From USA TODAY Network and wire reports
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Alabama
Montgomery: Public officials said they have identified the state’s first known cases of monkeypox, a disease that has emerged in more than 50 countries and most U.S. states. The Alabama Department of Public Health said in news releases that two cases have been identified. The first was in Mobile County and the second in Jefferson County. Dr. Rendi Murphree, an epidemiologist with the Mobile County Health Department, said monkeypox can be transmitted through close person-to-person contact.
Alaska
Anchorage: Authorities are searching for a grandmother whose 2-year-old grandchild was found alone and abandoned for two days in a locked car that was stuck in mud on a rural Alaska road. The search for Mary Dawn Wilson, 69, is being concentrated around the community of Healy, Alaska State Troopers said. The abandoned Ford Focus was found Thursday on Stampede Road, just outside Healy and off the Parks Highway. The child appeared to be in good health and was handed over to the state Office of Children’s Services, the statement said. Officials said evidence in the car indicated that the child and car were abandoned Tuesday when the vehicle became stuck, troopers said. There were indications she tried to free the car, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said. Wilson was the last known person with the child, the statement said,
Arizona
Phoenix: There has been a sharp decrease in traffic fatalities in Arizona this year after a deadlier-than-usual year in 2021, according to preliminary data from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. Traffic fatalities between January and June fell from 626 deaths in 2021 to 350 deaths in 2022 – a 44% decrease. Although the data provided didn’t offer a monthly breakdown of alcohol-related traffic fatalities, the current count of 51 alcohol-related deaths is far less than half of 2021’s 230 total death count.
Arkansas
Fort Smith: The St. Scholastica Benedictine Sisters said they have begun to demolish their former monastery building. The monastery, built in 1924, was considered unsafe and unlivable. It had sustained flooding, mold and wall damage, the sisters reported. In February 2019, the sisters moved out of the monastery to live in a more energy-efficient building. “The decision to demolish the former Monastery Building is not one that the Benedictine Sisters made lightly or without years of research and discernment,” according to a news release. Work to demolish the monastery had been planned for June but started July 11.
California
San Francisco: The international terminal at San Francisco International Airport was evacuated on Friday night after a bomb threat, and authorities found a potentially incendiary device, officials said. One person is in custody. The bomb threat was reported about 8: 15 p.m. and authorities discovered a suspicious package, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Investigators at the airport “deemed the item possibly incendiary.” A man was taken into custody but other details were not immediately available. The terminal was evacuated “out of an abundance of caution,” police said. Hundreds of travelers were forced to leave the terminal.
Colorado
Fort Collins: A flash flood rushed through Buckhorn Canyon on Friday night, killing two people and destroying a house. Multiple reports of flash flooding in the Crystal Mountain and Glen Haven areas started coming in shortly before 5 p.m., Larimer County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson David Moore said. Included in those calls was a report of a camping trailer that had been washed away in the upper-to-middle section of the canyon with an adult woman and a female child inside. Crews immediately started searching for them, and both were found dead at about 7: 30 p.m., Moore said. The area in Larimer County received nearly an inch of rain in a short period of time, according to the National Weather Service in Boulder.
Connecticut
Hartford: The Connecticut Lottery Corp. has settled a lawsuit filed by its former vice president over the handling of her complaint to the FBI of possible wrongdoing in the quasi-public agency. Under the settlement agreement, obtained in an open records request by The Hartford Courant, Chelsea Turner and her attorneys will be paid $450,000 and she is absolved of any wrongdoing. Turner was suspended from her job in July 2019, a week after she testified at an administrative hearing about how she had contacted a friend of hers in the FBI in 2014 about possible wrongdoing by another lottery official. An FBI investigation ended with no charges.
Delaware
Wilmington: A rare Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly was spotted in southern Delaware earlier this year, the first time anyone had seen the endangered species on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1995. The two-tailed, iridescent-green butterfly has a wingspan of just an inch and lives atop Atlantic white cedar trees, which are somewhat rare themselves. Hessel’s hairstreaks in Sussex County are “in the middle” of known populations in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and southeastern Virginia.
District of Columbia
Washington: Members of the DC Council are calling on Mayor Muriel Bowser to act as Arizona and Texas officials continue to bus hundreds of migrants to Union Station, WUSA-TV reported. Gov. Greg Abbott and other Texas officials started busing people seeking asylum to D.C. in April after the state voiced opposition to President Joe Biden lifting Title 42, a public health policy that allowed the government to quickly expel migrants and asylum seekers who come to the U.S. from countries where an infectious disease is present. A letter from 10 councilmembers called on District government to provide contingency funding toward the purchase of travel tickets, food, petty cash, cellphones and emergent medical needs of arrivals until it receives money from federal or philanthropic entities to address the issue. Bowser’s office has not responded to multiple requests from WUSA-TV about efforts to assist asylum seekers.
Florida
Englewood: Authorities said a Florida woman was found dead after falling in a pond and being grabbed by two alligators. The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office told news outlets the elderly woman was seen falling into the pond along a golf course in Englewood late Friday and struggling to stay afloat. While she was in the water, two alligators were seen grabbing her, authorities said. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Two alligators have been removed from the area, but it’s not known whether those were the reptiles involved. The cause of death has not been determined. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says alligators are more active when temperatures rise.
Georgia
Athens: Law enforcement continued to try and identify the person who bombed the Georgia Guidestones in Elberton, but tips from the public have slowed. “The amount of leads have definitely slowed, but we’re still getting a few through telephone calls,” said Jesse Maddox, an agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. “We haven’t been able to put anything new out because there’s nothing new.” The Guidestones, known as America’s Stonehenge and erected in 1980 in Elbert County, were heavily damaged during the predawn hours of July 6. Residents in the area off Georgia Highway 77 heard the loud blast. There have been some discussions in Elbert County of rebuilding the monument, which became a popular tourist destination, but no decisions have been made. Anyone with information is asked to contact the GBI office in Athens at (706) 552-2309. Anonymous tips can be submitted at (800) 597-8477.
Hawaii
Honolulu: A Pittsburgh man who was charged with manslaughter in the strangulation death of a college buddy he was vacationing with in Hawaii was found not guilty by a jury. Jurors reached their verdict last week after a trial on the Big Island, where Benjamin Fleming was vacationing with two friends he knew since attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. They were staying at a vacation rental in Kailua-Kona last year when a night out drinking ended in a deadly fight. Fleming was charged with manslaughter after an autopsy showed that Abhishek Gupta of Pittsburgh was strangled. Authorities said an argument between the men turned physical.
Idaho
Boise: A nuclear waste treatment plant in eastern Idaho designed to treat 900,000 gallons of sodium-bearing, radioactive waste that has had numerous setbacks appears to be making progress, officials said. The U.S. Department of Energy said lastg week the Integrated Waste Treatment Unit at the department’s 890-square-mile site that includes the Idaho National Laboratory recently treated more than 100,000 gallons of simulant over seven weeks. The department plans additional testing and then a shutdown to make sure the plant is ready for radioactive waste. The department said increasing amounts of radioactive waste will be mixed with simulant when the plant is fully operational. The department didn’t give a timeline.
Illinois
Springfield: About 150 Lutheran High School students will be displaced because of mine subsidence at the facility on the far west side of the city. Subsidence is the sinking of land surface, commonly resulting from underground mining. The problems, including cracking of walls and dropping of floors, were discovered by staff members a little over two weeks ago, said Zack Klug, the interim principal. Students’ families were informed by the school’s board of directors via email Saturday. Klug said he received a report from a Springfield engineering firm recommending the move. Engineers from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Illinois Mine Subsidence Insurance Fund have also done inspections on the school, which was built in 1978, and have recommended the building not be occupied. Klug said engineers told him a newer part of the high school, dating from 2017, is safe. Staff will stay there now until a better plan is developed, Klug said.
Indiana
Indianapolis: Weeks of heat and scant rainfall have left most of Indiana facing either drought or unusually dry conditions while farmers hope significant precipitation falls soon. The U.S. Drought Monitor showed more than a third of Indiana with abnormally dry conditions and another 44% of the state gripped by a moderate drought centered over central, western and southwestern Indiana. Moderate drought or abnormally dry conditions cover nearly 80% of the state as of Tuesday, according to Thursday’s national drought update.
Iowa
Des Moines: Police identified the 11-year-old girl who drowned Wednesday in the Raccoon River. At about 5: 57 p.m. Wednesday, Des Moines police and fire department rescue personnel responded to the river in a wooded area northeast of the 6000 block of Creston Avenue after a child fell into the water. Diamond Mathis, 11, reportedly got off a raft on which she was floating with two other children, went under the water and did not resurface, Des Moines Police spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a news release. Officers from the Metro STAR Unit located Mathis’ body about 12: 20 p.m. Friday in the Raccoon River near where she was last seen.
Kansas
Lansing: The state prison in Lansing was placed on lockdown Friday night after a fight among inmates sent one prisoner to a hospital and left at least three corrections employees injured. The incident happened about 7 p.m. in a section of the facility that houses violent offenders, said Sarah LaFrenz, a spokeswoman for state Department of Corrections officials. She added the event led to the “loss of control” over one part of the prison. Corrections spokesman Randall Bowman confirmed in a text message the hospitalized inmate was stabbed. He said the rest of the facility had been placed on lockdown as a precautionary measure. A tactical unit was deployed during the altercation and additional staffing brought in from other facilities. All men had returned to their cells “with minimal resistance” by about 10: 30 p.m., corrections officials said.
Kentucky
Frankfort: Leak detection and repair crews have identified and fixed waterlines in the western Kentucky town of Marion – work that’s estimated to be saving more than 100,000 gallons of water a day, Gov. Andy Beshear’s office said. An engineering report will lay out the scope of work needed to complete a water connection from Marion to Sturgis Water Co., the governor said. The Kentucky National Guard continues to distribute bottled water. More than 398,000 bottles of water provided by the state and from donations have been handed out, he said. Beshear declared a state of emergency in Marion after the town of nearly 3,000 people began running out of water when a levee was breached on Lake George – the town’s main water supply.
Louisiana
Shreveport: The ramp on Interstate 20 eastbound to I-220 westbound (Exit 26 near Louisiana Downs) will be closed Monday as part of the ongoing I-20/I-220 Barksdale Air Force Base Interchange Project, which began in May 2019. The closure is expected to take approximately two months. During that time, construction on a new segment of roadway will be built extending southward leading to a new access point to the base. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will have detour signs in place for an alternate route.
Maine
Portland: The U.S. House approved a bill that would allow Native American tribes bound by a state land claims settlement in Maine to get the benefit from federal laws going forward. The proposal, attached to a defense bill approved Thursday, won’t change how the tribes are treated under state law but would update federal law to allow future laws passed by Congress to apply to the tribes. U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, who introduced the bill, said tribes in Maine deserve the same benefits as other federally recognized tribes under federal law. The proposal faces an uncertain future in the Senate. Chief Kirk Francis of the Penobscot Nation said in a statement Friday that tribal members “look forward to working with our senators on getting final passage through Congress this year.” Wabanaki tribes in Maine are governed by the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980, which stipulates they’re bound by state law. That sets them apart from the other 570 federally recognized tribes. Both chambers of the Maine Legislature advanced a bill to amend the land claims settlement to restore rights that tribes forfeited, but it stalled under a threat of veto from Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.
Maryland
Annapolis: Demand is surging for concealed carry permits in Maryland in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The Washington Post reported Friday that Maryland State Police said they have received 11 times the usual number of permit applications to carry a gun. The surge came after Gov. Larry Hogan’s order to bring the state in line with the high court’s ruling on June 23. Hogan directed state police on July 5 to suspend the state’s “good and substantial reason” standard for permits to carry handguns. The threshold for that standard included showing a person’s life is in danger from threats or working in a job that could put them in contact with people who are dangerous.
Massachusetts
Boston: The city and the union representing about 10,000 teachers and other employees of the city’s public school system have reached a tentative contract agreement that provides for pay raises and an overhaul of the way the district approaches special education, both sides said in a statement. The contract came at a time of transition for the troubled system, which recently hired a new superintendent and staved off a state takeover by pledging to implement immediate improvement efforts in several key areas. The agreement announced Thursday includes additional investments to support the changes needed for special education, including funding for additional support for students with individualized education programs and English learners. The three-year agreement also includes annual wage increases of 2.5%, plus an additional 2% over the length of the contract. The deal now requires ratification by union membership and approval by the Boston School Committee.
Michigan
Detroit: About 200 people attended the Detroit Police 2nd Precinct’s vigil Friday afternoon in honor of Officer Loren Courts, 40, who was killed in the line of duty July 6. Courts was fatally shot when he and his partner, Amanda Hudgens, 29, responded to a call about shots fired in the Fiskhorn neigh