Jul 03, 2024

It's a holiday week and Ike Morgan is off, so I sure appreciate you reading and listening.

John Hammontree

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Tomorrow is the Fourth of July so let’s talk about a group of folks appealing to a larger body to pay lower taxes.

Episcopalians from Alabama this year asked for a reduction in the amount of “tax,” or assessment, they pay to their national denominational headquarters. The Episcopal Church General Convention, which concluded June 28 in Louisville, Kentucky, considered the resolution proposed by the Diocese of Alabama and other regions.

The Diocese of Alabama asked that the percentage churches pay into the national denomination, currently at 15 percent, be reduced down to 10 percent by 2030. That request, however, was rejected by the General Convention.

Something tells me response this won’t result in a bunch of tea being dumped into a harbor...

Speaking of tea, some of the first steps in Alabama’s fledgling medical cannabis industry are taking place inside a building behind high security fences, cameras, and signs warning the public to keep out of the CRC of Alabama cannabis cultivation facility in the tiny town of Goshen.

About 1,000 marijuana plants - varieties with names like orange cream pop and hella jelly - are now being carefully cultivated at the facility.

AL.com’s Mike Cason toured the facility last week. Inside the vegetative room - temperature set at 78 degrees and relative humidity 70% - row after row of the two-week to two-month-old green leafy plants are growing in a mixture of coconut husks, coconut pith, and a granular material called perlite.

While the full launch of Alabama’s medical cannabis industry is tangled up in litigation, CRC of Alabama and six other companies have received licenses to grow the plants that will produce gummies, capsules, pills, tinctures, and other products to help patients with chronic pain, the harsh effects of cancer treatment, seizures, muscle spasms, PTSD, depression, panic disorder, and other conditions and symptoms.

Licenses for dispensaries, which will sell the products, and for integrated companies, which can cultivate, process, transport, and sell, are still on hold, the result of numerous lawsuits by companies challenging the licensing decisions of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).

Last week, Ike spoke with AL.com public safety reporter Carol Robinson about the turnover at the top of police departments around the state. That continues this week, with news that Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has appointed, Jeffrey Brown, a retired Birmingham FBI supervisor to be the new deputy chief of investigative operations. The department has its hands full as Carol reports that homicides in Birmingham and all of Jefferson County rose in the first six months of 2024 compared to the same time last year.

There were 75 homicides in Birmingham from January through June, up 10 slayings compared to the same time in 2023. That’s a more than 15% increase.

The city reported its first homicide of July -- the 76th of the year -- Monday night when a man was shot in an East Lake parking lot near where people were shooting dice. The victim was identified as 30-year-old Kameron Connell.

In all of Jefferson County, there have been 98 killings as of July 1, 2024. That is an increase of two homicides over this time last year.

That puts the county at odds with national trends where homicides and violent crime are on the decline. The FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report released in June showed a 26.4% decrease in murders nationally, according to Stateline. The data, which covers reported crimes from January to March, is collected from nearly 12,000 law enforcement agencies representing about 77% of the country’s population.

Ready for a sparkling Independence Day? Celebrations are planned throughout the state to help you have a red, white and blue holiday. Mary Colurso has 25 events you won’t want to miss this week.

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