Virginia Martin

More Alabama Farmers Sign up to Grow Hemp

Jon Hegeman’s newest crop looks like marijuana. It’s got towering, feathery flowers — aka buds — and those tell-tale multi-fingered leaves. “This is the closest thing you’ll have in Alabama to marijuana,” said Hegeman, a hemp farmer and president and co-owner of Greenway Plants. For the first time in almost 90 years, it’s now legal to grow hemp in the U.S., including in Alabama. The passage of the 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from a list of drugs the federal government says have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. Read more.

by Richard Banks, WBHM

New SPLC Report Claims Voter Suppression ‘Alive and Well’ in Alabama

MONTGOMERY – A Southern Poverty Law Center report released Monday claims voter suppression is “alive and well” in Alabama and calls for several reform measures. But state officials pushed back on the criticism, saying Alabama has made great gains in registering and turning out voters. Caren Short, a senior staff attorney with SPLC, told Alabama Daily News that Alabama ranks low among Southern states in protecting voting rights. “We make voting pretty hard and we don’t have a lot of easy reforms that could make voting simple for people,” Short said. Read more.

by Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

UAB Leads a New Anti-Viral Drug Trial to Combat the Coronavirus

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is leading a new anti-viral drug trial in Wuhan, China to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Read more.

by Miranda Fulmore, WBHM

Ivey, Trump Have High Approval in New Alabama Poll

MONTGOMERY – A new Alabama Daily News poll shows Gov. Kay Ivey and President Donald Trump enjoying high approval ratings among voters in Alabama. In a survey conducted Feb 4-6, 64% of voters approve of the job Ivey is doing as governor while 29% disapprove. For Trump, 58% of Alabama voters approve of his performance

by Todd Stacy, Alabama Daily News

Study: Diversion Programs Work – When They Don’t Sabotage Participants

In a state where overcrowded, violence-racked prisons have been a longstanding issue, there are alternatives to prison — diversion is the common umbrella term — that are supposed to keep some offenders out of the system and give them help they need to stay out. These diversions take the form of entities such as drug courts, veterans courts and community corrections. In many instances, these alternatives to prison are successful. But a new report states that in far too many cases, they hinder rather than help those they are supposed to serve. “The perverse reality is that diversion programs actually drive many of the behaviors and circumstances they were devised to mitigate,” states “In Trouble: How the Promise of Diversion Clashes With the Reality of Poverty, Addiction and Structural Racism in Alabama’s Justice System,” a study by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice that was released Monday. Read more.

by Tom Gordon

U.S. House Condemns Move to Switch Portion of Medicaid Funds to State-Regulated Block Grant

KEY VOTES AHEAD The House will take up bills to protect wilderness during the week of Feb. 10, while the Senate will vote on asserting congressional authority over any U.S. military strikes against Iran. WASHINGTON — The U.S. House voted last week to condemn a Trump administration plan to scale back Medicaid’s traditional status as an entitlement program, in which everyone who meets income or disability criteria are guaranteed set minimum benefits. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services has proposed to allow states to shift some of their Medicaid offerings to a block-grant program. In a block-grant program, states would set their own rules for what is covered and cap the amount that Medicaid would pay for patient care in a given year. Read more.

by Voterama in Congress

StoryCorps Founder Brings One Small Step Event to Birmingham

For more than 15 years, StoryCorps has provided people across the U.S. the opportunity to record and preserve the stories of their lives. Now, the organization is taking that idea to another level with One Small Step. It brings people with differing political views together with the hope of better understanding each other. Birmingham has been a test site. WBHM’s Janae Pierre talked with StoryCorps founder Dave Isay. Read more.

by Janae Pierre, WBHM

Ivey Wants Facts on Gaming; Some Lawmakers Ready to Move Forward With Lottery

MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has told lawmakers she wants the facts on the financial impact of a lottery and expanded gambling in Alabama and is putting together a working group to get them. She won’t take any action on the matter until then, she said. But that information is months away, and a key lawmaker said Wednesday he’s moving forward with a proposal for a statewide lottery. Ivey’s working group also will analyze a possible compact with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians. “I’ll give them to the year’s end, but if they get through sooner, that’ll be fine too,” Ivey told reporters Wednesday. “But I want them to be thorough and get the facts, that’s all I want is the facts, not recommendations. We just want the facts about how much money the state can expect to gain if we do a lottery or if we do expanded gaming or a compact and what the heck does a compact look like?” Read more.

by Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News

Bills That Would Deny Bail for Violent Offenders Face Constitutionality Questions

MONTGOMERY — Bills to deny bail for those accused of violent crimes were discussed in House and Senate committees Wednesday but did not advance. In the Senate, a constitutional amendment by Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, would automatically deny bail for six specific violent offenses: murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, kidnapping, sexual abuse or sexual torture and human trafficking. The bill, which opponents say would unconstitutionally pre-convict a suspect, is being considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Ward is chairman.

by Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones’ Speech on Trump Vote

This statement was provided by U.S. Sen. Doug Jones’ staff before his speech. All of these remarks were included in the speech, but Jones expanded on them considerably in final remarks.

by Robert Carter