August 1 Morning Newscast
August 1, 2012 Morning Edition News
The Alabama Educational Television Commission has voted to hire a Birmingham law firm to represent the commission in a lawsuit filed by ousted Alabama Public Television executive director Allan Pizzato. The commission voted 6-0 yesterday to hire the Birmingham law firm of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt. The commission chairman, Ferris Stephens (pictured above), says the commission feels Pizzato’s lawsuit is without merit. That lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Stephens is ineligible to hold a commission position because a state statutes says states “no member of the commission shall hold any other office”. Stephens is an assistant attorney general. Stephens has denied earlier reports that Pizzato and chief financial officer Pauline Howland were fired because they opposed airing a controversial documentary series by evangelical Christian activist David Barton. For extensive background on this story, click here.
Some students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville are calling for the campus Chick-fil-A restaurant to close after a company executive’s comments caused an uproar in the debate over gay marriage. WAAY-TV reports members of UA Huntsville’s Gay-Straight Alliance wants the restaurant shut down. GSA Founder and President Heather Shelton says having the restaurant on campus is not consistent with the university’s anti-discrimination policy. She says the group plans to take up the issue with Sodexo, which operates the campus Chick-fil-A. Another student, Adelle Sutton, disagrees. Sutton said Chick-fil-A is a Christian company, and that people should be respectful of everyone’s opinions. Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press this month that the Atlanta-based company was “guilty as charged” for backing “the biblical definition of a family.”
Alabama Department of Public Health officials confirm there have been four positive cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis found in horses in Dallas County. Officials say there are additional reports of cases in horses in Elmore and Montgomery counties, but those cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests. And in Baldwin and Mobile counties, four sentinel chickens have tested positive for West Nile virus. State Public Health Veterinarian Dee W. Jones says these positive tests in horses and chickens means the virus is present in the mosquito population and those mosquitos pose a risk to risk to humans.
A study on possible effects of the 2010 BP oil spill indicates dispersants may have killed plankton — some of the ocean’s tiniest plants and creatures — and disrupted the food chain in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the nation’s richest seafood grounds. For the study, Alabama researchers pumped water from Mobile Bay into drums, then added oil, dispersant or both to simulate the spill’s effects on microscopic life in the waters of the bay. It found the two smallest kinds of plankton grew in drums topped by oil slicks, but their numbers fell in drums containing dispersant. Scientists say the study indicates the spill could cause major future impacts. One called its findings scary. The study was published yesterday in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Alabama House Speaker Republican Representative Mike Hubbard is the new chairman of the Southern Legislative Conference. Hubbard was elected chairman of the organization that includes legislators from 15 Southern states at the organization’s annual meeting yesterday in Charleston, West Virginia.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
Auburn fires coach Hugh Freeze following 12th loss in his last 15 SEC games
The 56-year-old Freeze failed to fix Auburn’s offensive issues in three years on the Plains, scoring 24 or fewer points in 17 of his 22 league games. He also ended up on the wrong end of too many close matchups, including twice this season thanks partly to questionable calls.
In a ‘disheartening’ era, the nation’s former top mining regulator speaks out
Joe Pizarchik, who led the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from 2009 to 2017, says Alabama’s move in the wake of a fatal 2024 home explosion increases risks to residents living atop “gassy” coal mines.
