BW Recommends is a rundown of stories you might have missed this week. It offers insight into issues important to our area and sometimes tickles your curiosity.

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Best Leaders 2025: Walter B. Gonsoulin (U.S. News & World Report)

The Jefferson County School System’s superintendent, Dr. Walter Gonsoulin, last week was named among U.S. News & World Report’s Best Leaders 2025. The magazine recognized 25 individuals for making strides in fields such as education, business, public service and health care. “Superintendent – turning a struggling school district into a model for the nation,” was the tagline U.S. News used to describe Gonsoulin. It wasn’t the first recognition for Gonsoulin this year. He first was named National Superintendent of the Year by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

Sloss Furnaces Is Planning Massive Changes (BhamNow)

Significant additions are being forged for the future of Sloss Furnaces, one of Birmingham’s beloved National Historic Landmarks, and these changes could mean a big boost for the city’s tourism. Sloss released a detailed plan of improvements and changes they aspire to complete in the next few years — as well as an estimated price tag of $12 million

An Alabama City Council Approves Rezoning for a Massive Data Center, Dividing a Community (Inside Climate News)

The Bessemer City Council voted last week to rezone nearly 700 acres of agricultural land for a $14.5 million “hyperscale” server farm despite concerns about water and power use, the environment, traffic and the route of the Northern Beltline.

‘No Free Rides for Big Tech’: Alabama PSC President Cautions Against Data Center Push for Power (AL.com)

The newly appointed president of the board that regulates Alabama’s utilities is calling for limits on how the data center industry uses the state’s power resources. Alabama Public Service Commission President Cynthia Lee Almond issued a two-page letter Friday afternoon, speaking only for herself, saying she wanted to hold companies responsible for their consumption. “The entities driving up the costs must be the entities covering the costs,” she said.  She noted in her statement that the $14 billion, 18-building hyperscale data center campus proposed for Bessemer would consume “more power and water than any site in our state’s history.”

Scorching Saturdays: The Rising Heat Threat Inside Football Stadiums (Inside Climate News)

Excessive heat and more frequent medical incidents in Southern college football stadiums could be a warning sign for universities across the country.

Study: Prison Labor Could Be Suppressing Montgomery-Area Automotive Wages (Alabama Reflector)

A study from the Columbia University Labor Lab indicates that the use of incarcerated workers could be suppressing wages and increasing safety risks throughout the automotive-supply industry in areas, including in Montgomery, where suppliers make use of prison labor. Through the Alabama Department of Corrections’ work-release program, prisoners are housed in minimum-security facilities and work, without officer supervision and in plain clothes, alongside free employees for private companies. The program is being challenged in state and federal courts after a 2022 change to Alabama’s Constitution that banned “involuntary servitude.”