Governing Magazine/November 1997 GLIMPSES NO MORE NUCLEAR FAMILIES For Homewood, Illinois, the Cold War is finally over. Under the old municipal code for the town of 19,000, citizens were "advised and encouraged" to protect themselves from the "blast and radiation fallout effect" of nuclear explosion. The village offered free building permits and bomb-shelter inspections for those who wanted to do more than just duck and cover when World War III commenced. When the 3-inch-thick municipal code was entirely revised this year for the first time since 1965, the bomb-shelter provision was removed. "We didn't see a need to have that anymore," says Ray Gosack, the community's director of management services. He understands why Homewood, 25 miles south of Chicago, might have been considered a target of Soviet aggression back in the '60s. It used to be home to a Nike missile installation. But he doesn't know of anyone in the community who still maintains a bomb shelter. In any case, the whole concept of civil defense and bomb shelters probably made more sense in rural areas than in suburban Cook County, believes Kevin Philipps, director of the sheriff's emergency management agency. "We knew if someone pushed the button we'd be nuked," says Philipps. "We were working under the concept we'd be goners anyway." --Ellen Perlman THE ELEPHANTS OF ALBUQUERQUE At their worst, city governments have been likened to three-ring circuses. But as the unexpected owner of eight llamas and two elephants seized from a circus accused of mistreating them, the city of Albuquerque has brought new meaning to that comparison. In late August, Albuquerque police noticed a parked King Royal Circus truck that was swaying and giving off a sickening stench. The officers found one dying elephant, two others in poor condition and eight llamas not feeling much better. The city took away the animals, brought criminal charges against the circus and now is suing for custody. "We just took a pragmatic perspective and moved with what we had to protect the animals," says Mayor Martin Chavez. The animals--which were suffering from several ailments, including salmonella and malnutrition--were moved to Albuquerque's zoo, where veterinarians began nursing them back to health. One of the elephants gained more than 1,000 pounds in the first three weeks. Circus officials maintain that they had properly cared for the animals and were seeking help for them when Albuquerque police intervened. Nevertheless, the owners of the Texas-based circus face 11 counts of animal cruelty, and were slapped with a suspension by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For his part, Chavez vows that the animals "will not go back to the circus without a court order." --Russ Freyman ULTIMATE WEATHER Weather remains notoriously unresponsive to government initiatives. As fall segues toward winter, here's the list of America's most extreme cities--places where the weather does its utmost: CATEGORY CITY WHY Hottest Key West, Fla. Average annual temperature: 77.7 degrees F. Coldest International Falls, Minn. Average annual temperature: 36.4 degrees F. Driest Yuma, Ariz. Average annual precipitation: 2.65 inches Wettest Hilo, Hawaii Average annual precipitation: 128.0 inches Sunniest Yuma, Ariz. Average percent of possible sunshine: 90 Cloudiest Astoria, Ore. Average of cloudy days per year: 240 Most humid Quillayute, Wash. Average relative humidity: 83.0 percent Least humid Las Vegas, Nev. Average relative humidity: 30.5 percent Snowiest Blue Canyon, Calif. Average annual snowfall: 240.8 inches Windiest Blue Hill, Mass. Average annual wind speed: 15.4 mph Source: National Weather Service, 1995 data IRREFUTABLE LOGIC California Assemblyman Brett Granlund, arguing against legislation to make smoking illegal in bars throughout the state: "You go to bars to ingest toxins. That's what you do in bars." PRISON ON THE PLASTIC Yes, it seems a little out of place: the new automatic teller machine sitting in the lobby of the Linn County, Iowa, jail. But Sheriff Don Zeller had a good reason for installing the device: He wants his money. State law requires county prisoners to pay $60 a day for room and board. After the law was strengthened last May, giving officials more legal tools to collect payments from inmates, Zeller decided to have the ATM installed to make it easier for them to come up with the cash. Most of his county's inmates, Zeller explains, are locked up for misdemeanor crimes that carry jail sentences starting at two days for a first offense, so they owe relatively small amounts. And because the law now permits county officials to garnish a non-paying inmate's wages, tie up his vehicle registration or withhold his state income tax refund, most of the Cedar Rapids facility's short-term guests are willing to settle up on the spot. The ATM clearly has sped up collections. Of the $25,000 in jail fees Zeller has collected since the original law took effect in July 1996, $15,000 has come in since the ATM was installed in May. The automated teller, of course, also can be used by those not bound by iron. Zeller reports that county employees have found the ATM both useful and convenient: They constitute half of the machine's customers. --Misty Allen FUNDING LIQUIDITY Oklahoma state Senator Dave Herbert, on the day the legislature passed an unexpectedly generous highway construction bill: "There won't be a sober contractor in Oklahoma tonight." THE HIGH (AND LOW) ROLLERS Americans plunked more than $515 billion onto the green felt in 1996, buying lottery tickets and wagering at horse tracks, casinos and bingo parlors. And that's just the LEGAL gambling. While it's not surprising that Nevada accounted for more than 43 percent of the total, the presence of states such as Mississippi and Iowa in the top tier testifies to the popularity of such phenomena as riverboat gambling and video poker. MORE THAN $10 BILLION WAGERED Nev. N.J. Calif. Miss. La. Ill. Iowa Mo. $5 BILLION-$10 BILLION WAGERED Ind. Colo. N.Y. Texas $1 BILLION-$4.9 BILLION WAGERED Fla. Ore. Mass. Ohio Pa. S.D. Mont. Md. Mich. Del. Minn. Ga. Ky. Wash. S.C. R.I. Va. Conn. W.Va. LESS THAN $1 BILLION WAGERED Ariz. Wis. N.D. Neb. Kan. N.H. Okla. Maine Ark. Alaska N.M. Ala. Idaho Vt. N.C. Wyo. NO LEGAL WAGERING Hawaii Tenn. Utah Source: Christiansen/Cummings Associates Inc. A CURBSIDE COMEBACK? Two decades ago, they were common in Tremont, Illinois. Then they became extinct. Now, they may be about to return to the central Illinois town of 2,400. What exotic species is showing signs of a comeback? The common curbside mailbox. In 1974, mailboxes were forbidden when the town elders decided that they added too much clutter to the town's roads. Since then, residents have had to go down to the post office to send and receive their mail. A few months ago, some of the town's residents, fed up with that daily trek, decided that the time had come to reinstate the mailboxes. They argue that it is difficult for the sick, the elderly and people with small children to get to the post office, especially in bad weather. This month, the townspeople will vote on whether to allow mailboxes once again; the town council has final say. Postmaster Jerry Jacobsen has remained neutral on the issue, but clearly the return of curbside mailboxes would affect the post office's bottom line: He would have to send more carriers out on the road. And having a central mail delivery point is a good way to get people downtown, he argues. But he admits that parking in the town center during peak hours is a problem. "People don't want to drive around the block once or twice to find a parking spot." --Alex Daniels ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1997, Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Governing, City & State and Governing.com are registered trademarks of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. http://governing.com