Sonya McKinstry, who has served as the council’s representative for District 7 since 2013, has filed a challenge in Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court in an attempt to overturn the results that saw challenger Cassius Lanier capture the seat by just 25 votes on municipal Election Day.
That margin grew by three on Tuesday, as Lanier was granted three more votes from provisional ballots that were cast March 2 at the District 7 ballot box.
None of the three eligible provisional ballots, as determined by the Tuscaloosa County Board of Registrars, went to McKinstry, leaving the final – and certified – total at 752 votes for Lanier and 724 for McKinstry.
The Alabama House of Representatives is set to consider a General Fund budget that changes little from the previous year but includes extra money for state employees.
The $2.4 billion budget proposal for 2022, which should be on the floor of the chamber Tuesday afternoon, raises spending by $78.9 million (3.3%). It s a small step toward optimism after a year when COVID-19 forced Alabama legislators to scrap ambitious plans for both budgets.
“This time last year, we were totally in the dark about where things were going,” said House Ways and Means General Fund chair Steve Clouse, R-Ozark. “We cut state agencies back from where we proposed and what the governor proposed, even though no one was cut. I don’t think we’re as cautious this year as we were in back in May.”
The Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles provided 31 refurbished laptops to Day Reporting Centers throughout Alabama, including the Fort Payne field office, which operates as a condensed version of the Bureauâs full Day Reporting Centers located in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa. Other smaller field offices are located in Bay Minette, Guntersville, Opelika and Jasper.
District Manager Chris Causey presented one such laptop to Fort Payne DRC Lite Administrator Brandon J. Thompson.
These laptops will be used on-site to provide participants assistance with enhancing computer skills, completing GED assignments and building resumes. The laptops also lessen issues surrounding the current COVID-19 crisis in the U.S.
Posted
By Guy Busby
BAY MINETTE – A Bay Minette woman convicted of murdering her husband in what the prosecutor called “an execution,” in 1994 will continue serving a life sentence in prison after being denied parole Tuesday.
Sheila Moorer Cooper was denied parole, according to a statement by from the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.
She was convicted of murder in Baldwin County Circuit Court in February 1994 in connectin with the death of her husband, John Lewis Cooper, 32.
David Whetstone, Baldwin County district attorney from 1984 to 2006, prosecuted the case against Sheila Cooper. On Wednesday, he referred to the shooting as “an execution-style murder.”