by Shalina Chatlani, Alabama Reflector
July 28, 2025

This story originally appeared on Stateline.

Between 2016 and 2022, as congenital syphilis cases rose nationally and especially in the South, Mississippi saw a one thousand percent increase — from 10 to 110 — in the number of newborn babies who were hospitalized after contracting the disease, known to cause developmental issues, intellectual disabilities, and even death.

So in 2023, the state Department of Health mandated that all medical practitioners screen for the disease in pregnant mothers, and it has been running advertisements to spread awareness.

Annual congenital syphilis cases in Mississippi rose from 62 in 2021 to 132 in 2023, according to state data. The number fell to 114 last year. There have been 33 cases so far this year.

That work won’t stop despite potential budget cuts, Dr. Daniel Edney, Mississippi’s state health officer, said in an interview. “We’re going to keep doing what we have to do, you know, to keep it under control.”

State by state, public health departments take a similar approach: They monitor, treat and try to stem preventable diseases, alongside their host of other duties. But in the coming year, health department officials — with their agencies already strapped for cash — fear they’ll find it much more difficult to do their jobs.

President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 would cut the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention budget by more than half, from $9.3 billion to $4.2 billion. The proposal serves as a wish list from the administration, a blueprint for the Republican-controlled Congress as it works through upcoming spending legislation.

If lawmakers hew to Trump’s vision, then state and county public health departments would be hit hard. States contribute to their own health departments, but a lot of them rely heavily on federal funding.

And around half of local public health department funding comes from federal sources, primarily the CDC, as noted in a 2022 report from the National Association of County & City Health Officials.

“The federal government provides a lot of funding, but the actual implementation of public health programs happens at the state and local level,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at KFF, a health policy research group. “Each state has its own approach, in many ways, to how public health programs are overseen, how they’re funded, how they are implemented.”

In announcing his department’s share of the proposed budget, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Trump’s goals align with “new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic.”

But many local health leaders point to the longtime mission of state public health departments in preventing the spread of disease.

“Local public health is on the front lines preventing communicable disease, operating programs to prevent chronic disease, ensuring our septic and well water systems are safe,” said Dr. Kelly Kimple, acting director of North Carolina’s Division of Public Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

“I’m very concerned,” Kimple said, “especially given the magnitude of funding that we’re talking about, as we can’t keep doing more with less.”

Clawing back COVID-era grants

Other federal budget cuts also have states worried.

Many state public health departments grew alarmed when the Trump administration announced in March that it would be clawing back $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for grants that were slated to extend into 2026.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia sued. A federal district court in Rhode Island temporarily blocked the cuts, and the case remains tied up in court.

The court’s preliminary injunction may not protect temporary staff or contractors, though. Public health departments have been laying off staff, cutting lab capacity and reducing immunization clinics, said Dr. Susan Kansagra, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Historically, public health departments receive funding in “boom and bust” cycles, meaning they tend to get more federal support during emergencies, said Michaud, of KFF. But “since the Great Recession of 2008, there was a general decline in public health support funding until the COVID pandemic.”

For example, KHN and The Associated Press reported that between 2010 and 2019, spending on state public health departments declined by 16% per capita and spending for local health departments fell by 18%.

Nationally, syphilis cases reached historic lows in the 2000s, thanks to robust prevention efforts and education from public health officials. By 2022, however, cases reached their highest numbers nationally since the 1950s.

“In the wake of the COVID emergency, you’ve seen a sort of backlash to what people had been calling the overreach of public health and imposing vaccination requirements and lockdowns and other public health measures,” Michaud told Stateline.

Smallpox, cholera and typhoid

Public health departments and officials go back to the 19th century, when there was a greater emphasis on sanitation efforts to prevent spread of diseases such as smallpox, cholera and typhoid, which were rampant at the time.

By the end of the century, 40 states had established health departments, which to this day are responsible for water sanitation, tracking the spread of disease, administering vaccinations, furnishing health education, providing screenings for infants and some prenatal care for moms at local clinics, offering family planning services, and tracking and treating sexually transmitted infections, among other things.

Kimple pointed to measles as a current example of a disease that’s spreading fast. When North Carolina’s health department detected a case in the state, she said, the department “identified and contacted everyone who might have been exposed, helped people get tested, worked with doctors to make sure they knew how to respond.”

That’s the legacy of local public health, Michaud said.

“The federal government cannot decide, ‘This public health program will happen in this state, but not that state,’ that kind of thing. And cannot declare a national lockdown. The COVID pandemic tested a lot of those boundaries. It really is a state and local responsibility to protect public health. And that’s always been the case, since the beginning of our country,” Michaud said.

“And what we’re seeing now is a complete upheaval of the funding going into public health.”

A major cut in services

Kimple said she’s seen recent progress in her state in the support for funding public health.

“North Carolinians viewed our work as highly important to improving health and well-being in the state, and appreciated the local presence, the reliable information, the role in prevention and efforts to protect, in particular, vulnerable communities,” she said.

Similarly, Edney said that Mississippi state lawmakers were showing more support, despite some setbacks in 2016 and 2017. New federal cuts could throw a wrench in the health department’s economic plans and its ability to reach small communities.

“Now the federal rug is being pulled out from under us,” he said.

Edney said he expects the federal share of his department’s public health funding to fall from its current 65% to around 50%.

Edney said he’s been trying to strengthen Mississippi health department’s longevity by diversifying its revenue streams by, for example, accepting private donations.

The state will not stop doing its “core” work, he said, regardless of federal funding.

“We’re not going to cut back on services at the county health department, because what we do now is all mission critical,” Edney said.

Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached at schatlani@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post State public health departments fear looming federal cuts in Trump’s next budget appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents a fact-based examination of public health funding cuts proposed under the Trump administration’s budget, focusing on the impact to state and local health departments. While it maintains a largely neutral tone, the emphasis on potential negative consequences for public health programs and the inclusion of critical perspectives on the funding reductions align the coverage more with a center-left viewpoint. The language underscores concerns about underfunding and the importance of public health infrastructure, typical of coverage attentive to social welfare issues without overt ideological framing.

SUMMARY: An Irvington neighbor, Cheryl Edwards, described years of warning signs before 70-year-old Diane Trest was allegedly beaten to death by her 18-year-old granddaughter, Jailen Mia Lupton. Edwards recalled Trest often showed bruises, claiming her dogs caused them, but neighbors suspected otherwise. On Saturday night, Lupton reportedly confessed to killing her grandmother, demanding Edwards’ car keys and forcibly entering her home. Deputies arrived to find Trest unresponsive; CPR efforts failed. The grandmother’s face was severely injured, with a rubber mallet found nearby. Lupton was arrested and charged with murder and burglary in connection to the senseless attack.

News 5 spoke with a next door neighbor who said there were warning signs leading up to death of 70-year-old Diane Trest.

Source

by Lee Hedgepeth, Inside Climate News and Lanier Isom, Alabama Reflector
July 27, 2025

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

BESSEMER — For Ron Morgan, the signs told the tale. He was among the dozens of residents who spilled into the Birmingham suburb’s city hall chambers who were met by what they viewed as propaganda: Literal signs, the residents felt, that city officials may not have an open mind about voting against a development project facing near universal public opposition.

Flanking the chamber doors and on both sides of the council dais were city-printed posters with bold, all-capital letters at their tops: “LET’S TALK FACTS.”

Lower down on the posters was information residents said they felt was misleading and aimed at swaying public opinion on an issue they’ve studied closely: the impacts of a 4.5 million square foot data center proposed in their largely rural community.

“Focus on Benefits,” one of the posters read, “Not Misinformation.”

At the bottom of the posters, next to an emblem of city hall itself, another all-caps slogan: “POWERED BY KNOWLEDGE, NOT FEAR.”

“They’ve already made their mind up,” Morgan, an Army veteran, said. “No surprise there.”

So far, officials in the city of 25,000 have shown little interest in publicly digging into the details of what could be one of the largest development projects in state history—one that would require the clear-cutting of more than 100 acres of land, threaten endangered species and lead to large increases in water and electricity usage.

Instead, public officials, many bound by non-disclosure agreements with the developer, have relied on the assertions of the company proposing the project—a company that has so far refused to answer media questions about the impact of their plans on the community and the environment.

Not long after the July 15 City Council meeting began, Brad Kaaber, a representative of the developer, Logistic Land Investments LLC, told City Council members that residents’ near-universal opposition wasn’t based on facts.

“You’re going to hear things that simply are not true,” Kaaber told council members. “And I appreciate all the people who took time out of their day to come to a meeting like this, but all I want to do is speak to the facts. You’re going to hear a lot of things that simply are not facts.”

Residents who’d packed into the relatively small council chambers balked, audibly reacting to Kaaber’s comments.

Earlier, when Martin Evans, the developer’s attorney, exceeded the two-minute time limit imposed by the council on comments, several members of the audience shouted in protest. Proponents of the development, they said, should be bound by the same time constraint placed on opponents. Council President Donna Thigpen quickly squelched the residents’ complaints: “If you can’t be quiet, we’ll clear the room,” she said.

As Kaaber continued speaking, JC Matthews, director of economic development for the Birmingham Business Alliance, reacted to the groans of community members.

“Y’all just don’t care about the facts,” he said from the side of the room. Residents seated nearby, dressed in red to show their opposition to the data center’s construction, looked shocked.

“That’s exactly what we’re interested in,” one resident said. “The facts.”

To find “the facts,” Inside Climate News interviewed the developer’s representative, public officials and residents who live near the proposed development site on key topics and claims. Among the findings:

Water usage

Because of the need to cool the computer servers and other electronics in the proposed data center, the facility—consisting of 18 buildings, each the size of a Walmart Supercenter—could consume large amounts of water. The specific amount of water used by a data center campus depends primarily on its size and on its specific method of cooling.

Representatives of the developer behind the Bessemer project have said they’re unsure which method of cooling will ultimately be used by the proposed data center campus because an end user has not yet been secured.

At a June meeting, Kaaber told planning and zoning commissioners that a large tech firm, likely a Fortune 10 company, would eventually sign on as the facility’s primary customer—Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook among the chief possibilities.

Only then, with a final user in place, would there be firm estimates of water usage.

Still, publicly available documents provide an insight into how much water the project could ultimately consume.

Warrior River Water Authority, a local utility, said in a letter obtained by Inside Climate News that the developer requested a supply of 2 million gallons per day, an amount the utility said it would not be able to provide without “significant upgrades” to the water distribution system.

Water usage of 2 million gallons per day would likely place the facility among the largest consumers of water in the region with the exception of power plants, the utility document said, straining its capacity. Residents have said they already consider the water utility unreliable.

Publicly available information suggests that the Warrior River Water Authority’s supply capacity is around 6 million gallons per day. Usage of 2 million gallons per day, then, would amount to a third of the utility’s water supply if capacity is not increased to accommodate the facility.

The 2 million gallons of water a day requested by the developer is equivalent to the typical usage of around 6,700 households, about two-thirds of Bessemer’s population, based on the water utility’s consumption estimates.

Charles Miller, policy director for the Alabama Rivers Alliance, told council members at the July 15 meeting to be wary of the developers’ claims that council members should leave environmental regulation to other entities, like the Alabama Department of Environmental Management or the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

“In Alabama, we have no water quantity laws, so no state body or board will be examining whether the volume of water this project requires is reasonable or will harm neighboring communities,” Miller said.

“Water is a finite resource,” Lauren Adele, a citizen concerned about rising water utility rates, told council members. “What do we do as the residents of Bessemer, Jefferson County, Birmingham, the state of Alabama, when our showers don’t work, when we have no water pressure, when we can’t wash our dishes, when we can’t cook our food? We have no way to generate more water than what God sends us from the sky.”

Public water usage estimates also don’t account for the additional water Alabama Power will need to cool its power plants as they provide megawatts of new power the proposed data center in Bessemer will need to operate.

Power consumption

In addition to significant water usage, the data center in Bessemer will consume an enormous amount of electricity, with servers running around the clock.

A document produced by Evans & Evans, the law firm representing the developer, suggests that at total buildout, the proposed data center campus would consume around 1,200 megawatts of energy. That’s more than 90 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Bessemer and more than 10 times the amount of energy used by all residences in Birmingham annually. An increase of that magnitude would amount to a 10 percent rise in Alabama Power’s total electricity demand statewide.

Increased demand for energy, or at least the potential for it, is already driving Alabama Power’s desire to double down on fossil fuel investments. The company, an effective monopoly, has asked the state’s Public Service Commission to approve its purchase of a gas-powered power plant in recent days, increasing the state’s reliance on fossil fuel energy, which globally accounts for over 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Many experts also say that increased demand from data centers across the country will drive prices up for everyone, including residential customers. Alabamians already pay some of the highest energy bills in the country, according to various analyses of electricity rates nationwide.

Ron Morgan expressed his concern to council members that the data center’s power usage will be so large that it will have to take electricity from multiple power plants.

“Just because they’re on a transmission line doesn’t mean that Alabama Power can flip a switch and provide an additional 1,200 megawatts of power,” he said.

Cancer risks

The city’s signs at July’s council meeting made specific claims around the risk of cancer caused by data centers.

“MYTH: ‘Data Centers Cause Cancer’ FACT: There is NO scientific proof linking data centers to cancer,” the sign said. “While data centers do use diesel backup generators, these are rarely used and must meet EPA emission standards. Most centers are also moving toward clean energy and battery backups.”

No one involved in the proposed development has suggested that either renewable energy or battery backups will be used at the data center, if built. Instead, Kaaber confirmed at the meeting that diesel generators will be the backup source of energy at the site. Kaaber said that each generator in the “generator yards” would be tested three hours each month.

Estimates based on other hyperscale data centers suggest that the proposed Bessemer data center campus would need between 300 and 500 diesel generators to provide a reliable backup source of electricity for the facility. Amazon representatives in Minnesota, for example, asked regulators to approve the operation of 250 diesel generators to provide back power for a facility around half the size of that proposed in Bessemer. Regulators rejected the plan. Even assuming uninterrupted power supply, the testing of the generators for three hours per day would produce a significant amount of emission, contributing to air pollution.

Exposure to diesel exhaust can lead to “serious health conditions,” according to the EPA. Diesel fumes are “likely to be carcinogenic to humans,” according to the federal agency.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer also labels diesel exhaust as “carcinogenic to humans.”

Becky Morgan, who already suffers from breathing issues, told council members about her concerns around air pollution caused by diesel generators. She said the council’s posters claiming data centers don’t cause cancer are inaccurate. She said that even if the facility’s power supply is stable, the particulate matter from testing the generators will travel great distances. EPA regulates such emissions, she said, precisely because they may cause cancer.

“We need to know how many generators are going to be backing up the 1,200 megawatts, because that’s a huge factor,” she said. “Pollution will travel. It’s going to come in our backyards.”

Endangered species

Kaaber, the representative for the developer, has told residents in Bessemer that there will be no notable environmental impact from the proposed data center site.

Multiple experts interviewed by Inside Climate News have said the project will have significant, potentially irreversible impacts, including putting an already imperilled, newly identified species of fish—the Birmingham darter—at risk of extinction.

“This would nuke this creek,” Thomas Near, a Yale biologist, said of the data center project.

Near said that based on what he’s learned, its construction and use would be devastating for the Birmingham darter and for other aquatic wildlife in the area.

These “dramatic” negative impacts, he said, could include increased river temperature for a fish attuned to inhabit cool, spring-fed streams. Significant water runoff and water extraction for cooling purposes would also fundamentally alter the ecosystem. And Near is concerned about how the data center development might affect the delicate limestone substrate habitat unique to the Birmingham darter.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental nonprofit, has also said they’re considering legal action against the city under the Endangered Species Act related to the project’s potential impacts on the watercress darter, another fish already listed as endangered under federal law.

In his comments on environmental impacts, Kaaber has referenced multiple environmental assessments he said were conducted by the developer but has so far declined a request from Inside Climate News for those assessments. Kaaber would not answer questions about the project following the July meeting.

Zoning changes

In a June zoning and planning commission meeting, representatives of the developer suggested that hyperscale data centers are commonly zoned as “light industrial,” the zoning classification they’ve advocated for in the context of the current proposal.

Under Bessemer’s zoning regulations, light industrial uses include bus terminals, gas stations with garages and large billboards. Expressly forbidden from light industrial classification are facilities “which are especially detrimental to property or to the health and safety beyond the district by reason of the emission of odor, dust, gas, fumes, smoke, noise, vibration or waste material.”

The proposed data center site is currently zoned for agricultural use, but city officials are concurrently considering changing the site’s zoning to light industrial to facilitate the construction of the new development.

“This is not light industrial,” Becky Morgan told zoning commission members. The facility’s high power consumption, security needs and sheer footprint should require its zoning in heavy industrial or another, newly created zoning category, she argued.

An Inside Climate News analysis of zoning ordinances around the country concluded that hyperscale data centers are rarely zoned “light industrial.” Municipalities more commonly create a new zoning category specific to data centers, which have unique power and water usage needs when compared to many other commercial facilities.

Many cities also require the placement of such facilities in areas zoned for heavy industrial use. For example, the only other data center project backed by Logistic Land Investment—a proposed data center in Texas—has been zoned heavy industrial.

Tax implications

Both the residents and the developer have made various claims around the tax implications of the project. Representatives of the developer have suggested that the project will be a financial boon for the city while residents have said they’re skeptical of the claims.

Jimmie Stephens, president of the Jefferson County Commission, told council members at the meeting that they would likely end up abating more tax revenue than they would actually collect.

“This isn’t about the environment,” Stephens said. “This is about the money. This is about the tax revenue that has been laid before the city of Bessemer that you’re depending on, you’re looking forward to but that, in all likelihood, they’re going to ask you to abate.”

Stephens, who is opposed to the project, said that if any abatements go before the Jefferson County Commission, he would vote against them.

He may not have the chance. Alabama law contains explicit tax carve outs for capital projects, including a specific, 30-year tax abatement meant to attract large data centers. If approved by Bessemer officials, a tax abatement under the economic development law could amount to a tax cut of more than $500 million. It’s unlikely such an abatement would even need to go before the county commission.

Rep. Leigh Hulsey, a member of the Alabama House who represents residents in the area, said she’s also skeptical of claims around tax revenues. She said she’s spoken to individuals familiar with a data center project in Huntsville who confirmed that actual tax revenues are not meeting expectations.

“They’re not bringing the revenue that the city thought they would, and that’s the truth,” Hulsey said. “That’s directly from those individuals there in Huntsville. It’s the same thing that Commissioner Stevens was talking about. There are promises. … It’s not going to bring all the money you think it’s going to bring.”

The Bessemer City Council is scheduled to consider approval of zoning changes and the related preliminary development plan on August 5.

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post How could a proposed hyperscale data center affect Bessemer? appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article leans center-left by emphasizing environmental concerns, community opposition, and skepticism toward corporate and governmental assurances about the proposed data center in Bessemer. The reporting highlights potential negative impacts such as water and power consumption, endangered species risk, and air pollution, giving voice to local residents and environmental experts while critically framing the developer’s claims and city officials’ limited transparency. Although it presents facts and includes perspectives from the developer and officials, the tone and selection of issues suggest a cautious stance aligned with environmental advocacy and community interests, characteristic of center-left coverage.