3 Arrests in NYPD Corruption Investigation; Brownback Faces Twitter Kansas Fact-Check Furor

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
INVESTIGATIONS | Three members of the New York Police Department, one of them a deputy chief, were arrested Monday as part of an ongoing corruption investigation. A businessman who has been a prominent fundraiser for Mayor Bill de Blasio was also taken into custody. The charges involve claims that police did official favors in exchange for substantial bribes, including prostitutes, flights, hotel rooms, meals, and a Super Bowl trip. The arrests were made by FBI agents and members of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau. At least two other people, including another NYPD member, are expected to be arrested today. [New York Daily News]

TOPEKA, KANSAS
TWITTER FAILS | Critics assailed Gov. Sam Brownback on Twitter in recent days, after he tweeted that Kansas’ unemployment rate had dropped to 3.7 percent. Brownback failed to mention that, in the last 12 months, the Sunflower State had actually lost 700 jobs, meaning the state had the sixth-worst job growth rate in the nation at negative 0.1 percent. “@govsambrownback people exiting the job market doesn't mean more jobs. I know you think we're all idiots but we see right through your bs,” tweeted one person. Another lobbed this zinger: “@govsambrownback I can't wait until you are unemployed.” [The Kansas City Star]

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
SODA TAX | Mayor Jim Kenney signed a sweetened beverages tax into law on Monday. The resulting revenue collected will fund the city’s early childhood education initiative. The 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax—which will be levied on distributors—is expected to raise about $91 million annually which will go toward expanding pre-kindergarten in the city, improving parks and libraries, and offering a tax credit to businesses that sell healthy beverage options. Before signing the bill, Kenney thanked all of the advocates of the tax that helped push the initiative through saying, "That says a lot about us going forward as a city. That we can do these big things and we can get big things accomplished if we're actually all on the same team. You guys were some of the best crew members ever." [Philly.com]

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
INFRASTRUCTURE | The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the multi-jurisdictional agency that runs the beleaguered D.C. Metrorail system, may be dealing with unprecedented service disruptions due to critical repairs and and a backlog of maintenance work, but WMATA finally has some good news to share as it entered its the second major “Surge” project this week: “All underground weather tight seals located on third rail power feeds and jumper cables have been successfully installed ahead of schedule.” The process to replace those seals came from a National Transportation Safety Board safety recommendations in June 2015. [Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]

YORK COUNTY, VIRGINIA
TEXTBOOKS | K-5 history is being taught with 13-year-old textbooks and seventh- and eighth- grade and high school history with 10-year-old textbooks within the York County School Division. The only books replaced in the last three years: elementary science and English, as well as high school math and Advanced Placement history. "The division's textbook budget, coupled with end of year funds (as available), currently places textbook adoption on a 13-year schedule," said Katherine Goff, the division's coordinator of community and public relations. “The age of the textbook and condition of the book, revisions to the state standards of learning and curriculum framework, and/or revisions to College Board AP curriculum are all considered when prioritizing needs." [Daily Press]

NAPA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
ENVIRONMENT | The Napa County government has cut greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 10 percent over eight years even as its workforce grew from 1289 employees to 1,522 employees. Public Works Director Steve Lederer told the Board of Supervisors: “If all of the things stayed the same, you would expect to see greenhouse gas emissions increase at about the same rate of growth. Fortunately, all things didn’t stay the same.” [Napa Valley Register]

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
HEALTH CARE | North Carolina and the U.S. Department of Justice are suing Charlotte-based Carolinas HealthCare System for barring insurance companies from incentivizing policyholders to seek treatment from cheaper competitors. Anti-steering clauses illegally reduce health care competition, government argues. But excessive government regulation, in the form of laws like the Certificate of Need—requiring bureaucrats to limit health care resources unless there’s a “need” in a certain area—might really be to blame. [Forbes]

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
TRANSPORTATION | When Ferrovial—a Spanish firm—submitted a bid to build the bullet train in California, the company warned that taxpayer money would be needed to keep the system afloat. The copy of the proposal that was posted on the state’s website, however, appears to have been expunged of any mention of the need for “large government subsidies for years to come,” as the original text of the proposal read. The state rail authority had repeatedly assured the public that it would be able to operate the train service from the system’s revenues alone. And, when voters committed $9 billion in bonds to the project, the measure that was agreed upon stipulated that the train system would have to operate in the future without public funding. [Los Angeles Times]