WBHM Politics: A Look Back at 2017
What a year! It seemed Alabama politics was on overdrive on 2017. We got a new governor after the previous one was forced to resign in the fallout of an alleged affair. Birmingham voters picked a new mayor, representing a generational change in the Magic City. And of course Alabama voters narrowly selected a Democrat to represent them in the U.S. Senate, the first time that’s happened in 25 years.
It’s a lot to talk about as we look back on 2017. Offering their perspectives are WBHM’s local government reporter Sherrel Wheeler Stewart, Birmingham Times executive editor Barnett Wright and Alabama Media Group columnist John Archibald.
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Supreme Court allows Trump to resume mass federal layoffs for now
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed to the court by President Biden, dissented.
Graphics: Where the Texas floods happened and how high the waters rose
One Guadalupe River gauge near Kerrville and Camp Mystic recorded a rise of more than 25 feet in two hours.
Haiti’s iconic Hotel Oloffson, long a cultural beacon, destroyed by gang violence
The Hotel Oloffson in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, long a haven for artists and writers, poets and presidents, a symbol of Haiti's troubled politics and its storied past, has been destroyed by gangs.
New books this week focus on Caitlin Clark, King Tut, and how ‘Democrats Lost America’
Plus: a new novel from Gary Shteyngart, a true story of a shipwreck, and a memoir from a wrongly incarcerated inmate who was exonerated after 28 years behind bars.
Shoes off at the airport? TSA appears to be giving the pesky rule the boot
For nearly twenty years, most air travelers in the U.S. have been required to remove their shoes when going through security. That requirement seems to be ending.
Texas flood recovery efforts face tough conditions as local officials face hard questions
Emergency responders kept hope alive as they combed through fallen trees and other debris that littered the hard-hit central Texas communities on the fifth day after devastating floods killed more than 100.
