Virginia Martin

Fantasy Sports Bill Stalls in Senate

MONTGOMERY -- A bill that would allow Alabamians to wager on fantasy sports stalled in the Senate Thursday but is expected to be brought back to the floor after the Memorial Day weekend. Sponsored by Rep. Kyle South, R-Fayette, House Bill 361 would allow adults to place bets on fantasy sports through sites such as FanDuel and DraftKings. The bill passed the House on May 8 by a vote of 74-22. Fantasy sports contests allow fans to draft players from real professional rosters and select teams to compete against peers in regular contests. Many sports are offered, but professional football, basketball and baseball are the most popular. Playing fantasy sports is legal and common in Alabama, but betting on the contests is no longer allowed. Read more.

Lawmakers Reduce Time Between Primaries and Runoffs by 2 Weeks

The time between primary elections and primary runoffs in Alabama will shrink from six weeks to four weeks under a bill that cleared the Alabama Legislature on Thursday. That means two fewer weeks of campaign advertising and less money spent by candidates, Secretary of State John Merrill said Thursday. “We believe that will make most people very happy,” Merrill said.

Compromise Medical Marijuana Bill to Get House Committee Vote

MONTGOMERY — After the House Rules Chairman said a Senate-passed medical marijuana bill wouldn't advance in the House, lawmakers were working on a compromise Wednesday that takes a more incremental approach and keeps an existing experimental treatment program in place. Bill sponsor Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, told Alabama Daily News that a substitute bill to create a state commission to regulate medical marijuana will get a public hearing and committee vote Tuesday. If the bill is approved in the remaining week or two of this legislative session, that commission will make recommendations to lawmakers next year about medical marijuana laws. Read more.

Lottery Stumbles in House, Fate Uncertain

MONTGOMERY — A proposal for a statewide lottery is in jeopardy in the Alabama House of Representatives, with advocates saying they will try to overcome objections from opponents and bring the bill up for debate again. Supporters tried to revive the bill during the evening after it appeared dead when a procedural vote failed earlier in the day. Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, who is carrying the bill in the House, said he thought he had enough votes to at least get the bill back on the floor, but he fell short by one vote. He said negotiations are continuing and he will try to bring the bill back to the floor before the end of the session. Read more.

Huntsville Area Leads the State in Population Growth

The Birmingham-Hoover MSA grew by just 2,116 people in 2017-2018. The area ranked 251th out of 383 MSAs in terms of population growth rate, according to an analysis of census data conducted by the Public Research Council of Alabama. The Huntsville MSA led the state in percentage of population growth, ranking it 64th in the country. It added 6,952 people to its ranks in the period. Other large metros in the state fell below Birmingham-Hoover in terms of growth, with Mobile ranked 324th and Montgomery 327th. However, those two areas lost population in 2017-2018, as did some other metro areas in the U.S. Read more.

BPD Chief Briefs Council on Crime

Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith presented the City Council with an update on violent crime Tuesday, sparking a discussion that delved into poverty, youth initiatives and some councilors’ dissatisfaction with Mayor Randall Woodfin’s proposed FY 2020 budget. Smith began his presentation by looking at the recent history of crime in Birmingham, which he said dramatically spiked between 2014 and 2018. “In 2014, the city of Birmingham had only 51 homicides within the city,” he said. “But in 2015, we moved up to 78. In 2016, we went to 92. In 2017, 99. In 2018, we reached 100. “So somewhere in there, something happened and we didn’t make the turn to make changes in what we do, make changes in our policing patterns and what we needed to improve the city … . We’ve got to do more to reach out, to help people, to save people in our community.” Smith added that 2019 was so far on par with 2018’s homicide rate, and he warned that summer months — June through September — would likely be the “most violent time of the year,” based on precedent. Read more.

JeffCo Commissioners to Vote Thursday on Morgan Road Widening, Discusses Sewer Spill

The Jefferson County Commission sent a funding agreement for Morgan Road improvements to the agenda of its Thursday meeting. Commission President Jimmie Stephens said those improvements, which include making the road a five-lane thoroughfare from Interstate 459 to the Jefferson-Shelby counties line at Shades Crest Road, have been 22 years in the making. Read more.

Woodfin Says Abortion Law Is Costing Birmingham Tech Business

Updated — Two IT companies have canceled or put on hold discussions about moving to Birmingham because of the abortion ban signed into law last week, according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. Woodfin told author Diane McWhorter about the changes for an opinion piece published Saturday on CNN. McWhorter wrote that Woodfin “confirmed to me today that the abortion ban affected two IT companies considering moves to the city – one canceled outright, while the other ‘put the brakes on negotiations.’” Read more.

Judge in Historic Ruling Says Drummond Violating Clean Water Act Because of Ongoing Discharge From Closed Mine

The acid coal mine drainage at Maxine Mine on the Locust Fork is ugly, with discordant orange, yellow, red and purple hues that contrast with verdant spring growth on adjacent riverbanks and bluffs. Nearby residents of this Black Warrior River tributary in north Jefferson County, close to the community of Praco on Flat Top Road, call the abandoned mine “a mess,” a place devoid of fish and most other aquatic life and given a wide berth by boaters and swimmers. It’s where algae blooms proliferate in a slough rife with sediment washing from the mountain of mine waste that has accumulated since the early 1950s. And it’s a site that made Alabama history May 7 when a federal judge ruled that its owner, Drummond Company, was in violation of the U.S. Clean Water Act for continuously polluting the Locust Fork with acid drainage. In a suit brought by nonprofit Black Warrior Riverkeeper, U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon issued a summary judgment against Drummond, dismissing the coal company’s assertion that the law does not apply to pollution from waste after mine operations ended. It was the first time the federal act was used to successfully sue the owner of an abandoned mine for polluting an Alabama waterway. Read more.

The River ‘Flows Through My Veins:’ Voices From the Locust Fork Tributary of the Black Warrior River

Funding to Make Abandoned Coal Mines Safer Could Disappear Soon

Funding to Make Abandoned Coal Mines Safer Could Disappear Soon

U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon eventually will determine how Drummond Co. must keep its Maxine Mine from polluting the Locust Fork with acid mine drainage. Regardless of the method used, the cost almost certainly will run into the millions of dollars. The size and complexity of the more than six-decade-old site would make stopping or treating pollution “very, very challenging” regardless of the method used, according to Dustin Morin, the inspector for the Alabama Department of Labor’s Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program. The program administers the federal AML program and addresses the most dangerous problems resulting from coal mining that occurred before passage of the U.S. Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Read more.

Judge in Historic Ruling Says Drummond Violating Clean Water Act Because of Ongoing Discharge From Closed Mine

The River ‘Flows Through My Veins:’ Voices From the Locust Fork Tributary of the Black Warrior River