Indiana Goes After Card-Playing Senior Citizens; Kansas City Is Plagued by Disasters
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Also: Transparency changes in Massachusetts? Plus a major cross-country disruption in the middle of the desert.
Here are some stories we’ve been reading ...
MUNCIE, Indiana: Senior citizens who have grown accustomed to pay-to-play activities like bridge and euchre have been put on notice by the Indiana Gaming Commission: Stop it. The Star Press reports:
… [B]ecause they pay a couple of bucks to play and take home prizes like packs of cookies or toilet paper, they're breaking Indiana law—and state officials have ordered an end to the illegal gambling.
Last week, officials at the Delaware County Senior Citizens Center “notified the 50 or so euchre players that the days of ‘Vegas on West Eighth Street’ were over.” An update: Gov. Mike Pence's office told The Star Press later on Monday that the governor "not only had no plans to 'shut down' the senior card games but would ask the gaming commission to 'ensure common sense prevails' in its actions." [Star Press]
KANSAS CITY, Missouri: The City of Fountains has been the scene of many disasters over its existence. The Kansas City Star, in a special multi-part series called “Doomsday KC,” profiles the numerous times the city has been visited by disaster—floods, tornadoes, fires, power outages, heat waves and grasshopper plagues. [The Kansas City Star]
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts: Should Massachusetts, which has some of the weakest public records access laws in the nation, strengthen transparency for state, municipal and other public institutions in the commonwealth? The editorial board of The Republican newspaper in Springfield says yes:
What the opposition overlooks is simply this: Releasing public records is the law. The need for information on the state and local levels to be kept hidden and confidential, and therefore inaccessible, is rare.
Massachusetts House lawmakers will consider public records legislation this week on Beacon Hill. [The Republican / MassLive.com]
DESERT CENTER, California: The main desert highway linking Arizona with Los Angeles, Interstate 10, washed out during extremely heavy rains on Sunday, forcing travelers to detour hundreds of miles around the impacted section of highway, east of the Coachella Valley. I-10 is normally trafficked by trucks heading to and from ports in the Los Angeles area. It’s unknown how long it will take to establish a temporary road or rebuild bridges that were destroyed. [The Desert Sun]
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana: After the city of New Orleans was inundated by the waters of Lake Pontchartrain following Hurricane Katrina a decade ago, news organizations and public officials reported that 80 percent of the city was underwater. Where did that statistic come from and was it actually correct? The Lens fact-checked that the 80 percent figure: “In short, 80 percent is almost certainly an accurate description of how much of New Orleans flooded—but officials latched on to that figure practically through a lucky guess.” [The Lens]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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