Hot cat summer, prairie dog plague, vaping sickness: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: Tobacco shops in the state are no longer able to advertise vaping as a healthy alternative to smoking. A wide-ranging law regulating vaping that passed the Legislature earlier this year went into effect Thursday. It also prohibits opening vape shops within 1,000 feet of a school, church or child care facility and limits advertising on billboards to include only three vaping flavors, tobacco, mint and menthol. Critics say fruit-flavored vaping liquids attract younger users. One of the law’s sponsors, Democrat Rep. Barbara Drummond, told WBRC-TV she was shocked to see a 12-year-old in her Sunday school class with a vape, which she initially thought was a flash drive. Alabama was one of three states that previously did not regulate vaping.

Alaska

Juneau: The governor is moving ahead with a plan to increase prices at assisted living homes, a report says. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed increasing Alaska Pioneer Home rates between 40% and 140% by Sept. 1, The Anchorage Daily News reports. The Dunleavy administration submitted the proposal to offset the state budget’s $12.3 million cut to funding for the homes, state officials said. There are currently three levels of service ranging from about $2,500 a month to $6,800 a month depending on the level of care needed. The proposal includes five levels of service ranging from about $3,600 a month to $15,000 a month, officials said. This new plan is intended to increase revenue, but some residents fear the higher prices will make the homes unaffordable.

Arizona

Phoenix: The Phoenix Police Department will train officers to track when they point their guns at people as the agency works to increase trust and transparency after a record number of shootings last year and national outrage over a cellphone video showing officers cursing and aiming guns at a black family. The department said Friday that the new policy was recommended by the National Police Foundation, which found Phoenix had 44 officer-involved shootings last year, more than any other U.S. department. Of those, 23 were fatal. A separate database that tracks fatal shootings by police showed Phoenix officers also killed more people than any other agency in 2018. The city is now the nation’s fifth largest, with about 1.6 million people.

Arkansas

Little Rock: State election officials have rejected an attempt to hold a referendum next year on a new law expanding what procedures optometrists can perform that’s sparked an unusually expensive and public lobbying fight. Secretary of State John Thurston’s office said Friday that supporters of the referendum fell short of the nearly 53,500 signatures from registered voters needed to put the issue on the November 2020 ballot. Thurston’s office said it determined the petitions submitted had 23,953 signatures. The new law allows optometrists to perform several procedures that currently only ophthalmologists can. It’s drawn heavy opposition from ophthalmologists who say the change puts patients at risk. Safe Surgery Arkansas, the group behind the referendum effort, says it’s prepared to go to court to challenge the petitions’ rejection.

California

San Francisco: San Francisco International Airport is banning the sale of single-use plastic water bottles. The unprecedented move at one of the nation’s major airports will take effect Aug. 20, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The new rule will apply to airport restaurants, cafes and vending machines. Travelers who need plain water will have to buy refillable aluminum or glass bottles if they don’t bring their own. As a department of San Francisco’s municipal government, the airport is following an ordinance approved in 2014 banning the sale of plastic water bottles on city-owned property. The shift away from plastics is also part of a broader plan to slash net carbon emissions and energy use to zero and eliminate most landfill waste by 2021, airport spokesman Doug Yakel says.

Colorado

Commerce City: Officials closed parks and canceled a Major League Soccer game’s fireworks display after plague was confirmed in prairie dogs in this Denver suburb. The Tri-County Health Department said Thursday that prairie dog burrows in Commerce City were being sprayed with insecticide to kill fleas that could transmit the disease to the rodents, people and pets. Health officials said Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and Prairie Gateway Open Space were temporarily closed. Colorado Rapids officials canceled a fireworks show planned for after Saturday’s game against the Montreal Impact. They also restricted parking to asphalt lots. Rapids officials said the precautions would minimize the risk of exposure to fans, players and employees.

Connecticut

Hartford: A contingent of Republican lawmakers is urging the state’s Department of Public Health commissioner not to comply with a request from top legislative Democrats to provide policy recommendations concerning vaccinations for schoolchildren. The five state representatives say it’s “wholly inappropriate” for the agency to be asked to provide an opinion on whether the General Assembly should eliminate its religious exemption. The group says it’s not the charge of the Department of Public Health to “offer opinions on civil rights issues.” Democratic Attorney General William Tong in May issued a nonbinding ruling that said there’s nothing in state law to prevent lawmakers from scrapping the exemption.

Delaware

Wilmington: Police are offering a reward as they investigate the theft of a historical marker that memorializes the lynching of a black man accused of raping and killing a white girl. New Castle County said Saturday that a $2,000 reward is available to anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of those responsible for the theft. A concerned citizen noticed on Thursday that the state marker erected in June to commemorate the lynching of George White was missing. White, an ex-convict, was accused of killing 17-year-old Helen Bishop, whose throat was cut. In June 1903, a mob stormed a workhouse where White was being held, dragged him to the scene of the assault on Bishop, then burned him to death.

District of Columbia

Washington: A man has pleaded guilty to felony bribery for paying more than $40,000 to police employees in the nation’s capital for confidential information from traffic crash reports. The Washington Post reports Marvin Parker, 60, admitted Wednesday to bribing the two employees for the information, to which the department restricted access in 2015. Prosecutors say Parker owns RPM Associates, a Maryland-based consulting firm. Court records say he bribed the workers from 2015 through 2017 and used the data to identify people involved in crashes. They say he would then contact them and offer to help them obtain legal and medical services. Police say the workers are no longer with the department. Parker hasn’t been detained.

Florida

Fort Lauderdale: A state senator has filed legislation that would outlaw declawing of cats except under certain circumstances. The bill filed Friday by Democratic Sen. Lauren Book of Plantation would impose fines of $1,000 on veterinarians who declaw cats when it is not medically necessary. They could also be disciplined by the Board of Veterinary Medicine for doing so. There are health exemptions for such things as infections or disease that might make it necessary to declaw a cat. In many cases, people declaw cats because they can damage furniture and attack wildlife, such as birds. The bill is similar to a New York measure signed into law last month by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Book’s legislation is filed for the 2020 Florida session, which begins in January.

Georgia

Jekyll Island: A handmade flag that pranksters stole from Jekyll Island more than 40 years ago has been returned to the state park. The Brunswick News reports the flag featuring a crest of a seashell and a cotton ball was handed over to its executive editor and president, Buff Leavy, recently along with a handwritten note explaining that it had been swiped by Georgia Tech fraternity pledges in 1975. Leavy returned it to the Jekyll Island Authority. Rose Marie Kimbell, the archivist of the island’s Mosaic museum, says she suspects the flag was one of two that once flew atop flagpoles at the entrance to the Jekyll Island causeway. The flag will be placed on display at the museum, where Kimbell says it will be watched closely by a security camera.

Hawaii

Hilo: Multiple sharks have been found without their fins, raising concerns among marine biologists, a report says. Three sharks were found and photographed Wednesday on the Big Island without fins, one of them gutted, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. Two of the sharks were threatened oceanic whitetip shark species found alive and photographed off the coast of west Hawaii by dive tour operators, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources says. The third was a whitetip reef shark found without fins and disemboweled, officials say. “Shark finning is not a new phenomenon, but the recent number of incidents is concerning,” department monitoring technician Stacia Marcoux says. “This is especially true for the threatened oceanic whitetip.”

Idaho

Boise: Officials at Boise High School want the mascot’s name changed. Officials tell the Idaho Statesman in a story on Saturday they hope to change the name from Braves to Brave. The plan will be presented at a Boise School District board meeting Aug. 12. Boise High Principal Robb Thompson says he wants the new name in place by Aug. 19 so it can be used for the 2019-2020 school year. But Thompson says it will take three to five years to change uniforms and imagery on campus. Last month Teton High School in eastern Idaho voted to retire its Redskins mascot. The Shoshone-Bannock tribes in June submitted a position paper to the Idaho State Board of Education asking that the state ban Native American mascots.

Illinois

Springfield: Two Democratic lawmakers say more money is needed to address the shortage of affordable, permanent and stable homes in the state. In June, Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved $200 million to fund Illinois’ affordable housing program through the state’s first capital plan in 10 years. Sen. Mattie Hunter and Rep. Delia Ramirez tell the State Journal-Register the money will make a “significant difference,” but it would take $1 billion more to address Illinois’ infrastructure concerns. Illinois Housing Council officials say more investment in permanent, supportive housing is needed to assist the “most vulnerable” renters, such as people with disabilities, veterans and homeless people. Ramirez says she hopes to propose legislation in January that would create a task force to examine housing needs across Illinois.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The Indiana State Fair has started its 17-day run during which it will be honoring everyday Hoosiers for their commitment to others. The fair opened Friday with its annual variety of food, farm animals, amusement rides and entertainers. It continues through Aug. 18. This year’s theme is “Heroes in the Heartland,” which each day will recognize teachers, farmers, police officers, firefighters, military members and others for their community service. This year’s fair queen cut a ceremonial ribbon during opening ceremonies with Gov. Eric Holcomb at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis. Organizers are hoping weather cooperates again for this year’s fair after it drew about 860,000 visitors last year and nearly 907,000 in 2017. Rain and high temperatures knocked attendance down to about 730,000 people three years ago.

Iowa

Greenfield: Hopes by a small aviation museum that a stamp in its possession was rare enough to parlay a potential fortune crashed Friday when experts told them it wasn’t real – and likely not even worth the paper upon which it was glued. The Iowa Aviation Museum has had what it thought was a 1918 “Inverted Jenny” stamp on public display for some 20 years, dating back to when it was donated to the museum, glued to a board along with several other stamps. A notation from the donor attached to the board speculated it was worth about $73,000. An examination under a microscope confirmed it was likely cut out from a printed catalog. The news was disappointing for those at the museum, which also serves as the home of the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame and had hoped to auction the stamp for hundreds of thousands of dollars and build a new museum hangar.

Kansas

Topeka: The governors in Kansas and Missouri have moved to end an economic “border war” that has gained their states unwanted national attention for using millions of dollars in incentives to entice companies into shifting jobs close to the Kansas City-area border. Their truce appears shaky. An executive order that Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed Friday showed that officials in both states have yet to fully resolve a final sticking point: the ability of cities, counties and other local governments in Missouri to offer more lucrative local tax breaks than their counterparts in Kansas. If Missouri officials don’t stop their generous local tax breaks, Kelly in her order threatens to call off the two states’ big, bipartisan deal, even with Friday’s declarations that the border war is over.

Kentucky

Louisville: The Louisville Zoo has announced the birth of a baby elephant. According to the zoo, a “strong and vigorous” African elephant male calf was born just before midnight Friday. The calf’s mother, Mikki, has been pregnant since October 2017 after being artificially inseminated. The 200-pound calf measures 98 centimeters tall, 77 centimeters long from head to tail, and 198 centimeters from the tip of his trunk to the tip of his tail. This is the zoo’s third elephant, joining 33-year-old Mikki and 47-year-old Asian elephant Punch. The zoo will now give the calf to bond with Mikki and Punch. The elephants will not be on exhibit until further notice. The calf has not yet been named.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: Thousands of college students in the state face a surprising change as they start courses this month and pay their registration bills – their costs for attending class aren’t rising. For years, many students across Louisiana’s public university campuses faced repeated tuition hikes and, more recently, regular fee increases. But none of the state’s four college systems has enacted such mandatory, systemwide increases for upcoming fall semester classes. The decision not to raise fees comes after Gov. John Bel Edwards and lawmakers boosted state spending on higher education by $47 million in the $30 billion-plus state operating budget that started July 1. Nearly one-third of the increase ensures TOPS covers full tuition for all eligible students.

Maine

Cape Elizabeth: A pair of Kenyan runners celebrated victories in the state’s most anticipated road race Saturday. Alex Korio won the men’s championships while Joyciline Jepkosgei won for the women at the annual Beach to Beacon 10K race in Cape Elizabeth. It was the 22nd installment of the race, which was founded by Cape Elizabeth native Joan Benoit Samuelson, the winner of the first women’s marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The first Maine man to finish this year’s race was Dan Curts of Ellsworth, while the first Maine woman was Sofie Matson, who is heading into her junior year at Falmouth High School. The race starts near Crescent Beach State Park and ends in Fort Williams near Portland Head Light. It’s the biggest race in Maine, and it attracted more than 6,500 runners this year.

Maryland

Baltimore: U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., took the high road in inviting President Donald Trump and other Americans to visit Baltimore but declining to respond in kind to the barrage of presidential tweets and comments disparaging him and the majority-black city he has long represented. “We are a great community,” Cummings, the chairman of a powerful House committee investigating the administration, said Saturday in his first public remarks about the controversy as he participated in the opening of a small neighborhood park near his home. Community leaders and residents gathered to cut the ribbon on a pocket of greenery and flowers, built from what had been a vacant lot often used as a dumping ground for trash. “Come to Baltimore. Do not just criticize us, but come to Baltimore, and I promise you, you will be welcomed,” he said.

Massachusetts

Orleans: Shark sightings have forced officials to temporarily bar swimming at several of the state’s popular beaches in recent days. Nauset Beach in the Cape Cod town of Orleans was twice closed for swimming for periods of about one hour Saturday after great white sharks were spotted within a half-mile or so of shore, according the Sharktivity app, which is operated by the Atlantic White Shark Conservatory. Beaches in Wellfleet and Truro also kept swimmers out of the water for a time Saturday, as did several south-facing beaches on the island of Nantucket. A Martha’s Vineyard beach was twice closed earlier in the week over shark concerns. Surveillance has been stepped up this summer after two shark attacks off Cape Cod last year, including one that killed a 26-year-old Massachusetts man.

Michigan

Silver City: Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in the Upper Peninsula is getting $550,000 in emergency shoreline repairs along a main entry road. MLive.com reports the state says high water levels along Lake Superior and recent storm damage have caused erosion that’s threatening County Road 107. Work is scheduled to begin Monday. Eric Cadeau, a regional field planner with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, says the work aims to prevent visitors from needing to take an 80-mile detour to get to another park entry point. The state is teaming with the Ontonagon County Road Commission on the project. High water levels on the Great Lakes, including Lake Superior, have been blamed for flooding and contributed to hazardous conditions along shorelines this year in the region.

Minnesota

Moorhead: Pennington County is about to become the state’s first to let cellphone callers stream live video and audio to dispatchers when they call 911 for help. Sheriff Ray Kuznia tells the Minnesota Public Radio News that the technology will be implemented later in August. Kuznia said it should help dispatchers make better decisions in responding to emergency calls such as car crashes and domestic incidents. A caller will dial 911 on a cellphone within the Pennington County service area. The dispatcher can send a text message to the caller’s cellphone if they want to take over the caller’s camera. The caller has to option to accept or decline. The emergency dispatcher would then be able to see wherever the caller points the camera.

Mississippi

New Albany: A family dog is being hailed as a hero after a man says the canine saved him and his son from a house fire. Marvin Foster of New Albany tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal he was getting out of the shower Tuesday when Dudley the dog bumped the bathroom door and alerted him about a fire in the kitchen. Foster got dressed and yelled to his son, Terrance, that they needed to get out of the burning home. The two men escaped, but a wall fell and jammed the bathroom door, trapping Dudley inside. New Albany firefighters rescued the dog and gave him water and oxygen. Dudley had burns to an ear and his eyes, and he inhaled smoke. He is recovering at a veterinarian’s office. Foster says the dog is his hero.

Missouri

Cape Girardeau: Thousands of marriage records, some predating statehood, in Cape Girardeau County will be digitized and stored electronically as part of an effort to preserve historic documents. The Southeast Missourian reports that county commissioners signed off on the project Thursday. Half of the estimated $31,000 cost will be paid for through a grant. County recorder of deeds Crew Blattner says the work is critical because non-digitized records can be lost if there’s a natural disaster or water damage. The effort also will allow records to be searched through an online database. Some of the marriage records predate both Cape Girardeau County, founded in 1812, and Missouri, which gained statehood in 1821. Although they have been laminated, many of the oldest documents are yellowing and the meticulous, handwritten records starting to fade.

Montana

Helena: Gov. Steve Bullock has ordered flags lowered across the state Monday to mark the 70th anniversary of the deadly Mann Gulch fire. The Aug. 5, 1949, blaze north of Helena near the Missouri River killed 13 firefighters and was the subject of the Norman Maclean book “Young Men and Fire.” Bullock says in his proclamation that flags will fly at half-staff in memory of all wildland firefighters who have given their lives in the line of duty. The U.S. Forest Service is planning a ceremony at the Meriwether Picnic area near Mann Gulch on Monday. It includes plans for a flyover by the plane that transported 15 Missoula-based smokejumpers to the fire in 1949. The plane, now known as Miss Montana, also participated in the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

Nebraska

Omaha: Swarms of mayflies have emerged from water along the Missouri River and are caking drivers’ windshields. The Omaha World-Herald reports mayflies spend 99% of their lives in water, but they rise above when they become winged adults to take part in a mating swarm. They quickly die after that. But their mating season is a nuisance. Pam Frana, a membership specialist for the Nebraska City Tourism and Commerce Department, blames the flooding for stirring up the mayflies. Dominator Fuel in Rock Port, Missouri, sold out of windshield wiper fluid in light of the mayflies’ arrival. Andrew Wagner, who works in Hamburg, Iowa, says they covered windshields so much that drivers couldn’t see where they were going. But he says the situation is better now that flooding has gone down.

Nevada

Reno: People driving between Reno and Las Vegas probably won’t notice anything unusual as they pass Walker Lake, at the base of Nevada’s Wassuk Range in one of the nation’s least-populous counties. But people who waited decades yearning for the lake to recover from its human-driven death spiral are marking a historic milestone. On July 5, for the first time since Europeans settled the remote and scenic Walker Basin, there’s water flowing through the Walker River exclusively for the benefit of the lake’s fish and wildlife. “It’s kind of a historical moment,” says Jeff Bryant, executive director of the Walker Basin Conservancy. From 1936 until April 16, it was illegal for the federal water master, or anyone else, to move water through the Walker River for anything other than nourishing crops or cattle.

New Hampshire

Durham: The University of New Hampshire has been awarded a $108 million grant from NASA to use a space-based instrument to identify hazards like oil spills and algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico, the southeastern United States and the Amazon River. The Geosynchronous Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer instrument, overseen by UNH’s Joseph Salisbury, will allow observations of ocean biology, chemistry and ecology in coastal waters as part of efforts to protect ecosystems and improve resource management. It is the largest NASA contract awarded to the university. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said findings from the instrument “will bring economic benefits to fisheries, tourism and recreation in the coastline area.”

New Jersey

Jersey City: Bruce Springsteen’s youngest son is becoming a firefighter in Jersey City, his mom says. Patti Scialfa on Thursday posted congratulations to their youngest child, Sam, on Instagram. She wrote that “you followed your dreams” and told her son to “stay safe” and “love your brave heart!” The 25-year-old took the civil service exam to become a firefighter in New Jersey’s second-largest city in March. He has served as a volunteer firefighter in Colts Neck. Springsteen and Scialfa have three children.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: State health officials are seeking to shore up and standardize safeguards against brain injuries in youth sports beyond schools in non-scholastic athletic leagues and clubs. Coaches and many youth athletes automatically would undergo training to detect signs of a concussion and understand the potential consequences of a brain injury under rules proposed by the New Mexico Department of Health. The agency has scheduled a public hearing later this month on the proposal requiring annual training about concussions not only for coaches but also for parents and young athletes themselves – once they turn 11. Those children would sign a form each year that shows they completed a brain-injury prevention training session linked to standards from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York

New York: In a reckoning five years in the making, an administrative judge on Friday recommended firing a police officer over the 2014 chokehold death of an unarmed black man whose dying cries of “I can’t breathe” fueled a national debate over policing, race and the use of force. The city’s police commissioner will make a final decision this month on whether to fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is white, for his role in Eric Garner’s death. Pantaleo was suspended shortly after the judge’s decision became public, about two weeks after federal prosecutors closed the book on criminal charges. Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the judge’s report as “a step toward justice and accountability,” while Pantaleo’s lawyer and a union leader said it penalized an officer for properly doing his job. Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said the report brought her “some relief” but was overdue and fell short of true accountability.

North Carolina

Raleigh: A judge has dismissed charges against two students accused of disorderly conduct and defacing a public monument after placing Ku Klux Klan hoods on statues at a Confederate monument. N.C. State students Enzo Niebuhr and Jody Anderson were arrested Easter Sunday during a protest at the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy monument in Raleigh. News outlets report that a judge dismissed the charges Friday after a hearing in which the students’ lawyer argued that their actions were protected speech. The officer who arrested them testified that the students used profanity and that placing hoods on the statues was like a hate crime.

North Dakota

Bismarck: A federal appeals court says the state’s voter identification requirements are constitutional, rejecting an argument by a group of American Indians who said they are a form of voter suppression. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state Wednesday, overturning a lower court ruling. North Dakota’s law requires voters to show ID with a residential street address, which American Indians have argued is not always evident on reservations. They also say many tribal members aren’t aware of their address, don’t have a provable one because they’re homeless or stay with friends or relatives, or can’t afford to get an updated ID with a street address. Members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa sued the state in 2016 over the ID requirements.

Ohio

Twinsburg: Twin brothers driving separately to the Twins Days Festival say each got pulled over for the second time in two years. But this time they got off without a ticket and just a laugh. Andy Baker says he and his twin brother, Chad, were driving from Nashville, Tennessee, to Twinsburg on Thursday when they were stopped. He says they were pulled over because the trooper thought the identical twins had identical license plates. But there’s a slight difference because one plate has a zero, while the other has the letter “O.” Baker told WEWS -TV in Cleveland that the trooper got a good laugh out of it and was a good sport. He says the brothers weren’t so lucky last year when they got tickets for speeding.

Oklahoma

Tahlequah: Expansion of the city’s Greenbelt Trail is on the horizon, and officials say the work should begin sooner rather than later. The Tahlequah History Trail originally started as a conceptual drawing of paths near Town Branch Creek in 1992 and expanded to a 2-mile trail system connecting all city parks to form the “Greenbelt.” The 10-foot-wide portion of the trail will use many features already available in the existing park system by connecting Sequoyah Park to Ross Park, and then to Felts Park, the Tahlequah Daily Press reports. Mayor Sue Catron, other city officials and curious residents recently took a “walk and dream” tour of the trail and exchanged thoughts and ideas while they painted a picture of plans. Tahlequah Planning and Development Director Clinton Johnson said the trail will include two emergency phone stations.

Oregon

Portland: The latest homelessness count shows more people are sleeping outside in Multnomah County on any given night in 2019 than the last decade. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports about 20% more people were found living somewhere unfit for human habitation - in places including tents, in cars and under bridges – when the count was done on a single night this past winter compared to 2017, the last time the federally required count occurred. The 2,037 people who were found sleeping outside in Oregon’s most populous county are the highest the count has found and represent some of the area’s most entrenched issues – they are disproportionately of color, mentally ill or facing a substance abuse problem. The Point in Time count, released Thursday, is conducted by the county every two years.

Pennsylvania

Bradys Bend: A cat in western Pennsylvania is bucking stereotypes with its love of swimming. Tissy is an orange Maine Coon who regularly cools off in the family pool in Bradys Bend Township, about 55 miles north of Pittsburgh. Sonny Herr tells the Tribune Review she rescued Tissy as a homeless kitten about five years ago from a parking lot near the county fair. She says Tissy got curious about water when the kitty was about a year old and started to swim. Tissy’s favorite thing is to swim with Herr’s 9-year-old daughter, Taylee. Tissy even wears a floatie around the waist and likes to be snuggled in the pool. The cat also loves bubble baths. According to the Cat Fancier’s Association, many cat breeds enjoy water, including the Turkish Angora, American shorthair, Norwegian forest cat and American bobtail.

Rhode Island

Central Falls: A bill renaming a local post office in honor of a 19th-century abolitionist and suffragist has cleared the U.S. Senate. Rhode Island’s congressional delegation introduced legislation in both chambers to honor Elizabeth Buffum Chace by naming the Central Falls post office after her. Democratic Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse say it passed the Senate last week and must now clear the House of Representatives. Chace dedicated her life to advocating for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery. The Rhode Island Historical Society says the home she built with husband Samuel Chace in Valley Falls, Rhode Island, in 1858 became a way station for escaped slaves and abolitionist speakers. Chace led the Rhode Island Women’s Suffrage Association in the late 1800s.

South Carolina

Charleston: The city’s tourism marketing organization is rolling out a new online platform about African American history and culture in the region. The Post and Courier reports the new website, “Voices: Stories of Change,” is a complete overhaul of its predecessor, which had not been updated in about a decade. Explore Charleston Deputy Director Perrin Lawson says work on the new site started about 18 months ago. The main takeaway, he says, was the wide range of perspectives gathered that led the team to seek local contributors with personal connections to the subject matter. For example, an article on Robert Smalls was written by International African American Museum CEO Michael Boulware Moore. Smalls, who famously stole a Confederate ship in Charleston Harbor and later became one of the first African Americans elected to Congress, is Moore’s great-great grandfather.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: The Sioux Empire Fair is waiving entry fees for its livestock competition for the first time this summer as South Dakota farmers and ranchers deal with tariffs on foreign agriculture markets and spring flooding. Traditionally, the entry fees have been $10 to $25, depending on the class or species of animal being shown. It’s the 80th anniversary for the fair, which began over the weekend. Hundreds will showcase their cows, lambs, goats and pigs they’ve been raising in hopes of taking home some prize money. Many show more than one animal, so fair officials say the fees can add up quickly. Fair director Scott Wick says the fee waiver will be extended in future years.

Tennessee

Memphis: School officials have removed a piece of student art depicting President Donald Trump and the Statue of Liberty after receiving a threat. The painting has been hung in the hallway of Southwind High School – located just outside Memphis – since 2016. The painting shows Trump with his mouth covered by white brush strokes and the Statue of Liberty covering her face. School officials say the painting has not sparked any complaints over the years. However, the painting recently gained attention on social media, and the school decided to remove it after receiving a threatening phone call Friday. The district says it respects students’ rights to free speech and encourages students to express themselves “through art or in any other peaceful manner.”

Texas

Austin: The city’s airport has begun testing a driverless shuttle outfitted with cameras and sensors to ensure passengers are transported safely and without the danger of being hit. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Friday announced the electric autonomous vehicle called Easy Mile EZ10 will be tested for six months in an environmental and people-moving project. An airport attendant is present to help travelers and for safety purposes. The shuttle, with seating for six and room for other passengers to stand, has a pre-programmed route between the Barbara Jordan Terminal and the rental car/ground transportation sites. The shuttle, operating on the upper level of Garage 1, complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and has wheelchair accessibility. Airport spokesman Bryce Dubee says it’s another mobility option for travelers.

Utah

Salt Lake City: The state’s Supreme Court says language in a law that prevented gay couples from reaching a workable agreement with a surrogate to bear their child is unconstitutional. The Deseret News reports an opinion released by the high court Friday threw out that section of law because it denied same-sex couples a benefit long enjoyed by a husband and wife in Utah. The decision says that “same-sex couples must be afforded all of the benefits the state has linked to marriage.” The law in question allowed judges to approve surrogacy agreements if the intended mother – meaning a woman – could not bear a child or the pregnancy would be risky. A judge had refused to approve an agreement between a surrogate and a gay couple because both partners were male.

Vermont

Montpelier: Select farms around the state will again be opening their operations to the public for a week this summer, starting next weekend. The fifth annual Open Farm Week takes place from Friday through Aug. 15 at over 40 farms across the state. The activities for visitors vary from farm to farm and range from milking cows and goats, picking vegetables and learning to make cheese to taking a farm tours and eating an on-the-farm dinner. A listing of the events can be found online at DigInVT.com.

Virginia

Wachapreague: Scientists at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are doing research this summer that could result in a way for commercial fishermen to keep sharks from interfering with their fishing lines. VIMS Eastern Shore Lab has the advantage of being right on the water and near the last undeveloped stretch of barrier islands on the East Coast. The sandbar sharks researchers are observing this summer in a tank at the Seawater Lab come from right off the dock. When the research is over, the sharks are returned to the same waters. The research examines the response of the sharks to an electronic “tickler” device – officially called a bycatch reduction device. The hope is that with the right combination of electronic signals, sharks will be discouraged from attacking a baited fishing line.

Washington

Olympia: This week’s primary election doesn’t have any statewide races for voters to contend with, but it will be the first one where same-day voter registration, automatic registration and prepaid postage are all in effect in the state. On Tuesday, more than 360 local races will be decided by voters, ranging from city council races and school director races to two legislative seats where two recent appointees face primary challenges as they seek election to a full term. Laws passed over the last two legislative sessions that seek to make it easier for voters to register and cast their ballots are now all in effect. The state’s more than 4.4 million registered voters started receiving their ballots in the mail weeks ago for the top two primary, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the November ballot, regardless of party.

West Virginia

Princeton: A local railroad model is drawing people from across the globe even before it’s finished. The work-in-progress replica, at the Princeton Railroad Museum, has already drawn in thousands of guests. Measuring at a whopping 22 by 16 feet, the model is something to behold, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. Artist Dan Hosier says many guests have told him that visiting the model was a “priority destination” in their trip. The model itself offers both replications of places throughout the area and inspirational design. Places that can be spotted on the model include the Elkhorn tunnel, the Maybeury coke ovens, Pinnacle Rock and the former tree on Crumbpecker Hill. The entire project is Hosier’s “artistic representation of coal, railroad and lumber history in southern West Virginia.”

Wisconsin

Milwaukee: State health officials say they’ve linked vaping to 11 recent cases in which teenagers and young adults developed “severe lung disease” that required hospitalizations. Officials say they’re investigating another seven cases that may also be linked to vaping. The health department says all the patients they interviewed reported vaping in the weeks and months prior to being hospitalized after experiencing shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, coughing and weight loss. Officials say the severity of the cases varied, and some patients needed assistance breathing. Some of the patients improved with treatment, but officials say they’re investigating whether the lung disease will cause long-term damage. Officials say investigators are trying to find out what vaping products were used.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: The U.S. Forest Service wants to reduce designated habitat in the state and in Nevada for a ground-dwelling bird. The agency said Friday that its plan would target 200 square miles now set aside for sage grouse in Wyoming and Nevada, with nearly all of the reduction in Wyoming. A state official says the proposed changes simply align Forest Service plans with Wyoming’s map of state-designated sage grouse habitat. More than 8,000 square miles of national forest land has been set aside as protected habitat for the birds in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The Natural Resources Defense Council says the proposed reduction “unravels” a 2015 Forest Service conservation plan. The agency said then the birds would not be listed as threatened or endangered because state and federal agencies had come up with plans to conserve its habitat.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

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