Snowcrete and ‘Super Bazookas’: News From the States

The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would require people like teachers and clergy to report when a child smells like marijuana. Vermonters struggle with costly health care premiums. Unexploded bombs wash up in Maryland. And, ugh, “snowcrete” in DC.As we mention here regularly, Decision Points primarily focuses on national and international news. But we also occasionally deliver a roundup of local, regional or under-the-radar news with a political dimension – something unusual or interesting, or that may illustrate a broader trend.Our guiding principle is that the definition of politics includes how a society organizes itself to allocate finite or scarce resources, manage internal disagreements and blunt external threats.Here’s this week’s look around.Alabama’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would require so-called mandatory reporters – people like doctors, educators, police, social workers and members of the clergy – to report parents whose children smell like marijuana smoke, according to Alabama Daily News.The state’s Department of Human Resources would then have to investigate any referral the same way it looks at suspected child abuse or neglect.The bill would also make smoking marijuana in a car when a child is present a Class A misdemeanor. (Smoking tobacco with a kid in the car is already a crime.)One wrinkle: Alabama law considers people children until they turn 19, meaning parents could get in trouble for an 18-year-old smelling like pot. Democrats who opposed the bill argued its enforcement would disproportionately fall on people of color.Just six Democrats voted for the measure, which passed 77-2 with 18 abstentions. It now heads to the state’s Senate.News coverage of health care can sometimes be overly abstract. Late last month, though, Seven Days in my home state of Vermont introduced readers to Kathleen Gill, 35, and her husband, Daniel Fifield, 38, and showcased an insurance nightmare that is all too real.“Monthly premiums for the family of four rose from 23 cents last year to $2,622.15 this year. They will pay $31,465.80 in premiums in 2026 — more than their mortgage,” Seven Days reported.Part of that is due to the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies. Some of it is specific to Vermont, where premiums have soared 40-60% over the past five years, according to Owen Foster, chair of the Green Mountain Care Board.It gets worse. Under their bronze Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont health insurance plan, they face an out-of-pocket limit of $20,300 for the family. “That means if two family members have an expensive medical emergency, they will pay $51,765.80 in premiums and deductibles before the insurance kicks in fully,” Seven Days said. “That’s about a third of the couple’s combined income.”Brutal.Maryland’s Worcester County – home to Ocean City and the Assateague Island National Seashore – is calling in the feds to help with an unusual problem: Unexploded military ordnance keeps washing ashore on local beaches, according to the Baltimore Sun.“County leaders say the devices pose risks to public safety, marine life and beachgoers, and routinely require highly trained bomb technicians and, at times, the temporary evacuation of popular shoreline areas,” the Sun reported.In December, two World War II-era devices resurfaced, one on Assateague Island and another in Ocean Pines. Authorities identified both as M29A1 practice rockets, or a variant – which the Sun helpfully describes as a “training weapon commonly known as the ‘super bazooka.’”Eep.Pardon the selfish concerns here, but the winter storm that pounded the country and left thousands in the South without power has upturned life in the D.C. area. Schools have been closed for days, it took nearly a week to plow most downtown streets, and the icy “snowcrete” (snow + concrete) is devilishly hard to clear.Then there’s this in Montgomery County, where I live, and where County Executive Marc Elrich says he’s gotten the message of residents frustrated with confusing messaging about snow plowing operations, according to WTOP.“The county’s plow tracker, designed to show the progress of snow clearing operations, had incorrectly reported that 100% of residential streets had been plowed,” the outlet reported, citing Elrich.“The tracking system’s useful, but it’s not perfect,” he said.Local politics … pure as the driven snowcrete.