A federal judge blocked Alabama’s strict abortion ban Tuesday, which was set to go into effect next month. U.S District Judge Myron Thompson issued a primary injunction Tuesday against the law, which would have made performing an abortion a felony in almost all cases. Abortion providers would face a sentence of up to 99 years in prison with no exception for rape or incest. The only exception is when there’s a serious health risk to the woman. Read more.
WBHM Alabama has cut per-student funding at state colleges and universities more than any state in the U.S. That’s according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Chris Sanders of Alabama Arise, a non-profit organization that advocates for low-income Alabamians, tells WBHM’s Janae Pierre that Alabama cut higher education funding by nearly 36% between 2008 and 2018. Read more.
A public hearing will be held Nov. 19 concerning a proposed new permit that would set limits on how much pollution and storm water Tyson Foods could discharge into waterways from its Blountville chicken processing plant. The plant is upstream of two public recreation areas, Mardis Mill Falls and King’s Bend. It is not the Tyson facility that caused a recent massive fish kill in the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River. The draft permit would allow the Blountsville plant to release about 1.3 million gallons of wastewater daily to Graves Creek, a tributary of the Locust Fork, as well as to the Locust Fork itself. The wastewater would include bacteria and nutrient pollution. Tyson Foods could also discharge polluted stormwater under the permit if approved. Read more.
WASHINGTON – Members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Oct. 23 passed a measure aimed at combatting foreign interference in U.S. elections. HR 4617, which was approved on a 227-181 vote, would require U.S. political campaigns to inform law enforcement when they receive offers of foreign assistance. It also would close loopholes that allow foreign funds to illegally enter the U.S. electoral system; prohibit foreign spending on state ballot initiatives; prohibit U.S. campaigns from disclosing non-public information, including poll numbers, to foreign governments and their agents, and require sponsors of online political advertising to identify themselves in the ad, just as they must do in commercials run on broadcast channels. Alabama’s representatives split on the issue, with Democrat Terri Sewell voting for it and Republicans Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Bradley Byrne, Martha Roby, Mo Brooks and Gary Palmer voting against it. Read more.
Along coastal Alabama lies Dauphin Island, a narrow, shifting strip of sand inhabited by a laid-back vacation town that is becoming more endangered with every passing storm and every incremental rise in the warming waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Dauphin is one of perhaps 2,200 barrier islands that make up 10% to 12% of the globe’s coastline. They help absorb the blows of nature and suffer greatly for it, either eroding dramatically from catastrophic hurricane forces or gradually, almost imperceptibly, from constant wave action. These sandy, offshore bodies are potent poster children for our planet’s warming, part of a natural, 100,000-year cycle that, according to most scientists, has greatly accelerated since the birth of the Industrial Age. That transformative age was and largely continues to be powered by the burning of carbon-based fuels, principally coal. Almost 60 percent of emissions from such fossil fuels remain in the atmosphere and is largely responsible for global warming. That coal is to blame lends irony to the view that fragile Dauphin Island is a canary in the coal mine of climate change. No doubt there remains a veneer of resistance to this scientific consensus – few political leaders of red-state Alabama voice agreement with the voice of science on this matter. Yet, on Dauphin Island, realpolitik is at work as the town begins to consider how to respond to the question of its own survival. Read more. Read the rest of BirminghamWatch’s special report on climate change effects on the coast:
U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne officially entered Alabama’s 2020 U.S. Senate race Friday, and moments after signing qualifying documents, he fired back at criticism by some — including incumbent opponent Doug Jones — over his participation in a recent Republican protest of House impeachment hearings. “I’ve got years of experience and a track record of fighting and fighting successfully for the things that matter,” Byrne said. “We just had a fight in Washington this week, and I’ve proven as recently as just a few days ago, that I’m willing to do what it takes, to do whatever we have to do to fight for the values that matter to the American people and to fight for President Trump.” On Wednesday, a group of Republican congressmen, including Byrne and fellow Alabama representatives Mo Brooks and Gary Palmer, pushed into a closed-door hearing being held by the House Intelligence Committee. Republicans told members of the media that they objected to impeachment proceedings being held behind closed doors, which Byrne reiterated Friday. Read more.
Steve Ammons, chairman of the Jefferson County Commission’s committee on economic development, called another commissioner’s moving without his knowledge to require full commission approval to spend economic development funds “a slap in the face.” Ammons said he had no idea the resolution was coming up. “When it came up, honestly it was a slap in the face,” he said. Ammons and Commission President Jimmie Stephens were absent Tuesday when Commissioner Lashunda Scales presented the resolution in the commission’s committee meeting. Read more.
U.S. Sen. Doug Jones called a protest by Republican congressmen, including three House members from Alabama, a “political stunt” reminiscent of George Wallace’s 1963 stand in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama. “I thought it was (a) petty little temper tantrum. That’s all you can say,” Jones said Thursday during a phone news conference with reporters from Alabama. “I thought Alabama had moved beyond that after the stand in the schoolhouse door.” Alabama Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Huntsville, Bradley Byrne of Fairhope and Gary Palmer of Hoover were among about 30 GOP members of the House of Representatives who on Wednesday pushed into a room where the House Intelligence Committee held impeachment hearings. That delayed testimony by a Pentagon official for about five hours, the Washington Post reported. Read more.
Plans to renovate the long-derelict Ramsay-McCormack Building in Ensley are underway. The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to approve a $4 million plan that could have the building revitalized and open by August 2021, developers say. The council’s decision comes just one day before a lawsuit against the city over the building’s renovation is slated to once again go before a judge. The 10-story office building, which was built in 1929, has been empty since 1986.
WBHM This week, the McDonald’s Magic City Classic presented by Coca-Cola will again turn Legion Field into an around-the-clock tailgate party. Before it ends, tens of thousands of people will pack the historic stadium Saturday for the annual clash between the two largest historically black colleges in the state — the Hornets of Alabama State University and the Bulldogs of Alabama A&M University. Read more.
