With #LindasStory, Police Share a New Lead From a 45-Year-Old Cold Case
STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | Rahm vs. Rauner … a plumbing problem in West Virginia … and business groups target a N.Y.C. Sanitation Dept. proposal.
Here’s Route Fifty’s roundup of state and local government news stories for Monday, July 9.
LAW ENFORCEMENT | In Southern California, the Newport Beach Police Department used its Twitter account this weekend to highlight the unsolved 1973 murder of 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe in hopes somebody, somewhere might have information that can help investigators. Using #LindasStory in a series of tweets, the department “narrated her final day from the moment she left her home to when her body was discovered.” Law enforcement also had new lead in the cold case to share with the public: a face.
“[A]ll it takes is for one person out there to recognize his face, even after all these years.” [@NewportBeachPD; NBC Los Angeles]
After Saturday morning’s controversial shutdown of the Dan Ryan Expressway on Chicago’s South Side to accommodate protesters trying to raise awareness of crime, poverty and unemployment in the city, Mayor Rahm Emanuel didn’t hold back when responding to criticism from Gov. Bruce Rauner, who tweeted: “I am calling on the Mayor to take swift and decisive action to put an end to this kind of chaos.” Emanuel’s response: “It was a peaceful protest. Delete your account.” [Chicago Tribune; @ChicagosMayor]
WILDFIRES | The West continues to burn. Among the numerous wildfires firefighters have been battling: a Southern California blaze that ripped quickly through foothills near Goleta in Santa Barbara County, “which has endured more than its share of calamity in recent months.” The massive Thomas Fire impacted the county, as did the subsequent debris flows that surged through the coastal city of Montecito and killed 21 people. [Los Angeles Times; Santa Barbara Independent]
INFRASTRUCTURE | Intense rainfall in West Virginia has been causing toilets to back up in parts of the State Capitol—damaging the offices of the state auditor, the legislative auditor, the Department of Agriculture and the state attorney general. [West Virginia MetroNews]
ELSEWHERE …
- New York City, New York: Nine business groups, including the Real Estate Board of New York, the National Restaurant Association and the National Supermarket Association, are urging the New York City Department of Sanitation to ditch plans that would divide the city into zones where only some commercial waste haulers would be allowed to operate. [City & State]
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Supreme Court handed Milwaukee police and firefighters a victory in a ruling on Friday that quashes an action the city took in 2013 to change representation on the city’s pension board. "The purpose for our changes was to protect the taxpayers as well as the fiscal integrity of the pension fund. And the court did triple backward somersaults to defy the legislative intent here," Mayor Tom Barrett said. [Journal Sentinel]
- Miami, Florida: Despite a $205 million project to dredge parts of Miami’s port in recent years, it’s “still not wide enough in some areas to accommodate large vessels.” [Miami Herald]
- Hartford, Connecticut: The local economic development mood is upbeat with a string of recent announcements for new jobs and investment that could turn Connecticut’s capital city into a capital for financial technology. [Courant]
- Indianapolis, Indiana: Facing calls to resign after allegations that he inappropriately touched four women at a bar, Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill said he would not step aside and that the “allegations against me are vicious and false." [The Indianapolis Star]
- Macon, Georgia: Yes indeed, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert lives in Bibb County, despite what some people may think. [WMAZ]
- Troy, Michigan: The fired city manager in this Detroit suburb is facing federal scrutiny amid allegations of “pocketing nearly $21,000 from a contractor seeking favors.” [Detroit Free Press]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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