Read the Jefferson County Memorial Project’s inaugural report, “Jefferson County’s 30 Residents,” for information about the project and stories on the 30 lynching victims in the county.
I’d have posted this sooner but I was waiting on Adam Schefter to edit it.
Schefter, a National Football League “Insider” reporter for ESPN, became a target of widespread derision within the journalism community this week when the LA Times reported that Schefter sent an entire draft of a pending news story about NFL collective bargaining to a key source for review. It happened 10 years ago but is in the news now because Schefter’s action was revealed in emails that are part of current court litigation involving the key source. Read more.
The War Horse
As the last troops leave the “forever wars,” doctors say they’re seeing more women veterans with breast cancer—younger than the national average. Read more.
For-credit enrollment at Alabama’s community colleges increased more than 6% systemwide this fall, according to preliminary numbers, while universities’ graduate enrollment ticked up about 3.2%. Read more.
There are about 20 open Alabama House seats ahead of the 2022 election cycle and several incumbents have announced primary challengers. Here’s an update on who is and isn’t running. Candidates have until Jan. 28 to qualify. Meanwhile, legislative districts could change, some likely significantly, when lawmakers later this month or early next month redraw lines with new census data.
GOP Rematch in HD73?
Recently elected Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, may again face Republican Leigh Hulsey of Helena for House District 73 seat in Shelby County. Read more.
Demolition of the old Cooper Green Hospital parking lot is expected to begin later this year or early next year to make way for building a new indigent care clinic in that location, officials with Jefferson County and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System announced Tuesday.
Designs for the new clinic, planned to be about 150,000 square feet, are being worked on, and those involved hope it will be ready to open in 2½ to 3 years, David Randall, chief strategy officer for the UAB Health System, said during a press conference.
The project is expected to cost between $55 million and $65 million, Randall said. Read more.
The number of COVID-19 patients in Alabama hospitals has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since mid-July as case numbers continue to tumble since the peak from a summer surge of the delta variant.
There were 970 patients being treated for the coronavirus in hospitals around the state on Friday, according to the Alabama Hospital Association. That is the lowest since a total of 957 on July 16, and down by about 66% since the inpatient count reached a peak of 2,890 on Sept. 1.
The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 919 new cases of COVID in its daily update on Saturday. The state averaged 1,097 new cases a day over the past week, almost 77% below the average of 3,962 cases per day on Sept. 8. ADPH has reported 807,479 cases since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Read more.
The Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism has announced the retirement of Carol Nunnelley, founding executive director of the organization. Nunnelley joined Jerry Lanning and Mark Kelly to found AIIJ in 2014 and became its first executive director in 2015.
Nunnelley led AIIJ through the creation of its publishing arm, BirminghamWatch, and fostered steady growth in reporting and readership. Key projects included nonpartisan voter guides for local elections and a series on the Legacy of Race. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — The Alabama State Department of Education says it has approved about half of the applications from K-12 schools for their share of the $2 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Read more.
MONTGOMERY— Proposed changes to Alabama’s medical cannabis law will be coming soon.
Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, the sponsor of the cannabis bill that became law earlier this year, said he will file legislation to make technical changes to some of the wording around timing and deadlines in the law, including starting the licensing process for growers earlier. Read more.
WBHM
Feelings of anger and frustration are bubbling up for many people in Alabama, 18 months into the coronavirus pandemic. A psychologist from the University of Alabama at Birmingham explains how to manage it. Read more.
There’s been an overwhelming amount of drama this past year in Tarrant, a small town with fewer than 7,000 people. Many believe the tensions are rooted in racism and Tarrant’s changing demographics.
In less than a year, the city of Tarrant has seen its fire chief get fired, its police chief resign, a councilmember blurt out a racial slur and its first Black mayor arrested twice.
“We’re trying to bring about change to a 100-year-old city. People are used to doing things a certain way and it’s resistance,” said Mayor Wayman Newton, 41. Read more.
The UAB School of Medicine has been renamed the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine after a Dothan eye surgeon donated a record-breaking $95 million to the school. Read more.
A new bill by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from requiring banks and credit unions to report customers’ transactions or account balances beyond current statutory requirements.
Currently, the Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to report transactions of $10,000 or more. A new proposal floated as part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” taxing and spending overhaul would lower that threshold to $600.
In an interview with Alabama Daily News Monday, Tuberville called the proposal “an outrageous intrusion of the government into people’s lives.”
“We want everybody to pay their fair share. I’ve got no problem with that. But I don’t want the federal government, ‘big brother,’ to be harassing private citizens. I don’t want them harassing banks,” Tuberville said before introducing his bill, dubbed the Protecting Financial Privacy Act. Read more.
A new law allowing for the home delivery of beer, wine and spirits goes into effect Oct. 1, but Alabamians will have to wait longer for their favorite beverages at their front doors.
“The law becoming effective Oct. 1 literally means that is the first day we can begin processing applications,” Alcoholic Beverage Control Board spokesman Daniel Dye told Alabama Daily News. Read more.
Jefferson County commissioners on Thursday approved spending $67,700 for Rock Solid, a program designed to make it easier for residents to report county repair needs such as potholes and drainage issues. Read more.
The A.G. Gaston Motel restoration project has received a $1.1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to go toward restoration of the interior coffee shop and dining room in the 1968 wing of the historic motel. Read more.
WBHM
For the past 16 years, Birmingham City Councilor Steven Hoyt has represented areas such as Ensley, West End and Five Points West. But Hoyt will leave office next month after choosing not to run for reelection. His last meeting is Oct. 19. Read more.
Alabama college students rank cost of living, job opportunities and salaries as key factors in deciding where they’ll live after graduation, and about 43% of them are undecided about staying in Alabama, according to a recent survey. Read more.
Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson hosted about 75 people at Lawson State Community College Tuesday night to talk about redistricting of legislative and congressional districts and what citizens can do to affect it. “This is not a county initiative,” Tyson said. “This is a people initiative.”
The town hall meeting was done to answer questions about redistricting and to let citizens know what they can do to possibly affect how districts are redrawn to account for population shifts documented in the 2020 Census. Read more.
MONTGOMERY — State Representative Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, who is set to sponsor the new prison building legislation for a likely special session, said he has about 70% of House Republicans responding positively to the bill as of Tuesday afternoon. Read more.
Two Alabama construction companies could be in the best position to get state contracts to build two men’s prisons under a proposal lawmakers are now weighing.
Montgomery-based Caddell and Birmingham-based BL Harbert were both part of teams expected to build prisons under Gov. Kay Ivey’s earlier plan to lease from private developers three new facilities. That plan fell apart in the spring, but some legislative leaders say Caddell and Harbert have been vetted and put in the groundwork to quickly move on construction, if the Legislature can pass a bill that includes borrowing as much as $785 million.
“It would be problematic if we tried to move out and get somebody else,” Sen. Greg Albritton, who has helped lead discussions on new prisons over the summer, said. “(These companies) are in the best position to do this work.”
Read more.
When Alie Dennis laid her eyes on Copper at the Metro Animal Shelter in Tuscaloosa, it was love at first sight. Dennis, a University of Alabama student, came to the shelter in hopes of adopting a dog before her final year of school. After playing with the 3-month-old German shepherd Labrador mix for about an hour, she knew he was the one — asking for a 24-hour hold on the dog to talk the adoption over with her family.
But for Metro Animal Shelter, even 24 hours can be a long time if people are willing to take home a new pet. Last year, shelters in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were running out of so-called “pandemic puppies.” Now, they are overflowing with dogs, cats, and even hamsters. Read more.
Commissioner Lashunda Scales renewed her campaign for diversity and inclusion as the Jefferson County Commission discussed who will perform auditing duties for the county. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council approved a rezoning request Tuesday to bring a new, private event center to the city’s Kingston neighborhood despite concerns about its lack of compatibility with the city’s long-range land use plan and neighborhood demands that the venue not sell alcohol. Read more.
The Association of County Commissions of Alabama is asking for a $10 million reimbursement from the state for the increased strain on county jails taking care of state inmates.
The association approved a resolution last week requesting Gov. Kay Ivey and the state Legislature to “retroactively reimburse county governments for their extended care of an increased number of State-responsible inmates throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a consequence of the Alabama Department of Corrections’ decision to drastically reduce its intake activities in 2020 and 2021.”
The reimbursement amount is for the time from Jan. 1, 2021, to July 31, 2021, and accounts for all counties, Abby Fitzpatrick, director of communication and engagement for the association, told Alabama Daily News.
Read more.
WBHM
The Alabama Department of Health is trying to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread by offering the vaccine at college football games across Alabama. Read more.
As COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Alabama, a state employee group is asking for flexibility for workers who may have to quarantine.
The Alabama State Employees Association is asking state agencies and departments to be “as creative as they can in helping all state employees through this pandemic,” Executive Director Mac McArthur told Alabama Daily News.
“If this goes on for a while or gets worse, I would say this becomes a crisis issue for some of our members,” McArthur said.
If in another month the delta virus is still increasing in case numbers and causing schools to close, “then I think our members will be looking to the administration (for assistance),” he said.
Read more.
Most Alabama school teachers who are temporarily sent home this school year because they contract COVID-19, are exposed to it or are caring for their own children in quarantine will have to use their personal leave time to do it.
A few weeks into the academic year, some schools have had to move students temporarily to virtual learning as COVID-19 cases prevent in-person learning.
The Alabama Education Association is asking local systems to extend paid emergency leave to staff.
Read more.
The number of students graduating from Alabama high schools and entering state universities and colleges dipped by 5% in 2020 to 41%.
While that decrease can in part be blamed on COVID-19-caused disruptions, it’s also part of a larger decline that education officials say is a sign of a strong economy. In 2011, 53% of high school graduates went directly to in-state colleges.
“I think it mostly can be attributed since 2011 to an improvement in the economy,” Jim Purcell, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, said. Post-Great Recession, more jobs have been available to people right out of high school.
But as the state works to find more skilled workers, higher education leaders are trying new ways to reach them. Purcell said that as people’s careers advance or manufacturing jobs become more automated, training and courses are available.
Read more.
Jones, a Birmingham native, is Alabama’s first Black poet laureate and the youngest person to hold the position. Read more.
MONTGOMERY – A new state commission studying how to help released inmates stay out of prison spent much of a meeting Wednesday working on a definition of recidivism that all state agencies can use.
One of the goals of the Joint Commission on Reentry is to create a definition so the state can implement best practices to aid those leaving prisons and create a safer Alabama.
Cam Ward, director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole, said during the meeting that since every state agency defines recidivism differently, it is a nearly impossible task to settle on a singular meaning and mission.
Read more.
Millions of Americans receiving assistance with food and groceries will see an increase of about 25% in their benefits this fall thanks to new legislation approved by the Biden Administration on Monday. Read more.
Jefferson County Commissioner Steve Ammons urged county employees and department heads Tuesday to be careful of excessive spending when traveling on behalf of the county.
“I was just making sure that employees understand that we’re still keeping an eye on travel,” Ammons said following the commission’s committee meeting. “It’s not a vacation.”
Ammons’ eye was drawn to a trip someone from the county compliance office will take Sept. 18-22 to the Compliance & Ethics Institute Conference in Las Vegas. That trip will cost $3,354.55. He said some trips are to places that are expensive, but supervisors should be keeping an eye on expenses.
Read more.
This summer, passionate voices clashed over a teacher anti-bias training program in Mountain Brook City Schools. But the debate rests on uncomfortable history in this white pocket of racially diverse Jefferson County. Read more.
Approximately 10% of Birmingham’s public works employees have tested positive for COVID-19, causing delays in city services such as trash pickup and grass cutting. Mayor Randall Woodfin, who recently required masks to be worn on city property, urged residents to get the vaccine and asked for patience while public works employees continue to catch up on their work. Read more.
Alabama fiscal leaders should soon know how much of the state’s federal COVID-19 relief funds can replace lost revenue and potentially fund new prisons. Read more.
Birmingham police will no longer use no-knock warrants such as the one that led to the death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville last year. Mayor Randall L. Woodfin, Police Chief Patrick Smith and Thomas Beavers, senior pastor of The Star Church, announced that and several other revisions to police policies and procedures during an event Tuesday. Read more.
The Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual list of hate groups nationwide Feb. 1, and while the number of groups has gone down from last year, there are still 20 Alabama groups that made the cut. Altogether, the SPLC tracked 830 organizations defined as hate groups in 2020. “The number is a barometer, albeit only one, of the level of hate activity in the country,” the website says. Read more.
Vestiges of segregation still thread through the systems and processes with which we engage throughout our lives, influencing Black Alabamians in large and small ways, including economic opportunities and lifetime wealth, relationship with law enforcement, health care and even projected lifespan. BirminghamWatch has an ongoing effort to analyze how these sometimes unrecognized vestiges of segregation are playing out in people’s lives today. Read stories in The Legacy of Race series.
Thank you to everyone who donated to the Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism, which publishes BirminghamWatch, during our recent NewsMatch campaign. The opportunity to have cash gifts doubled has ended, but you may still donate to support our nonprofit journalism throughout the year.
The WeeklyWatch will be delivered to your inbox each Friday morning.
