Baton Rouge vs. EPA; Nevada Taxi Agency's 'Dysfunction'
Baton Rouge, Louisiana Henryk Sadura / Shutterstock.com
Also in our State & Local roundup: Stories from North Dakota, Massachusetts and Idaho.
Here is our State & Local roundup for Monday, October 6, 2014 ...
GRAND FORKS, North Dakota: There’s now a new date when the city’s financial records will be available online at opengov.com: Oct. 20. As Sarah McCloud of the Grand Forks Herald reports, although the Grand Forks City Council authorized making city records available online back in May, technical issues prompted delays.
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to lower the ozone air pollution standard isn’t sitting well with some members of the Metro Council in Louisiana’s capital city. Councilman Buddy Amoroso, according to Amy Wold of The Advocate, plans to introduce a resolution on Wednesday to express the Metro Council’s opposition to the plan: “It would knock Baton Rouge out of compliance again,” he told the newspaper. “If these new, lower standards went in, it would literally put the brakes on economic development.”
LAS VEGAS, Nevada: The administrator of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, who sent in his resignation letter on Sept. 29, says that “the levels of dysfunction have been indescribable,” at the agency, Richard N. Velotta of the Las Vegas Review Journal reports. Charles Harvey, in his resignation letter, says that although he’s tried to tackle some big problems at the agency, “[f]or the most part, I have waged a one-man battle to address these issues and have suffered professionally and personally as a result. Quite simply, I have no confidence that this situation will change.”
BOSTON, Massachusetts: Despite a new distressing study that shows how Boston’s waterfront will be impacted by sea-level rise, that’s not impacting interest in new development along the waterfront, according to Scott Van Voorhis of Boston.com. “We have not seen any lessening in the desire to develop on the waterfront,” Vivien Li, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association, told Boston.com. “What we have seen is a great concern on part of developers to have their consultants look at how they can protect their future investments.”
BOISE, Idaho: The Board of the Ada County Commissioners is warning local residents of scammers calling from what appears to be a county government phone number. The Idaho Statesman reports:
When scammers reach an individual or their voice mail, they reference a supposed case number, telling the prospective victim that if he/she does not contact them at a 1-800 number within a specific time frame to pay an overdue bill, that uniformed officers will arrive at their door to arrest them.
The county is urging residents that if they receive such a call the county or law enforcement.