Virginia Martin

Jefferson County Commissioners Told Sewer Ratepayer Lawsuit is Effectively Over

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of Jefferson County sewer ratepayers from the 11th Circuit Court, effectively ending the county’s bankruptcy proceedings, Jefferson County Commissioners were told today. “It’s been a long time coming,” Commission President Jimmie Stephens said following the commission committee meeting. County attorney Theo Lawson said the ratepayers who sued have 25 days from Monday to take further action. That is unlikely, he said. Read more.

Health Department Sends ABC Coke Permit Renewal to EPA for Review

ABC Coke’s hopes for renewal of its operating permit for another five years are now in the hands of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Jefferson County Department of Health submitted a proposed draft to the EPA for the permit renewal March 1, it announced today. Read more.

Ivey’s Budget Proposes Shifting Funds, Including Moving CHIP Costs to Education Fund, as Part of Plan to Improve Roads and Bridges

MONTGOMERY – Gov. Kay Ivey is proposing a redistribution of some tax revenue — including more than $30 million from the Education Trust Fund to the General Fund — to help sell her initiative to raise more revenue for building roads and bridges. Read more.

It’s Not Just Alabama. Coal Ash Toxins Foul Groundwater in 91 Percent of Nation’s Coal Ash Sites.

Alabama's not the only state with highly polluted groundwater from coal ash basins. In December, electric utilities in Alabama confirmed that 100 percent of regulated coal ash storage pits were within five feet of groundwater, failing the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for protecting the water supply from a myriad of cancer-causing and otherwise toxic chemicals. Since then, one state after another has found similar results from tests mandated by the EPA. Records released of 265 power plants around the United States show arsenic, lithium and other pollutants are in the groundwater at 91 percent of the sites where combusted coal residue is stored. The national data was to be revealed today at a noon press conference by the nonprofit watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project with assistance from Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. Read more.

Teacher Shortage: More Scholarship Money Requested as Lawmakers Start Legislative Session

Demopolis City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff will make a series of recruiting trips to Alabama’s education colleges looking for the best new teachers for his schools. He’ll try to sell candidates on what his small, rural district can offer them. There are $4,000 signing bonuses for high school math and science teachers and special education teachers in any grade. There are attendance bonuses for all employees. Perfect attendance gets $400 at the end of the year. Kallhoff has even taken steps to help new teachers find homes, putting together a list of area landlords happy to rent to them. Some of the benefits for teachers aren’t monetary. For example, the system runs a “teacher bus” between its four schools at the end of the school day, picking up children and taking them to their educator parents. Alabama has a teacher shortage that educators say has reached crisis level, especially in rural areas, and there are fewer new teachers coming out of colleges. So, Kallhoff and other superintendents are doing whatever they can — whatever their budgets allow — to attract and keep educators. A state task force also has been studying the shortage and possible solutions to it. Even with the $4,000 signing bonus, something not all systems can afford to offer, Kallhoff has had a special education position open for more than a year. Systems need help, he says. “There need to be some statewide initiatives,” Kallhoff said. “We’re quick to give tax breaks to large corporations. Why not a tax break for math, science and special education teachers?” Read more.

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending March 1

Bills to expand the list of people who must request federal background checks on individuals before selling guns to them split Alabama’s congressional delegation along the usual party lines last week. Democrat Rep. Terri Sewell of Birmingham voted for that bill while the Republicans voted against it. Alabama’s representatives also split along party lines on other gun-related bills. Read more.

Gas Tax, Lottery, Teacher Pay Raises Are Issues to Watch in 2019 Legislative Session

MONTGOMERY – Gov. Kay Ivey's first legislative session since winning a term in her own right will feature a laundry list of contentious issues when it begins Tuesday. On the top of that list is Ivey's proposal to raise the state’s gas tax to pay for improving roads and bridges, which could be one of the first votes the GOP-led Alabama Legislature will be asked to take. Ivey's infrastructure plan will be the predominant issue of the 15-week session. Advocates for the first statewide gas tax increase since 1992 say bad roads are dangerous, cause costly congestion and hinder economic development. But passage of the legislation is not a sure thing in the 140-member Legislature where 41 members are new this year. Other potential high-profile bills include a proposal for a statewide lottery, a likely teacher pay raise request and continued attempts to address the state’s understaffed and aging prisons. In a recent interview with Alabama Daily News, Ivey said she knew that confronting difficult issues was going to be necessary when she decided to run. "When I was trying to wrestle with the idea of even making a race for governor, I had to face the fact that our state has some very difficult challenges and needs," Ivey said. "Because they’ve been, with the prisons and the infrastructure, neglected for years and years and decades. I knew if I was successful in running for governor, I was going to have to deal with those. And you don’t look forward to dealing with difficult things, but that was one of the soul-searching questions that I had to answer for myself. Was I willing, if I was going to run for governor, would I be willing to take on the high priority needs that the state has because of neglect by others through the years? "And it was a hard decision for me to make because we have some heavy lifts." Read more.

Jefferson County’s 30 Victims and Their Stories

Students at colleges in the Birmingham area researched lynchings of 30 victims, including facts they found mostly in government documents and press reports, along with some of their impressions of the situations. Here are links to the victims’ stories.

Lewis Houston, Nov. 24, 1883, Linn Park

Unknown, April 22, 1886, Pratt Mines

Monroe Johnson, Sept. 19, 1887, Leeds

Jeff Curry, March 18, 1888, Adger, Blue Creek Mines

Hardy Posey, April 23, 1888, Bessemer, Southern Railway Depot

George Meadows, Jan. 15, 1889, Birmingham, Near Pratt Mines

John Steele, Sept. 27, 1889, Pratt Mines

Tom Redmond, June 17, 1890, Brookside Mines

Henry Smith, Nov. 16, 1890, Hillman Community

Unknown, Nov. 17, 1890, Location Unknown

Robert Mosley, Nov. 4, 1894, Dolomite

James Anderson, Oct. 9, 1896, Toadvine, Near Rocky Creek Bridge

Henry Cyat, Oct. 10, 1896, Toadvine Area

William Wardley, Dec. 7, 1896, Irondale

Jake McKenzie, March 22, 1897, Brookside Mines

James Thomas, July 3, 1897, Blossburg

Unknown, May 11, 1901, Leeds

Charles Bentley, Aug. 2, 1901, Leeds

Jerry Johnson, Sept. 3, 1907, Birmingham

Elijah Nelms, July 29, 1908, Pratt City

William Miller, Aug. 4, 1908, Brighton

Anthony Davis, Aug. 21, 1908, Pratt City

John Thomas, April 25, 1909, Bessemer, Outskirts of Town

John Chandler, Jan. 28, 1912, Bessemer, 3rd Avenue and 19th Street

William Smith, Nov. 1, 1912, Bessemer, 1623 Second Avenue

Wilson Gardner, Aug. 23, 1913, Kilgore

Will McBride, July 12, 1923, Adamsville

Elizabeth Lawrence, July 5, 1933, Birmingham

George Taylor, Aug. 23, 1934, Stockham Park

O.D. Henderson, May 9, 1940, Fairfield

Jones Has Introduced a Bill He Said Would Incentivize States to Expand Medicaid

Senator Doug Jones, D-Alabama, is sponsoring a bill that would incentivize states such as Alabama to expand Medicaid. The States Achieve Medicaid Expansion Act would provide states that choose to expand Medicaid after 2014 the same level of federal matching funds as states that expanded earlier under the terms of the Affordable Care Act. In an interview with Alabama Daily News, Jones said he hopes this bill will incentivize states such as Alabama that haven’t expanded Medicaid to do so soon. “Even though I can’t vote to expand Medicaid, I can do things that I hope will give the states the incentive to expand Medicaid because I truly believe it’s in the state’s interest and the people of the state’s interest,” Jones said. Read more.

List of the JCMP Fellows and Advisers for the Jefferson County’s 30 Residents Report

These Jefferson County Memorial Project Fellows researched lynchings in the county for the “Jefferson County’s 30 Residents” report.   FELLOWS Tammy Blue, MA in History University of Alabama at Birmingham Jamilria Bryant Lawson State Community College Madelyn Lisette Cantu University of Alabama at Birmingham Katie Fagan, MA in Anthropology University of Alabama at Birmingham Becca