Good State and Local Reads: New Bridgegate Docs, Hidden Time Capsule and Texas Confederate License Plates
The George Washington Bridge links New York City with Fort Lee, N.J. Sean Pavone / Shutterstock.com
You may have missed these important and interesting stories from around the nation.
Here’s are some good State and Local Reads you may have missed in the past few days ...
In New Jersey, Shawn Boburg of The Record newspaper in Bergen County obtained new Bridgegate documents detailing the recollections of 11 Port Authority police officers at the George Washington Bridge during the massive traffic jams in Fort Lee last year:
The officers described the resulting traffic as “horrible” and “horrific,” and at least one urged a reversal of the operation, only to get warnings that his remarks over the radio were “inappropriate,” according to his attorney. It’s the first indication that police charged with patrolling the bridge recognized and notified superiors of the chaos being caused by the lane closures.
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg told The Record that the interviews show that law enforcement knew about the operation to cause traffic troubles in the North Jersey town: “Any time you have law enforcement involved in a political operation, that’s very troubling.”
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Is there a hidden time capsule in the lion statue at the top of the Old State House in Boston? We’ll soon find out, as Eric Levenson of Boston.com reports. A 1901 Boston Globe article indicates that a copper box was placed in the head of the lion containing “contributions from state and city officials” and newspaper clippings. Work crews are scheduled to perform maintenance on the lion statue on Sept. 8, which will provide an opportunity to see if there’s actually a time capsule.
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Members of the Washington state Supreme Court this week asked attorneys this week about the best way the court can ensure the state legislature complies with its 2012 decision, known as the McCleary ruling, that says that the state has a constitutional duty to provide a basic education for all children in the state. “There are the 'going nuclear' options. And there's the ‘trust us’ scenario,” according to John Stang of Crosscut, who detailed all the possibilities, including this one:
Another option for the court is to invalidate all or part of the state's 2015-2017 operating budget. In this scenario, the Supreme Court would sit back until the end of the 2015 legislative session. If lawmakers fail to resolve the McCleary funding issue by then, the court would nullify all or part of the $32-$35 billion 2015-2017 biennial operating budget until the Legislature comes up with a McLeary-friendly plan. In this way, said [attorney Thomas] Ahearne, the Supreme Court would be eliminating a law that is creating an unconstitutional situation.
Stay tuned . . .
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Texas officials are looking for some help from the U.S. Supreme Court to block the efforts of a group that’s working to get the state to create a special Confederate battle flag license plate. As Marissa Barnett of The Dallas Morning News reports:
If they take up the case, the justices will be tackling a raucous freedom-of-speech dispute between the symbol’s backers, who say it honors Confederate veterans, and opponents, who say it’s racially offensive.
At stake: how much power states have in regulating controversial messages on government-issued property.
Earlier this summer, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Southern heritage group that wants the Confederate license plates.
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A plan to keep Baltimore competitive with other East Coast ports by building a new multi-modal rail yard for CSX recently fell apart. But what went wrong? Mark Reutter of Baltimore Brew details how Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was initially a huge champion of the plan, but was “unaware of the blow-back gathering strength in Morrell Park, which exploded at a public meeting last September that scared the bejesus out of City Hall.” Baltimore, which is constrained by aging infrastructure, including rail tunnels that don’t allow double-stacked railcars. “Our port cannot so easily move itself. Thus, it would be reassuring if the mayor started talking about how she plans to strengthen rail transportation to and from the docks without weakening long-established neighborhoods,” Reutter wrote.
(Top image via Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com; second image via George Burba/Shutterstock.com)