Birmingham Council Looking At Candidates To Fill Seats On Several Boards
Seats on several Birmingham boards and authorities will be up for grabs next month, including city council-appointed positions on the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority and the Birmingham Land Bank Authority.
Five transit authority seats will become vacant on Aug. 10, when the terms of current board members Theodore L. Smith, Darryl Cunningham, LeDon James, Willie S. Davis and Kevin Powe expire. The nomination process is handled by the council’s transportation committee — though, as with all these positions, a full council vote will be required to confirm nominees.
Two positions on the city’s cooperative board with the science and engineering nonprofit Southern Research will become vacant on Aug. 29. Those seats currently are occupied by William E. Harden Jr. and Tamika Wren; new nominations will be decided by the city council’s economic development committee.
A similar cooperative board, the Alabama Special Care Facilities Financing Authority of Birmingham, also is seeking to fill the vacancy left by Anthony C. Hood. His term expired in November 2017, but since the council did not appoint a replacement, he continued to serve for an additional 3½ years. He submitted his resignation letter to the council on June 28. Nominations for his replacement will be determined by the council’s public safety committee.
Vacancies on the Stormwater Appeals Board and the Solid Waste Authority will be filled next month, with nominations closing on Aug. 15.
Nominations to fill the second director’s seat on the Birmingham Land Bank Authority also will close on Aug. 15. Those looking to fill the position for its four-year term can email their resumes to District 6 Councilor Crystal Smitherman at crystal.smitherman@birminghamal.gov.
Judge demands to know if White House is helping return wrongly deported Maryland man
The hearing is the first about Abrego Garcia's case since El Salvador's president told reporters he is not going to "smuggle a terrorist into the United States."
Trump signs executive action to lower drug prices
The action is intended to build upon the existing program for Medicare drug price negotiations, which was created by the Inflation Reduction Act that passed during the Biden administration.
Top House Democrat says DOGE data access at NLRB may be ‘technological malfeasance’
A top House Democrat is asking independent agency watchdogs to investigate after NPR reporting revealed DOGE may have taken sensitive data from the National Labor Relations Board.
New Israeli ceasefire offer demands Hamas discuss disarming, but group rejects it
Hamas is rejecting a new Israeli proposal to pause the war in Gaza, a Hamas official told NPR. Earlier, officials mediating talks had expressed optimism that a deal could be reached within weeks.
Higher ed war heats up as Trump threatens Harvard’s tax-exempt status
The president's comments came after the administration froze $2 billion in federal grants for Harvard after the university rejected what it saw as illegal government demands.
U.S. Army libraries target books with a focus on DEI or ‘gender ideology’ for removal
Books "overtly promoting DEI, gender ideology, and critical race theory" are under new scrutiny following a memo issued by acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Derrick Anderson.
