Virginia Martin, Author at BirminghamWatch - Page 215 of 480
Donate About Subscribe

Virginia Martin

Jefferson County Commission May Hire More Road Clean Up Help

Jefferson County commissioners Tuesday put in motion the hiring of temporary workers to address road cleanup. During their committee meeting, Commission President Jimmie Stephens offered a proposal to hire 12 laborers to pick up trash along county roads. That dozen will also aid, as needed, in clean up from the tornado that recently struck Fultondale and Center Point. The proposal, which will be on the agenda of Thursday’s commission meeting, will cover the remainder of the fiscal year. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

School Funding Change on the Move in the Legislature

Between the fall of 2019 and fall 2020, 59 public school systems’ enrollment grew by nearly 6,500 students. But under the state’s current funding structure, systems have to fund most of that growth, including hiring the needed teachers, out of their local tax revenue, and state funding is slow to catch up, if it ever does, educators say. For some of the systems with the largest growth, that’s hundreds of students and millions of dollars. Senate Bill 9 would amend the state’s Foundation Program to calculate growth so systems don’t have to wait a year for per-student funding, which this year is about $6,271. It would estimate non-virtual enrollment based on the previous years’ growth. Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Lady Justice Is Not Wearing a Blindfold

In 1996, Jerald Sanders, a Black man and resident of Alabama, used his pocket knife to tear a hole in a front porch screen so he could steal a bicycle stored inside. When apprehended a few weeks later, Sanders was charged with burglary in the first degree, a Class C felony. Because Sanders had multiple prior offenses on his record, his sentence was pushed to life in prison without parole. A Class C felony often results in a fine or minimal jail time. Sanders’ story is not rare. Black men are sentenced to prison time that reflects not only the crime for which they are being sentenced, but for their entire criminal history. According to statistics from the Sentencing Project, Blacks are incarcerated at more than five times the rate of whites. Read more.

by Michelle Love

5G Infrastructure Bill Clears Senate

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Senate on Thursday approved legislation to create a statewide standard for deploying 5G cellular infrastructure and setting limits on how much money local governments can charge providers for access to utility structures. “This legislation provides a consistent framework for the deployment of small cells, giving providers some certainty as they invest in local communities to expand this very necessary infrastructure,” bill sponsor Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said. Read more. More from the Legislature: Medical Marijuana, Alcohol Delivery, COVID Liability Bills Pass First Tests Legislative Session Starts With Caution, Big Bills Bill Would Filter Emergency Health Orders Through Layman Board in Jefferson County Read more on the legislative session, which began Tuesday.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

COVID Death Toll in Alabama Tops 8,000, but New Cases and Hospitalizations Still Falling

The number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalized COVID patients continues to drop in Alabama, though the number of deaths attributed to the virus has passed another milestone. In BirminghamWatch’s periodic analysis of data provided by the Alabama Department of Public Health, the state death toll stood at 8,203 as of Wednesday morning, an increase of 1,031 in the past seven days. Read more.

by Robert Carter
1 … 213 214 215 216 217 … 480