News from the South - Alabama News Feed
an Alabama national forest • Alabama Reflector
As Trump enters office, a ripe oil and gas target appears: an Alabama national forest
by Lee Hedgepeth, Inside Climate News, Alabama Reflector
February 10, 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.
CONECUH COUNTY — At the confluence of the Yellow River and Pond Creek in Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest, there’s a place of peace.
It’s a small, icy blue, year-round freshwater spring where the locals often go to unplug. Nestled inside Conecuh National Forest, Blue Spring is surrounded by new growth—mostly pines replanted after the forest was clear cut for timber production in the 1930s.
Nearly a century after that clear cut, another environmental risk has reared its head in the forest, threatening Blue Spring’s peace: oil and gas development.
As the Biden administration came to a close in January, officials with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) initiated the process of “scoping” the possibility of new oil and gas leases in Conecuh National Forest.
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On Jan. 6, USFS announced it would soon begin a 30-day comment period to solicit public opinion on the proposal, which includes the continued availability of tens of thousands of acres of federal land for oil and gas leasing and the possibility of leasing an additional, nearly 3,000 acres where the federal government owns mineral rights but not surface rights.
Conecuh National Forest stretches along the Alabama-Florida border, spanning more than 85,000 acres across two counties in the Yellowhammer State.
Past efforts to lease large tracts of land in Alabama’s national forests have been unsuccessful, with a planned 2012 lease auction nixed as a result of public outrage over environmental concerns.
Federal oil and gases leases in Alabama aren’t uncommon, though they’re rarely commercially productive, records show. Still, any oil and gas buildout can present various environmental risks, including air and water pollution in an area meant to be preserved as part of America’s environmental heritage, experts warn.
The Forest Service itself acknowledged the various risks involved in oil and gas leasing within Alabama’s national forests in a 2004 environmental impact assessment, though the agency also emphasized in the document its stated goal of expanding energy production and dismissed certain environmental impacts of the project as “negligible.”
In 2012, when federal officials renewed their interest in fossil fuel leases in Alabama, agency representatives pointed to the 2004 environmental assessment as a reason to allow for additional oil and gas development. Environmentalists objected to that analysis, arguing that relying on a then eight-year-old assessment to potentially approve thousands of acres of public lands for extraction was dishonest and legally dubious.
“We have a strong sense of place in the South, and our public forests should not be sold to the highest bidder to be destroyed for short-term profit,” Tracy Davids, director of Wild South, said of the 2012 proposal at the time. “These are the places that families hunt, fish, hike and recreate. Oil and gas drilling will ruin these lands and force us off of our national forests. This is an assault on our heritage and we won’t stand for it.”
This month’s announcement that the Forest Service will analyze oil and gas leasing within Conecuh National Forest may be a way for federal officials to shore up their legal position, updating the environmental assessment necessary for defending against litigation over new oil and gas leases there.
The new analysis would assess “how changed conditions and circumstances could result in a need to update leasing availability decisions described in the 2004 Forest Plan,” the announcement by the agency said.
The USFS’ previous environmental assessment did not include any analysis of the impact of expanded oil and gas development on efforts to mitigate climate change, something environmentalists argue should undoubtedly be part of the government’s decision-making calculus.
This month’s announcement did not mention climate change or greenhouse gas emissions but did say that updating the forest plan and other scoping documents would further government policy to “foster and encourage private enterprise in the development of economically sound and stable industries.”
This is a global biodiversity hotspot that’s being potentially targeted for oil and gas drilling.
– Will Harlan, Center for Biological Diversity
Including impacts on climate change in any environmental assessment around oil and gas development seems far less likely under Trump, who as a candidate regularly trumpeted oil and gas extraction, repeating the conservative catchphrase, “Drill, baby, drill.”
Much of the area proposed for lease availability surrounds recreation sites within the national forest, including Blue Lake, Open Pond, Conecuh Shooting Range and the Leon Brooks Hines Public Fishing Lake.
Will Harlan, southeast director and senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity, said environmentalists are worried about the new proposal, which he called “incredibly dangerous.”
“Conecuh National Forest is less than 1 percent of Alabama’s land, so when we’re talking about having oil and gas sites in the national forest, it’s concerning,” he said. “Alabama’s national forests rank No. 1 in the country for species diversity, especially of fish, turtles and mollusks,” he said. “This is a global biodiversity hotspot that’s being potentially targeted for oil and gas drilling.”
Allowing expanded oil and gas development in the forest would present an unnecessary risk, Harlan said.
“There are plenty of lands where oil and gas drilling can occur, but not this spectacularly diverse national forest,” Harlan said.
The U.S. Forest Service’s informal 30-day public comment period ends Feb. 12. Comments on the proposal can be submitted at this website or mailed to Garner Westbrook, USDA Forest Service, 2946 Chestnut St., Montgomery, Alabama, 36107.
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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 an Alabama national forest • Alabama Reflector appeared first on alabamareflector.com
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities
by Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
September 2, 2025
BIRMINGHAM — Robert Cheeks cast a ballot in Birmingham’s municipal elections last week and received a standing ovation from poll workers.
It was the first time that Cheeks, 82, had voted. Until the most recent election, his criminal history barred him from participating in the electoral process.
“I had never voted before and it was always my wish to vote,” he said after he cast his ballot. “I had the opportunity, encouraged, to vote, and I said I want to exercise my right as a citizen in the state, and I wanted to vote because I had never voted before.”
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For Black Alabamians like Cheeks who have criminal convictions, getting the right to vote restored can be difficult, according to a new report from Return My Vote, an organization that assists people with criminal convictions with regaining their right to vote.
The study, “Alabama’s Moral Turpitude Law Disproportionately Strips Black Citizens of Their Voting Rights,” found that Black Alabamians were four times more likely to lose their right to vote than white Alabamians.
“The most basic, and most important, finding is that overall that people who were dropped from the voter file or denied registration due to felony conviction, a majority of them were Black,” said Richard Fording, a professor of political science at the University of Alabama and a co-author of the study. “Not a large majority, but over 50% of them were Black. It was about twice the percentage of the general population that is Black in Alabama, and so, of course that is alarming.”
Alabama laws generally deny the vote to those convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, a broad phrase that was subject to interpretation until the state began listing specific crimes under it in 2017. While some states automatically restore voting rights after a person completes a sentence, Alabama has a more complicated process.
While only a handful of crimes can permanently cost a person their vote, some require pardons from the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. Others require a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote once they have completed their sentence, which includes payment of any fines, fees and restitution.
The authors of the study studied 25,000 people removed from the voter rolls or disqualified from voting between 2017 and 2020 due to criminal conviction. Study authors were able to review the information only after the Campaign Legal Center had obtained the records after a federal judge had required the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office to release it.
Disparities
According to the study, Black men were disenfranchised at a rate of 22.4 citizens per 1,000 men of voting age. That is almost four times the rate for their white counterparts, whose rate was 6.7 citizens per 1,000.
The rate for disenfranchising Black women was 3.9 citizens per 1,000, almost twice the rate of white women, whose disenfranchisement rate was 2.1 citizens per 1,000 white women.
Counties with significant Black populations had some of the highest Black disenfranchisement rates and largest racial disparities in disenfranchisement. Seven of the 10 counties with the highest rates of disenfranchised voters are within the Black Belt. The rate for disenfranchising Black men in Monroe, more than 40% Black, was 40.6, compared to 8 per 1,000 for white men. In Perry County, with a Black population of 70%, the rate was 30 citizens per 1,000 Black men of voting age. The rate was 11.4 for white men, almost three times lower.
The disparities are less pronounced for women in the same counties, but they still exist. In Monroe County, Black women are disenfranchised at a rate of 5.6 citizens per 1,000 Black women who are at least 18 years old. For white women in that county, the rate is 2.4, less than half.
Study authors stated in the report that even though there is some uncertainty with the information because of problems collecting data, after reviewing the Uniform Crime Report data obtained from the FBI website, the findings indicated that more Blacks are disenfranchised than whites even when criminal convictions are considered.
“Nevertheless, the most important takeaway is that the disproportionate percentage of arrests for disqualifying offenses by Blacks in Alabama (42%) cannot fully account for the significantly higher percentage of Blacks disenfranchised by the state (52%) during 2017-2021,” the report states.
The study also found that Blacks have a more difficult time regaining their right to vote after they are removed from the voter rolls after getting convicted of a crime.
Authors also investigated the number of people who were removed from the voter rolls from 2017-2021 who had regained their voting rights and registered to vote once again by 2024. According to the study, 1,034 people who are Black reregistered to vote after they completed their sentence, about 8.3% of the total. That is less than the almost 13% of whites registered to vote after a criminal conviction.
The study suggested that the disparities could stem from disparities in the application of Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law and uneven methods of voter file maintenance in the state.
“Regardless of the reason, the significant variation in county-level disenfranchisement rates calls for further investigation into how Alabama’s felony disenfranchisement law is being implemented at the local level,” the report said. “This is especially important given federal law that requires uniform implementation of state election laws across counties.”
‘It means so much’
Cheeks spent almost 40 years in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections after receiving a mandatory life sentence in 1985 for a robbery. Cheeks had prior convictions of forgery and assault, leading to the sentence but no one was physically injured. Cheeks spent 30 years working in the kitchen at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer without pay, according to Alabama Appleseed.
Cheeks was released in July 2022. His criminal convictions required him to obtain a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote, which he applied for and received from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. Cheeks, with the help of supporters, then registered to vote with the Board of Registrars in Jefferson County and acquired full citizenship once again after spending nearly four decades incarcerated in Alabama’s prisons.
“It is more important now than it would have been in the first place,” Cheeks said of voting. “I have been so anxious over the years to vote. I have been hearing so much about voting, and I wanted to express my opportunity for the right to vote. It is granted to American citizens by right, and I wanted to do that. I am so thankful. It is a blessing, and it means so much.”
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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 Study: Alabama’s moral turpitude laws contribute to racial disenfranchisement disparities 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 content highlights issues of racial disparities and systemic barriers related to felony disenfranchisement in Alabama, focusing on the disproportionate impact on Black citizens. It emphasizes social justice concerns and critiques existing laws and their implementation, which aligns with a Center-Left perspective that advocates for voting rights expansion and racial equity. The tone is factual and empathetic, without overt partisan language, but the focus on structural inequalities and reform suggests a leaning toward progressive policy viewpoints.
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Monroe County Football Coach speaks out, calls for more support for team
SUMMARY: Monroe County High School football coach Robert Wilkerson is urging more support from parents, alumni, and the community. Since starting in April, Wilkerson has faced challenges such as low game attendance, limited adult volunteers for filming and chain crew, and a lack of trainers. He publicly expressed concerns on Facebook, emphasizing the need for people to attend games and boost team morale. Wilkerson highlights issues like outdated training equipment and lack of pride in the school. He calls for increased community involvement through their “adopt a tiger” program and donations via an Amazon wish list to improve the team’s resources.
Head Coach Robert Wilkerson says building the team starts with more people attending games and helping the young players.
News from the South - Alabama News Feed
Alabama Lawmakers Threaten to Dismantle Athletic Association After New Rule | Sept. 1, 2025 | News 1
SUMMARY: Alabama lawmakers are challenging a new rule by the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) that sidelines certain high school athletes using the $7,000 tax credit under the CHOOSE Act. Senators and representatives argue the rule violates state law, which protects player eligibility and opposes restrictions impacting athletes’ ability to participate. They call for increased oversight of the AHSAA and suggest revising or repealing the CHOOSE Act. Concerns focus on fairness but emphasize that opportunities for student-athletes should not be compromised. Some lawmakers are even considering dismantling the AHSAA due to these controversial regulations.
High school athletes who transfer schools using financial aid like the CHOOSE Act are ineligible to play for one year, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.
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