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Los Angeles tap water wins national taste test. LA Times
Minnesota's got its first poet laureate. Minneapolis Star-Tribune
King County (WA) Fair shrinks to 3 days, focuses on farms. Seattle Times
A streetcar named Birmingham. Birmingham Biz Journal
Wow, HERE'S looking on the bright side: MI gov says crumbling infrastructure could be good for new jobs. AP
Got a Heads Up for us? Email 13thfloor@governing.com
posted by Zach Patton
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants his tank back.
Apparently, he bought an M47 tank from the Austrian army and then lent it to an Ohio military museum in 2000.
Now, concerned about the vehicle's upkeep, Schwarzenegger has asked to have it back. It was shipped out to him last week.
The Guv's plans for the tank? No lie:
...he plans to use it to drive around inner-city children who do well in school, say "no" to drugs and avoid gangs in the Los Angeles area.
Two words: Awe. Some.
posted by Zach Patton
You've likely heard of shows like BODIES: The Exhibition or Body Worlds -- traveling exhibits that present actual human bodies preserved through plastination.
Maybe you've seen one of them. (I have.) And perhaps you thought, as I did, "This is really interesting and everything, but did these people really all donate their bodies to be sent on tour around the country? Are we sure?"
The answer, it turns out, depends on the show. The director of Body Worlds promises that every body in his exhibition comes from donors, who gave permission, in writing, for their bodies to be displayed. But you just have to trust him -- he won't provide any paperwork documenting that consent.
BODIES is a little more straightforward: Its curators make no claims that the bodies in their show were donated, only that they're "unclaimed."
For some state officials, that doesn't sit right.
Pennsylvania state Rep. Michael E. Fleck is preparing a bill that would regulate plastination exhibits, requiring written consent from the deceased or their next-of-kin clearly stating that they allow their body to be used for a profit-making enterprise.
"I'm ashamed to say this needed to be done long ago, but at least we're working on it now," Mr. Fleck said. "If we regulate taxidermy and funeral directors, we should regulate this."
Fleck's not the first state official to have qualms about these displays. Before the BODIES exhibit's U.S. debut, in Tampa, the Florida attorney general expressed doubts about the show, saying the State Anatomical Board's approval should be required. The Board fought the Tampa exhibit and tried to shut it down, but the exhibit went on anyway.
Most state fleets not rushing to switch to ethanol. Stateline
Arkansas Gov. Beebe: Rural states won't support toll roads. AP
CA mayor found passed out drunk with city employee. (That's never good...) San Diego Union Tribune
Schwarzenegger creates Cabinet-level post to promote service and volunteering. Sacramento Bee
Got a Heads Up for us? Email 13thfloor@governing.com
posted by Zach Patton
When Rob Gurwitt isn't writing for Governing, he's trying to get more people involved in local government. Rob lives in Norwich, Vermont, a little burg of 3,500 people.
Concerned about a drop-off in attendance of Norwich's annual Town Meeting, Rob and three other Norwichians had an epiphany -- lure them with food!
So they created Town Eating, a food-focused Saturday preceding the Monday night Town Meeting. It's a day of breakout sessions and discussion groups about the town -- fueled by coffee and doughnuts in the morning and a free lunch in the middle of the day.
Well, they're calling it a "free-ish" lunch, since your payment is your civic engagement. Sounds like a deal to me!
Here's a story on Town Eating from Vermont Public Radio.
posted by Melissa Maynard
The nation's governors skipped the Academy Awards on Sunday night to attend a red-carpet event of their own: a State Dinner at the White House.
I'll resist the temptation to conduct a Joan Rivers-style critique and let you judge for yourselves. I must say, however, that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would have fit in just as well at the Oscars in that lovely sky-blue number.
posted by Zach Patton
Georgia's quirky plan to move its border with Tennessee seems to be getting, well, less quirky.
The House and Senate in the state have each passed a resolution calling for the state to revisit its longstanding border dispute with Tennessee. If Georgia can move its border one mile north, the water-deprived state will be able to tap the Tennessee River.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue thinks the idea is swell -- and serious:
“I don’t think it’s a gimmick,” Perdue told reporters[....]
“I think we have to be very careful in the way we proceed in this effort. As it gets more and more serious, the people of Tennessee get more and more concerned. There was probably a better way to do this — legislation’s a sort of in-your-face sort of thing,” the governor said.
Meanwhile, Tennessee lawmakers are debating a bill to rebuke Georgia and to say they refuse to engage in border talks:
Tennessee lawmakers introduced a resolution Monday that criticizes the Georgia General Assembly’s attempts to reopen a 190-year boundary dispute between the two states as an “ill-conceived” and “heinous assault on the sovereignty of Tennessee.”
The resolution, sponsored by House Majority Leader Gary Odom, D-Nashville, says the Tennessee General Assembly “refuses to participate in the Boundary Line Commission purportedly established by the Georgia General Assembly, or any similar commission established for such purpose.” [...]
“What I thought was a joke has turned out to be rather disturbing,” Rep. Odom said.
posted by Alan Greenblatt
With the Supreme Court ready to hear a gun rights case for the first time in decades, Brad Johnson, Montana's secretary of state, sends a letter to the Washington Times suggesting that the terms of entry of his state into the union will be violated if the Court rules the wrong way:
Although Heller is about the constitutionality of the D.C. handgun ban, the court's decision will have an impact far beyond the District.
The court must decide in Heller whether the Second Amendment secures a right for individuals to keep and bear arms or merely grants states the power to arm their militias, the National Guard. This latter view is called the "collective rights" theory.
A collective rights decision by the court would violate the contract by which Montana entered into statehood, called the Compact With the United States and archived at Article I of the Montana Constitution. When Montana and the United States entered into this bilateral contract in 1889, the U.S. approved the right to bear arms in the Montana Constitution, guaranteeing the right of "any person" to bear arms, clearly an individual right. [...]
A collective rights decision by the court in Heller would invoke an era of unilaterally revisable contracts by violating the statehood contract between the United States and Montana, and many other states.
Numerous Montana lawmakers have concurred in a resolution raising this contract-violation issue. It's posted at progunleaders.org. The United States would do well to keep its contractual promise to the states that the Second Amendment secures an individual right now as it did upon execution of the statehood contract.
A marijuana trade school opens in CA. [Insert "higher education" joke]. AP
Fewer youths jumping behind the wheel at 16. NYT
Is there no one who wants to buy the Washington State ferry?? Seattle Times
IN Gov. Daniels pulls jury duty. Indy Star
CA incarceration rate for immigrants lower than for native-born. SF Chronicle
SD lawmaker gets first-hand experience with crazy hospital pricing. Argus Leader
New Indy mayor supports charter schools -- which caused headaches for the last mayor. Indy Star
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