More Pink Slips for Connecticut State Workers; Oregonians vs. California Transplants

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
WORKFORCE | Layoffs in Connecticut’s state government continued this week with 71 workers in the Department of Social Services losing their jobs on Tuesday, including 40 clerical workers. On Monday, 165 state workers in the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services were notified that their jobs were being eliminated. "This is a difficult process—for state government and for all of our employees,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said on Monday. “But it’s one that nevertheless must occur as we adapt to our new economic reality. State government cannot provide all the services it has always delivered.” [CT Mirror]

WEST LINN, OREGON
INTERSTATE RELATIONS | It’s no secret that some Oregonians harbor ill-will toward Californians who move to the Beaver State. The northward migration of California residents across the border has been blamed for rising housing costs and other quality of life issues. One West Linn resident and California transplant Daniel Bullington set up a GoFundMe page asking Oregonians to raise $3,500 so he can move back to the Golden State. [The Oregonian]

LANSING, MICHIGAN
STATE GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT | Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has announced a series of staff changes within his executive office and administration amid the ongoing Flint water crisis. "The people I'm appointing to these new roles understand that our state faces many challenges right now but that in Michigan we don't shy away from problems—we tackle them head on to make things better for everyone." Some of the positions impacted include a new chief legal counsel, cabinet director, deputy chief of staff, press secretary and deputy press secretary. [MLive.com]

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
REGULATIONS | The District of Columbia, a completely urban jurisdiction that has many of the governance responsibilities of the 50 states, lacks its own department of agriculture. That was a problem for D.C.’s first cheesemaker, Sona Creamery, which had to jump through all sorts of regulatory hoops and get a food code variance from the Department of Health in order to make cheese. The owners of the creamery say that the regulatory delays in getting their business off the ground contributed to the the failure of their business, which closed for good on April 11. [Washington City Paper]

PORTLAND, MAINE
CRIME | You can thieve a statue, but you can’t steal a symbol. The Portland International Jetport’s porcupine sculpture went missing from a collection of 10 animal art pieces around late March but resurfaced in the form of a Twitter account for the Portland Porcupine. So far @PWMPorcupine has spent most of its time pondering its disappearance: “It's not that I'm missing. It's just that my job was one of the 900 affected jobs @Governor_LePage was talking about…” [Bangor Daily News]

SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY
PARKING | Two proposed park-and-ride lots near the major train station, Secaucus Junction, would add five times more spaces in the industrial neighborhood and transform regional commuting patterns. The 4,100 spaces would dramatically cut down on the number of Hudson County residents driving into New York City. One lot would be twice as big as anything New Jersey Transit currently owns but could be challenging to develop. Meanwhile, the smaller lot would feature both outdoor parking and indoor mechanical lifts for stacking vehicles, but first site zoning must be changed. [Bergen Record]

CHEYENNE, WYOMING
DATA COLLECTION | A coalition of open data activists filed a new lawsuit calling Wyoming’s revised data trespass laws unconstitutional. People are currently prohibited from trespassing on private land to collect data, but the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Center for Food Safety and National Press Photographers Association are among groups arguing they’re being prevented from communicating with government based on content. “The data censorship laws make criminals and scofflaws of those who collect information necessary to speak out about what they see and find on lands within Wyoming,” reads the complaint. [Casper Star Tribune]

NEW YORK, NEW YORK
CORRUPTION | U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, warned Tuesday night that the governor’s administration and mayor’s offices around the Empire State are on his radar. “We will keep looking hard at corruption in our legislative branch, as we have been. But not just there: in the executive branch too, both in city and in state government,” he said during a speech in Manhattan. Bharara’s office has recently spearheaded investigations that led to convictions of two of New York’s top legislative leaders—Sheldon Silver, the ex-New York Assembly speaker who wielded power in Albany for over two decades, and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. Bharara did not refer to specific investigations Tuesday but said: “stay tuned as we finally hold the executive branch accountable.” [Observer]

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
PUBLIC HEALTH | Misconceptions about the benefits of delivering babies by cesarean section may explain why Miami-Dade hospitals employ the procedure for more low-risk births than almost anywhere else in the U.S. About 40 percent of first-time, low-risk deliveries in Miami were C-sections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Hispanic women in Florida—often from Argentina and Chile—are more likely to opt for the procedure. “In those countries the C-section rate is very high, and the patients are used to delivering by C-section,” said one area obstetrician. “There’s some cultural thought that if I deliver vaginally, my sexual function might not be the same as before.” Other experts cited physician preference and increased cost for the higher rate of C-sections, and doctors differed on whether the procedure raised patient risk. [Miami Herald]

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
MARIJUANA | Residents of Los Angeles County can put away their gardening equipment. County supervisors voted to temporarily ban all cultivation of medical marijuana in unincorporated areas of the county. The ban, which lasts for 45 days but can be extended for up to two years, was put in effect in part to allow for a study to be done on the impact that growing would have on the community and the surrounding environment. Politics, rather than the results of the study, may have a greater effect on lifting the ban. Two members of the board of supervisors are leaving their posts due to term limits. When they do, the board will likely lean to the left. [KPCC / Southern California Public Radio]