Pam Overmyer, a social worker for South Bend Community School Corporation, helps Teeazha Montague get a peek in the mirror at a coat Teeazha selected. Teeazha, who is in first grade at Studebaker Primary Center in South Bend, Ind. , was scouting for coats at the annual Ziker Cleaners Coats for Kids Giveaway. The local company cleans donated coats and then teams up with local schools to give them away to needy families each year just before Christmas.

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JOLIET — Robbers might think twice about committing a crime when there's snow on the ground. Or at least not head right home.

That's the lesson after Joliet police followed footprints from where a pizza deliveryman was robbed to a house on the same block and arrested four teens late Tuesday.

Police say two teens waited on a porch for the pizza man, and the two others — one holding a bat — approached him.

Police Chief Patrick Kerr says the pizza man turned over pizzas, sodas and $200.

Police followed tracks to a nearby house and found two pizza boxes, the pizza man's debit card and a baseball bat.

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Department of Natural Resources say hunters killed 1,468 deer during four days of hunting at 17 state parks.

The hunts Nov. 17-18 and Dec. 1-2 were scheduled to reduce the deer population in the parks.

The agency says hunters took 13 percent more deer this year than they did during a similar hunt in 2007.

DNR natural resource coordinator Mike Mycroft says reducing the deer herd in the parks helps protect endangered plants.

The parks that closed for the hunts were Brown County, Chain O'Lakes, Charlestown, Harmonie, Indiana Dunes, Lincoln, McCormick's Creek, Ouabache, Pokagon, Shades, Spring Mill, Summit Lake, Tippecanoe River, Turkey Run, Whitewater Memorial, Fort Harrison and Clifty Falls.

DES MOINES — The bakers of chocolate chunk cookies beloved by the Obama family have hired a publicist and are angling to sell the goodies to organizers of inaugural parties.

Rodney Maxfield, co-owner of Baby Boomers' Cafe in Des Moines, said Thursday that since word got out that the Obama family enjoyed snacking on cookies at the restaurant next to their former Iowa campaign headquarters, sales have soared from 300 cookies a week to about 3,000. The cafe now is shipping cookies throughout the world, from London to Mexico.

And if a publicist is successful, the cookies will be set out at inaugural week parties and galas next month in Washington, D.C.

Maxfield said his business has grown so much he is working with a bakery to help meet demand, hired an employee to help with packaging and teamed up with Fed Ex for shipping.

HAVILAND — Cutting class can be big trouble for students anywhere.

But the Haviland school district may cut its school week to four days to avoid financial trouble. Nine other districts in Kansas have started four-day school weeks in efforts to save money during a deepening economic crisis.

The 160-student Haviland district near Greensburg said response to the idea has been positive, after hearing from citizens and other districts with four-day weeks. The school board votes Jan. 12 on a plan that would lengthen the school day from Monday to Thursday.

Groups of teachers, administrators, community members, students and parents visited other four-day districts. Superintendent John Wyrick said they found "higher teacher and student morale, better discipline, higher attendance rates and more time to spend with family."

LANSING — Federal officials picked Michigan State University over an Illinois laboratory Thursday to build a $550 million nuclear physics facility that could attract top scientists and cutting-edge industries.

The university beat out the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB. The U.S. Department of Energy's decision not only rewarded years of planning by university officials but also boosted spirits at a time Detroit automakers face collapse without government loans.

"It is the best news for Michigan in a long time," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, who lobbied for the project with members of the state's congressional delegation.

The next-generation nuclear science and astrophysics facility will be built within 10 years, assuming funding is approved by Congress. Michigan State will pick up some of the cost.

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota is the recipient of a $40 million donation to strengthen its diabetes research with a goal of hastening the discovery of a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

The gift from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation is the second largest ever to the university. It's also also the second largest donation by an individual or family foundation to diabetes research in the United States.

School officials say they plan to rename its Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation, which will now be known as the Schulze Diabetes Institute.

Bernhard Hering, the co-director of the institute, says finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes is possible and that the gift will inject a sense of urgency to that effort.

Schulze is the founder and chairman of electronics retailer Best Buy Co. Inc., which is based in Richfield.

COLUMBIA — Smokers will have fewer places to light up next month at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Officials announced Thursday that a policy that takes effect Jan. 20 will ban smoking inside all university-owned or leased property. Smoking also will be prohibited within 20 feet of building entrances, exits, windows and fresh-air intake systems.

Designated smoking areas will be excluded from the ban. And smoking that is part of approved academic research is allowed.

University officials intend to further restrict smoking in July 2011, permitting it only in designated smoking areas.

Chancellor Brady Deaton said the ultimate goal is to have the campus smoke-free by January 2014.

LINCOLN — Three more Nebraska cities will increase their local sales tax rate to 1 percent on Jan. 1.

DeWeese, Pender and St. Edward will all increase their local tax rates from half a percent point to 1 percent.

Tax Commissioner Doug Ewald says retailers in the three cities are being notified of the changes now, so they'll be ready.

The Nebraska Department of Revenue says that after those changes only three cities and one county will have a tax rate of half a percent. A 1 percent sales tax rate will be used in 105 Nebraska cities, and the 1.5 percent sales tax rate will be used in 65 cities.

BISMARCK — A state fund that helps North Dakota ethanol plants is expected to run out of money this month.

Ethanol producers can tap into the fund when corn prices are high. Randy Schneider, president of the North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association, said that's what happened in the third quarter of the year when corn sold for nearly $6 a bushel.

The fund has about $2.4 million. What's left will be apportioned to Red Trail Energy, Blue Flint Ethanol and VeraSun Hankinson.

Producers are eligible for a maximum of $1.6 million a year and $10 million total. Money for the fund comes from farm-vehicle registration fees and agricultural fuel refunds.

State Commerce Commissioner Shane Goettle said the Legislature created the fund in 2005 to help startup plants in a volatile industry.

"It's enough to keep the plant open, but not enough for profit. It goes into effect when they're getting squeezed between the price of corn and the price of ethanol," Goettle said.

SIOUX FALLS — Farmers looking to grow fields of perennial plants to feed the next generation of ethanol refineries can now buy seed specifically bioengineered to boost energy yield.

California energy crop company Ceres Inc. has introduced two varieties each of switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum, which will begin shipping as early as January, ahead of spring plantings, said Anna Rath, Ceres' vice president of commercial development.

Rath said the varieties, which increase crop yield and boost the amount of cellulose that can be converted into fuel, are the first seeds sold under the company's newly created Blade Energy Crops label.

The U.S. has an aggressive renewable fuels standard that will require 36 billion gallons of biofuels to be blended into gasoline by 2022.

Rath said the nation won't be able to reach that goal using just corn-based ethanol or depending on niche cellulosic feed stocks such as wood waste or citrus peels.

MADISON — Scores of downtown Madison residents woke up Thursday to find their vehicles weren't where they left them, thanks to an overnight towing operation to help plows clear snow-clogged streets in the city's snow emergency zone.

Stefanie Niesen, who is parking enforcement supervisor with the Police Department, said she had several calls asking, "Where's my car?" But not too many of the callers were irate about it.

Tow trucks worked from 1 to 5:30 a.m., moving 182 cars from where they were parked to legal parking spots on the next street that had just been cleared of snow.

The vehicles that were moved had a $110 ticket under a wiper blade, including $60 for the parking ticket and $50 for the tow.

TORONTO — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin may have been lambasted by late-night comedians for her lack of foreign-policy experience, but the failed Republican vice-presidential candidate seems to know a thing or two about Canada.

In an interview with CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday, Palin drew comparisons between her home state and the country north of the 49th Parallel that borders America.

"We have our love of hockey, our love of the great outdoors and hunting and fishing and all those things that really attract us to this northern part of our globe," said Palin.

During her vice-presidential campaign, Palin's comment "the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick" earned her a lot of fans among Canadian hockey moms.

She mentioned a more practical reason for her and fellow Alaskans to know something about their next-door neighbor: "We drive through your country to get even to our own state capital."