Virginia Martin

Inauguration Day in Montgomery

Monday is inauguration day, with a full slate of activities slated in Montgomery. The day kicks off with a prayer breakfast before swearing-in ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. on the Capitol steps for constitutional officers, including Gov. Kay Ivey, Lt. Gov.-elect Will Ainsworth, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Secretary of State John Merrill and State Auditor Jim Ziegler. Ivey’s inauguration speech will be televised live on Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal beginning at 10 a.m. A parade follows at noon, and an invitation-only Inaugural Gala will be held tonight at the Montgomery Civic Center. Inaugural activities kicked off Saturday with a concert and celebration on the coast.

by Virginia Martin

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending Jan. 11

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives took up a litany of funding bills last week despite the federal government’s partial shutdown. Among them was a Republican move to increase funding for rural broadband by $125 million, to a total of $565 million. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, spoke in favor of the move, saying. "You might not find a great deal of agreement between the parties of President Trump and former President Obama, but the vital need for rural broadband is one of those things." Nonetheless, the House defeated the measure on a largely party-line vote. There was near unanimous support for one bill to ensure federal employees will be given backpay once their departments are fully reopened. All of Alabama’s representatives approved that measure, which now goes to the president. Read more about how area members of Congress voted during the legislative week ending Jan. 11.

by Voterama in Congress

Birmingham Police Chief Urges Residents to Become More Active in Crime Prevention, Describes New Approach to Policing

In a presentation to neighborhood officers, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith laid out a new strategy for the department and urged residents to be proactive in addressing crime in their communities. “We have to get real about it,” he said. “We cannot do things the way we always did.” Thursday’s meeting, which took place after a swearing-in ceremony for newly elected neighborhood officers, was one of the first major presentations of Smith’s strategy since he took the job in June. Smith described his first six months on the job as playing “catch-up” with a department that had fallen “behind the curve” in its approach to fighting crime. “When I took over, I did an analysis of the department,” he said. “Over time, from 2014 to 2018, crime has doubled … We have to do a lot to bring this police department back to where it needs to be.” Read more.

by Sam Prickett

First Class in More Than Name Only: Why Alabama’s Preschool Program Is Best in the Country on National Standards

First Class in More Than Name Only: Why Alabama’s Preschool Program Is Best in the Country on National Standards

As 2020 rolls in, BirminghamWatch looks back at its biggest stories of 2019, highlighting a different one each day. 2019 Update: A funding increase added classrooms and expanded the First Class Pre-K program to serve more than 21,000 4-year-olds in the state.

The excitement in the room is hard to miss – and it’s coming from the kids as well as the teacher. “Kiss your brain for knowing that!” Dr. Stephanie Parker exclaims to her students at Huffman Academy Pre-K this cool December morning in Birmingham. The class is part of Alabama’s First Class Pre-K program. Surrounded by colorful charts, educational photos and pictures of kids and their art, Parker takes her eager students through a recitation of the previous day’s Gingerbread Man story, as part of their “morning meeting.” She’s sitting in her wooden rocker at eye level with the kids, who talk and shout excitedly in answering her questions. When they get something right, she applauds them with either a “kiss your brain,” or after a particularly significant achievement, encouragement to do a “standing Saturday Night Fever,” – with more than a dozen kids mimicking John Travolta’s hand-across- the-body dance move. In the classroom next door, Denise Dennis’s preschoolers, after their morning meeting, are putting together gingerbread houses, some sitting at a small round table with their teacher, others at another table with her auxiliary teacher Wyesha Pullum. There are two teachers in each pre-K class at Huffman Academy, and that is just one of the reasons Alabama’s public pre-K program got high marks in July from the Rutgers University-based National Institute for Early Education Research. NIEER ranked the efforts of 43 states and the District of Columbia to provide quality instruction for kids before kindergarten age. For those who expect Alabama to be at the bottom of the list in educational achievement, the NIEER report may come as a surprise. “I think if you look at this report, the conclusion would be Alabama’s the national leader here,” says Steve Barnett, the founding director of NIEER and a member of the team that put together the report, “Implementing 15 Essential Elements for High-Quality Pre-K: An Updated Scan of State Policies.” Breaking down the rationale behind the 15 essentials, Barnett says: “They’re the result of a project which was developed to reverse engineer successful preschool. … Rather than saying ‘On average how much do any of these things matter?’ the question was ‘Well, if we focus on the programs that seem to have succeeded in doing great things for young children, what do they look like? What do they have in common?’ … What is it that seems to have to be in place to really have a high-quality preschool program that delivers excellence?” Read more. This article was published in collaboration with 100 Days in Appalachia, a digital news publication incubated at West Virginia University in collaboration with West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the Daily Yonder.

by Nick Patterson

Commissioner Questions Spending for Hospital Move if Land Is to Be Annexed

Jimmie Stephens said “it wouldn’t be right” for Jefferson County to spend money preparing for the move of UAB West Hospital to McCalla only to have the hospital annexed by neighboring Bessemer. “It wouldn’t be right for the county to expend all those dollars on infrastructure in unincorporated Jefferson County for them to reap those benefits and then go away,” Stephens said following Thursday’s Jefferson County Commission meeting. “We want to work with our municipalities,” the commission president said. “If the CEO of UAB West wants to go into Bessemer, that’s fine. But they should do the infrastructure. If you do the infrastructure with the county, it should be in the (unincorporated part of the) county.” Stephens said there’s no news concerning plans for the new hospital. “It’s still planning to be moved,” the commission president said. “We haven’t gotten any drawings. We haven’t gotten any of the infrastructure work that will be done.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Sen. Doug Jones Urges Quick End to Shutdown, Touts Medicaid Bill, Civil Rights Cold Case Act

Citing “heartbreaking stories” from Alabamians affected by an “increasingly costly federal shutdown,” U.S. Sen. Doug Jones on Thursday urged Congress to act on legislation to restart government services now and then hash out Homeland Security funding for border security after employees are back at work and getting paid. “We need to get the government going and talk about border security in a reasonable way,” Jones, D-Alabama, said during a Thursday call with Alabama media outlets. Alabama’s junior senator said his office has heard from many Alabamians affected by the federal shutdown. “These are heartbreaking stories from families who are literally scared to death of losing their paychecks. These folks are not getting rich working for the government and many live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. About 5,500 federal employees are on furlough or working without pay because of the shutdown. Read more.

by Jackie Romine Walburn

Group Sets Celebration of Angela Davis, Protests BCRI Revoking Its Award

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s controversial cancelation of its plan to honor civil rights icon Angela Davis continues to generate aftershocks. A grassroots collection of civic, religious, legal, educational and business leaders announced Wednesday that it will honor Davis in a day that will conclude with an evening event – A Conversation with Angela Davis. Earlier in the day, three members of the BCRI board of directors announced their resignation from that body. Chairman Mike Oatridge, first vice chairman Walter Body and secretary Janice Kelsey stepped away, effective immediately. The BCRI had chosen Davis to receive the Shuttlesworth award during its annual gala next month. But several days ago, the institute rescinded that offer and canceled the gala, saying in a statement that Davis “does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Despite Anti-Tax Pledge, Ivey Key Supporter of Gas Tax Proposal

Gov. Kay Ivey is a proponent of a statewide gas tax increase, despite previous signed pledges to oppose “any and all” tax hike efforts. Ivey is one of dozens of current and former Alabama politicians — most of them Republicans — who at some point signed an anti-tax pledge from the group Americans for Tax Reform. Ivey’s not the first or only to later back away from it. Americans for Tax Reform is led by lobbyist Grover Norquist, who recently asked state leaders to reject a proposed gas tax hike. An infrastructure improvement plan and gas tax increase are expected to be a major part of the 2019 legislative session, and Ivey has signaled to lawmakers it’s her No. 1 priority. Read more.

by Mary Sell

Larry Langford, Longtime Politician and Birmingham’s Idea Man, Dies at 72

Larry Langford, former mayor of Birmingham and Fairfield and commissioner for Jefferson County, a prominent and controversial figure in Jefferson County politics for the past four decades, died Tuesday at the age of 72. Langford was perhaps best known as a man of ideas, some ambitious and others just off-the-wall. He proposed holding the 2020 Olympics in Birmingham and restoring streetcars to downtown. He’s credited with spreading the seeds of ideas that became some of the city’s most popular attractions, including Railroad Park, the Birmingham CrossPlex and Uptown entertainment district. While mayor of Fairfield, Langford persuaded 11 area cities — in an area well known for its lack of intergovernmental cooperation — to work together to build the VisionLand amusement park, which opened in 1998 and went bankrupt in 2002. “There is no doubt, Langford was a pioneer and visionary who was well ahead of his time,” said Commissioner Lashunda Scales, who now represents Larry Langford’s former county commission district. But in the end, Langford almost died in prison, winning compassionate release and returning to Princeton Baptist Medical Center just 10 days before his death. Read more.

by Sam Prickett and Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Larry Langford Dead at 72

Former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, a prominent and controversial figure in Jefferson County politics over the past four decades, died today. He was 72. Langford had suffered from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, emphysema, pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure, among other ailments. He was granted compassionate release from federal prison just more than a week ago so he could spend his final days at home. He was transported to Princeton Baptist Medical Center on Dec. 29, where he died today. Langford spent the past nine years in federal prison after being convicted in 2009 on charges of corruption and bribery for action during his time as Jefferson County Commission president. In addition to his stint as Birmingham’s mayor from 2007 to 2009 and county commissioner before that, he also has served as mayor of Fairfield, member of the Birmingham City Council, and, before his political career, a television journalist. Langford’s political career was marked by his outspokenness and his advocacy for ambitious projects. He was well known for one of his campaign slogans, “Let’s do something!” This is a developing story and will be updated.

by Sam Prckett