O’Hare Airport Strike Looms in Chicago; Will McCrory Concede N.C. Gov. Race?
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Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Tennessee wildfire costs mount; energy-use data sharing in Pittsburgh; and federal court’s bottle water delivery order appealed in Michigan.
LABOR | Hundreds of workers at Chicago O’Hare International Airport are planning to strike on Tuesday, Nov. 29, as part of a broader nationwide protest involving the Fight for $15 movement. Fight for $15 advocates for minimum wage increases and other workers rights. The group said Monday that, after the election of Donald Trump as president, it won’t back down from opposing an "extremist agenda to move the country to the right." [Chicago Tribune]
ELECTIONS | Democratic lawmakers in North Carolina issued a coordinated appeal to Gov. Pat McCrory, calling on him to concede the gubernatorial election. McCrory’s challenger, Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper, leads the governor by 6,600 votes out of 4.7 million cast and named his transition team Monday. Republicans are still contesting votes in more than half of the state’s 100 counties. “I understand it’s hard to lose,” said state Rep. Tricia Cotham. “McCrory needs to be a statesman and do what the voters wanted and concede this race.” [The Charlotte Observer]
STREET VENDING | Once seen as public-health risks that jeopardized taxpaying businesses, food carts could see their New York City permits double as city council members look to legitimize a working-poor staple that’s spawned a black market for leases as high as $30,000. [Bloomberg]
BENCHMARKING | Nonresidential buildings of 50,000 square feet or more must share their energy and water usage data with Pittsburgh thanks to a new ordinance signed by Mayor Bill Peduto, part of a citywide effort to improve efficiencies. [Pittsburgh Business Times]
TALENT | President-elect Trump’s team could look to Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s administration for talent. Staff in the Maine departments of health and human services and agriculture are among those that could get considered for positions with the incoming presidential administration, according to “a Republican source.” [Bangor Daily News]
ENVIRONMENT | More than five years of drought in California have contributed to the deaths of more than 100 million trees across the state over a six-year period. Sixty-two million died this year alone. These dead and dying trees heighten the risk of major wildfires, even after a year of record-setting blazes. [San Francisco Chronicle]
WILDFIRES | Tennessee wildfires will cost state forestry officials an estimated $5.5 million to fight, despite an expected $900,000 federal reimbursement, because most crews and equipment come from outside as far away as Alaska. Timber sales are expected to stall, too. [The Progress]
WATER CRISIS | Michigan Treasurer Nick Khouri and the Flint Receivership Transition Advisory Board appealed a federal court order, requiring the state and city to deliver bottled water to every resident without a verified filter at home, on the grounds the resulting burden is “insurmountable”. [The Detroit News]
PUBLIC LIBRARIES | Newly elected Miami-Dade County commissioner Joe Martinez, says his first order of business once in office will be to nix the words “West End” from the name of the West End Regional Library. Until last year the facility was called the West Kendall Regional Library. Outgoing commissioner Juan C. Zapata pushed to rename it as part of a rebranding initiative for the area that has been called “West Kendall.” Martinez said: “It’s all known as West Kendall. It’s the name we’ve had for such a long time.” [The Miami Herald]
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