Indictments in Flint Water Investigation; Uber, Lyft Score California Victory

FLINT, MICHIGAN
WATER | Two Michigan environmental officials and a Flint water administrator are the first to face state prosecution for crimes related to the lead poisoning of the city’s water supply. The charges, a range of felonies and misdemeanors, include “knowingly misleading” federal and county regulators about the proper chemical treatment of river water, in the cases of the state employees. They’re accused of obstructing a county investigation, which may have led to the deaths of 12 people from Legionnaires’ disease. Meanwhile, the city employee is charged with tampering with evidence to make Flint water’s lead levels appear lower. “These charges are only the beginning and there will be more to come, that I can guarantee,” said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. “There are no targets and nobody’s been ruled out.” [The Detroit News]

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
TRANSPORTATION REGULATION | In a victory for ride-booking apps like Uber and Lyft, proposed state legislation that would have instituted rules for ride pricing and beefed up driver background checks failed to get out of a legislative committee on Tuesday, meaning that any regulatory efforts are more or less dead for the year at the California State Capitol. Opponents of the legislation called the regulatory effort unnecessary and something that would impede future innovation. [The Sacramento Bee]

McKENZIE COUNTY, NORTH DAKOTA
ENVIRONMENT | Residents in this northwestern North Dakota jurisdiction are urging their county leaders to fight a plan proposed by an oilfield waste landfill that would open the door to accepting radioactive waste, too. Supervisors in Tri Township fear that the location of the oilfield waste storage site is too close to a highway, homes and water pipelines, could pose a danger to local residents. [Forum News Service]

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
INFRASTRUCTURE | Public works personnel in Memphis have been busy repairing the third sewage line break in less than three weeks. The most recent rupture, which is sending about 1.5 million gallons of sewage a day into the Loosahatchie River, was the result of heavy rains eroding soil underneath the pipe. The largest of the recent spills sent 50 million gallons into Cypress Creek. [Memphis Commercial Appeal]

DES MOINES, IOWA
STATE BUILDINGS | Like many state capitol buildings, Iowa’s seat of government in Des Moines has been showing its age. The Capitol’s dome needs about $10 million in repairs and the rehabilitation work is slated to start this summer. Funding for the dome work was OK’d by the Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee and it’s expected that the full Senate will approve the spending proposal. [The Des Moines Register]

WASHINGTON COUNTY, OREGON
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | Tech workers in Oregon’s Silicon Forest are on edge with Tuesday’s announcement from Intel that the Silicon Valley-based tech giant is preparing to eliminate 12,000 jobs. Intel employs 19,500 people at its campuses in Washington County, near Portland.  Details about the specific areas where there will be job cuts should be announced by April 25. [The Oregonian / OregonLive.com]

LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO
WILDLIFE | Mexican wolves would be released in New Mexico this year under a plan the U.S. Fish and Wild Service released Monday. Boosting the population of the endangered animals in New Mexico has been a controversial topic. After back-and-forth last year, USFW used federal authority to override a state effort to block the release of the wolves. [Albuquerque Journal]

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
TAX BREAKS | As Louisiana lawmakers grapple with ways to fix the state’s terrible and awful financial situation, here’s a stat that is hard to ignore. When it comes to corporate tax rebates, Louisiana paid out $152 million more to corporations than it took in from corporate tax revenue. “A negative number is always a concern,” the commissioner of administration said. [The Advocate]

BOULDER, COLORADO
SISTER CITIES | The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is causing consternation in the city of Boulder and could cost up to $10,000 to host a “facilitated discussion” over a proposal to name the Palestinian city of Nablus as an official sister city. A sister city relationship between the two cities had been previously proposed in 2013 but was rejected by the City Council after a four-hour hearing. [Daily Camera]

SUPERIOR, WISCONSIN
LAW ENFORCEMENT | An eagle-eyed detective looking at Craigslist solved a mystery involving a Nazi artifact that disappeared from the Douglas County Historical Society decades ago. Detective Jack Curphy with the Superior Police Department spotted a metal eagle for sale on Craigslist from a seller based in nearby Eveleth, Minnesota. "Jack's always got good ideas on how to pursue bizarre investigations," a fellow detective, Kirk Hill said. While it’s still a mystery who stole the item, Curphy was able to figure out that it had been at a scrap metal yard since at least 1976, when a teenager discovered the eagle while cleaning a shed at the scrap metal yard. [Duluth News Tribune]