D.C.’s New 51st State Push; Waco vs. Its Wildflowers

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
51st STATE | Every April 15, the sting of the District of Columbia’s license plate motto, “Taxation Without Representation,” can feel particularly acute. Residents of the nation’s capital do not enjoy the full and equal representation in Congress, even though the population of the District is higher than two states, Vermont and Wyoming. On Friday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wants residents to vote on a statehood referendum in November. “It’s going to require that we send a bold message to the Congress and the rest of the country that we demand not only a vote in the House of Representatives,” she said. “We demand two senators—the full rights of citizenship in this great nation.” [The Washington Post]

WACO, TEXAS
PUBLIC WORKS | A former environmental consultant wants the Waco city government to let some areas of parks and road medians grow wild and not mow them. It’ll allow native plants and wildflowers to flourish and also reduce mowing costs. “They try to make everything look like a golf course,” according to David Morrow. “These are nice repositories of native plants.” [Waco Tribune-Herald]

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA
TRAFFIC SAFETY | Speed limits on rural highways have been bumped up in many states in recent years, including South Dakota, where the limit recently rose from 75 mph to 80 mph. If the Mount Rushmore State’s experience follows historical trends, highway deaths could spike by 8 percent. “State policymakers should keep this trade-off in mind when considering proposals to raise speed limits,” wrote Charles M. Farmer, the author of an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study on higher speed limits. [Rapid City Journal]

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
LAW ENFORCEMENT RECRUITMENT | Police forces in South Carolina’s Lowcountry are having big recruitment challenges. For the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, which currently has 287 deputies, there’s a shortage of 32 officers, plus 60 vacancies at its jail. In the city of North Charleston, there are 16 vacancies in its 357-officer force. New recruitment methods, including social media and advertising campaigns, are being used to find the personnel the law enforcement agencies need. [The Post and Courier]

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI
GUNS | Mississippi churches can employ armed security following Gov. Phil Bryant’s signing of a controversial “protection” bill into law Friday. The legislation came in response to the racially motivated mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, last June. But police agencies worry the policy will allow violent criminals, people with mental illnesses and substance abusers to carry concealed, loaded guns. [The Clarion-Ledger]

HONOLULU, HAWAII
HOMELESSNESS | A Honolulu city councilman is proposing legislation that would require all commercial businesses that have shopping carts to take extra steps, like having wheel-locking devices, to ensure they don’t leave their property. Honolulu’s growing homeless population often takes shopping carts from businesses and later abandon them when they break down or for other reasons, creating litter and blight. Under legislation filed by Councilman Trevor Ozawa, businesses without a “removal mitigation system” could be fined $2,000 per day. [Honolulu Civil Beat]

SHAPLEIGH, MAINE
OPIOID CRISIS | A majority of Maine residents who seek out cannabis for medical purposes are doing so to seek out pain relief and an alternative to powerful opiates. “The biggest reason [patients] seek out this medicine is because they don’t want to use opiates,” said Heather Lemire, a nurse practitioner with CannaCare Docs of Maine. “They’ll say, ‘I don’t want to get high, I just want to get through my day.’” [Portland Press-Herald]

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
DATA BREACH | Baltimore city and federal authorities are investigating a potential breach of employee data. According to Howard Libit, the chief of public affairs and director of strategic planning and policy in the Mayor’s Office, the breach was discovered when a Baltimore city employee attempted to file a tax return and found that another one had already been filed fraudulently. A notice has been sent out to current, former and retired city workers. It’s unclear at this point how many employees are affected. [WBAL-TV]

DENVER, COLORADO
DATA PRIVACY | Educational software developers may soon have to disclose and justify the data they collect and how they destroy it in Colorado. Advocates of a bill passed from the state House to its Senate voiced concerns the data is being assembled into profiles that will follow students into their adult lives. "We want to be known as the person we represent ourselves to be—the sum of our statements and actions, a living representation of our beliefs," said Republican Rep. Paul Lundeen. "But if someone collects data over time, every unedited thought, each partially considered action or any immature outburst, they would be able to string together, through the power of data analytics, a picture that might misrepresent who we actually are." [The Denver Post]

OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA
BUDGETING | Faced with a $1.3 billion budget gap caused by the oil industry’s decline in Oklahoma, the state will consider Gov. Mary Fallin’s proposal to fund road work with more than $500 million in bonds—freeing up funds elsewhere. The governor also seeks $240 million in tax system changes like expanding the sales tax to cover advertising, items purchased by commercial airlines and sports tickets. Oklahoma’s Health Care Authority, as well as the Education, Human Services and Mental Health and Substance Abuse departments would see funding increases to prevent the closure of nursing homes and rural hospitals and teacher layoffs. But most other agencies would not. [The Oklahoman]