Talks are underway to bring a state lottery to Alabama. APR student reporter Allison Mollenkamp has more on day one of the debate in the state legislature.
The Senate and Tourism Marketing Committee considered a bill by Senator Jim McClendon to create a state lottery.
The hearing was split between two sides. Opponents believe a lottery would take advantage of poor families. Supporters believe it would help generate income for local businesses that currently lose those dollars to lottery players who drive across state lines to purchase their tickets.
The final decision wouldn’t be up to the Alabama House and Senate. The bill would call for a voter referendum in November. However, the measure does not specify how funds would be used.
The bill has passed a committee vote and now sits before the full house.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham will be making improvements to ensure people with disabilities have equal access to the university's facilities.
U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance says those changes are the result of a recent settlement. The agreement was reached after a UAB student filed a complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act, saying various building and parking lots were inaccessible to individuals with mobility impairments.
Vance says UAB has agreed to develop a pilot program to address the issue. The university will conduct architectural reviews of several facilities and submit the reports to the U.S. Justice Department to review the plans.
Vance praised the university, saying it had been quick to respond to the complaint and collaborate with authorities, avoiding litigation costs.
If you’re looking for a state in which to retire, Alabama’s not the worst choice, although it’s not the best either.
A new study by the internet finance site WalletHub shows Alabama ranks thirty fifth among the fifty states and the District of Columbia. The report focused on things like affordability in a certain state, along with quality of Life, and availability of health care.
Jill Gonzalez is an analyst for WalletHub. She says that while Alabama performed well in some areas, there are weaknesses in others.
“Alabama is great in terms of affordability; it actually ranked seventh best for cost of living and for its taxation policies, but when you look at quality of life and health care, that’s really where Alabama has to step it up. Health care specifically.”
The list of things the study focused on also included the number of primary care physicians and the number of museums per capita.
The numbers are in, and despite the cold weather, this year’s Mardi Gras was the busiest in a decade on Alabama’s Gulf Coast.
Mobile Police Chief James Barber says approximately 1,172,000 people hit the streets of Alabama’s port city in the past month for Mardi Gras. Around 132,000 turned out for the Fat Tuesday parade earlier this week.
Chief Barber says he’s pleased with the overall safety of the event. Even though crowd sizes went up this year compared to last, the Mobile Police Department made the fewest arrests of any year in the past decade. They only made 42 arrests on Fat Tuesday and just over 100 in the past month. That’s an arrest-to-attendance ratio of less than a hundredth of a percent.?