Storms brewing: Gov. John Bel Edwards today joined President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and governors from other hurricane-impacted states for a hurricane briefing in Washington, D.C. The group was joined by cabinet officials, who gave updates on the current hurricane season in the Atlantic and preparedness efforts. The hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and Edwards’ office has created an app for hurricane preparedness.
City hall slowdown: Despite adding another 7,000 jobs last month, the pace of new jobs added by local governments in the U.S. has slowed, Governing reports. Most of the recent gains made by local governments have been in areas other than education, which has remained unchanged as a sector over the past few months. Job growth for local governments has increased by only 0.4% since January, which is roughly half the growth over the same period last year. State government, meanwhile, has remained relatively flat. Check out a graphic from Governing.
Pharma fraud: The pharmaceutical executive who was once dubbed “the most hated man in America” is now a convicted felon, Bloomberg reports. Martin Shkreli earned an infamous national profile two years ago after jacking up the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%. Today, Shkreli was found guilty of defrauding investors in two hedge funds and the pharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc., which he founded. The conviction was unrelated to the move to raise the drug’s price. Bloomberg reports Shkreli will almost certainly go to prison; he faces as long as 20 years behind bars but will likely serve less time than that. Read more from Bloomberg.
