Category: Uncategorized

By Land, Water or Air, Pollution Will Be a Controversial Topic Throughout the Year

Hank Black,

Environmental issues have made headlines throughout 2018, and 2019 promises to be no different.
Decisions will be made that affect the cleanliness of the state’s waters, air and land. Issues that will affect recycling, coal mining and solar, nuclear and hydropower generation also are looming on the horizon. Here are a few of the issues to watch in 2019.

More What to Watch in 2019

Gas Tax Is a Top Priority in 2019 Legislative Session


A gasoline tax increase to fund road improvements is expected to be a major topic of the 2019 Alabama legislative session. Legislators also are expecting several hundred million more dollars to spend in the education budget and will be debating raises, a child literacy program and other education improvements. Other issues include funding improvements in prisons and a possible lottery proposal. Read more.

32 Candidates for Two Seats on Birmingham City Council May Present their Cases on Thursday

Sam Prickett,

Thirty-two people have applied to fill two vacant seats on the Birmingham City Council, and they will all get the chance to publicly make their cases to the council later this week.

During a special-called meeting on Thursday, Dec. 13, applicants will be given one minute each to give “elevator speeches” on their qualifications, Council President Valerie Abbott said during Tuesday’s regular council meeting.

“They are going to show us their skills at concisely telling us why they are the best candidates for the positions,” she said.

Read more.

Near Campaign’s End, Ivey Adds to Fundraising Advantage Over Maddox

Glenn Stephens ,

Gov. Kay Ivey continues to add to her fundraising advantage over Democrat Walt Maddox with one week remaining in their campaign for governor, according to reports filed Monday with the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office.

Ivey, the Republican nominee, reported raising $146,413 from Oct. 20 to Oct. 26, compared to $45,465 for Maddox. Ivey spent $212,304, leaving a cash balance of $288,586. Maddox reported spending of $62,242 and has an account balance of $167,479. Read more.
In Money Race, Chief Justice Candidate Vance Leads Parker in Past Week, This Year
Republican Lt. Gov. Candidate Ainsworth Continues Far Ahead in Contributions Last Week
Marshall Remains Far Ahead in Fundraising for Attorney General Race

Firehouse Ministries Loses City Money in Racially Charged Dispute

Sam Prickett,

Tensions continued through the week between a Birmingham City Council member and Mayor Randall Woodfin over the council’s Tuesday decision not to contribute $1 million over five years to the Firehouse Ministries Homeless Shelter.

That proposal is no longer on the table; the council voted it down at its Oct. 23 meeting. But Woodfin and District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt continued to trade barbs in one of the most high-profile public disagreements between the mayor and council since Woodfin took office nearly a year ago. Read more.

Can Cooperation Combat Crime? Birmingham-Area Agencies Teaming up on Problem

Sam Prickett,

Despite the city’s rising homicide rate and a recent rash of highly publicized violent crimes, Birmingham-area law enforcement officials say they are optimistic about the city’s long-term crime-fighting prospects, due in part to an array of government agencies working together.

After a violent start to September, which saw seven homicides in its first eight days, Birmingham is on track to have its deadliest year in decades. As of Sept. 20, there have been 86 reported homicides this year, compared to the 79 counted at this point last year, which was the deadliest year for the city since 1994.

“It’s too high for sure,” said Jay Town, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, which is centered in Birmingham. “It makes you wonder if we weren’t putting all of this effort … I shudder to think where those numbers might be.”

Town, who has been on the job for roughly 13 months, said he has worked to develop a “vertical” model of law enforcement that includes federal, state, county and local departments. It’s a model, he said, that can serve as a crime-fighting method going forward.

“The only promise I can make is that we are establishing long-term processes, and it takes time,” he said. “As much as we would like in the Magic City to have crime disappear overnight, we are taking the painstaking efforts to make sure that there are systems and methods and processes in place that are going to last a lot longer than any of us.” Read more.

A Deadly Week: September Homicides Could Foreshadow Record Year in Birmingham

Six homicides happened in Birmingham during the first week of September, putting the city firmly on track for its most violent year in more than two decades and pressuring city leaders to improve their strategies for responding to such incidents and to focus on preventing them.

The first homicide of the month was the highly publicized death of 16-year-old Woodlawn High School student Will Edwards, who was killed in his North East Lake home just after midnight Sept. 1. The following evening, seven teenagers were shot during a gunfight at the downtown music venue WorkPlay, though none were killed.

Mayor Randall Woodfin described the weekend’s incidents of youth violence as a “devastating blow to our community.”

By the end of the first week, five more homicides had been reported by the Birmingham Police Department, four of which happened within a 24-hour period. Just minutes after the week ended, the city already had logged its first homicide of week two. It wasn’t the most homicides that have taken place in a single week this year — that would be an eight-homicide stretch between July 29 and August 4 — but it has placed Birmingham firmly on track to have its deadliest year in recent memory.
Read more.

Broken Air Conditioners at Brighton Senior Center Focus JeffCo Commission on City Services

Solomon Crenshaw Jr.,

The Jefferson County Commission waded back into the issue of small cities’ providing for their residents after learning that the air conditioners at Brighton’s senior center were not working and seniors were being subjected to 90-degree temperatures. Read more.

Jury Says ‘Guilty’ in Trial of Two Men Accused in Bribery of a Legislator

Robert Carter,

Balch & Bingham attorney Joel Gilbert and Drummond Vice President David Lynn Roberson were found guilty this afternoon on all counts in a trial over allegations former Rep. Oliver Robinson was bribed to oppose the expansion of an EPA clean-up site in north Birmingham.

Both men had been charged with conspiracy, bribery, money laundering and three counts of wire fraud. A third defendant was dismissed from the case earlier this week. Robinson has pleaded guilty and agreed to work with prosecutors. His sentencing date had been set or next month but earlier today was extended until September.

This story will be updated as events develop.

  GovernmentWatch

  Workforce Development

  • Ivey Emphasizes Education, Workforce Development and Infrastructure Needs at PARCA Conference

    Gov. Kay Ivey told an audience in Birmingham that her administration will focus its efforts on bolstering the educational system so that children will be ready to fill the jobs of tomorrow’s high-tech economy as well as rebuilding Alabama’s infrastructure.

    Ivey was the keynote speaker Friday at the annual meeting of the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, which met to discuss how the state is doing in its job to help both students going into the workforce and adults moving into different fields adjust to the changing needs of the state’s employers.

    “Alabama is in a position to achieve greater success,” Ivey said. “And as we look to our future, more than ever before, now is the time that we must be sure that our workforce is well-equipped to face the opportunities and the jobs of tomorrow.” Read more.

  BW Recommends

  Kay Ivey

  • Auburn Yearbook Photo Shows Ivey’s Sorority Sisters in Minstrel Show; Governor Is Not in the Picture

    The Auburn Plainsman reported Monday that a photo in the 1967 yearbook shows members of Gov. Kay Ivey’s sorority putting on a minstrel show that appears to have been taken during Rush that year.

    The photo shows five young Alpha Gamma Delta members wearing black masks and shirts with caricatures of black people on the pockets. The caption on the photo reads “Alpha Gam Minstrels welcome rushees aboard their showboat.”

    Ivey, who was a senior at Auburn University at the time, is not among the women in the photo. Her press secretary, Daniel Sparkman, told the Plainsman: “We talked to the governor this morning. … She knows nothing about the page in the first place, and she does not appear on that page.” Read more.

  Economy

  • U.S. Steel Revives Furnace Project in Fairfield

    WBHM

    U.S. Steel Corporation will restart work on its electric arc furnace in Fairfield. The $215 million initiative will replace the former blast furnace at Fairfield Works. The project started almost four years ago, but was put on hold due to poor market demand for steel. Ty West, editor-in-chief of the Birmingham Business Journal, says this is good news. Read more.

  E.J. Bradford

  • Officials Won’t Name Hoover Officer Involved in Shooting. Why Not?

    WBHM

    Officials still have not released the name of the police officer who shot and killed a 21-year-old black man Thanksgiving night at the Riverchase Galleria mall in Hoover. A report from the Alabama attorney general’s office Tuesday cleared the officer of any criminal wrongdoing when he shot Emantic “EJ” Bradford Jr. He thought Bradford was the gunman in an active shooter situation.

    Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said at a press conference Tuesday withholding the officer’s identity is about fairness.

    “Just as any other private citizen that is investigated and found not to have committed a crime their name is not released,” Brocato says. “That’s the same procedure that we will follow with this officer.” Read more.

  Jefferson County Health Care

  • State Rep. Rogers Says JeffCo-UAB Health Care Agreement Would Be Illegal and Tilted in UAB’s Favor

    State Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, is asking Jefferson County to “slow this train down” in its efforts to work with the University of Alabama at Birmingham in forming a health care authority.

    “They have not looked at Act 201 that was passed in 2016 dealing with the Indigent Care Fund. You cannot take the Indigent Care Fund and do what you want to do with it,” Rogers said.

    Rogers said he received a copy of a confidential contract between UAB and Jefferson County concerning a proposed healthcare authority. He said the agreement has problems with personnel and other matters. He called the contract “a bunch of malarkey” and said the contract calls for the authority to have a seven-member board with four members coming from UAB. Read more.

  Confederate Memorial

  • State Asks Judge to Protect Confederate Monument While Lawsuit Appealed

    Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall fired the latest salvo in the battle over historical monuments in the state, filing a motion to stay a Jefferson County judge’s ruling that the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act is unconstitutional.

    Then-Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Michael Graffeo said in his Jan. 14 ruling that the law essentially forced a pro-Confederacy message on the city of Birmingham. Read more.

  Federal Shutdown

  CongressionalWatch

  • Congressional Votes for the Week Ending Jan. 25

    WASHINGTON – The U.S. House and Senate last week voted for a continuing resolution that reopened federal government operations through Feb. 15.

    However, there were no roll-call votes on the final version of HJ Res 28, so the votes of senators and representatives were not recorded.

    The House and Senate approved the measure Jan. 25 and President Trump signed it into law the same day, ending a 35-day government shutdown.

    There were votes last week on other unsuccessful bills aimed at reopening the federal government. Here’s how area members of Congress voted on those and other bills during the legislative week ending Jan. 25. Read more.

  Hoover Shooting

  • Experts: Alabama’s Mask Law Is Outdated

    WBHM
    Protesters at a Walmart in Hoover chanted “no justice no peace” one night last month as they approached the entrance. There have been several similar demonstrations in the wake of the fatal police shooting of a black man at the Galleria mall on Thanksgiving. At one of those demonstrations, police arrested protest leader Carlos Chaverst. They charged him with disorderly conduct and loitering for wearing a mask. It’s one of the more antiquated laws in Alabama. Over the last decade or so there have been numerous challenges to mask laws across, and many states have added the language “intent to intimidate.” But Alabama’s law includes no such language. Read more.

  Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

  • Civil Rights Institute Apologizes as Questions Remain

    By Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, WBHM

    The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute apologized Monday for the way it handled the decision around issuing the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award. Officials canceled the award presentation to human rights activist Angela Davis after it had initially decided to give it to her.

    “We acknowledge that the culmination of our decisions and actions has caused division in the community and compromised the good name of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on the world stage,” the board said in a prepared statement. “Regardless of the outcome of our vote, many have rightfully questioned our selection process, which we vow to improve.” Read more.

  Jefferson County Sheriff

  Crime Strategy

  • 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.

  Federal Shutdown

  • Sen. Doug Jones Urges Quick End to Shutdown, Touts Medicaid Bill, Civil Rights Cold Case Act

    Citing “heartbreaking stories” from Alabamians affected by an “increasingly costly federal shutdown,” U.S. Sen. Doug Jones on Thursday urged Congress to act on legislation to restart government services now and then hash out Homeland Security funding for border security after employees are back at work and getting paid.

    “We need to get the government going and talk about border security in a reasonable way,” Jones, D-Alabama, said during a Thursday call with Alabama media outlets.

    Alabama’s junior senator said his office has heard from many Alabamians affected by the federal shutdown.

    “These are heartbreaking stories from families who are literally scared to death of losing their paychecks. These folks are not getting rich working for the government and many live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. About 5,500 federal employees are on furlough or working without pay because of the shutdown. Read more.

  Reading Birmingham

  Out of Washington

  • Donations From Franklin Haney, Owner of the SS Building and Bidder on Bellefonte Project, Part of Latest DC Investigation

    A name familiar in Alabama has come up in an investigation into spending from President Trump’s inaugural committee funds. The investigation also is focusing on whether some of the donors to Trump’s record-breaking $107 million inaugural fund gave the money in exchange for access to or influence over the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    Tennessee-based developer Franklin L. Haney gave $1 million to the inaugural committee after Trump’s election, and federal prosecutors in Manhattan have asked to see documents related to that donation.

    Haney, who owns the Social Security building in downtown Birmingham, also has come up in the investigation into whether the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has conducted lobbying activities without registering as a lobbyist since Trump took office.

    Haney has been accused of offering Cohen $10 million in exchange for Cohen’s help obtaining a $5 billion federal loan to redevelop the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in north Alabama. Read more.

  Environment

  • Trump’s EPA seeks to remove much of nation’s headwaters and wetlands from protection

    President Trump moved today to weaken the federal Clean Water Act by redefining the Obama administration’s Waters of the US rule, known as WOTUS, to eliminate protections for much of the nation’s waterways – a majority, in some estimates.

    The action principally would remove oversight for small tributary headwaters that do not flow year-round and for wetlands not clearly connected to flowing streams.

    The proposed new EPA rule is expected to be challenged and eventually work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where a conservative majority now sits.

    Read more.

  Library

  Birmingham City Council

  • Birmingham Council OKs Firehouse Funding After Contentious Meeting

    More than a month after the Birmingham City Council rejected a five-year funding proposal for the Firehouse Ministries Homeless Shelter, it voted on the item again Tuesday — and this time, it passed.

    The funding proposal hadn’t changed since it had last come before the council on Oct. 23; it still allocated $200,000 per year for five years to the Firehouse, which is building a $5.6 million facility to expand its services for the homeless.

    But the council itself had changed drastically since Oct. 23, with two councilors leaving and another, District 7’s Wardine Alexander, being appointed in the interim.

    The absence of former councilors Lashunda Scales and Sheila Tyson, who both resigned from the council in November to join the Jefferson County Commission, was likely the deciding factor in the proposal’s passage. Both had vehemently opposed the measure, citing unsubstantiated allegations that the Firehouse did not give black patrons equal treatment, and along with District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt and District 9 Councilor John Hilliard, they formed the voting bloc that had initially blocked the Firehouse’s funding.

    But Hilliard was mostly silent during the discussion of the Firehouse funding Tuesday, and while Hoyt expressed at length his reservations about the funding, both ultimately voted to approve it. Alexander abstained from voting. Read more.

  Air Pollution

  • Residents and Activists Oppose ABC Coke Air Permit

    Jimmy Smith, an 86-year-old Collegeville retiree, held an 8×10 framed photograph of his four daughters in his hand when he stood Thursday to ask the Jefferson County Department of Health not to renew an air emissions permit for ABC Coke.

    He says his oldest daughter died of cancer and another daughter gets cancer treatments twice a month. He’s also a cancer survivor and a survivor of a community he says has been plagued with pollution for years.

    “Y’all can deny this permit, and I promise you they will get the message. They will clean up their act,” he says. Read more.

  2018 Election News

  Health Care

  • Is CBD Oil Legal in Alabama? It’s Complicated.

    The CBD Store in a strip mall along Highway 280 in suburban Birmingham looks like a typical health and wellness shop. A decorative waterfall gurgles against the light blue walls. Capsules that look like vitamins, creams, drops taken orally and candies line the shelves. They’re all infused with CBD.

    People seeking an alternative to pain medications or anti-anxiety drugs are increasingly turning to CBD oil. Some athletes even claim it helps with post-workout recovery. Others say it helps with chemotherapy and arthritis. Studies have shown it curbs severe epilepsy.

    But there’s just one problem: CBD is derived from marijuana. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. Read more.

  BirminghamWatch

  • AIIJ/BirminghamWatch Selected For NewsMatch 2018, National Campaign to Encourage Donations for Journalism

    More than 150 nonprofit newsrooms across the country, including Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism in Birmingham, will participate in this year’s NewsMatch, the largest grassroots fundraising campaign to support nonprofit news organizations. The national effort will launch Nov. 1.

    In 2017 NewsMatch helped to raise more than $4.8 million from individual donors and a coalition of private funders.

    Sue Cross, executive director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News, which serves as one of NewsMatch’s nonprofit partners, said, “We are encouraged to see such strong growth in community support of news … NewsMatch makes it easy for communities and individuals to find and fund their local sources of trusted news.” Read more.