Flu forces Marshall County schools to go virtual for a week
An Alabama school district is switching to virtual classes for the next week because of rising flu cases among students and teachers. Marshall County school officials have put in-person classes on hold and asked students to log in for remote learning Monday through Thursday. The school district said in a statement that so many people are getting sick with the flu that schools are short on staff and unable to operate. Marshall County schools will also be closed Friday for the Veterans Day holiday. Alabama has been seeing high levels of influenza, al.com reported. During the last week of October, more than 100 flu outbreaks were reported to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Alabama counties target Mazda Toyota supply chain in jobs push
The groundbreaking for the new Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA auto assembly plant in Huntsville took place just a couple of weeks ago, but the $1.6 billion, 4,000-worker project is already making a big impact across North Alabama. Business recruiters in the 13-county region have been working for months to lure suppliers for the facility. Their efforts include readying industrial sites and speculative buildings, along with a digital strategy that is reaching around the globe. The North Alabama Industrial Development Association (NAIDA) created a microsite that specifically targets companies interested in supplying the Japanese automakers’ operation, which is expected to launch production in 2021 with an eventual output of 300,000 vehicles annually. NAIDA President and CEO Brooks Kracke said his team went to work right away following the Mazda Toyota plant announcement in January. “We contacted the 13 counties we cover and asked them to give us their top five buildings or sites to put their best foot forward,” he said. “We put all of them on the microsite, along with additional data for each county, and we put everything in a searchable format.” The Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA assembly plant in Huntsville will produce the next-generation Toyota Corolla, along with a brand new Mazda crossover model. (Toyota) Growing interest Since then, the microsite has drawn interest from companies and organizations from the U.S., Japan, India, China, Israel, Germany, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic and beyond. Some companies have contacted NAIDA directly, asking for additional information, and some are scouting out the region in person, too. Meanwhile, NAIDA is contacting the companies that have looked at the microsite, including a Detroit firm that Kracke recently called on during a trip to Michigan. “This has given us a good segue to creating contacts and creating awareness that North Alabama is a good place to consider for their supplier operations,” he said. North Alabama is home to more than 100 automotive companies, in nearly every county. Anchors of the industry are the Toyota and Navistar engine plants in Huntsville; there are also numerous top suppliers for Alabama’s other automakers, which include Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai. The supplier impact of the Mazda Toyota plant could very well reach beyond North Alabama. Communities in other parts of the state are preparing to attract new firms and help existing companies land new business related to the facility. Kracke said the full supplier picture for the new Mazda Toyota plant is not yet clear. Companies are still determining their own plans and whether they will aim to supply the plant from existing facilities elsewhere or establish new operations nearby. But there’s no doubt that some will make a move to Alabama. It’s just a question of where. “The synergy is starting to happen, and I think the next five years or so will really be something,” Kracke said. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield and Gov. Kay Ivey stand next to a Mazda at the official groundbreaking for Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA in Huntsville last month. (contributed) ‘Catbird seat’ In Marshall County, the strategy to attract suppliers includes promoting a workforce that is well-versed in the automotive industry, said Matt Arnold, president and CEO of the Marshall County Economic Development Council. Over the past 20 years, the county’s auto sector employment has seen significant growth, amid continued expansions at two Tier 1 suppliers for the Honda auto assembly plant in Talladega County, and at a few Tier 2 and aftermarket suppliers. “Following the Mazda Toyota announcement, we immediately updated our website with specific information and a page for suppliers, and we designated three industrial sites that we feel are our optimal sites for suppliers,” he said. “We are also showcasing the fact that we have been in automotive for quite a while, and we have the training programs in place in our technical schools and career tech programs in our high schools.” As for location, Arnold said the most obvious choice for suppliers is west of Huntsville, around the Shoals, since that’s between the new Mazda Toyota plant and a Toyota plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi. But on the other hand, Marshall County is a prime location for suppliers who want to be in proximity to Mazda Toyota and Honda Alabama, he added. “If that’s the case, we’re in the catbird seat. We’re right in the middle,” he said. Developing relationships Recruiters in the Shoals also went to work quickly following the Mazda Toyota announcement, creating their own web page targeting suppliers, said Forrest Wright, president of the Shoals Economic Development Authority. An industrial robot turns the first shovel of dirt at a groundbreaking ceremony for the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA assembly plant in Huntsville. (Hal Yeager/Governor’s Office) The Shoals has a solid automotive industry presence, an attractive location and more. “We have multiple highway corridors to the Mazda Toyota facility from this area of Alabama, which helps with just-in-time delivery,” Wright said. “The chance of delay is reduced if you have multiple ways to get there. We’re also just far enough away from the facility to not have to directly compete with that labor market.” Wright is a regular participant in the annual joint meetings of the Southeast-U.S. Japan and the Japan-Southeast associations, known as SEUS Japan. He was a part of the Alabama delegation that traveled to Tokyo in October for SEUS Japan 41. “One of the things we try to do as a community is to maintain good communication with our existing companies,” he said. “Doing business with companies from Japan has its own unique style, and one of the things you must do is develop and maintain relationships. “While we were in Japan, we visited the headquarters of Japanese companies located in our area. We’ve seen that bear fruit in the past.” This story originally appeared on the Alabama Department of Commerce’s Made in Alabama website. Republished with permission from the Alabama NewsCenter.
Five things you need to know about Steve Marshall
Last week, Steve Marshall beat Troy King in the runoff election for the republican Attorney General’s seat. Winning with just over 62 percent of the votes, Marshall now faces Democratic challenger Joseph Siegelman in the November general election. With that in mind, here are five things you need to know about Steve Marshall: 1. Although he moved around a lot in childhood, Marshall has always considered Alabama his true home. Although Marshall was born in Atmore, Ala. his father, Conrad Marshall, was a representative for a sporting goods manufacturer and moved the family across the southeast for most of Marshall’s childhood. They lived in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where he graduated from high school. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with his bachelors degree, Marshall moved back to Alabama to attend the University of Alabama’s law school, and stayed. “Despite leaving Alabama in first grade and living in several Southern states, Steve knew the Yellowhammer State was his home. He always knew he’d move back,” said the National Association of Attorney’s General (NAAG). 2. When sworn in as the Marshall County District Attorney (DA), Marshall became the second youngest DA in Alabama. In 2001 Marshall was appointed as the District Attorney of Marshall County. At only 36 years old his swearing in made him the second youngest District Attorney in Alabama. As District Attorney, Marshall founded several criminal prosecution and forensic programs and task forces including the Marshall County Major Crimes Unit, Marshall County Computer Forensics Lab and the Marshall County Crystal Meth Task Force. He was also instrumental in instituting and applying the Brody Act. The act holds anyone who kills or injures a mother’s unborn baby as accountable for two crimes, one against the mother and one against the baby. Marshall was one of the first DA’s to apply this law in his district. 3. As Attorney General, he filed a lawsuit against the city of Birmingham over the controversial confederate monument. In August of 2017, then-Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered a confederate monument at the city’s Linn Park to be covered while the city explored the legality of removing it completely. “We need to take them down. We will deal with the repercussions after that,” said Birmingham City Council President Jonathan Austin. “The monuments are ‘offensive to our citizens,’” AL.com reported. Marshall quickly jumped into action. The next day the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the city, and Mayor William Bell, saying that covering the monument violated state law. “In accordance with the law, my office has determined that by affixing tarps and placing plywood around the Linn Park memorial such that it is hidden from view, the defendants have ‘altered’ or ‘otherwise disturbed’ the memorial in violation of the letter and spirit of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act,” Marshall said, according to AL.com. “The city of Birmingham does not have the right to violate the law and leaves my office with no choice but to file suit.” 4. He is the founder of Mentor Marshall, a mentorship program in Marshall County Marshall served as chairman of the Big Buddy Program while attending the University of North Carolina. The program, a student-led mentorship program affiliated with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America, allowed Marshall to see the effect mentorship can have on young people’s lives. This led him to found Mentor Marshall, a mentoring program designed to impact young people in Marshall county. The program aims to find positive, successful adults and introduce them to at-risk children. The adults then serve mentors and role models to the children to keep them in school, drug-free, and to give them hope and tools to achieve their own goals. Marshall has also been mentoring two young men himself. 5. He is an elder at his church and traveled to India on a missions trip a few years ago Marshall is an elder at the LifePoint Church in Albertville, Ala. and traveled across the world on a missions trip a few years ago. There, his goal was to spread the gospel news of Jesus Christ to people who lived in remote villages in India. “The Great Commission sort of directs us all in some way to be able to make that outreach to those that don’t know Christ, to be able to share,” Marshall said of the mission, according to NAAG. This post was updated from its original version to reflect the runoff election victory.
