Alabama joins 16 other states and Washington D.C. where third graders must pass a reading test – or risk being held back. That’s why this summer, teachers at Birmingham City Schools began coaching their students on reading skills to get a head start on the new retention policy. Read more.
The problem of extended ambulance response times didn’t pop up overnight, and the solution won’t either, according to a consultant Jefferson County is bringing in to address the situation. “This is our first day on the project,” Joseph “Jay” Fitch, founding partner of Fitch and Associates, said Tuesday at the committee meeting of the Jefferson County Commission. “We're going to be to touring your 911 center and working with an advisory group of municipal officials and fire chiefs today.” Fitch said the first part of the project is discovering data so his company knows when and where emergency calls occur. Knowing that, he said, the company can look at different kinds of options for emergency medical service coverage. Commission President Jimmie Stephens said long ambulance response times has been an ongoing problem for more than nine months. He said the extended wait times for an ambulance for emergencies, including heart attacks, sometimes exceeds three hours. Read more.
Birmingham has increased its recycling pick-up schedule to twice a month, though Mayor Randall Woodfin says his “full intent” is to eventually return to the program's pre-COVID weekly schedule. Read more.
Alabama had 980 drug overdose deaths in 2020, an increase of about 27% from 2019, according to preliminary numbers from the Alabama Department of Public Health. Alabama Daily News requested the drug overdose and suicide death information from ADPH last month to compare the pandemic year to previous ones. State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said he didn’t have a complete explanation for the spike in overdose deaths, but it’s reasonable that the pandemic contributed to it. “People had difficult economic times, they had social isolation and just being out of their normal activities,” Harris said. “And I think public health and other health care interventions were probably sidelined a bit because everyone was focused on COVID.” Separately, there were 793 suicides in 2020, according to information obtained from death certificates. That’s slightly fewer than the preceding three years, but Harris cautioned that the 2020 numbers are preliminary and could increase. Read more.
Seventy-two people have filed their paperwork and are officially running for office in the upcoming Birmingham city elections. After the qualifying deadline elapsed Friday, eight people were on the ballot to compete in the mayor’s race, trying to capture the seat now held by Mayor Randall Woodfin. The other most populated race is for Birmingham City Council District 8, where eight people also have qualified to run for the seat being vacated by Councilor Steven Hoyt. The election will be held Aug. 24, and voters have until Aug. 9 to register to vote. On the ballot will be the mayor’s race, nine City Council races and nine Birmingham Board of Education races. Read on for the official lineup.
Telehealth became a necessity for many people during the COVID-19 pandemic. But with state health emergencies expiring, laws that have made it more available could go away, leaving the region’s more rural areas hurting the most due to access barriers and disparities. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — State Superintendent Eric Mackey on Friday said there will be no push from the state department to require students or staff to wear masks when schools resume next month. Mackey told Alabama Daily News it will be up to local schools to approach mask-wearing and social distancing. “Local school districts have the authority if they want to do something with requirements, but we are not going to do any guidance from the state level on that,” Mackey said. Read more.
Birmingham business executive Jessica Taylor launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, proclaiming a love for “God, guns, family, fishing and four-wheeling,” and promising to take on socialists, big tech and radical liberals. Read more.
The number of Alabama counties listed as being at “very high risk” for the spread of COVID-19 has quadrupled in the past two weeks, the state Department of Public Health reported Thursday. ADPH listed six counties in its highest level of risk in its weekly report on June 24, but that total rose to 21 on July 1 and to 26 this week. Read more.
Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales filed papers Wednesday to officially qualify to run for mayor of Birmingham. Read more. See who has qualified for city races: Birmingham Elections Begin Officially as Candidates File Qualifying Papers
