Randall Woodfin to Run for Mayor of Birmingham
While many voters are thinking about the 2016 elections, there’s been a major new development in the 2017 Birmingham mayoral race: assistant city attorney and school board member Randall Woodfin told WBHM late Sunday that he will run for mayor.
Woodfin says he wants to “revitalize the way politics are done in Birmingham” and to “make the city more transparent with our tax dollars.” And he thinks Birmingham voters “see 2017 as a change election.”
Woodfin has been a city attorney for seven years. He’s been on the school board for three years, serving most of that time as board president. The 35-year-old calls himself “young, but not new.”
“City Hall needs a reset button,” he says. “We need someone who’ll both support our small businesses and put our younger generation first.” He mentioned uneven quality of life across Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods and the perception that, in some parts of town, “people aren’t safe on their own porches.”
Woodfin’s campaign is set to officially kick off Saturday morning at the North Birmingham Recreation Center, very close to where he went to elementary school.
A spokesperson for incumbent Mayor William Bell said Sunday that Bell will run in the 2017 election.
Candidates for mayor can start raising money one year before the election. That’s today, August 22.
The Nobel Prize for physics is awarded for discoveries in quantum mechanical tunneling
The Nobel committee said that the laureates' work provides opportunities to develop "the next generation of quantum technology, including quantum cryptography, quantum computers, and quantum sensors."
Why Democrats are casting the government shutdown as a health care showdown
Democrats are pressuring Republicans to extend billions of dollars in federal tax credits that have dramatically lowered premiums and contributed to record-low rates of uninsured Americans.
Bondi set to give testimony to Congress at first hearing since Comey indictment
Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to testify before a Senate panel Tuesday amid mounting concerns that the DOJ under her leadership is being weaponized to go after President Trump's perceived enemies.
A tribe in Arizona planned to connect 600 homes to electricity. Then the funding was cut
The Hopi Tribe received a multimillion-dollar federal grant to install solar panels and battery storage systems for hundreds of homes. But the Trump administration has canceled the funding.
Eighteen months after a fatal explosion, Alabama rolls back its commitment to monitor explosive gases above coal mines
In a letter to federal regulators, the director of the Alabama Surface Mining Commission wrote she has “indefinitely suspended” methane monitoring requirements her agency agreed to in 2024. Experts say the “astonishing and reckless” move leaves residents at risk.
Alabama governor vows action after Montgomery shooting leaves 2 dead, 12 injured
The deadly shooting unfolded Saturday night in a crowded section of the city's downtown filled with bars, hotels and restaurants. The location is less than a mile from the Alabama Capitol and near sites that pay tribute to Rosa Parks and other key figures in the city’s history.
