California’s Cap-and-Trade Program in Jeopardy?; Louisiana Bucks Prison Air Conditioning

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA
CLIMATE CHANGE | California’s cap-and-trade program has become plagued by legal, financial and political problems—putting it in jeopardy. The program is a marquee initiative in the Golden State’s efforts to combat climate change and is supposed to provide an important funding source for a $64 billion high-speed rail project. But unless the state acts “the whole system could fail,” warned state Senate Leader Kevin de León. “If that happens, we could lose an entire stream of revenue to make our communities more sustainable.” The program caps the amount of greenhouse gas that can be released into the atmosphere and requires companies to purchase permits, which allow for emissions. At the most recent permit auction in May, only 11 percent of the permits offered were purchased. [Los Angeles Times]

ANGOLA, LOUISIANA
CRIMINAL JUSTICE | Legal bills tied to a lawsuit over protecting death row inmates inside a Louisiana prison from hot and humid temperatures have cost the state more than the price of putting an air conditioning system in place. According to information obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request, the state has accrued at least $1,067,000 in expenses battling the three-year-old lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of three inmates with medical problems at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. “Is this really what the state wants to do?” asked U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson last month. “It just seems so unnecessary.” [The Associated Press via The Advocate]

DENVER, COLORADO
REAL ESTATE | New limits on short-term rental properties are poised to go into effect in Denver, under legislation the City Council there passed late Monday night. The newly approved rules only allow for people to get a required license to rent their primary residences, more-or-less barring the rental of second homes and investment properties. Neighborhood groups were supportive of the requirements, saying they would help to maintain affordable housing and to protect the livability of neighborhoods. “No one wants to live next to a Motel 6 when you are trying to raise your family,” said one resident at Monday’s meeting. Shahla Hebets, of the Denver Short Term Rental Alliance, said professional landlords planned to “regroup” in light of Monday’s 9-2 Council vote. “We're going to really look at our elected officials and how we can influence them when they go up for re-election,” she added. [Colorado Public Radio]

GARDENDALE, ALABAMA
EDUCATION | After his son came home with a stamp on his arm that read “I need lunch money," Jon Bivens was irked. "When you start stamping a message on a child's body instead of calling...it's not okay," he said. Previously, Bivens or his wife had received emails notifying them when their son’s lunch money account was running low. Gardendale Elementary School Principal Laura Ware said the lunchroom staff at the school—located about 100 miles north of Montgomery—uses a variety of techniques to let parents know about low lunch money balances, including emails, notes, stickers and stamps. But Bivens felt that his son had been “branded” by the stamp. “It's a form of bullying and shaming the kids,” he said. [AL.com]

LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA
GATORS | When the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a call on Monday that a bad odor was coming from a local catch basin, they didn’t know what to expect. What they found was a dead, 11-foot-long alligator stuck in the drain. It’s not every day that the county’s Department of Transportation has to use an excavator to haul an enormous reptile up from three feet below the ground. Betsy Clayton, the public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said that they get calls for gators about two times per year. But according to Randy Cerchie, the director of the county’s DOT, “this was an abnormally large gator.” [The News-Press]

PORTLAND, OREGON
HOMELESSNESS | A pair of real estate developers is pitching a plan to build a $100-million campus that could serve up to 1,400 of Multnomah County’s homeless residents. The developers, Homer Williams and Dike Dame, bill the proposed project as a “one-stop-shop” for assistance and shelter. Inspiration for the campus comes from the successful “Haven for Hope,” a facility in San Antonio, Texas. Portland’s answer to the idea, which would be called “Oregon Trail to Hope,” has been met with a degree of skepticism. When asked about the project, Josh Alpert, the chief of staff for Mayor Charlie Hales responded, "[i]n a nutshell, I don't think the scale is right for what we're trying to do here in Portland." [The Oregonian]

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
PUBLIC TRANSIT | The rollout of the SEPTA Key Card, the transit agency’s new fare card, appears to be going well. As of early Monday afternoon, 1,685 cards had been sold. 10,000 Key cards are being made available in an “Early Adopter” pilot program. The rest of the riders on the Philly system will likely have to wait until the end of the year to finally be able to toss their tokens for good. The only complaint so far of the Key Card’s capabilities is that it must be removed from one’s wallet in order to work, unlike PATCO’s Freedom Card, London’s Oyster Card and the D.C. Metro’s SmarTrip. [PlanPhilly]

FLINT, MICHIGAN
WATER | In the wake of the lead contamination crisis, the Flint River’s decades-long role as the emergency water supply for the city appears to be done for good. A spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Quality reports that Genesee County officials are actively “looking at various options other than the river as a backup source.” The river was used as a primary drinking source from April 2014 to October 2015, and failure to treat the water in a way that would have made it less corrosive caused lead to leach from old pipes and service lines into the city’s water supply. [MLive.com]