February 22, 2019

Former longtime Alabama senator Zeb Little accused of stealing thousands from clients

Zeb Little (D), the former majority leader of the Alabama state senate, is indicted on charges of stealing from his legal clients’ trust funds, authorities said.

Little, a 50-year-old from Cullman, is indicted on three felony charges of first-degree theft, announced Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office. Little turned himself in and was released from the Cullman County jail on $15,000 bail on Thursday.

Little is an attorney. He’s accused of stealing more than $25,000 from client trust funds, Marshall said in a news release.

“No further information about the investigation or about the defendant’s alleged crimes other than that stated in the indictment may be released at this time,” the AG said in a press release.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/former-longtime-alabama-senator-zeb-little-accused-of-stealing-thousands-from-clients.html

February 22, 2019

Alabama lawmaker files bill to allow Bible history elective in public schools

North Alabama Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, wants the Bible to be the focus of three new social studies electives in public schools.

But at least one group that favors the separation of church and state is watching the bill closely.

Melson, who chairs the Senate education policy committee, filed Senate Bill 14 last month ahead of the March 5 start to the legislative session.

The bill calls for the Alabama Board of Education to create three new courses---the study of the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament, the study of the New Testament, and a course combining the two---that students in sixth through 12th grade could take as social studies electives.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/alabama-lawmaker-files-bill-to-allow-bible-history-elective-in-public-schools.html

February 22, 2019

Update: Alabama newspaper that ran KKK editorial now led by African-American woman

A new publisher and editor have been named at the Democrat-Reporter, the newspaper that gained national attention this week after its publisher wrote an editorial calling the Ku Klux Klan to “night ride again.”

After a meeting Thursday, Elecia R. Dexter, an African-American woman, was named as the paper’s new publisher and editor.

“We had a discussion yesterday and felt this was necessary to move forward. We’re hoping to move the paper in a different direction," Dexter told AL.com over the phone Friday afternoon. A call to the newspaper was answered by a man, who would not identify himself. He then handed the phone to a woman who identified herself as Dexter.

A press release posted on the news website for the West Alabama Watchman says her position became effective Thursday. The press release says Dexter graduated from Eastern Illinois University with her bachelor’s in speech communication. She also earned a master’s in Human Services from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies and a master’s in counseling from Argosy University.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2019/02/alabama-newspaper-that-ran-kkk-editorial-now-led-by-african-american-woman.html

Earlier thread:
Editor who wrote Klan editorial has penned countless racist, sexist, xenophobic pieces
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10082317

February 22, 2019

Booker speaking at Selma voting rights commemoration

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker is delivering the keynote address at a Selma church during the annual commemoration of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march.

Booker will speak at the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma on March 3. His campaign announced the appearance Friday.

Booker is one of several Democrats attending the event which often draws national political figures.

On March 7, 1965, African-Americans seeking voting rights launched a march to Montgomery but were beaten by law enforcement officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The clash, known as "Bloody Sunday," helped galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Read more: https://www.dothaneagle.com/news/ap/state/booker-speaking-at-selma-voting-rights-commemoration/article_adf559bf-7b1f-5e19-a112-6c001481e12c.html

February 22, 2019

Al Gore and Rev. William Barber III rally against environmental injustices in the Black Belt during

Former Vice President Al Gore rallies against environmental injustices in the Black Belt during town hall meeting


The people of Lowndes County are angry, they're tired and they're literally sick with preventable illnesses.

They won't stand for it. They haven't for a long time and on Thursday gathered in the Jackson-Steel Community Center in Hayneville, they cheered and applauded and shouted "amen" as former Vice President Al Gore spoke as sweat beaded on his forehead as he also got angry. His raucous voice boomed throughout the gymnasium.

"What are we going to do? How is this going to turn out? The world seems to be so burdened in many ways, is there hope? Well, the answer is yes, there is hope," he said. "There is hope because we have the ability to determine our own destiny. We still have the God-given right in our Constitution as Americans to exercise the vote if we are willing to get up and activate and make sure that others go to the polls."

Gore and the Rev. William Barber II held a town hall-style meeting at the community center to rant against the environmental injustices happening across the Black Belt and in other rural, poor areas of the nation.

Read more: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/02/21/former-vice-president-al-gore-traveled-lowndes-county-during-tour-against-environmental-injustices/2936717002/

Cross-posted in the Alabama Group.

February 22, 2019

Al Gore and Rev. William Barber III rally against environmental injustices in the Black Belt during

Former Vice President Al Gore rallies against environmental injustices in the Black Belt during town hall meeting


The people of Lowndes County are angry, they're tired and they're literally sick with preventable illnesses.

They won't stand for it. They haven't for a long time and on Thursday gathered in the Jackson-Steel Community Center in Hayneville, they cheered and applauded and shouted "amen" as former Vice President Al Gore spoke as sweat beaded on his forehead as he also got angry. His raucous voice boomed throughout the gymnasium.

"What are we going to do? How is this going to turn out? The world seems to be so burdened in many ways, is there hope? Well, the answer is yes, there is hope," he said. "There is hope because we have the ability to determine our own destiny. We still have the God-given right in our Constitution as Americans to exercise the vote if we are willing to get up and activate and make sure that others go to the polls."

Gore and the Rev. William Barber II held a town hall-style meeting at the community center to rant against the environmental injustices happening across the Black Belt and in other rural, poor areas of the nation.

Read more: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/02/21/former-vice-president-al-gore-traveled-lowndes-county-during-tour-against-environmental-injustices/2936717002/

Cross-posted in the Al Gore Group.

February 22, 2019

Democratic senators urged to unite against Texas' top voting official

In a letter hand-delivered Thursday to the Capitol, 35 civil rights, political and advocacy groups urged Democratic state senators to oppose the confirmation of Texas Secretary of State David Whitley, saying his handling of a citizenship investigation of registered voters proves he is “unfit to serve in that office.”

If all 12 Senate Democrats stand firm, the letter said, Whitley would be denied the support of two-thirds of senators needed to continue serving as secretary of state, Texas’ top elections officer.

“Each of you has affirmed your personal commitment to protecting voting rights and reject discrimination; now, you have a duty to vote against Mr. Whitley’s confirmation,” said the letter from Battleground Texas, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, NAACP Texas, the state Democratic Party and the Texas AFL-CIO, among others.

Before the Senate can vote on Whitley, however, the Senate Nominations Committee must act — and the panel did not consider his confirmation Thursday for the second consecutive weekly meeting.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190221/democratic-senators-urged-to-unite-against-texas-top-voting-official

February 22, 2019

Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic candidate for president, speaks at Ann Richards School

AUSTIN -- One year and 11 days before what promises to be a wild and woolly, and maybe even pivotal, Texas primary, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visited students at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in what she hopes will prove a moment that, if she fulfills her ambition to become the first female U.S. president, every girl there Thursday can talk about for the rest of her life.

“The light in your eyes can change the world,” Gillibrand told the 570 eighth- to 12th-grade students assembled in the cafeteria at the South Austin school and an additional 300 sixth- and seventh-graders watching a livestream in their classrooms.

Gillibrand — who in 2009 was named to fill the unexpired Senate term of Hillary Clinton when President Barack Obama named Clinton secretary of state, and has twice been re-elected — told the young women that the younger among them may hold the highest ambitions.

“Sometime as you turn 12, 13, 14, 15, the girlhood bravado begins to fade and then you begin to doubt yourself,” she said.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190221/kirsten-gillibrand-democratic-candidate-for-president-speaks-at-ann-richards-school

February 22, 2019

Hey Aristus, salt or no salt? Either way, it's National Margarita Day!

I wanted to make a suggestion for the Friday night buzz thread.

February 22, 2019

Austin abortion provider says opponents bought out clinic's lease, forcing move

Staffers of a nonprofit abortion care provider, which is at the center of a major lawsuit challenging abortion restrictions, packed up their offices in North Austin on Thursday and prepared to relocate after they say that opponents bought out the lease for their building.

Whole Woman’s Health of Austin closed its offices to patients earlier this week and plans to reopen Feb. 26 at its new location at the 4100 block of Duval Road, near the Domain.

The nonprofit works with Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, which was a plaintiff in a U.S. Supreme Court case that in 2016 successfully challenged Texas regulations that would have closed more than half of the state’s abortion clinics. The group is currently involved in three lawsuits seeking to overturn abortion regulations in Texas.

“The anti-abortion movement’s attacks on us continue — from the Legislature to the courts and even behind the scenes with our realtors and vendors, but we persist, and we prevail,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and president of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190221/abortion-provider-says-opponents-bought-out-clinics-lease-forcing-move