Texas County Government Hobbled After Mass Arrests; Boston’s Pending Cigarette Rule
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Also: A win for Internet competition in West Virginia and Baltimore residents fear proposed traffic change.
Here’s some of what we were reading this weekend ...
STARR COUNTY, Texas: This county government’s tax office and department of motor vehicles were shut down last week in the wake of mass arrests of the tax assessor and 14 others in connection with allegations of a scheme to steal $700,000 in taxpayer money. As The Monitor reports, so many key employees were arrested that those offices can’t function.
The arrests came after a more than three-year investigation into the theft of county funds in a scheme that possibly dates as far back as 2009 when the county auditor’s office noticed discrepancies during its audits, Assistant District Attorney Martie Garcia-Vela said.
It’s not clear when those offices will reopen. [The Monitor]
BOSTON, Massachusetts: The Hub of the Universe may soon join other jurisdictions that have taken steps to make it difficult for people under age 21 to purchase cigarettes. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has proposed raising the age to buy cigarettes from age 18 to 21, the Boston Herald reports. The city’s Board of Health will vote on the measure on Thursday. Similar statewide legislation is pending in the state legislature. [Boston Herald]
DES MOINES, Iowa: The mayor of Iowa’s capital city discussed the Paris climate change agreement on Sunday after being part of the U.S. delegation to the historic negotiations, The Des Moines Register reports. Mayor Frank Cownie told attendees at a climate change awareness event in his city that the U.S. sent the largest bloc of local representatives to the Paris talks, about 35 to 40 officials. “Again, showing that kind of ground-up support for what was going on and showing the urgency of what needed to happen, because many of these places are seeing the effects of it,” Cownie said. [The Des Moines Register]
CHARLESTON, West Virginia: A ruling by the West Virginia Public Service Commission could boost Internet service competition in some rural communities, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. Last week, the commission upheld an administrative law judge’s decision directing Frontier Communications to lease part of its unused fiber network to a rival, Citynet, in order to improve high-speed Internet access. [Charleston Gazette-Mail]
BALTIMORE, Maryland: The prospect of change can be frightening. And in Baltimore, an idea being studied that would change two major one-way thoroughfares, St. Paul and Calvert streets, to two-way traffic, is causing a lot of acrimony, Baltimore Brew reports. “It’s the fear of change,” said Valorie LaCour, the city’s chief of transportation planning. “We all hate it. People are afraid of change. . . We all get anxious. We all want to talk through it.” At a recent public meeting, some local residents said any change would force them to move out of the city. [Baltimore Brew]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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