State And Local

The Saga of Vera Katz

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

In November 1984, Representative Vera Katz decided to run for the position of speaker of the house of the Oregon Legislature. If elected, she stood to become the first female speaker in state history, and only the fifth American woman to preside...

HIV and DC: The AIDS Testing Issue

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

In November 1985, District of Columbia Councilmember John Ray introduced a bill that would have imposed a five-year moratorium on all kinds of applicant AIDS-testing in the district by health, life, and disability insurers. Ray wrote the bill...

Mayor Evan Sweeney and the Police

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This case is one of a series of hypothetical cases about fictional "Mayor Evan Sweeney," written for executive training programs for new mayors, that frame the quintessential problems faced by municipal chief executives. This case concerns the...

Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child (Epilogue)

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

In 1980, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faced a crisis. Over 700 black children in Cook County, including 69 infants, waited for adoption while the agency was unable to find black parents. Director Gregory L. Color, with...

Senator McGrail and the Death Penalty

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This very short case, less than a page, is the story of a young Massachusetts state senator who is faced with a dilemma about how to vote on then-Governor Frank Sargent's veto of a bill restoring capital punishment. Senator McGrail is against...

Matters of Life and Death: Defunding Organ Transplants in the State of Arizona

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

This case draws on controversy triggered by a decision to direct medical care funds for the poor to mothers and young children--rather than expensive, life-saving organ transplant operations. In the wake of the death of Diana Brown, a...

Finding Black Parents: One Church, One Child

Publication Date: January 01, 1988

In 1980, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services faced a crisis. Over 700 black children in Cook County, including 69 infants, waited for adoption while the agency was unable to find black parents. Director Gregory L. Color, with...

Battle on Brimmer Street: Mental Health Siting Dispute in the State of Maine (Epilogue)

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

The protagonists of this decision-forcing case are a non-profit housing developer and a state agency, who are working cooperatively to establish a group home for mentally handicapped adults in a residential neighborhood of Brewer, Maine. To head...

Kentucky Housing Corporation and Mortgage Insurance

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

During the spring of 1987, a Kentucky Housing Corporation committee appointed by Executive Director Lynn Luallen met regularly to discuss whether the corporation should itself get into the mortgage insurance business. In the past, the...

Who Will Pay for Seabrook?

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

In the fall of 1987, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission faced an electric rate decision with far-reaching consequences. Ostensibly, the commission had only to decide whether to grant an emergency 15 percent rate increase to the...

The Alaska Railroad: 1984

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

For years, Alaskans have debated the pros and cons of taking over the Alaska Railroad from the federal government. With the passage of the Alaska Railroad Transfer Act of 1982, however, the debate assumed added importance. In the act, Congress...

California Welfare Reform

Publication Date: January 01, 1987

In 1984, conservative secretary of the California Health and Welfare Agency David Swoap and liberal San Francisco assemblyman Art Agnos began to discuss work and job training programs that might shrink California's burgeoning welfare rolls and...