COVID-19 is taking a heavy financial toll on city budgets in general and with local law enforcement on the front lines fighting the pandemic, police department budgets in particular have been severely strained.The letters read in part:"Anecdotally, Madison, WI may have to eliminate 30 police department positions next year; Oklahoma City is looking at a 3.

(United States Second Circuit) - Finding that a plaintiff had standing to sue in seeking adequate payment for foster parents and that plaintiff had a right to adequate payments.

(United States Second Circuit) - Denied. In a 6-5 vote, the panel majority declines to rehear the case en banc, holding that the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 creates a privately enforceable right for foster parents to sue states for costs related to child care. Five judges dissent.

Important new CitizenLab report: "We Chat, They Watch: How International Users Unwittingly Build up WeChat’s Chinese Censorship Apparatus"

(Supreme Court of California) - Held that a city's practice of annually transferring funds from a city-operated electric utility to the city's general fund did not run afoul of the California Constitution, which prohibits local governments from imposing any tax without voter approval. A citizen association brought this suit arguing that the city was, in effect, using utility rates to impose a tax without voter approval. Rejecting this contention, the California Supreme Court reversed the court of appeal.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. A conservation and reclamation district regulating groundwater was not subject to the one person, one vote principle of the Equal Protection Clause because they are a special purpose unit of the government. Its apportionment scheme had a rational basis.

(California Court of Appeal) - Held that the City of Pomona violated the terms of a 1993 ballot initiative prohibiting the construction of additional billboards within city limits. A citizen group challenged the city council's decision to extend a pre-existing agreement with an outdoor advertising company when the arrangement expired in 2014. Affirmed the granting of a writ of mandate.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Affirmed. A conservation and reclamation district regulating groundwater was not subject to the one person, one vote principle of the Equal Protection Clause because they are a special purpose unit of the government. Its apportionment scheme had a rational basis.

Registration Now Open For All Access Fest In Oct. 2019 The Nation’s Only Music Career Expo For Youth

A Denver judge ordered that U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Ferrigno Warren must be placed on the June 30 primary ballot, despite falling well short of the Colorado Secretary of State's usual signature requirement.

Gov. Jared Polis is charting a smart and sustainable course for Colorado.

In normality, life without hockey is barely tolerable during the quiet months of July and August -- from the time free agency dries up to the start of rookie camp in early September.

We understand why unrest is bubbling among those who are unemployed and entrepreneurs who could lose their businesses. But the alternative to stay-at-home orders is allowing the highly contagious new coronavirus to rip through our communities.

Gov. Jared Polis is charting a smart and sustainable course for Colorado.

(United States Second Circuit) - Denied. In a 6-5 vote, the panel majority declines to rehear the case en banc, holding that the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 creates a privately enforceable right for foster parents to sue states for costs related to child care. Five judges dissent.

As state officials close countless public gathering places to slow the spread of the coronavirus, cities and towns across Colorado are leveraging the latest technology to continue doing the people's business -- though the efforts at virtual democracy haven't come without fits and starts. Municipalities across Colorado have long broadcast or live-streamed public meetings on the web or on a local cable channel, but recent unprecedented crowd control measures prompted by the pandemic have forced local officials to scramble to keep city and county agendas intact while not violating the requirements of the state's open meetings laws.

In normality, life without hockey is barely tolerable during the quiet months of July and August -- from the time free agency dries up to the start of rookie camp in early September.

In normality, life without hockey is barely tolerable during the quiet months of July and August -- from the time free agency dries up to the start of rookie camp in early September.

It comes after white men with guns swarmed the state house.

It comes after white men with guns swarmed the state house.

An updated Disaster Resilience Scorecard to help cities and local government agencies improve their preparedness and reduce risks from disasters was launched today at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. Developed for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction by AECOM, IBM with support from USAID and the European Commission, the Scorecard gives better access to information, knowledge resources, and tools to effectively reduce risks from the impacts of natural hazards and climate change.

As climate change accelerates, IBM is galvanizing the global science community with a massive infusion of computing resources, weather data, and cloud services to help researchers examine the effects of climate change, and explore strategies to mitigate its effects. IBM pledges to help direct the equivalent of up to $200 million for up to five climate-related projects judged to offer the greatest potential impact, and will then broadly share the experiments' results.

IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge program (@CitiesChallenge) will be sending teams of company experts to five municipalities through 2018 to provide pro bono consultative advice on issues such as affordable housing, economic development, immigration, and public safety.

IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge program (@CitiesChallenge) will be sending teams of company experts to 16 municipalities around the world through 2016 to help cities with critical issues ranging from jobs creation, transportation, and public safety, to healthcare, revenue, social services, and public works.

As the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season gets underway, communities in severe weather-prone regions are anxiously tracking pending storms and working to create effective disaster response plans. IBM, through its strategic alliance with The Weather Company and its global B2B division WSI, today announced a new emergency management solution that features sophisticated analytics and the use of real-time weather data to help communities predict and plan for natural disasters far more accurately and deploy the right resources in advance.

ENGIE, a global leader in energy transition, today announced a new initiative with IBM. This nonexclusive, technological and commercial alliance is designed to improve the management of cities by looking at patterns, event correlation, anomaly detection and real-time data across all parts of cities.

IBM today announced that it is extending the annual Smarter Cities Challenge, a worldwide, highly competitive grant program that provides pro bono consulting to help cities improve the critical services they provide to their citizens.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the Gold Coast has been selected as a recipient of an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant (#smartercities). The grant will give the Gold Coast City Council the opportunity to work with a team of IBM experts to analyse and recommend ways to improve the city’s public safety disaster response capabilities.

- The majority of Australians are stressed by their daily commute affecting health, lifestyles and Australia’s productivity - Accurate and timely information on road conditions key to reducing stress for Australians - National study highlights Australian commuter habits and frustrations

  We got Cities: Skylines – The Board Game  a couple of months ago and I really didn't know what to expect before my first play. Sometimes there is a game on the horizon that's all the buzz in my circles and I'm super excited to order it, get it home, and get it on the table. Other times, it's my husband who catches the fever for a game and brings it into our house. And every now and then, a publisher asks me to review a game I've never heard of and haven't built up any anticipatory excitement for yet. Such was the case with Cities: Skylines – The Board Game. The team at Kosmos sent this cooperative game my way and asked me to give it a try. It’s designed by Rustan Hakansson (other works of his I am familiar with include HexRoller and Tribes: Dawn of Humanity) and based on a video game of the same name that’s popular across multiple platforms (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, & Nintendo Switch).

  I remember opening the box for the first time and setting everything up. The box cover art is nice but the rest of the artwork (provided by the German design studio Fiore) is easily described as adequate. We're not handing out any awards here for most beautiful game, is all I'm saying. I thumbed through the rulebook as we readied for our first game and at least that was a win - I found it to be concise and well-written. I especially liked that the rulebook author made a point to highlight that even though Cities: Skylines – The Board Game is a cooperative game where it's important to collaborate, it is up to the active player to make the decision on their turn. Way to nip that Alpha gaming in the bud!

Once my husband and I started playing the game, I quickly realized it’s very different from other games. It gives me the same feeling of zen as putting together a Stave wooden jigsaw puzzle. We’re not battling a monster or racing against the clock or trying to fend off a pandemic. We’re urban planners, carefully and thoughtfully placing building tiles into our city districts in an effort to score the most happiness (points) possible by the game’s end.  Very relaxing, yet still intellectually challenging.

The game begins with players selecting a set of game board tiles (4 unless you are playing the introductory game with just 3) and arranging them facedown. One of the tiles is flipped over (there is a $$ cost associated with flipping each tile, which is deducted from the starting city treasury funds) and development may begin. Each tile is divided up into districts, formed by the street borders, and all construction takes place within these districts. When new city game board tiles are flipped over (at checkpoints - called milestones - that may only be triggered once every district visible has a building constructed within it), land surfaces must face up against land surfaces and water must face water.

To build out the city, players they use construction cards (dealt in the beginning of the game and also drawn each turn) to put up residential, commercial, industrial, utility, service, and unique buildings.

Placing buildings can trigger increases or decreases in the city treasury; utilities (power, water, garbage); employment; happiness; and negative externalities (pollution, traffic, crime). If the placement would trigger a decrease beyond what the planners have in the treasury, the building cannot be constructed. You also cannot construct a building if it would cause any of your utilities to drop below -5, cause any of your negative externalities to increase beyond 5, or cause your employment to go out of the range of -5 to 5. And while there is no cap on happiness increases, any construction that lowers your happiness beyond -4 ends the game with a loss immediately. At the milestone checkpoints, utility shortages decrease happiness just before the happiness is transferred to the main score track and at the end of the game negative externalities do so as well. So our first consideration in construction must be how it will impact all of these measures.

Several buildings trigger effects based on having met prerequisites. For example, building a residential zone might trigger an increase in the city treasury if you already have a park constructed in the same district. Or a building a commercial zone might increase the city treasury and happiness if you have both a park and a medical clinic in the district and you can place the zone adjacent to both of them. In order to get the most benefit from these types of constructions, planners need to carefully think and rethink building placement before selecting a building site and so this is a second consideration in construction.  

When selecting residential, commercial, or industrial zones to build, there are a dozen or more tetris-like shaped tokens to choose from. Because buildings can only be placed in a district if they physically fit, and we want to maximize the number and type of buildings we can place into each district, a close examination of the shapes during selection is a third consideration in construction.

In addition to the game tiles, buildings, and construction cards, Cities: Skylines – The Board Game  includes role cards that grant special abilities to each planner, policy cards that provide a one time benefit when played, and news cards that add difficulty in the form of disadvantages. It’s recommended to leave these three card types out of your first game to keep things simple, but they definitely make the game more fun, so I’d recommend incorporating them into your subsequent games.

I want to make an important note regarding player count. The box notes that 1-4 can play Cities: Skylines – The Board Game but there’s no way I’d play this with more than 2 players total. We didn’t even attempt a 3 or 4 player game because it was easy to see it would be frustrating – just too many people to negotiate with on implementing a coordinated plan. I guess if you’re the type of person who would work on a jigsaw puzzle with 4 people at once, you might give it a try? But I’m definitely not that kind of person. As a 1 or 2 player game though, Cities: Skylines – The Board Game is great. We could all use more calm during this crazy COVID-19 pandemic and puzzle games like this one provide it.

-------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Thames and Kosmos
Players: 1-4
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): 1 hr
Game type: cooperative, tile placement, hand management, puzzle games, solo games
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

Cities: Skylines - Cooperative City-Building Board Game from Kosmos | Based On The Hit Video Game | for 1-4 Players Ages 10+ | Develop & Manage Cities & Neighborhoods

Really serious about staying out of airplanes now. Two airplane trips this year. A low key summer not feeling terrific. Lots of time doing more local stuff and not regretting it at all. Here is the short list of places. Four states. Stars indicate multiple visits to the exact same place. Past years: 2018, 2017, […]

NIH clinical trial testing antiviral remdesivir plus anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib for COVID-19 begins  National Institutes of HealthView Full coverage on Google News

According to a new report. READ MORE...

Focusing on urbanization as a key driver of environmental change in the 21st century, researchers at Princeton have created a framework to understand and compare cities’ food systems and their effects on climate change, water use and land use. The research will allow planners to estimate the impact of a city’s food system and evaluate policy actions.

My wife and I recently visited Niagara Falls this past August in our quest to escape some of the summer heat.  I had been there two earlier times as a child and a parent.  The town of Niagara has seen…

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At a time when L.A. residents are demanding more from their local government's safety net, their city has significantly less money to help.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said the NHL is leaning against staging games in non-league arenas if it resumes the season. One option could be playing in two to four selected NHL cities.

With a smartphone app and a little free time, citizen scientists can share coronavirus data that might help bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control.

L.A. Unified officials have killed a plan to open 40 family resource centers. The district still will distribute food.

University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase as scheduled this week because the coronavirus crisis has created too much uncertainty, officials said Wednesday.

Citing the circumstances of the coronavirus crisis, United Teachers Los Angeles on Thursday called for a moratorium on new charter school approvals and a halt to new campus-sharing arrangements with charters.

Hospitals built in two weeks. Freeways with few cars. Which innovations and changes could, or should, stick with us in a post-coronavirus world?

Some solar workers have been ordered down from rooftops after neighbors called the police, solar industry officials say.

If most beaches in Southern California are closed, so should those in Orange County, which attracted thousands of people on a hot weekend.

Here's a look at price-reduced properties that can be bought for $800,000 in Irvine, Anaheim and Aliso Viejo in Orange County.

House shopping during the coronavirus quarantine? Here are $500,000 homes with virtual tours in La Quinta, Temecula and Riverside in Riverside County.

With the heat of summer fast approaching, here's a look at homes with pools you can get for $700,000 in Simi Valley, Camarillo and Ventura.

The world's cheapest places to chow down