Virginia Martin

Would You Be My Neighbor? Jefferson County Mayors Answer ‘Yes’ as They Sign Pledge Not to Poach Business

Trafford Mayor Greg Rogers wasn’t present in the Jefferson County Commission chambers this morning but the spirit of TV’s Mister Rogers was as 22 Jefferson County mayors signed the Good Neighbor Pledge. The pact discourages poaching between cities in the county. Each city represented in the agreement pledges not to recruit business from another city within the county. “Under the voluntary agreement, we as mayors promise we will not lure businesses away from other cities in Jefferson County through solicitation or incentives,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said. “I’m convinced the Good Neighbor Pledge will lay a better foundation for our cities’ future … all of us within the county.” Woodfin said not having a pledge such as the one signed today put Birmingham at risk of losing small businesses, including shops, grocery stores and restaurants. “When a business closes in one city and moves to a neighboring city, we’re not creating new jobs, we’re not creating opportunities,” the Birmingham mayor continued. “We’re just shuffling them around.” Read more.

Jeffco Health Officials: Violence Is a Public Health Issue

WBHM Violence is the newest strategic focus for the Jefferson County Department of Health. During Tuesday’s annual State of Health in Jefferson County address, Dr. Mark Wilson said the department added the issue in response to increasing rates of homicide. “It (violence) isn’t something that our health department has devoted resources to in the past,” Wilson said, “but it is clearly a public health problem.” Read more.

Bills for More Generous RSA Pension Benefits in Committees Wednesday, Lawmakers Want to Know Impact to State

MONTGOMERY — Legislation being considered in the Alabama State House could offer better retirement benefits to public school teachers and many city and county government employees, as well. Read more.

Jefferson County Commissioners Question Legality of Bingo

Bingo was the subject of a lengthy discussion this morning as members of the Jefferson County Commission met for their committee meeting. Commissioner Lashunda Scales sought clarity on the county’s stance on bingo in general and electronic bingo machines that are being licensed for operation by a number of Jefferson County municipalities. Read more.

Unencumbered: Birmingham Council Says Neighborhood Leaders Don’t Need to Write Reports After Conference

The Birmingham City Council decided Tuesday that the neighborhood officers it is sending to a conference in Palm Springs, California, don’t have to write reports to share the knowledge they gained with the city. The council in its March 19 meeting approved sending up to 297 people, three from each of the city’s neighborhoods, to the Neighborhood USA conference. At about $1,600 per person, the trips could cost the city roughly $475,000. Read more.

Birmingham Iron’s Season Ends Early, as Alliance of American Football Suspends Operations

Updated — Even quicker than it came to life, the Alliance of American Football — and with it, the Birmingham Iron — has gone on life support. The first word came Tuesday morning, after a report from the Pro Football Talk blog at NBC Sports that the league would suspend operations by the end of the day. AAF co-Founder Bill Polian confirmed several hours after the initial reports that the league would suspend operations as of 5 p.m. Tuesday. "I am extremely disappointed to learn that Tom Dundon has decided to suspend all football operations of the Alliance of American Football," Polian said in a prepared statement first reported by ESPN. AAF Chairman Tom Dundon threatened to pull the plug in comments he made to USA Today last week. He complained then about a lack of cooperation from the National Football League Players Association in allowing the AAF to use players on NFL rosters for developmental purposes, much as minor league baseball teams use players sent down from their Major League Baseball parent clubs. Read more. Earlier Reporting on Birmingham’s Sports Scene

Majoring in the Minors: Birmingham’s Booming With New Pro Sports Teams

Officials Investigate Fish Kill Along Black Warrior River

WBHM State officials are looking into a fish kill that happened near Alabama Power’s Plant Gorgas in Walker County. The coal-fired plant sits along a tributary of the Black Warrior River. Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke says he first heard about the incident Friday morning from a local fisherman. Brooke says he was not allowed to access the fenced area of the creek near the power plant, but counted at least 100 dead fish downstream. Read more.

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending March 29

WASHINGTON — The House on March 27 voted 242 for and 187 against a bill (HR 7) that would expand federal prohibitions on paycheck discrimination based on gender while giving women additional legal tools for obtaining equal pay for substantially equal work. The bill now goes to the Senate. The vote was largely along party lines, including members representing Alabama. U.S. Rep Terry Sewell, D-Birmingham was the lone yes vote in the state’s delegation. Read more.

Bill Ties E-Verify Use to Business Licenses

A bill in the Alabama Senate is seeking to tighten up the rules when it comes to companies screening potentially illegal workers through the federal E-Verify system. Senate Bill 71 from Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, would require businesses with five or more employees to swear via affidavit to their usage of the E-Verify system before they could receive a city or county business license. Under the bill, the affidavit would be supplied by the Attorney General’s Office, and noncompliance would be a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500. Companies already are required to use the E-Verify system under a mandate from the state’s 2011 anti-illegal immigration law. However, only 60 percent of new Alabama hires had their legal status to work confirmed by E-Verify in 2017, according to a report in Stateline, a publication of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Orr said he modeled the bill after a law in Georgia, where up to 94 percent of new workers now are screened through E-Verify. Read more.

Air Pollution Panel, in Divisive Session, Asks EPA to Reverse Course and Provide Expert Help

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was asked Thursday by a key advisory committee to give it more expert help to review the hundreds of recent scientific studies on the effects of microscopic particles of soot on human mortality. The action came as a surprise as the deeply divided Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee met Thursday to try to agree on language of a draft report. A majority of the seven-member panel, including Corey Masuco of the Jefferson County Department of Health, agreed it was not large enough and its members did not have enough expertise in epidemiology and some other fields to plow through and adequately assess the large body of research developed since its most recent report. Plus, the committee has a fast-tracked December 2020 deadline. Read more.