News from Across the Nation - Aug. 7, 2017

FLORIDA

• ORANGE COUNTY isn’t dangling any carrots in front of Amazon for its 855,000-square foot fulfillment center under construction, which will employ 1,500 workers. “Amazon’s biggest issue was speed to market and making sure that we were able to meet their deadline,” Eric Ushkowitz, county economic administrator, told the Orlando Sentinel. The company has been given more than $40 million in tax incentives elsewhere in the Sunshine State. All employees working more than 20 hours at the new Orange County facility will receive benefits.

 

• PASCO COUNTY emergency responders got a call one morning last month about a resident’s boat sinking into a depression. Less than an hour later, the depression had grown and was swallowing up a nearby home. The neighbors had already headed to work but firefighters went into the home to rescue two dogs. The county deemed 10 nearby homes unsafe and helped evacuate the residents after the depression widened into a 220-foot wide sinkhole, the Sun Sentinel reported. Located in a neighborhood north of Tampa, the sinkhole swallowed two homes and a boat, while TV correspondents and hovering news helicopters captured the scene on video. Officials were worried the sinkhole might merge with a nearby lake. 

Sinkholes are common where the rock below the land surface is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can naturally be dissolved by groundwater circulating through them, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground. In addition to Florida, sinkholes are most common in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

 

GEORGIA

•  FORSYTH COUNTY fire officials were on the hunt for an arsonist last month who had set three fires within one week. A suspect was arrested after a county deputy noticed his expired tags; once pulled over, the deputy saw “suspicious items” in the car and notified fire department investigators. “He was arrested while the last fire was in progress,” Forsyth County Fire Chief told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Police say the man set the fires in his own neighborhood at a tennis court, a subdivision clubhouse and in a parked car.

•  It’s ROCKDALE COUNTY to the rescue: The county, located east of Atlanta, is stepping in to help save a once-thriving youth baseball program. Interest in the program had dwindled over the years and a few volunteers were trying to prop it up on their own with little help or funding, after sponsorships disappeared, a concession stand was broken into 11 times and lawn care equipment was stolen.

“We have not made any long-term commitment as to what we’ll be doing with the program as far as moving it or keeping it there (at Legion Field),” Jason Redmond, Parks and Recreation Operations deputy director, told the Rockdale Citizen. “Right now, we just want to get the program up and running in a sustainable fashion where we can provide a quality service to the community.”

IDAHO

Hundreds of people gathered July 10 to protest plans to lease space in the JEROME COUNTY jail to hold immigration suspects. Protestors marched and chanted outside the county courthouse just before a hearing held by county commissioners. All but two of 20 speakers at the hearing were against the idea. A contract is reportedly being drafted between the Sheriff’s Office and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement to lease 50 beds to ICE for $75 each per day. The 136-bed jail, which opened last year, was budgeted at about $12 million. The county is about 35 percent Hispanic, with about half of that population born abroad, according to the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs. About 42 percent of the state’s foreign-born population is undocumented, according to Pew Research.

ILLINOIS

LAKE COUNTY Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor proclaimed a state of emergency July 12 due to significant flooding after the county, located in the northeastern part of the state, saw as much as six inches of rainfall in 24 hours in some areas. “The past 24 hours have been very challenging for the residents of Lake County as we respond to the flood,” Lawlor said in his statement. “Once the waters recede, recovery, clean-up, and damage assessment will continue for weeks. It’s important to remember we are all in this together.” Lawlor briefed Gov. Bruce Rauner who toured the area July 14. The county posted updates, photos, maps and videos and held numerous press conferences to keep the public apprised of flooding problems. 

MARYLAND

Younger members of HOWARD COUNTY Library’s in-house ukulele band, Diamonds in the Rough, tune up for their publicity shots: (From left) TC Goodman, Lauren Roselle and Jane Goodman. The library began lending ukulele kits, which include tuners and cases, July 1.  Related classes will begin this fall. Ukulele borrowers can access books, recordings, videos and even master music teachers: All components of the system’s first DIY Education Curriculum.  

NEBRASKA

Out-of-whack property valuations have prompted SARPY COUNTY to file a complaint with the state’s Tax Equalization and Review Commission. It petitions the commission to force DOUGLAS COUNTY to raise its valuation to 96 percent of market value, which is the value of Sarpy County’s residential property. That could add thousands of dollars to the valuations of homes across Douglas County, the Omaha World-Herald reported. County boards can petition the commission to ensure equalization of property across counties.

TENNESSEE 

Officials in WHITE COUNTY have given inmates the option of shortening their jail sentences if they choose to have a vasectomy or birth control implant.

Women are given a contraceptive implant, which works for up to four years, in their arm and men are given vasectomies. Both options are free. That cuts 30 days off of their jail time. So far, 32 women have received the implant, while 38 men are waiting for a vasectomy, The Daily Beast reported. 

The ACLU reportedly released a statement calling the program unconstitutional. General Sessions Court Judge Sam Benningfield, who signed a standing order in May, said he made the decision to ensure that inmates would not be “burdened with children,” according to WTVF.

TEXAS

• HIDALGO COUNTY has seen its first locally transmitted case of the Zika virus, which is also the first local transmission in the United States this year. 

County health officials couldn’t say where the infected man was bitten by a mosquito because he travels through the Rio Grande Valley, but he had not traveled outside of the country in recent months, The Monitor reported.

Eduardo Olivares, chief administrative officer for Hidalgo County Health and Human Services noted that the man showed no symptoms of the disease, and credited a doctor for proactively testing the man for the disease, despite a negative test of his pregnant partner.

• A new policy that goes into effect Sept. 1 requires local county and city law enforcement departments to now pay to use the state crime lab in Austin, which the state estimates local governments have used to the tune of $11 million per year. To offset costs of up to $100,000, WISE COUNTY Sheriff Lane Akin is proposing the county charge the Texas Department of Public Safety at least $50 a day to house inmates arrested by state troopers. Akin still needs commissioners to approve his plan, WFAA News reported.

UTAH

Airlines may be seeing a lighter tax burden in the state, but it’s at the expense of homeowners and small business taxpayers, say five Utah counties that say its unfair and have filed suit against the state for giving the airlines a 39 percent discount, according to Deseret News.

SALT LAKE, WEBER, DUCHESNE, UINTAH and WASHINGTON counties aim to overthrow a law passed this year by the state Legislature, which they say will result in a $5 million shortfall in state tax revenues. The gap would most likely be filled by local taxpayers, the counties said. Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams told the Deseret News that taxpayers “expect principles such as tax fairness and transparency to be followed,” but that “isn’t the case here.”

“That is why Salt Lake County is joining in this lawsuit on behalf of homeowners and small-business owners to ensure that their voices are represented as well as those of large industries,” the county mayor said.

WASHINGTON

The KING COUNTY Board of Health is requiring that limited service pregnancy centers, known as crisis pregnancy centers, post a notice on-site and in their advertising stating “This facility is not a health care facility.”

Roughly eight LSPCs operate in King County. These centers are unregulated and are often staffed by volunteers and employees who lack medical training or licensure. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the facilities because women are given health information and advice, they say, by a biased and ideologically motivated organization or person without any medical training. 

WISCONSIN

A federal judge said that MILWAUKEE COUNTY’s requirement for permits of its parks will be part of augmented reality games probably violates free-speech protection.

The county’s permit requirement came after crowds of people playing Pokemon Go trashed one of its parks last summer. The ordinance forces developers to obtain permits similar to a what a group would need to hold an event in the park. The fees would fund park upkeep and help the county prepare for crowds. 

Wisconsin U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said the county couldn’t enforce the ordinance while a lawsuit to overturn it moves forward. He criticized the ordinance “for its strangeness and lack of sophistication” because it treats game developers “as though they are trying to hold an ‘event’ in a Milwaukee County park,” the Associated Press reported.

News from Across the Nation is compiled by Charlie Ban and Mary Ann Barton, senior staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please email cban@naco.org or mbarton@naco.org.