Ian Hoppe | for Reckon

When the world looked our way, we worked with you to change Alabama's landscape

As we dive into 2018, here’s a look back at some of the journalism that made a difference in Alabama last year. This work included below helped change the state’s social and political landscape – in a year when the nation’s eyes were focused on our state like no time since the tumultuous 1960s.

Our reliance on facts, deeply sourced commentary and relentless journalistic pressure helped lead to the downfall of a governor, the indictment of corrupt officials, and the restoration of voting rights. It included experimental approaches to digging into some of the state's thorniest social and environmental issues and the development of Reckon by AL.com, a new initiative to bring people together around the most pressing issues in Alabama, with a deep focus on human rights reporting, as well at two new major documentary series.

We are grateful for our readers and viewers. Please help us by offering your ideas and sharing your questions at Ask Alabama or by emailing our Reckon director, Challen Stephens.

-- Michelle Holmes, VP of content, Alabama Media Group.

Don't Edit

Julie Bennett | jbennett@al.com

Robert Bentley -- FORCED FROM OFFICE

In the wake of 2016 revelations of an extramarital affair by the state's governor, AL.com continued to lead the state and national reporting corps, setting the news and commentary agenda, among other things laying out a case that Gov. Robert Bentley had broken the state's Fair Campaign Practices Act. Relentlessly digging through a trail of cover ups and deception, columnists John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire made it impossible to ignore the dots, painting a big picture of fraud and corruption. By April, the governor would plead guilty to two misdemeanors and agree to never again hold public office.

Others would fall as well. Beginning in 2016, John and Kyle raised the question of whether the state’s new top cop Stan Stabler was abusing his power to help the governor. The day after Kyle wrote the final column questioning Stabler’s role, he resigned before Gov. Ivey could fire him.

Don't Edit

Anna Claire Vollers | avollers@al.com

Voting rights -- RESTORED

In May, 280,000 Alabamians were supposed to gain their voting rights back under bipartisan effort signed by Gov. Kay Ivey. Yet in practice, many were being denied because of outstanding court fines and fees. One day after we published Connor Sheets' investigation "Too poor to vote: How Alabama's 'new poll tax' bars thousands of people from voting," as part of our Broken Justice series, Secretary of State John Merrill clarified the state's policy, clearing the way for many eligible, Alabamians to vote— and backing up the new law by threatening to fire local registrars if they failed to comply. The change allowed thousands of new voters to register in time for the December special election.

Don't Edit

William Thornton | wthornton@al.com

Senate special election -- VOTERS SURGE

In scores of carefully reported news stories from staff across the state — beginning before the Washington Post's explosive revelations — we detailed Roy Moore's senate bid, reaching huge swaths of Alabamians. Once the sexual abuse scandal emerged, AL.com's reporting on new allegations by Anna Claire Vollers and the work of many other reporters and columnists drew sustained state and national attention. That daily reporting from across the state, combined with our editorials and columns based on that reporting, contributed to more Alabamians choosing to play a part in the democratic process: More than double the projected number of voters showed up at the polls, and voters made their choice clear, electing the first Democrat to serve in the U.S. Senate in decades.

Don't Edit

Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Rep. Oliver Robinson -- PLEADED GUILTY; Balch lawyers, Drummond VP -- INDICTED

Again, teamwork by Archibald and Whitmire painstakingly laid out a case of former Rep. Oliver Robinson, who has since admitted accepting bribes from a coal company to fight expansion of a Superfund site north of Birmingham.

This unfolding series of stories is moving deeper and deeper into the culture of political corruption in Alabama, and we believe our exposure forced the hands of prosecutors to bring even more charges against powerful business figures in the state: two attorneys and partners at Balch & Bingham, and David Lynn Roberson, a vice president at Drummond Company, were each indicted on one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of bribery, three counts of honest services wire fraud, and one count of money laundering conspiracy.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Bill Starling | AL.com file

Capital punishment - JUDICIAL OVERRIDE ABOLISHED

AL.com persistently reported that Alabama was on a limb by itself when it came to allowing judges to override jury recommendations for life in prison and impose death penalties. An estimated 20 percent of those on death row were there because of judicial override. Stories in late 2016, including a project in November 2016 with The Marshall Project and reporter Kent Faulk pointed out the inequities. Two Alabama legislators pre-filed bills in December 2016 to eliminate judicial override. The legislature in 2017 approved the revision and the first act of new Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey was to sign it into law.

Don't Edit

John Archibald | jarchibald@al.com

Water Works Board- INDICTMENTS and PROTEST

After years of careful and dogged reporting and commentary by Archibald, calling out abuses and corruption of the Birmingham Water Works, including columns where he revealed the board's loss of millions in pension funds in a Ponzi scheme, a special grand jury in Birmingham charged three officials with violating the Alabama ethics law, and employees rallied to demand transparency.

Don't Edit

Auburn Athletics -- TWO COACHES FIRED; A.D. JACOBS FORCED OUT

With dogged reporting from James Crepea, Kevin Scarbinsky and Tom Green, we broke news and landed exclusive stories about a softball scandal that, in part, led to head coach Clint Myers and assistant Corey Myers resigning. We caught Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs being dishonest about the softball scandal and our persistent, unflinching coverage made it untenable for Jacobs to continue in that role. We broke the news that Jacobs was finished as athletic director before even he knew. No organization had more thorough, impactful work on what was one of the biggest sports stories in Alabama in 2017.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Paddling in schools -- SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION CHANGES POSITION

Because of the detailed coverage on paddling in Alabama's public schools that Trish Crain provided in September 2016, the Alabama school board association successfully changed its position from neutral to opposing the use of paddling in schools. The board member who introduced the resolution gave full credit to AL.com's coverage for making him aware of the widespread usage of paddling and his desire to see the association change its position.

Don't Edit

Ben Raines | braines@al.com

Saving Mobile Bay -- STATE ENDORSING NEW OYSTER PLAN

State officials have already endorsed a multimillion dollar plan hatched by Ben Raines to restore Mobile's lost oyster reefs. Starting from the premise that the biggest problem facing the bay's declining oyster population is that we have eaten almost all of the oysters, Raines proposed using monies from the BP oil spill to initiate a massive sexual revolution in our waters. The plan calls for growing five million oysters in cages beneath residential piers around the bay, which will release 100 trillion oyster eggs annually.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

AL.com file

High school graduation rate debacle -- INVESTIGATION AND CHANGE

When the state department of education posted 2016 graduation rates online in April with no public announcement, Trish Crain posted the rates by high school, allowing local school officials to determine the rates had been calculated inaccurately by the state department. That debacle, exposed by her thorough reporting, led to an internal investigation and development of a new protocol within the department to allow local school officials to thoroughly vet their own data prior to a public data release. The reporting and the resulting fallout also led to the retirement of a high-level state department official.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Midwives - LEGALIZED

Until 2017, Alabama was one of a handful of states where most midwives could not legally practice. Pregnant women in Alabama had two legal options for giving birth: in a hospital with a doctor, or at home, unassisted. Birth choice advocates have been trying for more than a decade to get the Alabama Legislature to legalize midwifery in the state. In 2017 Anna Claire Vollers wrote on midwives crossing state lines, explainers and legislative updates. There was a consistent audience for stories on this issue, and reporting kept the issue from being swept under the rug. In the final minutes of the 2017 legislative session, a bill legalizing midwifery and providing a framework for state licensure of midwives passed and was later signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Autism insurance bill - PASSED

The late Rep. Jim Patterson's stunning success in pushing a new law, requiring insurance to cover behavioral therapy for people with autism, through the Alabama legislature over the objections of the Business Council of Alabama was made possible by the ongoing reporting of Trish Crain. Patterson repeatedly gave credit to Crain, saying her initial story was responsible for setting the framework for the discussion and that keeping the topic in the news, helping the public and policymakers understand what the therapy was all about, was a driving force in getting the bill signed into law.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Religious boot camps - REGULATED

Anna Claire Vollers 2016 investigation into abuses suffered by children at a shadowy religious boot camp in south Alabama highlighted the kinds of facilities able to operate in Alabama with virtually no state oversight by claiming a religious exemption. That story drew statewide and national attention to the issue, and later won Story of the Year from the Alabama Press Association. She continued to follow this issue during the 2017 legislative session. Legislators quietly passed a bill, later signed into law, that strictly regulates residential schools and camps like this, allowing the state greater access and oversight. At least one Christian boot camp in South Alabama where children had claimed they were abused has been shuttered and moved to another state by its owner.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Speed trap - EXPOSED

"It was pretty easy to write 10-20 tickets a day but once the publicity come out in the newspaper … sometimes it's hard to get five a day." Those were the words of the mayor of Castleberry, a notorious speed trap chronicled by Reckon Reporter Chris Harress. After Harress' reporting, the town is trying to figure out new ways to fund its police force, after years of using a speed trap to pull over out-of-town drivers, taking their money and belongings, and towing the cars of those drivers, demanding a $500 fee for them to be released.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

The Underwater Forest -- POISED TO BE DESIGNATED A NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY

Ben Raines wrote, directed and filmed The Underwater Forest, an award-winning half hour documentary detailing the discovery and exploration of an ancient cypress forest found on the bottom of an undisclosed location in the Gulf of Mexico. He is a co-author of several scientific papers on the site, in addition to numerous articles for AL.com. Raines and his film were featured on NBC Nightly News, BBC Television, and CBS, and written about by The Washington Post, Live Science and numerous other outlets. A Reddit Ask Me Anything with Ben and one of the scientists was the top item on Reddit, attracting an audience of 100,000 people. Scientific work at the site is ongoing, and Ben is working with federal officials to have the site designated a National Marine Sanctuary.

Don't Edit

Mark Almond for AL.com

UAB Football -- PROGRAM RESTORED AFTER TWO SEASONS; EARNS BOWL BERTH

UAB football was never better than it was in 2017, achieving a program-best eight wins and becoming one of the biggest stories in college football. It reminded us of the relentless 2014-15 investigation and advocacy, led by Kevin Scarbinsky, John Talty, John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire, that brought the program back to life. They challenged the flawed process used to justify the decision, exposed the motivations of the power players pushing to kill UAB football and told the stories of those affected. 2017 was the payoff of all that work as the city of Birmingham and fans rallied around a program kept alive through AL.com's important coverage.

Don't Edit

AL.com file

Tackling the Gap - AL.com partners with Spaceship Media

Tackling the Gap – AL.com's partnership with Spaceship Media to convene a conversation among public school teachers about how to eliminate the achievement gap between white and black students in Alabama resulted in a number of impacts, though they are not yet able to be measured easily. Many teachers in the private Facebook group had "light-bulb moments" where they began questioning their unconscious bias about black students and challenging long-held beliefs that negatively impacted black students in Alabama. Beyond that, no one had ever reported, with data, the actual achievement gap between the two groups of students. Teachers in the group said they had never seen that type of data. The series generated a lot of comment on the AL.com web site, and articles in the series were highlighted nationally in education circles as "best stories of the week." The state's largest high school, Hoover High, began a teacher discussion group about the achievement gap between the two groups of students and used material we published as a basis for discussion.

Don't Edit

Whitman, Alabama -- A multi-year documentary

AL.com was awarded $100,000 from the Ford Foundation to further our work on whitmanalabama.com, a multi-year documentary series by artist-in-residence Jennifer Crandall, and other filmmakers including Bob Miller, Ginnard Archibald and Pierre Kattar. The work was named Best Online Video in the North America Digital Media Awards in 2017, beating out second and third runner-up entries from the New York Times.