Ky. State Official’s Firing Follows Warning of Potential Violence; Buying One-Way Bus Tickets for Homeless

FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY
PUBLIC BENEFITS | A top Cabinet official in Kentucky’s Health and Family Services department was fired the day after he warned that customers using the state’s problematic new public benefits system had become so angry that he feared state workers might face physical violence. "I expressed my concern that something bad was going to happen," the now-former official said on Monday. "It was really reaching a boiling point." Reports have cited problems hundreds of callers have been facing when using a state hotline to figure out why they lost access to programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Program. [The Courier-Journal]

PORTLAND, OREGON
HOMELESSNESS | Buying homeless people a bus ticket out of town might seem like a less-than-compassionate and expedient action by municipal officials trying to deal with their street population. But that’s not necessarily a bad move. The Portland City Council, with the support of homeless advocates, has appropriated $30,000 for the city to purchase bus or plane tickets for homeless residents, who may be stranded in the Rose City but looking to relocate to somewhere where they have loved ones, a job or support network where they can find stability. [Portland Mercury]

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
MOTOR VEHICLES | The personalized license plate program that had been suspended because of a free speech dispute that eventually went to the Indiana Supreme Court will be soon back in action after three years. The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles was sued when it denied certain personalized license plate applications, but justices ruled that the agency has the authority to deny applications it thinks are offensive. [Evansville Courier Press]

PAVILLION, WYOMING
FRACKING | Wind River Indian Reservation residents contacted the Environmental Protection Agency complaining of contaminated well water in 2008. A 2011 draft report released by the EPA found fracking fluids had been injected into a Pavillion aquifer, but federal, state and industry officials painted the agency’s monitoring wells as unreliable—causing senior leadership to cancel the final report and leave things to Wyoming in 2013. That didn’t sit well with the scientist conducting the study, who left the agency, obtained the information he needed through a public records request and just released findings that fracking did pollute underground water reservoirs around the region. “It isn’t only Wyoming where shallow hydraulic fracturing is a concern,” said Stanford researcher Robert Jackson. [BuzzFeed News]

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
WATER | A bar serving only free, city tap water? Water Bar, the brainchild of two Minneapolis artists, is opening soon and will feature a taproom pouring pints of select cities’ drinking water. Bartenders will include utility employees, scientists and environmentalists raising awareness about the issues facing water they pour, which could come from cities like Toledo, Ohio, which faced a toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie last summer. [The Associated Press]

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | For the city of Baltimore, this is an important question: “How do you make a light-themed festival of art, music and ideas at the tourist waterfront of a city that just went through a dark year—one that featured massive protests, rioting and National Guard troops patrolling that same waterfront?” [Baltimore Brew]

BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA
STATE BUDGET | Democrats in the North Dakota state legislature are urging Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple to call a special session to restore $50 million in across-the-board budget cuts that were made to deal with an approximately $1 billion shortfall. “The purpose is to more strategically and pragmatically respond to the state’s budget shortfall, rather than just abiding by across-the-board cuts that in some cases make little sense and in many cases fall on those who are least able to bear the cost,” Senate Minority Leader Mac Schneider wrote in a letter to the governor. [Forum News Service via Bismarck Tribune]

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
STATE GOVERNMENT | Republican state lawmakers are giving their legislative effort to name the Bible as Tennessee’s official state book another shot during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. A bill on the Bible passed the state House last year but ran into opposition from the governor and attorney general, who released a legal opinion saying that the measure was unconstitutional under federal and state law. Some conservatives were angered that giving the Bible official status in Tennessee demeans the book of scripture. “We don't need to put the Bible beside salamanders, tulip poplars and 'Rocky Top' to appreciate its importance to our state,” Tennessee House Speaker Ron Ramsey, a Republican, said in a statement last year. [Chattanooga Times Free Press]

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
ACCESSIBILITY | Three disabled New Orleans residents have sued the city government, the Regional Transit Authority and the private operator of its buses in federal court saying most of the city’s bus stops aren’t fully accessible. In 2014, the RTA looked at 2,218 bus stops and found that 94 percent of them lacked “a legally compliant pedestrian access route.” [The New Orleans Advocate]

ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
CRIME | A fiberglass-and-metal flying spaceship stolen from a local UFO museum has been recovered. A 17-year-old from south Roswell that police believe was responsible for the crime was arrested at his home and charged with felony larceny and conspiracy counts. [Albuquerque Journal]