Virginia Martin

Loopholes Remain as State’s Environmental Oversight Board OK’s Coal Ash Rules

Last month, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management levied fines of $250,000 on each of six power-generating facilities in the state for excessive groundwater contamination from their coal ash ponds. On Friday, ADEM’s oversight board unanimously approved new rules that environmental advocacy groups say open “significant loopholes” in the regulations for disposal of coal ash. The Southern Environmental Law Center contended in a statement that, under the new rules, ADEM could allow utilities to halt groundwater monitoring around coal ash disposal sites, although coal ash contains arsenic, lead, radium and many other toxic substances. ADEM also could decide that a utility doesn’t have to clean up the coal ash ponds in certain circumstances. And ADEM could shorten the length of time a utility must care for the ash after it is covered and closed, which now is 30 years. Read more.

by Hank Black

Birmingham Council Fills Two Library Board Seats Amid Controversy

The Birmingham City Council appointed two new members to the city’s Library Board by unanimous vote this week, including a replacement for the board’s longest-serving member. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

How Each of Alabama’s Senators and Representatives Voted on Gun Measures

Here are summaries of all the gun votes conducted during the first 15 months of the 115th Congress, including six in the House and one in the Senate. All but one occurred before the Parkland shootings.   HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mental Issues, Gun Checks The House on Feb. 2, 2017, voted, 235 for and 180

by Richard G. Thomas, Voterama in Congress

National Rifle Association Dominates Gun Votes in 115th Congress. How Alabama Representatives and Senators Voted.

Florida students rallied hundreds of thousands of protestors near the U.S. Capitol in late March to advocate tougher gun-safety laws after a gunman killed 17 people at a Parkland high school. They called on Congress to enact measures ranging from bans on bump stocks and semi-automatic assault weapons to raising to 21 the minimum age for gun purchases. But for all their youthful passion, the students fared no better than the adults who have been carrying the banner for decades. Seven gun-related votes have been taken during the first 15 months of the 115th Congress – six in the House and one in the Senate. In none of them did the gun-control side prevail. Among Alabama’s senators and representatives, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, is the only one who voted in favor of increasing gun-control measures. Sen. Doug Jones, R-Alabama, was not in office for any of the votes. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, and Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Hoover, each did not cast votes on one measure. Read more about the protests, the bills, the votes and the influencers. And see how each of Alabama’s senators and representatives voted.

by Richard G. Thomas, Voterama in Congress

A Hole in the Balance Sheet: Birmingham’s Impending Pension Crisis

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin’s transition report, “The Woodfin Way,” features assessments of most major issues facing the city’s nascent administration. But during the March 15 presentation of those findings, one issue in particular drew murmurs of alarm from the crowd: the Transparent and Efficient Government Committee’s finding that the city has been underfunding its city employee pension plan for more than 15 years, leaving a pension liability of $750 million. “On the surface, the (city’s) finances don’t seem so bad,” said the committee’s co-chair, Daniel Coleman, during the presentation. “We’re close to a balanced budget, we’ve had small deficits, but we’re able to cover those. But if you look back at the next level, we’re creating new deficits, big deficits that won’t go away — holes in our balance sheet.” The nature of the presentation meant that Coleman was unable to address the pension liability issue with any real depth, drawing cries of frustration from the audience, a large portion of which consisted of city employees. “You want to break that down?” yelled an audience member at the end of Coleman’s presentation. But by that point, Woodfin was moving on to the findings of the next transition committee, leaving open the question of just how dire the pension issue is and what can be done to fix it. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Birmingham Students See Connection With Holocaust: ‘I Thought About How They Want to Build a Border and Kick Us Out’

High schoolers from five Birmingham City Schools arrived at Temple Emanu-el on Thursday to present artwork that interpreted their studies of the Holocaust. The event, the culmination of a six-week program of art and social studies launched by Violins of Hope, included a day of seminars, guest speakers and a musical concert played on violins once played by Jewish musicians during the Holocaust. Violins of Hope is a national organization founded by Amnon Weinstein. Weinstein, a renowned violin maker, began restoring violins that Jewish musicians were forced to play while captive in the Nazi concentration camps. Amid death and despair, the song of those violins was often the last thing Jewish victims heard before they were killed in the gas chambers. Weinstein, decided to seek out and restore those instruments as a way to honor those who died. The violins were in Birmingham for a series of events last week, including the session with the Birmingham students at Temple Emanu-el. “This is such a deep topic for me, being African American, and for other groups going through struggles every day, so I knew there was a lot that I could work with,” one Huffman High School student said. Read more.

by Cheryl Slocum

Questions Raised About Legal Protections for Historic Monuments in Court Hearing Over Linn Park’s Plywood Screen

After nearly three hours of debate, lawyers for the city of Birmingham and the state of Alabama left court Friday with homework instead of a ruling on the matter of the Confederate monument in Linn Park. The city erected a plywood screen around the monument and sought to challenge a state law signed in May 2017 that protects monuments. But in court Friday, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Graffeo raised questions related to older laws dealing with Confederate monuments. He asked lawyers for the city to address his questions by May 4. Attorneys for the state will then respond. Lawyers also argued over whether, if the judge does decide to fine the city, that find should be a flat $25,000 or $25,000 a day, which would be more than $6 million. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Hustling Hope: San Diego Doctor Runs Controversial Diabetes Clinic

Just about every Tuesday morning around 7:30, John McCreary of Poway can be found waiting for Dr. James Novak’s office to open. Almost always, McCreary said, he’s the first one there. Novak’s practice is listed as the only one in the San Diego area offering Trina Health’s “Artificial Pancreas Treatment,” a four-hour IV insulin infusion procedure for people with diabetes. Some people like McCreary, 69, who has wrestled with diabetic nerve pain for years, said they think the procedure is working for them. Since he started going to Novak for the infusions last summer, he said the infusions have been effective. They have made the painful tingling in his hands — “like I was just constantly grabbing on to a barrel cactus” — almost disappear, McCreary said. He said his Medicare coverage and his supplemental plan from Colonial Penn Life Insurance Co. have paid for everything. McCreary said he is supposed to go today for his infusion. He hasn’t heard that anything will change at the clinic since the news last week that Trina founder and CEO G. Ford Gilbert was indicted on fraud and bribery charges in Alabama. “I guess it’s going to be a wait and see situation,” he said. Gilbert is accused of bribery, health care fraud and wire fraud, among other charges, in what federal prosecutors call a “public corruption scheme.” He is accused of paying an Alabama politician to try to get legislation passed that would have required an insurance plan there to pay for his infusions. The plan and Medicare had previously denied coverage, based on the lack of scientific proof that IV insulin infusions actually benefit patients. The legislation never passed. Gilbert and two other defendants are due in court on April 18. Read more.

by Cheryl Clark, inewsource

Hustling Hope: Doctors Debunk Diabetes Treatment as Fraud Charges Hit Clinic Executive

State Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills, and lobbyist Martin J. “Marty” Connors of Alabaster recently were indicted on public corruption chargesalong with G. Ford Gilbert of Carmichael, California. The charges concern allegations of a scheme to require Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama to cover diabetes treatments provided by a company Gilbert owns. inewsource has spent months investigating Gilbert and his practices in promoting what he calls a “miraculous” procedure for reversing the complications of diabetes. These are the first two stories from that investigation. By Cheryl Clark, inewsource Just imagine: A nonsurgical treatment that helps millions of people with complications from diabetes restore vision, repair damaged kidneys, and reverse heart disease and cognitive decline. A treatment that heals wounds in their legs and feet, repairs damage from stroke, and eliminates a common type of diabetic nerve pain called neuropathy. That’s what lawyer G. Ford Gilbert and his network of Trina Health clinics have been promising with his IV insulin infusions offered through his Sacramento-based company. The Trina CEO calls the procedure “miraculous,” and the first “real change” in treatment for people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes since the 1921 discovery of insulin. Gilbert has not been deterred by the nation’s top experts in diabetes who aggressively debunk his procedure, calling it outright fraud and a scam. Nor has he seemed daunted by Medicare and some private insurance companies, which have refused to pay for outpatient insulin infusion procedures because they lack sufficient evidence of medical benefit. The American Diabetes Association dissuades patients from seeking Gilbert’s branded Artificial Pancreas Treatment, saying people with diabetes are a particularly vulnerable population. Despite these obstacles, Gilbert has openly marketed his infusion protocols for years, expanding across 17 states, even as investigations, audits and payment denials have shut down many of his clinics. Now his Trina Health operation faces a new threat. A federal grand jury in Alabama indicted Gilbert on charges of fraud and bribery in a failed scheme that prosecutors said was intended to get a state law passed to force coverage of Trina infusions. Since the indictment was unsealed, the clinic in the Bronx has taken the Trina logo off its website and the Las Vegas clinic stopped offering the treatments. Over the years, Gilbert and his clinics have billed Medicare and private insurers untold millions of dollars using a method that regulators and health plans said was incorrect and played a role in the Alabama criminal charges. Battles over coverage of new treatments and drugs are not uncommon, but what makes the Trina Health conflict unusual is how its network of clinics has thrived despite disagreements over their worth. Read more.

Hustling Hope: San Diego Doctor Runs Controversial Diabetes Clinic

By Cheryl Clark, inewsource Just about every Tuesday morning around 7:30, John McCreary of Poway can be found waiting for Dr. James Novak’s office to open. Almost always, McCreary said, he’s the first one there. Novak’s practice is listed as the only one in the San Diego area offering Trina Health’s “Artificial Pancreas Treatment,” a four-hour IV insulin infusion procedure for people with diabetes. Some people like McCreary, 69, who has wrestled with diabetic nerve pain for years, said they think the procedure is working for them. Since he started going to Novak for the infusions last summer, he said the infusions have been effective. They have made the painful tingling in his hands — “like I was just constantly grabbing on to a barrel cactus” — almost disappear, McCreary said. He said his Medicare coverage and his supplemental plan from Colonial Penn Life Insurance Co. have paid for everything. McCreary said he is supposed to go today for his infusion. He hasn’t heard that anything will change at the clinic since the news last week that Trina founder and CEO G. Ford Gilbert was indicted on fraud and bribery charges in Alabama. “I guess it’s going to be a wait and see situation,” he said. Gilbert is accused of bribery, health care fraud and wire fraud, among other charges, in what federal prosecutors call a “public corruption scheme.” He is accused of paying an Alabama politician to try to get legislation passed that would have required an insurance plan there to pay for his infusions. The plan and Medicare had previously denied coverage, based on the lack of scientific proof that IV insulin infusions actually benefit patients. The legislation never passed. Gilbert and two other defendants are due in court on April 18. Read more.

by Cheryl Clark, inewsource

GOP Candidates Focus on Ivey in Governor’s Debate

Where was Ivey? That was the question of the night during a Thursday debate with three of the four Republican candidates for governor. Evangelist Scott Dawson, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and state Sen. Bill Hightower participated in a debate broadcast live on WVTM. Gov. Kay Ivey declined the invitation, citing prior commitments. Instead she was in Birmingham a few miles away from the debate, throwing out the first pitch at the opening night for the Birmingham Barons at Regions Field. Ivey’s absence at the debate — and on the campaign trail— seemed to bond the three men against a common foe. When given the opportunity to ask the other candidate a question, each man questioned the other on Ivey’s absence. Read more.

by Anita Debro