Big Fight Over a Major Texas Landfill Project; Tourism Worries in Miami Due to Zika
Connecting state and local government leaders
Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Nursing home deaths in Pennsylvania; police body camera transparency in Wyo.; and Cape Cod water concerns.
LAREDO, TEXAS
LANDFILLS | Colonia residents here are pushing back against a proposal for a 660-acre landfill that would be built about four miles from their homes. A local ranch owner and his family have asked the state for permission to build the facility. As planned, the landfill would be one of the state’s largest. It would accept trash, along with industrial waste, from throughout Texas, other U.S. states and Mexico. The industrial waste in question is considered toxic but non-hazardous by the state of Texas, and includes substances like coal ash and liquids left over from oil and gas production. Colonias are communities along the Texas-Mexico border that can lack basic amenities, like sewer systems and paved roads. “If there were white people here, they wouldn’t put [the landfill] here,” said a resident opposed to the project. [The Texas Tribune]
MIAMI, FLORIDA
PUBLIC HEALTH | Public health officials are warning pregnant women away from Wynwood, where 14 locally-acquired cases of Zika surfaced. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention its first-ever U.S. travel advisory, and nearby Miami tourism officials are trying to make it clear the city and its beaches are still Zika-free—Wynwood being a tiny portion of Miami-Dade County. The story is much the same around other South Florida tourism destinations, which have yet to see a noticeable decline in visitors. [The Miami Herald]
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
NURSING HOMES | Care-related failures caused at least 46 deaths in nursing homes across Pennsylvania between 2013 and 2015, although the true number could be higher, according to a six-month investigation by the news outlet PennLive. Federal officials say they are now reviewing the news organization’s findings. PennLive also reports that the Pennsylvania Department of Health may be failing to properly investigate deaths that resulted from poor care and that former Gov. Tom Corbett's administration appears to have violated federal regulations in 2012 after banning anonymous nursing home complaints. [PennLive.com]
CASPER, WYOMING
TRANSPARENCY | State lawmakers are currently weighing legislative options for regulating officer-worn body cameras for law enforcement agencies, trying to balance the needs of transparency and concerns over privacy with the desires from some agencies to keep regulation to a minimum. There are currently three bills under consideration that are being studied by a legislative task force. [Casper Star-Tribune]
BALTIMORE COUNTY, MARYLAND
HOUSING DISCRIMINATION | County Council rejected a bill 6-1 that would have stopped landlords from discriminating against tenants who pay rent with government housing vouchers. Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond argued neither the federal nor state government had passed similar laws, and councilmembers hadn’t been consulted during the county’s settlement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that required the bill to be considered. "While I agree with the aims of this legislation, I cannot in good conscience vote for a flawed bill created by a process in which I played no part,” she said. [The Baltimore Sun]
BARNSTABLE, MASSACHUSETTS
DRINKING WATER | In May of this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency dramatically lowered its advisory levels of two compounds once found in non-stick coatings and stain-resistant clothing, putting drinking water from the Hyannis Water System, one of three that supplies the town of Barnstable, over the limit. Pregnant and nursing women and babies were cautioned not to drink municipal water. Cape Cod also faces serious issues with its drinking water because of its geography. Nearly all the potable water for the Cape comes from a single underground aquifer. Anything spilled on the ground, including chemicals, can trickle through the sand and enter the ground water supply. [Globe Magazine]
PORTLAND, OREGON
TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT | While Oregon has thus far limited the use of automated traffic enforcement cameras, the city of Portland, after receiving permission from the state legislature, is in the process of rolling out speed cameras along 10 high-crash corridors. “This is not a sting; this is not a fundraiser. This is about getting people to slow down,” a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation said. “We want the public to make these cameras obsolete because they give so few tickets because people are slowing down and following the speed limit. That’s our intent.” [Oregon Public Broadcasting]
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