Deal Reached in California on $15 Minimum Wage Plan; Mt. Rushmore’s GPS Problem

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
MINIMUM WAGE | Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration has come to a tentative deal with union leaders in California that will pave the way to legislation that would increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.50 next year with phased increases to $15 per hour by 2022. Brown could formally announce an agreement on Monday. A legislative deal on a higher minimum wage in California would likely halt current efforts to boost the state’s base wage via ballot initiatives. [Los Angeles Times]  

MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, NORTH DAKOTA
NAVIGATIONAL AIDES | Some visitors to Mount Rushmore National Memorial have been having big problems finding their way to the South Dakota landmark via GPS. If you simply type in “Mt. Rushmore, SD” into some GPS navigation tools, it will take you to a point on a “narrow, sparsely marked gravel road” that’s 13 miles northeast of the actual Mount Rushmore visitor center. [Rapid City Journal]

ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY
GAMBLING | How many casinos can financially struggling Atlantic City sustain in the midst of expanding gambling options in New York and Pennsylvania—and maybe, eventually, in northern New Jersey? That depends. In the coming years, Atlantic City’s casino footprint will continue to shrink to include six to eight gambling palaces, accordng to some informed observers. Others think the number is lower and might end up being just four. [The Record]

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
PUBLIC SAFETY | A new map of the radioactive contamination zone at the West Lake Landfill released last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows that the extent of the contaminated soil is about 100 feet away from a long-smoldering underground landfill fire. The landfill is a Superfund site and the EPA is trying to figure out where to build a barrier to prevent the underground fire from spreading to the radioactive-contaminated material at the site, which was used during the Manhattan Project. [St. Louis Public Radio]

KAMIAH, IDAHO
WILDLIFE | For the last five years, federal Wildlife Services has run a clandestine “predator control” operation with Idaho authorities in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest—shooting more than 60 wolves from choppers to boost local elk populations hurt by the reintroduction of carnivores to the region. Idaho’s Wolf Control Board finances the massacre, which it doesn’t announce to avoid protests. The federal agency’s predator control operations employ everything from leg traps to poison and kill tens of thousands of animals each year, drawing conservationists’ ire, as does its opaque spending. [Pacific Standard]

LANSING, MICHIGAN
INFRASTRUCTURE SAFETY | Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has asked Canadian energy company Enbridge for additional information in an easier-to-use data format regarding the company’s aging Line 5 oil and natural gas pipeline that passes through the Straits of Mackinac between the state’s upper and lower peninsulas. There are increasing concerns that the pipeline is potentially vulnerable to rupture—a frightening environmental disaster scenario for the Great Lakes. [MLive.com]

PERU, INDIANA
CRIME FIGHTING HISTORY | In Tucson, Arizona, there’s a Colt Thompson submachine gun on display at the police department, a weapon believed to have belonged to gangster John Dillinger. But “extensive research” by administrative assistant to the mayor of Peru, Indiana, has officials there claiming that the weapon taken from Dillinger by the Tucson police in January 1934 had been stolen the previous October from the Peru Police Department by Dillinger. And Peru would like its gun back. [Kokomo Tribune]

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
PUBLIC SAFETY | A St. Paul nonprofit is teaming with local law enforcement to run 32 two-hour traffic enforcement stings at crosswalks located to adjacent to dangerous intersections. Every 5 to 10 minutes during rush hour, groups of people wearing high-visibility clothing and waving at drivers will enter the crosswalks, with an unmarked police car waiting to swoop in if they’re ignored. Violators should be prepared for a lecture. But officials worry the misplaced notion that drivers have the right of way—motordom—has already taken hold among residents. [MinnPost]

WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON
ANNEXATION | The city of Walla Walla’s population grew by 3.5 percent from April 2014 to April 2015, but that increase came at a time when the city annexed neighboring unincorporated areas of Walla Walla County. That boosted the city’s population by 558 residents, but beyond the annexation, the city’s population grew by 1.77 percent. [Union Bulletin]

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
GOVERNORS FROM YESTERYEAR | Alabama Gov. “Big Jim” Folsom was a mighty tall chief executive—6 foot 8 inches, to be precise. Check out this Easter photo greeting of Big Jim towering over his family outside the Governor’s Mansion in 1958. [AL.com]