Glenn Stephens

Committee to Analyze State’s Response to COVID-19

MONTGOMERY -- A new joint legislative committee responsible for analyzing how the state responded to the COVID-19 pandemic -- and help it prepare for future emergencies -- met for the first time on Thursday. “This is a fact-finding, not a fault-finding committee,” Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said. He's a co-chair of the Alabama Pandemic Response and Preparedness Committee, which includes many of the state's top leaders and will put together a report on lessons learned in the last 15 months. “The goal of this commission is to move forward,” Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said.  “We don’t need to throw rocks about what we maybe should have done, or could have done, or what we did." Read more.

by Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

Progress Reported Toward State’s Goal of Adding 500,000 Newly Credentialed Workers by 2025

MONTGOMERY -- Alabama leaders say 45% of the state’s workforce now has an educational certificate or degree beyond high school, representing progress in the goal of adding 500,000 newly credentialed people to the workforce by 2025 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Ed Castile, deputy secretary of the Workforce Development Division in the Alabama Department of Commerce, told Alabama Daily News the pandemic has even helped in some respects in reaching the half million goal. “Oddly enough, it hurt us, but then it helped us,” Castile said. “The sad news is a lot of people lost their jobs, but that helped us a little bit by getting people into programs to give them a credential which added them to our numbers. But it also got them a job that could also not be so affected by something like the pandemic.” Read more.

by Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

Two Road Projects Moved Forward by Jeffco Commission

A pair of road projects are closer to fruition after the Jefferson County Commission on Thursday approved resolutions related to those two projects. Each project is in the city of Hoover. One authorizes a joint services agreement with Hoover and Jefferson County and CSX Transportation on improvements to South Shades Crest Road, to which a third lane will be added from Alabama 150 to Eden Ridge Drive. That project includes replacing a bridge that passes over CSX train tracks. The other project authorizes paying for tract 6 of the Galleria Boulevard extension project. For years, motorists have driven through the parking lot of Ashley Homestore as they’ve made their way from Alabama 150 to Lorna Road on the other side of the hill. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Jefferson County Commission Approves Incentives for Development

The Jefferson County Commission today approved a resolution to provide economic incentives for Bill Smith’s latest venture – Landing – but not before Lashunda Scales had her say. The matter passed 3-1, with Scales casting the dissenting vote. Sheila Tyson was absent. Scales expressed concern, saying she wanted to see what efforts the company will make to give priority to hiring residents of Jefferson County. Additionally, she said she is concerned that a long-term plan for the company was not presented even though the incentive plan covers six years. The District 1 commissioner said that while the company currently arranges apartments for rentals, she is afraid the operation will go beyond apartment rentals Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Bill Banning Medical Treatment of Trans Youth Back in 2022 Session

A bill to block the medical treatment of transgender youth in Alabama, one of the most controversial bills of the Legislature’s 2021 session, will be back in 2022. Read more.

by Mary Sell and Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

Number of COVID Cases Down, but Alabama’s Vaccination Rate Continues to Lag

The good news for Alabama on the COVID-19 front is that the numbers of new cases and deaths continue to stay near record-low levels. The bad news is that vaccination rates are way behind most of the rest of the United States. In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of the state’s COVID numbers, the percentage of Alabamians who have received their full vaccine regimen — a single injection for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, two for Pfizer and Moderna — is currently at 29.8%, according to the Johns Hopkins University rankings. That rate is the second-lowest among the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, with only neighboring Mississippi (27.2%) trailing Alabama. As of Tuesday, 1,481,073 state residents had the full dosage, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health, with 1,797,291 people getting at least one shot. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Alabama GOP Policymakers Seek to Keep Critical Race Theory Out of Classrooms

Alabama GOP leaders are following a national trend to block the teaching in public schools of what they call divisive concepts related to race. The Alabama State Board of Education on Thursday discussed proposed resolutions against instruction of “critical race theory,” and at least one state lawmaker wants to see a prohibition made into law. One of the resolutions given to the board originated with the help of Gov. Kay Ivey’s office, state Superintendent Eric Mackey said. A spokeswoman for Ivey, who is the head of the state school board, told Alabama Daily News that critical race theory is not in Alabama’s current curriculum. Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Vaccinations Needed to Guard Against Possible Resurgence of COVID, UAB Professor Says

A professor from the UAB School of Public Health urged people who are on the fence when it comes to getting the COVID-19 vaccine to “jump off (and) give it a try.” “We've got millions of people that have been vaccinated with very few side effects,” Dr. Suzanne Judd said Thursday during a Zoom question-and-answer session with the media. “The most important thing is this pandemic could turn again in the fall, and you want to be on the side of being vaccinated if that virus starts circulating rapidly again.” She said the state may have dodged a bullet in terms of a COVID surge following Memorial Day, but there could be trouble ahead when Labor Day comes around if more people don't get vaccinated. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Brooks Isn’t Backing Down from Claim that Trump Won the Election

WASHINGTON — Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, isn’t giving up on his claim that Donald Trump was elected president last year. “Somewhere in the neighborhood of 900,000 to 1.7 million non-citizens voted in the 2020 presidential election, overwhelmingly for Joe Biden,” Brooks told the Washington Examiner this week. He said former President Trump won "if only lawful votes cast by eligible American citizens were counted." The Examiner noted that Brooks didn’t provide any backing information for his claims, which have been rejected by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI and numerous courts and elected officials. Read more.

by Brett Davis

Ivey, Lawmakers Talk Next Steps on Prison Plan

Gov. Kay Ivey and some legislative leaders met Wednesday to discuss possible next steps after the governor’s proposal to lease three new men’s prisons stalled earlier this month. “No decisions were made today; this was simply an opportunity for an update on where we are and what needs to happen, going forward with respect to improving our prison infrastructure,” Ivey said in a written statement. The meeting included Ivey, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, and the Legislature’s two General Fund budget chairmen. Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, and Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Range. Officials did not disclose the details of what was discussed, but called the meeting productive and the first of several. Lawmakers earlier this year balked at a nearly $3 billion price tag on Ivey's 30-year prison lease plan and said they’d largely been excluded from discussions. Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News