Governor Robert Bentley announced a $5 million agreement between the state and Austal USA that will help the shipbuilder add up to 1,000 full-time jobs in Mobile. The agreement is a five-year project that will help the shipbuilder continue its workforce expansion with training assistance services from the Alabama Industrial
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange says the state asked a District of Columbia federal court to approve a redistricting plan for the Alabama Legislature because it is possibly quicker than seeking pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department. According to Attorney General Strange, assertions by Democratic legislative leaders that the Republican
By Allen Sanderson Now that school has started, we wanted to take this timely opportunity to highlight one of our clients: School Superintendents of Alabama. As Alabama’s association for school superintendents and their system leaders, the SSA gives these important figures in our education system a voice in the halls
A federal judge has denied former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman a new trial on federal charges. U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller denied the motion by attorneys for the former governor as he has done for co-defendant Richard Scrushy. Siegelman and Scrushy were convicted in 2006 on charges that Scrushy arranged
The Alabama Supreme Court overturned a $78 million verdict the state won against drug manufacturer Sandoz, Inc. The court ruled 7-1 in an unsigned opinion that the case should not have made it to a jury, much less resulted in a verdict against the company. The state won the verdict
A judge in Columbiana (south of Birmingham) has temporarily shut down what he called a “debtors prison” run by the municipal court in Harpersville. Shelby County Circuit Judge Hub Harrington said the Harpersville Municipal Court repeatedly violated the rights of defendants that appeared before it. According to the preliminary injunction,
The Alabama Education Trust Fund will collect enough state income taxes and other levies to meet its spending target for the fiscal year and avoid cuts in budgeted spending from proration. The trust fund collected $4.25 billion in October through June, an increase of $269.9 million or 6.8 percent, from
Summer is here and session is out, but the Governor’s still staying busy. Governor Signs Bill to Get Schools to Buy Locally: Governor Robert Bentley has signed into law a bill designed to make it easier for local farmers to sell produce to the state’s public schools. The Farm to School
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange was the keynote speaker at a June 8 rally in Birmingham sponsored by an organization that opposes the Obama administration’s mandate that employers provide workers with birth control measures. Also speaking at the noon rally was Michael Warsaw, president of the Eternal Word Television Network.
State officials announced that the unemployment rate rose from 7.2 percent in April to 7.4 percent in May. The slight increase is being attributed education employees who aren’t working in the summer months and to new high school and college graduates entering the workforce. The state’s unemployment rate a year
