Alabama civil rights institute rescinds Angela Davis honor
Black activists on Monday called for leadership changes and protests at an Alabama civil rights museum after it rescinded an award for political activist Angela Davis, a move the mayor said followed complaints from the Jewish community. Speaking outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, located in the same downtown area where civil rights violence once shocked the nation, organizers told a news conference that Davis, a Birmingham native, was wronged by the decision to rescind the honor. Davis, a longtime activist who has supported Palestinian rights and criticized Israeli policy, is on a par with civil rights legend Rosa Parks, said activist Frank Matthews. “This is the ultimate insult to deny Angela Davis her inheritance,” he said. Museum leaders should quit, he said, and protests will be held. Other speakers called for a boycott. The institute announced in September that Davis would receive the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, named for the late minister who once prominently led civil rights demonstrations in the city. In a statement posted on its website over the weekend, the publicly funded museum said it was canceling a gala set for next month and rescinding the award after directors concluded Davis “unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based.” Mayor Randall Woodfin said he was “dismayed” by the decision, which he said followed “protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies.” The longtime executive director of the Birmingham Jewish Federation, Richard Friedman, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. A representative of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute did not immediately return an email message seeking comment; neither did a California-based agency that represents Davis. Davis , 74, has spent decades fighting for civil rights. She was an active member of the Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Communist Party USA. She also is an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. The civil rights institute’s president and CEO, Andrea Taylor, said in October that the organization was “thrilled to bestow this honor” on Davis whom she described as “one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak.” But the institute announced Saturday that in late December, “supporters and other concerned individuals and organizations, both inside and outside of our local community, began to make requests that we reconsider our decision.” The statement did not indicate what criteria Davis didn’t meet, nor did it identify the origin of the complaints. Many people responded with outrage on Twitter and Facebook. Mayor Woodfin called the museum’s decision a reactive and divisive decision and offered to facilitate a community dialogue in response. While the city helps fund the museum, one of the top tourist draws in Alabama, it doesn’t get involved in “programmatic decisions,” Woodfin said. Protest organizer Carlos Chaverst Jr. said the city has gotten involved at the institute before and could intervene if it wanted to do so. “Our mayor lied, and he’s still lying,” Chaverst said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Birmingham City Council swears in two new members
The City of Birmingham swore two new City Council members during its Wednesday meeting. Clinton Woods, who will will represent District 1, and Crystal Smitherman, who will will represent District 6, were appointed by the current City Council during a meeting on Dec. 18, 2018. “I want to congratulate the new councilors. I’m no longer the new kid on the block,” said Councilor Wardine Alexander, who was appointed to the District 7 seat in October, following the Dec. 18 vote. “The candidates did not make this an easy task for us. I look forward to you joining us.” Both appointed councilors will serve until the next citywide election, a date for which has not yet been determined. The two seats were vacated by Councilors Lashunda Scales (District 1) and Sheila Tyson (District 6) when they were sworn in to the Jefferson County Commission on November 14.
Birmingham begins work on new $175 million stadium at the BJCC
It’s not the first time a groundbreaking has been held for a new stadium next to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), but officials on Thursday vowed it’s the last one. “This is my third groundbreaking for this facility,” said Valerie Abbott, president of the Birmingham City Council. “This one is going to stick. The reason is because of teamwork.” That teamwork was evident as leadership from Birmingham, Jefferson County, the Alabama Legislature, UAB and corporate leaders joined together to break ground on the $175 million stadium on the east side of the BJCC. Tad Snider, CEO and executive director of the BJCC, said this groundbreaking was different. “We’re actually moving forward this time,” he said. “Yes, it’s a groundbreaking. Yes, we’ve done this before. But it’s the first time money has been in the bank.” The stadium is expected to be completed in time for the opening ceremonies of the World Games in summer 2021. Later that year, UAB will begin playing its home football games in the venue. Other sporting events and entertainment productions are also expected to be held there. “Having a stadium like this is so great for the fans,” said Mark Ingram, UAB athletic director. He said the facility builds on the momentum of the football team winning the Conference USA title this year and helps in recruiting both students and student athletes to UAB. The current design is for a stadium with seating for up to 55,000. Officials said the design will be tweaked up until vertical construction begins. Dr. Ray Watts, president of UAB, said the stadium will have an even bigger role to play for the entire region. “This stadium will be the home stadium for the UAB Blazers but on 350 some-odd other days, it’s going to be a great attribute for the city of Birmingham,” he said. “This is going to be finest facility of its kind in the state of Alabama. And with the renovation of the arena and the entire complex, I, too, believe that this is probably the most important economic development project in the city of Birmingham today.” That’s what Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin likes to hear. “When we look at other cities and when they invest in big things like this, this is a positive economic development ripple for commercial development as well as residential development for not only this area, but for other areas of town,” Woodfin said. “People need to look for our city to continue to be intentional about commercial development and residential development throughout our entire city.” Snider believes those ripples will come but he acknowledged a challenge will be managing the construction of the stadium, the $123 million renovation and expansion of Legacy Arena and other BJCC upgrades and renovation of the Sheraton Birmingham – all while the massive bridge replacement project of Interstate 59/30 through downtown takes place. “These are two big cornerstone projects and the ability to make some upgrades and investment to the existing convention center,” Snider said. “It’s a gamechanger for everybody.” He said the 2019 event calendar at the BJCC is full and that it will be important to communicate to the public that the BJCC will continue to operate and the businesses at Uptown Entertainment District and Topgolf will continue to stay open and need the support of customers. “We need to keep doing what we do so it feeds them as well,” Snider said. Woodfin said the stadium will stand as a testament to what is possible when the different entities in the metro area work together. “This is transformational,” he said. “This groundbreaking represents so many things, but the biggest thing it represents is what happens when cooperation works. “I am just so happy for Birmingham,” he added. “I am happy for our region. This is a big moment for us.” Jimmie Stephens, president of the Jefferson County Commission, shared in the optimism. “I can’t think of a better time or a better place than right now to live in Jefferson County and Birmingham, Alabama,” he said. “The future is so bright.” While the focus is on the future, those like Abbott couldn’t help but look back. “I was in my 20s when we first started talking about this,” she said of the stadium. “So, we have waited a long, long time.” Watch the full press conference below. Republished with permission from the AlabamaNewsCenter.
Alabama Power honored for diversity efforts at Birmingham Equal Opportunity Dinner
The Birmingham Urban League honored corporate citizens and community leaders Saturday, Dec. 8 at its Equal Opportunity Dinner. According to its organizers, the annual gala recognizes efforts that help in advancing equal opportunity for all. Alabama Power received the President’s Award for contributions to the community and its consistent support of the organization and diversity. Birmingham Division Vice President Jonathan Porter accepted the award on behalf of the company. “Alabama Power is proud of the continued partnership with organizations such as the Birmingham Urban League to help propel our community forward,” said Porter. The dinner was also held to commemorate the Birmingham Urban League‘s 50 years of service to the community. U.S. Sen. Doug Jones and U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell were the event co-chairs. National Urban League president Marc Morial was the keynote speaker for the evening. Morial recognized Birmingham’s first African-American mayor, Richard Arrington, saying the nation should appreciate Birmingham. Former Mayor William Bell was also honored for his leadership and his work in revitalizing the City of Birmingham. Mayor Bell shared a light moment with the audience, saying that even after completing his term serving the city, his wife still encourages him to “get out and go be great.” Other organizations such as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, United Way of Central Alabama and Peacemakers was honored as well. More than 200 guests were treated to comedy and entertainment at the dinner. Republished with permission from the Alabama NewsCenter.
Birmingham attorney behind Doug Jones’ Senate win, Giles Perkins dies at 51
Giles Perkins, a Birmingham lawyer who was the campaign chair for Sen. Doug Jones during his special election victory in 2017, died on Sunday after a three year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 51. Jones called Perkins the “Yoda” of his Senate campaign, referencing the wise Jedi master in the “Star Wars” movies. Perkins’ strategies helped bring the former Alabama District Attorney to victory. “It is with great sadness today that Louise and I mourn the loss of our dear friend Giles Perkins, who had fought fiercely against cancer for several years. Giles was more than just an accomplished attorney, community activist and brilliant political advisor and strategist,” said Jones. “He understood Alabama’s complicated history, but also had the vision to see what our collective future could hold if we worked together.” Jones continued, “Anyone who crossed paths with him, be it in politics or through his remarkable community service projects, saw his passion for making our state—and the entire South—the best version of itself. He challenged me constantly – so much so that I affectionately dubbed him ‘Yoda’ on the campaign trail last year. His tough love approach, and his ability to see the bigger picture, made me a better candidate and most certainly a better U.S. Senator. I will always cherish his friendship.” Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell posted her condolences on Facebook. “I’m saddened to hear about the untimely passing of Giles Perkins,” Sewell posted. “He was a man who truly loved serving the people of Alabama. My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.” Until his passing, Perkins was a partner at the Adams and Reese law firm. “Giles had a powerful influence on everyone who knew him. His love of life, family and Birmingham will live on forever through his accomplishments and in our hearts,” said Gif Thornton, Managing Partner at Adams and Reese. “We will miss him sadly, remember him fondly and draw from his courage and compassion to continue.” Outside of politics, Perkins was active in the community. He was a Founding Member of the Birmingham Zoo, as well as the President of the Railroad Park Foundation.
Controversial Birmingham attorney Donald Watkins Sr. indicted in ‘high-stakes political drama’
Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office on Thursday filed charges against, Birmingham attorney Donald Watkins Sr. and his son Donald Watkins Jr. In a press statement, the U.S. Attorney’s office said the pair defrauded investors and a bank out of millions of dollars. Each faces seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Watkins Sr. noted his son worked for him during the period covered by the indictment. “My son is now an innocent hostage in this high-stakes political drama,” he said to the AP. A statement echoed by his son who said, “In my case, the charges against me are completely unfounded,” the younger Watkins said in a statement released later Thursday. “Obviously, I was added as a defendant in this case to put pressure on my father. But it will not work because I have never done anything illegal and neither has my father. And we will prove it when the time comes.” According to the AP, “The indictment alleges that from 2007 until 2014, the pair induced investors to pay millions into an account that was supposed to grow two companies they were associated with. According to the indictment, the money was used for other costs, including alimony and clothing.” Watkins Sr. wrote a blog post on his personal website addressing the indictment Thursday: To secure today’s indictment, federal prosecutors in Birmingham and Washington had to: (a) present misleading and incomplete evidence to the grand jury, (b) ignore the plain language of bona fide business agreements and controlling principles of contract law, (c) “twist” important documentary evidence to support their theory, (d) present witnesses who provided scripted testimony to fit a pre-determined and distorted narrative, and (e) disregard a mountain of exculpatory evidence that favored my son and me. … The charges in the indictment are merely allegations. My son and I are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. I am confident that my son and I will defeat the bogus criminal charges against us. The pair are charged with conspiring to obtain loans from Alamerica Bank using an allegedly fraudulent scheme involving the use of a third party to take out the loans on their behalf, according to the statement. “Persons who defraud investors through material misrepresentations, omissions, and lies must be held accountable,”lead prosecutor Lloyd Peeples said in a press statement. “As set forth in today’s indictment, the defendants mislead numerous individual investors and used their investments for unrelated purposes.” Watkins Sr. claims he’s confident he and his son will beat the allegations made against them. “The allegations in the indictment represent a politically motivated and self-serving narrative to portray my son and me in the most negative light possible,” said Watkins Sr. in this blog post. “The charges in the indictment are merely allegations. My son and I are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. I am confident that my son and I will defeat the bogus criminal charges against us.” The AP content contributed to this report.
Birmingham’s Southern Research tests parts 3-D printed in space for NASA
Could 3-D printers transform the International Space Station into a manufacturing hub and one day function as the heart of an on-demand machine shop in space that enables NASA to mount crewed missions deep into the solar system? Engineers at Southern Research are helping NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center explore the capabilities of additive manufacturing technologies that have major logistics implications for the nation’s ambitious future space missions. “When NASA sends a crew to Mars, there can’t be a resupply mission. There is just no way to send them replacement parts if equipment breaks or a part fails in deep space,” said Madison Parks, an advanced mechanical engineer in Southern Research’s Engineering division. “On a mission to Mars, a 3-D printer will have to go with the crew. A part failing in orbit can be replaced after a resupply mission, but a resupply mission to a craft on the way to Mars would be too costly and may result in a loss of the mission. The crew will need to be entirely self-sufficient,” he said. Parks is working with Marshall’s engineers to come up with an answer to a critical question facing NASA’s plans for space-borne three-dimensional printing: Are parts manufactured in zero gravity going to behave just like those produced on Earth-bound 3-D printers? The ISS is already equipped with a 3-D printer. In 2014, California-based Made in Space sent a polymer printer to the space station, followed two years later by a more advanced device. It’s been used to print plastic tools used around the station, along with other non mission-critical items. To help NASA understand the properties of materials printed in an in-space 3-D polymer printer, Parks and his team are testing specimens of materials printed in space and comparing them to similar specimens produced on Earth. Along with tension and compression tests on these materials, Southern Research will be performing digital image correlation (DIC). DIC is a non-contact optical method that employs tracking and image registration techniques for accurate 3-D measurements of changes on the surface during a mechanical or thermal loading. Measuring full-field displacements and strains during the mechanical tests will help engineers understand the material behavior and overall effect of print passes and how they relate to zero-gravity 3-D printing versus Earth 3-D printing. “For safety reasons, NASA has to understand the materials before they use them,” Parks said. “You have to understand where and how these parts, which are manufactured in space, can be used. Doing otherwise could lead to parts and systems failing prematurely.” Southern Research’s Engineering division, which specializes in analyzing how materials perform in extreme environments, has collaborated with NASA for decades. Its engineers analyzed the thermal and mechanical properties of potential heat shield materials for the Apollo program and provided crucial support for the Space Shuttle, particularly in the “Return to Flight” missions after the Columbia accident. Today, Southern Research is involved in the Space Launch System, the massive rocket NASA is developing for planned Mars missions. For NASA, three-dimensional printing offers a fast and inexpensive way to manufacture parts on a spacecraft, exactly when they’re needed. That’s a huge benefit to long-term missions and has the potential to fundamentally change how NASA plans logistics operations for human spaceflight. “Right now, there are thousands of parts for the International Space Station sitting in NASA storage, and most of them will never be used,” Parks said. “But they have to have all these parts on hand to launch to the ISS in case something breaks or fails.” “What Southern Research and NASA are working together on is a foundational effort with the goal of the ISS crew being able to print the parts they need as they need them, which will help the astronauts accomplish their missions,” he said. This story originally appeared on Southern Research’s website. Republished with permission from the Alabama NewsCenter.
2 a.m. press statement signals change from Hoover PD after shooting outrage
In the wake of a Thanksgiving night shooting at Alabama’s largest mall, the City of Hoover and its police department issued a joint statement minutes before 2 a.m. Monday promising transparency in their ongoing investigation. The incident, which occurred at the Riverchase Galleria in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, took place shortly before 10 p.m. CT. It left a gunman dead as well as two individuals wounded. The shooting left Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. of Hueytown shot and killed. Hoover police had initially believed Bradford to be the shooter, with officers saying they saw him fleeing the scene while brandishing a handgun. But by Friday night, Hoover police issued a statement saying Bradford“likely did not fire the rounds” the injured the other two victims. They believe the actual gunman remains at large. On Saturday, more than 200 protesters marched through the Galleria chanting in protest of what happened to Bradford. There, they chanted “E.J.” and “no justice, no peace, no racist police,” holding signs that read “Emantic’s Life Matters.” Overnight the City of Hoover, in a joint statement with the Hoover Police Department, issued a statement addressing the ongoing investigation. “Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are extended to the families of those affected by the traumatic events surrounding the officer-involved shooting last Thursday evening, November 22, 2018. We extend sympathy to the family of Emantic J. Bradford of Hueytown, who was shot and killed during Hoover Police efforts to secure the scene in the seconds following the original altercation and shooting. The loss of human life is a tragedy under any circumstances,” read the statement. “Beginning today, we will provide weekly updates to news media each Monday by 10:30 a.m. Central time. We hope this helps keep the media and the public informed of what we know and are able to share without jeopardizing the investigation.” Read the full statement below: JOINT STATEMENT CITY OF HOOVER, ALABAMA AND THE HOOVER, ALABAMA POLICE DEPARTMENT OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING ON NOVEMBER 22, 2018 (November 26, 2018) We want everyone who lives in, works in, works for, or visits Hoover to know that we are a city that puts safety and respect in the highest regard for all citizens. We will be transparent throughout the course of this investigation. Beginning today, we will provide weekly updates to news media each Monday by 10:30 a.m. Central time. We hope this helps keep the media and the public informed of what we know and are able to share without jeopardizing the investigation. We will also keep the public informed of any developments through our website and the social media pages belonging to the City and to the Police Department. Should significant developments occur prior to any given regular Monday update, we will provide that news as soon as we can. Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are extended to the families of those affected by the traumatic events surrounding the officer-involved shooting last Thursday evening, November 22, 2018. We extend sympathy to the family of Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford, Jr., of Hueytown, who was shot and killed during Hoover Police efforts to secure the scene in the seconds following the original altercation and shooting. The loss of human life is a tragedy under any circumstances. We can say with certainty Mr. Bradford brandished a gun during the seconds following the gunshots, which instantly heightened the sense of threat to approaching police officers responding to the chaotic scene. Body camera video and other available video was immediately turned over to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department as part of the investigation. Now, all evidence has been handed over to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) to lead the investigation. Release of any video will be done as ALEA deems appropriate during the investigation. Our thoughts are also with the family of the 18-year-old young man who suffered gunshot wounds in the altercation between mall patrons, as well as the family of the 12-year-old girl who was an innocent bystander also wounded by gunfire in the initial shooting. These are just some of the many lives that were immediately impacted by an event so unnecessary on what should have been a peaceful Thanksgiving evening. We continue to support ALEA in its investigation of last Thursday’s tragic events, including pursuing the initial shooter who still remains at large. We have certain information about this individual and ask the public to provide ALEA with any available details that may hasten an arrest.
In Birmingham’s skyline, empty offices become more common
Cutbacks at major businesses and stagnant job growth are expected to create more than 1.1 million square feet of empty office space in downtown Birmingham by year’s end. Birmingham’s Central Business District is the largest office submarket in the metro area, with about 6 million square feet of office space, Al.com reported . A large part of that space is in the city’s high-rise buildings. At the end of this year’s third quarter, 12.3 percent of office space in the Central Business District was vacant. That’s about 740,000 square feet of office space sitting empty, according to Cushman & Wakefield / EGS Commercial Real Estate. “We are in a reduce, reuse, recycle phase in the office market,” said Emily Byrd, a commercial broker with Corporate Realty Associates. “Due to the changing landscape of downtown and the evolution of how companies use space, we have a number of buildings that are either in need of updating or not being utilized for their highest and best use,” Byrd said. Two banks — Regions and Wells Fargo — are reducing their presence in the downtown core, Al.com reported. About 200,000 square feet of space was vacated by Regions in the Regions-Harbert Plaza. The company moved into renovated offices at Regions headquarters on Fifth Avenue North. Also, Wells Fargo is cutting about 100,000 square feet of space in downtown next year, brokers said. Energen will vacate its 130,000-square-foot headquarters in the downtown core after its acquisition by Texas-based Diamondback Energy is finalized later this month. Downtown Birmingham will likely see more than a 1 million square feet of empty office space because of stagnant job growth, said Brad Jones, senior vice president of Cushman & Wakefield / EGS Commercial Real Estate. “We keep seeing jobs going to other cities,” he said. The Birmingham-Hoover metro has only seen 1 percent job growth over the last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “We would be able to do more deals if we could figure out how to increase the number of jobs in the city,” Jones said. Also, in general, companies don’t need as much office space as they did a decade ago, Al.com reported. In the past, companies would lease 350 square feet per employee. Now, due to open-concept offices they need as little as 180 square feet per employee, said William Ledbetter, a broker with Cushman & Wakefield / EGS Commercial Real Estate. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
New black sheriff, court officer in Birmingham rethinking policing
Veteran Alabama law enforcement officer Mark Pettway grew up in a black neighborhood called “Dynamite Hill” because the Ku Klux Klan bombed so many houses there in the 1950s and ’60s. Now, after becoming the first black person elected sheriff in Birmingham – on the same day voters elected the community’s first black district attorney – Pettway sees himself as part of a new wave of officers and court officials tasked with enforcing laws and rebuilding community trust fractured by police shootings, mass incarceration, and uneven enforcement that critics call racist. In a state where conservative politicians typically preach about getting tough on crime, Jefferson County’s new sheriff ran and won on an alternative message. He favors decriminalizing marijuana, opposes arming school employees, supports additional jailhouse education programs to reduce recidivism and plans for deputies to go out and talk to people more often, rather than just patrolling. “Going forward we need to think about being smarter and not being harder,” said the Democrat Pettway, 54. While the nation’s law enforcement officers are still mostly white men, and groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and Black Lives Matter call for sweeping changes in the criminal justice system, minorities appear to be making gains nationwide. In Pettway’s case, strong turnout by African-American voters, combined with national concern over police shootings of unarmed people of color, helped him defeat longtime Sheriff Mike Hale, a white Republican, said professor Angela K. Lewis, interim chair of political science at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Winners in other cities attributed their success to similar factors. Houston voters elected 17 black women as judges in the midterms. Even before the election, nearly the entire criminal justice system in the Georgia city of South Fulton, near Atlanta was run by black women, including the chief judge, prosecutor, chief clerk and public defender. They’re offering more chances for criminal defendants to avoid convictions through pre-trial programs and increased use of taxpayer-funded lawyers to protect the rights of the accused. Chief Judge Tiffany C. Sellers of South Fulton’s municipal court said officials also explain court procedures in detail to defendants, many of whom haven’t been in court before and are scared. “Black and brown people often feel disenfranchised from the system, and I want them to understand what is going on,” Sellers said. “At the end of the day they may not like what I did with their case, but at least they know I explained things to them.” Midterms voters in five North Carolina counties elected black Democratic sheriffs for the first time, including Gerald Baker in Wake County. He defeated a longtime Republican incumbent by campaigning on ending the county’s participation in a Trump administration program to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally and advocating for greater police accountability. The message resonated in a county where a deputy and two highway troopers were charged in the beating of a black man earlier this year. Kyron Hinton suffered injuries including a broken nose, multiple dog bites and a fractured eye socket. “If we make a mistake out here in the actions that we take then we should take responsibility for those things,” Baker said in an interview after the election. Yet despite gains by people of color, officials like Baker still represent a minority in U.S. law enforcement. A Justice Department report released in 2013 showed that law enforcement agencies had become more racially and ethnically diverse over a 26-year period, yet the nation’s overall law enforcement community remained overwhelmingly white and male. Local police departments, which typically patrol inside city police jurisdictions, were about 73 percent white, the report said. Sheriff’s offices, which usually patrol in less urban areas and often operate county jails, were even whiter, at about 78 percent white. The report said research found that African-American, Latino and Asian-American communities were all underrepresented within police agencies relative to the populations they served. The disparity was greatest among blacks in areas where black population is proportionately largest, said the report. In Birmingham, Sheriff-elect Pettway of Jefferson County said he wants to increase hiring among minorities and women after he takes office in January. The department’s roughly 680-person staff should better reflect the county’s population, which is almost evenly split between blacks and whites, he said. Some of Pettway’s positions track those of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, with about 3,000 members in all levels of police work. The group opposes arming teachers and held a conference last year aimed at broadening communication between police and community members. Pettway said he plans to increase the use of police body cameras, which he said was a big selling point during his campaign. “People loved that. With all the things that have been happening in law enforcement, people wanted accountability,” he said. Republished with permission from the Associated Press.
Personnel note: Daniel Coleman named President of Birmingham-Southern College
Aa Birmingham resident with more than three decades of experience in finance, has been named president of Birmingham-Southern College, a small, liberal arts school located in Birmingham, Ala. College officials announced Daniel Coleman as the new president, Thursday, Nov. 15. Coleman, who was CEO of the global financial services firm KCG Holdings until its 2017 sale, has been a member of the college’s Board of Trustees and is currently an adjunct professor of finance at the college. He said he wants Birmingham-Southern College to continue to expand its educational reach as it builds for its second century in Birmingham and to solidify its longtime role as “the intellectual heart of the city.” “I feel like the best way for me to have a positive impact on the city is to help Birmingham-Southern thrive,” Coleman said. “It has always been a special place here in Birmingham, and has such a history of and culture of service to the community.” Coleman, 54, who will take office as president on Dec. 3, has played a leading role in the evolution of automated trading in global financial markets. Until its 2017 sale to Virtu Financial, New York-based KCG was a leader in the securities and financial services industry, Before KCG, Coleman was CEO of GETCO, a privately-held automated trading firm based in Chicago. Prior to that, he worked for 24 years for UBS and its predecessor firms, ending up as global head of equities for UBS Investment Bank. “We are fortunate to have someone with such a thorough understanding of the college and broad experience shaping and growing complex organizations,” said BSC Board Chair Denson N. Franklin III ’85, who introduced Coleman to the campus at an event Thursday afternoon. “His love for Birmingham-Southern is apparent, but more than that, he brings an incredible skill set and perspective and impressed us with his ideas for moving BSC forward.” Coleman’s credentials Coleman earned his B.A. in English at Yale University and an M.B.A. at the University of Chicago. Coleman said his own background and work experience has epitomized the value of the kind of personalized liberal arts education that BSC provides. “I started my career in finance on a trading floor, but now, those jobs are almost all gone,” said Coleman. “When I think about college, I think about that kind of rapid professional evolution that’s happening in every field. We need to make sure students have jobs when they graduate, but we also have to make sure they have the ability to adapt so they have careers decades later. That’s something the liberal arts does like no other form of education.” Coleman replaces BSC President Emerita Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, who retired from Birmingham-Southern earlier this semester due to health and family reasons.
Terri Sewell, Randall Woodfin weigh-in on Birmingham indictments surrounding EPA clean-up site
A Jefferson County grand jury on Tuesday indicted the Southeast regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a former Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) Commissioner for violating state ethics laws in his work to stop the listing of North Birmingham’s Superfund site on the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL). The North Birmingham 35th Avenue Superfund Site consists of contaminated soil from industrial pollution. Alabama 7th District U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell believes the indictment is “a step in the right direction.” “This week’s indictment is a step in the right direction for residents of North Birmingham who were the victim of corruption and hazardous pollution,” Sewell said in a statement. “We still have work to do seeking justice for families whose homes and communities have been contaminated… North Birmingham should be reconsidered for the National Priority List. No family should have to live with a contaminated backyard, and no community should be left to clean up decades of industrial waste. We must continue fighting for a full cleanup of North Birmingham until our whole community is made safe.” In August, Sewell led a tour of the Superfund site along with Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and other city, state and neighborhood leaders. The site consists of contaminated soil from industrial pollution. Sewell, Woodfin, and Sen. Doug Jones have called on the EPA to consider North Birmingham for the NPL. According to EPA Region 4 Superfund Division Director Franklin Hill , the study site of roughly 2,000 properties revealed that 390 sites have undergone the contamination removal process; 127 sites are in need of treatment. “The corruption and the appearance of corruption has destroyed the public’s confidence in this process, which has hijacked efforts to clean up the North Birmingham community,” Woodfin added. “The people of North Birmingham deserve a transparent process in order to restore their community and the resources needed to make them and their neighborhoods whole.” History of the site According to EPA guidelines, a site may be included on the NPL if it scores 28.50 or greater on the agency’s Hazard Ranking System. The North Birmingham 35th Avenue Superfund Site scored a 50. On July 19, 2018, a federal jury convicted a coal executive and an attorney who represented the coal company in a criminal conspiracy to prevent the North Birmingham 35th Avenue Superfund Site from advancing to the NPL. On November 13, it was reported that EPA Southeastern regional office administrator Trey Glenn and a former business partner, Scott Phillips, were charged with multiple ethics violations in Birmingham in keeping the site off of the NPL.
