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1 week ago | 
governing.com | Alan Ehrenhalt
Lawmakers last week authorized a $700 million infrastructure package to fund roads and bridges, clean up drinking water and invest in universities. Among the largest projects is a plan to add bed space at a state-owned psychiatric hospital to help more quickly transfer people languishing in detention who have been committed to state psychiatric care.
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1 week ago | 
governing.com | Alan Ehrenhalt
Last year, as part of a $1.2 billion bond issue, Johnson persuaded the City Council to vote for $75 million for the construction of homes on more than 400 vacant lots, nearly all of them in depressed neighborhoods. It started slowly, with the purchase of 40 lots in a neighborhood on the West Side, then 54 more in three neighborhoods on the South Side. All the completed units will be reserved for families earning 140 percent of the area median income.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Alan Ehrenhalt
Garden State commutes will be back on track as of Tuesday, according to NJ Transit and union officials — but until then, buses are still the way to go. NJ Transit brass and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen announced late Sunday that they’d reached a tentative agreement to raise wages for the 450 NJ Transit train engineers who went on strike Friday after contract negotiations had stalled.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Alan Ehrenhalt
Twice, the water rose so high that it triggered an electrical fire and her family had to move out during extensive renovations. Mementos from Fears’ early years — in a close-knit neighborhood that embraced hard work, education and block parties — were lost forever. “We really just don’t have that many memories,” Fears said. “Most things, if it wasn’t waterlogged, it was smoke-damaged.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Alan Ehrenhalt
Wilson, who became a legendary social scientist, ended up writing a paper about the situation and enunciating a more general principle: When planners open up their plans to local debate, it’s largely the naysayers who show up and complain. Public participation, however well-intended, most often yields nothing more than a great deal of public grousing.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Jabari Simama |Alan Ehrenhalt
Oregon’s high behavioral health needs outpace the state’s availability to provide services, according to an audit report from the Secretary of State’s Office. The state’s suicide rate has consistently outpaced the nation since 2000, and it ranks 46th among states for adults with substance use disorders who needed but did not receive treatment, according to the report.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Jabari Simama |Alan Ehrenhalt
The more than 500-page ruling from a unanimous three-judge panel said it was “not a close call” to require the state to have a map with more representation for Black voters than the 2023 plan. The state is currently using a court-mandated map drawn after a preliminary ruling against the state’s 2023 version, and Thursday’s decision opened the door for the state to have yet another map going forward — its third since the 2020 census.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Jared Brey |Alan Ehrenhalt
Navy, said Walters, who served during the Gulf War. I can help you, Michael Bailey said. Jarold Walters was outside a gas station trying to figure out how he was going to eat and where he was going to sleep when a man wearing a “Go Army” lanyard approached and asked if he was a veteran. “I told him, I don’t believe you,” said Walters who had been homeless for a year, sleeping in an unairconditioned car with his girlfriend and, after losing the car, in the street.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Jared Brey |Alan Ehrenhalt
The NJ Transit Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen could strike as early as May 15 if the two sides do not reach an accord. They’ve remained at odds over the level of wage hikes, with engineers seeking increases that would bring their average salary to $190,000, while the agency has pushed for a contract that would bring that wage up to $172,000.
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1 month ago | 
governing.com | Jared Brey |Alan Ehrenhalt
What started as concerns over whether lottery officials violated Texas law by allowing couriers to take online ticket orders has ballooned into the Texas Rangers and Attorney General Ken Paxton investigating potential crimes related to two multi-million dollar jackpots. The controversy has put the lottery in limbo. With weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers haven’t budgeted funds for the agency that operates it.
