Author: Liz Harris
Welcome NewsMatch 2019, National Gift-Matching Campaign for Nonprofit Newsrooms
Judge Haikala Is No Stranger to the Spotlight
U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala, who is drawing attention for her ruling in the Gardendale school case, has been no stranger to headlines in high-profile Alabama cases since she became a judge in 2013.
She is handling the Hoover City Schools’ attendance rezoning issue, which could affect school desegregation in that system. She was the judge in a 2014 Huntsville City Schools desegregation case. And in 2016, she threw out charges and acquitted a Madison police officer accused of using excessive force against an Indian grandfather injured while visiting his son; her actions came after two juries deadlocked on verdicts.
Municipal Election Results
Voters across Alabama went to the polls Tuesday to select new mayors and council members. In the seven-county Birmingham metro area, 85 cities held elections, potentially changing the face of local government when new officials take office Nov. 7.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. Results in available races will be posted as they are reported. Click here to read the results.
Medicaid Reform Plan
There’s a new player in town for the 2016 Alabama Medicaid budget battle. It brings to the table a game plan, years of friendly relations with the other players and a multi-million-dollar stake.
The question is whether a reform idea, even backed with that history and funding, is enough to influence the entrenched model of politicians and advocates arguing over too little money, too much need and no fundamental change.
The player is Alabama Medicaid’s regional care organization plan, a managed care-style approach intended to deal with illnesses before they are emergencies and designed to both slow the growth in costs and improve health outcomes.
NYTimes: Unlike in many places, the life span for Birmingham’s poor is growing.
A story in The New York Times reported an optimistic message from new research about American life spans: The right mix of steps to improve habits and public health could help people live longer, regardless of how much money they make.
One of the places this seems to be happening is Birmingham.
Read the April 11 New York Times report here.
It’s Not Just AEA Anymore. Alabama Legislators Draw National Lobbying Attention
Across the country, national companies and causes, from Uber to pharmaceutical manufacturers, are turning their lobbying power onto state legislatures where they seek a better chance of influencing decisions than in Washington. The Alabama Legislature, now in session in Montgomery, is no stranger to this new attention.
From 2010 through 2014, Alabama’s 140 senators and representatives were the focus of six times that many entities pushing their messages and protecting their interests in Montgomery.
These are findings of a just-released study by the Center for Public Integrity, a national government watchdog group.
Birmingham’s Economy 2016: Three Views
2016 could be a very good year for business expansion and employment in the Birmingham area, except ….
That’s a bottom line from conversations with people who have fingers on the economic pulse of the area: Andreas Rauterkus, Associate Professor in University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Collat School of Business; Devon Laney, President and CEO of Innovation Depot, and Art Carden, Associate Professor of Economics, Brock School of Business at Samford University.
On their lists of 2016 stories-that-matter on the local economy:
You’re going to the doctor more. That’s a good thing.
Healthcare and financial services are dependable pillars of the Birmingham economy, and 2016 should be a good year for those enterprises, Dr. Rauterkus says. Local unemployment is down from recession levels, and that helps healthcare. “People go to the doctor more,” he explains. In financial services, most Birmingham-area businesses have little international exposure which means
Education Issues to Follow in 2016
Keep your eyes on Montgomery advises Trisha Powell Crain, executive director of Alabama School Connection and contributor to BirminghamWatch. The governor, Alabama legislature and education officials face a full plate of decisions that affect classrooms throughout the state. Among important items, Crain says, are:
The RAISE Act
Sen. Del Marsh. Photo, Office of President Pro Tem.
RAISE (Rewarding Advance in Instruction and Student Excellence Act) is still a draft proposal, not filed as a bill. It affects teacher evaluation, teacher pay and teacher tenure. An element in the draft calls for rating teacher effectiveness partly by student test scores. Del Marsh, Alabama Senate President Pro Tem, has circulated the draft to traditional players in setting education policy, including the Alabama Association of School Boards and the Alabama Education Association. This update last week is from Brian Lyman of the Montgomery Advertiser : Tenure bill greeted cautiously, raises some concerns
Education Trust Fund allocations
More dollars, millions more, are available to be budgeted for 2016-2017 than were allocated for the current fiscal year. The big question: What agencies and missions will get the new money?
No Football Scores but Lots of Other Stats on Alabama Colleges, from PARCA
The average annual cost of attending an Alabama college ranges from almost $29,000 to about $8,500. Graduation rates vary from 70 percent to 26 percent. And the chances of a college’s former students earning more than $25,000 a year vary widely too.
In an analysis published Tuesday, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama focused on cost, outcome and other statistics for the state’s colleges, and discussed factors involved in those numbers. The information from colleges nationwide was released last month by the U.S. Department of Education in its College Scorecard.
