Garden mannequins, forest giants, flamethrowers: News from around our 50 states

The 43rd annual Zoo Weekend, a fundraiser for the Montgomery Zoo and Mann Wildlife Learning Museum that features music, fun, thrills and education, runs Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Along with two stages of music, dancing and other live performances, Zoo Weekend is set up like a carnival, with rides, games, inflatables, pony and camel rides, treats and, of course, live animal exhibits. Game and ride tickets are $5 for a sheet of 10, and most ticket activities require 2 tickets. Animal encounters, train rides, skylight and the petting zoo require 6-10 tickets. Proceeds from Zoo Weekend go to fund the zoo’s new reptile exhibit, which will feature the endangered Indian crocodile known as Gharial.

Acclaimed director Steven Spielberg is used to seeing the names of his movies in lights, but soon his own name may be center stage at Phoenix Theatre. Phoenix is considering naming the entryway of the city-owned theater after Spielberg, who has an “interesting and little-known relationship” with Phoenix Theatre, according to Director of Special Projects Laurie Lemley. One of Spielberg’s first jobs was at the theater, and his first feature-length film – “Firelight,” which later inspired “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” – premiered at the historic performing arts space. The Phoenix Heritage Commission unanimously approved the name change. The Phoenix City Council is expected to finalize the renaming in the coming weeks.

Parents in the nation’s capital could save some money in the future under a new budget proposal from Mayor Muriel Bowser, who presented an outline of her plan this week, WUSA-TV reports. Part of her budget proposes repealing the tax on diapers in the city. Her office estimates it would cost the city $4.5 million to eliminate that retail sales tax. “We will eliminate the tax on diapers, which is part of a bill (D.C. Council) passed unanimously last year,” she said. “The first part of it was on menstrual products, which we funded last year.” The repeal would apply to taxes on both adult and infant diapers. Bowser’s budget also proposes a $5 million increase in child care assistance to help families find affordable care.

The Indianapolis Public Library will bring celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates to Clowes Hall in May. Coates, whose work includes 2015 National Book Award winner “Between the World and Me,” will deliver the 42nd annual Marian McFadden Memorial Lecture. Admission to the 7 p.m. event May 8 is free with a ticket. All tickets have been distributed, but open seats will be released at 6:45 p.m. In 2015, Coates was named a MacArthur Fellow for addressing “complex and challenging issues such as racial identity, systemic racial bias and urban policing.” He has been credited for launching policy dialogue with “The Case for Reparations,” his 2014 essay published in The Atlantic magazine. He also writes comic books in Marvel’s “Black Panther” and “Captain America” series.

In the past month, three large wooden trolls have sprouted in the woods of Bernheim Forest – a mother and two children. Pregnant troll mother “Momma Loumari” rests against a redwood tree as her children play in the woods. “Little Nis” has discovered his reflection in Holly Pond, while sister “Little Elina” (above) forms rocks into the shape of a giant feather. The trolls come courtesy of internationally renowned Danish artist Thomas Dambo and the 90th-anniversary celebration of Bernheim Forest. Dambo used recycled wood from pallets, fallen trees, bourbon barrel staves and scraps from Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory to construct his forest giants. The trolls in the “Forest Giants in a Giant Forest” exhibit will “live” at Bernheim for about three years.

Summer may get a little shorter for some Marylanders now that lawmakers have voted to undo a 2016 executive order from the governor that mandated schools start after Labor Day. State lawmakers recently gave the final approval to allow individual school boards to decide when the school year starts. But Ocean City officials worry this could have a negative impact on the beach town’s tourism. Since Senate Bill 128 was introduced this session, Ocean City representatives have testified against it, instead supporting a statewide start after Labor Day. Melanie Pursel, president and CEO of the Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, says she and other town officials are “extremely disappointed” with the legislature’s decision to change school start dates.

Burning Man is taking issue with elements of its still-unfinished environmental checkup – specifically recommendations that include hard perimeter barriers, adding dumpsters to Black Rock City and further federal oversight of the event. In a post to the Burning Man Journal, the organization called a number of proposals in the Bureau of Land Management’s draft environmental impact report “unreasonable” and “in direct conflict with our community’s core principles.” At stake is a 10-year special recreation permit for use of a 14,820-acre portion of the Black Rock Desert – known as Black Rock City during the event – and the potential for Burning Man to grow to a maximum population of 100,000 over the next five years. Burning Man also claims cost estimates of the proposed stipulations could total an extra $10 million per year, which would likely hike ticket prices, according to the post.

Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled state Senate slashed Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed gas tax hike to 6 cents per gallon, a third of what the Republican governor requested to fix the state’s roads. Senators were wary of a large gas tax hike and dubious of DeWine’s claim that an 18-cent increase was the “bare minimum” needed to fix Ohio’s infrastructure. Lawmakers even mulled removing the gas tax increase from the transportation budget entirely. They also slashed money for public transportation to $46.5 million a year. Because the Ohio House passed a 10.7 cents-per-gallon increase earlier this month, a bipartisan conference committee of lawmakers from both chambers will meet next week and work out their differences.

The highly anticipated Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest will open Saturday, but don’t expect to see much color on opening weekend. Due to a cold, late winter, the tulips are showing up later than expected, says Gabrielle Mueller, marketing director for the festival. She says peak bloom is likely to hit in mid- to late April. But activities will be operating this weekend as the 35th annual festival sees the return of beloved attractions including hay wagon rides, the Tulip Market and the Tulip Trail Run, a 5K, 10K and half-marathon Saturday. Special events returning throughout the season include painting classes and photography lessons, as well as live music and hot air balloon rides. Wooden Shoe has a full schedule of special events available online for the fest, a family tradition spanning generations.

The Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum would move under plans to build a sprawling luxury apartment complex on land just steps from the Greenville Drive’s baseball stadium. The name for the development itself – .408 Jackson – will pay homage to the Greenville native baseball legend, whose .408 batting average in his first season in the major leagues still stands as a rookie record. The museum, which occupies Jackson’s home that in 2006 was moved from the Dunean Mill village to directly opposite Fluor Field’s main entrance, will move again. Woodfield Development wants to clear the current site of the “Blue Building” to build a 237-unit luxury apartment complex that would include four retail spaces. The project would include Woodfield building a public plaza for the museum’s new location.

The state has become the first in the country to pass a law requiring its university system to promote intellectual diversity after Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill Wednesday. The measure also bars the South Dakota Board of Regents and the state’s six public universities from interfering with constitutionally protected speech, including speech that some might find “offensive, unwise, immoral, indecent, disagreeable, conservative, liberal, traditional, radical or wrong-headed.” The bill had the support of two national groups: the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which promotes intellectual diversity, and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a group that promotes free speech, association and religious liberty on college campuses.

Niran, the Nashville Zoo’s first clouded leopard to be born from artificial insemination, is pregnant through natural reproduction with her first cub – or possibly cubs – officials announced Thursday. “We’ve made history with Niran and we’re making history again,” Nashville Zoo Director of Veterinary Services Dr. Heather Robertson said in a statement. “Knowing that a clouded leopard born from artificial insemination with frozen/thawed semen can reproduce naturally without any complications is a tremendous success.” After Niran gives birth, the zoo plans to hand-raise her offspring due to the common nature of the species to neglect their offspring, zoo officials said. The move also lowers animal stress for future hands-on care, officials say.

Proposed fee cuts at Dixie State University have student journalists crying foul. Staffers at the Dixie Sun News argue the cuts were pushed in retaliation for their coverage of recent school controversies. The planned cut in student fees could affect scholarships and equipment for the journalism program, according to staff. “This will have a direct impact on how and how much journalism is practiced at Dixie State,” editor-in-chief Ryann Heinlen says. Earlier this month, the Student Fee Allocation Committee decided to cut $0.25 of the $1 in per-student fees allocated for student journalism. Faculty adviser and media studies assistant professor Rhiannon Bent says student fees comprise about half of the Sun’s budget and questions how 25 cents would make a difference to a DSU student but says the 25 percent decrease is significant for the paper.

They have the technology and think they can make the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard worker better, stronger, faster. Wearable robotics, known as exoskeletons, have begun to enter American manufacturing to ease ergonomic stress and bolster workers’ strength. In a first for the nation’s four Navy shipyards, PSNS is partnering with a robotics company to develop programs in Bremerton. The shipyard has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Sarcos Robotics, a 35-year-old company based in Salt Lake City and with offices in Bellevue. Already, the shipyard is using 15 spring-actuated, backpack-like exoskeletons at Shop 75, its ship inactivation and dismantling arm. The systems, which have also been loaned to other shops, help to lighten the load on workers doing difficult overhead work.

The city will be one of 10 this year to host The Bloody Mary Festival, coming to Fiserv Forum’s outdoor plaza June 22-23. “We have been looking at Wisconsin for quite some time because of people’s love for the Bloody Mary in Wisconsin, particularly the crazy garnish bloodies that sort of originally came from the Wisconsin area,” organizer Yunna Weiss says. The festival is a two-day competition to find the best bloody in Milwaukee. The traveling event says it is “a celebration of the most beloved brunch cocktail and the largest event of its kind.” Besides local Bloody Mary competitors, there will about 20 vendors and live music at the event. Organizers expect several thousand attendees in Milwaukee throughout the weekend.