City Feeds Restaurant Inspections to Yelp; Michigan’s New ‘Anti-Tesla’ Law
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Also in our State & Local roundup: A Maryland county wants to block transit connections to its neighbors and San Antonio airport travelers get new library service ...
Here is our State & Local news roundup for Wednesday, October 22 …
SAN ANTONIO, Texas: The city opened up two new library kiosks this week at San Antonio International Airport that will allow travelers to charge their electronic devices and download ebooks and music. As Jessica Soto of San Antonio’s KSAT-TV reports, with library day passes, travelers don’t need to have an established San Antonio library account to access the services.
DETROIT, Michigan: Gov. Rick Snyder contends that the legislation that he signed Tuesday that effectively blocks automaker Tesla from selling its cars in Michigan doesn’t specifically target Tesla. “It was a reaffirmation of strengthening existing Michigan law,” the governor said, according to Automotive News’ Vince Bond Jr. Tesla’s selling model is essentially already banned under the state’s franchise law, but lawmakers wanted to strengthen the existing law to close a legal loophole that the automaker could have used as a toe hold to sell in the state.
EVANSTON, Illinois: This city just north of Chicago has been posting restaurant health inspection information online since 2006. But Evanston, working with California-based Accela, is now feeding that information directly to the user-generated review site Yelp, according to Paige Leskin of The Daily Northwestern. “I think by providing greater access to the data, I think it will probably put additional focus on the restaurants to basically ensure that they’re doing all they can to keep their health inspection scores high,” Evanston’s digital services coordinator tells the newspaper.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: Can $25 million renovations to the convention center in New Mexico’s largest city help shift attention away from the city’s image issues? As Katherine Mozzone of Albuquerque’s KRQE-TV reports, city leaders gathered for an event on Tuesday to give a sneak peek of what’s in store for the convention center. But some leaders feel that the ongoing federal investigation into the city’s police department and allegations of police misconduct have hurt the city’s reputation and economic development.
CARROLL COUNTY, Maryland: Local lawmakers in this county northwest of the city of Baltimore want to ensure that the county’s public bus network doesn’t connect with transit systems in neighboring Baltimore County and Montgomery County outside Washington, D.C., because of fears over crime. As Wiley Hayes reports for the Carroll County Times, the county’s board “is expected to vote on a resolution next week that clearly states the board's intention to prevent the construction of any mass transit system that allows access into and out of the county.”