Government

Jeffco Commission to Vote on Expanded Use of Mass Notification System

Jefferson County Commission members will vote Thursday on a policy governing non-emergency commission use of the Everbridge mass notification system. With Commissioner Steve Ammons absent on county business, commissioners voted 3-1 on Tuesday to move the proposal to their meeting agenda. Commissioner Lashunda Scales voted no. The matter came up when Commissioner Sheila Tyson suggested using the system to inform county residents about details of the 2020 census. Commission President Jimmie Stephens said a resolution needed to be submitted for the system – often associated with weather warnings – to be utilized. Read more.

Statewide 5G Infrastructure Bill Passes First Vote But Cities Still Concerned

MONTGOMERY -- A bill that would set a statewide standard for deploying 5G cellular infrastructure, including how much money cities can charge providers for access to existing utility structures, has support from multiple lawmakers, but municipal leaders say the bill takes away too much local control. Senate Bill 172 would mandate a request process for cities to follow when approached by wireless providers such as AT&T and Verizon and sets a cap on the fees municipalities can charge companies for the use of city-owned rights-of-ways. It passed out of the Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development committee last week with no opposition. Read more.

It’s Election Day

Voting is steady in Jefferson County this evening as polls prepare to close at 7 p.m. County Board of Registrars Chairman Barry Stephenson said he expected the county to hit the 30% voter turnout projected by the secretary of state. Grace Newcombe, Alabama Secretary of State’s Office spokeswoman, also said polls seemed to have run smoothly and consistently across the state today. At the top of the ballot are races for president and the U.S. Senate. But other races also are on the ballot, including races for the state Supreme Court and appellate courts, Public Service Commission and a host of county races. Also at stake is the future of the Alabama Board of Education, as voters decide whether that group should remain an elected board or become a politically appointed commission via Amendment 1. Read more.

Prison Reform Package Backed by Ivey Promises Better Rehabilitation and Oversight

MONTGOMERY — Gov. Kay Ivey has endorsed a package of criminal justice reform bills as a way to respond to systemic problems within Alabama's prisons system. There are five bills and one joint resolution, as well as a recommendation to increase funding for prison education programs by $4.2 million and improve access to mental health care. Read more. Earlier reporting on this topic: Legislature to Get Bills Addressing Needs of Alabama’s Troubled Prisons

In the Weeds: A Career of Fighting Has Led Byrne to Senate Showdown

MONTGOMERY -- Bradley Byrne is a fighter. That’s what Alabama’s 1st District Congressman says differentiates him from the field of other candidates in the race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, and there’s plenty of evidence that his previous experience backs that up. Over a political career that has taken him from the state school board and the state Senate to the Alabama Community College System chancellor’s office and the U.S. House of Representatives, Byrne’s fights have been famous. Perhaps the most successful was Byrne’s bout with the state’s two-year college system, which had been mired in a patronage scandal until he, a reform-minded governor and federal prosecutors came in to clean it up. Perhaps the least successful was a run for governor in 2010 that saw him on a quixotic quest to take on the then-all-powerful state teachers’ association, only for that group to marshal untold resources to defeat him in the end. Now Byrne finds himself in the middle of another high-profile fight as he seeks to win a U.S. Senate seat by first outmatching two better-known Republican rivals in former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville. The winner of the Republican primary — or runoff, if needed — will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in November. Read more.

In the Weeds: Sessions Campaigns as the Consistent Conservative He’s Always Been

RATTVILLE — Jeff Sessions hasn’t changed. That’s his message to voters as he campaigns to be elected back to the Senate seat he held for 20 years before leaving it to become attorney general of the United States. He wants Republicans in Alabama to remember the rock-ribbed conservative who often irritated his party’s leadership by pushing his unique brand of conservatism that heavily influenced today’s Trump agenda. But as he exits the passenger door of a black SUV and strides by himself into the Courtyard Marriott hotel, it’s clear that a lot has changed for Sessions. Read more.

In the Weeds: Tuberville Disrupts Senate Race as ‘Outsider’

MONTGOMERY — Tommy Tuberville does not care about your need for nuance. In a political landscape where tricky issues can sometimes cause politicians to split hairs on policy, the former football coach and current candidate for U.S. Senate has found a winning formula: be blunt, keep it simple and always pivot back to President Donald Trump. Read more.

Leading Business Operations Back Board of Education Amendment, Conservative Republican Groups Urge a No Vote

Some of Alabama’s leading business groups and corporations have put up almost a half million dollars to support a state constitutional amendment on Tuesday's ballot that would replace the elected state Board of Education with a commission appointed by the governor. A political action committee called Yes for the Best Education Committee has raised $471,000 in support of the proposed amendment. The PAC was registered with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office on Feb. 13. Jimmy Parnell, president of ALFA, the Alabama Farmers Federation, is listed as chairman and treasurer. There apparently is no organization raising money for an effort to defeat the amendment, but the executive committee of the Alabama Republican Party and Eagle Forum of Alabama, a group that espouses conservative causes, have called for its defeat. Read more.

State Health Officer: State Focused on Coronavirus Prevention, Alabamians Should Be Aware, Not Afraid

As the coronavirus spreads worldwide and the number of confirmed cases in the United States increases, the state’s top health official says Alabama is in a “prevention stance” and encourages Alabamians to prepare for this virus like they do the flu. “This is a situation that is changing very quickly,” Alabama Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris told Alabama Daily News on Thursday. Since the outbreak was first reported in China in late 2019, the Alabama Department of Public Health has monitored more than 100 Alabamians who have returned from China and other places the virus is known to be, Harris said. That monitoring includes making daily phone calls to check on the individuals and encouraging “social distancing,” avoiding large crowds and public places. Harris this week sent the state’s universities and colleges letters with guidance about limiting for at least 14 days public interactions for anyone returning from China or any other country with active community transmission. A few of the Alabamians being monitored have presented coronavirus symptoms, which are similar to flu symptoms, but no one has tested positive for the new disease, referred to as COVID-19. Harris said Alabamians should be aware of the developing situation, “There is no need to be afraid, since we don’t have community transmissions in our state.” Read more.

What to Know About the New Coronavirus and COVID-19

What to Know About the New Coronavirus and COVID-19

Symptoms and prevention — According to the CDC, the new coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19: Spreads mainly through person-to-person contact via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes; Has symptoms that include fever, cough and shortness of breath and may appear two to 14 days after exposure; Currently has no vaccine,