News From Across the Nation - Oct. 29, 2018

CALIFORNIA

● In an effort to prevent wildfires, PG&E recently began a new policy of shutting off power at various intervals to areas prone to wildfires during “red flag” days. Some of the areas where power was being shut down earlier this month included BUTTE, SIERRA, PLACER, NEVADA, EL DORADO, AMADOR, PLUMAS, CALVERAS, YUBA, LAKE, NAPA and SONOMA counties, the company reported. The power company has never proactively cut power before, The Press Democrat reported, describing the actions as a “historic step.” PG&E has embraced the strategy whenever the weather service warns of red flag days that include high winds, low humidity and warm temperatures, conditions that are ripe for wildfires. San Diego Gas & Electric began adopting such safety measures after the 2003 Cedar Fire, which burned 273,246 acres in SAN DIEGO COUNTY, the San Francisco Gate reported.

 

●  LOS ANGELES COUNTY supervisors recently voted to stop collecting old juvenile detention fees, which advocates said was an unfair tax on minorities and an ineffective means of rehabilitating young people who commit crimes, the Los Angeles Times reported. The county’s Probation Department will stop accepting payments and cancel nearly $90 million in fees assessed before 2009, when the department suspended new fees but continued to collect payment of old ones. The state recently banned collection of the fees, but many counties continue to collect old fees. “The [state] legislation helps youth and families who haven’t yet experienced fines and fees, but without this kind of move at the county level, children and their families will still be struggling,” said Jessica Feierman, associate director of the Juvenile Law Center.

● SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY deputies recently lured a wayward pig back to his home with a bag of Doritos. Residents called police after seeing a pig “the size of a mini horse” rambling through the neighborhood. The deputies nicknamed the pig “Smalls” and lured him back home (they knew where he lived, due to previous calls) with a trail of Poppin’ Jalapenos Doritos chips that one of the deputies had in her lunch bag. The porker was a hit on the county’s social media pages, garnering nearly 2,000 shares.

 

 

FLORIDA

● A new ordinance in PASCO COUNTY allows restaurants to offer outdoor dining for man’s best friend. Restaurant patrons can bring their dogs to restaurants that offer outdoor dining and have a permit, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Participating restaurants pay a $50 application fee for the permit, which allows them to establish dog dining hours and requires them to designate an area set off by fences or barriers. The ordinance also mandates that any servers who touch or pet a dog must wash their hands. Other stipulations include: Dogs must be on a leash; restaurants must have a cleanup kit for dog waste and dogs must stay off chairs and tables. Also: Dogs can’t eat off plates.

● With Hurricane Michael recovery a daunting enough challenge, BAY and GULF counties banned alcohol sales for several days to keep people from driving drunk on dangerous streets and help keep residents’ emotional well-being in check.

The county called in the same state statute that allows county officials to ban the sale of gasoline and establish curfews, the Pensacola News Journal reported. Municipalities within the county had the option to ignore the alcohol ban and pass their own ordinances.

ILLINOIS

● In September, the COOK COUNTY Board passed an ordinance banning children younger than 13 from being sent to juvenile detention. A Chicago judge has ruled that state law to the contrary prevails, The Chicago Tribune reported. Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Michael Toomin wrote in his ruling that the county’s ban provides no viable alternative to incarceration for children who pose a public threat.

● GRUNDY COUNTY is trying to solve its only cold case, from 1976. Forty-two years ago, an unidentified black woman was found dead in a ditch within a mile of Interstate 80, the ABC-7 affiliate reported. “She was partially clothed, with a gunshot wound to the head,” said Grundy County Coroner John Callahan. “It’s bothered me, knowing she’s someone’s daughter, someone’s loved one. Her parents are probably deceased; however, she could have brothers or sisters or cousins.” Advances in genetic testing and national organizations dedicated to tracking missing people gave county officials a second chance. A sketch was created to get an accurate picture of what she looked like. DNA evidence is being used to create a profile of all missing African American women in her age range nationwide. The county has also erected a billboard outside the airport with her photo, reading: “The year was 1976. Who was I?”

MICHIGAN

INGHAM COUNTY voters will decide whether they want to pay for a hike in their phone fees to pay for a new 911 system, the Lansing State Journal reported. If voters say yes to the ballot measure, they’ll see an increase from 42 cents a month to $1.38 a month. The ballot proposal caps the fee at $1.80 per month. County commissioners have said they will evaluate the fee each year. The county is in the process of moving to a statewide dispatch system, called the Michigan Public Safety Communication System. Transition to the new system is designed to give county residents better coverage, improved response times and more seamless coordination with first responders at other agencies, Commissioner Bryan Crenshaw told the newspaper.

MINNESOTA

● CARVER COUNTY officials promptly shut down a Halloween haunt called Scream Town after the owner made disparaging remarks on a Facebook page about Somali Americans. The comment breached a contract that prohibits discriminatory conduct, County Administrator David Hemze said. After the owner made an apology that was accepted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the county reopened the venue but voided its contract for security, traffic and crowd control. The venue owner was left to hire private security, although the Sheriff’s Department will continue to provide routine patrols and 911 response.

● HENNEPIN COUNTY could soon become the first county in the state to require businesses to recycle organic waste, The Star Tribune reported. The County Board is expected, later this year, to approve an ordinance that would require businesses — ranging from restaurants to hospitals — to compost by 2020 if they generate more than a ton of trash per week. It would also require cities with more than 10,000 residents to offer curbside organic recycling by 2022. The proposed ordinance was triggered by a state mandate that requires counties to recycle 75 percent of their waste by 2030. It’s estimated that 30 percent of landfill waste is organic material. The Minnesota Composting Council said finding a revenue stream for composting facilities will be key to the success of the ordinance.

Tell Us More

News From Across the Nation is compiled by Charlie Ban and Mary Ann Barton. If you have news, email: cban@naco.org or mbarton@naco.org.

● A judge has issued a temporary restraining order that bars the NOBLES COUNTY sheriff’s office from relying on arrest warrants from immigration officials to keep individuals detained, saying the county can’t rely on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement arrest warrants because they aren’t signed by a judge. The Pioneer Press reported that the county must release individuals and an ICE official must rearrest them if they are to be placed in federal custody.

The Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sued Nobles County this year, alleging the sheriff didn’t release some immigrants from jail when required, then rearrested them for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

NEVADA

● A CLARK COUNTY Family Court judge will oversee a new division for those whose cases stem from gambling addiction, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The state Legislature passed a law in 2009 that allows for problem gamblers charged with crimes to seek help, rather than face prison time. The gamblers’ court will take referrals from judges who hear criminal cases at least every other week. Instead of being sent to prison or placed on probation with only an officer to monitor them, a judge orders intensive counseling and retains oversight.

● WASHOE COUNTY will renovate nearly a dozen buildings on Nevada’s mental health campus to provide shelter for 150 homeless women and children. A 10-year lease on the buildings will allow the women, children and families housed at a county facility in Reno to move out to the campus in Sparks — and access additional services — and free up more housing for homeless men in the Reno facility.  In addition to homeless shelters, it would include a learning center, a senior adult daycare building, mobile pantry and access to a commercial kitchen, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

NEW YORK

● The ALBANY COUNTY Legislature voted to ban conversion therapy that attempts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors. The ban includes fines for anyone who practices the therapy within the county, The Albany Times Union reported.

● After some vendors declined to bid because of the costs, NASSAU COUNTY has eliminated the annual registration fee that had been imposed on all firms that were interested in conducting business with the county, Long Island Business News reported. The $125 fee had been imposed by the county since 2014 and was mandatory for all vendors interested in viewing county procurement opportunities — regardless of whether they were selected to participate in a county contract.

● Every child born in ONEIDA COUNTY will receive a tote bag containing a growth chart, information on local libraries and other materials on literacy and healthy eating and a copy of On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman. The “Books for Babies” program is being funded with $25,000 from gaming revenue collected as part of the county’s revenue-sharing agreement with the Oneida Indian Nation, The Utica Observer-Dispatch reported.

SOUTH CAROLINA

The HORRY COUNTY Council passed a resolution to ask the South Carolina congressional delegation to update a 2009 feasibility study for a diversion canal to mitigate flooding. The 2009 study revealed the overall cost of the project would be more than $1.5 billion, all provided by federal funding. WMBF News reported the county is revisiting the issue after nearly 2,000 homes were damaged by flooding from Hurricane Florence.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Officials in nine counties are concerned about possible protests against construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and costs that responding to the protests would incur. Similar protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota over seven months rung up $43 million in 2016. Most of the costs were reimbursed by the federal government. “It will bankrupt some counties if it happens,” Kathy Glines, emergency management officer in HARDING COUNTY, said to South Dakota News Watch. “There’s a lot of counties that don’t have this kind of money sitting around, especially if it (a protest) is a long-term issue.”

TEXAS

After three years of contracting out indigent legal defense work, TRAVIS COUNTY is considering creating a public defender’s office.

The county has been using a private contractor to assign cases to a pool of 200 attorneys, but the head of the Texas Indigent Defense Commission said that model has been encouraging attorneys to take on too many cases and seek plea deals, rather than representing defendants adequately.

The proposed public defender’s staff would number 48 lawyers and 18 other staffers. Initially, public defenders would cover 30 percent of adult misdemeanor and noncapital felony cases, leaving the private defenders service, which is contracted with the county for two more years, to handle the rest, the Austin American Statesman reported.

UTAH

WASHINGTON COUNTY paid $1 million for 300 acres of land that will be used for a park-and-ride lot for Zion National Park.

The lot will serve as the western terminal of the park’s shuttle system and help alleviate congestion on State Road 9, which gets choked with tourists most of the year, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“[This purchase] is more about preserving that option for the future,” County Commissioner Zachary Renstrom said.

“Zion has had troubles with RVs. This might be a good place for people to park RVs.”

Zion was the nation’s third busiest national park in 2017, drawing 4.5 million visitors, trailing only the Great Smoky Mountains and the Grand Canyon.

WISCONSIN

Security alterations will dramatically change the ROCK COUNTY Courthouse. Nearly $7 million will pay for 150 new security cameras, panic alarms, badge access to 92 doors and consolidated entrances to the building.

County employees will be able to enter with their badges; visitors will be screen by sheriff’s deputies, where they will pass through a metal detector and remove items from their pockets, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

The alterations will include upgrades to a ramp from the accessible parking and the installation of an elevator.

WYOMING

A coal company’s bankruptcy filing could leave LINCOLN COUNTY holding the bag for millions in unpaid taxes — making it the latest Wyoming community caught between lenders and a delinquent energy company.

According to remarks the Lincoln County treasurer made to a conservation group in May — when the company first publicly mentioned bankruptcy — Westmoreland Coal owes the county somewhere between $9 million and $11 million in ad valorem taxes levied on mineral production, the Star Tribune reported.