Connecting state and local government leaders
Also in our state and local news roundup: Pacific Northwest’s ‘Green Rush,’ New Mexico county commissioners want restraint on checking immigration status.
Here are some state and local stories from around the nation that you may have missed ...
HONOLULU, Hawaii: There’s a big problem with a homeless encampment site on Sand Island that’s been proposed by Mayor Kirk Campbell’s administration—it might be toxic. State health officials have said the heavily industrialized area “could have hazardous levels of contaminants such as arsenic and lead left over from solid waste and ash dumps that were operated nearby for decades,” Sophie Cocke reports for Honolulu Civil Beat.
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico: Doña Ana County Commissioners approved a measure on Tuesday that would prohibit county workers, including the sheriff’s department, from asking about anyone’s immigration status in most situations, a move proponents say “was needed to boost trust among undocumented immigrants living in the county,” Diana Alba Soular reports for the Las Cruces Sun-News.
RALEIGH, North Carolina: Gov. Pat McCrory announced that he will let a controversial coal-ash cleanup bill go into law without his signature. But the governor says he has constitutional concerns with the law, which constitutes an “encroachment upon the executive branch,” Craig Jarvis of the News & Observer reports. McCrory is seeking clarification from the state Supreme Court and if justices don’t weigh in, then the governor may end up suing the General Assembly.
Gov. Mike Pence's new management and performance hub in the Indiana Statehouse. (Photo courtesy Gov. Pence's Office)
INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: Gov. Mike Pence has remodeled part of the basement of the Indiana Statehouse to accommodate a new “management and performance hub” that will put real-time data in front of policy makers. According to The Indianapolis Star’s Tony Cook, the governor joked that the hub was “the bridge of the Enterprise.”
OKANOGAN COUNTY, Washington: Washington state is experiencing a what Portland, Oregon’s Willamette Week is calling a “Green Rush.” As Kate Willson reports:
Without question, the forces of big money and pot changing rural towns will arrive in Oregon if voters here approve Measure 91 in November. Investors are already circling. And as it is in Okanogan County, it will be hard to say no to the millions spent at local stores buying equipment, on labor and construction, and at hotels and restaurants that house and feed increasingly bigger harvesting crews.
(Top image by Dhoxax / Shutterstock.com)