Government

Party-Line Votes Set Up Trump Acquittal Vote This Week

WASHINGTON — Senate votes to block witnesses from being called in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump have set up a Wednesday afternoon session in which the Republican-majority body intends to acquit the president of both charges. But before that, the trial is set to resume Monday at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time to allow House managers and the president’s legal team to make closing arguments. Each side has two hours to present its case. Senators can set up speeches explaining their votes before the official vote is held Wednesday at 4 p.m. Alabama senators voted along party lines, as expected, on whether to allow witnesses to be called in the trial. Read more.

Leading U.S. Senate Candidates Began the Year With Millions to Fuel Campaigns

Former Sen. Jeff Sessions, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne and retired football coach Tommy Tuberville entered 2020 with millions of dollars in the bank as they campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. The winner of the GOP primary on March 3, or of a possible runoff three weeks later, will face freshman Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama’s Nov. 3 general election. Jones is unopposed for his party’s nomination and also started the year with millions. Sessions started 2020 with $2.54 million in his campaign chest, Byrne with $2.19 million, Tuberville with $1.52 million, Arnold Mooney with $321,629.83, Roy Moore with $44,116 and Jones with $5.48 million. Read more.

Ivey, Other Speakers, List Prisons, Health Care, Education Among Challenges for the Year

Gov. Kay Ivey told the 2020 annual meeting of PARCA that Alabama can address the challenges it faces today. “I’m confident through our collaboration we will find solutions to tackle our difficult problems,” said Ivey, the keynote speaker at the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama’s annual luncheon. Ivey gave the audience a sneak peek into her upcoming State of the State address. She said she expects to applaud the positive and issue a challenge to address areas that need improvement. Those matters include the 2020 census, the prison system, health care, mental health care and education reform. Read more.

Alabama to Close Most of Holman Prison

By WBHM The Alabama Department of Corrections is accelerating plans to close most of Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. Officials made the announcement Wednesday, citing growing maintenance costs and safety concerns at the 51-year-old prison. Read more.

Birmingham Council Approves Sending Up to 297 Neighborhood Reps to Conference

Despite some concerns of excessive spending, the Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to send up to 297 neighborhood representatives — up to three from each of the city’s 99 neighborhoods — to this May’s Neighborhoods USA Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. Read more.

Small Fraction of Students Qualify for Birmingham Promise University Scholarships

For urban students interested in college, tuition can be a major barrier. So when it was announced recently that the Birmingham Promise would offer a full tuition scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, many praised the partnership as a way to give eligible Birmingham graduates a much-needed financial boost. But there’s just one problem: most students aren’t eligible to apply for the scholarship. Read more.

Senate Votes on Impeachment Issues

Alabama’s senators split along party lines on votes involving President Trump’s impeachment last week, as did all the senators. The House was in recess. Read the major votes in the Senate during the legislative week ending Jan. 25

Despite Pledges, Birmingham Barely Out of Gate on Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Sustainability

This story was written as part of a collaboration among InsideClimate News and nine media outlets in the Southeast. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin promised in December to pivot toward prioritizing sustainability during the remaining two years of his term in office, moving toward fulfilling a pledge he made during his 2017 campaign. “We’ve got a whole lot more environmental justice and sustainability issues to address within the next two years,” he said, “but we’ve laid the groundwork and foundation to address these environmental issues in our city.” But for some, Woodfin’s administration — and Birmingham’s municipal government as a whole — has been frustratingly inert when it comes to environmental issues. “The bottom line is, the city doesn’t have a strategy for addressing sustainability or environmental justice or climate change or anything related to those issues,” said Michael Hansen, executive director of Gasp, a Birmingham-based nonprofit focused on environmental justice advocacy. “The mayor campaigned on all of those issues, and several of the councilors talk about them from the daïs, but they don’t ever actually do anything about them.” Birmingham’s lack of a clear sustainability plan has placed the city at a disadvantage compared to other cities nationwide. The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s 2019 city clean energy scorecard, for instance, ranked Birmingham as 72nd among 75 major cities in terms of sustainability efforts, saying the city “has substantial room to improve across the board” and should push toward codifying goals for clean and renewable energy “to jump-start its efforts.” Read more.

Caught Off Guard: The American Southeast Struggles With Climate Change

U.S. Sen. Doug Jones Comments on Day 1 of President’s Defense: “I don’t care to hear the partisan rhetoric.”

Watch the video.

Prisons Officials Request $42 Million Increase to Hire Staff, Improve Healthcare

Officials from the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles presented their budget proposals to lawmakers Thursday ahead of the upcoming legislative session. ADOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn requested a $42 million increase, bringing the agency’s total General Fund budget to $563 million. Dunn said much of the additional money will be used to recruit 700 more security staff, increase funding for inmate healthcare and hire about 100 mental healthcare professionals. Read more.