Virginia Martin

Birmingham Residents Reflect on 60th Anniversary of Church Bombing

At exactly 10:22 a.m. on Friday, church bells – and the shofar at Temple Beth-El synagogue – rang out across Birmingham to honor those killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. It’s the 60th anniversary of the deadly attack that killed four young girls — 11-year-old Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, all 14 — and injured dozens more. Inside the historic church, a crowd heard a message from Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Outside, small groups of people gathered all over the city to commemorate the anniversary and reflect on the violence of the past and the progress the community has made over the decades. Read more.

JeffCo Sets Largest Budget Ever

Angela Dixon, the chief financial officer of Jefferson County, was quick to acknowledge the help she got from the county’s budget office in delivering the county’s largest ever budget. “These ladies are the gems of Jefferson County,” Dixon said of Lene Wormley and Marilyn Shepard. “They have gotten the distinguished budget award for four years straight, and it's only two people in the office.” Those few workers prepared the total of $1,264,956,131 budget passed Thursday by the County Commission. Read more.

Birmingham Council Amends Laws Affecting Predatory Towing, Plan More Changes

The Birmingham City Council wrestled with the issue of predatory towing this week and passed two ordinances to start addressing the problems. Councilor Darrell O’Quinn, who heads the council’s transportation committee, has worked to resolve complaints on both issues since 2017. After council approval of the ordinances, he called the action “a milestone because it has been a lot of effort.” Read more.

Commission Sends $1 Billion Budget to Thursday’s Agenda

Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens gave Commissioner Joe Knight a hearty handshake at the end of a nearly two-hour committee meeting of the commission, congratulating the finance chairman as the proposed 2024 fiscal budget went to the agenda of Thursday’s commission meeting. “This budget's been a work in progress,” Knight said. “I think we're going to be fine with it. We still gotta try to keep an eye out on the economy, where it's going. We've still got the refunding coming up. There are a lot of moving parts to this.” Read more.

She looked for help after her power bill doubled. But aid for utilities often falls short

Dolabriel Curry-Hurst’s January power bill in Alabama jumped above $700 — more than twice of what she owed the previous year. Read more.

Birmingham City Council OKs $4.5M More for Rickwood Field Improvements

The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday secured funding for improvements at Rickwood Field in preparation for the MLB coming to town next summer for a tribute game. Councilors approved an agreement for the city PACE Board to issue $4.5 million in bonds through PNC bank. It also during the year has approved several allocations totaling about $2.5 million for renovations at the field, and it recently approved allocations of $150,000 a year for three years to the Friends of Rickwood Field. Read more.

Federal Court Blocks Alabama’s Congressional Map, Orders New Lines Drawn

A three-judge federal panel Tuesday ruled that a new Alabama congressional map failed to address Voting Rights Act violations and ordered a third party to draw new lines.

In a 217-page opinion in the case, known as Allen v. Milligan, U.S. Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus and U.S. District Judges Anna Manasco and Terry Moorer sharply criticized the Alabama Legislature, writing that they were “deeply troubled” that lawmakers did not draw a map that gave Black voters in the state the chance to elect representatives of their choosing, as the judges ordered in a January 2022 ruling.

“We are not aware of any other case in which a state legislature — faced with a federal court order declaring that its electoral plan unlawfully dilutes minority votes and requiring a plan that provides an additional opportunity district — responded with a plan that the state concedes does not provide that district,” the judges wrote. Read more.

Alabama’s John Christy May Be the Country’s Best Known and Most Criticized Climate Change Skeptic

Alabama State Climatologist John Christy is considered an outsider, if not a pariah, among most climate researchers. His critics say his work has been plagued by errors and many of his conclusions dismissed. Yet he defends his research and continues to have an outsized influence on the climate change debate well beyond Alabama’s borders. Read more.

From a Bad Situation Comes a Powerful Defense of Local Journalism

“Most family newspaper sale announcements bear some variation of stock language regarding the new owner's ability to ‘assume the families' stewardship,’ ‘continue to provide strong local reporting,’ and ‘maintain the legacy’ of the selling family. Sadly, we feel that none of that will be true in our case.” — George Lynett, publisher emeritus of Times-Shamrock Communications Read more.

The Connection Is Growing Between Climate Change and Big Storms

The connection between climate change, hurricanes and tornadoes is not so clear. But data is beginning to show some relationship. Read more.