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Race for Alabama Governor
Alabama voters cast ballots in a number of of local and statewide races Tuesday -- not the least of which is the governor's race. Incumbent Republican Governor Bob Riley finds himself in a face-off with current Lieutenant Governor Democrat Lucy Baxley.
On the Line: Mass Transit
On buses in Birmingham, getting from point to A to point B means mostly obstacles and frustration. Leaders have talked aboout mass transit for years, but putting it to work and funding it has been the real speed bump, despite calls to the contrary. On November 6th, WBHM broadcast a special two-hour discussion on the future of mass transit in the Birmingham area.
Organ Donation
Today, thanks to medical advances, most kidney transplants are successful. But people continue to die every day because of organ shortages. A recent survey indicates that as many as 40% of potential kidney donors decide not to donate because of financial concerns. But one UAB doctor is proposing a system that he says could help solve the shortage problem.
Elder Exploitation
Each year in the U.S., an estimated 5 million older adults become victims of financial abuse. In 2004, older consumers reported 152 million dollars in fraud-related losses. But most of these crimes - particularly those committed by family members - go unreported. Brigid Galloway reports on how UAB doctors and the Department of Senior Services are finding unique ways to address the complex issue of financial exploitation.
General Wesley Clark
State and local Democrats have been spending time over the remaining weeks of this election cycle trying to bolster the party's image as being tough when it comes to national defense and offsetting attacks by Republicans - including President Bush - who say they are nothing but a party of 'Cut and Run' when it comes to Iraq. Helping in that effort was retired General Wesley Clark - NATO's Former Supreme Commander and a former presidential candidate - who was in Alabama over the weekend speaking on behalf of Democratic candidates.
Paying for Progress
It is a difficult place to be, in between fertile and fading. Urban areas - parts of Birmingham included -- that were once 'hot spots' are now 'not-so-much-spots'. Businesses have a hard time staying afloat because people have left or are shopping someplace else. But increasingly, developers see green in those places as local governments pony up to lure business back. As WBHM's Steve Chiotakis reports, tax incentives and infrastructure improvements are carrots in a new kind of economic development model.
Green Tea and DNA
It seems almost everywhere you look these days -- in magazines, newspapers or grocery store aisles -- you're assaulted by the message that tea is good for you. Studies have shown the leaf may prevent ovarian and breast cancers as well as skin cancer. Now a study out of UAB shows that green tea may actually repair DNA damaged by UVB radiation. WBHM's Rosemary Pennington has details.
Selling Geology’s Gems
The rise in oil prices is fueling a tremendous demand for oil industry workers. Among the beneficiaries: geology graduates trained to find new drilling sites. There's just one problem: geology is a tough sell to the college crowd. But officials at the University of Alabama recently launched a program to try to chisel away at geology's one-dimensional image.
Katrina: One year later
One year ago, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore the central gulf coast, killing hundreds, causing billions of dollars in damage and displacing more than a million people from New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. More than 3-thousand headed for the Birmingham area. Coordinators of one project went out and talked to those who fled, and WBHM's Steve Chiotakis talked to them about the project.
AIDS Epidemic Timeline
A timeline of the AIDS epidemic.
AIDS: The Epidemic in Alabama
More than 9-thousand Alabamians are living with HIV or AIDS; if you take into account those who've died from the illness, then more than 14-thousand Alabamians have been infected with the virus. And infection rates are expected to go up as the AIDS epidemic, so often thought of as a big city issue, becomes increasingly a rural issue and a southern issue. There are myriad challenges to getting the word out about HIV/AIDS -- there's the stigma, religion and a money shortage for starters. In a special report, 'AIDS: The Epidemic in Alabama', WBHM's Rosemary Pennington examines what people here in the state are doing to combat HIV.
Meth and AIDS
Methamphetamine is a cheap to make, cheap to buy drug. Its use is exploding in some parts of the country; the drug is called the biggest drug threat to Alabama by one agency. Some researchers are worried the increasing abuse of meth will spike another flare in the transmission of HIV. WBHM's Rosemary Pennington has more.
The MOMS Project
HIV infection rates among women are increasing at alarming rates. When a woman becomes infected and she's a mother, it changes her life and that of her children as well. A program at UAB is working to help HIV positive moms better manage stress so they can be better moms and live healthier lives. WBHM's Rosemary Pennington has more.
Faith-based Voting
It's been more than a year-and-a-half since the election of 2004, the campaign that brought moral values to the political lexicon. Polls showed a close race - and it was. But in exit surveys, a slim majority of voters said they chose to re-elect President George W. Bush because of moral issues - gays, abortion and integrity over his Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, who received votes for economic and foreign affairs issues. And that begs the question: does religion have a sustainable stranglehold on politics?
One Woman’s Story
HIV, once thought of as a virus that affected mainly men, is becoming more of a women's issue. The women who do become infected typically get the virus from a husband or boyfriend. Marvelyn Brown talks about her life as an HIV positive woman in the South.
Alabama’s AIDS Orphans
You can't really have a discussion about AIDS in Africa without talking about AIDS oprhans. But a researcher here in Alabama thinks, when it comes to AIDS orphans, we should be looking closer to home.
Regions and AmSouth
Two Birmingham banking behemoths say they will join forces for a merging of equals. Regions and AmSouth Banks have announced that, in a 10 billion dollar deal, they will combine to create one of the nation's largest banks. The Regions name will stay, but the AmSouth name, some overlapping employees and bank branches will go. The city is still feeling the effects of the Wachovia purchase of Southtrust Bank a couple of years ago. WBHM's Steve Chiotakis spoke with a financial and banking analyst about what's ahead.
Howell Raines
Howell Raines says his leaving The New York Times was part of a long journey that brought him back to doing what he wants to do: write and fish. Over four decades, Raines climbed the print journalism ladder, starting in Birmingham and making his way to The Times. He tells WBHM's Steve Chiotakis that his new book, The One That Got Away, uses some scaley metaphors to highlight those turn of events.
Latino Mental Health
The immigration protests in Birmingham and around the country have put a very public face on what has traditionally been a very private community. If you ask activists, they'll tell you many Hispanics have been isolated from mainstream society because of cultural reasons -- Fear of authority, language barriers, along with strong -- and sometimes isolating -- family bonds. That's also why domestic violence is such a difficult problem for the community, according to mental health experts working with immigrated hispanics. We sent John Sepulvado into the community to find out what's being done to curb abuse in Latino households.
International Women
Ever since September 11, 2001, enrollment of foreign graduate students in U.S. schools has been in decline. Until this academic year, when there was a slight uptick in the numbers. Foreign students play a vital role in higher education, particularly in some of the sciences, where they serve as researchers and instructors at higher rates than American-born students. The students are mostly male, and some bring with them families from their home countries. The transition to a new culture can be a challenge for many wives, as WBHM's Roseanne Pereira reports.
Technology and Trademarks
According to recent surveys, more than two-thirds of Americans have some sort of online access, whether at home or at work, and that means a wealth of information...and prose...and pictures...and art is available to anyone who seeks it. And that's creating a whole new world of problems in trademark and copyright realms. Now, intellectual property laws aren't something most of us spend much time thinking about as we tool around the web, but a new bill before Congress could change all that. WBHM's Steve Chiotakis explains, or, tries to explain.
Hurricane Katrina: Asian-American’s Mental Health
The plan for crisis counselors is almost always the same: get in -assess -and refer. Some joke they're the commandos of the mental health world, running to the front lines to help people who are trapped by really bad circumstances. And in South Alabama, that bad circumstance was Hurricane Katrina. Most counselors say they've been successful in helping people that need or want care -- As long as you don't count the Asian Community.
Student Docs Debut
Documentary films are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. The big story at last year's box office, a documentary about penguins. UAB students are currently unveiling their forays into the format -- which include stories about Birmingham's Muslim community and one Native American group's struggle to retain its culture.
Lobbying the Statehouse
From 1995 to 2004, companies and special interest groups spent nearly a billion dollars lobbying state legislators... and that number may actually be much higher, because eight states don't track overall spending on lobbying. Alabama is one of those states - -and try as they might, critics have been unable to pass legislation that would require more reporting on lobbyist efforts. WBHM's Tanya Ott reports.
David Broder
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and columnist David Broder has been an 'inside-the-beltway' observer for more than 40 years, working much of his career at The Washington Post. Broder was in Birmingham as part of a lecture series and forum agreement that the Post just initiated with Samford University. Lately, among other issues, he's been keeping up with the latest news from Iran and that country's proclamation that it is now a member of the group of nuclear nations with its enriched uranium program.
Peace in the South
Immigration reform rallies across the country continue to attract thousands of marchers-drawing comparisons to the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s and anti-Vietnam war rallies just a few years later. While attention to immigration issues has escalated in recent weeks, anti-war rallies have faded to the background. WBHM's Roseanne Pereira met up with peace activists from Birmingham to see firsthand how the peace movement is faring in the South.
Autism & Diet
The numbers continue to astonish. More than a half million Americans are diagnosed with some form of Autism. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 166 children have the disorder. Some say special diets can help a child recover, even lead to a reversal of diagnosis. Donna Francavilla explores this controversial issue.
Home Mental Health Care
Each year millions of family members find themselves caring for the physical needs of a loved one at home. Often times, it can be frustrating, time consuming and confusing. However, if that family member also suffers from a mental illness, those feeling are magnified, and you can add frightening, bewildering and hopeless. Historically, the primary caregiver feels alone, with no one to talk to, no place to turn. But as Les Lovoy reports, there is hope for both the patients, and the primary care givers.
Domestic Abuse and Mental Illness
Although the term 'domestic violence' is a fairly modern one, the dark secret of such abuse has affected families throughout human history...and no country, or culture, or socio-economic group is immune. But while the problem remains, one aspect of it -- the secrecy -- has changed dramatically in recent years, as Dale Short reports.
Bibb County resolve
Authorities have made three arrests in the spate of fires that've befallen churches in parts of rural Alabama. 19-year old Ben Moseley, 19-year old Russell Debusk and 20-year old Matthew Lee Cloyd, all college students in the Birmingham area, face conspiracy and arson charges. But while investigators were trying to find the culprits, life went on in rural Bibb County - where half of the fires occurred. Many residents told WBHM's Steve Chiotakis that the crimes brought a new resolve to churchgoers.
The Learning Game
It's always seemed like a game to get children to learn. But the trend inside the classroom has been moving away from the traditional 'lecture and retain' methods and more toward educational programs that kids are likely to be interested in. Many of today's computer programs feature games that inspire competition and success. And that seems to be teaching a lesson to adults, as WBHM's Steve Chiotakis reports.
Alabama Church Fires: Community Reaction
State and federal investigators continue sifting through the rubble of ten Alabama churches, looking for clues of who set them ablaze. Meantime, rumors are starting to circulate amongst residents in Alabama's rural towns, as WBHM's Tanya Ott reports.
