Big Drop in Fla. HIV Cases Raises Questions; Texas High Court Blocks Houston’s Air Quality Rules

TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA
PUBLIC HEALTH | When the Florida Department of Health revised its 2014 numbers of new HIV infections downward from 6,147 to 4,613, the 25 percent reduction prompted 11 members of Congress, a group of Republicans and Democrats, to send a letter of inquiry to Gov. Rick Scott. In a response, the state’s interim surgeon general on Friday said it has to do with eliminating duplicate cases but did not detail how state health officials use the process of “de-duplication.” The state has not answered questions on the duplication numbers. The Tampa Bay Times, either. U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor has called for a federal investigation. [Times / Herald Tallahassee Bureau]

HOUSTON, TEXAS
AIR QUALITY | The Texas Supreme Court struck down Houston’s clean air ordinances requiring polluters to register with the city and laying out fines. Houston is one of the nation’s smoggiest cities, but ExxonMobil Corp. and other companies with nearby refineries sued in 2008 over its attempts to curb industrial pollution—citing lack of state environmental regulation. The state’s all-Republican high court ruled Houston’s laws a circumvention of the state’s “flexible regulatory regime.” [Texas Observer / Texas Supreme Court]

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
DIVERSITY | Gov. Mark Dayton called for an independent audit of the Minnesota state government’s workforce and contracting to identify and rectify diversity deficiencies. The NAACP hailed the audit as the first of its kind in the country. St. Paul law firm Fondungallah & Kigham will likely do the auditing, examining whether Minnesota’s affirmative action, human rights and procurement laws are administered properly. "In terms of employing men and women of color and employing their businesses in various Department of Transportation contracts and subcontracts, I think that's an area of still some serious deficiency," Dayton said. [Star Tribune]

DES MOINES, IOWA
LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS | Does Iowa need a lieutenant governor? The Hawkeye State’s original constitution didn’t have one—the secretary of state was in line to assume the governorship in case of the governor’s death or other  But a subsequent constitution from 1857 created the position, however there’s nothing in Iowa’s state code that defines the lieutenant governor’s duties. The editorial board of The Des Moines Register, which points out that the state government workforce has been slashed to its lowest levels in 20 years, is calling on Gov. Terry Branstad to “look in the mirror” and push for the elimination of the person “[s]tanding right next to him.” [The Des Moines Register]

CINCINNATI, OHIO
MINIMUM WAGE | Ohio’s third-largest city is the latest to boost the minimum wage for its municipal employees, part-time workers and contractors. Last week, members of the Cincinnati City Council approved a living wage ordinance which raises the minimum wage for full-time municipal employees to $15 per hour starting in July. Part-time workers and municipal contractors will see an increase to $10.10 per hour. The move will impact 1,166 employees, or about 20 percent of Cincinnati’s municipal workforce. [Daily Labor Report / Bloomberg BNA]

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | Although the Albuquerque area boasts the Sandia National Laboratories and a major campus for Intel Corp., New Mexico hasn’t benefitted from much spin-off or start-up activity from those high-tech anchors. Part of it is that the local talent pool might have great tech minds, but aren’t necessarily experienced in business management, like in Silicon Valley, Austin or other tech hubs: “New Mexico is technology rich, but management poor,” according to Jeb H. Flemming, a former Sandia employee who started 3D Glass Solutions. “Finding an engineer who is an effective salesman is like finding a purple unicorn.” [The Albuquerque Journal]

HOLDEN, WEST VIRGINIA
CORRECTIONS | With substance abuse eating away at West Virginia’s social fabric, there aren’t that many options for treatment programs. And many West Virginians are ending up in prison for crimes related to their addiction. New substance abuse treatment programs are being implemented in state prisons and if they prove successful, the executive director West Virginia Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority hopes to have them in every prison. One inmate said that if he didn’t end up in prison, he wouldn’t have gone to any sort of treatment program under their own volition: “To be honest with you, I would have never went to a rehab ever.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail]

TULSA, OKLAHOMA
SEXUAL ASSAULT | An Oklahoma appeals court sparked outrage when it ruled that a 17-year-old would not be held responsible for the oral rape of a 16-year-old girl because the victim was inebriated to the point of unconsciousness at the time of the assault. The case came down to a loophole in the state’s laws. Oklahoma’s definition of “rape” includes a victim being unable to consent due to intoxication or unconsciousness. But this definition does not include oral rape, which is categorized as “forcible oral sodomy.” And Oklahoma’s definition of forcible does not include incapacitation. “Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation,” the court’s decision read. Rather than blaming the court, activists and prosecutors are urging legislators to change the state sexual assault laws. [KJRH-TV]

ALBANY, NEW YORK
ODORS | Residents throughout New York’s Capital Region Friday were reporting a mysterious foul smell that some people likened to vomit or dog feces. A representative for a local chain of gardening centers dismissed theories that the smell could be linked to trees. "There is no tree that's flowering that is going to do this, and the scope of it is out of control," he said. A spokesman for the city of Albany, Dennis Gaffney, said the source of the aroma remained unclear. The city looked into whether it was coming from a composting facility. "Someone went down there and took a whiff," Gaffney said. "It's not that." [Times Union]

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, MARYLAND
FREE LUNCHES | A federal Government Accountability Office employee was sentenced to probation and community service for underreporting her income so her children qualified for Prince George’s free school lunch program. Lynette Mundey made $93,000 annually between her GAO job and sitting on the county Board of Education, from which she resigned. Mundey was one of six GAO employees in on the felony theft-scheme and faced up to 49 years in prison, though her employer has yet to decide whether to keep her on. The county’s program is intended for families with a combined annual income less than $40,000—lunches valued at $1,700 a school year. [WTOP-FM]