California
Long Beach testing 'Wall of Mulch'
LONG BEACH - Long Beach has gone low-tech in its battle with freeway noise by erecting what's called "The Great Wall of Mulch."
The Los Angeles Times says city officials last week gathered to top off a 12-foot-high barrier of shredded tree clippings held together with chain-link fencing.
The 3-foot-thick wall is between the city's Hudson Park and Interstate 710, where trucks constantly roll to and from the nation's largest port complex. Authorities say it will dampen sound, block the sight of the trucks and might even reduce pollution.
Officials say the mulch comes from city tree trimming and unlike concrete, it's graffiti-proof - and practically free.
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Colorado
10¢ plastic-bag fee approved in Durango
DURANGO -Durango is the latest Colorado town to approve a fee on disposable shopping bags.
The Durango Herald reports that the Durango City Council voted 4-1 in favor a 10-cent fee in four large stores on paper and plastic disposable shopping bags.
The fees will apply to a Durango Walmart and three grocery stores -two City Markets and an Albertsons.
The newspaper reports that last Tuesday's vote brought passionate advocates on both sides.
Bag-fee opponents have 30 days to collect petition signatures to repeal the disposable-bag fee or trigger a referendum on the issue.
Hawaii
50-year house checks overwhelm inspectors
HONOLULU - A Hawaii task force of archeologists, lawyers and others are planning to meet to figure out how to deal with thousands of homes turning 50 years old.
KITV reported the milestone is significant because building permits for homes older than 50 require a review from the state Historic Preservation Division.
Honolulu City Director George Atta said the state is already overwhelmed, and more problems will come as more homes age.
Executive Director Kiersten Falkner of the Historic Hawaii Foundation said the state simply looks at every building that is old, not necessarily those that have historic significance.
"There are some things right now that we are reviewing that maybe we shouldn't or we don't have to," said William Aila, chairman of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Some 53,000 homes turned 50 on Oahu last year.
Kansas
Sinkhole attracting too much attention
SHARON SPRINGS - A sinkhole estimated to be about 90 feet deep in western Kansas is drawing so many onlookers that the landowner is pleading for people to stay away.
The sinkhole, which is 200 to 300 feet wide, was discovered July 31 in a pasture several miles north of Sharon Springs on land owned by 82-year-old Margaret Hoss and her family.
It occurred naturally and does not appear to be the result of groundwater depletion or oil or gas drilling, said Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey.
After the sinkhole was publicized, people drove to see it, often ignoring signs to stay off the private pasture, which prompted the Hoss family to erect barricades last Monday, The Salina Journal reported. Hoss said she is concerned the traffic will damage fragile grass needed for cattle to forage.
"I'd appreciate some privacy. We're not running a popularity contest," said Hoss, who said added that state and national media coverage of the sinkhole had made "our life a livin' hell out here."
Sinkholes occur when soil over an open void caves in. The voids are formed when underground water dissolves rock formations.
Nevada
Another poker hall shuts; slots supreme
HENDERSON - A Las Vegas-area casino has become the latest to fold its hand on poker.
The M Resort in Henderson says it is renovating its poker room into a slot machine tournament area.
Resort spokeswoman Rina Foster told the Las Vegas Sun the new slots area will open next month.
Foster says the resort several miles south of the Las Vegas Strip plans to continue to host poker tournaments and events.
Its annual Hollywood Poker Open Championship, operated by Penn National Gaming, is slated for June 2014.
Poker's popularity soared during the 2000s, but several poker rooms in Las Vegas have closed in recent years.
New Mexico
Impostor pulls over 2 real agents, cops say
LAS VEGAS - Authorities say a man driving a truck with police lights on top made a crucial misstep during a bogus police stop in northern New Mexico.
Police say the two men he pulled over for speeding were real state police agents in an unmarked vehicle.
According to New Mexico State Police, 26-year-old John Shelton, of Logan, was arrested Wednesday after the sham traffic stop in San Miguel County.
Investigators say Shelton had a pistol on his hip and told the agents he was a member of the New Mexico State Police Search and Rescue and a trained law enforcement officer - something officials later discovered wasn't true.
Shelton is facing charges of impersonating an officer.
Oklahoma
3.3 quake doesn't wreck anything
BOLEY - The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a small earthquake near Boley in central Oklahoma.
The USGS reported the 3.3-magnitude quake was recorded at 1:57 a.m. local time Thursday five miles southwest of Boley in Okfuskee County - about 55 miles east of Oklahoma City.
No injuries or damage were reported.
Geologists say earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 are generally the smallest that are felt by humans and that damage doesn't usually occur with earthquakes below magnitude 4.0.
Texas
Goodnight's gravesite getting Rangers' cross
AMARILLO - The gravesite of legendary Texas cattleman and pioneer Charles Goodnight is getting a memorial cross this weekend from the Former Texas Rangers Association.
Goodnight died in 1929 at age 93 but achieved renewed notoriety in the 1980s after author Larry McMurtry's novel "Lonesome Dove," a story about a cattle drive led by two retired Texas Rangers. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 and then became a hugely popular TV mini-series. Goodnight's somewhat fictionalized character was played by Tommy Lee Jones.
The President of the Former Texas Rangers Foundation, Joe Davis, told the Amarillo Globe-News that while Goodnight made his name with cattle, few people know he twice served as a Texas Ranger.
The Associated Press
