Government

Payday Loan Bill Dies, but Issue Not Dead

Last year, 189,231 Alabamians took out 1.6 million payday loans worth about $563.6 million from lenders in the state. They paid about $98.4 million in fees, according to a database kept by the Alabama Department of Banking. “It’s absolutely massive,” Dev Wakeley, a policy analyst for the progressive advocacy group Alabama Arise, said recently about the fees paid by borrowers. “All this money is getting syphoned out of communities and most of it goes out of state.” Payday lending reform, specifically the fees allowed to be charged to borrowers, has become a perennial issue in the Alabama State House. A bill by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, to give borrowers up to 30 days to repay the money instead of what can be 10 to 20 days, was killed earlier this month on an 8-6 vote in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. “The fact that this bill got shut down in committee does not negate the fact that there is a massive need for reform,” Wakeley said. Read more.

Legislature to Get Bills Addressing Needs of Alabama’s Troubled Prisons

MONTGOMERY -- In her state of the state address to open the current legislative session, Gov. Kay Ivey praised the work of a study group she appointed to “address the needs to rehabilitate those within our prison system” and said she looked forward to working with lawmakers “on bills specifically designed to address some of these issues.” Now it looks as if the rubber is about to hit the road. State Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, one of six legislators on the prison study group and one of the Legislature’s experts on the overcrowded and violence-plagued prison system, said a package of prison bills that Ivey’s office is putting together could come forth next week, Ward said he said he may be the Senate sponsor of some of the bills. He also said he plans to hold hearings on the package before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he is chairman. As described generally by Ward, the measures in the package reflect some of the recommendations of the study group, which issued a report earlier this year. The governor’s office said it had no comment.  Read more. 

Nevada Caucuses Voting Tonight, WBHM Publishing Live

WBHM is publishing live results from the Nevada caucuses.

Contributors to U.S. Senate Candidates

Candidates in this year’s race for the U.S. Senate on Feb. 20 updated the lists of their contributors leading up to the March 3 primary elections in Alabama. Following are contributions of $5,000 and up for each candidate. The information comes from the Federal Election Commission database. Read more.

Actions of Barr, Trump Create Potential Constitutional Crisis, Former U.S. Attorney Says

The actions of President Trump and Attorney General William Barr in the Roger Stone case have created a potential constitutional crisis, a former federal prosecutor from Birmingham said -- joining his protest to that of nearly 3,000 ex-officials of the Department of Justice. “As long as we have an attorney general and a president who cannot distinguish between politics and the rule of law, I think we are in a constitutional crisis,” said Henry Frohsin, who served as First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama under the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. Frohsin was one of a number of former federal prosecutors from the Birmingham U.S. attorney’s office to sign a nationwide petition set up by the organization Protect Democracy. The petition calls for Barr to resign after Trump tweeted that the recommended sentence was too high for Stone, a Trump ally convicted of witness tampering, obstructing an investigation and five counts of perjury related to the independent counsel’s Russia investigation. Read more.

Jeff Sessions Leads the Republican Pack in Contributions This Year Toward Senate Nomination Race

Jeff Sessions has collected almost a half million dollars in contributions in 2020 as he campaigns to reclaim the U.S. Senate seat he held for two decades before resigning to become U.S. attorney general. Reports filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission showed Sessions with net contributions of $446,866 from Jan. 1 to Feb. 12, far outdistancing six opponents in the March 3 Republican primary for the Senate. Democrat Doug Jones, the incumbent who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination, led all candidates with contributions of $2.43 million during the first 43 days of this year. Read more.

Contributors to U.S. Senate Candidates.

‘Alternative Cover’ Landfill Bill Moves Forward; ADEM Says Coal Ash No Longer Permitted Material

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation that clarifies landfills’ ability to use materials other than dirt to cover new garbage each day. Previously approved “alternative cover” materials have included shredded vehicle components from scrapped cars, contaminated soil and coal ash. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management said Thursday that it no longer allows the use of coal ash as cover and, while a Walker County landfill still has a permit to use it, it soon will not. Sponsor Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, said House Bill 140 is needed to codify what ADEM has allowed for about three decades. “It would be up to ADEM to decide in permits what covers are allowed,” Baker said on the House floor. Read more.

Construction, Welding, GED: The Impact of Prison Education

WBHM Across Alabama, state inmates are getting GED certificates, learning to fix cars, and even how to code. As Alabama faces mounting pressure to reform its prison system, many state leaders want to increase funding for these educational programs. Read more.

Morgan County Tax Dispute Will Have Statewide Impact

MONTGOMERY — The Morgan County Commission and the county’s school districts went head-to-head in a Montgomery County Circuit Court hearing on Tuesday in their fight over who should receive online sales taxes, and now they must await a decision from the judge. As they wait, the stakes continue to rise in their tussle over whether a local law was effective in prying money from the County Commission’s general fund and distributing the bulk of it to the three public school systems in the county. The crux of the legal dispute is whether the local law, sponsored by state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, conflicts with the statewide Simplified Sellers Use Tax law. Read more.

Medical Marijuana Bill Clears First of Four Votes

MONTGOMERY — Legislation to allow and regulate the use of medical marijuana cleared its first vote Wednesday and now moves to the state Senate, where about half its members voted last year to approve a similar bill. “We want to make sure that people who have tried other avenues who are not successful have access to this to try if their physician wants them to,” Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting. That committee voted 8-1 to advance Senate Bill 165 with one abstention from Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville. Read more.