Recreational karaoke, a sweet proposal, glass eels: News from around our 50 states

For the 300 or so people in Geiger, trips to the grocery store are anything but convenient. The nearest one, a Piggly Wiggly, sits 23 miles away. That’s an issue for all the remote towns in Sumter County, where the obesity rate tops 40 percent and 32 percent live below the poverty line. But three years ago, the Sumter County Extension Office and Auburn University worked with Geiger residents to start a community garden. It’s open to anyone who wants fresh produce, and lifelong resident Jimmy Williams, volunteer manager of the garden, coordinates efforts to bring food to senior citizens. “The most important thing is it’s brought the community together,” he says.

Zelda’s Nightclub, which opened in 1977, is closing permanently. On March 20, the Palm Springs City Council voted 4-1 to suspend the club’s conditional-use permit. Its concerns were prompted in January by police officials, who said Zelda’s employees informed them that for the past two years security cameras in the parking lot of the Sun Center retail mall, where the nightclub is located, weren’t working when multiple violent crimes occurred – including a fatal shooting.

An osprey tangled in bailing twine and dangling from a tree was rescued last week by Delmarva Power workers. Delmarva Power’s Kenny Ervin moved his bucket truck into position and used a pole clip, which is typically used to trim branches from around power lines, to free the osprey. At the end of the video, which was less than two minutes long, the osprey is seen flying away, to the cheers of onlookers below.

A $4.5 million project is planned to make room for more Civil War-era artifacts at the site of the first major battle west of the Mississippi River. The project will add 1,873 square feet of exhibit space to the visitor center at the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in southwest Missouri. There were an estimated 1,200 Union and 1,100 Confederate casualties at the site in August 1861. Fundraising got a major boost last week when Bass Pro Shops donated $25,000 to help jump-start a $300,000 local campaign for the project, the Springfield News-Leader reports.

Homeowners in Glacier National Park are seeking the park’s permission to restore a landline that served as a lifeline last August when a wildfire raced toward the area. The Missoulian reports that under the residents’ proposal, the Flathead Electric Cooperative would dig a trench from Wheeler Camp at Lake McDonald’s north end, nearly 2.5 miles around the lake’s west shore, to Kelly’s Camp for the restored phone line, which is needed because of the lack of cellphone service in the area.

A parade of people pushed strollers and clasped the hands of their children Saturday as they entered the bustling Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. Many were wearing shirts and holding pamphlets, pens and little toys, branded with disease names like dup15q, tuberous sclerosis, Angelman syndrome and congenital hyperinsulinism. Never heard of these diseases? Neither had many of the participants of the Rare Disease Day expo at the science center, until they or their children were diagnosed with one of them. The event was free to people affected by rare diseases and sponsored by three organizations that develop medications to help those living with rare diseases.

A Sioux Falls woman recently visited the Oh My Cupcakes! bakery, her favorite, on the premise that she had won free cupcakes, but she left the shop with an engagement ring. Paige TeGantvoort, 24, opened the box to find that her name was written on one cupcake, while the rest read “Will you marry me?” She turned around to find boyfriend Chase Weeden, 27, on one knee. “I was very, very nervous,” Weeden said of the moments leading up to the proposal. But his nerves passed as soon as TeGantvoort said yes, while other customers erupted in applause.