ALTON BAY, N.H. In a secluded bar atthe rear of Sandy Point Restaurant,concern crosses Danica Patrick’s faceas she glances at her boyfriend.
During a two-hour dinner of lov-ing wisecracks and gushing compli-ments at this lobster house on thebucolic shores of Lake Winnipesau-kee, here is what counts as an awk-ward moment for auto racing’s mostfamous pairing.
“We don’t have utensils,” Patricksays, staring blankly at a plate ofmozzarella sticks.
“Why do you need those? You’re
supposed to use your hands,” RickyStenhouse Jr. says. “You want me tofeed it to you?”
She smiles. “Yeah, baby.”NASCAR’s first couple might seem
odd only because their relationshiphas been so ordinary despite the ex-traordinary circumstances.
Patrick and Stenhouseare battling for Sprint Cuprookie of the year on thetrack, but away from the spotlight,they have built a caring yet competi-tive relationship around screwballcomedies, high-end shopping excur-sions and competitive rounds of golf.
They somehow havemanaged dat-ing and racing each other seamlessly— well, except for those two in-
stances in which they slammed intoeach other at full speed.
“I guess it has been a little easierthan we thought,” Patrick tells USATODAY Sports in their first extendedsit-down as a couple. “It is unique. Itis di�erent. But you just can’t pick
when love happens andwithwhom.”
In this case, romance hasblossomed at the most
critical juncture of Patrick’s career:her rookie season in NASCAR’s pre-mier series.
As the circuit moves to Indianapo-lis Motor Speedway for Sunday’sSamuel Deeds 400 at the Brickyard,
NASCAR’s first couple open upabout their seamless, silly andsyrupy romance on and off thetrack. She’s cussing a bit less;he’s dressing better.
MARK J. REBILAS, USA TODAY SPORTS LOS ANGELES Has Facebook crackedthe holy grail of mobile technology?Investors sure think so.
Shares of the largest social mediacompany soared more than 30%Thursday in their best performancesince the company went public lastMay, and at more than $34 a shareare now within range of its much-maligned IPO price of $38.
The reason: The company appearsto have figured out how to makemoney on its booming mobile tra�c,something that has dogged tech com-panies since mobile became the keyto the future a few years ago.
Facebook’s mobile magic led to anembarrassing reappraisal on WallStreet, which had totally soured onthe company’s future.
“Wewere wrong,”was the title of areport by Richard Greenfield at bro-kerage firm BTIG, who had rated thestock a sell with a $22-a-share target.
Colin Sebastian at brokerage Rob-ertW. Baird expressed a similar view.
“The very negative view on Facebookis evaporating,” he says. “You can’t ig-nore a billion users.”
Profit reported this week by Face-book not only blew away forecastsbut was also largely driven by amon-eymaking machine linked to mobileapps. Facebook saw mobile users ex-plode 51% during the second quarter.More important for a company creat-ed for desktop computers, now 41%of ad dollars come from mobile de-vices. “They’re lucky,” says Rick Sum-mer of Morningstar. “They havefantastic assets that translate well toamobile experience.”
Facebook’s success highlights:uThe importance of where
mobile ads appear. Nearly all ofFacebook’s mobile revenue is gener-ated by ads inserted between entrieson users’ newsfeeds, Summer says.The ads are getting users’ attentionwithout annoying them, he says.
uThe need to keep prices upon mobile. One problem with mo-bile ads is they tend to be priced be-low desktop ads because they’re sosmall. Facebook is bucking the mo-bile discount in part because it’s get-ting more sophisticated at dealingwith advertisers, Sebastian says.
uThe shattered dreams of thepre-IPO era have been resurrec-ted. Investors thinking Facebookhad no limit lined up to buy at $38 ashare a year ago. The company’s lus-ter faded as investors assumed thesocial media juggernaut would havetrouble adjusting tomobile. Now thatit is exhibiting such prowess, sharessoared 31%Thursday to $34.71.
Still, challenges lie ahead. At $34,the stock is fairly valued, Summersays. To get back to $38 a share andbeyond, Summer says, “there are stilllots of things to figure out.”
“They havefantastic assetsthat translatewell to a mobileexperience.”Rick Summer, Morningstar
Cheryl Pawelski was on a confer-ence call in Altadena, Calif., just 15miles from downtown Los Angeles,when she noticed something odd inher backyard.
“All of a sudden, there was a bearwalking toward my back porch,” shesaid. “It was pawing at the pool.”
Pawelski’s encounter, which endedharmlessly after the creature lum-bered into nearby woods, is classifiedas a “human-bear conflict.” That’show state agencies across the coun-try typically refer to bears that wan-der into backyards — an occurrencethat is on a significant uptick in sev-eral states.
In 13 states with detailed record-keeping, USA TODAY found thenumber of such encounters rose 23%from 2010 to 2012, to 14,882. Morethan 200 sightings have made localnews reports this summer,the majority in New
Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania.Thousands of other encounters
don’t make news but are logged bystate agencies as “nuisance bears” orhuman-bear conflicts. Some statesdon’t keep count because there are somany and residents aren’t fazed.
Biologists say the U.S. bear popula-tion is growing, especially in the East,as bears extend their range acrossheavily populated states such asPennsylvania, Maryland and NewHampshire. In states such as Florida,where both human and bear popula-
tions are growing, such conflicts rose47% to 6,188 during the same two-year period.
Bears have shut down schools,frightened hospital workers andbrought neighborhoods together totake pictures of the bear on theirstreet. Many bears keep a low profile,but sightings have generated socialmedia buzz on Twitter.
Bears will travel far for food, some-times up to 100miles a day. Lured bythe smell of bacon from a neighbor’sopen door, two cubs showed up atopGina Davis’ fence one Saturdaymorning in May in SnoqualmieRidge, Wash. “We joke and say, ‘Whowouldn’t run across the fence forsome bacon?’ ” she said.
Bear biologists say that while bearsmay disrupt suburbia, they aren’tnecessarily dangerous. However,they advise against approaching ortrying to pet them and to watch froma distance. Wildlife o�cials also rec-ommend following garbage ordi-nances and putting away food.
Mementos savedare few, resolveto rebuild strongFor Okla. residents wholived through two monstertornadoes, there’s nothought of leaving. 3A
Vacation homesstill offer a dealPrices up but rise slowerthan general housing. 1B
USA TODAY INTERVIEWJOHN FOGERTY
Still writingsongs, forgingfriendshipsMusician says he wasthrilled to work with thelikes of Keith Urban, KidRock, others. Just please,don’t call them duets. 1-2D
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Federal law enforcement o�cialsare investigating a former Marineand several active-dutyMarines afterthey allegedly posted threateningand lewd messages on social mediasites that targeted President Obamaand a California congresswoman, ac-cording to a government o�cial in-formed of the investigations.
The former Marine was inter-viewed last week by the Secret Ser-vice for the threatening post againstObama, said the o�cial, who spokeon condition of anonymity becausethe investigations are ongoing.
The Secret Service does not dis-cuss its protective actions, spokes-manGeorge Ogilvie said.
The U.S. Capitol Police have beeninvestigating several threateningposts against Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., the government o�cial said.
SeveralMarines also have been re-ferred to their commanders for non-judicial punishment, said MarineCapt. Eric Flanagan, a spokesman.That punishment can range fromraking leaves to loss of rank to dis-missal from the service, he said.
The Marines have received com-plaints about a number of socialmedia sites, Flanagan said, includinga vulgar Facebook page that prompt-ed Speier, a member of the HouseArmed Services Committee, to writeletters of complaint to Defense Sec-retary Chuck Hagel and the MarineCorps’ commandant, Gen. JamesAmos. Facebook took down thatpage.
Some of the posts suggest femaleMarines achieved their rank by per-forming sex; another shows a femaleMarine on her knees with a snake be-ing put in her mouth. A recent postabout Speier refers to her in vulgarterms and accuses her of tramplingFirst Amendment rights.
Speier was targeted after her lettercalled attention to the posts and shespoke out about what topmilitary of-ficers have described as a crisis ofsexual harassment and abuse in itsranks. The Pentagon estimates thattherewere 26,000 instances of sexualabuse in the military last year, an in-crease of 35% comparedwith 2010.
A series of military sex scandals inrecent weeks has underscored theproblem: An Air Force o�cer incharge of sex-abuse-prevention pro-grams awaits trial for alleged drun-ken groping of a woman in Arlington,Va.; an Army sergeant is being inves-tigated for allegedly running a prosti-tution operation at Fort Hood; andan Army non-commissioned o�cerhas been charged for allegedly video-taping nude cadets at the U.S. Mili-tary Academy atWest Point.
On Friday, Obama told midship-men at the U.S. Naval Academy com-mencement in Annapolis, Md., thatsexual assault and harassment haveno part in today’s military. Hagel ex-pressed similar sentiments Saturdayat West Point’s graduation ceremony.
WASHINGTON President George W.Bush’s former spokesman AriFleischer doesn’t agree with theObama administration very often.But when it comes to the Justice De-partment’s war on leaks of classifiedinformation, he’s on the same page.
“Frankly, I think theWhite Househas given the right answers and bestanswers,” Fleischer says of Obamaspokesman Jay Carney’s defense of
ongoing leak investigations. “Theproblem is the answers that Jay isgiving are ones that theWhiteHousepress corps doesn’t want to hear.”
Reporters who have battled with
both Republican andDemocratic ad-ministrations on matters of govern-ment secrecy don’t see it that way. Inthewake of the Justice Department’sactions, President Obama finds him-self battling charges that his admini-stration has e�ectively launched awar on journalists.
“There’s a red line that no otheradministration has crossed beforethat the Obama administration hasblown right past,” says JoshMeyer, aformer national security reporter forthe Los Angeles Times and co-authorof a book on the hunt for the archi-tect of the 9/11 attacks, KhalidSheikhMohammed.
The debate over leak investiga-tions that have ensnared reportersfrom the Associated Press and FoxNews has cast light on the often
Media fear Obama outto ‘criminalize journalism’WhiteHousesays itmust plugclassified leaksMartha T.Mooreand AamerMadhaniUSATODAY
v STORY CONTINUES ON 2A
WIN MCNAMEE, GETTY IMAGES
Obama promised transparencyin his presidency.
Motorists this week should buckleup or face fines of up to $162 duringthe national Click It or Ticket cam-paign to boost seat-belt use.
The annual campaign, which endsSunday, has resulted in more than3 million citations over the past fiveyears. That’s a ticket every two sec-onds, says the National HighwayTra�c Safety Administration(NHTSA), which runs the campaign.Nationally, the average cost per ticketis $38.
The campaign typically runs dur-ing Memorial Day weekend becauseit’s the start of vacation season,Transportation Secretary Ray La-Hood said.
“When we started this campaignmore than two decades ago, we knewthat our roadways would be safer,”LaHood said. “Eighty-six percent of
drivers now buckle up.”Washington state had the highest
seat-belt usage rate in the country at97.5% in 2011. In order to keep peo-ple buckled up, theWashington Traf-fic Safety Commission spends about$600,000 on the campaign, half of
which goes toward extra law enforce-ment. The state divides ticket pro-ceeds among local police agencies.
Thirty-three states and the Dis-trict of Columbia have primary seatbelt laws for front-seat occupants,which allow law enforcement o�cersto ticket a driver or passenger solelyfor not buckling up. Sixteen stateshave secondary laws, which let o�-cers issue a ticket for unbelted driv-ers or passengers only when there isanother tra�c violation.
Among primary-law states, Illinoisissued the most citations — 74,364 —in 2010, NHTSA’s latest data show.
Chris Cochran, of the CaliforniaO�ce of Tra�c Safety, said the 600highway signs displaying the price ofa seat-belt ticket erected statewidesince 2005 are working. “People inCalifornia have gotten the message,”he said. Belt usage in 2011 was 96.6%.
u State-by-state seat-belt usage,citations at usatoday.com
Click It drives home safetymessageSandhya KambhampatiUSATODAY
Motorists who don’t wear seat beltscan pay hefty fines if caught:
TOP 5 HOT SPOTS
SourceNational Highway Tra�cSafety AdministrationJULIE SNIDER, USA TODAY
Calif.
Wash.
Ore.
Conn.
Hawaii
$162$124
$110$92
$92
PresidentObama emphasizes the need to rememberUSA’s fallen troops at a timewhen fewer are serving, 3AuHope abounds at the Jersey Shore, 3A
JOY MITCHELL WATCHES A MEMORIAL DAY CEREMONY AT RIVERSIDE PARK IN NEW YORK CITY. PHOTO BY ROBERT DEUTSCH, USA TODAY
Keeping heroes in our hearts
‘The Nance’has quite aneffect on the
audience,and forNathan
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MICHAEL WOLFFApple’s weaponfor success:Good lawyersPatent cases, iTunes,tax schemes,much ofApple’s richescan be tracedto lawyers.1B
MEDIA
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CEO steps down,Zynga shares upMicrosoftXboxexecutiveDon Mattrickto replaceMark Pincusas CEO ofonlinegames giant.1B
Putin: Snowdenmust stop leaksRussian president setscondition for grantingformer NSA contractorasylum in country. 5A
Bombs won’tstop BostonJuly Fourth celebration isfirst big event since themarathon bombings, butcity won’t hold back. 3A
Dell ups ante onfighting hackersCompany is installingsophisticated anti-hackingsoftware into commercial-grade PCs. 2B
Remembering the‘forgotten war’60th anniversarycommemorative editionon sale at newsstandsand at usatoday.com.
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Note Includes excise taxes, other taxes andfees. Excludes 18. 4 cents per gallon federal tax.Updated July 1.SourcesAmerican Petroleum Institute;USATODAY researchANNE R. CAREY AND PAUL TRAP, USA TODAY
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At 265 colleges and universities in40 states, the District of Columbiaand Puerto Rico, students are morelikely to default on their loans thanfull-time freshmen are to graduate,an analysis of federal data shows.
Hundreds of thousands of stu-dents are enrolled at the 265 schools,nearly half of which are operated byfor-profit colleges, a USA TODAYanalysis shows. About one-third arepublic community colleges.
“These colleges should set o� a redflag in the minds of prospective stu-dent borrowers — and their parents,”says AndrewGillen, research directorfor Education Sector, a non-partisanthink tank on education policy thatgathered the federal data. “Many stu-dents at these colleges will no doubttake out loans, graduate and get goodjobs, but the high default rates andlower graduation rates suggest thatmanywill not.”
The analysis comes amid contro-versy as Congress decides whether tointervene to stop interest rates onnew federally subsidized studentloans from doubling. The lower in-terest rates expiredMonday.
The Education Sector analysis, asnapshot of Education Departmentdata, looks at U.S. colleges where atleast 100 borrowers started repaying
loans in 2009 and the equivalent ofat least 250 full-time students wereenrolled in the 2009-10 academicyear, the latest year for which com-plete data are available. In a new re-port, Education Sector identified 514of what it calls “red flag colleges,”schools where the percentage of bor-rowers who started repaying loans in2009 and had defaulted by 2012 washigher than the schools’ graduationrates. USA TODAY focused on 265“red flag colleges”where at least 30%of students borrow.
Leaders of community and for-profit colleges long have argued thatgraduation and default rates havemore to do with the challenges facedby their students, who are among theneediest and most likely to struggleacademically, thanwith the quality oftheir institutions.
A Senate investigation last sum-mer found that students at for-profitcolleges on average had lower gradu-ation rates and higher default ratesthan those at non-profit institutions.
At New River Community andTechnical College in Beckley, W.Va.,administrators attribute the 5%graduation rate and 25.7% defaultrate to several factors, including highunemployment and the residual ef-fect of a period of years when loanamounts were inflated because an in-correct formula for awarding aid wasused. That attracted a number of stu-dents who had “no intention of com-pleting their education,” says BarbaraElliott, director of public relations.Even for those who did earn a degree,“the payments were so high that theymay have had troublemaking them.”
Too high a price for education?Students less likely tograduate than to defaulton loans at some colleges
Mary BethMarklein, Jodi Uptonand Sandhya KambhampatiUSATODAY
At 265 colleges and universitieswhere at least 30% of studentshave loans, borrowers aremorelikely to default than students areto graduate, federal data show.How these institutions areclassified by type:
BY THE NUMBERS
SourcesThe Education Sector,USATODAY researchJULIE SNIDER, USA TODAY
Private, for-profit, 4 yearsor more 37%Public, 2 years 33%Private, non-profit, 4 yearsor more 14%Private, for-profit, 2 years 7%Other 9%
'RED FLAG' SCHOOLSUSATODAY.COM
For a list of 265 “red flag” schools andtheir data
WASHINGTON A record majority ofAmericans approve of same-sexmar-riage in the wake of two landmarkSupreme Court decisions, a USA TO-DAY poll finds. However, the court’srulings that struck down provisionsof the Voting Rights Act and tight-ened rules on a�rmative actionaren’t in syncwith the public’s views.
Overall, opinions of the courtsoured a bit after a term that endedlast week with high-profile decisionsover who can marry, how college ad-
missions are judged and whether thenation should move on from somecivil rights protections on voting.
The decisions that opened thedoor to gay marriage in Californiaand struck down a law that barredfederal benefits for same-sex couplesmay have boosted support in a coun-try alreadymoving in that direction.
“Neither one of those decisions isas a legal matter a huge gay rightsvictory,” says Tom Goldstein, a Har-vard Law School professor and pub-lisher of SCOTUSblog, whichanalyzes the high court. “But it’s themoral message from the court thatthese unions are entitled to equal re-spect ... that is probably the lastinglegacy of the decisions.”
The poll by Princeton Survey Re-search Associates questioned 1,003adults from Thursday through Sun-day. It has amargin of error of +/–3.6percentage points.
Among the findings:uBy an unprecedented 55%-40%,
Americans say marriages betweensame-sex couples should be recog-nized as valid, with the same rights oftraditional marriage. That’s the high-est level of support since Gallup be-gan asking the question in 1996. Theonly major demographic groups inwhich a majority oppose same-sexmarriage are Republicans (68%) andseniors 65 and older (51%).
uBy 53%-37%, Americans say af-firmative-action programs are stillneeded to counteract the e�ects ofdiscrimination against minorities.The Supreme Court ruled that af-firmative-action programs in collegeadmissions were permissible but seta tough legal standard the programshave tomeet.
uBy 49%-40%, those surveyedoppose the decision by the court tostrike down part of the Voting RightsAct that required some states to getfederal approval to change electionlaws. Two-thirds of African Ameri-cans oppose the decision.
The country divides 43%-44% inapproval-disapproval over the waythe Supreme Court is doing its job,the lowest approval in eight years.
Same-sexmarriageat recordapprovalPoll findsmorediscordwith court’sdecisions on raceSusan Page@susanpageUSATODAY
Shouldmarriages between same-sex couples be recognized by the lawas valid?
GAY MARRIAGE
Source June 2013 survey by Princeton SurveyResearch. Previous polls by Gallup.JULIE SNIDER, USA TODAY
60%
40%
20%
0
’96 ’99 ’04 ’13
No Yes
40%
55%
Writer recalls harrowing days in Arizona 2ATHE PERILS OF A ‘HOTSHOT’
Andrew Ashcraft, 29Robert Caldwell, 23Travis Carter, 31Dustin Deford, 24Christopher
PRESCOTT, ARIZ. As firefighterstried to gain control over a stubborn,swelling wildfire near here Monday,this close-knit mountain town wastrying to contain its grief.
Many flocked to Prescott Fire Sta-tion No. 7, the small, one-story baseof the Granite Mountain Hotshots,the elite firefighting crew that lost 19of 20 men as they were overcomeSunday by the swift, erratic YarnellHill Fire 30miles to the south.
Juliann Ashcraft said she learnedthat her husband, Andrew, 29, wasamong the dead by watching thenews with her four children. “Theydied heroes,” she said, wiping awaytears. “And we’ll miss them. We lovethem.”
Most were in their 20s, but rangedin age from 21 to 43. Outside a gated,locked fence where more than a doz-
en vehicles left behind by the lostfirefighters remain parked, a streamof tearful mourners honored the lossof neighbors, relatives and friendswith flowers, signs, balloons, flags,caps, letters, religious figures andothermementos.
Prescott resident Keith Gustafsonplaced 19 water bottles in the shapeof a heart. “When I heard about this,it just hitme hard,” he said. “It hitmelike a ton of bricks.”
The blaze — the worst wildfiretragedy since 1933 and the biggestloss of firefighters since 9/11 took 343New York Fire Department person-nel —was ignited Friday by lightning.The 2,000 acres burning Sunday qua-drupled by Monday, with 8,400 acresengulfed in towering flames and un-thinkable heat. Some 200 homes andbusinesses have been devoured in thetowns of Glen Isla and Yarnell, 30miles south of Prescott and about 85miles northwest of Phoenix.
Reported byWilliamM.Welchand Gary Strauss, USA TODAYand The Arizona Republic staff
v STORY CONTINUES ON 2A
DAVID KADLUBOWSKI, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Nineteenmem-bers of theGraniteMoun-tain Hotshots,inset, based inPrescott, Ariz.,were killedSunday when awindblownwildfire over-came themnorth ofPhoenix, nearYarnell, Ariz.
‘They died heroes’Enormousfire rages on as nationweepsfor the 19firefighters lost in Arizona
How firesheltersworkThese individualshelters providefive layers ofprotection.Graphic, 2A
USA TODAYMark Pincus
BYRON ACOHIDOCYBER TRUTH
BY DOUGLAS C. PIZAC FOR USA TODAY
Emily Scottfiled for foodstamps.
KPHO-TV/CBS-5-AZ.COM
ALABAMA Montgomery: TheEqual Justice Initiative has foundcorrections workers are abusinginmates at three Alabamamen’sprisons. The group said it has uncov-ered dozens of cases at the ElmoreCorrectional Facility, Bibb Correc-tional Facility andDonaldson prison.
ALASKA Anchorage: Aman helpingtomove a house near Palmerwas runover by the structure. PaulWolski,50, su�ered a broken pelvis. Green-street General Contracting was tow-ing the 4,000-square-foot ranchhomewith a loader and had a validpermit.
ARIZONA Tucson: TheNationalWeather Service says the city hit 100degrees Tuesday, which tied a recordwith 39 consecutive days of 100 de-grees or higher. The 39-day streak ofthe centurymark in Tucson’s tem-perature was set in 1987 and first tiedin 2005.
ARKANSAS Little Rock: TheMac-ArthurMuseumof ArkansasMilitaryHistory will host a free day-longdisplay of vintagemilitary vehiclesfrom 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.The vehicles will span fromWorldWar I to OperationDesert Storm.
CALIFORNIA Long Beach: Afteryears of noise complaints from resi-dents, the City Council voted unani-mously to have the city attorneywrite an ordinance forbidding icecream trucks fromplaying amplifiedmusic while parked and sellingtreats.
COLORADO Pueblo: The state istrying to contain the spread of a virusthat threatens the state pork indus-try. Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Viruswas once thought to exist only inEurope andChina, but Colorado and12 other states began reporting thevirus in April.
CONNECTICUT Milford: Fliers fromtheUnitedKlans of America weremeant to deter criminals who havebeen breaking into cars, said BradleyJenkins, the imperial wizard of thewhite supremacist group.MayorBenjamin Blake condemned thefliers, saying the town doesn’t toler-ate hate groups.
DELAWARE Wilmington: You’rereally not supposed to give yourco-star a big slurpy kiss unless thescript calls for it, butZoe just couldn’thelp herself lastFriday as she, in thegreat Shakespear-ean tradition,impersonated amale in her firstrehearsal as un-derstudy for theShakespeare Festi-val production ofTwoGentlemenfromVerona. Theplayful 8-month-old pit bull mix isone of six dogsfrom the FaithfulFriends AnimalSociety cast in the produc-tion. Performances start Friday.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: TheD.C.Council will consider decriminalizingpossession of small amounts ofmari-juana. Council member TommyWells planned to introduce the bill.
FLORIDA Melbourne: The BrevardCounty Commission is consideringcreating a 15-member task force onhomelessness,Florida Today report-ed. Among its tasks would be findingways to expand the availability ofemergency shelters in the county.
GEORGIA Atlanta: Insurance andSafety Fire Commissioner RalphHudgens and two senior sta�ersaccepted $100-per-headmeals and,in one case, a round of golf funded bythe industry they oversee, accordingto financial disclosures.
HAWAII Wailuku: TheMaui PoliceDepartment has acquired a LencoBearCat armored vehicle that willprotect the department’s SpecialResponse Team. The vehicle carriesthe ability to repel a .50-caliber pro-jectile. It’s also touted for its highmaneuverability.
IDAHO Nampa: A schooldistrict reeling frombud-get problems has lost20% of its teachers inthe past fewmonths.Nampa School DistrictSuperintendent Pete Koeh-ler said 151 teachers haveleft since the end of theschool year— farmorethan the usual 5% annualturnover rate.
ILLINOIS Champaign: TheCity Council voted Tuesday toend a ban on keeping chickenswithin the city limits. Themovewill allow city residentsto keep hens in their backyards for egg production.According toTheNews-Gazette,MayorDonGerard said he received
more e-mails on the chicken issuethan any tax issue that’s come up inhis first term.
INDIANA Indianapolis: The 11 boysof Cub Scout Pack 184 here aresearching for a newmeeting placeafter losing their sponsor over theBoy Scouts of America vote to allowgay youth in the troops. Sue Bovard-Kentner, committee chair andmoth-er of a 9-year-old in the pack, said shewas told Tuesday that ArlingtonAvenue Baptist Churchwould closeits doors to the troop. “I think it’s thewrong decision,”Bovard-Kentnersaid. “They’re just little boys.”
IOWA Sioux City: Thecity agreed to settle anage discriminationlawsuit filed by afirefighter. TheSioux City Councilpassed a resolutionto settle 48-year-old Brian Thiele’slawsuit for$45,000.
KANSAS Pittsburg:Residents will vote in
September on a proposedhalf-cent sales tax increaseto help fund police and fireoperations. If the proposalis approved, the taxwould
take e�ect on Jan. 1, 2014. PoliceChiefMendyHulvey said the policedepartment is understa�ed and thecity “sorely needs” a narcotics unit.
KENTUCKY Frankfort:Gov. Be-shear, a Democrat, announcedWednesday that 96 school districtshave decided to increase the dropoutage incrementally over the next fouryears from 16 to 18.
LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Stateteachers are continuing to retire athigher-than-usual numbers—morethan 7,500 in the past two years. Thenumber of retirements in 2013 in-creased from the 24% increase lastyear.
MAINE Augusta: The federal gov-ernment awarded $1.4 million to 19Maine health centers onWednesdayto boost sta� as the previously unin-sured seek health care coverageunder the A�ordableHealth CareAct.
died after his car struck an em-bankment and crashed into two
mailboxes.
MASSACHUSETTSBoston:Welfare recipi-
ents who accumulate highbalances on their electronicbenefit transfer cards willhave those cards shutdown under new staterules. Cash assistancerecipients with bal-
ances above $1,500willbe notified to see if they stillneed assistance, and EBT
cards with balances exceeding$2,500will be closed.
MICHIGAN Brighton: Amanwill attempt to set a record for
blowing up balloons andturning them into sculptures
at the Taste of Brigh-ton festival Friday andSaturday. TimThur-
mond plans to usemore than 6,700balloons in 24 hours.
MINNESOTA Dorset: Supporters ofthemayor here can stu� the ballotbox all theywant as he seeks re-election. Themayor— a short guy—is known for his fondness of icecream and fishing. Say hello toMayorRobert “Bobby”Tufts. He’s 4 yearsold and not even in school yet. Bobbywon election last year asmayor ofthe town (pop. 22 to 28, dependingonwhether theminister and hisfamily are in town).
MISSISSIPPI Jackson: The PotholePatchman has roamed the streets forweeks, filling in the crater-heavyroads with buckets of asphalt and hisown sweat. Now, RonChane (pro-nounced Chaney) is hanging up hisasphalt-filled buckets aftermeetinghis personal goal of 100 repairsMon-day night.
MISSOURI St. Joseph:Conserva-tion o�cials issued citations to 16people accused of illegally catchingcatfish. TheDepartment of Conser-vation said in a news release that themisdemeanor citations were issuedfor hand fishing, also known as noo-dling or grabbing.
MONTANA Kalispell:Wildlife ex-pert JackHanna and his wife, Suzi,are hosting a fundraiser for grizzlybear research at their home in Big-fork on Friday evening. TheMontanaFishWildlife and Parks Foundationis organizing the Grizzly BearRendezvous, which raisesmoney forresearch, population counts, man-agement and capturing and relocat-ing grizzly bears to increase theirnumbers in the CabinetMountains.
NEBRASKA York: YorkHigh Schoolwas flooded after a vandal or vandalssmashed open the fire sprinklersystem. PrincipalMitch Bartholo-mew saidwater spread throughoutthe school, including the gym.
NEVADA Las Vegas: Tourists canstroll through the Sin City of yester-year at amuseum full of the town’sretired neon signs. The 2-acreNeonMuseum and its visitors center hasadded nighttime hours. The outdoorlot boasts 150 signs, including onedating to the 1930s thatmarked arestaurant forHoover Dam construc-tionworkers. Tickets start at $12 forNevada residents on a daytime tourand run up to $25 for nighttimetours.
NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Tobac-co users will be paying a littlemorebeginning Aug. 1 because of an in-crease in the state tax triggered by adrop in revenue. The tax on a pack ofcigarettes will rise a dime to $1.78.The rate on other products, exceptpremium cigars, will be 65% of thewholesale sales price.
NEW JERSEY Jersey City: The PortAuthority honored two people whocame to the aid of a womanwho fellon the PATH rail tracks in April. PortAuthority Police Chief Louis Kou-moutsos presented LalitMoorjani ofPiscataway and Stanley Eady of Bay-onnewith certificates of apprecia-tion.
NEW MEXICO Albuquerque: Thefederal government is acceptingapplications through July 19 fromfarmers and ranchers seeking fi-
nancial assistance in recovering fromwildfires sparked during the pastthree years.
NEW YORK NewYork: The spaceshuttle Enterprise reopened to visi-tors after an eight-month hiatuscaused by damage from SuperstormSandy. A ribbon-cutting ceremonywas held on the flight deck of theIntrepid Sea, Air & SpaceMuseum tounveil the temporary pavilion hous-ingNASA’s retired shuttle.
NORTH CAROLINA Ocean IsleBeach:More than 20 people weretaken to hospitals after a second-story deck on a condominium col-lapsed onto a patio below.
NORTH DAKOTA Watford: Thevisitor center in theNorthUnit ofTheodore Roosevelt National Park isbeing closed because ofunstable soil. The cen-ter’s functions weremoved to a cottageat the unit’s camp-ground.
OKLAHOMA Okla-homaCity:Gov.Fallin’s secretary ofEducation, PhyllisHudecki, will resignJuly 15 to resume full-time duties as head ofthe Business and Educa-tion Coalition. She is thethird Cabinetmember tostep down in threemonths.
OREGON Medford: Twosheep on the loosewere captured afternearly a year on thelam. The sheep hadbeen crossing In-terstate 5 and interfering with tra�c.
PENNSYLVANIA Lancaster: Funer-al services are set for seven peoplekilled in a Fourth of July house fire.
Homeowner JimmieMoorewill beeulogized Saturday. Therewill be ajoint funeral for sixmembers of theKuhns family Tuesday.
RHODE ISLAND Providence: Theexterior of the state’s tallest buildingwill no longer be illuminated at nightbeginning this week, a decisionmadeto savemoney as it sits vacant. The26-story Art Deco-style skyscraper isknown to some as the Supermanbuilding for its similarity to theDailyPlanet headquarters in the old TVshow.
SOUTH CAROLINA Columbia:Residents of Richland County aregetting some free tips onways toprevent armed robbery. Sheri�LeonLott’s Community Action Team iso�ering an armed robbery preven-tion seminar.
SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: TheDe-partment of Tourism hopes to drawChinese visitors to theMount Rush-more state. Tourism o�cials recentlyhosted their first Chinese familiariza-tion tour of the state for Chinese touroperators.
TENNESSEE Johnson City: EastTennessee State University has re-ceived approval to o�er a degreeoption that includes the doctor ofpharmacy andmaster of businessadministration.
TEXAS West:O�cials rescinded thepublic boil water notice stemmingfrom the deadly fertilizer plant blastApril 17, judging it safe to drinkwaterfrom all public supplies.
UTAH St. George:OnMonday, 100years to the day after the first hospi-tal building opened inWashingtonCounty, Utah, the currentmedicalcenter invited residents out to cele-brate that centennial of care.
VERMONT Brattleboro: A group ofinvestors has completed a deal tostart rebuilding a 142-year-old build-ing damaged by fire.The BrattleboroReformer reported thatMesabi LLCplans a groundbreaking ceremonyJuly 17 for the BrooksHouse, whichwas built in 1871.
VIRGINIA Richmond: A lawsuitfiled by amanwhowas arrested afterstripping to his running shorts at anairport checkpoint to protest securi-ty procedures was settled. AaronTobey of Charlottesville claimedairport police violated his free speechrights.
WASHINGTON Spokane: ALake-wood school o�cial accused of van-dalizing the poshDavenportHotelduring an education conferenceblamed a negative reaction to a pre-scription sleeping pill for his behav-ior. James Paxinos, assistantsuperintendent from the Clover ParkSchool District, is accused of climb-ing through the ceiling panel of arestroom the night of June 25 toreach the roof of the hotel.
WEST VIRGINIA Clarksburg: Fed-eral authorities say that police chiefMarshall Go� and Lt. Tim Smith
have resigned to avoidcharges related to thedelayed arrest of a city
councilman in adomestic assaultcase.
WISCONSINWhitewater: Anew report fromtheUniversity ofWisconsin saysgrowing and proc-essing sweet corncontributes$130 million to the
state economy eachyear.
WYOMING Casper: TheNationalWeatherService warned ofpossible flashfloods inmany of
the areasburned bywildfires last year.
Compiled from sta� andwire reports byTimWendel and Dennis Lyons. Design byMichael B. Smith. Graphics by Bob Laird.
News from across the USA
4A NEWS USA TODAYTHURSDAY, JULY 11, 2013
STATE-BY-STATE
Running or pedaling throughrain and shine, thousands of peopleare crossing the USA under theirown power this summer in an an-nual grass-roots ritual that blendspersonal challenge, wanderlust andvolunteerism.
Hundreds are a part of groupslike One Run for Boston, 4K forCancer and Bike and Build, who areworking collectively to raise almost$9 million and traveling more than92,000 miles, according to USATODAY research on these travelers.
Scores more plan and do it aloneor in pairs. They raise money fororganizations such as Children’sMiracle Network and theWoundedWarriors Project. After saving formonths and relying on family andfriends to help them raise any-where from $5,000 to $10,000 tomake the trip, theymay travel up to100 miles a day and spend monthson the road.
One of them is cyclist and animallover Floyd Lampart, 67, of LakeClear, N.Y., who is biking 12,000miles over six months for BestFriends Animal Society. His goal:pedal to the four most extremepoints in the 48 contiguous statesand document it by stopping at a lo-cal post o�ce to pick up a stamp.He also hopes to raise $100,000 forhomeless animals through friendsand family on his website.
“It’s like building a boat,” says
Lampart, who started planning sixyears ago and got serious when heretired two years ago. “You’ve got tolook at each day as putting down anew plank to build the boat. If youlook at the whole picture of theboat at once, you’d go nuts.”
Lampart and many other trek-kers say the mental challengetrumped the physical one.
Cornell University students AllieWills and Alec Bernard say weatherwas their biggest challenge. Theyfaced rain on 18 of their first 20days, dodged a tornado, detouredaround Colorado wildfires andfaced extreme winds along the
3,500 miles from Westport, Conn.,to San Francisco. They raised mon-ey for Citta, which funds clinics andschools inNepal, India andMexico.
Many of these adventurers plantheir trips in detail, including lodg-ing, food and routes.
One was 2011 summer travelerDave Wolfsen of Fremont, Mich.,known as “Tractor Dave,” whodrove 4,000 miles across 48 statesin his 1937 Coop No. 2 tractor toraise money for the Food ResourceBank and the Christian ReformedWorld Relief Committee. He saidhe couldn’t believe howmany farm-ers waited to see him.
Adventurers go extramile for a causeACROSS THE USA
Sandhya KambhampatiUSATODAY
Alec Bernard and AllieWills say weather was the biggest challengein pedaling 3,500miles fromWestport, Conn., to San Francisco.
TOLEDO An alleged neo-Nazi sym-pathizer faces up to 10 years inprison after he pleaded guilty toillegally having a cache of weaponsand counterfeitmerchandise innorthwest Ohio.
Richard Schmidt, 47, of Toledo,pleaded guilty Tuesdayin federal court to pos-session of firearms andbody armor by a convict-ed felon and tra�ckingin counterfeit goods,according to court rec-ords. Schmidt is scheduled to besentencedOct. 31.
Edward Bryan, a federal publicdefender representing Schmidt,called themove “a conditionalguilty plea,”The Blade in Toledoreported. Bryan said he’ll appealthe court’s refusal to suppress evi-dence seized inDecember through
searchwarrants.At least seven high-capacity
ammunitionmagazines were foundat Schmidt’s sportsmemorabiliastore in Bowling Green, accordingto an FBI a�davit filed thatmonth.
The FBI alerted black and Jew-ish leaders in theDetroitarea that their nameswere on a list kept bySchmidt, who had previ-ously served 13 years inprison for voluntarymanslaughter.
The notebook is among evidencethat federal investigators saidshowed Schmidtmight sympathizewith neo-Nazis.
That issue did not come up dur-ing the Tuesday plea hearing,TheBlade said.
The Associated Press
IN FOCUS: OHIOA CACHE OF WEAPONS AND ALLEGED HIT LIST
