Legislative Week in Review
| Birmingham — For the first time in almost 150 years, Alabama’s Legislature has a Republican majority. Many new faces are dealing with some old problems–ethics, funding for education, and proration of state budgets. On Friday afternoons, we review the week in the Alabama Legislature with Rep. Merika Coleman (D-Midfield) and Rep. Paul DeMarco (R-Homewood).
| 4/22/2011-Constitutional Reform | 4/08/2011-Immigration | 4/01/2011-Proration and Jefferson County’s Woes | 3/11/2011-Changes to the Education Budget | 3/04/2011-State of the State and State Budgets
Mental health workers go on hunger strike, demanding better pay and benefits
After months of striking, some therapists with Kaiser Permanente stopped eating for five days to bring attention to their union's demands for parity with how the company's other workers are treated.
In Homewood, a fight for the spotted salamander
As a Samford University expands its footprint and threatens the amphibian’s habitat, residents are voicing their opposition and searching for another way forward.
Trump administration ends temporary protected status for thousands of Afghans
As soon as May 20, thousands of Afghans living in the U.S. will lose a protection that shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work.
Trump says he took a cognitive test as part of his latest physical
President Trump had his first physical of his second term on Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Dozens of USAID contracts were canceled last weekend. Here’s what happened
The rationale was to address "mismanagement, fraud, and misaligned priorities." Former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk said reversals and inconsistences in the cancellations created "total whiplash."
‘I cannot guarantee complete confidentiality,’ VA therapists ordered to tell veterans
Mental health therapists at Veterans Affairs should begin sessions with patients saying they are in a shared office space, a memo obtained by NPR says. Trump's back-to-office orders start Monday for VA.
