Tanya Ott
Tanya Ott is a part-time editor at WBHM and instructor for the University of Alabama's journalism department. She hosts a podcast on business strategy and emerging technologies and trains public radio newsrooms around the country. Over her 30+ year career, she has reported for Marketplace, NPR and other networks and worked at local stations in Florida, Colorado, Georgia and Alabama, including as WBHM's news director from 2002-2013.
Jeffco Occupational Tax Dies in Legislature
The 2012 regular session of the Alabama legislature is over. Lawmakers worked late into the night – right up to midnight, actually – to hammer out a general fund budget and pass tweaks to the immigration law. They also killed many other bills, including a proposal for a Jefferson County occupational tax.
John Archibald on Jeffco’s Occupational Tax
When a judge ruled Jefferson County's occupational tax illegal it was clear the bankrupt county would have to find some way to replace that money. County commissioners appealed to the local legislative delegation, which responded by proposing a new tax. But with just two days left in the legislative session, the future of that bill is unclear.
Local Government with John Archibald
Time is running out for state lawmakers to address Jefferson County's financial mess. The county needs new revenues to stabilize the budget and bring it out of bankruptcy. Many have pinned their hopes on a new occupational tax, but that has to be authorized by the legislature and there are just days left in this legislative session.
Birmingham’s Banditos Have New Music
Just in time for their show tonight (4/23) at The Bottletree Cafe, WBHM's Tapestry has new music from Birmingham honky tonk/Americana band Banditos.
Alabama Author’s Family Connection to the Titanic
One hundred years ago, a young missionary couple boarded a new luxury liner that was making its maiden voyage from England to America. Alabama author Julie Hedgepeth Williams recounts the stories her great-uncle Albert told about his family's remarkable story of surviving the Titanic.
Local Government with John Archibald
Jefferson County's bankruptcy talks about the unlikely possibility of dissolving the county government and down in Shelby County the sheriff's battle over jail food funding points out problems with a state law. (AUDIO NOT AVAILABLE)
Faith Leaders Launch New Campaign Against HB 56
A coalition of Alabama faith leaders is launching a new television advertising campaign aimed at pressuring state lawmakers into changing the state's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law.
Living in Limbo: Lesbian Families in the Deep South
An Alabama museum long focused on civil rights is introducing a new topic: Lesbian awareness in the South. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute opens the exhibit tonight. It depicts some women arm-in-arm or embracing, their faces fully visible. Others who weren't comfortable being identified publicly are pictured with their backs to the camera.
John Archibald
This week, members of the Birmingham City Council donned hooded sweatshirts in an act of solidarity with Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer. John Archibald says the incident points out real problems in our own backyard.
Local Government with John Archibald
Birmingham City Council's sends a public message about Trayvon Martin's death and John says the case points to serious problems in Birmingham.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
Is the state legislature pitting business incentives against school funding? And why are some Republicans balking at the charter school bill? At least a situation that's literally toxic -- the mercury spill at Putnam Middle in Birmingham -- has been cleaned up.
Local Government with John Archibald
John discusses Cooper-Green Mercy Hospital's financial troubles, the opening of a satellite court house in Center Point, and small town politics in Graysville.
Local Government with John Archibald
John dissects this week's primary election and what it might mean for the future of the Democratic party in Alabama.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
This week's chat touches on the positive, the negative, and the in-between, or at least the in the eye of the beholder: politics once again makes an appearance.
Local Government with John Archibald
John explains why, despite yesterday's acquittals, the gambling corruption case may not be over. Also, hist takes on the Birmingham Water Works board members for spending $70,000 on travel last year.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
Severe thunderstorms, hail, and multiple tornadoes raked Alabama last week. Were any schools hit? And are there figurative storms on the horizon for the state's Education Trust Fund? In this fifth installment of a weekly series, WBHM's Tanya Ott starts the interview by asking about storm damage and an incredible recovery. The education budget may not be so lucky.
Magic City Marketplace
A Birmingham construction company jumps into the lucrative health care sector and there may be a lot more graduates to fill Alabama's tech jobs.
Local Government with John Archibald
John explains why Jefferson County Commission president David Carrington has called for some county employees to undergo lie detectors tests after someon leaked an embarrassing internal memo to the Birmingham News.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
Alabama legislators have their hands full with a variety of education bills at various stages of development, including ones that would authorize charter schools and offer credit for creationism classes for public high-schoolers. But for this week’s chat with Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen, we move outside of Montgomery for some interesting education news. Carsen tells WBHM’s Tanya Ott that some of it is positive, some of it not – beginning right here in Birmingham.
African American Leaders Question Charter Schools
Charter schools are being hotly debated in Alabama and in Mississippi, where opponents including African-American community leaders say charters will cause greater inequality in education and increased segregation in a state with a history of racial division.
Local Government with John Archibald
Analysis of how proposed 25% state budget cuts would affect local health care and law enforcement and how Jefferson County ended up deciding to lay off tax collectors to save money, but lost money in the process.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
When it comes to education in Alabama, it's safe to say there's enough going on to keep a journalist busy. In our third installment of a new weekly series, Southern Education Desk reporter Dan Carsen sits down with WBHM News Director Tanya Ott to break down some of it. The interview starts with a recap of recent reports on religion in public schools.
Local Government with John Archibald
Details on an emergency bankruptcy hearing, looming Jefferson County layoffs, a proposal to term limit the Birmingham mayor and a packed room at a public hearing on a smoking ban.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
It’s week two of the 2012 legislative session in Alabama and job creation and budget shortfalls continue to take center stage. Officials predict a budget gap in the many hundreds of millions of dollars – meaning cutbacks, possible layoffs, and other belt-tightening measures. WBHM’s Dan Carsen of the Southern Education Desk tells Tanya Ott that the budget crisis in non-education departments could pit the Education Trust Fund against everything else.
Local Government with John Archibald
John's take on the first week of the 2012 legislative session. There's already a standoff over the budget and charter schools.
How Much Do You Know About Charter Schools?
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley says charter school legislation will pass in the 2012 legislative session. Bentley outlined his education priorities in his State of the State address last night. The head of the Alabama Education Association vehemently opposes bringing charter schools to Alabama, calling them experimental and untested. Proponents say the taxpayer-funded schools that operate outside some of the rules that affect public schools offer more flexibility and accountability. Who's right?
Legislature Considers Immigration Law Tweaks
The Alabama Legislature begins its regular session today and one of the big issues lawmakers will consider is changing the state’s immigration law. That law, HB56, is considered the nation’s toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants. When it passed last year it got very little attention from Alabama’s business community, but as WBHM's Tanya Ott reports, business leaders are driving the latest efforts to modify the law.
Carsen and Ott EduChat
When lawmakers returned to Montgomery for the beginning of the 2012 legislative session, they had a lot of meaty issues to deal with, from tweaks to the state's immigration law to a potential $400 million budget shortfall. They're also tackling several education reform initiatives, and as the Southern Education Desk's Dan Carsen told WBHM's Tanya Ott, this year looks to be a lot like last year, with plenty of controversial issues on the table.
Local Government with John Archibald
John previews the 2012 legislative session and controversial comments by one lawmaker who says teachers shouldn't get a pay raise, but legislators definitely needed one to keep them free from corruption.
Local Government with John Archibald
John Archibald thinks Shelby County residents share the blame for a long-time teacher who's admitted molesting young girls and why Birmingham is the kick-off of a federal campaign against pay day loan operations.
John Archibald
Birmingham Mayor William Bell uses consent agenda to get $500M in funding for a McDonald Restaurant and Nick Saban schedules a press conference and doesn't say what it's about.
Local Government with John Archibald
Birmingham News columnist John Archibald reviews the top local news stories from 2011 and looks forward to 2012.
