Memorial Day means lots of people out on Alabama waterways. The State’s Marine Patrol is urging boaters to be careful. Alcohol and a lack of lighting are common factors in accidents and fatalities. The state reports fifteen boating accidents with seven deaths on the state's lakes and rivers so far this year. 2015 had twenty five accidents with six fatalities. The Marine Patrol is predicting a two hundred percent increase in boat traffic during Memorial Day. Wearing your life jacket is the message being pushed by the Coast Guard Auxiliary
The unofficial start of the summer travel season means more cars on the road today. The American Automobile Association expected thirty eight million motorists to drive at least fifty miles from home over Memorial Day. Today means a lot of those return trips, making for crowded conditions on Alabama’s roads and highways. Triple-A spokesman Clay Ingram says the end of a vacation can lead to a list of concerns as people get behind the wheel to come home…
“I think probably one of the biggest one is fatigue. I think people are going to be tired from their restful vacation, as you mentioned, and that’s a pretty common thing, that we are tired at the end of it.”
Ingram says one factor prompting extra Memorial Day traffic is lower gasoline prices. Motorists are paying forty cents a gallon less than they were a year ago. That’s despite a sixty cent per gallon hike at the gas pump since February.
Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is suing to get back on the bench. Moore’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission. The suit asks the court to order Moore's immediate reinstatement. It claims the law used to suspend him is unconstitutional. The lawsuit also says news reports and reporters' questions point to a violation of confidentiality provisions. The Commission suspended Moore after he told probate judges to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of gay marriage.
May is National Foster Care Month in Alabama. The state says there over five thousand children in foster homes in the state. That number is on the rise in Alabama, due to drug use. Nancy Buckner is the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Human Resources. She says foster care month helps to highlight the constructive influence that foster parents can have in children’s lives.
“Foster parents are really stand-ins for the parents so to speak. They’re there to nurture them children, to hold them, to mold them, to guide them, to give them the things that all children need growing up.”
Another potential resource for foster children is Alabama’s Fostering Hope Scholarship Act. The act helps qualified foster children afford tuition at any technical, two-year, or four-year academic institution in Alabama. Qualified youths can apply for such assistance until they are 26 years old.
