Virginia Martin

The New COVID-19 Vaccine Has Arrived, but the Virus Still Is Spreading Throughout Alabama

As the first shipments of COVID-19 vaccines make their way into hospitals across Alabama, the post-Thanksgiving rise in the state’s numbers continued in the past week, with the number of deaths attributed to the virus surpassing the 4,000 mark statewide. In BirminghamWatch’s weekly analysis of the trends in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, all but one of the measures of the pandemic’s effects again reached new highs. The 7-day moving average of cases reached 3,502.43 new cases per day, while the 14-day average stood at 3,419.71 per day, up more than 17% from seven days prior. All-time highs were set Sunday on both of those measures. Read more.

by Robert Carter

DOJ Lawsuit Could Lead to Federal Oversight of Alabama Prisons

A lawsuit filed last week by the U.S. Department of Justice could lead to federal supervision of Alabama’s prison system. It’s the culmination of an investigation that began in 2016 and resulted in two scathing reports, published April 2019 and July 2020, that detailed rampant abuse of inmates. Before filing the lawsuit, the DOJ spent more than a year negotiating with state officials and trying to get Alabama to improve its prison system. University of Alabama law professor Jenny Carroll said the federal government got tired of waiting. “I think the fact they did go ahead and file suggests that the solutions the state came up with and were bringing to the table and were offering just weren’t enough,” said Carroll. “They weren’t enough in light of what DOJ was finding.” Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

Hospital Officials Urge Against Holiday Gatherings in Open Letter to Alabamians

Birmingham-area hospital officials issued an open letter to the public Tuesday expressing concern about the growing number of COVID-19 patients being cared for in hospitals and the possibility those numbers will grow even more as the holidays progress. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch

Spend It All: JeffCo Commission Makes Sure to Leave No Cares Act Money on the Table

Jefferson County officials Tuesday took care to make sure all of the Cares Act money in their charge gets spent before the Dec. 30 deadline. The County Commission prepared to reallocate money entities couldn’t spend. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

UAB Hospital Receives First Delivery of Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine, Vaccinations Begin Thursday

UAB Hospital received its first shipment of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday morning. The hospital was given 10,725 doses out of the entire state’s total doses of 40,950. “It was astronomically more vaccine than we anticipated receiving,” said Dr. Sarah Nafziger, co-chair of UAB’s Emergency Management Committee. It’s “a very complex undertaking to get this up

by Miranda Fulmore, WBHM

Birmingham Will Apply for Grant to Revitalize Smithfield Court

The city of Birmingham will apply for a $34 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the “comprehensive revitalization” of the Smithfield Court housing project. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Providers Plan For Vaccinating Millions of Rural Alabamians

As Alabama receives its first allotment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, health officials anticipate challenges distributing the vaccine in rural communities. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

Predictable Prejudice: Predictive Policing Software Promises Unbiased Crime-Fighting, but Can It Deliver?

When a Homewood Police Department officer starts his shift, the laptop in his police cruiser is fed data from a program called PredPol. The data fills a city map with boxes where PredPol forecasts that property crimes are most likely to occur, and the officer is expected to give those areas extra attention during his shift. Predictive policing software programs such as PredPol have grown in popularity among law enforcement agencies over the past decade, including adoption by the Homewood Police Department and Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in 2016 and Birmingham Police Department in 2019. These programs promise high-tech, efficient policing and reduced crime rates based on cold, hard data and algorithms. Amid renewed national attention on racism and bias in police departments, the seeming color-blindness of decisions made based on computer code sounds all the more alluring. But many opponents of predictive policing say the technology isn’t as objective as it appears and is simply perpetuating discrimination in a new way. Read more.

by Sydney Cromwell

House Passes Stopgap Funding, COVID-19 Relief

Voterama in Congress WASHINGTON — The U.S. House last week passed a bill to fund the government on a stopgap basis through Dec. 18, with Alabama’s delegation splitting down the middle on the vote. Overall, the vote was 343 for and 67 against. In Alabama’s delegation, Reps. Martha Roby, R; Mike Rogers, R; and Terri Sewell, D, voted for the bill. Reps. Bradley Byrne, R; Mo Brooks, R; and Gary Palmer, R, voted against it. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R, was under quarantine and not present for the vote. In addition to averting a shutdown, the vote gives leaders more time to negotiate another round of emergency relief for individuals and households facing economic hardship as a result of COVID-19. Read more.

by Voterama in Congress

Where and When to Get Tested for COVID-19

COVID-19 cases are on the rise statewide and predicted to continue increasing into January, at least. The Alabama Department of Public Health has advice if you’re considering getting tested for the disease and a list of locations where you can get tested. Read more.

by BirminghamWatch