Virginia Martin, Author at BirminghamWatch - Page 473 of 480
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Virginia Martin

Operation Reveille: Sounding a New Day for Once-Homeless Veterans

Jimmy Moore’s hometown is Bessemer but for three years, the U.S. Air Force veteran’s home was his 2007 Ford Explorer. Moore, a 1974 McAdory High School grad, worried that his possessions might be stolen when he was homeless. He feared someone might stab him to take what he had. “You were always having to be awake, 24-7, sleep lightly,” the 61-year-old said, “trying to figure out where you’re going next.” But Moore can rest easy. He doesn’t fear for his safety or his possessions. He has a roof over his head, thanks to Operation Reveille, a one-day one-stop-shop that took chronically homeless veterans off the street and into their own homes. Read more.

by Virginia Martin

After Spring Break, Legislators Confront Issues of Impeachment, Redistricting, Prisons and Budgets

Legislators will return to Montgomery on Tuesday after a two-week spring break still facing the controversial issues that were on their desks at the beginning of the session. Prison crowding, budgets, impeachment and redistricting are just a few of the weighty matters legislators must grapple with in the rest of their session. When they return, it will be for the 14th business day, just shy of the halfway mark in the 30-day session. Read more.

by Virginia Martin

A Long Way From Aleppo: A Doctor and His Family Try to Rebuild Their Lives in Hoover After Fleeing the Ravages of War

It has been a warm day in early August 2012, in Aleppo, the historic, cosmopolitan Syrian city where you work and live. This day is part of the Muslim month of Ramadan, in which the faithful fast from sunup to sunset. Now the sun is setting, and your oldest son, Fouad, and two of your daughters, Rama and Lydia, are out in the walled garden of your elegant, 14-room home getting ready for iftar, the meal that will break the day’s fast. Then, overhead, without warning, without invitation, comes a whining, whooshing sound. Seconds later, the ground shudders as a projectile lands outside the wall and explodes. Sounds of gunfire follow. Your children run into the house. Lydia, who is 8, is crying and screaming for her mother, your wife, Latifa. Before the month is out, you, Latifa, Lydia, your other son, Khaldoun, and your baby daughter, Caroline will have left your bloodied, battered country. By September, Fouad will have left and Rama will have joined relatives, among them your mother and father, who have fled to Turkey. Your name is Ahmad Faris, you are now 52 years old, and you used to be a well-off, well-known and well-respected surgeon. Now you and your family are among the approximately 5 million Syrians who have left Syria since the civil war’s start in 2011, and you hope that one day, you will practice medicine again. In the meantime, you, Latifa, Khaldoun, Rama, Lydia and Caroline are now making your home in a place where, on the August day that brought the terror of war over the rooftop of your home in Aleppo, young, high-school-age men are getting ready to don helmets and shoulder pads and practice a war-like game that you still do not fully understand. This place is Hoover, Alabama. Read more.

by Tom Gordon, for BirminghamWatch and B-Metro Magazine

Birmingham City Council Clears Way for Golf Cart Cab Companies to Operate

March 28, 2017 – The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a resolution to amend licensing regulations for “taxicabs and vehicles for hire,” in an effort to allow “low speed” services. Ostensibly, this move opens the door for companies such as Birmingham Pedal Tours to begin the process of obtaining permits to allow their vehicles – oblong carts that are powered by groups of people pedaling and are electrically assisted – to begin operating in Birmingham. The resolution also will allow for golf cart cab companies to be able to obtain permits. Read more.

by Cody Owens, Weld: Birmingham's Newspaper

Buildings’ Age and Location: Issues In Debate Over Historic Preservation Tax Credit

How old must a building be before it is considered historic? Should tax credits for their preservation be split evenly across the state or allowed to cluster in the cities? Both are questions still in play as the Alabama Legislature considers restoring a program that helped fund renewal efforts, most notably in Birmingham and Mobile. The historic preservation tax credit, which has helped fund restoration of 51 buildings across the state so far, is headed to a House committee vote next week. But then negotiations will begin over the House sponsor’s vision for extension of the tax credit and a heavily amended version that has been passed by the Senate. Rep. Victor Gaston, R-Mobile, sponsor of the bill in the House of Representatives, said the important thing is to get the money flowing to the program again. Gaston said that not only do the tax credits help pay to restore often dilapidated buildings, but those projects create jobs for the construction workers and craftsmen employed to do the work. Read more.

by Virginia Martin, BirminghamWatch

New West End Clinic Takes Health Care to the People, Jefferson County Commissioner Says

March 23, 2017 – Sandra Little Brown called Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting at Cahaba Medical Center “a crying moment.” The District 7 Jefferson County Commission member said she had to defend herself against false claims that she had voted to end in-patient care at Cooper Green Mercy Hospital. “We went through so much stress with the closing of in-patient care at Cooper Green,” Brown said during Thursday's commission meeting. “So many people were against us. Now the people can say, ‘They took lemons and made lemonade.’” Brown said she has worked since in-patient care at Cooper Green ended to create a hub-and-spoke system to take healthcare closer to where many people live. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr., BirminghamWatch

Birmingham City Council Report: Sticking Points

March 21, 2017 – The Birmingham City Council, mostly showing up on time this week, debated several contentious issues. It delayed votes on whether to apply for World Trade Center designation and whether to conduct a study on the long-term placement of i-20/59. And after some discussion, it approved the sale of land in the Oxmoor Valley to a developer who wants to build a subdivision there. Read more.

by Sam Prickett, Weld: Birmingham’s Newspaper
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