Welcome back. Fans of crime news will have plenty to chew on today (with links to more details). Thanks for reading, Ike Morgan |
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Making the grade (mostly) |
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We know that for several years now the state has made it a priority to improve reading and literacy for students in the early grades. See: Alabama Reading Initiative and Alabama Literacy Act. And, overall, this past spring's standardized testing showed that scores were up in language arts. Still, reports AL.com's Trisha Powell Crain, there seems to be a bit of a drop-off for the older students who were tested -- in Grades 4 through 8. State Superintendent Eric Mackey has supported more funding to support efforts to help those students get up to speed -- and lawmakers did move $5 million for those efforts this coming budget year. There are some concerns over math scores as well. The testing performance of second and third-graders fell year-over-year, something that's a bit of a mystery for state education officials to try to figure out. And seventh- and eighth-graders improved year-over-year but were still significantly less proficient than those in earlier grades. |
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A member of the Alabama State House was arrested and charged with forgery crimes, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson. State Rep. Kelvin Lawrence, a Hayneville Democrat, is accused of using a fake or altered builder's license with intent to defraud. The charges are second-degree forgery and second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument, both felonies. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the Special Prosecutions Division is prosecuting the case. Lawrence is a former mayor of Hayneville. He was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2014. |
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Underwater Forest bill moves on |
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the bill that would designate the Underwater Forest off Alabama's coast as a National Marine Sanctuary, reports AL.com's Margaret Kates. The 60,000- to 70,000-year-old fossilized cypress forest was discovered by former AL.com reporter Ben Raines in 2012 after it was partially uncovered during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The bill was sponsored by Congressman Jerry Carl, a Mobile Republican. Barry Moore of Enterprise didn't vote Monday evening, but the rest of the Alabama delegation voted in favor. If it wins final approval it will prohibit activities such as drilling and digging, but fishing, diving and anchoring will continue to be allowed in the area. |
Cops-beat stories that stand out |
We don't do a whole lot of regular crime stories here. After all, crime events are often very local, and this is a statewide newsletter. But some seem to fit either because they're representative of trends or are just interesting or unusual stories. Lately we've seen a liberal amounts of both in Alabama, so I'll share some here: |
| Last week, there were six homicides in seven days in Birmingham. Mayor Randall Woodfin found himself pleading with residents once again to stop resorting to violence. He was careful to say city officials aren't victim-blaming, but he warned people about who they're hanging around with and the cycle of retaliations. “Stop trying to live out your TV fantasies by attempting to rob drug dealers.’’ he said. During 2023, Birmingham police say that ShotSpotter detected 2,164 shots fired in the East Lake neighborhood alone. Woodfin said many of those were drive-by shots fired into houses or cars. He said they're trying to crack down on illegal dumping, prostitution, drug-dealing and speeding in the area.A capital murder charge was dropped in the July 2020 case in which a man in Decatur was accused of killing a teenager during a "fireworks war." The man instead pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. A Mobile man pleaded guilty after people complained he was taking mail from a postal collection box using some sort of tool covered in rat-trap glue. Federal agents searched his house and found hundreds of checks and pieces of stolen mail used to create fake identities and forged checks. A burglary suspect led police on a chase across a Cherokee County lake. Deputies with arrest warrants showed up at the man's home, and, according to Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver, he allegedly got to the lake, stole a boat and took off. Area residents gave investigators access to a couple of Jetskis, and they were able to chase the suspect across the lake, then run him down on the other side. This last one doesn't reflect a crime, but it happened during an emergency situation that involved first responders. A multiple-vehicle crash blocked northbound lanes at the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge on I-65 in Baldwin County. That's the Dolly Parton bridge. Locals know what I'm talking about. It involved three tractor trailers, six cars and one truck with a box trailer. Nobody was killed, but there were injuries, and one man, as vehicles were piling up, got out of a car and jumped off the bridge to avoid being struck. He was rescued and taken to a hospital with minor injuries. |
“The GOP platform may be subject to change, but God’s word is not. Southern Baptists 'contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death' and will insist that elected officials do the same.” |
19 years, 7 months and 11 days |
I'll take a moment here because I can't not acknowledge Joe Bonsall's passing. Joe Bonsall was the curly-haired tenor for the Oak Ridge Boys -- the one who used to hop around so much on stage. Even though he's not from Alabama like the Oaks' baritone, William Lee Golden of Brewton, I think a lot of people in our part of the world might've shared in the multi-generation impact that quartet had. What I mean is, as an example, during my pre-teen years I had some cassette tapes of ... Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Buffett, Michael Jackson, while my grandma has a few gospel albums and some old stuff. It was at the Oak Ridge Boys where our musical tastes crossed over, a Godly senior woman and a smooth-faced troublemaker. So I'd bring over my tape recover and fill blank cassettes up with her Oaks albums. The entire quartet was great. Golden sounded great in his solo work. Richard Sterban had sung bass with Elvis. Duane Allen was the lead singer. But Bonsall's high notes were the biggest stroke in the group's signature and the hook in many of its songs. Joe Bonsall, who had Lou Gehrig's disease, was 76 years old and passed away Tuesday, a little more than a week after Golden's son, Rusty, who was also a musician from Brewton. |
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