Sep 29, 2023

The fight over new Congressional districts continues to have ripple effects in local and statewide debates over what a voting district should look like and what constitutes gerrymandering.

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Now that the new proposed Congressional redistricting maps are out, one of the bigger controversies is over the splitting up of the Mobile/Baldwin County area.

All three maps have northern Mobile County, including some or all of the city of Mobile, moving into Alabama's Second Congressional District, while all of Baldwin County remains in Alabama 1.

AL.com's John Sharp reports that the local arguments for and against are coming down to how you want to define "communities of interest."

For Republicans such former Congressman and current Mobile Chamber president Bradley Byrne, the two counties belong together because of shared economic interests and the similarities that come with being geographically close. For Democrats such as former Mobile mayor and current state Rep. Sam Jones, the political differences, with Mobile County's higher black population and more poverty, shows the two areas are best being represented by different lawmakers.

Now, if we pull back to look at the statewide debate, AL.com's Mike Cason reports that attorneys for the state filed objections to the proposed maps, claiming that they use racial gerrymandering.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Democratic Conference, which is arguing that making District 2 48-50-percent Black was not going far enough, says it will propose its own map next week that has a Black population of 54 percent in District 2, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz. Conference Chair Joe Reed said it'll be similar to one proposed over the summer by Democrat State Sen. Kirk Hatcher. That map included appendages of District 2 dipping deep into Mobile County to the west and Henry and Houston counties to the east to pump up the Black population in Alabama 2.

The City of Warrior's Planning and Zoning Commission turned down a rezoning request from Church International, reports AL.com's Hannah Denham.

Remember Church International, the organization that's bought up millions of dollars of property in the Warrior area and had one of its leaders claim he's a prophet, that he's had visions and visited heaven and such.

The organization had requested that 20 acres that it had bought from the Jefferson County Board of Education be rezoned so it can build a park and greenhouse.

The Commission heard from more than a dozen people on Thursday night complaining about the request. Some area residents have grown concerned about Church International's ultimate plans as it buys up property and some of its new followers from out of state have moved into Warrior.

Warrior is a town of about 3,200 residents north of Birmingham.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Alabama is sixth in the nation for rate of sexually transmitted diseases, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

Alabama's STD rate is 989.6 per 100,000 residents. That's closing in on one out of every hundred people.

Ahead of Alabama, at No. 1 in the nation in STD rate, is Mississippi, followed by Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and South Dakota. Nationally, the rate is 762.7 cases per 100,000 people. That reflects a 6-percent year-over-year increase.

Former U.S. President and Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter's 99th birthday is Sunday. Carter has been in Hospice care since February. A birthday celebration is planned for Saturday at his presidential library in Atlanta. They're holding that a day early, according to the library, because in the event of a federal government shutdown it will be closed on Sunday.

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