Virginia Martin

Students Discover Hating on Journalists Has No Age Minimum

Smart college journalism students enhance their classroom work by doing internships or joining a campus outlet. They get to experience the real thing: published stories seen by an audience, with all the potential good and bad consequences that professionals face. Because, really, student journalists are journalists who just happen to be students. This is a great philosophy. Until it isn’t. The Washington Post recently published an alarming story with this headline: “Online mobs are now coming for student journalists.” It details severe online harassment of college journalists around the U.S., leaving some spooked and reconsidering their planned career. Primarily using social media channels, attackers hurl physical threats, obscenities and insults about personal appearance. They also doxx (publicly revealing private contact information). Not surprisingly, women, racial minorities and gender identity minorities get it the worst. Read more.

by Tom Arenberg

Old Carraway Complex to be Demolished All at Once Under New Deal With City

The city of Birmingham has revised its plans for the former Carraway Hospital complex to give developers more up-front money for demolition. At Tuesday’s meeting of the Birmingham City Council, councilors approved revision of a 2-year-old funding agreement with Corporate Realty (doing business as Northside Redevelopment LLC), which is redeveloping the former Carraway Hospital site into a mixed-use development, Star at Uptown, which is to include residential, retail, office and dining spaces, as well as a 9,000-seat amphitheater. Under the original incentives package, the city would have remitted $9.1 million in future sales, use and property tax revenues to Northside Development; Tuesday’s revisions cut that number in half to $4.55 million. In return, developers will now receive $3.7 million from the city for demolition right away. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Alabama Coal Miners Begin Their 20th Month on Strike

Hundreds of coal miners in Brookwood reached a milestone Thursday: They’ve spent 20 months on strike. That’s well past the six-week average for strikes, according to Bloomberg Law. The miners believe it’s the longest strike in Alabama’s history. They have continued demanding their employer, Warrior Met Coal, restore the pay and benefits that were cut in 2016 as a cost-saving measure to keep the mines from shutting down. Out of the 900 miners who started the strike a year and a half ago, 500 remain, according to United Mine Workers of America. Read more.

by Stephan Bisaha, WBHM-Gulf States Newsroom

Landfill Fire Annoying Residents More Than 20 Miles Away ‘Contained,’ Evacuated Residents Allowed to Return

Residents of five homes in Moody that had been evacuated were given the “all clear” to return home as the Moody Fire Department determined that a landfill fire that has been burning largely underground has been contained. The fire is burning at Blackjack Road from Carrington Lake Parkway to Annie Lee Road at a landfill that disposes of trees and other debris. Persons living as far away as Birmingham’s Crestwood neighborhood complained of smelling smoke and even having smoke invade their homes. When material burns underground, there is a cavity and soil falls away. “It can create a fissure or a hole and then we have smoke or steam coming up through that,” Moody Fire Marshal James Mulkey said. “Then the smoke is going to come up into the air. You can smell this for miles.” The above-ground part of the fire has been plainly visible from several miles away. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Cameras, iPads Part of Plan to Improve Garbage Collection

Birmingham is optimizing its trash pick-up service. The City Council voted Tuesday to approve a three-year contract with Routeware, a software company that will collect and analyze data to determine ways the city’s garbage collection can be more efficient. “Each day when we have drivers and supervisors leave (work), that’s historic knowledge that walks out the door with them,” Joshua Yates, the city’s director of public works, told the council. “This system will (place) an iPad in the truck, where anybody can sit in that driver’s seat and know exactly the route they’re supposed to be driving … . Consider this the infrastructure backbone for our fleet.” The software will also include an “accountability” component in the form of video surveillance. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

BWWB Collection Issues Raised During JeffCo Commission Discussion on Sewer Billing

A proposed extension of Jefferson County’s sewer billing relationship with Birmingham Water Works broached a discussion about why customer costs are rising. County Attorney Theo Lawson told the Jefferson County Commission during Tuesday’s committee meeting that he has been negotiating with the utility company over BWW billing customers both for water and Jefferson County sewer service. Lawson said the current contract expires in December and must be extended six months while those discussions continue. “We need to maintain the status quo,” Lawson said, “so that we do have collections in place until we can get this squared away.” Commissioner Sheila Tyson said the dual billing relation has allowed some with BWW to blame Jefferson County for higher customer bills. “The collection method they have isn’t good because if it was, they wouldn’t be overcharging these people,” she said. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

School Grades in Jefferson County Run the Gamut

If all the schools in Jefferson County were graded together, they would have a solid B average. But of course, children don’t attend an amalgamation of schools. The spread of grades that schools in Jefferson County scored on the Alabama Department of Education State Report Card ranges from the top to the bottom. Read more and find scores for your individual schools.

by Virginia Martin

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Celebrates 30 Years

For decades, the BCRI has educated everyone from local students to global leaders about Birmingham's role in the Civil Rights movement. Read more.

by Miranda Fulmore, WBHM

Alabama’s Hunting 101 Workshops Target Newcomers — and Conservation Dollars

State leaders hope to reverse a decades-long decline in hunting participation rates and secure more funding for wildlife restoration. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

Scales Loses Two Titles as JeffCo Commission Reorganizes

The organizational meeting that followed the swearing in ceremonies for the Jefferson County Commission didn’t include a seating chart. But Lashunda Scales didn’t need one as she swapped seats with Joe Knight after the commission established its leadership, with Knight succeeding Scales as president pro tempore. That was one of two positions that Scales no longer has after commissioners did away with subordinate co-chairs of their committees. Scales had been co-chair of the economic development committee chaired by Steve Ammons, who said the change was done to provide greater efficiency. “It's just easier to have one commissioner,” he said. “We're all on the same committee so there's no need for a co-chair. We're delivering information to all the commissioners. Since each commissioner is on every committee, then you just have the chair.” “I'm at peace today because I recognize that a position or title don't make you who you are,” Scales said in her closing comments. “You empower the position. The position doesn't empower you.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.