Virginia Martin

The Beginning of the End? Court Motion Starts Process to Declare Desegregation in Jefferson County Schools Complete

In 1971, when the U.S. District Court first ruled that Jefferson County Schools were segregated and required the court’s supervision to integrate, most of the people who would be directly affected had not yet been born — in numerous cases, their parents hadn’t born yet, either. But that era might be coming to an end at long last, though that end may still be three or four years away. JefCoEd is scheduled to file a motion with District Judge Madeline Haikala that seeks to amend an order handed down in Stout v. Jefferson County Board of Education, the landmark case that found the county system operated separate schools for white and African American students. The motion to amend comes after lengthy negotiations with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, which originally filed the lawsuit in 1965, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Do Current Pollution Standards Protect Human Health? Clean Air Panel Will Hear Comments, Review Draft Proposal

A government panel of air pollution experts, including one from the Jefferson County Department of Health, will gather for public meetings in North Carolina later this month to hear comments and review a draft report on whether the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for carbon particles in the air are stringent enough to protect human health. Politico Pro recently reported that the draft document, the Policy Assessment for Particulate Matter, questions whether the current standard for particulate matter in the air is adequate to protect public health. Read more.

by Hank Black

Jefferson County Commission OKs Magic City Classic Funding; Scales’, Stephens’ Reasoning Took Them on the Same Path to Different Destinations

Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens and President Pro Tem Lashunda Scales are often on opposite sides of discussions. In Thursday’s commission meeting, they once again wound up on different sides of the fence, but their sentiments were not as far apart as they might have appeared. Stephens pulled for separate consideration resolutions allotting $100,000 apiece to Alabama A&M and Alabama State universities. That money is to assist in the promotion of the annual Magic City Classic football game. Scales, Sheila Tyson and Joe Knight voted for the actions. Stephens abstained and Steve Ammons was absent. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Pinson Valley High School Teacher Raisa Eady Wins Milken Educator Award

Raisa Eady never saw it coming — which was by design. The biology teacher at Pinson Valley High School knew something big was happening when officials from the Alabama State Department of Education, Jefferson County Schools, local governments and the Milken Family Foundation showed up for an assembly in the school auditorium. Some teacher was about to receive a big award. But when her name was announced as the winner of the Milken Educator Award, she sat in disbelief. “When it (the announcement) happened, everyone looked around and I said, ‘Oh, it is me?’ They said yes and I said, ‘No way!’” Eady told reporters afterward. “I’m so honored and overwhelmed today. I definitely had no idea this was happening. … I have not even grasped what’s happened yet. I feel extremely blessed, grateful — and overwhelmed.” She did have a literal grasp on a big check, though. The award, given by the Milken Family Foundation, comes with a prize of $25,000, and no restrictions on how it may be used. Read more.

by Robert Carter

Bluesman Henry “Gip” Gipson Dies at 99

Alabama native and blues musician Henry “Gip” Gipson is dead. Gipson died Tuesday at a nursing home in Bessemer. He was 99. Gipson was known worldwide for his Saturday night backyard parties. “Gip’s Place,” his Bessemer juke joint, has been the gathering spot for blues since the early '50s. Read more.

by Janae Pierre, WBHM

Cyberattacks Like the One on DCH Are Increasingly Common

Ransomware attacks are the most significant cyber threat to hospitals across the country, according to John Riggi, a 28-year veteran of the FBI and now senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association. “Ransomware has a direct impact to interrupt patient care delivery operations and potentially patient safety,” Riggi says. Read more.

by Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM

One Birmingham City Council Seat Goes to a Runoff; Two Incumbents Returned to the Council

One Birmingham City Council seat will be up for a runoff after none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the votes in Tuesday’s balloting. See full results here. Wardine Towers Alexander will face Ray Brooks on Nov. 19 in a runoff for the council District 7 seat. Alexander won 42.41% of the vote to challenger Ray Brooks’ 30.88%. Two other races were decided Tuesday. Crystal Smitherman will return as council District 6 councilor, having garnered 51.50% of the vote in a seven-candidate field. In the District 1 race, Clifton Woods will return to the council, with 71.27% of the vote in his district. The three propositions to renew separate ad valorem taxes all passed by wide margins, with those voting yes in each race amounting to about 90%. Reporting of full results was delayed until Wednesday because of an error in the handling of electronic machine memory cards at three different precincts. The cards from the Martha Gaskins School, Robinson Elementary School and Five Points West precincts were sealed inside boxes that contained the paper ballots filled out by voters. Officials with the Birmingham City Clerk’s office had to get a court order Wednesday morning to allow them to open the box and add those votes to the total. Read more.

by Robert Carter and Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

UAB Asks JeffCo Commission to Support New Medical Research Building

Two high-ranking leaders from UAB today asked Jefferson County to invest with the Southside institution in making the Altec/Styslinger Genomic Medicine and Data Sciences Building a reality. UAB President Ray Watts and Dr. Selwyn Vickers, the senior vice president for medicine and dean of the School of Medicine, asked commissioners during their committee meeting to consider putting $1 million per year for five years into the $70 million project. The 140,000-square-foot building will house more than 50 research operations, which the pair said will produce annual revenue of $35 million to $55 million, or a total of $175 million to $300 million over five years. But, they said, it’s not just about the money. Watts said the work there will lay the foundation for health care for the future of Birmingham, Jefferson County and beyond. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Fired Senior Staffer for Warren Presidential Campaign Also Worked for Jones, Woodfin

UPDATED — A recently fired top staffer in the presidential campaign of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, previously worked in the campaigns of both Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. Rich McDaniel was dismissed by the Warren campaign after an investigation into “inappropriate behavior,” according to a press release from the campaign. The political news website Politico reported the dismissal on Saturday and quoted the press statement as saying, “Over the past two weeks, senior campaign leadership received multiple complaints regarding inappropriate behavior by Rich McDaniel. Over the same time period, the campaign retained outside counsel to conduct an investigation. Based on the results of the investigation, the campaign determined that his reported conduct was inconsistent with its values and that he could not be a part of the campaign moving forward.” Read more.

by Robert Carter

Legendary Birmingham Sports Promoter Art Clarkson Dies

Art Clarkson, who ran two of Birmingham’s best-known minor league sports teams among many other ventures, has died at age 78, just months after retiring from his last sports management job. Clarkson has had a hand in management of numerous sports operations across the country, but he is best known locally as the man who brought the Barons baseball team back to Rickwood Field and who ran the Birmingham Bulls hockey franchise in two different incarnations. Read more.

by Robert Carter