Probate judges from across Alabama are meeting in Tuscaloosa today. Alabama Public Radio’s Stan Ingold reports they’ll be talking about updates to marriage laws.
The conference is being hosted by the Alabama Law Institute. With the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow same sex marriage across the country, the judges will be discussing the updates to marriage and family law. Many probate judges resisted the order, but Baldwin County Probate Judge Tim Russell says this conference will provide them with new legal knowledge on the issues surrounding marriage and family law.
“There are a lot of issues involved in that Supreme Court decision that will impact family law decisions, not only marriage but other family law issues.”
One issue that has come up is adoption by same sex couples. These conferences are ways to continue the legal education for the probate judges and their chief clerks. The Alabama Law Institute is part of the University of Alabama’s Law School.
School starts next month for kids across Alabama.
The Community Action Agency of South Alabama is hosting mass application events for its Head Start and Pre-K programs today. The events run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Bay Minette and Daphne. Families are required to bring a series of documents that can be found on their website.
Elaine Lee is the interim Head Start director for the Community Action Agency of South Alabama. She says participation in Head Start programs is beneficial in the long run.
“Children that participate in Head Start programs earn higher salaries over their lifetime. They have a lower incidence of incarceration, lower incidence of teen pregnancy and have a lower rate of the cycle of poverty.”
Lee says with Governor Bentley’s recent ruling expanding funding for Head Start and prekindergarten programs, they foresee more opportunities for children to participate.
A former inmate says sheriff's deputies used a python to intimidate and harass prisoners in Alabama’s Dale County Jail.
In a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Montgomery, Trawick Redding Jr. says he saw two deputies in the jail with a yellow Burmese python around 6 to 7 feet long in the summer of 2013. He says he told the deputies he was afraid of snakes.
Redding says that several hours later, as he was sleeping in his bunk, a deputy entered with a snake. He says in the lawsuit that the deputy brought the snake "within less than an inch of his face and ready to strike."
Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson says the two deputies involved were terminated after he learned of the matter.
Redding is seeking up to $3 million for damages related to the incident.
Alabama's longest-serving state school superintendent has died.
Retired state superintendent Wayne Teague served as head of the Alabama Department of Education for 20 years before leaving the job in 1995.
Teague died Sunday at his home in Auburn. He was 87.
Teague worked as a teacher, coach, administrator and local superintendent in Alabama and Georgia before taking over the state's top job in 1975. The Cullman native led the state system through a period that included school desegregation and increased emphasis on student testing.
Teague is survived by his wife and two children. The family hasn't released a cause of death.