the next 10 days. Lawmakers would make the final decision on appropriating the federal aid. Beshear’s recommendation comes as many Kentucky hospitals continue struggling with chronic staffing shortages to treat an influx of coronavirus patients – most of them unvaccinated against COVID-19. Some prominent Senate Republicans have urged the governor to call lawmakers into a special legislative session this year to direct immediate aid to hospitals to overcome staffing woes. The governor said Monday that the federal money won’t be available until next year, when lawmakers are back in regular session. Beshear also expanded the number of workers potentially eligible for bonuses, mentioning emergency responders, grocery store workers, educators and factory workers employed by companies deemed essential during the pandemic.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: Sixteen of the 49 Louisiana hospitals that regularly deliver babies have met new standards aimed at improving the state’s poor performance involving deaths resulting from pregnancy. The Louisiana Department of Health said Monday that 11 hospitals in the state are “Birth Ready,” and five others met the higher designation of “Birth Ready+” under standards set by the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative, a network of public health experts, advocates, doctors and other care providers. The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports the classifications grade hospitals on whether they meet certain benchmarks related to maternal blood loss, cesarean sections, staff education and other factors that contribute to improved outcomes during pregnancy. “These 16 hospitals went above and beyond,” said Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, director of the collaborative. The effort seeks to make births safer using metrics to judge whether a hospital is doing everything possible to ensure births don’t end in death or serious complications. Louisiana’s rate of pregnancy-related deaths in 2018 was 25.2 deaths per 100,000 live births – compared to the national rate of 17.4.

Maine

Bangor: The headlining event of next year’s Maine Science Festival will be a musical exploration of climate change. The organizers of the festival said they commissioned composer Lucas Richman to create a symphony about hope in the era of climate change in the Gulf of Maine, which is warming faster than most of the world’s oceans. The organizers said the Bangor Symphony Orchestra will perform the premiere of the work, called “The Warming Sea,” at the Maine Science Festival on March 19. Festival organizers said Richman’s work was informed by discussions with scientists, researchers, experts and Maine middle school students. The performance will also include a women’s and children’s choir. It will take place at Collins Center for the Arts in Orono. The Maine Science Festival began in 2015 and hosts dozens of events during its five-day March festival.

Maryland

Baltimore: Dundalk residents and some preservationist groups fear that a developer’s plans to build storage units on one of the last undeveloped pieces of battleground land from a key War of 1812 battle may destroy human remains that they believe are yet to be unearthed on the property. The proposed 13,600-square-foot building would be an extension of a Prime Storage facility in the Baltimore County community. The county approved the project as a limited exemption from standard development processes because it’s a minor commercial structure, so neither public notice nor hearings were required. The property is near the site of the former Patapsco Neck Methodist Meeting House, used as a field hospital during the Battle of North Point in September 1814. About 70 American and British soldiers were killed during the two-day battle, and, as the story goes, British bodies were buried in unmarked graves near the long-gone church that was used as a makeshift hospital. A 1990s archaeological survey found no evidence of remains on the property where the project is proposed. But community groups and state and federal agencies want to halt the development for a more thorough investigation they say would determine the truth.

Massachusetts

Barnstable: A hydrologist who researched the levels of contamination in Cape Cod’s bodies of water found there were human-made chemicals in 21 ponds he tested. Tom Cambareri collected water samples from ponds around town, finding a group of chemicals known as PFAS polluting the town’s clean water supply. The chemicals have been linked to several health problems and often do not break down into the environment easily. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances are unregulated at the federal level, but Massachusetts is beginning to put safeguards on drinking water. Last year, the state enacted a safeguard that would allow 20 nanograms per liter for a group of six PFAS compounds in drinking water. The contamination of local water supplies can be traced to the Barnstable County Fire Rescue and Training Academy and the Cape Cod Gateway Airport. The two locations used PFAS-filled firefighting foam for decades. Even though in 2015 city water officials began cleaning up the pollution from the airport and training academy, Cambareri’s report found that the pollutants spread across the village through contaminated well water before that treatment began. Local officials said they can’t do anything further because there is no state or federal standard for exposure to PFAS in surface water bodies.

Michigan

Detroit: Aretha Franklin was given a bit of posthumous R-E-S-P-E-C-T on Monday when a post office was named after the late singer in her hometown. Members of Franklin’s family as well as postal and elected officials visited the former Fox Creek post office to celebrate the name change honoring the Queen of Soul. “Her legacy lives on in her music, in her family. But we have added to that list of her legacy a post office with her name on it,” said U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, a Michigan Democrat and longtime postal service worker. Lawrence also was a friend of Franklin and introduced the bill in Congress that resulted in the name change. That legislation, signed by President Donald Trump in January, sailed through Congress, U.S. Sen. Gary Peters said. “Sometimes people wonder if Congress can come together,” the Democratic senator said to laughter during the dedication ceremony Monday. “Congress can come together when it comes to standing up and recognizing this amazing person.” The post office is located about 5 miles east of downtown and not far from a concert amphitheater on the Detroit River that also is named for Franklin. It now will be known as the Aretha Franklin Post Office Building.

Minnesota

St. Paul: An appeals court has ruled in favor of a retired botany and physics professor whose unmanicured yard was declared a public nuisance. Ed Borchardt wanted a natural yard, filled with native plants and flowers that would attract birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. The city of North Mankato disagreed with his vision and said the yard doesn’t meet the standards of a new local ordinance that encourages naturally managed lawns. The appeals court on Monday said a city cannot declare a nuisance “based on little more than neighbors’ displeasure with the property’s appearance.” The court said the city failed to produce enough evidence that Borchardt’s yard was a hazard to public health or safety, the Star Tribune reports. In recent years, health problems have prevented Borchardt from keeping up with the yardwork, and neighbors began to complain about an explosion of vegetation. City Administrator John Harrenstein said that despite the appeals ruling, the case is not closed. “The property in question still remains, in our opinion, a nuisance according to our existing code,” he said. The appeals court decision faulted the city for not offering enough evidence to back its contention that Borchardt’s yard is a nuisance, and Harrenstein said the city will be consulting with its lawyers on how to proceed.

Mississippi

Jackson: The largest physician group in the state will pursue options to expand Medicaid despite opposition from two top political leaders. The Mississippi State Medical Association recently adopted a resolution to explore and pursue options including a Medicaid waiver program and or amending the state’s Medicaid plan to ensure more people have access to health care. “Mississippi has been saddled with a health care access issue long before the COVID-19 pandemic. The current landscape has demonstrated how urgent and critical the need to increase access to health care for Mississippians is,” MSMA President Dr. Geri Lee Weiland said. Mississippi is one of the dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid despite the federal government picking up 90% of the cost. The Mississippi Hospital Association also supports expanding Medicaid. Its president, Tim Moore, has said the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid has hit rural Mississippi particularly hard. He said six rural hospitals have closed their doors for good in recent years, and nearly half of all rural hospitals are now at risk of closure. Hospitals in the state spent over $600 million on uncompensated care in 2019, Moore said. Joint House and Senate Medicaid committees have four hearings scheduled this month on Medicaid at the state Capitol.

Missouri

St. Louis: Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Republican whose comment that women’s bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape” sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74. Akin had cancer for several years, his son Perry said in a statement. He died late Sunday at his home in Wildwood, a St. Louis suburb. “As my father’s death approached, we had people from all different walks of life share story after story of the personal impact he had on them,” Perry Akin said in a statement. “He was a devout Christian, a great father, and a friend to many.” Akin represented a Republican-leaning eastern Missouri district that included St. Louis-area suburbs for 12 years, giving up a safe seat to run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. He emerged from a crowded GOP primary to challenge then-incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, only to seriously hurt Republicans’ chances of recapturing a Senate majority less than two weeks later. Akin, a strong abortion opponent, was asked during an interview by a St. Louis television station whether he supported allowing abortions for women who have been raped. He answered that “from what I understand from doctors,” such pregnancies are “really rare.”

Montana

Billings: A plan designed to test whether boosting water releases from Fort Peck Dam in the spring could help endangered pallid sturgeon successfully spawn has been approved. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its environmental impact statement Sept. 24 outlining its proposed path forward as well as the predicted economic impacts. Under its chosen alternative, when reservoir water levels allow, the Corps would request that Fort Peck Dam begin increasing releases in April to see if mimicking spring runoff will attract pallid sturgeon into the Missouri River. The concept is not a new one, U.S. Geological Survey research fish biologist Pat Braaten noted. In the early 2000s, fisheries and biologists worked on test flows from Fort Peck to gather data, but the push evaporated around 2007 when water levels dropped due to drier weather. Mother Nature eventually provided proof of concept in the high-water years of 2011 and 2018, Braaten said, as pallid sturgeon females moved up the river below the dam. Without managed flows like the Corps’ proposed tests, such opportunistic runoff scenarios provide the best chance for the fish to successfully spawn in the wild, he said. Under the Corps proposal, the tests would fluctuate dam releases between April and July.

Nebraska

Omaha: Two women sued the state’s public health agency Monday after it denied their request to list both their names as parents on their children’s birth certificates. Erin Porterfield and Kristin Williams, of Omaha, allege in their lawsuit that state officials treat unmarried, same-sex couples differently from unmarried, opposite-sex couples, in violation of their due process and equal protection rights. The women argue listing them both is critical because it could affect their children’s eligibility for government benefits, should something happen to one of them. They also accuse the state of sexual discrimination because it allows men to voluntarily acknowledge they are parents to get onto a birth certificate but doesn’t allow women to do so. “Our sons are our entire world, and we want to make sure we’re doing right by them,” Porterfield said. “Our boys have a right to the security of having both parents on their birth certificates, a required document in so many life changes and decisions.” Porterfield and Williams began a romantic relationship in 2000 and used an anonymous sperm donor to have two children, according to the lawsuit. Porterfield gave birth to their first son in 2002 and Williams to their second in 2005. They ended their romantic involvement in 2013 but continued to share parenting duties.

Nevada

Carson City: State health officials as of Monday are counting results from rapid antigen tests in the coronavirus data they present to the public and use to determine whether the pandemic is prevalent enough to trigger mask and capacity mandates. The state updated its health response dashboard, adding more than 600,000 tests to its count. The dashboard started displaying “cumulative tests” on its testing page and dividing the new infections into “confirmed cases” and “probable cases” on its page that reports total cases. Unlike the traditional molecular tests that are considered more accurate, antigen tests detect viral proteins rather than the coronavirus itself. They can return results in about 15 minutes instead of days. Rapid tests have become increasingly common throughout the nation, particularly in high-risk settings like nursing homes, schools and prisons. Nevada’s updated tally counts molecular tests as confirmed cases and rapid tests reported to the state as probable cases. State health officials said the fact that the tests are now being used more commonly prompted them to change their data reporting practices. As of February, CNN reported five states including Nevada only reported publicly reported confirmed cases from molecular tests, contrary to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. All but Maryland now report both.

New Hampshire

Concord: Gov. Chris Sununu is calling for the removal of a state representative, a fellow Republican, from his position as head of the legislative fiscal committee, saying the lawmaker is continuing to spread COVID-19 misinformation. Last month, Rep. Ken Weyler, of Kingston, told state Health Commissioner Lori Shibinette at a committee hearing that he doubted the state’s figures showing 90% people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Shibinette said his assessment was incorrect and was misinformation. On Monday, Democratic committee member Rep. Mary Jane Wallner released a statement saying Weyler sent the entire committee an email containing a 52-page “report” with disinformation on COVID-19, including claims that live creatures with tentacles are entering people’s bodies through the vaccine and that technology was placed in the vaccine to control people’s thoughts. Sununu said in a statement Monday that he has “repeatedly expressed” to House Speaker Sherman Packard the need to remove Weyler from his leadership position, calling the latest emails “absurd” and saying they have “accelerated the urgency that the Speaker needs to take action.” Sununu added: “Disseminating this misinformation clearly shows a detachment from reality and lack of judgment.”

New Jersey

Trenton: The state eliminated a carve-out Tuesday in its law against discrimination that permitted employers not to hire or promote workers who are 70 or older. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed the legislation into law, saying that “discrimination of any kind has no place in New Jersey.” New Jersey’s law bars discrimination or harassment based on disability, gender, national origin, race, religion or age. But the law contained provisions that said the law shouldn’t be construed to block employers “from refusing to accept for employment or to promote any person over 70 years of age.” The new law eliminates that provision and also does away with a section that permitted colleges and universities to require retirement at age 70. “Seventy is the new 50, and older individuals are continuing to work either due to financial need or because they still have the energy, skills, and experience,” Democratic Sen. Shirley Turner said in a statement. One of the bill’s sponsors said the measure was necessary to update the state’s anti-discrimination statutes. “As in many places around the country, New Jersey’s workforce is aging, and we need to be proactive in protecting those older workers against age discrimination,” Senate Democratic Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in a statement. The bill had passed without any opposition.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: The Democratic governor is seeking legislation to help jump-start hydrogen production from natural gas in her state – a process that generates harmful greenhouse gases but could one day be harnessed to provide environmental benefits. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham outlined the effort briefly at a convention of oil executives Monday in a speech that acknowledged New Mexico’s reliance on industry tax revenue while pledging to enforce pro-environment regulations. It’s the latest tightrope walk for the governor who has promised action on climate change while also working to shield the state’s oil and gas producers from a federal drilling moratorium on public lands issued by fellow Democrat President Joe Biden. After waiting for the executives to put on their masks, citing her emergency regulations in response to the coronavirus, Lujan Grisham launched into a 20-minute speech thanking oil and gas producers for their contributions to the economy and tax revenues that form the backbone of state education funding. She pledged to kick-start the hydrogen fuel industry in New Mexico with legislation in February. The bill could include taxes and incentives to produce hydrogen, legal frameworks to facilitate production and storage, refueling corridors for truck traffic and training programs for workers in the industry.

New York

New York: The city’s public libraries will no longer charge late fees and will waive existing fines for overdue books and other materials, officials announced Tuesday. Late fees had already been suspended since March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic and will now be permanently eliminated, elected officials and leaders of the city’s three library systems said in a news release. “This announcement is another major step towards making our public libraries, the heart of so many communities, accessible to all,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Eliminating fines will let us serve even more New Yorkers, allowing them to enjoy all of the resources and programs that public libraries offer to grow and succeed.” In 2019, the city’s libraries collected about $3.2 million in late fees. No late fees were collected in 2020 because of the pandemic, and libraries made up the lost revenue in other fines. New Yorkers will still need to pay replacement fees if they lose books or other materials, the library officials said. A book is considered lost after it is overdue for a month, though if it is returned, there will no longer be a fee. The new policy covers the New York Public Library, with branches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, as well as the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library.

North Carolina

Charlotte: Janice Covington Allison, a transgender woman who became a strong Democratic activist on behalf of LGBT rights, has died at age 74. Allison died Friday at Atrium Health Mercy hospital in Charlotte, according to a friend, September McCrady. McCrady, who had been in contact with Allison’s wife, said Monday that her health had declined with kidney troubles. Allison became the first transgender woman to represent North Carolina at the Democratic National Convention when she was elected a delegate to the 2012 convention in Charlotte, The Charlotte Observer reports. Allison also ran unsuccessfully for North Carolina Democratic Party chair in 2015 and was the party’s diversity and outreach chair. A Delaware native, Allison served in the military and moved to the Charlotte area in the 1970s. Dressed as a man, she was a volunteer fire chief in Cabarrus County. “I was living two lives, yelling at men to get on a ladder and put out a fire by day and going to clubs at night as Janice … wearing a miniskirt and heels,” Allison told the Observer. In a statement over the weekend, North Carolina Democratic Party leaders called Allison “a fearless LGBTQ+ advocate and champion for the transgender community.”

North Dakota

Bismarck: Passenger traffic at the state’s eight commercial airports declined in August after a more robust July. “July is historically one of our busiest months out of the year for air travel, and so it can be expected to see lower passenger numbers heading into the fall as leisure travel begins to slow down,” said Kyle Wanner, the executive director of the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. A total of 82,371 passengers boarded planes in August, nearly double the same month last year but well below the 101,784 boardings in August 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Bismarck Tribune reports. The airports in Bismarck, Minot, Williston, Dickinson, Grand Forks, Fargo, Devils Lake and Jamestown all saw an increase in passengers this August from the previous year. Bismarck’s 19,272 boardings were 77% higher than the same month last year yet 26% down from pre-pandemic August 2019. “Our communities are doing an incredible job in maintaining a high level of air service, and we hope to see passenger demand maintain at current levels and then grow, once the holiday season arrives,” Wanner said. Year-to-date boardings are ahead of the 2020 pace at all eight airports. Statewide, they’re up more than 41%. But they’re down 30% from 2019.

Ohio

Columbus: The police officer who shot and killed Andre Hill will stand trial next spring, a judge decided Monday. Hill, 47, who was Black, was fatally shot by Officer Adam Coy, who is white, on Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding up a cellphone. Coy has since been fired from the Columbus police department. Coy, 44, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide. Franklin County Judge Stephen McIntosh set Coy’s trial for March 7. In August, McIntosh denied a request by Coy’s attorneys to move the trial out of concern that extensive local and national publicity – including news coverage, posts on social media and billboards around Columbus – would make it impossible to assemble an impartial jury for Coy in Franklin County. McIntosh sided with prosecutors, who argued there was no reason to believe that people elsewhere were less likely to have read about the case than were Franklin County residents. In May, the city reached a $10 million settlement, the largest in Columbus history, with Hill’s family.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: COVID-19 vaccinations have helped reduce infections by 7,500 and deaths by 1,100 among Oklahomans ages 65 and older, according to a study released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study of Medicare recipients found that as vaccinations increased from January, when the vaccines became more widely available, through May, each 10% increase in vaccination rates resulted in an 11%-12% decline in weekly COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths among Medicare beneficiaries. In its weekly report Sept. 29, the Oklahoma State Department of Health said 91.1% of Oklahomans 65 or older had received at least one vaccination, and 79.8% were fully vaccinated. The three-day average of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on Tuesday stood at 825, the health department reported. The average fell below 1,000 daily on Monday for the first time since mid-August. In other developments, the Yukon School District announced Monday that it will provide its full-time employees with $1,000 stipends from funds it received from a federal coronavirus relief package. The district’s board voted for the stipends Monday night and for prorated stipends for part-time employees.

Oregon

Salem: The summer of 2021 was the hottest on record both in the capital city and statewide. The average temperature in Salem for June, July and August was a record-breaking 71.7 degrees, the warmest since records began in 1892, according to the National Weather Service in Portland. That broke the previous record average of 71.3 degrees, set in 2015. The record heat this summer had severe consequences for Oregonians. More than 100 people died due to the temperature in the June heat wave. Large portions of the state spent the summer in various phases of drought. These conditions threatened water resources and made the state more susceptible to wildfire, which has burned about 800,000 acres this year so far. Larry O’Neill, the state climatologist, confirmed that Oregon’s average temperature of 67.7 degrees was the highest in NOAA’s records dating back to 1895. Summer 2015, which previously held the record, was a degree cooler than 2021. The state’s average for the 1900s is more than 5.5 degrees cooler than this year’s, O’Neill said. He pointed to prolonged periods of higher-than-normal temperatures as being among the biggest factors in this summer’s record-breaking heat.

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia: The corporate developer of a multibillion-dollar pipeline system that takes natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale gas field to an export terminal near Philadelphia was charged criminally Tuesday after a grand jury concluded that it flouted Pennsylvania environmental laws and fouled waterways and residential water supplies across hundreds of miles. Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the sprawling case at a news conference at Marsh Creek State Park in Downingtown, where Sunoco Pipeline LP spilled thousands of gallons of drilling fluid last year. The spill, during construction of the troubled Mariner East 2 pipeline, contaminated wetlands, a stream and part of a 535-acre lake. Energy Transfer, Sunoco’s owner, faces 48 criminal charges, most of them for illegally releasing industrial waste at 22 sites in 11 counties across the state. A felony count accuses the operator of willfully failing to report spills to state environmental regulators. Shapiro said Energy Transfer ruined the drinking water of at least 150 families statewide and released a grand jury report that includes testimony from numerous residents who accused Energy Transfer of denying responsibility for the contamination and then refusing to help.

Rhode Island

Providence: Two men who authorities say touched off a needless and expensive ocean search and rescue effort when they fired maritime distress flares to celebrate a friend’s wedding have agreed to pay $5,000 each to settle the case, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. The Coast Guard and the town of New Shoreham spent more than $100,000 combined responding to the flares off the coast of Block Island on June 6, 2020, when there was no one in distress, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Providence. Perry Phillips, 31, and Benjamin Foster, 33, “knowingly and willfully communicated a false distress message to the Coast Guard,” according to the civil complaint, and “caused the Coast Guard to attempt to save lives and property when no help was needed.” The men borrowed a flare gun and flares, set out on the water in a small skiff, and, when they thought they could by seen by people at their friend’s wedding reception, fired three flares, prosecutors said. They recorded their actions to post on social media, prosecutors said. People who saw the flares reported them to the New Shoreham harbormaster, who in turn alerted the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard deployed a boat and two helicopters for the search.

South Carolina

Columbia: Gov. Henry McMaster wants lawmakers to set aside $300 million in federal COVID-19 relief and surplus money to pay for the first segment of a long-desired interstate link between Interstate 95 and Myrtle Beach. The full 60 miles of new freeways and upgrades would cost $1.6 billion, and McMaster and other leaders hope by building the first segment, the rest of the road will follow. “It may be the most significant step we can take toward making I-73 a reality,” McMaster said during a news conference Monday. The Republican governor wants to spend $100 million in coronavirus relief funds and $200 million left over from last year’s state budget that lawmakers set aside in case the economy tanked because of the pandemic. The first segment of I-73 would run from I-95 in Dillon County south of Latta to U.S. Highway 501. The project has permits and has been successfully defended in court. Work could begin as soon as the money is in place, officials said. I-73 has been a dream of tourism boosters and highway builders, as those coming to Myrtle Beach run into stoplights and a few small towns where the speed limit drops, and police officers with radar may await. Environmentalists have opposed the road as unneeded and say it would destroy wetlands and farms.

South Dakota

Rapid City: A growing grass fire north of the city prompted officials to warn residents they may need to evacuate. Abnormally high temperatures, gusty winds and extremely dry conditions fueled a fire that began Monday afternoon. By Monday evening, the fire torched between 250 and 300 acres and burned uncontained, according to authorities. Rapid City police helped evacuate the Marvel Mountain neighborhood earlier Monday and helped divert traffic around road closures. An unknown number of residents were evacuated. It’s not known what ignited the fire, and no structures had been damaged as of Tuesday morning. Early Monday evening, the fire crossed into Meade County, prompting officials there to warn residents that additional evacuations may be needed. “Any residents who live north of the Pennington County line, west of Erickson Ranch Road, and south of Elk Creek Road are encouraged to be ready to evacuate if an order is given,” Meade County Emergency Management said in an alert sent Monday evening. Single-engine air tankers were dropping fire retardant on the north and west flanks of the fire. Additional air support was being summoned, officials said.

Tennessee

Nashville: It’s out with the old and in with blue for the state’s new license plate, moving away from its green mountain design to a new dark blue plate with white text and Tennessee’s three-star emblem displayed in the center. State law requires the reissuing of a new license design at least every eight years, but the green one first introduced by former Gov. Phil Bredesen in 2006 has been essentially unchanged over the past 15 years. In September, Gov. Bill Lee’s office asked the public to vote on four new designs in a contest to determine the new plate. His administration said the winning license design received 42% of the 300,000 total votes cast. A picture of the new plate provided by Lee’s office in a press release Tuesday contains the phrase “In God We Trust,” but Tennesseans can choose a plate with or without that language. The new tag will also display the words “Tennessee” and “Volunteer State,” as well as the website “TNvacation.com,” as required by law. New plates will be available online and in person beginning Jan. 3, 2022.

Texas

Houston: A state agency on Monday approved a request that George Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for a 2004 drug arrest made by a now-indicted ex-Houston police officer whose case history is under scrutiny following a deadly drug raid. The unanimous recommendation by the seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will now be forwarded to Gov. Greg Abbott, who will make the final decision. Allison Mathis, an attorney with the Harris County Public Defender’s Office who submitted the pardon request in April, said she was pleased by the board’s decision. “A man was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice. No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter who that man was in his life or in his death, that is not something we should stand for in the United States or in Texas,” Mathis said. The board’s recommendation was first made public on Monday by a reporter with The Marshall Project. The May 2020 killing of Floyd, who was Black, by a white Minneapolis police officer prompted worldwide protests against racial injustice. Floyd, who grew up in Houston, was arrested in February 2004 by Officer Gerald Goines and accused of selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting. Floyd later pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in a state jail.

Utah

Salt Lake City: Former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin launched a campaign Tuesday to challenge Republican Sen. Mike Lee in the conservative state where McMullin made inroads with voters uncomfortable with then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016. McMullin, a former CIA agent and congressional aide to Republicans, settled in Utah after capturing more than 20% of the state’s presidential vote in 2016. In a tweet announcing his campaign Tuesday, he said that “extremism, division and conspiracy now threaten our quality of life and democratic republic.” The brand of conservatism popular in Utah, by contrast, tends to seek more of a middle ground and values politeness – qualities that initially made many voters uncomfortable with Trump, especially in his first campaign. “I’m not running as a Republican or a Democrat,” McMullin said in a statement. “I’m running as a patriot, as an American committed to defending our nation and changing our politics for the better.” The 2022 Senate race promises to test whether lingering discomfort with Trump-style Republican politics remains a political force in Utah. Lee, a two-term incumbent who first won office during the tea party movement, was skeptical of Trump at first but later became a staunch ally of the president.

Vermont

Montpelier: The state will be represented in a series of new $1 coins issued by the U.S. Mint with an image of a snowboarder. The “American Innovation” series of dollar coins started in 2018 and will eventually include one for each state, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. Vermont’s coin, to be released in 2022, shows a snowboarder holding the edge of her board while doing a trick. While snowboarding was not created in Vermont, many advances in the sport come from the state. Burton Snowboards, started in Londonderry and now headquartered in Burlington, improved foot bindings, and its founder, Jake Burton Carpenter, campaigned to allow access for snowboarders to local ski resorts, WPTZ-TV reports. “In many ways, Vermont is the birthplace of modern snowboarding, and this coin represents Vermont’s contributions to the sport,” Gov. Phil Scott said. The U.S. Mint says it works with the governor or chief executive of each state or territory to choose possible design concepts, which are then developed and vetted. Other states’ designs include a telephone for Massachusetts, the educator and civil rights activist Septima Poinsette Clark for South Carolina, and the first home video game console for New Hampshire.

Virginia

Norfolk: Much of the hotel industry in the Hampton Roads region has recovered faster from the COVID-19 pandemic than almost any other market in the United States, according to an economic report released Tuesday. The State of the Region, an annual analysis by economists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, reports that the region’s hotel revenue was 10% higher this June than it was in June 2019, before the pandemic began. Nationally, hotel revenue was down by 12%. One reason for the quick recovery is that Hampton Roads’ hotel industry relies more on people taking vacations than it does on people attending large events, such as conventions, conferences and concerts. ODU economists also told The Virginian-Pilot last year that visitors typically arrive by car instead of flying, a method of travel that fell out of favor for many during the pandemic. Virginia Beach is typically a 3 ¹/₂-hour drive from Washington, five hours from Philadelphia and about seven hours from New York. There is one exception, however. The Williamsburg hotel market has not done as well, according to the report. The COVID-19 pandemic had temporarily shut down attractions like Busch Gardens and Water Country USA. And Colonial Williamsburg was already experiencing a downturn in visits prior to the pandemic.

Washington

Tacoma: A female Sumatran tiger from Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium has died after another tiger attacked her during a breeding introduction, officials said. Six-year-old Kirana, who was born at the zoo, died Monday, The News Tribune reports. Dr. Karen Wolf, the zoo’s head veterinarian, said in a news release that a necropsy completed Monday confirmed Kirana died from substantial trauma from injuries and a bacterial infection. Zoo staff had slowly introduced Kirana and Raja, the zoo’s 2-year-old male Sumatran tiger, as part of a plan to help save the endangered species. The two were closely monitored and separated by a mesh door, staff said. When zookeepers removed the barrier to allow the tigers to meet physically Friday, Kirana was attacked, and staff moved quickly to separate them, officials said. “We’re devastated by the loss of a very special tiger and by the loss to the tiger population as a whole,” said zoo general curator Dr. Karen Goodrowe, who is also coordinator of Species Survival Plan programs for Sumatran, Malayan and Amur tigers. She said some aggression is natural in tiger breeding, but this level was far beyond expectations. There are only about 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Fewer than 80 live in North American zoos.

West Virginia

Monongah: Amid shortages of emergency medical technicians at a time the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many medical systems to the brink, a state program is training workers to fill the critical need. West Virginia Public Service Training trains more than 45,000 first responders every year, with trainers traveling all around the state to run affordable classes that help residents earn certifications in specific fields, the Times West Virginian reports. Recently, Monongah Volunteer Fire Department was filled with about 12 prospective EMTs, ready to take part in the state’s 155-hour program to put participants on track to get certified. The EMT courses are some of the most rigorous in Public Service Training’s repertoire, requiring a commitment of about 155 hours of class instruction, though the hours can vary depending on how ride-alongs go, according to instructor Brian Potter. Once participants finish the classes, they’re able to take the national registry exam for the position and can become nationally registered EMTs before applying for the state certification. “This is a job that’s always in need,” instructor Randy Corbin said. “A lot of (EMTs) move on to become paramedics, doctors and nurses and move on somewhere else in the medical field, and COVID has hurt our numbers.”

Wisconsin

Madison: A report published by the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows the state’s bars and restaurants are recovering but have not reached pre-pandemic levels. It’s not due to a lack of customers or jobs, according to the report, but because restaurant and bar owners can’t find enough willing workers. “We have seen customers coming back, and we’ve seen a lot of our long-time regulars coming back. The biggest problem that we’re having is staffing and having enough staff to handle the demand,” said Chris Wiken, owner of The Packing House in Milwaukee. On a busy night, Wiken has to let tables sit empty, simply because he doesn’t have the staff to serve them. Food service has been one of the hardest-hit industries from COVID-19, with employment at bars and restaurants plummeting by nearly 50% in April 2020. According to last week’s report, employment was still down 8.8% in August compared to pre-pandemic levels in August 2019. “Overall, what we’re seeing is the restaurant and bar industry in Wisconsin has recovered quite a bit but that its recovery is not quite as strong as the economy overall,” said Joe Peterangelo, a senior researcher at the Wisconsin Policy Forum and author of the report. Still, July sales tax revenues in the industry were actually up 6.8% compared to July 2019, according to the report.

Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park: A woman suffered burns from her shoulders to her feet when she tried to rescue her dog from a Yellowstone hot spring. Park rangers and firefighters cared for the 20-year-old woman from Washington state before she was taken to the burn unit at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, park officials said in a statement Tuesday. The woman’s name, the intensity of her burns and her condition weren’t released after she was burned Monday afternoon in the Madison Junction area. The woman and her father had stopped to look around when their dog jumped out of their car and into Maiden’s Grave Spring near the Firehole River. After the woman tried rescuing the dog, her father pulled her out of the spring and drove her to West Yellowstone, Montana. Somebody else rescued the dog, and the father said he planned to take it to a veterinarian, park officials said. The woman was the second burned in a Yellowstone thermal feature in recent weeks. A park concessions employee suffered second- and third-degree burns to 5% of her body near Old Faithful Geyser in September, park officials said. Yellowstone has more than 10,000 thermal features, which can be as hot as 280 degrees Fahrenheit.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pipeline penalties, climate change symphony: News from around our 50 states