N.Y. Gov. Boycotts Israel’s Boycotters; St. Louis PD’s Secret Settlements

ALBANY, NEW YORK
STATE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS | Companies and organizations aligned with the Palestinian-backed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel will no longer have a working relationship with New York state agencies. Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order to circumvent a lengthy legislative process that has only seen support in the state Senate. A list of banned businesses and groups, subject to appeals, will be compiled over the next six months. “If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,” Cuomo said. [The New York Times]

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
LAW ENFORCEMENT | St. Louis police have reached at least 44 previously undisclosed settlements totalling $4.7 million, some of which involve allegations of injuries, wrongful imprisonment and death. The payouts date back to 2010. The Missouri Attorney General’s Office released a spreadsheet detailing the settlements in response to a public-records request made by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “In my considerable experience, police departments do not settle and certainly don’t settle for a lot of money unless there is clear evidence of liability, clear evidence the shooting was unjustified,” said Jon Loevy, of the Chicago firm Loevy & Loevy. “Anything short of that and they decline to settle.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

WOLFE COUNTY, KENTUCKY
LIFE EXPECTANCY | The number of years a person can expect to live in the Bluegrass State varies widely depending on their county, new research shows. “It’s a pretty stark regional difference,” said Derek Chapman, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, who mapped life expectancies in the state. For example, life expectancy at birth for a person in eastern Kentucky’s Wolfe County is estimated at 70 years. That’s eight years less than the life expectancy for a person born about an hour away in Fayette County, where the city of Lexington is located. The counties with the lowest life expectancies were mostly located in eastern Kentucky, a region known for a prevalence of health problems. Local economies in the area, some of which have long-struggled with poverty, have seen their fortunes turn even more sour in recent years—amid declines in the coal industry. [Lexington Herald-Leader]

MOSIER, OREGON
OIL TRAINS | A track problem was likely to blame for an oil train derailment last Friday near this town of about 400 people, located in northern Oregon along the Columbia River. Sixteen of 96 tank cars derailed. Four caught fire. The train was carrying crude from the Bakken region in North Dakota. It was bound for a refinery in Tacoma, Washington. About 100 people were evacuated from within a quarter mile of the derailment site on Friday. But the evacuation order has since been relaxed. Efforts to fight the fire, and to cool tank cars, completely depleted Mosier’s water reserves. A local water treatment and sewer plant remained shut down Sunday due to spilled oil. About 10,000 gallons of oil were removed from the facility. Work was underway to clean up a sheen on the Columbia River as well. [The Associated Press via KATU]

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
RIDE-BOOKING SERVICES | A number of Uber and Lyft drivers in the City by the Bay are on the hook for upwards of $700 in late business fees. More than 37,000 drivers for the app-based ride-booking services in the city learned in April that they would be required to pay $91 annually for a business license. But some drivers who registered with the city are facing far larger tabs. One driver, Dan Carrigan, was hit with a $780 bill. He was told the amount included penalties, interest and fees for previous years when he did not have a business license. “It absolutely makes me rethink driving,” Carrigan said. “It’s really a deal killer.” A spokesperson for the city treasurer’s office explained: “Any business that does not register timely (within 30 days of the start date) are assessed penalties and interest.” [San Francisco Examiner]

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA
DISCLOSURE | State Sen. Al Davis received a $500 fine from the Accountability and Disclosure Commission for sponsoring a bill he later withdrew that would have affected a company he had a financial interest in. Davis’ bill would have imposed a severance tax on the rare mineral, niobium, so resource extraction costs were paid by producers. But in 2011, before his election, Davis bought stock in Canadian-based NioCorp, which wants to mine niobium in southeast Nebraska. He disclosed the conflict after the bill was introduced. A second possible violation was dismissed under a settlement agreement. [Omaha World-Herald]

MIAMI, FLORIDA

TROPICAL STORM | Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in 34 counties as Tropical Storm Colin bears down on Florida’s Big Bend area on the Gulf coast. Tampa and cities north into the Panhandle are most likely to be impacted, though the storm isn’t expected to strengthen further before making landfall. Still, this is the earliest a third, named storm has formed in the Atlantic basin. “Hopefully we won’t have any significant issues here, but we can have some storm surge, some rain, tornadoes and some flooding,” Scott said. [WTSP]

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
TAXES | May revenue collections were $4.3 million, or .96 percent, greater than the state’s projections, but several months of poor performance could lead Mississippi lawmakers to apply a sales tax to the purchase of online goods and services. South Dakota—which is considering requiring all online businesses selling upwards of $100,000 or 200 orders in the state to collect sales taxes on such transactions—could serve as a model. In Mississippi, $303.4 million worth of sales tax revenues go uncollected yearly, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. [The Oxford Eagle]

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
BUDGET | Pennsylvania lawmakers don’t expect a repeat of the nine-month budget impasse that threatened school districts’ and social service agencies’ funding. Republicans predict Gov. Tom Wolf wants a budget passed before the Democratic National Convention occurs in Philadelphia in late July. Should the governor insist on tax major hikes, Republicans and Democrats could muster veto-proof majorities within a month. A fringe tax on cigarettes, liquor reform and gambling expansion are more negotiable. [Beaver County Times]

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
HAWKS | Baiting and trapping red-tailed hawks to more easily shoot them earned a University of South Carolina board of trustee member a $75,000 federal fine. Charles Williams must also serve 50 hours of community service at a birds of prey wildlife center and was banned from hunting for a year, for targeting the federally protected hawks. Williams had three accomplices who have pleaded guilty. [The State]