The U.S. Department of Transportation will investigate whether Alabama violated civil rights law with closures and service reductions at rural driver's license offices. A-P-R’s Stan Ingold has more…
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says it is critical that license services be free from discrimination. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in programs that receive federal funds.
The department says it has not reached any conclusions.
Alabama shuttered 31 part-time offices where examiners gave driving tests once per week. The move was blamed on state budgetary concerns. The decision left more than a third of Alabama counties without a license office, including eight of the state's 11 counties with a majority African-American population. After a backlash, Alabama agreed to reopen the offices once per month.
Governor Bentley says Washington’s actions are an ongoing attempt to politicize a resolved issue.
A Muslim leader in Alabama says he's notified the FBI after mosque members received suspicious contacts on social media.
President Ashfaq Taufique of the Birmingham Islamic Society says several members received friend requests from an unknown person.
Taufique says one member then got a message from the same person stating: "We are at war and we must stick together."
Taufique says the meaning of the message is unclear, but he told the FBI since it could be tied to extremism. He says the messages were sent before the mass shooting in California that's being blamed on a radicalized Muslim couple.
The FBI in Birmingham declined comment.
Taufique says it's part of his religious duty to report anything that could endanger the community.
The University of Alabama is set to take a step toward greater diversity today.
The strategic planning committee for the Tuscaloosa campus is scheduled to meet. UA new President Dr. Stuart Bell wants a Central Diversity Officer, with a specific diversity plan, to help make the school more inclusive. Bell also named Student Government Association President Elliot Spillers to the committee. Spillers says having a safe zone for students of color at the University of Alabama is one item on his agenda…
“Seeing a space, for not just for people of color, but all students who are underrepresented here on campus, to have that space on campus that they can call their own, I think, right now, there’s no social space for anyone who’s not a Greek student here on campus, I think it’s important that we enhance the social experiences of those students as well.”
The strategic planning committee’s job is to draw up a plan to enhance graduate program enrollment, add faculty, and expand facilities and research. That’s in addition to achieving greater diversity.