Citing a “long history of serious deficiencies,” ICE has announced it will not longer house immigration detainees in the Etowah County jail al.com/news/2022/03/i… This announcement comes six years after ICE toured the Alabama facility and issued a report detailing numerous failings including safety concerns and subpar food and health care. ice.gov/doclib/foia/od…

Creeping on Charles Barkley at a COVID vaccination drive at Birmingham’s Legion Field just now. Story tk later today on @aldotcom. Here’s more about the event if you’d like to come out and get the shot and meet Charles Barkley this afternoon. He’s been a prominent advocate for vaccination in Alabama and beyond.

With mobile morgues in place in Mobile Co., AL’s health officer said today “there’s no room to put these bodies.” In March 2020, I wrote about AL’s mass-casualty plans. They include mass burials & cremations and temporary internments. A terrifying prospect al.com/news/2020/03/w… Worth noting: These plans are still up on the AL Dept of Public Health website. And the ADPH’s general counsel told me last March “Alabama will continue to follow its disaster and pandemic planning documents, according each individual respect and dignity.” alabamapublichealth.gov/pandemicflu/as…

Tonight, Alabama has zero open ICU beds. Worth remembering that until last March, AL had a discriminatory protocol in place advising hospitals low on ventilators to take patients w/ certain diagnoses & disabilities off vents to free them up for others. 1/7 al.com/news/2020/03/l… The protocol stated that during a worst-case scenario pandemic, Alabama hospitals should “not offer mechanical ventilator support for patients” w/ any of a long list of medical issues and intellectual disabilities. 2/7

Random Alabama factoid that still blows my mind 3 years after I found out about it: The municipal laws for municipalities in 18 counties are not available on any state website and the state does not have them in any digital format. 1/3 I was told this is because the state's contract to have them digitized ran out after Mobile County. The laws - *which are part of the state code* - were being digitized county by county in alphabetical order. So Mobile County is online, but Monroe, Montgomery, etc. are not. 2/3

Update on my March reporting for @propublica & @aldotcom: In multiple Alabama counties, ppl w/ >2 felony convictions are still being charged w/ failing to register as repeat felons & failing to present "felon ID" to police, crimes punishable by up to a year in jail & fines. 1/6 Alabama is the only state w/ state laws requiring 3-time felons to register & carry "felon ID," which even most lawyers & felons have never heard of. Ppl do end up serving real jail time for violating the laws, which are only enforced in some counties. 2/6 propublica.org/article/a-litt…

I've been trying to figure out what inspired Lonnie Coffman, a 70-yr-old from rural Alabama, to travel to D.C. Wednesday, allegedly w/ a gun & molotov cocktail materials. His old posts on a web forum called Patriots for America offer a bit of insight. 1/7 patriotsforamerica.ning.com Here are screenshots of some alarmist and vaguely inciting rhetoric from Patriots for America's homepage as it exists today: "Today America is under attack. No less than if we had been invaded by a foreign enemy. We must stand tall and defend our Constitution" 2/7

I spent way too much time down far-right online rabbit holes today. Nothing more succinctly laid out the gist of the false version of yesterday's events many diehard Trump supporters are choosing to believe than my interview w/ Alabama GOP Exec. Committee member James Henderson: To be clear: Henderson only touched on a few of the false & dangerous narratives dominating far-right online spaces today. There's lots of far more disturbing, destructive rhetoric flying around, incl. calls for civil war, assassinations, being "locked & loaded," etc. Dark times.

Here's a photo of Kevin Greeson - the 55-year-old Athens, Alabama, man who died of a "medical emergency" during the unrest in Washington yesterday - posted on Parler last month w/ the caption "I wish these motherfuckers would come to my hood!" Greeson appeared to identify with the Proud Boys and he repeatedly posted and amplified Proud Boys content on his Parler account.

Thread on what @SarahWhitesk & I learned while reporting out this investigation into recent widespread felon disenfranchisement in Alabama that had previously gone unreported. 1/X
al.com/news/2020/10/i… In 2017, Alabama passed a law that greatly pared back the list of felony convictions that automatically result in loss of the franchise. Many observers assumed thousands of felons would be informed that they had regained the right to vote. al.com/news/2017/05/g… 2/X

While the 13th Amendment & pay for incarcerated people are a trending topic, it’s worth noting that most jobs performed by people incarcerated in Alabama’s state prisons pay exactly $0.00 per hour. This is not a well-known fact even in Alabama, but I have the receipts. THREAD 1/X I’ll say that again, for emphasis and to make sure I’m being clear: in Alabama’s state prisons, incarcerated people aren’t paid at all for the majority of work they do, from scrubbing toilets & cooking food to acting as hospice workers & mopping floors. 2/X

I'm covering the holiday for @aldotcom today and it's with a heavy heart that I share this sad news for everyone in the Birmingham area and beyond. Mike Wilson, the pitmaster behind @sawsbbq - my personal all-time favorite barbecue - has passed away. al.com/news/2020/09/m… For people unacquainted w/ the glory of Saw's, its claim to fame is the meatiest, tastiest NC-style (Wilson grew up in Charlotte) pork BBQ around. But Saw's also makes my favorite burger in the world, amazing wings, etc. & has been named best BBQ in America by multiple outlets.

Multiple students under COVID-19 isolation at the University of Alabama told me they never saw a medical professional & UA did no contact tracing after they tested positive. But UA has officers patrolling isolation dorms' parking lots & entrances 24/7. al.com/news/2020/09/y… UA freshman Caleb Overstreet said since his diagnosis he hasn’t “been contacted by anyone medically. I guess if I couldn’t breathe I’d try to find my way to the hospital ... They didn’t give me any instruction; they basically just stuck me here and haven’t been in touch since.”

It’s worth highlighting one key aspect of how the University of Alabama is handling the massive outbreak (>1,200 new student cases in 9 days.) UA is NOT retesting students before releasing them from COVID-19 isolation back to regular dorms, classes, etc. al.com/news/2020/09/y… UA freshman Zachary Bourg was released from isolation on Tuesday, 10 days after he tested positive for COVID-19. He was not tested and went straight back to his regular dorm (and healthy roommate.)

A look inside Burke West, a dorm bldg @UofAlabama is using to isolate & quarantine students who test positive for COVID. 1st photo is people in Hazmat suits delivering food (see 2nd photo) this evening. 3rd is a student’s room in Burke West. 4th is view out the student’s window. Disclaimer: I did not take these photos, they were sent to me by one of the more than 1,000 UA students who have tested positive for COVID-19 since Aug. 19. The student who took these photos is currently under quarantine/isolation inside Burke West.

University of Alabama senior Carlee Fernandez works the front desk of a tower UA converted last week to quarantine COVID-positive/exposed students amid an explosion in student cases. She says UA provided no guidance about how to handle sick students. 1/X al.com/news/2020/08/t… “The students are coming in. A few of them came up to the front desk just with their masks on and their stuff in their hands and were like, ‘I’m here to move into isolation. What do I do?’” Fernandez said. “We were never told what to do if someone comes for isolation." 2/X

I’m not an expert, but after spending the past 2 hours interviewing over 20 students, I‘m confident that the NYTimes list identifying UAB as the nation’s top college for COVID cases is in fact likely deeply misleading, as UAB said in a statement earlier today. THREAD 1/X First some context. The Times published an article today that included a list of the American universities and colleges w/ the highest number of COVID cases. #1 was UAB, with 972 cases to date. 2/X nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Several people have reached out with specific questions about the making of the Commissary Slips app. So here's a little thread on my process. Hope it's helpful, and please let me know if you have questions that aren't answered here. 1/16 reckonsouth.com/how-far-does-1… The genesis of this project was the idea that you could demonstrate prison economics - specifically how expensive commissaries are compared to inmates’ minimal incomes - via a video game, potentially drawing people to prisons reporting who don’t read long investigations. 2/16

THREAD on the new reporting at the heart of Commissary Slips, my immersive investigative app that went live on @reckonsouth today. The topic is Alabama prison commissaries, which served as a lens through which to examine life & economics behind bars. 1/16 reckonsouth.com/how-far-does-1… My initial goal was to create a standalone video game to demonstrate the economic realities of prison commissaries in Alabama, as I had obtained a price list that showed that product prices were very inflated - $7 for a $3 box of cereal; $11 for a $7 pack of cigarettes. 2/16

One takeaway after speaking to several people today who marched with John Lewis in Selma (some of whom were also beaten, some of whom were minors in 1965) is if you have no connection to the area or its residents you should stay out of the “rename the bridge” conversation. 1/2 Many people from Selma who were there on Bloody Sunday believe the Edmund Pettus Bridge should be renamed for a local activist or marcher, not for Lewis or MLK. I think it’s only fair that they be able to make that decision without outsiders demanding it be renamed for Lewis. 2/3

Headed to Selma, where I’ll be reporting for @aldotcom on John Lewis’ final ride across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the civil rights icon was beaten 1965 while advocating for voting rights on what would come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” His casket is expected to cross the bridge at 10 am, after which it will be driven to Montgomery. There, state officials will receive his body befoee he lies in state in the Capitol from 3 to 7 pm.