Alaska Food Safety Funding Faces Major Cuts; Radioactive Storage Idea Raises Questions in S.D.

JUNEAU, ALASKA
SANITATION | A state agency that oversees food safety is facing a proposed $268,000 funding cut, as lawmakers look to remedy an estimated $4 billion budget deficit. Officials with the Department of Environmental Conservation’s food safety and sanitation program say the proposed funding reduction could result in less inspections at restaurants, convenience stores, seafood markets, and other businesses. Last year, the division was hit with a $624,000 budget cut and now has 13 inspectors. In Anchorage as of January, two were responsible for inspecting nearly 550 facilities. “I have said this actually for many years that it's going to take a good-sized foodborne illness outbreak and some people dying before the Legislature will get off its duff and give food safety the money they need," said a former state food safety inspector. [Alaska Dispatch News]

REDFIELD, SOUTH DAKOTA
RADIOACTIVE WASTE | With testing proposed in Spink County to determine whether underground rock might be able to act as a repository for Cold War-era radioactive waste in the coming decades, residents there are voicing concerns. U.S. Department of Energy representatives, and others affiliated with the proposed project, held a public meeting in Redfield in late April to discuss the testing, which would involve drilling a 3.2 mile-deep hole. “If the Department of Energy really and truly does not intend to dump nuclear waste in South Dakota as the final result of this test project, are they willing to sign a legally binding agreement with the state of South Dakota that they would not site any nuclear waste in our state?” one resident asked. When pressed, A DOE official replied: “I think we can have some discussion and see how feasible it is.” South Dakota is one of seven states in the U.S. that does not have nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste or plutonium storage sites within its borders. [Plainsman]

ALISO CANYON, CALIFORNIA
ENERGY | Following a well rupture last October at its gas storage field near Porter Ranch, that spewed methane into the air for months, a bill outlining what Southern California Gas Company will have to do to resume operations at the facility is awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. The legislation outlines a set of tests that the 114 wells at the site will need to pass before operations can begin again. The company has not been permitted to inject, or withdraw gas at the field since the well blowout. State energy regulators have cautioned that there could be power outages this summer in Southern California, if fuel shortages at gas-fired power plants result from the facility remaining offline. [Southern California Public Radio / KPCC]

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
EQUITY | Out of the 200 largest public school districts in the country, Seattle has the fifth largest achievement gap between black and white students. Seattle’s white-black gap in academic success is also the largest in Washington State; the disparity in Seattle is about seven times more severe than in the district with the smallest gap. Compared with their white peers in Seattle, black students are behind by three and a half grade levels. Attempts to address this issue, which require discussion of sensitive topics, have been controversial in the past. Caprice Hollins, the newly reinstated director of equity and race relations said, “[p]eople kept saying to me, ‘stop talking about it. But we have this achievement gap. How are we going to solve this problem if we can’t talk about it?” [The Seattle Times]

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA
MEDICAL MARIJUANA | The development manuals that set local block-by-block rules for zoning codes in Pennsylvania may not be equipped to deal with the state’s newly legalized medical marijuana businesses. The medical marijuana bill, which Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law on April 17, allowed municipal zoning to control where the operations may be set up, but existing codes have no provisions for commercial pot growing, processing or dispensing. There are a few regulations that may limit whether a growing operation or dispensary may be located in a given neighborhood; the law says dispensaries may not be within 1,000 feet of a public, private or parochial school or daycare, for example. [The Morning Call]

MONROE, MICHIGAN
POLLUTION | The city and county of Monroe will spend $30 million removing toxic chemicals from a riverbed near a defunct Ford Motor Co. parts plant. That’s what’s needed for the River Raisin begin a three- to five-year healing and monitoring phase, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Since 1987, the lower river has been listed among the Great Lakes region’s “areas of concern” by the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission, and it could still take a decade to get delisted. [The Blade]

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
TAXES | Democratic state Sen. Frank Ciccone has proposed a regressive rejiggering of the car tax aimed at ending the imbalance in how much more Providence residents pay—$60 per $1,000 of valuation—than other Rhode Island cities and towns. Ciccone’s bill would establish a flat rate, $29.10 per $1,000 of valuation, lowering tax bills in 18 localities and raising them in 21 others. Half of the revenue would go into a state fund reimbursing places where car tax revenue has decreased, but the fund wouldn’t cover all losses. [The Providence Journal]

TULSA, OKLAHOMA
WALKABILITY | Obesity, transportation spending and car crashes—just a few problems caused by suburbia and its lack of walkability, according to mobility expert Jeff Speck. The author of “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time” met with Tulsa officials to advise them on urban planning. In a nutshell: Reduce dependence on the automobile by avoiding continued post-1970s suburban development. [The Tulsa World]

GRANT COUNTY, KENTUCKY
ARKS | Grant County expects Ark Encounter—the 5-story, 510-foot-long replica of Noah’s ark from the Bible and museum—to be a huge boon to regional tourism when it opens July 7. But with more tourists comes more traffic congestion, which the Interstate 75-Highway 36 interchange may not be equipped to handle until its $10 million redesign next year. The $100 million museum features biblical exhibits inside the ark, and recently won a case in federal court allowing it to recoup millions of dollars in state sales tax rebates. [WLKY]