Floyd Council resigns as executive director of Birmingham Public Library
Birmingham Public Library executive director Floyd Council has resigned from his position effective immediately. Floyd announced his resignation on Facebook, stating, “After much prayer and consideration, I wanted you all to be the first to know that I will be announcing my resignation this week from my position as Executive Director of the Birmingham Public Library with plans to start the new year with other blessings and use of my gifts and talents to the Glory of God. Health, wellness, and peace all come from God, not jobs, big salaries, and people.” While the announcement didn’t state any reasons, Council had been suspended without pay in October and November for undisclosed reasons, according to Birmingham Watch. According to Al.com, Council wrote a letter to Birmingham officials, including Mayor Randall Woodfin, stating, “It has been my honor to lead as the first African American man to serve as Director of the Birmingham Public Library in the 134-year history of the library system. Please be informed that in consultation with my doctor, my pastor, and my attorney, I am officially announcing my resignation from my position as Executive Director of the Birmingham Public Library to the City of Birmingham, the City Council, the Library Board of Trustees, the Library staff, and the community. My resignation is effective at close of business today, December 15, 2020.” “I am exceptionally thankful to the City leadership and Mayor Randall Woodfin for his passionate support of the library system, especially to repair Central East Library and the new Wylam Branch Library,” Council continued. “I offer no comments about the culture at the library or strategic future of BPL, but pray that the City and City Council will make viable plans to support the library system for the next 100 years.” The Birmingham Public Library board has scheduled an emergency meeting for Dec. 16 at noon in response to Council’s resignation.
Dr. Ben Carson and Council President William Parker announce $2.9 million for Global Forum for Peace and Justice center
Before the Birmingham city council meeting this morning, Council President William Parker introduced Dr. Ben Carson during a presentation outside City Hall. Dr. Carson, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was there to announce a $2.9 million federal grant to fund a feasibility study to determine possible locations in Birmingham for a Global Forum for Peace and Justice center. The Birmingham City Council made a public statement on Facebook. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the grant today, stating, “The United States was founded on the fundamental truth that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Ross continued, “The Global Forum for Freedom and Justice will provide an international 21st-century gathering place focused on leadership, education, innovation, and understanding built at the birthplace of the civil rights movement.” The U.S. Economic Development Administration’s mission is to “lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting competitiveness and preparing the nation’s regions for growth and success in the worldwide economy.” The EDA is an agency within the Department of Commerce that “makes investments in economically distressed communities in order to create jobs for U.S. workers, promote American innovation, and accelerate long-term sustainable economic growth.” The EDA stated on Twitter, “Today alongside @secretarycarson, @scottturner45, Exec. Dir., @Whitehouse Opportunity & Revitalization Council, announced a $2.9 million EDA grant to support the establishment of the Global Forum for Freedom and Justice in Birmingham.” Today alongside @SecretaryCarson, @ScottTurner45, Exec. Dir., @WhiteHouse Opportunity & Revitalization Council, announced a $2.9 million EDA grant to support the establishment of the Global Forum for Freedom and Justice in Birmingham, #Alabama: https://t.co/49Np5sjqWd pic.twitter.com/LBZS4AzWJ8 — EDA (@US_EDA) December 15, 2020 Wilbur Ross also commented on Twitter, “The United States was founded on the fundamental truth that all people are created equal and endowed by their creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The United States was founded on the fundamental truth that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. https://t.co/jau3vfS26h — Sec. Wilbur Ross (@SecretaryRoss) December 15, 2020
Surging coronavirus cases leads to reauthorizing curbside alcohol sales
With coronavirus cases surging to nearly 400,000 cases and 4,100 deaths, the state of Alabama is enacting more measures to help slow the spread. The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has approved to amend an original statewide order to temporarily authorize emergency curbside alcohol sales. The board held an emergency meeting Monday to reinstate the order, and the measure passed unanimously, extending it until January 4. On March 24, as the coronavirus began to spread nationwide, the Alabama ABC Board passed an amendment to the emergency curbside sales authorization, reported Al.com. The original authorization expired on September 15. The decision to not extend the order at that time came as Alabama started reopening restaurants and bars. According to an email in September to Al.com, Dean Argo, Government Relations Manager of the Alabama ABC Board stated, “At this time, there are no plans to extend that order.” The amendment would allow on-premise licensees to again sell alcoholic beverages to go. Specifically, this would apply to selling sealed bottles. No more than one 375-milliliter bottle of spirits, two 750-milliliter bottles of wine, or 144 ounces of beer can be sold per customer, according to a CBS Report. “I think it’ll affect us pretty good. When they had it back in September, back when it started, it did pretty good,” stated restaurant owner Marco Perez. “A lot of customers like getting a margarita to go. It helped business a lot.” Perez owns Maya’s Restaurante Mexicano in Homewood. Jason Hutchins, general manager at Tuscaloosa restaurant Brick and Spoon is happy about the order. He told WBRC, “We saw a lot more folks stop by just to get drinks. We saw a huge spike in repeat orders at the tables when people were getting ready to go when they finished their meals. They said ‘We’ll have another mimosa to go.’” “We are extremely sensitive to the plight of our licensees during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we will continue to make every attempt to help them remain open, financially viable, and safe,” stated ABC Board Administrator Mac Gipson. Governor Kay Ivey recently extended the Alabama Safer at Home order until January 22.
Bradley Byrne: The Electoral College
When the members of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 debated how to pick the executive, several options were considered. Some wanted the people to directly elect the president, while others distrusted the people to know enough about the candidates to make that important decision on their own. After all, the election would be held across the entire nation, and with the problems of communication in 18th century America it would be difficult for individual citizens to know enough to make an informed decision about candidates who lived nowhere near them. But the Framers wanted the voters to play a role, and they compromised by giving the decision to electors equaling the number of representatives and senators for each state and empowering the legislatures of the states, whose members were and are popularly elected, to select the manner of appointing those electors. So you and I don’t vote for the president directly. Our state’s electors do. While early on several state legislatures opted to pick the electors themselves, in modern times all state legislatures have voted to have their electors chosen by popular vote. This week those electors met in their respective states and cast their votes. The press reports Vice President Joe Biden received 306 votes and President Donald Trump, my candidate, received 232 votes. Press reports also indicate that in several states where the electors chose Biden, separate groups claimed to be the actual electors and voted for President Trump. There has been a lot of discussion and dozens of audits, recounts, and lawsuits as to who were the legally chosen electors in those states. Despite the hype in the media that these efforts challenging the initial election calls in several states undermine our system, the Electoral Count Act of 1887 actually provides for a time period for such actions. Former Vice President Al Gore took advantage of this time period in 2000, challenging the election until mid-December. Democrats challenged the Ohio electors pledged to President George Bush in 2004, and many Democrats fought through the counting of the vote before a joint session of Congress in 2017, when President Donald Trump was elected. They even challenged the votes from Alabama. Democrats have normalized post general election fights over presidential results. I supported the Trump team’s efforts to get a fair and accurate count of all legal votes. I joined in a “friend of the court” brief, along with 125 members of Congress, supporting the last-ditch effort by Texas and other states, including Alabama, to get the Supreme Court to look into the fact that in several states a person or group other than the state legislature modified election laws ostensibly to accommodate voters in the middle of a pandemic. Whatever the motivation for those modifications, they couldn’t be made by anyone other than the state legislatures; secretaries of state, state supreme courts, election commissions, and even governors cannot do that under the Constitution. Rather than rule on the merits, the Court dismissed the case because, it said, the states didn’t have standing to bring the suit. None of President Trump’s Supreme Court appointees dissented. The last step in the process, as spelled out by the Twelfth Amendment, is for the electors’ votes to be counted formally in a joint session of the new Congress on January 6, presided over by Vice President Mike Pence. The Electoral Count Act allows one or more members of the House or Senate to object to a given state’s electors, but only if at least one member of the other house joins in the objection in writing. Then each house votes on the objection. Democrats tried that in 2000, 2004, and 2016 but failed. My friend and colleague Mo Brooks from Huntsville has said he intends to object to the electoral votes of five states that voted for Biden, but he will have to convince a senator to join with him. So far, with only three weeks left, no senator or senator-elect has agreed to do so. The other hurdle he faces is a Democrat majority in the House that will not vote to take away Biden votes and at least ten Republican senators who have said Biden is the winner. As I will no longer be a member of the House on January 6, I won’t be voting on any objection. But I will be a citizen, and I believe it’s important for all of us to respect the system we follow in selecting a president, set in our Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. That system has served us well for over 200 years and will continue to do so. I will honor our system and our laws by accepting the election results as counted by Congress. I hope we all will. Congressman Bradley Byrne currently represents Alabama’s 1st congressional district. His service in the House of Representatives will end at the conclusion of the 117th Congress on January 3, 2021.
Former Huntsville Utilities CEO Jay Stowe now CEO of Jacksonville, FL Utility
With more than 25 years of industry experience, former Huntsville Utilities CEO Jay Stowe is now taking the reins of Florida utility company JEA. Stowe left Huntsville Utilities in 2016 to join the Tennessee Valley Authority as the senior vice president of Distributed Energy Resources. TVA Executive Vice President for External Relations Van Wardlaw stated at the time, “Distributed energy resources are a growing part of our energy portfolio, and we want to be positioned to proactively manage these to optimize the value for consumers in the Valley. Jay’s perspective as a local power company CEO will help us greatly as we partner more closely with our local power companies to best serve the Valley.” Stowe’s experience and belief that publicly shared utility companies is the right path led JEA to hire him, hoping for restoration. According to Al.com, Stowe stated, “I believe — and I will say this over and over again — I believe strongly in this public model for the community that we serve. If I didn’t think we were done with the privatization kind of ideas, I wouldn’t be here, and I believe so strongly in it [the public model] that I want to be part of rebuilding that so everyone else can believe in that, too.” Stowe worked for Huntsville Utilities in Alabama, where he worked nearly 11 years and rose to CEO. Before that, he worked in North Carolina and worked three years as a senior vice president for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He founded Stowe Utility Group in 2019 in Chattanooga. Hiring Stowe was a month’s long process starting back in July. “We were faced with choosing between three excellent candidates,” JEA Board Chairman John Baker stated. “And though it was a difficult choice, we feel confident that under Jay’s leadership, JEA will remain a leader in the Jacksonville community and the utility industry at large. Jay is energized, has extensive knowledge and experience, and we stand behind him. We are looking forward to a bright future for JEA.” Stowe is replacing Paul McElroy, who retired as JEA CEO in 2018. According to a Jacksonville.com report, McElroy returned to JEA this year to serve as interim after Aaron Zahn was fired after a controversial attempt to sell the public utility group.
Retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Hugh Maddox dies
A longtime member of the Alabama Supreme Court, retired Associate Justice Hugh Maddox, has died. An obituary published by a funeral home said Maddox died Friday at his home in Montgomery. He was 90. No cause of death was given. Maddox, a native of Covington County, was first appointed to the court in 1969 and then won five terms before retiring in 2001 because of the state’s mandatory age limit for judges. He also was a legal advisor to three governors and retired as a colonel from the Air Force Reserve. Maddox is survived by his wife of 62 years, Virginia Roberts Maddox, and two children. A private graveside service is planned because of the coronavirus pandemic. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama electors cast their 9 votes for President Donald Trump
With patriotic music and a face mask-wearing Uncle Sam, Alabama’s members of the Electoral College cast their nine votes for Republican President Donald Trump at the state Capitol on Monday. Held in the same chamber where Alabama decided to secede from the Union in 1861, the ceremony solidified Trump’s overwhelming victory in the Republican-controlled state over Democrat Joe Biden last month. GOP faithful still smarting over Trump’s loss nationally used the event to highlight questions over the election and to portray Alabama as a national model for election security despite allegations the state has tried to suppress the Black vote. “Happily, here in Alabama, the result of this year’s election was no way in doubt,” said Attorney General Steve Marshall, who sided with a failed Texas lawsuit that was supported by Trump to overturn the outcome. With the crowd limited because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 4,100 people in Alabama, a socially distanced Homewood High School Marching Patriots band played from the balcony, and several electors wore Trump face masks. Dressed as Uncle Sam in red, white, and blue, J. Danny Cooper uncovered his face while speaking about the importance of the Electoral College in providing a voice for smaller states like Alabama. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Early in-person voting begins in Georgia Senate runoffs
Early in-person voting began Monday in the runoff elections for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats, with lines reported to be shorter than in the first days of early voting for the general election last month. More than half of the record 5 million votes in the Nov. 3 general election were cast during its three-week early voting period. Early in-person voting could be even more important in the Jan. 5 runoffs because of the short period for voters to request and return ballots by mail. The two races in which Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff try to oust Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. No one expects turnout to be as high as it was for the general election. But Bernard Fraga, an Emory University professor who studies voting, said overall turnout could reach 4 million. President Donald Trump has relentlessly pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud in the general election, in which he lost in the state of Georgia. In an overnight tweet just hours before early voting began, he continued his attack on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, pushing him to take action or risk harming the chances for Perdue and Loeffler. “What a fool Governor @BrianKempGA of Georgia is,” the president tweeted. “Could have been so easy, but now we have to do it the hard way. Demand this clown call a Special Session and open up signature verification, NOW. Otherwise, could be a bad day for two GREAT Senators on January 5th.” In contrast to the first day of early voting in October, when more than 125,000 people cast ballots and some people lined up for hours, few long lines were reported Monday. One question was how many mail-in ballots will be cast in the election. By Friday, 1.2 million mail-in ballots had been requested and 200,000 returned. In the general election, Democrat Joe Biden won 65% of the 1.3 million absentee ballots that were returned in Georgia, a record fueled by the coronavirus pandemic. Fraga said it’s possible that mailed ballots will be even more favorable for Democrats in the runoff because of attacks on the integrity of mail-in voting by Trump and many Georgia Republicans. That means early in-person voting, which Trump narrowly won in November, could be even more important for Republicans. Both parties may also drive voters toward the early polls with the Christmas and New Year’s holidays looming. Republican attacks on mail-in voting also worry some Democrats. Meghan Shannon, 36, voted in person for Ossoff and Warnock on Monday at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, partly driven by fears that absentee ballots will be overly scrutinized. “I think the absentee ballots are going to be questioned when they count the votes,” the architect said. “I wanted to be here in person so my vote is counted and it’s uncontested.” Melissa McJunkin, 40, voted in Rome, a solidly Republican area in northwest Georgia, and cast her ballot for Perdue and Loeffler, saying they “will help make decisions based on what I think is the right choice.” She’d heard allegations of voter fraud in the general election and was a bit worried about the integrity of the runoff vote. “I’ve never had a problem before now trusting it, but now I feel like there may be something going on that I don’t trust,” she said. Towanda Jones voted in downtown Atlanta for Ossoff and Warnock and dismissed the fraud allegations, which have been repeatedly denied by election officials. “The system is working as it should, and I think our current president is just a sore loser,” she said. The 54-year-old Black hairstylist said police reform was her main priority. “I have two grown sons,” Jones said. “The amount of Black lives that have been lost due to police brutality upset me.” Deborah Harp Gibbs of Lilburn said she voted for Perdue and Loeffler “to keep America great.” Gibbs said it’s important for people to acknowledge the United States as a Christian nation. “I want prayer in school and ‘God Bless America’ and apple pie,” Gibbs said, adding that she thinks the Republicans could keep things on “the right track.” Tony Christy, 62, said he was concerned about the balance of power in Washington as he voted in Kennesaw, a conservative-leaning city just northwest of Atlanta, for the two Republicans. If the Democrats win, there will be 50 senators from each party and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote in the chamber. That would give too much power to the Democrats, Christy said, because “then not only will they have the presidency, but they’ll have the House and the Senate, which is not a good balance to have.” But Araya Araya of Lilburn said he voted for Warnock in part to give Biden a chance to get things done. “I didn’t want the Senate to be majority Republican where everything President-elect Biden is preparing to do is going to get blocked,” Araya said. Each of Georgia’s 159 counties must offer at least one early voting location during business hours, with many in metro Atlanta offering multiple sites, extended hours and weekend voting. Early voting will continue through Dec. 31 in some places. Preparation for early voting saw squabbles over cuts to the number of early polling places. The Center for New Data, a nonprofit group, counted 42 early polling sites statewide scheduled to close for the runoff. In some cases, polling places were relocated. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump says William Barr resigning, will leave before Christmas
Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is departing amid lingering tension over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation. “As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Trump tweeted. Trump has publicly expressed his anger about Barr’s statement to The Associated Press earlier this month that the Justice Department had found no widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election. Trump has also been angry that the Justice Department did not publicly announce it was investigating Hunter Biden ahead of the election, despite department policy against such a pronouncement. Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Barr’s resignation leaves Trump without a critical ally as he winds down his final weeks in office, and it throws into question open Justice Department investigations, especially the probe into Hunter Biden’s taxes. In his resignation letter, Barr said he updated Trump Monday on the department’s “review of voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election and how these allegations will continue to be pursued.” He added that his last day on the job would be Dec. 23. Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become acting attorney general. As the current second in command at the Justice Department, Rosen’s appointment is not likely to change much in the final weeks before the administration departs. Trump spent much of the day watching the Electoral College tally and calling allies but broke away to meet with Barr. His tweet about the Attorney General’s exit was a sober message from a president who is notoriously cold to his departing staff and quick to name-call and deride them once they say they are leaving. Trump has also previously claimed he fired staffers who resigned to make himself appear more powerful, and others, like former attorney general Jeff Sessions, were mocked by the president for weeks before they left office. But despite Trump’s obvious disdain for those who publicly disagree with him, Barr had generally remained in the president’s good graces and has been one of the president’s most ardent allies. Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voting could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls. But Trump has a low tolerance for criticism, especially public criticism, from his allies and often fires back in kind. The two had been at odds in the past few months and Barr was said to have been frustrated by Trump’s tweeting. Trump said on Fox News over the weekend that he was disappointed that the Hunter Biden investigation had not been disclosed. Hunter Biden himself announced it last week. “Bill Barr should have stepped up,” Trump said. One senior administration official not authorized to speak publicly and speaking to The AP on condition of anonymity said Barr had resigned of his own accord and described the meeting as amicable. Barr, who was serving in his second stint as attorney general, sought to paint himself as an independent leader who would not bow to political pressure. But Democrats have repeatedly accused Barr of acting more like the president’s personal attorney than the attorney general, and Barr had proved to be a largely reliable Trump ally and defender of presidential power. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican leader of the judiciary committee, told reporters at the Capitol he was surprised by the news. “I think he did an incredibly good job trying to repair damage done to the Department of Justice, trying to be fair and faithful to the law. I think he’s got a lot to be proud of,” Graham said. “He fought for the president where he could, as every attorney general and administration should, but he also didn’t cross lines that he shouldn’t have crossed.” He said he was referring to disclosing the Biden investigation. Before releasing special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report on the Russia investigation last year, Barr framed the results in a manner favorable to Trump even though Mueller pointedly said he couldn’t exonerate the president of obstruction of justice. He also appointed as special counsel the U.S. attorney who is conducting a criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe of the 2016 election that morphed into Mueller’s investigation of possible Trump-Russia cooperation, following Trump’s repeated calls to “investigate the investigators.” Barr also ordered Justice Department prosecutors to review the handling of the federal investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and then sought to dismiss the criminal charges against Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Trump later pardoned Flynn. Barr’s break from Trump over election fraud wasn’t the first. Earlier this year, Barr told ABC News that the president’s tweets about Justice Department cases “make it impossible for me to do my job,” and tensions flared just a few months ago when the two were increasingly at odds over the pace of the Durham investigation. Trump had been increasingly critical about a lack of arrests and Barr was privately telling people he was frustrated by Trump’s public pronouncements about the case. Trump was also said to blame Barr for comments from FBI Director Chris Wray on election fraud and mail-in voting that didn’t jibe with the president’s alarmist rhetoric. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
