A panel of state lawmakers on Thursday questioned an Alabama Department of Corrections public relations contract worth up to $1.5 million and criticized communications from the department during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I just don’t see the need,” Sen. Tom Butler, R-Madison, said about PR work for prisons. “We’re not marketing resort hotels. Everyone has a pretty good concept of what a prison is.” Read more.
Bills that would allow the home delivery of beer, wine and liquor passed the House of Representatives Thursday. Senate Bill 126 from Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, would allow customers to have alcoholic products home delivered from grocery or liquor stores and restaurants. A separate bill, House Bill 437 from Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, would allow customers to have wine shipped directly from wineries to their homes. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — It was committee day in the State House Wednesday as several House and Senate panels met to consider proposals moving through the legislative process. Read more.
Boston-native Cam Perron became obsessed with the Negro League as a child. That led to an annual reunion and friendships with players decades older. Read more.
A lack of racial diversity in clinical trials can make new drugs and treatments less effective for people of color. According to one recent study, 78% of trial participants were white. Acclinate, a new Birmingham-based company, is trying to correct that imbalance by connecting underserved populations with researchers. Read more.
Alabama K-12 schools and colleges could receive about $282 million this year separate from the state education budget or any federal relief money flowing to them. Senate Bill 193 would allocate money through the state’s Advancement and Technology Fund, which can be spent on one-time purchases in tech, capital improvements and a few other select expenses. The proposal that passed the Senate distributes nearly $76.3 million to higher education institutions and nearly $206 million to K-12. For the smallest school systems, it’s several hundred thousand dollars. Mobile County, the state’s largest K-12 system, would get $14.8 million. Every school’s proposed allocation is listed in the bill approved by the Senate and now in the House. Schools would receive the money this summer. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — On their first day back in session after spring break, lawmakers in the House and Senate slowed down legislative action to draw out debate and call attention to lack of movement of bills. Read more. More from the Legislature House Passes Bill to Shorten Absentee Application Time Open Records Bill Clears Committee, Lawmakers Want More Work On It Transgender Athletes, Mandatory Kindergarten, Medical Pot, Double Voting, Police Database, Habitual Offender Laws Debated in Committees
A bill that would shorten the time allowed to return absentee ballot applications passed the Alabama House on Tuesday. Read more.
A proposed bill to revise the city of Birmingham’s pension plan gained the official support of the City Council Tuesday. HB510, which is pending in the Alabama Legislature, would compel the city to fully fund its pension obligation and increase employees’ contributions to the fund. Not doing so, Mayor Randall Woodfin argued, could spell future financial disaster for the city. The city’s pension had been underfunded since 2002, and when Woodfin took office in 2017, the pension liability stood at $750 million. Since then, Woodfin has nearly doubled the city’s annual contribution to the pension. but its liability has continued to increase and as of 2019 stood at $900 million. It would still take the changes proposed in HB510 to put the pension fund “on solid ground,” Woodfin said. As reported last week, HB510 would increase current employees’ contributions from 7% to 7.5% and would reduce retirement benefits for new employees hired after July 1, 2021. The bill would also reduce disability allowances for new employees and replace spousal survivors’ benefits with the option for an “actuarially reduced retirement benefit.” Read more.
Alabama has added 1,400 cases of coronavirus since Friday and four more people died of the disease. Read more.
