It may be tougher to light up in the city of Gadsden starting this Sunday. The town, just east of Birmingham, is putting a tougher smoking ordinance into effect. The new rule prohibits smoking in all enclosed workplaces in the city and that includes restaurants and bars. It also bans smoking within twenty feet of public entrances to buildings. The City Council passed the ordinance in June, but delayed enforcement until February first. Advocates say it will protect the public from secondhand smoke. But some business owners worry about lost revenue.
The effort to count Alabama’s homeless continues this week. The Homeless Care Council of Northwest Alabama is conducting its homeless census starting today through Sunday. The effort will focus on the homeless in Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, Winston, Marion, and Lawrence Counties. Project coordinator Krista Manchester says it’s a good opportunity for average citizens in Alabama to better understand the issue of homelessness in the state.
“Even if you don’t see them, if they’re not on the streets that we do have a homeless population. And help people to understand why people are homeless, the reasons that case that, and some of the ways we can help them.”
The survey will ask the respondents where they plan to spend the night tonight and Friday night. The city of Montgomery began its homeless census earlier this week.
This week is National Drug Facts Week and Alabama drug use prevention groups are holding events to get teenagers away from smoking, drugs and alcohol. Figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services say marijuana use among teens in Alabama is down about six percent in 2013 compared to the previous survey in 2011. Dr. Wilson Compton is deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He says residents need to band together to figure out the problem spots in their community, and how to discuss them with teenagers…
“Each community will have a different set of local issues. And, by putting community experts and local activists together, they can begin in make a dent in these from a policy and an intervention practices.”
The Substance Abuse Partnership in Dothan and Houston County is sponsoring a discussion group today. Wenonah High School in Birmingham will be holding a student chat tomorrow.
The Marshall Space Flight Center joined the rest of NASA in remembering astronauts lost in the line of duty. The days between January twenty seventh and February first are considered especially costly. Three Apollo astronauts were killed in a launch pad fire on January twenty seventh of 1967, the Challenger seven died on the twenty eighth of January in 1986, and Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart and burned up on February first, 2003. Astronaut Hoot Gibson visited Huntsville to light a candle to remember the lost crews.
