Government

Judge Tosses Memorial Protection Law in Case Over Birmingham Confederate Monument

Updated: A Jefferson County judge has voided a state law that protected historical monuments. Ruling in a case over the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Birmingham’s Linn Park, then-Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Graffeo said that the law essentially forced a pro-Confederacy message on the city of Birmingham. “Just as the state could not force any particular citizen to post a pro-Confederacy sign in his or her front lawn, so too can the state not commandeer the city’s property for the state’s preferred message." Read more.

Woodfin Mournful but Optimistic in His Second State of the Community Address

Following a tragic week for Birmingham, Mayor Randall Woodfin delivered his second State of the Community address Monday night. His speech was equal parts elegiac and hopeful, addressing the death of former Mayor Larry Langford and the murder of Birmingham Police Sgt. Wytasha Carter while casting an optimistic eye toward the future. “This evening, I come before you in a state of mourning,” he said during his speech. “We’re a city with a broken heart.” But resilience, Woodfin argued, “is in our DNA,” and after a lengthy prayer from local pastor Terry Drake, he shifted his focus to the accomplishments of his administration’s first year at City Hall. The city, he said is, “writing another chapter in our grand legacy.” Read more.

Langford’s ‘Big’ Life Eulogized as Friends and Admirers Gather for a Final Farewell

Father Vernon Huguley acknowledged that many people couldn’t stand Larry Langford. “But that’s alright too,” Langford’s former pastor said during his funeral Monday, “because if you can’t say ‘Amen,’ you need to say, ‘Ouch!’” A few hundred people filled the sanctuary of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Fairfield and spilled into the neighboring parish hall as Birmingham, Fairfield and Jefferson County said a final farewell to a man who lived life large. “He was a good man with a good heart with the love of God in him,” Huguley said. “He wanted that love to be expressed and realized in the people who God placed in his circle.” Read more.

Larry Langford, Longtime Politician and Birmingham’s Idea Man, Dies at 72

A Life Remembered: Hundreds Line Up to Pay Their Respects to Larry Langford

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Jefferson County’s First African-American Sheriff Wants to Boost Diversity

By Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, WBHM Like a lot of kids, Mark Pettway wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up. But as he got older, things changed. Pettway begins his job as Jefferson County sheriff today. He’s the first African American to hold that post after defeating longtime Republican Sheriff Mike Hale in November. Read more.

Gov. Kay Ivey Praises Past Progress, Outlines Future Route in Inaugural Address

Gov. Kay Ivey was sworn in this morning along with other constitutional officers in a ceremony of pomp and circumstances on the red carpet-lined steps of the Alabama Capitol. The National Guard performed a flyover of the event, where the Alabama National Guard presented colors and the concert ensemble of Booker T. Washington Magnet School performed for a crowd that included four former governors and other constitutional officers. Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions – whom Ivey pointed out came out of Wilcox County, as did she – also was in attendance, along with Reps. Bradley Byrne and Martha Roby representing Alabama’s congressional contingent. A parade down Dexter Avenue was to follow at noon, and the Inaugural Gala will be held tonight at the Montgomery Civic Center. Wearing a burgundy coat and cream pants on this overcast morning, as temperatures hovered in the mid-40s, Ivey pointed to recent successes in Alabama and laid out a few of Alabama’s biggest challenges in the coming year, which she said she looked at as “opportunities.” Read more, including excerpts from Ivey’s speech or her full address.

A Life Remembered: Hundreds Line Up to Pay Their Respects to Larry Langford

Hundreds of mourners had already walked by the rose-covered casket in the center of Bill Harris Arena at the Birmingham CrossPlex by the time the visitation for Larry Langford was scheduled to begin. The doors opened about 40 minutes before the scheduled start time of 2 p.m. because so many people had arrived early to pay their respects to the man whose resume included terms as mayor of Fairfield and Birmingham, and as president of the Jefferson County Commission. People easily topping 1,000 lined up at three guestbooks. Each signed his name as validation of what Langford’s wife, Melva, and other relatives certainly already knew. The man whose life ended Wednesday in a Princeton Baptist Medical Center bed was more than a politician; he was a fixture in the community. There were politicians, from state Sen. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham, to state Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham. But the masses were regular people. Many had known Langford from his days growing up in Titusville’s Loveman Village public housing community and later as he graced the airwaves as a TV journalist. Two former Birmingham mayors spoke during a ceremony after visitors had finished strolling by the guarded casket. One of them, Bernard Kincaid, recalled the three-word slogan – Let’s Do Something – that allowed Langford to emerge from a field of 10 to be elected mayor of Birmingham without a runoff in 2007. Read more.

Larry Langford, Longtime Politician and Birmingham’s Idea Man, Dies at 72

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Inauguration Day in Montgomery

Monday is inauguration day, with a full slate of activities slated in Montgomery. The day kicks off with a prayer breakfast before swearing-in ceremonies begin at 10 a.m. on the Capitol steps for constitutional officers, including Gov. Kay Ivey, Lt. Gov.-elect Will Ainsworth, Attorney General Steve Marshall, Secretary of State John Merrill and State Auditor Jim Ziegler. Ivey’s inauguration speech will be televised live on Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal beginning at 10 a.m. A parade follows at noon, and an invitation-only Inaugural Gala will be held tonight at the Montgomery Civic Center. Inaugural activities kicked off Saturday with a concert and celebration on the coast.

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending Jan. 11

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives took up a litany of funding bills last week despite the federal government’s partial shutdown. Among them was a Republican move to increase funding for rural broadband by $125 million, to a total of $565 million. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, spoke in favor of the move, saying. "You might not find a great deal of agreement between the parties of President Trump and former President Obama, but the vital need for rural broadband is one of those things." Nonetheless, the House defeated the measure on a largely party-line vote. There was near unanimous support for one bill to ensure federal employees will be given backpay once their departments are fully reopened. All of Alabama’s representatives approved that measure, which now goes to the president. Read more about how area members of Congress voted during the legislative week ending Jan. 11.

Federal shutdown affects employees, programs in Alabama

Feeling like a “political pawn,” Takara Shelton reported to work Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution at Talladega. “We’re upset, frustrated,” said Shelton, a cook foreman at the federal lockup. “We are coming to work, putting gas in our cars, keeping the public and the inmates safe, and we are not getting paid for it and don’t know when we will.” Shelton is among more than 700 Alabama residents who are employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates three prisons in the state, and were supposed to be paid this weekend. But no pay is in sight for them because of the partial federal shutdown that began Dec. 22. Alabama has about 50,000 federal workers, including post office employees, and an estimated 5,500 of them are on unpaid status because of the partial federal shutdown. Among the unpaid are employees of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Transportation and Homeland Security, plus a dozen smaller agencies. Most of those who are not being paid are on furlough, meaning they are not working. These include 2,200 NASA employees in Huntsville and most of the employees of departments of Agriculture (1,028), Commerce (318) and Interior (149). But the prison workers are among employees who are required to continue working – even though they are not being paid during the shutdown – in jobs that are deemed essential because they are safety and security related. These include employees of Transportation Security Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons,and Department of Homeland Security. The partial shutdown has shuttered a number of federal offices around the state. It also threatens federally funded programs for home loans, low-income housing and SNAP, the food-assistance program used by more than 800,000 Alabama residents. Read more.

Birmingham Police Chief Urges Residents to Become More Active in Crime Prevention, Describes New Approach to Policing

In a presentation to neighborhood officers, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith laid out a new strategy for the department and urged residents to be proactive in addressing crime in their communities. “We have to get real about it,” he said. “We cannot do things the way we always did.” Thursday’s meeting, which took place after a swearing-in ceremony for newly elected neighborhood officers, was one of the first major presentations of Smith’s strategy since he took the job in June. Smith described his first six months on the job as playing “catch-up” with a department that had fallen “behind the curve” in its approach to fighting crime. “When I took over, I did an analysis of the department,” he said. “Over time, from 2014 to 2018, crime has doubled … We have to do a lot to bring this police department back to where it needs to be.” Read more.