Racking Up Tickets in Birmingham? It’s Amnesty Time
If you have unpaid parking tickets in Birmingham or owe fines for minor traffic violations, the city is giving you two months to pay it off without extra penalty.
The City Council approved an amnesty period Tuesday that begins July 17 and ends Sept. 17. This allows drivers to avoid the extra penalty for late payment. For example, an additional $10 is added to typical parking tickets that are not paid on time.
Chief Municipal Judge Andre Sparks says it’s been four years since the city offered ticket amnesty.
“If you have amnesty too much, people just wait on amnesty to pay,” Sparks said. The tickets can be paid at Municipal Court. The court office is open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday –Thursday. The office closes on Friday at 4:30 p.m. People with questions about their tickets can call 254-2166.
Sparks says people with outstanding tickets can pay without fear of being arrested.
“We don’t arrest citizens in our building unless there is a disturbance,” he says. “Some people operate in fear. They think it’s set up to come in and get picked up.”
Darrell O’Quinn, chairman of the council’s transportation committee, says as of May, the city had more than $3 million worth of outstanding parking tickets, with an estimated 100,000 people owing those fines.
“Some owed thousands and were egregious offenders,” O’Quinn says.
Trump to name former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel
In the midst of the Israel-Hamas war, President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Huckabee, a loyalist and former Republican governor, to serve in the key post as ambassador to Israel.
With Trump coming into power, the NIH is in the crosshairs
The National Institutes of Health, the crown jewel of biomedical research in the U.S., could face big changes under the new Trump administration, some fueled by pandemic-era criticisms of the agency.
A man told 911 a bear chased him off a cliff. Weeks later, he was arrested for murder
Authorities say Nicholas Hamlett killed a man in Tennessee in an attempt to steal his identity, and reported it to police as a bear attack. He was arrested in South Carolina after a weekslong manhunt.
Federal judge blocks Louisiana law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments
The new Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 was temporarily blocked Tuesday. The judge said the law is "unconstitutional on its face."
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigns over sex abuse scandal
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has resigned over accusations that he failed to report physical and sexual abuse to the police.
A man drove his car into a crowd in southern China, killing 35
A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, police said.
