May 27, 2019

Virginia Beach wants to require developers to factor in sea level rise for new projects

VIRGINIA BEACH -- For city staff to approve upcoming projects, developers might soon have to plan for 3 feet of sea level rise, more intense rainfall and higher groundwater levels.

The more stringent standards would be an effort to protect new properties from the increasing risk of flooding in Virginia's largest city as sea level rise is set to accelerate in the coming decades. The changes are part of the city's proposed guidelines for future development, which have not been approved.

"Our goal, as engineers, is to prevent flooding," said Phil Pullen, the city engineer who is leading the effort. "We're treading new waters here — no pun intended."

More, and better, information on a proposed development's stormwater management plan could help prevent costly mistakes that were made in the past, he said. The often-cited example is Ashville Park, the Princess Anne subdivision that badly flooded during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and will cost the city millions to fix.

Read more: https://pilotonline.com/news/local/environment/article_77b5f87c-71ec-11e9-976c-0b4e867353bd.html

May 27, 2019

How Does Obama Feel About Biden's Candidacy? It's Complicated.

Early on the April morning when Joe Biden announced his latest presidential run, Barack Obama’s spokeswoman issued a rare statement. The message praised the former vice-president’s “knowledge, insight, and judgment,” and highlighted the pair’s “special bond.” But it stopped short of endorsing Biden’s campaign. Just a few days earlier, Biden had responded to a reporter’s question about his ideology by categorizing himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat, man,” and when he launched his campaign, his political team — having discussed the plan with Obama’s staff to lean on this message and imagery — posted a photo to Instagram of Biden laughing with Obama and plastered Facebook with ads featuring the former president.

Just as those ads were surfacing, however, members of Obama’s inner circle were quietly insisting to anyone who asked that the ex-president — who’s among the most popular public figures in the country, who’s not eager to turn back into a political football, and who’s also long been loath to publicly wade into intra-Democratic Party fights — was highly unlikely to pick sides in the primary at all, let alone so early in a process overflowing with candidates.

One month into Biden’s bid, the uncomfortable sense that his wholehearted embrace of his beloved former boss is not entirely reciprocated has only intensified, and is now a central unspoken psychological drama of the early Democratic primary as the former vice-president invokes “Barack” daily and the former president remains silent. No one doubts that the two men remain extremely close, but their relationship has also always been personally, politically, and philosophically tangled. (One former senior Obama aide whom I asked about it sighed and said, “The relationship is steeped in complication. They’re obviously close, and there’s trust. But it’s complicated.”) And while Obama’s insistence on neutrality is consistent with his commitment to sticking to post–White House tradition, it inevitably hits his sidekick of eight years harder than anyone else in the race — the former vice-president’s implausible, and uncorroborated, claim that he asked Obama to stay out notwithstanding.

People close to Obama often note that he only rarely weighs in on Democratic primaries at any level, being genuinely wary of overtly handpicking winners. We know, though, what it looks like for him to try and steer a race toward a given candidate from behind the scenes. In public, Obama remained mostly quiet about the buildup to the 2016 election, but late in 2014 he called Hillary Clinton for a talk that’s seldom mentioned, and little known, even among leading Democrats now. The pair had already started discussing the upcoming race that spring, but now he had a message for the former secretary of State, according to four senior Democrats briefed on the conversation at the time. You should, at this point, really think seriously about running, he told her. And you should let me know what you’re thinking, because you’re Democrats’ best bet at keeping the White House. Meanwhile, Obama’s political brain trust was following the president’s lead — that fall, his top political adviser David Plouffe visited Clinton’s D.C. home, privately briefing her on what it would take.

Read more: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/joe-biden-and-barack-obamas-one-sided-embrace.html

May 26, 2019

Good teeth, big legs and a bow tie: Inconclusive report details chaos in Northam's office and how he

Good teeth, big legs and a bow tie: Inconclusive report details chaos in Northam’s office and how he finally decided it wasn’t him in blackface photo


Lawyers who spent months investigating the racist yearbook photo that appeared on Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page said Wednesday they can’t say for sure whether the governor is or isn’t in the photo, which shows a man wearing blackface standing next to someone in klan robes.

“We weighed all the evidence that we had, and based on that, we cannot conclusively identify either person in the photograph, and that includes Gov. Northam,” said Richard Cullen, a partner at the Richmond law firm McGuireWoods, which investigated the photo on behalf of Eastern Virginia Medical School.

The 55-page report the school released does, however, provide a window into the chaos that unfolded after Northam’s staff learned the image had surfaced and Northam’s response when he saw it on the way to a soldier’s funeral, which he ultimately did not attend.

Northam at times appears to blame his staff for an initial statement admitting it was him and apologizing, which he then contradicted the next day during a widely-mocked press conference in which he admitted to appearing in blackface at a separate dance contest, but not in the photo.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/05/22/good-teeth-big-legs-and-a-bow-tie-inconclusive-report-details-chaos-in-northams-office-and-how-he-finally-decided-it-wasnt-him-in-blackface-photo/

May 26, 2019

Many Medicaid expansion patients have diabetes, cancer, addiction, new data shows

More than 280,000 people have signed up for Medicaid now that Virginia has expanded the program, and the state is starting to get a clearer picture of what sort of illnesses the new enrollees are dealing with.

According to new data that Dr. Jennifer Lee, director of the state’s Medicaid program, presented to the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, in January and February more than 175,000 of the new members visited a provider.

During that same time period, more than 81,000 received a prescription, Lee told lawmakers.

“This is probably higher at this point in time,” she said. As of the beginning of March, about 240,000 adults had signed up for the program, according to the state’s new Medicaid expansion dashboard.

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2019/05/21/thousands-of-medicaid-expansion-patients-have-diabetes-cancer-addiction-new-data-shows/

May 26, 2019

Hundreds of Colstrip mining jobs at stake as power plant owner seeks new coal supplier

Westmoreland Mining LLC is asking the state of Montana to think twice before allowing Colstrip Power Plant to buy coal from somewhere else.

The company’s Rosebud Mine is within walking distance of the power plant, which it has fueled for more than 40 years. Nearly 400 union miners work at Rosebud.

Colstrip Power Plant’s coal contract with Westmoreland is running out in December and power plant operator Talen Energy is now taking steps toward a different mine. Some observers suggest Talen is merely bluffing for a better deal from Westmoreland.

"Talen Montana is serious about ensuring that the Colstrip plant remains economically viable for as long as possible. Therefore, it is critical that we not be held only to one supplier," said Taryne Williams, Talen Energy spokeswoman. "Whether or not the Colstrip plant continues to take coal from the Rosebud Mine after the end of this year is heavily dependent on whether Westmoreland decides to submit an economically competitive offer rather than persisting in its efforts to impose punitive commercial terms on Talen Montana and the Colstrip co-owners by virtue of its monopoly."

Read more: https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/hundreds-of-colstrip-mining-jobs-at-stake-as-power-plant/article_5ac5d82b-9394-514f-afef-ed722f4d0fa2.html

May 26, 2019

Regents ready to freeze tuition, renovate Romney Hall on Montana State University campus

The Montana University System is wasting no time in freezing tuition for Montana students and launching major building projects just approved by the 2019 Legislature.

The Board of Regents, meeting for two days in Great Falls, reviewed Wednesday plans to distribute between campuses a $38.6 million increase in state dollars from the Legislature and to set student tuition and fees for the next two years. Formal votes are planned Thursday.

The regents are expected to approve several building projects, the biggest being the $32 million renovation of Romney Hall on the Montana State University campus. The plan is to use $25 million from the Legislature and $7 million raised by MSU to create more classrooms for MSU’s growing student population and new centers for math and writing tutoring and veterans.

“A heartfelt thank you to the Legislature,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado, who had sought state funding to modernize Romney Hall in the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 sessions.

Read more: https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/montana_state_university/regents-ready-to-freeze-tuition-renovate-romney-hall/article_3ec82607-3924-5dab-b073-064ec10203e4.html

May 26, 2019

Helena mayor, Montana US Senate candidate charged with leaving crash scene

Helena mayor and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Wilmot Collins is accused of rear-ending another driver's vehicle and leaving the scene of the crash.

Collins, 55, is being charged with misdemeanor counts of careless driving and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

Kimberly Doherty, a 35-year-old Butte woman, reported a hit-and-run crash around 6:42 p.m. Monday. Doherty told Helena police she was driving southbound on Last Chance Gulch before stopping to turn left onto Lyndale Avenue, when she was struck from behind by a vehicle driven by Collins.

Doherty told police she pulled over as Collins continued west on Lyndale. She later told the Independent Record she followed him while honking her horn, and they both pulled into the Van's Thriftway parking lot in the 300 block of Euclid Avenue.

Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-and-courts/helena-mayor-montana-us-senate-candidate-charged-with-leaving-crash/article_96fa816b-2cab-5a4f-915f-1bf733acd6c7.html

May 26, 2019

Jury awards $400K to estate of Helena man resuscitated against his will

A Helena jury has awarded more than $400,000 in damages to the estate of a man who was resuscitated against his will at St. Peter's Hospital.

St. Peter's and Dr. Lee Harrison were found negligent for violating a "do not resuscitate or intubate" order for Rodney Knoepfle of Helena, who was resuscitated after coding two separate times. On Thursday, the jury awarded $209,100.29 in damages for medical care after he was resuscitated and another $200,000 for mental and physical pain and suffering.

Officials with the hospital, which has since been rebranded as St. Peter's Health, declined to comment on the case.

"It is not our practice to provide comment on litigation or legal matters," Andrea Groom, vice president of communications for St. Peter's, said in a statement to the Independent Record.

Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/jury-awards-k-to-estate-of-helena-man-resuscitated-against/article_0c72b955-0c63-51a1-a745-d61e4013ce3f.html

May 26, 2019

Wyoming officials say state needs costly computer upgrade

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming officials believe the state needs a significant computer system upgrade but the replacement price is an obstacle.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported Thursday that the state Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Interim Committee met in Gillette Tuesday to discuss the state's Revenue Information System.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation says the cost to replace the 30-year-old system through purchase and installation of a new system is about $68 million, including staff training.

The system houses data including voter registration and driver records and is used by officials ranging from county clerks to police officers.

Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/govt-and-politics/wyoming-officials-say-state-needs-costly-computer-upgrade/article_b86ea029-c7f5-54bf-82ef-a31284e6dd96.html

May 26, 2019

Feral swine amass at Montana's northern border

It sounds like a bad horror movie. Canadian wild pigs are amassing at Montana’s northern border. It’s only a matter of time before they wander south and begin their destructive assault on everything from wildlife to agricultural fields and even archaeological sites.

“Oh, absolutely it’s a concern,” said Stephanie Hester, Invasive Species Outreach coordinator for the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Photos taken as recently as last year showed feral hogs only five miles north of the U.S. border, she said.

“So they are getting very, very close and we are very concerned,” Hester said.

Read more: https://billingsgazette.com/outdoors/feral-swine-amass-at-montana-s-northern-border/article_f8122af8-16d2-55b2-bc41-710212a4343d.html

Where is that wall when you need it?