Category: Alabama Legislature

Ivey Signs Chemical Castration Law, Process Details Still Pending

Mary Sell and Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — Court-ordered chemical castration of child molesters as a condition of their parole will soon be required in Alabama, but exactly how the treatments will be administered is still being determined.

The law, signed by Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday, goes into effect in three months. It requires the Alabama Department of Public Health to administer the treatment.

“We’re still reviewing (the law) to understand exactly how our role will work,” Public Health Officer Scott Harris said this week. “We’ve done some work looking at other states, trying to get an idea of how it works.” Read more.

From Buses to Libraries, 2020 Education Has More for K-12 Schools

Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — An additional $318 million for K-12 schools is in Alabama’s 2020 education budget, and lawmakers and education leaders say that money will make tangible differences in local schools.

Gov. Kay Ivey signed the record-setting education budget into law Thursday.

“This budget represents significantly more resources for education,” Senate education budget committee chairman Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said.

Here’s what some of the new money will mean to K-12 schools.

There’s nearly $190 million more for the K-12 Foundation Program that supports schools’ basic functions. The 2020 total is $3.9 billion. There’s also an additional $27.8 million for transportation. Read more.

New Incentives Law Targets Rural and Struggling Urban Areas

Will Whatley, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — A recently-passed bill aimed to spur job growth in rural and urban areas of the state has been signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey.

Sponsored by Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, House Bill 540, dubbed the Alabama Incentives Modernization Act, is a set of tax incentives designed to enhance development in counties that are experiencing slow economic conditions and to help bring new technology companies to the state. Proponents of the legislation say it enhances current incentives, encourages investments in designated opportunity zones and offers a capital gains tax cut for tech companies moving to Alabama. Read more.

Universities See Significant Increases; ‘Peer-Gap’ Formula to Continue

Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News,

Alabama’s public four-year universities will receive funding increases of between about 6% and more than 12% under the 2020 education budget recently approved by lawmakers.

“I think all of higher education is happy with where we ended up,” Alabama Commission on Higher Education Executive Director Jim Purcell said Wednesday.

During the budgeting process, some university officials and lawmakers expressed frustration over this year’s proposed budget including additional money for a few institutions that had previously been underfunded. Purcell said ACHE was attempting to fix “egregious inequities in funding.” Read more.

Legislature Approves Sunday Alcohol Sales Bill, Says No to Home Delivery of Wine

Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — Alabamians won’t be able to get wine delivered to their homes anytime soon, but wet counties and municipalities can now have Sunday sales without going through the Legislature.

There were several alcohol-related bills in the 2019 legislative session that ended last month. See what passed and what didn’t.

‘Gut Check’ Session Ends, Here’s What They Did

Mary Sell and Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY – Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Birmingham, has been an Alabama lawmaker since 1966.

“I’ve been through more sessions that anybody here, and this is one of the toughest sessions ever,” Waggoner said Friday evening as legislators ended the annual law-making stint that began March 5.

“I mean, we’re talking lottery, gasoline tax, medical marijuana, abortion. It has been a gut check this year, it really has, as far as tough, impactful votes. But as far as high-profile issues, this session probably ranks No. 1 in my career.”

Read more.

Education Budget, Medical Marijuana Commission Pass on Legislators’ Last Day in Montgomery

Mary Sell and Caroline Beck, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — On the last day of the legislative session, lawmakers approved a record education budget, took a step toward medical marijuana legalization and sent to Alabama voters the decision of whether to scrap the elected state school board in favor of a governor-appointed commission.

After debates and a change, a bill to give new teachers in the state more generous benefits died in the House without a vote.

Legislators ended this year’s regular session Friday, although they are expecting to be called back in the fall for a special session on prisons.
Read about the biggest bills that passed and died on the last day.

‘Difficult’ Budget Negotiations Ongoing

Mary Sell, Alabama Daily News,

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama General Fund will pay for a health insurance program for low-income children, Senate leaders said Wednesday. But there are still other details in the $2.1 billion budget to be worked out Thursday, which might be the last day of this legislative session.

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said Wednesday evening that the court system would not receive money from an Alabama Department of Transportation fund, a budget transfer that has happened for the past 10 years. Read more.

Lawmakers Boost Money for Prisons and Will Return in the Fall to Take on Pervasive Problems

Tom Gordon,

As the Alabama Legislature winds down its regular session, state lawmakers are on track to boost the budget for the state’s prisons, they have approved a pay raise for correctional officers, and they expect to meet again in the fall to address other issues in a system that is still overcrowded, under-resourced and under the watchful eye of a federal judge and the U.S. Justice Department.

“There are lot of different issues, from mental health to overcrowding, the pay, to facilities,” said Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.

Friday is likely to be the last day of the regular session. On Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law a bill that will give correctional officers “a one-time two-step salary increase,” and expand bonus opportunities for Department of Corrections employees. The measure takes effect Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal 2020.

Over the past few years, the Department of Corrections has seen its budgets increase by small amounts. For fiscal 2020, it expects to have a budget of $601 million. Most of that money would come from the state General Fund, which pays for most of state government’s non-educational functions.

The Legislature has approved and sent to the governor a General Fund budget that is slated to include money to cover the pay increase signed into law by Ivey, give money to hire and train 500 new corrections officers during fiscal 2020 and improve the prison system’s mental health services. Read more.

BirminghamWatch, in collaboration with B-Metro Magazine, documented the conditions under which correctional officers work for a story last year:

Guarded: Alabama Correctional Officers Work Long Hours in Dangerous Conditions for Low Pay – and There Aren’t Nearly Enough of Them.

  GovernmentWatch

  CongressionalWatch

  • Drilling Bans Greet Representatives as They Return From Break

    Key Votes Ahead
    The House this week will take up a bill to eliminate mandatory arbitration in employment, consumer and civil rights litigation, while the Senate will debate judicial and executive-branch nominations.

    WASHINGTON — In the legislative week ending Sept. 13, members of the U.S. House passed a bill (HR 205) that would permanently prohibit the federal government from awarding leases for oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
    The bill, which passed 248 for and 180 against, would replace a temporary moratorium slated to expire June 30, 2022. The protected waters extend at least 125 miles from the Florida coastline and include a 122,000-square-mile military testing range stretching from the Florida Panhandle to the Florida Keys. Read more.

  Presidential Race

  Birmingham Schools

  • Birmingham Board of Education Approves $313 Million School Budget

    The Birmingham Board of Education has approved a $313 million budget that will fund salary increases, security enhancements and maintenance projects.

    The board voted 8-1 Tuesday in favor of the budget for the fiscal year that beings Oct. 1. Daagye Hendricks, who represents District 4, cast the lone vote against the spending plan. She said she felt there were too many unanswered questions and not enough information.

    The budget includes several salary increases: a state-mandated 4 percent raise to all BCS staff, including teachers, that the Alabama Legislature approvedin May; step salary increases; a 5% raise for custodians, bus drivers, child-nutrition workers and managers; and a raise from $8.25 an hour to $9 an hour for substitute teachers.
    Read more.

  BW Recommends

 

  • Jefferson County Memorial Project Memorializes Two Lynching Victims at Sloss Furnaces

    The Jefferson County Memorial Project dedicated a historical marker in honor of lynching victims Tom Redmond and Jake McKenzie during a ceremony Monday night.

    McKenzie was killed June 17, 1890, and Redmond was killed March 22, 1897, at the Brookside Mines, which were part of the Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel Co..

    This is the first historical marker placed by JCMP, a grassroots coalition that has researched the stories behind 30 people who were lynched in Jefferson County between 1883 and 1940.

    The goal of JCMP is to bring awareness of the victims of racial terror and their descendants, advocate for racial injustice reforms and place historical markers at lynching sites throughout Jefferson County. The group’s efforts are inspired by the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery in April 2018. The memorial is made up of monuments that represent 800 U.S. counties and are dedicated to African American victims of lynchings. Read more.

  Jefferson County Commission

  • JeffCo Commissioner Wants Stadium Update, Questions Lack of Civil Rights Info in Bicentennial Video

    Commissioner Lashunda Scales today asked for an update on Protective Stadium, which is being built near the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

    Jefferson County invested $30 million in the project.

    Scales said she had been told by someone on the stadium design committee that VIP seats are being added that would lower the total number of seats in the venue.

    Also, commissioners saw a presentation from Helen Hays, the county’s director of public information, concerning efforts to promote the 200th anniversary of Jefferson County, including a pair of videos.

    While the presentation appeared to be well received from most in the board room, Scales was less than satisfied, saying that the county’s story was not being fully told. She cited a Sloss Furnaces event on Monday that memorialized two men who were lynched in the 1890s. Read more.

  Downtown Birmingham

  Schools

  Health Care

  • Medicare Change a ‘Huge, Significant Thing’ for Alabama

    It’s increasingly difficult for rural hospitals to make ends meet. Many have had to freeze or cut salaries, said Danne Howard, chief policy officer with the Alabama Hospital Association. Some have eliminated services, like obstetrics and gynecology. Howard said others partner with outside groups or bigger health systems to take some of the financial pressure off.

    “It’s clear to see that we’ve got a number of hospitals that may not survive in the current financial environment,” she said.
    In the past decade, seven rural hospitals have closed in Alabama, and of those that remain, 88% operate in the red.

    But Howard said Medicare is throwing the state a lifeline. The federal health insurance program, primarily for senior citizens, recently approved a plan to start paying rural hospitals a little more money. Read more.

  Education

  Jefferson County

  Alabama Prisons

  • Report: Alabama Community Corrections Harms Low-Income Participants

    WBHM
    A recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says Alabama’s community corrections program unfairly burdens low-income people and threatens public safety. Community corrections, operating in 51 of Alabama’s 67 counties, is overseen by the state Department of Corrections but run locally. It’s designed to be an alternative to prison. The report’s main criticism is that community corrections relies on fees as a primary revenue source. These include fees for drug testing, supervision or electronic monitoring. Read more.

  Education

  • Alabama Charter Schools Group Awarded $25 Million Federal Grant

    By WBHM
    The U.S. Department of Education announced a $25 million grant today to support charter schools in Alabama. The money will go to New Schools for Alabama, an organization that encourages the growth of charter schools. Tyler Barnett, executive director of New Schools for Alabama, told WBHM in an earlier interview the money will help fund 15 schools. He said the group will focus on serving educationally disadvantaged students. Read more.

  Sidewalk Film Festival

  • The Mighty Wurlitzer Returns to Its Roots at Sidewalk

    WBHM

    Visit the Alabama Theatre in downtown Birmingham, face the stage and you might notice the red and gold console to the left. It’s a theater organ known as the Mighty Wurlitzer. It’s an instrument whose heyday has long passed. But this weekend, as part of the Sidewalk Film Festival, it’ll return to its original purpose: accompanying silent films. Read more.

  Environment

  • With Low-Impact Development, Cities Hope to Better Control Runoff

    WBHM
    Stormwater runoff is what washes off of parking lots, roadways and rooftops when it rains. Eve Brantley, associate professor of crop, soil and environmental sciences at Auburn University, said it may sound harmless, but it has a big impact.

    “I just feel like it’s the forgotten pollution,” Brantley said.

    She said part of the problem is that stormwater picks up other pollutants like trash and fertilizer. The other issue is the sheer volume of runoff that is discharged into area waterways.

    Cahaba Riverkeeper David Butler sees the impact on a daily basis.

    “So we’re pushing so much water into the river so fast now that, you know when it rains, instead of soaking into the ground, it’s all channeled to the river,” Butler said. “So it rises really quick, falls really quick, and you get a lot more erosion like this.”

    He said all along the river, large sections of the bank have collapsed, often during rainstorms. This strips away vegetation that normally acts as a buffer, leaving dirt to erode into the river and fill it with sediment. Read more.

  • $7.1 Billion Education Budget Clears House, Varies From Senate Version

    The Alabama House of Representatives approved a $7.1 billion education budget Tuesday, but its final passage still depends on agreement with the Senate on several points, including health insurance for low-income children.

    House education budget chairman Rep. Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, told his colleagues the proposed budget, a nearly $500,000,000 increase over the current budget, would not fix all of the state’s education problems but is part of the equation.

    “This is a positive budget for the state,” Poole said.

    It was approved 99 to 0 with four abstentions. Read more.

  Environment

  • Ethics Charges in North Birmingham Case Survive Challenge

    The Alabama Ethics Commission did not overstep its authority in bringing state ethics charges against Onis “Trey” Glenn and Willie S. Phillips, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge has found.

    The cases are related to work by Glenn and Phillips in opposition to the addition of a proposed Superfund site in North Birmingham to the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List.

    Judge Stephen C. Wallace ruled this week that the state acted properly and in compliance with the Ethics Act, and that the cases should not be summarily dismissed.

    Read more.

  BirminghamWatch

  • Nunnelley Selected for Distinguished Mass Media Achievement Award at Auburn

    BirminghamWatch founder Carol Nunnelley has been selected for the 2019 Distinguished Mass Media Achievement Award by the Auburn University Journalism Advisory Council.
    Nunnelley, a graduate of Samford University, is among five journalists who were selected for this year’s journalism awards by the Auburn Council.
    Others who will be honored at a luncheon and program on Sept. 13 are Kim Chandler, Associated Press Alabama capital reporter; Connor Sheets, Alabama Media Group investigative reporter; John Underwood, Baldwin County editor/reporter; and John Zenor, Associated Press sports reporter.
    Read more.

  Education

  • Alabama Schools Ranked 46th in New Study

    A new study by WalletHub ranked Alabama’s schools 46th in the country.

    The study also gave Alabama a quality ranking of 44 and a safety ranking of 47. Alabama ranked among the bottom five states in math test scores and in the bottom 10 states for spending,

    WalletHub’s analysis considered 29 metrics that accounted for performance, funding, safety, class size and instructor credentials. Read more.

    Source: WalletHub

    Source: WalletHub

  Birmingham Schools

  Downtown Revitalization

  • Revitalization Planned for Historic Black Business District

    During the days of segregation, African Americans in Birmingham were restricted on where they could shop, eat, and do business. The historic Fourth Avenue District downtown became the place for the growing African American business community to set up shop.

    The community thrived with professional offices, barber shops, a bowling alley, motels, theaters and restaurants. Now there’s renewed focus on revitalizing the district. Read more.

  Mueller Testimony

  Transportation

  • Biometric Technology Comes to Birmingham Airport

    Travelers flying out of Birmingham can now identify themselves with the touch of a finger or an eye scan. At a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday, officials at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport unveiled new fingerprint and identity verification technology from the biometrics company Clear. Read more.

  Black Warrior River

  • Putting a Price Tag on a Fish Kill

    WBHM

    At about 10:30 a.m. on a recent Monday in Walker County, Martha Salomaa parks her white pick-up truck, walks to the edge of a parking lot and points to the river below, the Mulberry Fork.

    “And so the plant, it’s in Hanceville, which is 28 to 30 miles upstream from here,” she says.

    Salomaa is referring to the Tyson Foods Inc. chicken rendering plant. That’s where an estimated 220,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater emptied into this section of the Black Warrior River on June 6th.

    “So by June 10th, you could see hundreds of fish, like floating by, either dead or dying,” Salomaa says.

    According to state officials, it was Alabama’s largest fish kill in recent years. And Salomaa, who is president of the Walker County conservation group Sipsey Heritage Commission (SHC), said the spill didn’t just kill fish, it contaminated the river with high levels of bacteria. In the days following the incident, SHC and the Black Warrior Riverkeeper found unsafe levels of E. coli almost 30 miles downstream from the site of the spill.

    As a result, the Sipsey Heritage Commission cancelled its annual kayak race, scheduled for mid-June, and Salomaa said residents avoided the water for several weeks.

    “You know, like, this river is a way of life,” Salomaa said. “You can’t, you just cannot put a price on that.”

    But state agencies are tasked with putting a price on it. Read more.

  Agriculture

  Economic Development

  • DC BLOX Sponsors a $10,000 Computer Lab at Memorial Park Rec Center in Titusville Community

    When Sheila Tyson asked DC BLOX CEO Jeff Uphues what his company could do for the Titusville Neighborhood it was joining, he offered a fun day in the neighboring park.

    Tyson, the Jefferson County commissioner in whose district the company sits, had other ideas. “We want you to invest in our children’s education,” she said.

    As DC BLOX held the grand opening of its data center on Thursday, Uphues talked about a $10,000 investment in a computer lab just across Sixth Street at Memorial Park Recreation Center. He said the lab is set for use by the entire community.
    Read more.

  Economy

  • Partnership Aims to Make Birmingham’s Economic Growth More Equitable

    WBHM

    Birmingham has gained attention for its downtown rebirth. But the Birmingham area economy still falls behind similar cities, particularly when it comes to job growth. A partnership announced in December between the city and the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank, aims to boost the Birmingham economy with an eye toward making those gains more equitable. Read more.

  Jefferson County Commission

  • Jefferson County Commission Approves Funding for New Bus Routes

    Lashunda Scales said she finally got what she wanted today when the Jefferson County Commission agreed to supply additional funding for new bus routes without trimming support of those routes in fiscal 2020.

    The commission today added $9,207 to the previously approved $100,000 to expand bus service into Fairfield, Brighton, Lipscomb, Adamsville and Forestdale for three months, through September. Commissioners had talked earlier about cutting transit funding for those areas in half during the next fiscal year. But they opted today to delay action on funding in the new year.

    Commissioner Jimmie Stephens said he believes the $109,207 the commission has approved will fund the new routes into the coming calendar year, perhaps through February.

    Read more.

  About News

  • Investigative Reporting Must Overcome Obstacles From Without and Within

    This week’s child sex trafficking charges against wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein are a testament to the impact of investigative reporting, in this case by determined journalists from The Miami Herald, who dug through documents, tracked down victims and told a story not only of horrendous crimes but also of enablers and leniency from the court system. It wasn’t easy. Investigative journalism never is. And alarmingly, it’s getting harder to do.
    Uncovering malfeasance is becoming more difficult for multiple reasons. Start with rising government restrictions on access to information (laws and court rulings), non-compliance with open-records statutes, and threats of costly lawsuits by news subjects. Further, the boffo investigations by major national outlets are not being replicated to the same extent at the local and regional levels. The well-documented shrinkage of newsrooms across the U.S. has taken a big bite out of community watchdog journalism, reflected not only in fewer staff to do the job but also in newsroom priorities.
    Read more.

  Birmingham

  • The Story Behind Parcak’s “Archaeology From Space”

    In a coworking space just off of Lakeshore Parkway sits a potential game changer for the future of archaeology – the headquarters of the non-profit GlobalXplorer. The web-based platform invites just about anyone to become a space archaeologist by scanning satellite images in search of undiscovered archaeological sites and signs of looting. It is the brainchild of Sarah Parcak, who is well known for her work using infra-red technology to locate lost tombs, pyramids and settlements in ancient Egypt. Read more.

  Border Crisis

  Birmingham City Council

  Civil Rights History

  • Birmingham Celebrates Historic A.G. Gaston Motel Anniversary

    The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. often planned strategy for the civil rights movement in room 30 at the A.G. Gaston Motel. For others, it was a place for wedding receptions and fancy dances. As restoration of the famed but deteriorating structure begins, Birmingham celebrated the motel’s anniversary and its founder on Monday. Read more.

    WBHM

  Education

  • The 15-Year Fight to Integrate Public Schools

    WBHM

    In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education struck down racial segregation in schools. While the court ordered public schools to desegregate “with all deliberate speed,” the vague language allowed Southern officials to delay and resist school integration for years. It wasn’t until 1969 that the court forced school integration in a case called Alexander v. Holmes. Read more.

  Economy

  The Legislature

  UA-Culverhouse Feud

  Community Foundation

  Abortion Fallout

  • Woodfin Says Abortion Law Is Costing Birmingham Tech Business

    Updated — Two IT companies have canceled or put on hold discussions about moving to Birmingham because of the abortion ban signed into law last week, according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.

    Woodfin told author Diane McWhorter about the changes for an opinion piece published Saturday on CNN.

    McWhorter wrote that Woodfin “confirmed to me today that the abortion ban affected two IT companies considering moves to the city – one canceled outright, while the other ‘put the brakes on negotiations.’” Read more.

  Census Bureau

  • Huntsville Area Leads the State in Population Growth

    The Birmingham-Hoover MSA grew by just 2,116 people in 2017-2018. The area ranked 251th out of 383 MSAs in terms of population growth rate, according to an analysis of census data conducted by the Public Research Council of Alabama.

    The Huntsville MSA led the state in percentage of population growth, ranking it 64th in the country. It added 6,952 people to its ranks in the period.

    Other large metros in the state fell below Birmingham-Hoover in terms of growth, with Mobile ranked 324th and Montgomery 327th. However, those two areas lost population in 2017-2018, as did some other metro areas in the U.S. Read more.

  BirminghamWatch

  • Hank Black Inducted Into UA Student Media’s Wall of Fame for His Service in Journalism

    BirminghamWatch’s Hank Black was inducted into the Wall of Fame for the University of Alabama’s Office of Student Media during an event April 26.

    Black, who covers the environment for BW, was honored for his role as editor in chief of the Crimson White during one of the most turbulent years in the university’s history. Black was editor in 1963, when Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first two black students to successfully enroll at UA, following Gov. George Wallace’s infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Read more.

  BirminghamWatch

  Doug Jones

  • Doug Jones Recounts Church Bombing Prosecution in New Book

    WBHM

    The Klansmen who bombed Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, killing four black girls, did not face justice for years. In 1977, then-Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley won a conviction against Robert Chambliss for his role in the attack. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that two others were tried and convicted. Senator Doug Jones led those later prosecutions and writes about it in his memoir “Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Cvil Rights.” Read more.