Alabama public media groups are starting to make changes following Congress’s decision to cut $9 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in July. Alabama Public Television leaders laid off 15% of their staff last week, while a Huntsville public radio station has announced that it is dropping its NPR programming.
APT laid off 11 employees, including four members of the production teams of APT’s original programming, four education staff members, a public information and programming team member and a member of their Montgomery studio team. These cuts will take effect on Sept. 30.
APT, which has aired in Alabama for more than 70 years, lost more than $2.8 million in grant funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting following congressional cuts to the organization. CPB is a non-profit corporation that distributes funding to local PBS and NPR stations around the country.
“The funding loss has forced us into a position we never wanted to face. I am deeply saddened that this situation has required us to eliminate valued positions,” APT Executive Director Wayne Reid said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Huntsville-based public radio station WLRH — which is a branch of APT — said it is combatting CPB cuts by dropping their NPR programming entirely.
Formerly, WLRH filled 32% of its airtime with NPR distributed programming, such as Morning Edition, Fresh Air and All Things Considered. APT said NPR programming costs $192,000 to air on WLRH.
Now, WLRH says it is shifting to airing more locally-produced programming to fill its airtime, including a local news morning show and programming focused on highlighting local musicians. The station plans to begin its new programming slate on Oct. 1.
“The quality of the product (NPR) is really good,” WLRH General Manager Erich Bruckner told AL.com. “But, you know, we’re looking at this from a long-term perspective of what is going to be the healthiest thing for the radio station long term.”
However, APT executives have blamed “bias” at NPR and PBS for leading to the defunding of CPB in a recent episode of APT-produced political news show “Capitol Journal.”
Alabama top stories in brief
ASU one of several HBCUs involved in swatting threat
- Alabama State University was one of several HBCUs who received emails containing terroristic threats last week, causing campus officials to shut down campus operations on Thursday.
- ASU police, federal law enforcement, local law enforcement and special agents with the State Bureau of Investigation searched campus and found no evidence of a threat to campus.
- Two other HBCUs, Hampton University and Virginia State University, received similar threats on Thursday.
- ALEA said it is working with the Alabama Fusion Center, which focuses on investigating terrorist and criminal threats, to identify the source of the email.
32-million-year-old sea turtle fossil found by Mobile family now on display
- A 32-million-year-old fossil of a newly discovered genus of leatherback sea turtle discovered in South Alabama is now on display at Birmingham’s McWane Science Center.
- The fossil was found along a riverbank by a Mobile family during a boat trip on the Alabama River around two hours north of Mobile. The family reached out to Gulf State Park paleontologist Andrew Gentry who helped identify the fossil as a turtle fossil.
- Gentry, along with McWane science center paleontologist Jun Ebersole, assembled a team from the science center, the Geological Survey of Alabama and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to work on excavating the fossil from the riverbank.
- Once the fossil was studied in a lab, researchers were able to tell that this fossil belonged to a newly-discovered genus of leatherback sea turtles, which they named Ueloca colemanorum.
State board of education plans to ask for $375 million budget increase
- Alabama State Board of Education leaders said they are planning to ask state lawmakers for $6.7 billion from the Education Trust Fund. If this full amount of funding were to be approved by lawmakers, it would mark a 6% budget increase for the board — an increase of about $375 million.
- The board’s proposed budget funds a number of different initiatives. Notably, they are seeking to increase funding for teacher stipends and the Alabama Numeracy Act, an initiative meant to increase elementary competency in math.
- However, state education officials do not expect to get the full funding increase they are requesting due to the rising cost of health insurance for state employees, such as public school educators. State officials expect the cost of PEEHIP, the state’s health insurance plan, to increase by more than $300 million — an increase that will likely come from education funds.
LGBTQ rights lawyer involved in Alabama case faces indictment, prompting backlash from advocacy groups
- A lawyer working for LGBTQ-focused legal defense organization Lambda Legal is facing a federal indictment related to “judge-shopping” in a case challenging Alabama’s gender affirming care ban for transgender youth.
- Federal prosecutors unsealed a felony indictment last week against Carl Charles, who works in the southern regional office of Lambda Legal. The indictment alleges that Charles made false statements to a panel of judges convened in May 2022 investigating allegations of “judge-shopping” from Charles and other lawyers involved in the legal challenge to Alabama’s gender affirming care ban.
- These allegations were made by U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, who presides in the Northern District of Alabama, who accuses Charles of lying before the panel about contacting a district judge to discuss the filing of the case he was working on. Burke says Charles was attempting to ”game the system” by voluntarily dismissing his case when it was assigned to him.
- Voluntary dismissals by plaintiffs are protected under Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
- LGBTQ advocacy groups have expressed opposition to Charles’s indictment, with the Human Rights Campaign dismissing the case as “politically-motivated and unjust.”
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