Roundup: A gathering of mayoral minds, Florida's farewell to AP psychology and one last ban on self-serve gas.

It’s Saturday, Aug. 5, and we’d like to welcome you to the weekly State and Local Roundup. There’s plenty to keep tabs on, with AP psychology being “effectively banned” in Florida, the death of New Jersey’s trailblazing lieutenant governor and continuing redistricting battles in Wisconsin and Alabama. But first we’ll start with four mayors sharing ideas about tackling homelessness, violence and other issues confronting city officials.

The mayors of the country’s four largest cities—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston—gathered last week to swap ideas about how to tackle some of their biggest problems. But as prominent Black politicians, they also traded stories and advice about the extra scrutiny they face from the media and the public.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who is serving in his last year because of term limits, showed Karen Bass of Los Angeles and Brandon Johnson of Chicago a city facility that houses and provides counseling services for people experiencing homelessness, a major problem in both of the visitors’ hometowns. New York Mayor Eric Adams toured the operation separately.

Both Bass and Johnson were impressed with Houston’s coordination with other service providers, including Harris County and nonprofits, according to the Houston Chronicle .?

“One of our problems in Los Angeles has frankly been finger-pointing and infighting between the city and the county,” Bass said on the tour, adding that she is working on addressing that long-standing problem.?

The Chicago mayor noted that the intake center they toured was on city property but was run by a nonprofit. “Governments do not have to be intimidated by service providers, and service providers don't have to be skeptics of governments,” Johnson said.

The four mayors also discussed their challenges in offices at a recent conference of the National Urban League (see transcript or video ). The group’s president, Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans, moderated.?

Turner, the longest serving of the group, stressed the need to have staff that not only were bright but shared a mayor’s vision. “When people show you that they are not rowing in the same direction, you do what we do, and you call them in at four o’clock on a Friday, and you thank them for their service, but their season here has passed,” he said.

Adams, who has had a cantankerous relationship with the New York press and his own city council, stressed the need for focus. “I wake up every day with a clear agenda, and I’m not going to be distracted,” he said. He said he wanted a diverse staff that shared his vision. “If you want to be on my team, you have to have gone through a lot so you could help people who are going through a lot. That is how you run a city.” Read more here.

News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs, and Notable Events

• AP psychology is “effectively banned” in Florida. The College Board announced Thursday that Florida school districts should no longer offer Advanced Placement Psychology. Under a Florida rule, instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation is restricted in most cases through the 12th grade. The College Board, the nonprofit that oversees advanced placement courses and the SAT, revoked its support for AP Psychology in Florida, saying it would not abide by the state’s demand to remove a longstanding section on gender and sexual orientation. “The Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state,” the group said in a statement.
• New Jersey’s trailblazing lieutenant governor has died. Sheila Oliver, New Jersey’s lieutenant governor and the first Black woman to hold statewide elected office there, died Tuesday after being rushed to the hospital the day before. She was 71. Oliver, a Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor in 2017 as Gov. Phil Murphy’s running mate after serving for more than 15 years in the legislature. In 2010, she became the first Black woman to lead the predominantly male state Assembly. Oliver had been serving as acting governor of New Jersey since Murphy and his family left last weekend for a vacation in Italy. The gubernatorial responsibilities shifted to the Senate president, Nick Scutari, as dictated by the state Constitution, after Oliver died.
• Don’t call it “toilet to tap.” Californians could drink highly purified sewage water that is piped directly into drinking water supplies for the first time under proposed rules unveiled by state water officials. The drought-prone state has turned to recycled water for more than 60 years to bolster its scarce supplies, but the current regulations require it to first make a pit stop in a reservoir or an aquifer before it can flow to taps. The new rules, mandated by state law, would require extensive treatment and monitoring before wastewater can be piped to taps or mingled with raw water upstream of a drinking water treatment plant.

Find more News to Use here .

Picture of the Week

“When it comes to official portraits of governors past, size apparently matters,” wrote Maryland Matters , in a story about the sudden disappearance of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s official portrait. The portrait was unveiled in July and sent to what was to be its home in the Governor’s Reception Room inside the State House. But O’Malley’s portrait, hanging on the wall between former Govs. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Larry Hogan, was noticeably smaller. How much smaller? According to the publication, at 1,200 square inches, O’Malley’s was roughly 30% smaller than either Ehrlich’s or Hogan’s. It was more than 55% smaller than those of Govs. Parris Glendening and William Donald Schaefer. Now, the artist who painted O’Malley’s portrait will paint a new portrait that better matches the size of the other gubernatorial portraits. (Photo by Joe Andrucyk, courtesy of the Executive Office of the Governor)

Government in Numbers

1

The number of states that ban self-serve gas . Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek will let a bill allowing self-serve gasoline across the state become law, ending a 72-year ban on most drivers pumping their own gas. New Jersey will be the only state that bans self-serve gas.

ICYMI

For states, the rollout of 988 still faces some challenges

One year in, states are struggling to staff up the suicide prevention lifeline and get the word out about its existence.

BY KERY MURAKAMI

After enacting strict abortion laws, many states are turning to tax breaks for expectant parents

Four states have approved new tax credits or deductions that allow taxpayers to claim unborn children. Nearly a dozen are expected to follow. But do these laws actually help expectant mothers?

BY LIZ FARMER

In national race to build EV chargers, a few states emerge as big winners

State policy, the electric grid and business considerations can all determine how many public charging stations a state’s residents will see.

BY DANIEL C. VOCK

Thanks for reading and spending some of your morning with us. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.

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