Category: Uncategorized

Jeffco Commission to Dip Into Contingency Fund Rather Than Amending Budget

Solomon Crenshaw Jr.,

Rather than adding to the just approved fiscal 2021 budget, Jefferson County Commissioners said Tuesday that money called for from a recent classification survey would come from the county’s contingency fund.

Chief Financial Officer Angela Dixon presented a resolution for an increase in funds related to a community development specialist position. The survey called for additional funds totaling $119,280.

“We’re in a brand-new budget,” Commissioner Steve Ammons said. “Why would this survey not be done prior to us doing the budget so we don’t have a budget amendment just 45 days into the budget?”

Commission President Jimmie Stephens moved to change the funding request, with the money coming from the commission’s contingency fund rather than the balance of the budget.
Read more.

Alabama COVID-19 Case Total Rises by 1,561, With 42 More Deaths

BirminghamWatch,

The Alabama Department of Public Health reported a big increase in the number of casses of COVID-19 and deaths from the disease on Saturday, but the agency issued a statement saying the figures included a backlog of cases from the past few weeks.

The daily dashboard showed 1,561 confirmed new cases and 42 deaths, bringing the totals to 115,284 cases and 2,059 deaths since the pandemic began in mid-March. In addition 8,462 casees and 90 deaths were listed as probably from the coronavirus.

But the department said in a statement that it began using a new laboratory and when that happens “we sometimes will receive a backlog of results, both positive and negative.”
Read more.

New Drug Shows Promise for Treatment of Diabetes, UAB Researcher Says

Virginia MacDonald,

After 30 years of research and the screening of 300,000 compounds, a new drug has shown promise in mice and larger animals to control blood glucose in Types I and II of diabetes, UAB announced Thursday.

“Diabetes is a serious disease,” said Dr. Anath Shaler, director of UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center. A Center for Disease Control report this year found 34.2 million Americans, or 1 in 10, have diabetes.

“It is a major public health problem worldwide, with the South particularly hard hit over the years,” Shaler said.

“In fact, the prevalence of diabetes in adults in Alabama is over 15%, which is really huge,” she added. 
Read more.

DOJ Finds Excessive Use of Force In Alabama’s Male Prisons

Mary Scott Hodgin, WBHM 90.3,

In a report released Thursday, U.S. justice officials said men confined to Alabama’s prisons are subject to excessive force at the hands of correctional officers. They said the issue is pervasive and systemic and likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In the 30-page document, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the three U.S. Attorney’s Offices for Alabama said prison staff regularly use batons, chemical spray and physical attacks to improperly and unjustly punish inmates. They said the excessive force can result in serious injury or death, citing two men who died in 2019 at the hands of correctional officers. Autopsies found both men were beaten so badly, they were left with intracranial bleeding and multiple head and body fractures.
Read more.

Small Business Loans Site Crashes Amid Flood of New PPP Applications

BirminghamWatch,

Alabama bankers couldn’t access the federal Paycheck Protection Program application site on Monday so that small businesses hurt by the coronavirus could apply for the loans.

Alabama Bankers Association President Scott Latham said the U.S. Small Business Administration promised that its systems would be prepared for action on Monday, but they were not.

“Despite the agency’s efforts to be ready, it has failed,” Latham said in a press release.
Read more.

NewsMatch 2020 Offers Chance to Double Donations

The Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism, which publishes BirminghamWatch, joins a record number of 267 nonprofit newsrooms as participants in the national NewsMatch 2020 campaign. This year-end fundraising effort, extending from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 and supported by national foundations, provides the opportunity to match one-time gifts and new monthly gifts.

According to a statement from the Institute for Nonprofit News, the 35% increase in participants compared to the 2019 NewsMatch campaign reflects the fact that the nonprofit news field continues to grow. In the first nine months of 2020, despite economic downturn and the decline of traditional media outlets, INN has accepted 60 new members, a 25% increase over last year.

INN joins the News Revenue Hub and The Miami Foundation in helping to make this annual giving campaign possible. NewsMatch 2020 is currently supported by Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Facebook Journalism Project, the Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, the Inasmuch Foundation, the Independence Public Media Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Present Progressive Fund at Schwab Charitable, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation. Additional contributions for the matching fund will be accepted through December.

The NewsMatch 2019 campaign turned an initial pool of $3.37 million into a $43.5 million payout to news nonprofits across the country, according to INN. Individual gift caps and overall match caps vary according to the number of participating newsrooms and funders.

Donors who wish to support AIIJ and its publication, BirminghamWatch, can do so at any time. Gifts through Dec. 31 may be matched as part of NewsMatch 2020.

Donate Now

  Coronavirus

  CongressionalWatch

  • House OKs Apprenticeship Program Opposed by the GOP

    Voterama in Congress

    WASHINGTON – Voting 246 for and 140 against, the House on Nov 20 passed a bill (HR 8294) that would authorize $3.5 billion over five years to expand federally funded apprenticeship programs. While the bill would prepare workers for jobs in traditional industries such as manufacturing, transportation and construction, it also would fund instruction and on-the-job training for specialized fields such as early childhood education, advanced health care and green energy. The House also rejected a Republican-backed alternative to the plan.

    The Senate, meanwhile, approved President Trump’s nominee to the U.S. Court of International Trade and rejected his nominee to the Federal Reserve System Board of Governors. Read more.

  GovernmentWatch

  • Commission OKs Cares Act Funding in Quick Session

    Tuesday’s committee meeting of the Jefferson County Commission was so fast you would have thought commissioners were trying to beat a deadline.

    In a sense, they were. As they have for months, commissioners continued their efforts to dole out federal funds related to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    The light agenda included 18 resolutions from county manager Tony Petelos to distribute Cares Act funds to help cities, towns and entities in the county address needs of citizens that arose from COVID-19. Petelos said the items that were moved to Thursday’s meeting agenda leave just a few who have not gotten requested money. “We’ll have those next meeting,” Petelos said. Read more.

  • New Microtransit Program Coming to Birmingham

    District 5 Councilor Darrell O’Quinn welcomed Birmingham residents to “the new era of shared micromobility” Tuesday after the council approved deals with two bike- and scooter-sharing companies. Read more.

  • Birmingham City Council Approves Carraway Hospital Rezoning

    The Birmingham City Council approved the rezoning of Carraway Hospital and several adjacent properties Tuesday, clearing the way for Corporate Realty’s long-planned mixed-use redevelopment of the abandoned campus. Read more.

  2020 Elections

  COVID-19

  BirminghamWatch Recommends

  Education

  COVID-19

  • UAB Study Suggests Stay-at-Home Orders Saved Lives This Spring

    If no states had issued stay-at-home orders to their residents as the novel coronavirus swept across the country this past spring, the U.S. could have had 22% more deaths and 220% more people infected than if there had been a nationwide stay-at-home order, researchers at UAB have projected. Read more.

  • Who Does the Coronavirus Attack and Kill in Alabama?

    Individuals from 25 to 49 years old make up the biggest percentage of Alabamians who have contracted COVID-19, but adults who are 50 and older account for almost 95% of the deaths from the disease, the Alabama Department of Public Health reported Thursday.

    While people age 65 and up made up 16.8% of those who have contracted the coronavirus, they accounted for more than three of every four deaths. People aged 50 to 64 accounted for about 18% of the deaths. Read more details about who is getting and dying from COVID in Alabama.

  The Legacy of Race

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