Rural Indiana Town Battles HIV Epidemic; North Dakota ‘Man Camps’ Face Closure

AUSTIN, INDIANA
PUBLIC HEALTH | This rural town of 4,000 residents located 80 miles south of Indianapolis doesn’t seem like a poster child for the HIV epidemic, but in the past year, public health officials in Austin and surrounding Scott County have recorded 190 HIV cases. The spread of HIV, wrapped up in drug addition from the nation’s opioid crisis, caught this community and the state off guard.  Health services to attend to the problem have flooded the area and there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. “I think we have a lot of really good things that came out of the HIV outbreak,” said Brittany Combs, a public health nurse for the Scott County Health Department. “We still have a long way to go.” [Indianapolis Star]

WILLISTON, NORTH DAKOTA
HOUSING | The first so-called “man camps” was set up in this western North Dakota town in 2008 to help energy companies house the surge of workers drawn to the region by the Bakken oil boom. More temporary work camps were approved, and at their height, man camps in city housed 10,000 workers. Now, after extensions to remain in place, many of the man camps will have to shut down starting this July because of city rules governing the temporary housing and their eventual closure. [Williston Herald]

SALEM, OREGON
HEALTH CARE | A legal fight between Oregon and Oracle Corp. over the failed rollout of the Cover Oregon health care exchange’s website has become quite contentious. As part of the main lawsuit in the court battle, the state is seeking $6.5 billion in damages from the company—the primary contractor on the website project. "Oracle was paid over $240 million to deliver an exchange that never worked," says a spokesperson for the state’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum. The company argues the state’s poor management is what hobbled the site’s launch. Oracle is now trying to get the state held in contempt of court, alleging officials informed a reporter how to remove redactions from confidential company documents. The company also claims the state is lying about the fact that Gov. Kate Brown was ready to settle the case for $25 million last year and that Rosenblum kiboshed the plan. Said an Oracle senior vice president: "They have no basis for a $6 billion lawsuit.” [The Oregonian]

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
BUDGETING | Louisiana’s budget troubles are far from solved. Despite tax hikes approved in a recent special session, the state still faces a roughly $750 million shortfall in the upcoming budget cycle, which begins July 1. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat who took office in January, told reporters Thursday he’d likely call another special session after the legislature’s regular session ends in June. “The later we wait to get additional revenue, the more unstable the state of Louisiana is,” he said. On Tuesday, Edwards’ administration is expected to share details about his spending plan for the next fiscal year with state lawmakers. “It’s going to be very tough,” Edwards said. “It’s going to be impossible to fashion a budget that adequately funds what the overwhelming majority of people in Louisiana believe to be critical priorities.” [The Advocate]

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
UBER | Ride-booking service Uber settled its 2014 lawsuit with the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, where municipal officials accused the company of misleading customers with claims its driver background checks were the industry’s best. Cabbies are, in fact, fingerprinted while Uber drivers are not, and the company’s compliance with California laws governing airport rides and fare calculations were also questioned in the suit. The company agreed to pay $10 million within 60 days and another $15 million in two years, if it fails to meet the settlement’s terms. “The result we achieved today goes well beyond its impact on Uber,” said San Francisco’s DA George Gascón. “It sends a clear message to all businesses, and to startups in particular, that in the quest to quickly obtain market share, laws designed to protect consumers cannot be ignored. If a business acts like it is above the law, it will pay a heavy price.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
CONSULTANTS | According to a report commissioned by the administration of the previous governor, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation spent $41.7 million on consulting services in 2015, which is two to three times more than Rhode Island’s peer states in New England, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. "The new administration [has] brought discipline to the project pipeline, including both consultant expenditures and contract awards,” according to the new governor’s DOT director. [Providence Journal]

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
PUBLIC TRANSIT | D.C. commuters might want to let the next Circulator bus drive on by. Ninety-five percent of the buses inspected had at least one safety defect serious enough to warrant pulling the vehicle from service, according to an independent transit consulting firm’s August audit. Issues included faulty driver controls, brakes, steering and doors, as well as an exhaust leak into one bus. The D.C. Department of Transportation owns the buses and contracts with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to oversee the private contractor, First Transit, which operates the Circulator system. The audit says neglected maintenance from Metro’s quarterly inspections failed to examine the underside of buses. [WTOP-FM]

NORTH SALT LAKE, UTAH
PUERTO RICO | A dark money group, Center for Individual Freedom, launched an ad campaign against Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, accusing him of trying to bail out fiscally troubled Puerto Rico. Bishop’s committee has jurisdiction over U.S. territories, and a draft bill it recently released would create an oversight board with the power to audit Puerto Rico’s commonwealth government and file petitions in federal court without local approval. What the bill doesn’t allow for is bankruptcy proceedings like congressional Democrats have sought. "The oversight board must have teeth, but not fangs," said Puerto Rico’s nonvoting congressional representative, Pedro Pierluisi. "As a territory, Puerto Rico lacks democracy at the national level, so a bill that suppresses—rather than supervises—our democratic process at the local level cannot stand." [The Salt Lake Tribune]