From our State House studio in Montgomery, I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capital Journal here in the state House.

This week, the first meeting of the Alabama Reentry Study Commission, led by Bureau of Pardons and Parole Director Kim Ward.

The panel is charged with coordinating and streamlining efforts to reduce recidivism that is define as formerly incarcerated persons re-offending and going back to prison within three years of their release.

Ward said Alabama is ranked 25th nationally for its recidivism rate, and the goal is to be in the top five by 2030.

Things like addiction treatment, mental health care and job training are key to making sure people don't re-offend.

Everyone will have a role in this.

And so I think it' going to take all of us, though, using best practices in our individual fields or individual agencies or individual groups to make it work.

I do think it's ambitious.

But I think with the Unite support, the bipartisan support we've had over the years on this, I think we can really mak a dent in better, safer society for those who are opposed to incarceration.

And I like to always say this 95% of everyone in prison eventually comes out.

You got to figure out what you want to do.

And I know what I want.

I want a safe society, and I think we all do.

But that doesn't come cheap.

That comes with devoting resources and our effort to making sure they got a job.

They're able to fix the underlying issu stable housing, stable income.

And I think we can do this.

And I think it's a goal that we all share in common.

States are facing really complex challenges in reentry from unmet unmet behavioral health needs, to agency staffing shortages, to many other complex issues around housing and workforce development.

But we know that we want to craft goals with bolstering public safety in mind.

And you can see tha tackling challenges individually or even agency by agency ignores an opportunity to work collaboratively and to incorporat a whole of government approach.

I'll speak with Ward i more detail later in the show.

A rare interagency dustu was finally resolved this week.

Earlier this month, Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Kent Davis filed an ethics complaint against Department of Menta Health Commissioner Kim Boswell.

The complaint alleged that Boswell, along with staff and lobbyists, improperly killed an interagency Veteran Services agreement because of comments critica of the mental health department made by a Veterans Affairs Board member at an opioid settlement meeting.

However, reporting by Alabama Daily News showed that the board member in question, John Kilpatrick, never spoke at that meeting.

It also showed that Kilpatrick's nonprofit Vets Recover Clinic and Mobile stood to benefit financially from the funds in dispute.

This week, Ethics Commission executive Director Tom Albritton said the complaint had been dismissed.

In a letter to Boswell, Albritton said that even if true, the complaints aren't violations of the law.

Governor Kay Ivey called the complaint, quote, entirely frivolous and said the focus should return to serving veterans.

This was a strange episode in state government ethics complaints are supposed to be secret much like grand jury proceedings and in some curious timing.

This week also marked the first meeting of a new steering committe charged with developing a plan to address the mental health needs of Alabama veterans.

There was no talk of the recent unpleasantness, but rather unity and focus on helping those who have served cope with their unique mental health needs.

I think what we wanted to do is kind o get everyone on the same page.

We wanted to make sure everyone understood the legislation, that they kind of understood the federal landscape when it comes to veterans and then really just getting them oriented to the current landscape.

And so our next meetin will really focus more on mental health and substance use, specifically and beginning to identify those gaps in services.

So we really just wanted to build a good, solid foundation because you have different people from different backgrounds who sort of live in different worlds.

And so we were really trying to make sure we laid a reall strong foundation for everybody.

It's so important to have veterans around the table and everyone talking to each other and having those individuals who actually have lived experienc is extremely important as well.

And so it was an exciting day for u and we're ready to move forward.

Female executives and military leaders gathered in the capital city this week for the Women's Leadership Conference.

They shared strategies for excelling in leadership and advancing careers, all while balancin professional and family lives.

The event was coordinated by Tech MGM and the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce and featured prominent female military leaders.

Part of this week's events around the Department of the Air Force Information Technology and Cyber Power Conference is to look at so many differen areas of not only the community but of the Department of Defense.

One of those areas being women and our ability to uplift them, to hel expose them and to educate them.

So today for our leadership luncheon, we have a huge, wonderful lineup of speakers from DOD.

Some that are qualified and experienced in artificial intelligence.

And even the CEO of SAIC, $1,000,000,000 company.

So we are really thrilled to have so many women from across the community, across the Department of Defense and within industry here to share with us.

I've grown up in the Department of Defense, and there is a balanc between what we are asked to do professionally and who we are as a person.

And so coming into that you have to have a strong sense of self, right?

And we always encourag everyone to bring their awesome, authentic self to the table.

And being in a male dominated profession, you have to have that balance of walking in that space.

And so it's very important that you understand how you fit as a female in that corporate structure.

The annual Cognia Alabama Impact Conference was held this week at Frazier Church.

Cognia is a school accreditatio organization that helps school districts level u and instruction areas like STEM and competency based education certification.

Governor Kay Ive spoke to the conference, saying Alabama is making progress toward improving education and more directly to our mission here today.

I'm thrilled to note that we own the cost of having all Alabama public school systems earning district accreditation status.

What an achievement that speaks to the quality of Alabama schools.

All of our efforts to integrate teaching and learning, the Alabama reading that they should do and the numeracy Act have been among the biggest problems in advancing student achievement in public education.

The number of third graders reading in grade level has sharply increased, thanks to measures taken to focus resources to struggling schools.

I'm pleased to note that the new ATF budget also appropriates significant additional funding for both the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Numeracy Act.

This is real progress.

Speaking of education progress, some promising news out today from Parker.

That's the Public affairs Research Council of Alabama.

Analysis from Parker shows that English scores among Alabama students jumped significantly with the full implementation of the Alabama Literacy Act.

Here in this chart, the English Language Art category is the middle section.

Ther you can see overall proficiency in English, which includes reading comprehension, has jumped almost nine percentage points from 48.40 7.8% in 2021 to 56% in 2024.

This is based off the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program, or our cap that all students take each year.

According to Parker, the biggest spike was seen among third graders who went from 53% proficiency last year to 62% proficiency.

This year.

Again, that's tracking with the full implementation of the Alabama Literacy Act.

As you can see, however proficiency in math and science are still pretty low, bu climbing in the right direction.

We will get more into these numbers in our next Spotlight on Education episode, which is set to air the third week of September.

About 79,000 Alabamians are currently employed by app based delivery o ridesharing services, and nearly one in four residents has worked for them at some point.

Most gig based jobs don't come with traditional insurance and retirement benefits.

This week in the state House, a new task force met to study how to potentially get benefits to these Alabamians.

This is important for employees and workers, particularly in the future, be they independent contractors or be they gig workers, as some call them.

It's important work for us to to review and see the landscape and see if there's a way our state can address this issue even incrementally, bit by bit, because you've got a whole lot of moving parts, whether you're talking about retirement benefits, whether you're talking about insurance, health insurance benefits, or you're talking about workers comp type benefits or other benefits that may be out there and may be applicable.

And of course, the $64 question is the federal law and the federal issues that come to bear as states try to occupy this space and do things for those workers that it has that are deemed as independent contractors or gig workers?

It's a problem.

These are going to be an emerging issue that we're goin to have to tackle at some point with the rise of peopl who are taking up more of these gig kind of jobs or app based jobs.

One thin that these 299 employees don't get is the financial securit of traditional benefit practice of traditional benefit packages that more traditional employers provide.

So in this situation, they would offer a menu of benefits that would best serve the the the consumer or the person who is driving and working in these apps.

As the summer tourism season winds down, Alabama's Gulf Coast is reflecting on another successful year.

However, the rise in tourism and new residents present unique challenges for the future.

Capito Journal's Jeff Sanders reports.

The pristine sandy beaches and emerald green waters of Alabama's Gulf Coast attracts tens of thousands of tourists each summer.

But it's not just the tourism industry that's growing.

There's also been a significant increase in full time residents.

It's been really overwhelming and much faster than we'd ever previously planned or expected.

Robert Kraft was first elected mayor of Gulf Shores in 2008.

In the 16 year since this one small community has experience a dramatic population boom where our population of the community was around 9500 people.

It's now about 17,000, almost 18,000 people.

So the growth has just been overwhelming, similar to wha we've grown in tourism visitors because the population capacity has grown.

We've created a lot of opportunitie for more people to be in town.

Farther down the beac at the Lodge at Gulf State Park, general manager Bill Bennett notes that the surge in both permanent residents and tourists is unmistakable.

If you look Golf State Park is 6150 acres.

We have over 28 miles of hiking and biking trails.

And if you look behind me here at the Gulf of Mexico, we have two and a half miles of pristine golf side beaches that will never be developed.

We stay very busy.

Bennett attributes the high level of activity not only to the stunning scenery, but also to the unique vibe that distinguishes Alabama's Gulf Coast.

The fact that people are kin and friendly and welcoming here, You know, it used to be the best kept secret if you will, that the state of Alabama had a beac 32 miles of pristine coastline.

But we're having more and mor people come join us down here.

For Mayor Crabb, the challenge is ensuring that the infrastructure of small towns like his can keep up with the growing number of residents and visitors.

The recent purchase of the Foley Beach Express Bridge by the state of Alabama, along with the additio of a new bridge onto the island, should help alleviate some of the increased traffic congestion.

However, other challenges still remain.

Worked in partnership with the South Baldwin Regional Medical Center to build a freestanding emergency department for the whole island.

We formed a city school system separated and we have grown tremendously.

It has been an overwhelming success.

Intercoastal Waterway had very little access, so we started ou and formed a waterway district to create a second coast, so to speak.

But Mayor Krapp emphasizes that as more people choose to visit and settle along Alabama's Gulf Coast, one thing will remain constant.

It's southern hospitality.

Reporting from Gulf Shores for Capital-Journal.

I'm Jeff Sanders.

A change in seasons will soon be upon us, or at least let's hope so.

That comes with colds, COVID flu and all kinds of illnesses.

But the Alabama Department of Public Health is also raising awareness about bug based illnesses potentially spread by migrating insects.

Capital Journal's Randy Scott has that story.

COVID flu and RSV are on the rise across the nation righ as summer ends and fall begins.

And something about last minute travel and sporting events.

Others have safety concerns on their minds.

There is a recommendation from CDC that all individuals six months and older stay up to date on both COVID and flu vaccinations.

Our flu vaccinations are updated every year.

Those not available yet, but they will be soon.

And the updated COVID vaccination, which should be available als very soon, is not available yet.

Dr. West Stubblefield with the Alabama Department of Public Health, says the fight to keep people saf from those illnesses continues.

For each individual family, that's that's a decision they will make.

But we especially want people that are at high risk for complications of those diseases to strongly consider being vaccinated for flu and have it every year.

A new problem has developed i many regions across the nation.

Mosquito borne illnesses such as Triple E and West Nile Virus has hit several communities.

There have been several fatal STIs, and in one case in Missouri, a young man is paralyzed due to West Nile virus.

People in Alabama have questions and the age is introducin a new, streamlined online tool to help find answers and tips to stay safe, such as using insect repellent wearing long sleeve pants and lon sleeved shirts for protection.

You can still reach us on a board, but our new website is Alabama Public Health Dot gov gov.

It's slightly updated name and we'll be transitioning that slowly so everyone should go there.

There's lots of information on on there about immunizations, about about infectious diseases.

That new website Alabama Public Health dot gov is up and running.

The goal is to help people who are looking to chec updates, symptoms, information and new treatments for things they need to know about.

Pretty much anything you can imagine is on our website.

Also CDC is a great place to look for for that information as well.

So, yes, I would suggest heading there and talking to their health care provider in Montgomery.

Randy Scott, Capitol Journal News.

On the political front, democratic candidate for congress.

Shamar figures this week touted the endorsemen of Montgomery Mayor steven reed.

Figures told reporters that he didn't want to get bogged down in national issues that are dominating the presidential campaign, but rather talk about local issues that residents care about more.

We got in this race from day one knowin that we had to run our own race, but obviously we were not naive to the fact that we were on a ballot with the president.

So we've been taking this race locally on the local issues every single day since we got in it.

Once there was the change at the top of the ticket, I will say I'll be the first to admit that seemingly what we saw replicated nationwide there was certainly an enhancement, a significant enhancement in the level of excitement and motivation and inspiration of peopl wanting to get actively involved in the campaign and wanting to be, you know, more, more engaged directly.

We've seen more volunteers signing up to our to work with the campaign.

We've seen more people that want to be out there knocking doors with those making phone calls with us.

And so it was certainly a significant degree of excitement.

And I think in large part that ties back to the history of this district.

When you look at the role that black women played in the civil rights movement and to now, you know, here in this this this home of Rosa Parks in this district both home in terms of birthplace over in Tuskegee, as well as home, in terms of the works that she's known for nationwide, worldwide.

Now having that opportunity to vote for a black woman at the top of the ticket resonates a little bit differently down here.

And of course, figures opponent is Republican Carolyn Dobson.

And the Alabama Republican Party has a prominent speaker coming to town, Laura Trump, the daughter in law of the former president and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, will headline the GOP summer dinner here in Montgomery.

Donald Trump himself headlined last year's dinner as he was considerin another run at the presidency.

The party says there will b a reception, dinner and remarks from other special guests yet to be named.

This coming Monday is Labor Day.

Here's hoping you get the day off to res and maybe enjoy some barbecue.

Governor Kay Ive today issued a Labor Day message to Alabamian celebrating the state's workers.

Here's that message.

My fellow Alabamians, today we come together to celebrate the hard work and dedication of our fellow citizens.

Labor Day is a time to honor the men and women who have built this state and who continue to move Alabama forward, solidifying us as a powerhouse in our various industries and a leader in innovation.

From the brave me and women who protect and serve to the skilled hands that craft our made in Alabama goods to the educators who shape our future, to the health care workers who care for our people.

Every Alabamians contribution is invaluable.

The always hard work i the backbone of our prosperity.

Today and tomorrow truly thank you for all you do and have a safe and happy Labor Day.

May God continue to bless each of you and the great state of Alabama.

We'll be right back with tonight's guests.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Cam Ward, director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole Camp.

Thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks.

Having me.

Back, Todd.

Well, you had a reall interesting meeting this week.

The was it the first meeting o the Alabama Reentry Commission?

That's correct.

I was hoping you could kind of go deeper with us and explain how this commission came about, its purpose and its goals.

Well, Alabama was the second state in the country after Missouri to join what's called reentry 203 as a way to reduce recidivism.

Those people who are formerly incarcerated prevent them from going back to prison.

And what this commission is composed o is about 12 different agencies, mostly cabinet heads but as well as private citizens, judges, district attorneys that are involved in coming up with solutions that reduces recidivism in half by the end of this decade.

But also, what does that mean?

It means coming up with solutions that work to prevent crime from occurring again.

Mm hmm.

So we hear that term recidivism.

That means returning to jail.

Right.

That's the bottom line.

The recidivism rate is what happens.

Do you go back to prison or jail within three years after being released?

Our recidivism rates were roughly 29%, which makes us 25th in the country.

My goal is to get us in the top five best states of reducing recidivism and preventing people from going back to prison.

So what would that goal be?

What would the percentage be?

What would success look like to you?

I think if we got under 15%, that would be a huge milestone that would put us ahead of every other state in the southeast.

That would also make us roughly six or seventh in the country for recidivism.

So it's a big deal because it's public safety.

It's public safety.

One on one.

Mm hmm.

I can also see some, like, economic benefits, too, because we've been talking, you know, for a couple of years now about workforce development, workforc participation, things like that.

We've talked before abou one of the planks of one of the, I guess, legs to the stool or whatever you put it, of Kim folks from Re-offending is having a job.

And so it seems like there might be some economic benefits as well.

Well, as Secretary of Labor, Fitzgerald Washington, who serves on the commission, stated, you know, we have a 57.5% workforce participation rate that i well below the national average.

This is a population an it's been proven over and over.

We talk about the three legged stool, the three legged stool of mental health subsidies, treatment and job training.

Job training.

A good, meaningful working job will almost guarantee that you don't go back to prison.

So that's that.

But it also complement helping deal with our workforce.

Lack of a workforce population.

Mm hmm.

Well, yeah, I could see that as well.

Well, look, we we're in the state house.

We're in the government and politics.

Business is what we talk, and then we're in a very political season.

Sure.

And it strikes m that one of the easiest campaign platform planks to have is tough on crime.

You hear it every year.

We'll hear it a lot.

This year, we'll hear it next time the legislature runs an all the constitutional officers everybody wants to be tough on crime, lock them up, throw away the key, that kind of thing.

How does how does that political reality and political situation jive with the reality of something like recidivism and the importance of keeping folks out of jail?

Well, in the criminal justice system is everyone wants a simple answer to a complex problem.

And it's really the criminal justice system is a carrot and stick approach There does need to be a stick.

There needs to be punishment for for breaking the law.

I mean, there needs to be payment.

You've got to be right.

But at the same time, when they come out and 95% of everyone incarcerated today in America comes out.

What do you want to look like?

They're going to be your neighbor.

And I know what I want my neighbor to be like.

I'll move, get a job, pay their taxes and not hurt anybody.

So the reason where this comes in, and this is my one piece of the puzzle, the criminal justice issue, is it's being tough on crime, but it's also being smart on crime.

We've had someon I'll give you a great example.

A young man came out of Perry County.

He went into a welding progra and he's making $85,000 a year.

He got his addiction cleaned up and we're never going to see him again.

That's what I want the citizens to look like, because if you don't tackl those issues on their reentry, they're bound to come back.

In Perry County being the facility, the prep facility in Perry County.

And we're very proud of all the people that have gone through that program.

And over 200 have so far to this date.

We've had zero re-offend and go back to jail.

And I think that's a model we can look at and say, that's smart on crime, that's keeping the crime rate down.

Wow, That's awesome.

And, you know, we've talked about going and maybe doing a tour up there and also Ingram State and all the things tha y'all are doing because I think maybe it helps to have a visual not just for our audience, but for lawmakers, everybody to really get an idea of what's what's going on.

Well, I understand that y'all were awarded an award, a national award recently, the Star Award.

Tell me about this.

So we were the runner u nationally for the Star Award, which is an award for innovation in government.

And we were second only to North Carolina, North Carolina, which had a school choice initiative for rural areas, which was very good.

They wanted to give us an award.

We were runner up on the basically our prep center and how we got innovative i making sure we reduce recidivism is to further.

Alabama has had 17 different chances to get one of these awards and we came the furthest along with us.

So I think it's awesome.

But also what I thin is very important to remember is this was something that a lot of states have come to us now and said we want to replicate it.

We want to copy that.

Can you tell us what you did and how you did it?

So now other states are emailing us saying, send us a presentation, sen us details and how that works.

That's that's always nice to hear.

Well, it's goo that Alabama's being copied for something good, you know And not just not just football.

Well, look, we're getting into budget season.

We're getting into the preliminaries, you know, discussions and hearings that will lead up to budget request.

What what goes into that?

How do you formulate because I know costs are still up and inflation and all that kind of stuff.

How do you go about preparing for those legislative conversations about next year's budget?

Well, one thing my agency is 80% of salaries.

It's employees and law enforcement officers.

We have 830 employees.

Most of them be in law enforcement.

However, that's one purpose of the reentry commission is what we're discovering is there are things that, say the Department of Mental Healt is doing, Department of Labor, we're doing Medicaid, our own, and on a lay a desk.

Maybe we can collaborate way that don't require more money.

Maybe we can collaborate in ways that don't require new laws.

Let's use our existing resources and come up with creative ideas to solve some of these problems without having to as the legislature for more money.

When we know the general fund eventually is going to start going down because of interest rate reductions.

So I think doing that reentry Commissio helps us a lot on our budgeting because now again, we're sharing ideas and resources, collaboratin as opposed to working in silos.

Mm hmm.

Well, I think Chairman Reynolds and Albritton will appreciate that.

I think they do.

I think they already do.

Yeah, I think they like this.

Well, look congratulations on your success.

We're going to be watching this reentry commission going forward, because I do thin it's a really important issue.

So please come back and keep us abreast.

We would love to.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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You're watching Alabama Public Television and welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Chris Blankenship, the director of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Chris thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Well, there's a lot of talk about the reason I want to have you on.

But before we get there, talk, remind our audience about the department and all.

What what you do in the State Department of Conservation is pretty large overall.

And we have four main divisions.

We have the wildlife fish, water fisheries, where we do the hunting fishing.

You know, we've got 23 state lakes, 40 wildlife management areas, about 750,000 acres of public hunting that we manage.

We have all the state parks, all 21 state parks, and then we have the Marine Resources division down the coast where we manage all the oystering crab and shrimp and red snapper, fishing, seafood dealers, you know, all of that.

And then we have our state lands division where we manage state properties offshore oil and gas leasing, the forever wild program.

And then we also manage all of the Deepwater Horizo oil spill funding for the state.

And right now, that's a little bit over $1,000,000,000 of projects we have underway in coastal Alabama fro the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

So altogether we have about 1100 employees.

It's a pretty large operation.

Yeah, absolutely.

And a lot going on right now in the summertime.

Right.

So I was intrigued by this news that the state your department has purchased the I guess, the equivalent of almost 80 acres worth of beach at Fort Morgan, really to preserve and maybe offer some beach access.

Really fascinating.

How did this come about?

Well, we using some of the Deepwater Horizon funding.

We've been very intentional about some land acquisition in certain areas.

The Fort Morgan Peninsula is one along the Edo River is another in Baldwin County.

And so we we made a acquisition about 2018 of a little over 130 acres, under 20 acres between the Beach Club, West Beach Club condominium and th plantation down in Fort Morgan.

And this is another piece of that.

Another 79 acres that was adjacent to it.

So now we have really the whole block in between the Beach Club and the plantation run at 200 acres of beachfront property that will now be available for our citizens forever and makes a good habita for beach mouse and sea turtles and migratory birds.

And as they as they go south and then come back north, they all need that stopping over place.

And that dune structure down there is ideal for that and just a good opportunity for us to to acquire that and very pleased that that now belongs to the people of the state of Alabama.

Do you foresee i becoming any kind of state park kind of thing, or is this more to preserve the pristine beach there?

It's a little of both.

You know, they will become part of Alabama's Gulf State Park down there, just kind of an outside unit of that.

We'll have some public access, the parking area, be closer to Fort Morgan Road with a trail that leads down to the to the water with an over walk over the dunes.

We'll hopefully start that construction later this year and finish it up in 2025.

So it will have some public access.

But the primary purpos was to be able to preserve that so that it can have the habitat benefits.

And, you know, really have an oasis down there really in all the development that's taking place in in coastal Alabama, which then built it was very important for us, of course, our economy.

But we've got to hav we got to preserve greenspace, nice and blue ways and also to keep that quality of life that we've all love so much.

You can't just pay for it all can't get, can't pay paradise.

You've got to have some some nice place left to for the people to enjoy.

Well said.

Well said.

Yeah.

That's why I was excited.

You know, we've got to get to preserve what we can.

Kind of related.

The governor announced a lot of massive funding projects down there on the coast.

I can't list them all, but some really significant funding for some coastal projects.

And, you know, I appreciate Governor Ivey coming down about two weeks ago to make the announcement of $30 million in Gulf of Mexico energy security and go massive funding that comes to the state of Alabama.

That is a part a share of the revenues from offshore oil and gas that we managed throug the Department of Conservation.

And so were great projects kind of along three main areas nature based education have a project at the exploring them.

The Maritime Museum of Mobil at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the aquarium down there, and then the sea sand and stars over in Orange Beach, plus some work for the University of South Alabama for an outdoor classroo that they're going to do on on Alabama and Dolphin Island, this new great water quality project, some subject to sewer, sewer upgrades in some of the communities on both sides of Mobile Bay.

And then just some more public access.

Public access has been extremely important to the governor, into the Department.

You know, we've got all this beautiful waterways and areas down there, but we just need to make sure we get boat ramps and parks and waterfront access areas that the people can and can enjoy that.

And those are some more great access project that she funded again this year.

Boat ramp seemed to be a theme throughout the state for the department.

It is.

That's been kind of an initiative that we we started about two years ago really wanting to make good boating access from one end of the state to the other.

We've got about 30 boating access projects that are either underway or in the permitting stage now that go all the way from the Tennessee River, you know, down through west Alabama.

We just completed a projec in Selma, the boat ramp in Selma got projects, several projects underway in coastal Alabama, and we've got about six or seven that are going to be in that Scottsboro Guntersville area on the Tennessee River.

And it's just really adding to what we've already had, but then also adding additional parking additional lanes.

So that some of those areas can host tournaments that they just never been able to do before because just didn't have the capacity.

And okay, that's part of it, as is tourism and things like that.

Right.

And we just completed a project a couple of years ago over in Demopolis and I still get pictures and text from the mayor and count commissioner over in Demopolis letting us every time they have a tournament, he sends me a text and thanks us for our investment over there because it's mean meant so muc to their economy and demopolis be able to host these 250 and 300 boat tournaments and so that's the kind of stuff that I really enjoy working with these local communities to do good things because it not only is it again for the quality of lif and bringing people to Alabama for the tourism side, but just means a lot to the economy of those those communities.

Mm hmm.

Well, speaking of that, we're coming up on hunting season, multiple hunting seasons, I suppose.

Ahead.

Bushman On the other day, as we were approaching the Masters Expo and he was getting all excited and everything.

Talk about what that is like, what kind of seasons are coming up.

And isn't that kind of a tourist thing too?

Don't people come to Alabama t take advantage of our hunting?

They do.

You know, we sell abou half of our revenue for hunting.

License comes from Alabama residents and about half of our revenue comes from nonresidents.

We sell a lot less nonresident licenses, but they're more expensive.

So but that's about hal of our revenue for the Wildlife Freshwater Fisheries division of the department.

But we have the longest deer season of anywhere in the country.

You know, our season runs starts in October with both season runs all the way through February 10th.

And we have a very liberal bag limit.

You can take a DOE a day in most places in the state.

So if it's a 120 da long season could take 120 days.

If you went hunting every da and you know, a three buck limit is really the resources we have in Alabama are fantastic.

And we've got a lot of a great deer population.

And dove season opens u in the north part of the state.

You know, coming up the south part of the state the next week after that, the runs, that' that's always everybody's first dip into hunting seaso is they get to go dove hunting right there around Labor Day.

And then it kind of leads them into the deer season.

And but, you know, we just we're really blessed in Alabama with great habitat and our department things did a very good job of trying to manage these public lands so that people have places to hunt.

And then our private landowners, I mean, when you go to West Alabama in the Black Belt, you look at all the deer camps and all the restaurants and the convenience stores and all that they have.

You know, they really make a lot of their money during hunting season that their economy.

It is it is just like people going to the beach.

You know, they they make their money during a certain time.

Same thing deer in hunt.

It means a lot to those communities and it's just living in Alabama is really you're a lover of the outdoors.

This is the place.

Absolutely.

And it's becoming part of our pitch to the outside world, you know, to come to Alabama, outdoor activities, recreation, all that.

And so but I really appreciate you coming on to remind us of all these and all the department does.

We look forward to having you back on maybe later in the hunting season.

But, Commissioner, thanks again.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Dr. Amanda Williams, president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama.

Doc, thanks for coming on Capital Journal.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

Lots to talk about, but I wanted to ask you about your own practice and how you got involved in the the mass leadership.

Yeah.

So I'm a psychiatrist here in Montgomery, and I wor at a private practice, Gardenia Cove Mental Health.

We provide outpatient mental health services.

We have a lot of therapists and do groups, and I actually treat a lot of physicians.

And so physician wellness has been something that's been very important to me.

I think health care has kind of taken off and patients and physician have kind of been left trying to trying to play the game, even though a lot of medicine has become very corporate.

And so it's really important for me to get involved, to figure out how can we take care of patients in the best way and recruit more physicians and keep the practice of medicine a great career for for the future generations?

Sure.

I imagine with I mean, I kept hearing about burnout during COVID.

And so I imagine it's a very real mental health is a very important.

Yeah, maybe maybe overlooked.

Well, you all have just launched this initiative looking at prior authorizations and some of the trouble that causes what is prior authorization and why does it matter?

Good question.

So a prior authorization is essentially a form or some kind of.

Now, they're mostly online but online form that physicians and health care teams have to fill out or complete for a patient to receive certain services through their insurance company.

So it can be for anything from a medication, a diagnostic test like a lab or an imaging study, particular treatments.

So certain treatments requir prior authorization surgeries.

It can be an outpatient treatment.

And sometimes thing like going to a rehab center or follow up care followin the hospitalization can require prior authorizations.

So they started, you know, way back when insurance companies, you know, certai treatments are very expensive.

And so the goal was to make sure that patients met certain criteria for those treatments or diagnostic tests.

The problem is it's now morphed into requiring paperwork for very routine medications routine imaging, routine care, and and it cause significant delays in treatment.

So it would be nice you know, it would be one thing if something was submitted and within an hour you get a result.

But usually it can take days to get a response.

And often it will just b a denial and require an appeal and then even longer s it can really slow up treatment.

But additionally it's also just very burdensome.

I mean, you have a patient who's come in and they're excited to feel better.

They're, you know, they're finally getting the treatment that they need or the diagnostic tests that they need, and then they're hit with more delays.

And then on the provider side, you know, for hospitals, for private practices like mine, it it's a big burden.

We have, you know, entire staff that their whole job is doing prior authorizations.

It's even worse than the hospital systems.

So it's just morphed into something I don't think it was intended to be.

I see.

Well, okay.

So I mean, it takes a lot to get me actually into the doctor's office.

So.

So if I need an MRI or just some kind of thing, Yeah, I could see that being made.

You finally got me there, and now I've got to go through some paperwork and not get what I need so I could see that being a deterrent to even bein and it's just very frustrating.

I mean, you know, especiall because insurance is expensive, you know, we pay a lot of money for insurance.

And so we would expect that if a physician writes a medication or feels like we need a particular test or procedure that we would be able to get it.

And so I think from the patient's perspective, it can be very, very disheartening.

And they don't always understand.

We don't even understand sometimes why we're having to jump through the hoops we're jumping through.

And so they can get very frustrated.

Now, let me ask you, you know, if I'm the insurance company, well, I'm taking a lot.

This is going to be a very expensive procedure.

I don't want frivolous claims and things like that.

So what about them?

I see their perspective saying, look, we want to make sure you're actually sick and actually need this treatment before we just go approve anything willy nilly.

Yes, I think it started probably with the best of intentions.

I mean, health care is very expensive.

And, you know, when it comes to, you know, medications, I prescribe mental health medications there some that are on the $4 list.

And then there's some that are thousands of dollars a month.

And of course, we should try the ones that cost $4 a month first.

But now it's morphed into this thing where there will be a medication that could cost $10 paying cash at Walmart.

But we're having to do prior authorizations for patients with insurance to have their insurance company pay.

And so it's this back forth.

It's a delay in care and the whole thin just seems really, really silly.

And so I'm not sure how it how it ended up where it is, but I think it probably did start from a good place of making sure we keep health care costs down.

Bureaucracy tends to grow.

Yeah, I know you've got a website that you're asking people to come share their stories about.

Yes, yes, that.

Oh, there.

Yeah.

Al fixed prior Ofcom.

Okay.

And so folks can go there and maybe share their own stories about how that's affected them.

Yes.

So our goal is to gather as many patient stories, physician stories as we can with the goal of it being impactful for insurance companies when we're trying to fix these problems with them and for other state leaders, Those individual stories can be very, very powerful.

Yeah, I imagine this conversation is going to crop up in the legislative sessio when we come back into session.

Well, we're hoping that we're hoping that, you know the stakeholders will will hear hear patients and hear physicians and and we'll be able to just make things better.

Okay.

Fair enough.

While I've got you, I wanted to ask you about the physician shortage.

I've had severa of your colleagues on the show over the years, really the last three years this has been going on.

And I know there's been initiatives and proposals put out there.

Where are we?

How are we doing i terms of the physician shortage and what do we need to do better?

Well, we are trying really hard in every way we can think of.

So we passed legislation last year with the workforce bill that would improve ways for physicians to stay in Alabama and ideally get more physicians to Alabama.

This is actually one of the things that came out of our workforce survey is, you know, what are some of the hurdles that physicians are facing?

What are reasons that they're wanting to leave the practice of medicine?

What are some of the reasons they're reducing their clinical hours?

And so we're trying in a lot of different ways.

I think Alabama on a whole, luckily we've we've increased our medical schools here, so we'r creating more young physicians.

One of the things that I thin we need to continue to work on is how do we keep them here With residency programs, there's caps on residency.

So for physicians, you have to first go through medical school, which four years and then do a residency, which is anywhere from 3 to 7 year and then sometimes a fellowship.

And so ideally, these young physicians we're training here, which takes a lot of effort and money and resources, we'll have residency spots where they can then stay.

So that's something that we're working on as well.

You know, I think honestly, reimbursement rates in Alabama are hard to compete with reimbursement rates in Tennessee and in Georgia.

So when we're trying to recruit physicians from other states this is Medicaid reimbursement kind of across the board for Medicare.

Medicare are standard rates.

But Alabama has a lower rate than other states.

Some of our larger payers here that the rates just kind of are what they are.

I think sometimes people don't understand that in health care, physicians and hospitals, they're just paid what what the insurance companies say they'll pay.

And so in Alabama, if there' not a lot of room to negotiate it, it makes it where it's hard to recruit physicians from other states.

So one of the thing that our survey found actually is most physicians in Alabam have never considered leaving.

They love working here.

They love their patients, they love what they're doing.

But it's so hard for them to get new physicians from other states.

And so we're trying to figure out what we can do to incentivize, you know, other excellent physicians to come here.

Well, we've got the health care high school going up.

Yes, that's a longer term and that's a good pipeline.

We're trying and all the ways we can get all the ways we can, we were going to we're going to b following this issue going for.

But I really appreciat you coming on and explaining it.

Thanks, doc Yeah, I appreciate being here.

Thanks for your time.

We'll be right back.

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Visit ABC-TV dot org slash education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Mike Attridge, executive director of the Alabama Mobility and Power Center.

Mike thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

What could you share wit our audience more about the app?

Is that what you call it?

Right.

Yeah.

So the App Center is established about two years ago, and it was originally a partnership between Alabama Power, the University of Alabama and Mercedes-Benz.

And really lookin at the research and development requirements to really take their seize the opportunities of economi development as we move towards electrificatio of the transportation industry.

So we're talking about electric vehicles, EVs.

It's such a, you know, watchword these days.

It's a huge part of the market an emerging part of the market.

It was a big push here in the state to get more power charging stations.

It's still a big infrastructure thing.

So tell me, like what is the current state of the market in terms of EVs or is this a real thing or are we just going to be part of the auto industry from here on out?

Yeah, I think that's a great question in a lot of ways, because there is a lot of misperception about electric vehicles.

I think the first one is really around charging and charging infrastructure.

So the way I always broach that subject is I'm sure you drive a ice vehicl or internal combustion engine.

If you had a gas pump at your house, how ofte would you go to the gas station?

Not very often.

And that's what it's like having an electric car.

You come home, you your car in you wake up in the morning, it's fully charged.

My car has about a 400 mile range.

I can drive almost anywhere all day long, come home and charge it.

You're only going to use those Superchargers, the ones that you hear, you know, horror stories.

It took me 30 minutes to charge.

When you're on a long trip, when you're exceeding that range.

So when you think about that, if you're on your way down to the beach and you get all your stuff and your family and your car, I'm pretty sure every time you sto is 15 minutes at least anyway.

So I think once people own an electric car, they realize it's not the same as it is a gas vehicle where you're going to the gas station continuously.

Most of the time you're charging at home and a lot of time recharging at work.

And we'll talk about research, because that's what you are doing is research and its impact and how that can, you know, impact the EV industry.

Sure.

So maybe I'll start wit the industry and work backwards.

So Benchmark just came ou and their most recent estimates are there'll be $1.6 trillion of CapEx invested in the EV and EVs infrastructure, battery materials, battery manufacturing in the United States by 2040.

Alabama makes up about to 9% of all the auto production in the United States.

So we should get 9% of that $1.6 trillion.

The way I look at it, so over $100 billion of CapEx we should be going after for this state.

But to do that, we have to hav a training available workforce that really doesn't exist and we have to have the infrastructure, that research infrastructure to allow those companies to have access to pieces of equipment and to expertise that maybe they don't have on their own staffs.

So the Alabama Mobility and Power Centers really set up to do research for two main reasons one, to drive innovation.

I mean, that's easy to say.

It's really hard to do.

Driving innovation requires, you know, that you have the skills and the expertise and also requires some luck.

But while doing that research, we're going to gain a lot of knowledge into the battery industry, into the automotive industry as it relates to EVs.

And through that, be able to develop curriculum from K through 12 to yea and four year colleges and build that workforce that makes when once that's completed, Alabama is the go to place because we have the existing auto history and we'll have the existing workforce.

Well, that's fascinating.

And I know you're part of the Alabama Transportation Institute.

There, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.

I did some work with them back when we were talking about infrastructure and gas tax and things like that.

And it was super helpful.

All of the research that they.

It's like it's not willy nilly.

It's years and years of research.

So I can I can see that y'all aren't just taking this from you know, where it is right now or where it has been.

You're looking way into the future.

That's correct.

And I think there is that policy.

So there's research.

We have basically four main research areas.

One of them is it has to do with adoption.

So if you ask anybody in the industry, do they believe the adoption curve or actually you ask anybody, do you believe the adoptio curve, the answer is usually no.

So the problem is that adoption curve is based off of regulation.

So CAFE regulations which require automakers to have a fleet sales average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025.

So the car companies did everything but electrify and they did, you know, made the panels of your car super thin.

They put on that idle stop switch that a lot of people don't like.

They did a lot of things.

But at some point you have t electrify to hit those targets.

So that requires battery technology, that requires a charging technology, that requires all of those things.

But on top of that before we can really understand how fast that market's going to grow, we have to understand wha that market growth looks like.

So we have undertaken to try and predict every consumer adoption based off of consumers.

So if gas was 20 bucks a gallon, would you think about electric car?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So if there was a lot of chargers around everywhere you went and weren't worried about finding a charger, would you be more likely?

Of course.

So we look at about eight or ten different factors and from tha we can fairly accurately predict the growth of the EV market.

By doing that.

Now we get timing and quantity that allows us to understand things like how much graphite do we need, how much lithium do we need, how many battery manufacturing facilities do we need?

And then what is that workforce that goes along with it?

Yeah, well, talk about that workforce issue because.

That's that's across the board in industry right now.

There.

You know, every every industry is lookin for workers.

We have a workforce participation rate that's really low.

Talk about the future of workforce and how that needs to change to supplement to complement the industry.

Sure.

And I think I think we have to understand what the strengths of our state are and what the weaknesses of our state are.

Maybe they're not weaknesses, but when you think about a battery factory, like Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada, it's a couple of thousand acres of flat land.

I just discarded most of Alabama because we're hilly.

Yeah but what we see a lot of trees and a lot of trees as well.

But so but to build a battery there are many, many processes from from the extraction of graphite, for example.

So a lot of people don't understand graphite is the main component in a lithium ion battery.

So it's about 30, 35% of the weight of the battery.

Lithium is about 3% of the weight of the battery.

Alabama has the largest of positiv graphite in the lower 48 states.

Inclusive county.

Yeah up there in Corsicana.

Yeah.

So for example that' how we're looking at workforce.

Those are rural communities.

We're processing of that graphit To feed into this global battery industry is a great opportunity for this state.

So now we're looking at what are the skills and knowledge base that's required to really make that industry flourish.

But on top of that, we also have lithium.

We didn't know we had lithium.

Lithium comes out of the smack over basin that runs from Arkansa all the way into into Alabama.

And we're extracting lithium by using water membrane technology.

So lots of job opportunities.

Maybe not what people think like building the car, but providing the materials and providing that domestic supply of materials to that battery industry is really wher I think this state can flourish.

Fascinating stuff.

And we'll be following up, Mike Oak Ridge of the Alabama Mobility and Power Center thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me.

We'll be right back.

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Thanks for watching.

If you're watching on Friday, a special treat awaits you coming up next.

Alabama Public Television presents Engage Getting the Vote Right.

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They're going to be debating issues around voter registration, including the ballot harvesting discussion that has taken place in this state recently.

That's coming up next and will also be available on our website.

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We'll see you next time.