Politics of libraries and migrants and the quiz: Down in Alabama

Library management

The Alabama Public Library Service board has elected state Republican Chairman John Wahl as its chair, AL.com's Howard Koplowitz reports. The governor appoints one board member from each of the seven congressional districts. Wahl has been a member of the library board since 2022.

I'm sure there have been times in our history when the election of a library board member has gone fairly unnoticed and drawn no criticism. However, Wahl's promotion comes at a time when public libraries have become a front in the culture war.

There are groups like Clean Up Alabama that say they want to prevent children from having access to sexually explicit material in libraries. Others, like the group Read Freely Alabama, accuse more conservative groups of targeting libraries for books with LGBTQ or racial justice themes.

Read Freely Alabama released a statement calling Wahl an “anti-library extremist” because of his support for Clean Up Alabama and Moms for Liberty.

In January, the library service voted to split from the American Library Association over the issue of how sexually explicit material is categorized.

Fears of migrants

There remains great concern in small towns in Alabama about migrant workers from Haiti who have come to many parts of the country as part of a temporary government job creation program.

Mike Cason of AL.com reports that some local officials in Enterprise tried to allay fears there by making similar statements to those made by mayors and city councilors in other cities: They had not received personal information about the new arrivals, they had not seen an increase in reported crimes, and they had encountered misinformation on social media.

Mayor William Cooper acknowledged that an influx of people could have unintended consequences and said he is in contact with law enforcement, health care, local school systems and other cities in a similar situation to keep an eye on potential problems.

Last night, a meeting about migrants was advertised as “public” at a church in Enterprise, but people there asked one of our reporters to leave. A flyer advertising the event said a former Trump adviser would be speaking.

Environmental settlement

Warrior Met Coal has agreed to repair a coal sludge reservoir, stop sewage pollution of a Tuscaloosa County waterway and pay $250,000 as part of a settlement with Black Warrior Riverkeeper, AL.com's Margaret Kates reports.

The wastewater seeped into a tributary of Texas Creek, which flows into the Black Warrior River. The environmental group filed suit in 2022 over 21 leaks it had documented since 2021.

The agreement also requires Warrior Met Coal to place the dam into the Alabama Dam Safety Program, meaning it will be subject to increased monitoring and regulation by the local EMA.

The company will reimburse Black Water Riverkeeper $28,000 in legal fees, and the $250,000 will go to the Freshwater Land Trust for a project in that river system.

In numbers

415

That's how many tickets and warnings the mobile police issued on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a red light campaign against traffic light violations.

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