Alabama unemployment still at record low rate of 2.1 percent
Alabama is at full employment, and businesses and governments are struggling to fill vacancies. Unemployment remains at its all-time record low, while state officials remain perplexed that the labor participation rate continues to trail the rest of the nation. On Friday, Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington announced that Alabama’s Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) rose only slightly in August to 57.0%. This is up from last August’s rate of 56.9%. The “prime-age” participation rate, which measures the labor force participation rate for individuals aged 25-54, remains at 77.8% in Alabama. The regular labor force participation rate measures individuals aged 16 and up. Washington also announced that Alabama’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted August unemployment rate held steady at its record low of 2.1%. August’s rate is well below August 2022’s rate of 2.6%. The August 2023 rate represents just 48,605 unemployed persons, a new record low, compared to 48,789 in July and 60,200 in August 2022. The number of people counted as employed increased by 32,631 over the year to a new all-time record high of 2,259,025. The civilian labor force also reached a new record high of 2,307,630, with 21,036 more people joining the labor force over the year. “Yet again, we are announcing record-breaking economic statistics this month,” said Secretary Washington. “While our labor force participation rate remained unchanged, we are continuing to work with marginalized groups to get them into our labor force.” “Despite having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and a record number of Alabamians working, the percentage of Alabamians participating in the labor force is lower than almost any other state,” Governor Kay Ivey wrote recently. “While we are increasing that by the tens of thousands, we have to change this statistic. Getting folks off the sidelines and into the labor force is my next priority.” Over the year, wage and salary employment increased by 38,100 to 2,149,800, with gains in the leisure and hospitality sector (+4,900), the private education and health services sector (+7,100), the government sector (+5,900), the trade, transportation, and utilities sector (+8,100), and the professional and business services sector (+6,000), among others. Over the month, wage and salary employment increased by 1,900 to 2,149,800, with gains in the government sector (+2,800), the professional and business services sector (+2,400), and the private education and health services sector (+2,100), among others. The counties with the lowest unemployment rates are Shelby County at 1.8%, Morgan, Marshall, Madison, and Cullman Counties at 2.0%, and St. Clair, Limestone, Elmore, and Blount Counties at 2.1%. The counties with the highest unemployment rates are Wilcox County at 7.3%, Dallas County at 5.5%, and Perry County at 5.0%. The major Alabama cities with the lowest unemployment rates are Vestavia Hills at 1.6%, Alabaster, Homewood, Madison, and Trussville at 1.7%, and Hoover at 1.8%. The major cities with the highest unemployment rates are Selma at 6.5%, Prichard at 4.9%, and Bessemer at 4.0%. The establishment survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), a division of the U.S. Department of Labor, surveys employers to measure how many jobs are in the economy. This is also referred to as wage and salary employment. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
James O’Keefe addresses group in Huntsville
Conservative activist journalist James O’Keefe addressed a group of approximately 230 at an event hosted by Focus on America in Huntsville’s Jackson Center on Sunday. O’Keefe, until recently, was the founder and Chairman of Project Veritas – an internet investigative news outlet. He has now started his own organization. O’Keefe expressed his frustration with state governments seeking to suppress news journalism. “Why is the Governor (of Hawaii) telling me that you cannot videotape?” O’Keefe asked about a recent encounter he had while trying to film in Maui, Hawaii, which was recently devastated by the deadliest forest fire in American history. “I have sued the Governor of Hawaii in federal court this week.” “Two years ago, I filed a suit against the governor of Oregon,” O’Keefe said. In 2020, leftist activists loosely attached to Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioted in the wake of the George Floyd slaying by police and seized control of a large section of Portland, Oregon. The Governor, Kate Brown, ordered the police to flee. While the Democratic governor would do nothing to send troops to take back control of the streets, they used police powers to suppress O’Keefe and Project Veritas’s efforts to report on the situation there. “I have been sued thirty times, and I had never gone on offense,” O’Keefe said. “I looked to my general counsel and said let’s sue the bastard.” Suing was more difficult because the federal courthouse was in a section of the city controlled by the criminal insurrectionists. O’Keefe showed pictures of him and his attorney wearing bulletproof vests as they walked to the courthouse. “We got there at 9:30 while the Antifa thugs were still asleep.” “The judge initially ruled against us,” O’Keefe said. “James O’Keefe may do journalism without audio. How does that work?” O’Keefe continued, “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law (under which the Governor of Oregon could regulate who could and who could not film) and ruled it unconstitutional. Now we can report in Oregon.” In another story, a man named Liban Mohamed filmed himself in a car with hundreds of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election. “Money is the king of everything,” he said. It is illegal in that state to be in possession of more than three ballots, and he had harvested hundreds of ballots. “He filmed himself on Snapchat with hundreds of ballots in his car,” O’Keefe said. “He sent the video to 14 of his friends, and one of them turned him in to me.” O’Keefe ran the story about the illegal ballot harvesting – essentially just a video that Mr. Muhammed made of himself with the ballots. “The video received 30 million views on Twitter,” O’Keefe said. “On the same day, the New York Times released its Trump tax return story. Nobody cared about the Trump tax return.” The New York Times then did an article on O’Keefe’s story and said there was “no verifiable evidence.” “This is gaslighting,” O’Keefe said. O’Keefe said that they project what they do in their own reporting. He had the video that the man made himself. In the New York Times story on the Trump tax returns, “it was anonymous sources. They did the tax documents story with no evidence. They had no tax documents.” “Facebook used this article to ban me from Facebook because Facebook uses USA Today as their fact checkers and USA Today uses the New York Times,” O’Keefe said. O’Keefe sued the New York Times. “The New York Times attorneys wrote in their filing: ‘Neither the word “deceptive” nor the word “verifiable” has a precise meaning that is readily understood,’” O’Keefe recounted. “They fear being exposed,” O’Keefe said of people in power. He played a video of an encounter with the Mayor of Rosell Park at a school board meeting. “I was trying to give cameras to the parents,” O’Keefe said. “You don’t belong here – you’re a conservative,” the Mayor said. “You don’t have children in the school system.” On counter-questioning, the Mayor admitted that he did not have any children. O’Keefe also highlighted a report he did on the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. An undercover journalist went on a “date” with Dr. Jordon Trishton Walker, who was then the Director of Research and Development at Pfizer. During the date, he suggested they could infect monkeys with a virus, encourage mutations in the virus in a process he called ‘directed evolution,’ develop a vaccine for the mutated virus, and then release it into the population. He said Pfizer would make lots of money by having the vaccine for the virus they created in a lab. In the tape, Walker does not actually say that he and Pfizer did that, but he doesn’t say that they didn’t or would never do such a thing either, and he was pretty gleeful about the prospects of how much money they would make on it. “People are so honest when they think you are not recording,” O’Keefe said. It is amazing what people will tell you when you show interest in them.” O’Keefe then ambushed Walker with the videotape of Walker discussing the lab-directed evolution of viruses to make profits at a pizzeria in New York City. Walker became very upset. “He locks the restaurant doors, so I can’t leave,” O’Keefe said. “He is smashing the IPAD on the ground like this is the only place where this video is recorded. And these are the people making medical decisions for the people in this country.” O’Keefe’s crew was filming all of this outside from the state through the window. “We have grown up in a country where most of the advertising is paid for,” by Pfizer and the pharmaceutical companies O’Keefe said. “A week after this story, I was removed from the organization that I founded. The board gave two reasons,” O’Keefe said. “That I had cars chauffeuring me around, and they said that I once stole a pregnant lady’s sandwich.” “Pfizer scrubbed the website of the guy,” O’Keefe said of Walker. “People that knew him were removing references to him.” O’Keefe credited citizen journalists for coming forward with screenshots, photos, and evidence that
Prices in the South rise again in August
Prices in the South Region increased for the second consecutive month in August, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday. The Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers in the South bumped up 0.6% in August, bringing inflation over the past year to 4.1%. The rising prices were fueled in large part by a 3.8% increase in the energy index since July; gas prices increased 7.2%. All items less food were up 0.3%, while food was up 0.2% The overall monthly increase is the largest since April and the third largest so far in 2023, growing three times faster than July’s 0.2% increase. The index for all items less food and energy is up 4.8% since August 2022, while food is up 4.6%, and the energy index has declined 2.2% since that time. “The CPI is based on prices of food, clothing, shelter, fuels, transportation fares, charges for doctors’ and dentists’ services, drugs, and other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living,” according to the BLS. “Each month, prices are collected in 75 urban areas across the country from about 6,000 housing units and approximately 22,000 retail establishments – department stores, supermarkets, hospitals, filling stations, and other types of stores and service establishments. All taxes directly associated with the purchase and use of items are included in the index.” The South, as defined in Census regions for the report, includes Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. The biggest increases in the index for the South Region over the last year have come from a 13.3% jump in transportation services and an 8.5% increase for shelter, while the biggest declines came from a 14.9% drop in piped gas prices and a 6.8% decline for used cars and trucks. A Cygnal poll of 600 North Carolinians conducted on behalf of the right-leaning John Locke Foundation Aug. 20-21 found more than 95% have noticed the increase in food prices, which just over 61% attribute to increased fuel and energy costs. Another 44% cited government policies, while 36% blamed supply chain disruptions. Nearly 66% of those polled agreed that “government regulations have caused strain in the American food system, leading to higher food prices.” The uptick in the South’s consumer price index comes as many economists predict the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady when it meets next week following increases from just above 0% in 2022 to 5.25-5.5% now – the highest level since 2001. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Tommy Tuberville and colleagues introduce the Secure the Border Act of 2023
U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) on Friday joined U.S. Senators Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and fifteen other U.S. Senate colleagues in introducing the Secure the Border Act of 2023 to combat the border crisis. This bill is the Senate companion to legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, commonly known as H.R. 2, which would resume construction on the wall at our southern border, tighten asylum standards, criminalize visa overstays, increase the number of Border Patrol Agents, defund non-government organizations receiving tax dollars to help traffic illegal immigrants throughout the country and prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from using its app to assist illegal immigrants. “The crisis at our southern border gets worse with each passing day under Joe Biden’s watch,” said Sen. Tuberville. “Americans are tired of sending taxpayer dollars to help other countries secure their borders while leaving the floodgates open at ours. We are losing people every day to fentanyl and other deadly drugs that are pouring across the border. This madness must stop. I’m proud to join my Senate colleagues to introduce this legislation, and hope those on the other side of the aisle will help us address this severe national security issue.” “We have to acknowledge the problem before we can solve it, but President Biden hasn’t even been willing to do that,” Sen. Britt said. “With a record number of Americans dying from fentanyl poisoning, record deaths among migrants attempting to cross the border, record profits by the cartels, and a record amount of people on the terrorism watchlist apprehended at the border, there is no doubt that this is a crisis unlike which we have ever seen.” “Under Joe Biden, we have a wide-open southern border,” Sen. Cruz said. “The Biden Border Crisis has created the largest illegal immigration crisis in our nation’s history. Biden’s open borders are an invitation for the cartels to brutalize children, to assault women, to overrun our communities with illegal aliens, and to flood this country with narcotics and fentanyl that kill over 100,000 people per year. This bill would stop the Biden Border Crisis dead in its tracks by building the wall, ratcheting up asylum standards, increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents, and implementing effective border security policies.” Joining Senators Tuberville, Britt, and Cruz in the legislation are Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R- Kentucky), Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), and U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), JD Vance (R-Ohio), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), John Hoeven, (R-North Dakota), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Steve Daines (R-Montana), and Presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-South Carolina). The Secure the Border Act enacts effective border security solutions, including: · Requiring the Department of Homeland Security to resume border wall construction. · Increasing the number of Border Patrol Agents. · Tightening asylum standards by restricting asylum to only aliens who present at ports of entry and by requiring aliens to prove they are “more likely than not” to qualify for their asylum claim. · Narrowing DHS’s power to unilaterally grant parole to illegal aliens. · Criminalizing visa overstays by making the first offense a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and the second offense a felony punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment. · Stopping NGOs from using tax dollars to transport or lodge illegal aliens and provide illegal aliens with lawyers. · Restricting DHS from using its CBP One app to welcome illegal aliens into the country. · Requiring employers to use E-Verify. · Ensuring CBP has access to the criminal history databases of all countries of origin and transit so that CBP is aware of the criminal history of illegal aliens encountered at the southern border. Sen. Tuberville supports common-sense policies that strengthen our border and national security, like building the wall and reinstating the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the Remain in Mexico policy. With Democrats controlling the Senate, it is unlikely that they will allow this legislation to go to the floor, and if it did pass Congress, it is unlikely that President Biden will sign it. Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and HELP Committees. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Tuscaloosa federal building renamed in honor of Richard Shelby
On Friday, former U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) was back home in Tuscaloosa, where the courthouse and federal building were renamed in his honor. Judge L. Scott Coogler said that Shelby “has touched each and every one of our lives.” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said, “I am proud to join this historic occasion to pay tribute to Richard Shelby.” Ivey applauded the naming of the Courthouse in Shelby’s honor. “What an appropriate way to honor Richard Shelby,” Ivey said. “He laid the groundwork for our state’s economic development.” “In March, the Alabama Legislature held a joint session to honor Richard Shelby,” Ivey continued. “Thank you to Richard Shelby for his dedicated service to the State of Alabama.” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said, “It is a privilege to be here today to celebrate the life of this man.” Marshall applauded the many projects that Shelby brought to the state, “What has truly been achieved far exceeds any dollar amount.” “Senator, thank you for your service, and may God bless you,” Marshall said. Federal judge and former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor said, “In 2009, I was here to celebrate the groundbreaking of this Courthouse. I thank Senator Shelby for his leadership for making this building possible. He could not be here then because he was in Washington attending to the nation’s business.” “If there is anything more important than securing the peace and prosperity of the nation, it is the rule of law,” stated Pryor. Pryor said that a federal courthouse secures the rights of the people every day. “Senator Shelby has recommended the names of many talented lawyers who have served and continue to serve as federal judges,” said Pryor. The judges applauded Shelby for “his lifelong commitment to defending the Constitution of the United States.” “Thank you for being a friend to the courts of the federal judiciary,” Pryor said. U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) said, “I have the best job of the day. I get to introduce Senator Shelby. It is truly an honor to introduce such a legendary Alabamian.” Britt thanked Senator Shelby “for his vision and his determination.” Katie Britt was an intern for Shelby, who later joined his staff, rising to the level of Chief of Staff. She returned to public life in 2022, winning Shelby’s open seat after he retired. “At a time when so many people wanted to serve in order to generate a headline, you genuinely wanted to serve,” Britt said. Sen. Shelby thanked the Governor, Britt, and everyone else for attending Friday’s event. “Thank you all very, very much for this great honor,” Shelby said Shelby’s grandchildren then unveiled a portrait of the Senator that will hang in the Courthouse. Shelby represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate from 1987 to 2022. He represented Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District from 1979 to 1986. He represented Tuscaloosa in the Alabama Senate from 1970 to 1978. Before becoming an elected official, Shelby worked as an assistant Alabama Attorney General and prosecutor for the City of Tuscaloosa. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Effort to preserve choice of power in vehicles clears U.S. House
The U.S. House on Thursday advanced legislation to block states from outlawing gas vehicle sales, a move counter to green agendas pushing electric vehicles. House Resolution 1435, a bipartisan measure known as the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, cleared the lower chamber with a vote of 222-190 Thursday with all Republicans and eight Democrats, including North Carolina Rep. Don Davis, in support. The legislation, which is expected to face stiff resistance in the Senate, aims to ban states from limiting the sales of gas-powered vehicles and for states planning to, to roll back federal approvals. While the resolution did not name specific states, California’s Air Resources Board last year implemented restrictions on vehicles that would effectively prohibit the sale of new gas powered vehicles by 2035, prompting more than a dozen states to consider similar measures. “Almost 94% of the 275 million vehicles in America are powered by gasoline. EVs are still too expensive for many Americans, nearly $17,000 more than a gas-powered car,” Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., wrote on social media. “The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act will prevent the far left from banning gas-powered cars.” The Biden administration opposes the resolution, which conflicts with the president’s goal of electric vehicle sales comprising half of all new vehicle sales in the country by 2030. In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper wants to have 1.25 million electric vehicles registered by 2030. Cooper also issued Executive Order 271 last year to accelerate the uptake of zero-emissions trucks and buses. Thursday’s approval of HR1435 follows days after the release of the fourth annual Transportation Electrification in the Southeast report. It shows while “new EV sales in the Southeast continue to reach new highs” aided in part by $4,000 federal tax credits, in the second quarter of 2023, only “6.2% of all new light-duty vehicles sold were EVs, up from 5% 12 months ago.” In North Carolina, the market share for new electric vehicles was 7.1%, second in the region to Georgia at 7.2%. Those figures trail the national market, where electric vehicles comprised nearly 9.3% of all light-duty sales in the second quarter of 2023. The report shows North Carolina runs second to Florida for taxpayer money invested in the industry, with $50.2 million from the state and $189.5 million from the federal government. The federal investment translates into the highest federal funding per capita in the region at $18.28. Florida spent $147.4 million and collected $207.4 million from the federal government. Other metrics in the report show North Carolina has a total of 11,723 announced jobs tied to the electric vehicle industry, behind Georgia at 27,817 and Tennessee at 12,719, but ahead of South Carolina at 10,611, Alabama at 2,058, and Florida at 314. The Old North State holds the largest announced investment in the region with Toyota’s $5.9 billion battery manufacturing facility in Liberty that’s slated to begin production in 2025, according to the report. North Carolina is in the middle of the pack regionally for electric vehicle charger deployment with 811 fast charging ports and 2,601 Level 2 ports, figures that have increased 57% and 62%, respectively, over the last year. Total ports per 1,000 residents stood at 0.33 in North Carolina, ahead of South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, and behind Georgia and Florida. According to the most recent North Carolina Department of Transportation data, of the roughly 66,000 electric vehicles registered in North Carolina through May, just under 50,000 are fully electric. In May 2022, just under 30,000 registrations were for fully electric vehicles. Based on those figures, North Carolina would need to register nearly 15,000 per month to meet Cooper’s goal by Jan. 1, 2030, or more than 13,000 per month by Dec. 31, 2030, if both fully electric and hybrid vehicles are included. Cooper’s goal does not provide an exact date, whether the beginning or end of that year. The rate of registrations would need to be nearly 15,200 per month to reach the goal by Jan. 1, 2030, or nearly 13,200 per month by the end of 2030, if accounting for only fully electric vehicle registrations. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Alabama voter registration climbs, but turnout lags rest of nation
by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector September 15, 2023 This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org. While Alabama has enjoyed record numbers in terms of people registering to vote, voter rights groups point to troubling signs despite those figures for voters gaining access to the ballot box to exercise their constitutional right as citizens. Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen and his predecessor, John Merrill, have pointed to a 32% increase in voter registration in the last decade as a sign of greater interest in the process. But election turnout has lagged other states, even in presidential election years. More than 2.3 million Alabamians cast ballots in the 2020 presidential election. In terms of volume, that was a record, but it only represented 62% of Alabama voters casting votes, one of the lowest presidential turnouts in 30 years. “One of the things that we have seen, we are still seeing, is low turnout,” said Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. “Presidential elections get high turnout, but in the elections at the local level, and during the midterms, you see pretty sad turnout. That is not good for democracy.” The reasons for the disparities have to do with culture, state laws that impede access to the ballot, and a lack of competitive elections. Allen and Merrill have turned to the public airwaves to claim credit for the number of active, and registered voters in Alabama. The state has steadily increased that number, going from about 2.8 million about a decade ago to roughly 3.3 million at the end of 2022. Through the end of August, the state’s voter rolls increased by an additional 30,000 people. Richard Fording, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama, said “the numbers aren’t bad.” But relatively few Alabamians exercise their right to vote, a continuation of a longstanding problem that has plagued the state for decades. According to data compiled by Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, only 37.3% of eligible voters turned out for the November 2022 elections, the fifth-worst in the United States. Mississippi, another southern state, fared the worst at 32.5%. Tennessee, West Virginia, and Indiana were the only other states with lower turnout than Alabama. The issue starts with the state’s history. “Alabama was classified as a state with a traditionalistic political culture,” Fording said. “That means a few different things, but with respect to the orientation of government participation, it is an elitist orientation.” That culture emerged from a backdrop of slavery, segregation, and disenfranchisement of large swathes of voters, mostly Blacks but also poor whites. Elites in the state maintained the status quo through literacy tests, poll taxes, and other discriminatory voting practices. Though those have been outlawed, their impact on the state’s political culture remains. “When there is a system that is the status quo, those who benefit from it want to rationalize that system, as being just,” Fording said. “And if they have the power to do that through various channels of socialization like the education system, then that is likely to become embedded somewhat permanently in the culture.” Several crosscurrents have taken shape that stem from that history that have served to depress voter turnout. “We have started out way behind,” Fording said. “And so, it is just harder to finish first when starting last.” Foregone conclusions The low turnout is not tied to a party. In the 2006 elections, when Democrats controlled the state Legislature, voter participation was 36%. Some demographic trends may play a role. Education tends to correlate with voter participation, and Alabama has a smaller percentage of college graduates than the nation as a whole. Party strength can also influence turnout. “In a large sense, there is not a lot of democracy because it is a foregone conclusion that most of the outcomes are going to be Republican,” said Thomas Shaw, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at the University of South Alabama. The state is solid red, with the Republicans holding the governor’s office, all statewide elected positions, and the state Legislature. Democrats, once the dominant party in the state, have held onto power in the Black Belt and the state’s cities. But the state has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1976, and Democrats have won only one statewide election (the 2017 special election for U.S. Senate) since 2010. That can depress turnout. It also makes candidate recruitment difficult. The Democrats’ statewide candidates in 2022 were mostly inexperienced and underfunded. That depressed turnout to the point that normally safe Democratic legislative districts saw closer-than-expected races. “The people they put on the ballot in 2022 were no-name nobodies who got some of the least amount of support in the entire history of Democratic politics in Alabama,” said David Hughes, an associate professor of political science at Auburn University Montgomery. The state party is embroiled in a fight over its bylaws and leadership. Leaders of the party voted in May to disband three diversity caucuses and adopt new bylaws, replacing a set adopted in 2019 amid a Democratic National Committee (DNC) investigation. The DNC is investigating the May meeting. “I don’t think anybody would look at the state Democratic Party and say that it is functional,” Hughes said. All of that weighs on turnout, said Shaw. “If it is a presidential election, and you are a Democrat in Alabama, you know there is no chance that your candidate is going to get elected in Alabama; how does that make you feel about going to the polls,” he said. “It makes you feel like, ‘Why should I bother?’” Ballot access Legislators in recent years have also taken to making voting more difficult. Alabama does not have early voting or no-excuse absentee voting. The
All for progress: Blount County Education Foundation keeps Alabama students connected to learning
The Alabama Power Foundation recently released its annual report for 2022, highlighting the good works of its nonprofit partners. Alabama News Center is sharing the stories of four foundation partners that are featured in the new report, titled All Forward. Today’s feature is about the Blount County Education Foundation. Every summer, Mitchie Neel witnesses the power of progress. Students participating in Blount County Education Foundation (BCEF) summer camps addressing learning loss are assessed at the program’s beginning and its conclusion. The results show that students don’t just hold onto knowledge from the previous school year; many of them make gains. While this is exciting news for the foundation – proof of these programs’ value and success – no one is more thrilled than the students. “They just beam,” said Neel, BCEF executive director. “They walk down the hall, gripping that piece of paper that shows what they have accomplished, and they actually glow. It’s a special thing to watch; it touches your heart.” Since it started in 1998, flipping on a light for area students has been BCEF’s goal. And for 25 years, it has pursued one mission: to promote academic excellence in Blount County schools. Powerful programming BCEF has provided more than $7 million in support of school system educators, students, and their families, including two primary initiatives: classroom grants and its summer programs. The grants help teachers access needed resources and purchase supplies and equipment for their classrooms. In 2022 alone, BCEF awarded more than $225,000 to more than 250 teachers. And, thanks in part to an Alabama Power Foundation grant, BCEF’s free summer programs in 2022 served more than 1,051 students in its Sign-Up camps, which develop students’ talents and passions, and its summer literacy camps, which focus on preventing learning loss (often dubbed the “summer slide”) in elementary students. Neel stresses the value of these efforts. “Research clearly shows that students who stay connected to learning when school is out each summer experience less learning loss than students who don’t, and sometimes make gains,” she said. Keeping kids plugged into education during summer break is easier in large cities, where parents can pick from a wealth of scholastic-development options to stimulate young minds, including day camps at museums and zoos, art and music classes, and more. But in rural Blount County, the choices are few and far between. So, BCEF stepped up. “Our board realized early on it was not achievement issues at the root of our achievement gaps but opportunity issues,” Neel says. “We wondered, what can we provide for our students that would impact them positively from an academic perspective but also benefit the whole child?” The BCEF board answered the question by creating summer programs that check both boxes, balancing reading and math instruction with a blend of activities to engage students for maximum retention. The programs broaden students’ nonacademic development by integrating leadership, problem-solving, and decision-making skills plus character-building into the curricula. “The enrichment aspects are a large part of our program’s success,” Neel said. “We expose them to visual arts, music, drama, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) activities and more. We bring in speakers and other interesting people for interactive learning. And we help them hone other traits that will allow them to increase their capacity to learn for the rest of their lives.” Summer success The programs, which deploy small teacher-to-pupil ratios and other research-proven methods, are working, surpassing the original goal of stopping learning loss and pushing kids ahead. Last year, students participating in two BCEF summer camps averaged eight months of learning gains in math and seven months of learning gains in reading. “That’s why we do this,” Neel said. “It proves that when you follow the research and do these programs correctly, you can impact a child in a powerful way: It’s an impact that lasts a lifetime.” One of the summer programs, the Dreamcatchers Camp at Susan Moore Elementary, served 146 students in 2022, but BCEF outreach doesn’t stop with kids. “We interact with the families to find out what their needs are and see what gaps we can fill,” Neel said, which includes addressing food insecurity. “This community has a high reduced meal rate, and we know nutrition is key to learning, so we send students home with shelf-stable meals for the weekends, as well as snacks.” The organization stays connected in other ways, such as holding a family celebration night. Field trips play a role in the camps, too. BCEF partners with the Friends of the Locust Fork River to give students a day of play and discovery on the water. “They do lessons on creepy crawlers, woodland creatures, and get to kayak on the river and soak in the fresh air,” Neel said. “You have not lived until you are the one meeting the bus when they come back; they are so alive, just smiling and laughing.” The key to making summer programs stick is making them enjoyable, Neel said. “Kids love these programs; even the reading and math interventions are structured to be high-impact and high-engagement. At all our camps, fun is the critical component. They don’t care that everything they are doing is tied to curriculum standards. All they care about is that they’re having a ball.” Making a meaningful difference Summertime is fun, but BCEF’s work never stops. Its efforts during the school year include a STEAM lab in every community, updates to career tech departments, and continued investment in the High School Ambassadors program, focused on growing leadership and talent for Blount County’s future. “We believed this would translate into a commitment to lead our county forward, and it has,” Neel said. “We now have teachers and administrators in our school system who were ambassadors, so that’s our program coming to fruition.” Neel pointed to the vital part the Alabama Power Foundation has played in the organization’s work. “We would not be here without the Alabama Power Foundation,” which encouraged school districts around the state to create local education foundations. The Alabama Power Foundation provided seed
