NewsWatch: Cities and Counties -- Cop Tickets Mayor's Girlfriend

NYC Hybrid Taxi Mandate Struck Down
The Bloomberg administration's years-long attempt  to force the city's cab owners to switch from gas guzzlers to hybrid vehicles was rejected by a federal appeals court Tuesday morning. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a judge's 2009 ruling, in a suit brought by taxi fleet owners, that the city's rules amounted to an effort to mandate fuel economy and emissions standards, something that only the federal government is allowed to do. New York Times

Cop Tickets Mayor's Girlfriend, Claims Harassment
A Detroit police officer who claimed he was retaliated against for issuing a ticket to Christine Beatty, the disgraced former chief of staff and lover of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, is on path to receive a $20,000 settlement in a whistle-blower lawsuit. Detroit Free Press

County Clears Hundreds of Warrants in Fresh Start Program
Two hundred twelve people with 373 eligible arrest warrants were cleared from the Richland County, S.C., justice system through the Sheriff's Department's "Operation Fresh Start" program that wrapped up last week. The program allowed anyone with outstanding traffic or magistrate level warrants to appear before a judge between July 21 and 23 to have their outstanding warrants adjudicated. Outcomes included paying restitution or fines in exchange for good standing in the court. The State

Federal Judge Blocks Part of Arizona Immigration Law
A federal judge has blocked one of the most controversial sections of a tough Arizona immigration law, granting a preliminary injunction Wednesday that prevents police from questioning people about their immigration status. That provision required police to "make a reasonable attempt to determine the immigration status of a person stopped, detained or arrested" if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the United States illegally. The judge also blocked provisions of the law making it a crime to fail to apply for or carry alien registration papers or "for an unauthorized alien to solicit, apply for, or perform work," and a provision "authorizing the warrantless arrest of a person" if there is reason to believe that person might be subject to deportation. CNN
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Chicago Could Tax Banks
Chicago voters could soon get to decide whether to strip banks and mortgage companies -- key players in the foreclosure epidemic -- of their long-standing exemption from the city's real-estate transfer tax. Chicago Sun-Times

Annapolis Extends Last Call
The Annapolis City Council voted Monday night to allow more downtown bars and restaurants to stay open until 2 a.m., overturning a nearly 20-year-old policy that critics decried as unfair. Baltimore Sun

Making New York City More Efficient
New York City's public offices have 8,000 vacant desks, roughly 11 Percent of the workstations in the city government's 19 million square feet of office space. The city has nine separate agencies to handle vehicle maintenance, operating 125 separate maintenance garages, some across the street from each other. Each city agency has its own HR department, with an overall ratio of HR workers to employees 2.5 times higher than is typical in the private sector. Police officers still report their hours worked on an error-prone, paper-based system that involves pairs of officers driving