The arrival of charter schools in Montgomery is now in limbo. A contract to convert four Montgomery Public Schools into charter schools failed to pass at a meeting of the Montgomery County school board yesterday. After the contract was presented by the Montgomery E

ducation Foundation to the board, Montgomery Schools Superintendent Ann Roy Moore recommended passage and board member Lesa Keith made a motion, but a second motion never came and the measure failed.

   Alabama State University will conclude it’s Founders’ Week activities with the 119th  Founder’s Day Convocation Friday. The yearly celebration commemorates the University’s origin, history and the people that made it possible. The keynote speaker for the event is Larry Mack, alumnus of ASU and currently the deputy director of Human Capital at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Marshal Space Flight Center in Huntsville. The convocation begins at 10am at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome. It is free and open to the public.

   Another candidate for mayor of Montgomery has emerged. After hinting at the move earlier, Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed confirmed his decision to run for mayor yesterday. He released a statement to the media. In it, he expresses his desire to bring new ideas to the table on education, public safety and economic development. He says he will have a campaign kickoff event at a later time. Reed was first elected as probate judge in 2012, then re-elected in 2018. He joins a growing field of candidates for the office. Montgomery’s municipal election is August 27.

     Protesters in Alabama have burned two American flags outside Hoover City Hall and vowed intensified protests at schools, businesses and homes in response to the state's decision against prosecuting the officer who shot a 21-year-old armed black man while responding to a mall shooting on Thanksgiving night. As he lit a flag Tuesday evening, demonstration leader Carlos Chaverst Jr. says the symbol won't mean anything to him until black lives matter. More than a half-dozen officers watched from a few feet away.

     The widow of a slain Alabama police officer is attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address as a guest of U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell. The Democratic lawmaker says Tiphanie Carter will join her at the speech Tuesday night. Carter is the wife of the late Wytasha Carter, a Birmingham police sergeant who was shot to death in the line of duty last month.