August 7 Morning Newscast
August 07, 2012 Morning Edition News
The president of an education agency that awards school districts accreditation says he has “serious concerns” with the Birmingham Board of Education. The Birmingham News reports that Mark Elgart, president and chief executive officer of AdvancEd, an umbrella of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation agency, said he expects the Birmingham school board to respond in writing to a letter he sent July 31, outlining what steps the board is taking to fix it’s governance problems. Those problems in-fighting among the board, as well as its superintendent and state officials, who are in Birmingham conducting a state takeover of the district. Elgart says if the Birmingham school board does not respond to his concerns by Oct. 1, he will launch a formal investigation into the district’s governance. Elgart is also suspending a request by Birmingham for district-wide accreditation. Birmingham is in the early stages of a two-year process to earn district-wide accreditation instead of having to go through the arduous task of getting each individual school accredited. Many districts are moving toward district-wide accreditation because it is less disruptive and gives districts an overall look at how they are doing system-wide.
Testimony continues today in a preliminary hearing between Allan Pizzato and the Alabama Education Television Commission. Pizzato, the former executive director of Alabama Public Television, filed the lawsuit against the Commission and its seven members, claiming they violated the state’s open meetings law when they fired him at a June 12th meeting. During testimony yesterday, Charles Grantham, the Chief Operations Officer for APT, testified that following a special meeting by the Commission last Wednesday, he felt his job was threatened in a conversation with Commission member J. Holland. The next day Grantham resigned from his position, effective August 31st. Testimony is expected to conclude this morning.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The traditionally Democratic Alabama AFL-CIO has endorsed Republican Roy Moore for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. State AFL-CIO President Al Henley says it’s the first time the union organization has backed Moore, who was the only Republican endorsed for state office when the organization met in Montgomery to pick its favorites. Henley said the AFL-CIO doesn’t share Moore’s view on separation of church and state, but he had a record as a circuit judge in Gadsden and as a Supreme Court justice from 2001-2003 of treating the average person fairly in court. Moore is attempting a political comeback after losing two races for governor following his removal as chief justice in 2003.
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.
The Gulf States Newsroom is hiring a Community Engagement Producer
The Gulf States Newsroom is seeking a curious, creative and collaborative professional to work with our regional team to build up engaged journalism efforts.
Gambling bills face uncertain future in the Alabama legislature
This year looked to be different for lottery and gambling legislation, which has fallen short for years in the Alabama legislature. But this week, with only a handful of meeting days left, competing House and Senate proposals were sent to a conference committee to work out differences.
