Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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Feb. 23
The Cullman Times on a proposed bill that would remove voters lists from community newspapers and house them solely online:
A bill before the Alabama legislature proposes creating a website where the voters lists for each county can reside, taking that information out of the state’s community newspapers and putting it online. Not only is that a waste of taxpayer dollars, it’s contrary to what the spirit of the public notice law is about.
First, a website for public notices - such as the voters list for each county - is already available, at no cost to the state or to those who seek the information. Alabamapublicnotices.com provides 24/7 access to public notices across the state at no charge to users. To create a state-run website that does the same thing is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
HB 371, sponsored by Andrew Sorrell (R-Muscle Shoals), also overlooks the very heart of public notices: they should be public. In the past year, the woeful state of rural internet access has become painfully apparent. To be fair, the state legislature has done much in the past several years to advance high speed internet access within the state, but it’s going to be several years before Alabamians have reliable internet access. Voter registration information is far too important to be left to spotty internet access.
In addition, even if there is reliable internet access, having a permanent record of voter information is important to accountability and transparency. The voter’s list is a permanent document and resource which cannot be changed, altered or hacked. Nothing is more important than Alabama utilizing every single asset to insure every vote counts, and preserving the integrity of a transparent election.
Finally, there is the effectiveness of push vs. pull communications. A voters list published in a newspaper of record, going to the homes and businesses of readers, pushes the voters list into their awareness. Passively placing the information on a website and expecting voters to seek out the information is an ineffective way of communicating this important information. Worse, this is a year where states will be going through reapportionment once the Census Bureau releases the new population figures. This means voters may be placed in new voting districts and be assigned new voting places.
Why eliminate an important tool – particularly in the rural counties and underserved communities – at a critical time?
We encourage our state delegation to keep these points in mind when considering HB 371. Public notices, especially ones as important as our voter lists, should not be pushed out of the public’s sight.
Online: https://www.cullmantimes.com/
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Feb. 21
The Decatur Daily on severe weather and its affect on utilities and infrastructure:
If the scientific consensus is right, extreme weather like the crippling and deadly snowstorm that left millions shivering without electricity - and some without water - for the past week will become more common.
That is what scientists say is one of the major dangers of climate change: The Earth overall warms, but that increased heat energy makes weather systems more chaotic and more extreme. Hot systems become hotter, cold become colder, wet become wetter and dry become drier.
We’re familiar with this in the Tennessee Valley, which over the past several decades has seen more severe weather as the nation’s center of peak tornado activity has shifted eastward.
We are also familiar with the toll such extreme weather can take not just in terms of lives but on utilities and infrastructure. The April 25, 2011, tornado super outbreak killed 324 people, including 238 in Alabama. It also severely damaged the Tennessee Valley Authority’s electrical grid, not just downing transmission lines, but twisting transmission towers like pretzel dough. The result was thousands of people - especially in Decatur and Huntsville - left without power for nearly a week. Without power to run gasoline pumps, people were forced to drive to areas that did have power, like Athens and the Shoals, to top off their tanks.
Much of Texas is experiencing the same situation, but with the added complication of icy weather and hazardous travel - on top of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Combating global warming is a long-term objective. In the short term, the nation’s infrastructure will have to be made more resilient so as to better withstand extreme weather.
For the past couple of decades, administrations in Washington have said we need to address the nation’s “crumbling infrastructure.” Yet the “crumbling infrastructure” remains, and what gets built or repaired usually has more to do with politics than real need.
Again, this is something with which we in north Alabama are only too familiar, seeing infrastructure spending go to highways in the middle of nowhere in south Alabama, while fast-growing north Alabama has to claw for every bit of funding we can get just so our roads can keep up with demand. This is a situation that has only recently improved.
If former President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats could never reach an agreement on infrastructure, perhaps President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress can.
Biden has said he wants to spend up to $2 trillion on infrastructure and “clean energy” over the next four years. That includes upgrades to the power grid.
“Building resilient and sustainable infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather and a changing climate will play an integral role” in the administration’s plans, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week.
Infrastructure has been a bipartisan failure. Republican administrations in Texas failed to see to necessary maintenance and upgrades of their state’s power system, just as Democrats in California - where rolling blackouts are a summer norm - have failed to see to theirs.
People are not going to go without power. Lives depend on it, and jobs depend on it. Our leaders have played politics with infrastructure for too long, and as Texas now and Alabama in 2011 show us, the time to start rebuilding the grid has already passed. We’re playing catch-up.
Online: https://www.decaturdaily.com/
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Feb. 16
The Dothan Eagle on vaccination distribution:
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey joined the governors of eight other states to ask President Joe Biden’s administration to improve communication and coordination with regard to distribution of the COVID vaccine.
The request is appropriate, and action should follow. Since the beginning vaccination efforts have been pushed down to the states, with varying degrees of success, as some states have better resources to direct toward vaccination efforts. The bipartisan group of governors’ request addresses a different matter – communication regarding distribution and selection of pharmacies and healthcare centers as distribution sites. The governors argue that without effective communication between state efforts and federal efforts, there’s potential for duplicated effort.
It may be akin to repairing a locomotive while it’s barreling down the track, but state and federal efforts must find a way to mesh seamlessly to eliminate potential hiccups as the vaccination effort gains momentum.
While it’s understandable that officials are in new frontiers in meeting the challenges of the novel coronavirus, the United States has successfully deployed mass vaccination programs in the past for diseases like smallpox and polio with great success.
There is ample reason to believe that today’s efforts could result in similar success.
Online: https://dothaneagle.com/
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