New Yorkers Love 311; N.C. Sheriff’s New Posse
IM_photo / Shutterstock.com
Also in our State & Local news roundup: Des Moines’ millennial draw, Alaska’s oil worries, and sick palm trees in Redwood City.
Here is today’s State & Local news roundup for October 17, 2014 ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Residents of the nation’s largest city really like their 311 service, a new user survey released by the city’s customer service call-center operation indicates. According to amNewYork, 84 percent of the 700 survey respondents said they were satisfied with their 311 experience.
DES MOINES, Iowa: "In the world of hipsters, is there anything more ironic than coming to live in Des Moines, as opposed to living in Brooklyn?" former Brooklyn resident Zachary Mannheimer tells Matt Vasilogambros and Mauro Whiteman in a new National Journal New America feature, which examines how Iowa’s homegrown talent and Silicon Prairie’s millennial entrepreneurial draw is making Iowa’s capital city a big destination.
The Alaska Pipeline
FAIRBANKS, Alaska: The whims of the international energy market can often cause the oil-dependent state budget of the Last Frontier to twist and turn. What does the current drop in global oil prices mean for state leaders trying to plot out budget strategy? As Dermot Cole of Alaska Dispatch News reports, in “a pattern that has played itself out many times since the 1979 Iranian revolution — when international events created the first big oil spike in the state budget — Alaska finds itself watching as others decide its financial future.”
HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina: The sheriff of Henderson County in western North Carolina has a group of 15 people he’s tapped for a volunteer “Citizens Preparedness Division,” a posse of sorts that while won’t be allowed to be armed, could be deputized for a “specific crisis event,” Sheriff Charlie McDaniel tells Jon Ostendorff of the Asheville Citizen-Times. “[W]hat I'm really looking for is folks who are willing to kind of crossover and take responsibility for looking after their neighbors," said the sheriff, who won’t disclose who is part of the the volunteer group.
REDWOOD CITY, California: All of the non-native palm trees in downtown Redwood City may have be removed due to a fungal infection that is expected to eventually spread to all of the palms. As Bonnie Eslinger reports for the Daily News/Bay Area News Group, even when a diseased tree is removed, “the infection continues to live underground,” so city personnel are weighing options for a more resilient tree species.
(Top image via IM_photo / Shutterstock.com; second photo by Alberto Loyo / Shutterstock.com)
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