WVAS Local

   Events continue today in the 54th annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma. An education summit begins at 8am at the Hank Sanders Building on Earl Goodwin Parkway. The Children’s Sojourn follows at 9 at the School of Discovery on Washington Street.

   Four teenagers have been arrested following the shooting of a student at Lee High School yesterday. A statement from Montgomery police says that all four suspects are fellow students ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old. The 17 year old who actually committed the shooting has been identified as Michael Woods. He is being charged as an adult with attempted murder and possession of a firearm on school premises. Woods has been placed in the Montgomery County Detention Facility under a 75-thousand dollar bond.

   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.

   The question on many Alabama residents’ minds is “how much snow are we going to get?” That depends on where you live. The highest impact area is the northern part of the state, particularly the northwest. As you head southeast, the impact decreases. The National Weather Service is predicting that the cold front could bring snow to the northwestern corner of the state as early as midnight tonight. The front will then traverse southeastward across Alabama with rain transitioning to snow as it goes.

     A federal judge has ordered the Alabama Department of Corrections to report data on the number of mentally ill inmates who have been placed in segregation units. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued the order Tuesday after attorneys for inmates asked him to intervene because of a high number of suicides.

   According to a new study, Alabama is the second most dangerous state in the country for pedestrians. The 2019 “Dangerous by Design” report compiled figures from the last ten years to reach its conclusions. During that time Alabama recorded 841 pedestrian deaths. While there are 11 more states with higher fatality totals, the state’s “pedestrian danger index” which takes into account population, is the second highest.

Birmingham is the most dangerous location in Alabama with 179 fatal accidents involving pedestrians from 2008 to 2017.