Inmates in Alaska Locked Up Past Release Dates; Memphis Official Caught With Illegal Power Hookup

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
INCARCERATION | Due to clerical errors during the past five years, over 100 inmates serving time in corrections facilities here and other Alaskan towns remained locked up for days, weeks and, in some cases, months longer than they should have. Those findings are based on Alaska Office of the Ombudsman data, which some experts say likely underrepresents the problem. Keeping people imprisoned beyond their release dates is not only troublesome from a criminal justice perspective but also creates additional costs for the state. Complex sentencing guidelines are one reason people cited for the errors in how long people are kept behind bars. [Alaska Dispatch News]

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
ETHICS | After obtaining an energy efficiency grant, Memphis Light, Gas and Water discovered that a contractor illegally hooked up electricity in 2010 for Memphis City Councilmember Martavius Jones, who blames the contractor, who was hired when Jones was still on the school board. The grant was supposed to be for $5,000 but covered $6,000 of work Jones had done, and other politicians received free home repairs as well. City employees weren’t even supposed to be able to apply for the funds. [Local Memphis]

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
BALLPARK | U.S. Cellular Field, home of the White Sox, turns 25 this year. Although the publicly owned ballpark has now been fully paid for, taxpayers continue to underwrite millions of dollars in renovations. The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, the public agency that owns and operates the park, is nearly $430 million in debt related to work done on the stadium—$36 million owed this year. To make these payments, the ISFA relies heavily on revenue from Chicago hotel taxes, in addition to the $5 million subsidy the city of Chicago and the state are required by law to pay. All the while, stadiums rarely have a discernible positive economic impact on their cities. "The return of investment is really low, maybe negative" for the public, said University of Chicago sports economist Allen Sanderson. [Chicago Tribune]

PORTLAND, OREGON
LOGGING | Nearly all the old-growth forest in western Oregon controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be off limits to logging, while timber harvests would increase elsewhere in the state, under a new plan BLM has proposed. Rural communities that depend on timber revenues and environmentalists are both irked by the proposal and have threatened lawsuits. The new proposal offers updates to the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. That land management framework was hammered out by environmentalists, logging groups and government agencies during the Clinton administration, after rules to protect the spotted owl curtailed logging access to timberlands in the Northwest. [Courthouse News Service]

DALLAS, TEXAS
PROPERTY CODES | The municipal government in Texas’ third-largest city issues code violations for things like overgrown vegetation to private owners of vacant lots, even as city-owned properties—sometimes adjacent to cited land—go unmaintained. Drainage projects are needed across Dallas, which prompted the city to buy up homes in flood zones. “The city needs to take care of their properties,” one resident said. “I want them to mow, and I want them to treat us with respect.” [The Dallas Morning News]

PORTER RANCH, CALIFORNIA
ENVIRONMENT | The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health told Southern California Gas Co. on Sunday to stop a cleanup effort at homes affected by the massive leak at the firm’s Aliso Canyon facility. Their reason: the contractor that is carrying out the cleanup is not properly trained or equipped for the work. Last Friday, an L.A. County Superior Court judge ruled that the gas utility had to provide cleanup services for up to 2,500 homeowners. A gas well at the Aliso Canyon storage facility ruptured last October and poured an estimated 100,000 tons of methane into the air before it was capped in February. Because of the contamination in the air, thousands of residents temporarily left the area during the four-month leak. [Los Angeles Times]

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA
OPEN RECORDS | State Sen. Margie Bright Matthews single-handedly blocked a bill two months ago to create a court office for handling Freedom of Information Act appeals cases, citing the $140,000 a year cost and extra work for the six counties she represents. Several state House of Representatives members seeking to expand public access to government records have added that bill’s language to another in committee, replacing wording requiring police to make dashcam and audio recordings available upon request. They expect the Senate will add those provisions back in before a final vote, but time is tight. [The State]

GRAYSON COUNTY, VIRGINIA
BATHROOMS | Despite President Obama’s executive directive that public schools should let transgender students use the bathroom for the gender with which they identify, the county school board passed an ordinance forcing them to refer to the gender on their birth certificates. The unanimous vote could earn schools that go along federal lawsuits and loss of funding. Grayson County’s ordinance lets the transgender request a separate facility, though it doesn’t report any such students at present. [WXII-TV]

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
TRANSPORTATION | A transportation funding package and borrowing legislation for construction projects remained unapproved, as the Minnesota Legislature hit a midnight deadline for deciding how to allocate a $900 million budget surplus. Lawmakers did pass tax relief measures for farmers and businesses, as well as a new tax credit for college graduates with student loan debt. Bills establishing guidelines for police body cameras, reducing prison sentences for drug offenders and switching Minnesota’s presidential caucus system to one based on primary elections also won approval. Gov. Mark Dayton had requested $100 million for broadband Internet development grants, but the legislature only backed $35 million. [MPR News]