Mapping Oregon’s Wildlife Roadkill; Costly Fence Fight Embroils Louisiana City
Dave Newman / Shutterstock.com
Also in our State & Local news roundup: “Ban the Box” troubles in Minnesota and a Pennsylvania municipality with no municipal government.
Here’s our State & Local news roundup for Monday, November 17, 2014 …
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota: Some employers in the North Star State have been cited by the Department of Human Rights for violating Minnesota’s new “Ban the Box” law, which prohibits employers from asking most job applicants about their prior criminal convictions on the initial job application. As Jennifer Bjorhus of the Star Tribune reports, the state “has investigated complaints involving the job applications of more than 50 companies and in the majority of cases found applications violating the ban-the-box law.”
PORTLAND, Oregon: Want to see the location of every recorded case of wildlife roadkill in the state of Oregon? The Oregonian took recorded roadkill data from the Oregon Department of Transportation since 2007 to 2013 and mapped all of it. The vast majority—more than 95 percent—of reported roadkill instances involve deer. Nearly 69,000 deer have died on state-maintained highways since 2007.
BOSTON, Massachusetts: Bay State tech sector leaders and public officials through the InnovateMA Alliance want to ensure that the state’s innovation economy doesn’t take a back seat when Gov.-elect Charlie Baker takes office next year. As Jordan Graham of the Boston Herald reports, Baker’s transition team spokesman says that the governor-elect’s transition team wants to foster additional growth and create an economic foundation where “great people with the best ideas . . . further develop Massachusetts’ job market and workforce in order to compete for jobs in emerging industries.”
COLD SPRING TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania: This small Lebanon County jurisdiction with a population of 50 residents is technically an incorporated municipal government but as Nick Malawskey of the Patriot News reports, Cold Spring Township hasn’t had an actual municipal government for decades. Voting is done through neighboring Union Township.
GRETNA, Louisiana: A legal fight over a local resident’s fence in this city across the Mississippi River from New Orleans has cost taxpayers $200,000 to defend, Andrea Shaw of The Times-Picayune reports. The dispute involves the height of the resident’s fence, which the city contends was too tall and had demolished. The resident is also seeking city records on whether the city attorney has a non-compliant fence on his own property.
(Image by Dave Newman / Shutterstock.com)
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