After 12 Years and a Pandemic, Jefferson County’s Health Officer Steps Down

September 28, 2023

Dr. Mark Wilson is well-known for leading residents through the COVID-19 pandemic, but his legacy includes a larger effort to expand the role of public health. Read more.

Remarks on the Roundabout

September 28, 2023

Jefferson County Roads and Transportation Director Chris Nicholson talks about the newly completed roundabout at Old Leeds, Grant’s Mill and Karl Daly roads.

Two House Seats Head to Runoffs in Special Election

September 26, 2023

Travis Hendrix and Sylvia Swayne will be fighting it out in a runoff for the Alabama House District 55 seat.

With seven people running for the Democratic nomination during the special election for the seat, Hendrix got 27.91% of the vote and Swayne got 21.45%.

No Republicans qualified for the race, and whichever candidate wins the Oct. 24 runoff is likely to become the new representative.

In the District 16 race, Bryan Brinyark and Brad Cox are headed to a runoff for the Republican nomination. With five Republicans in the race, Brinyark got 32.56% of the vote, and Cox got 32.96%.

The candidate who wins more than half the vote in the runoff will face Democratic candidate John Underwood in the general election for the seat on Jan. 9. Read more.

JeffCo Sets Largest Budget Ever

September 14, 2023

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.

From a Bad Situation Comes a Powerful Defense of Local Journalism

September 3, 2023

“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.

Much Obliged: JeffCo Wins New Award for Helping Autauga County After Tornado

September 1, 2023

The Roads and Transportation Department of Jefferson County received a heartfelt “thank you” Thursday for coming to the rescue of Autauga County after it was hit by a January tornado.

The county road crew became the first recipient of the first One Family Award because of its efforts in the wake of the tornado. The award was presented last week during the convention of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama. Read more.

New Book Explores Stories of Early African American Activists in Birmingham

January 26, 2023

Segregation in the New South: Birmingham, Alabama, 1871-1901 (Louisiana State University Press, 2023) by Carl V. Harris

Birmingham is known around the world as a place where African Americans fought and sometimes died to secure their rights as citizens and dismantle Jim Crow segregation. But Jim Crow did not spring up fully formed, nor was it a system that had always existed. It was the product of a long and tortuous push and pull between blacks seeking justice and whites seeking control.

At its birth in 1871, Birmingham was a Reconstruction-era city, and Birmingham came of age in a time when white Southerners and African American Southerners, many only a few years removed from enslavement, were struggling to find their places in a new post-war racial order. This is the story, and the stories of early African American activists who are largely unknown today, that Carl V. Harris tells in his new book Segregation in the New South: Birmingham, Alabama, 1871-1901.

Harris, who taught history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, died before completing this book. His colleague, W. Elliott Brownlee, edited and finished the manuscript. Harris’ earlier book, Political Power in Birmingham, 1871-1921 (University of Tennessee Press, 1977), was the first scholarly book on Birmingham’s history and it is still indispensable for anyone wanting to understand the political dynamics of Birmingham’s early decades. Read more.