The Greene County Democrat

Category: General News

  • Greene County jury awards half a million dollar verdict against Frontier Bingo


    Special to the Democrat by John Zippert, Co-Publisher


    Last week, a Greene County jury awarded Tony Samuel of Aliceville, Alabama, half a million dollars, against Frontier Bingo because they refused to pay him the $30,000, he won playing electronic bingo back in 2019.
    Samuel was represented by Attorneys Faya Rose Toure a/k/a Rose Sanders and Hank Sanders of the Chestnut, Sanders, Sanders Law Firm in Selma. DREAMS, Inc., a Charity doing business as Frontier Bingo in Knoxville, was represented by Mark Scogin and Victor Hamby of Tuscaloosa. The case was held in the 17th Judicial Circuit presided over by Judge Eddie Hardaway.

    Samuel came to the Frontier Bingo Hall on August 1, 2019, with $4400 and was playing 3 or 4 machines for six or seven hours. He pooled his winnings from one machine to the other. He did not win as much as $1000 a single time but he steadily won and loss smaller amounts, ending up with $33,000. He called his girlfriend who urged him to come home with his winnings.
    Samuel played awhile longer and lost $3,000 back. He decided to cash out with $30,000 in winnings. He called security to cash out. Security sent Carlos Lewis, the technician at Frontier, to print his winning ticket. Lewis testified at trial that there was no machine malfunction and no jackpot that Samuel was owed the $30,000.
    The technician, Carlos Lewis, took Samuel to collect his money. He said the manager said they would pay. He saw them counting out money to pay Samuel. They never told him why they did not pay. The Manager said they would pay him the next day. Samuel asked to take a cell phone photo of his winning ticket but hey would not allow him to photograph his ticket. Samuel refused to leave until he could take a photograph of his winning ticket.
    The Frontier management called 911 for the Greene County Sheriff’s Department to remove him from the premises. When Greene County Deputy Melvin Smith arrived at Frontier, Samuels said he was not leaving without a photo or copy of his winning ticket. Deputy Melvin Smith had to insist that Frontier allow Samuel to make a copy of the winning ticket. A copy was finally made, and he escorted Tony Samuel out of the Frontier Bingo Hall. Samuel only had $200 of $4400 dollars left in his pocket.
    Samuel returned the next day to Frontier to collect his winnings. This time the Frontier management made him wait for some more hours to collect his winnings. They then made him come back a third time and he brought a witness. Frontier never told him why they would not pay him.
    Samuel went back a third time to Frontier Bingo to collect his winnings. This time he was told to call Frontier’s Attorney, Flint Liddon of Birmingham. He called Liddon who said that Samuel would have to collect his money from “the maker of the machine, not Frontier Bingo.” Samuel testified that Liddon has now lost his license to practice law.
    At that point, Tony Samuels consulted Attorney Henry Sanders of Chestnut, Sanders & Sanders, a law firm in Selma. Sanders tried to collect Samuel’s winnings without any success. Sanders filed suit on Samuel’s behalf, which resulted in last week’s trial at the William McKinley Branch Courthouse in Eutaw, Alabama.

    The jury returned a verdict in favor of Samuels, with $250,000 in compensatory damages and $250,000 in punitive damages, totaling half a million dollars.
    Attorney Hank Sanders said of the significance of this case, “This was a breach of contract case that turned into a fraud case. The bingo operators of Greene County must be fair in their business dealing with customers who come to play at their facilities. The jury awarded Mr. Samuel much more than his $30,000 winning ticket because of the unfair, degrading, and fraudulent way he was treated.”
    Sanders indicated that he had tried to subpoena Bernie Gomez of Huntsville, Alabama, the reputed “actual owner of Frontier Bingo” to testify at the trial but could not locate him to serve the subpoena. One witness testified that Gomez comes to Frontier Bingo each Monday to collect his share of the winnings in bags of money.
    Efforts to contact Frontier Bingo for their comments on the jury verdict and if they plan to appeal, reached an answering machine that said it was full and could not accept additional messages.

  • CDC and FDA approve second COVID-19
    booster for those over 50 years old

    If you are boosted you are 21 times less likely to die from COVID-19

    On March 30, 2022, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) issued an advisory stating, “In order to maintain the highest level of protection from vaccinations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized a second booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for individuals age 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals. 

    The ADPH issued this advisory because, “Protection offered by COVID-19 vaccine decreases over time, and cautions that even in times of low community transmission, the risk for older and immunocompromised persons to become severely ill with COVID-19 is not zero.” 

    The FDA previously authorized a single booster dose for certain immunocompromised individuals following completion of a three-dose primary vaccination series. This action will now make a second booster dose of these vaccines available to other populations at higher risk for severe disease, hospitalization and death. Emerging evidence suggests that a second booster dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine improves protection against severe COVID-19 and is not associated with new safety concerns.

    In a recent briefing, sponsored by Ethnic Media Services (EMS), experts stated that two years into the pandemic, COVID-19 cases have decreased dramatically and 95% of Americans have some immunity either for having been vaccinated or previously infected with the virus.

    However, experts from the Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention (CDC), warned that because it’s unpredictable to know when the next variant or the next pandemic is coming, vaccination remains the most important preventive measure for all age groups.

    Dr. Shannon Stokley DrPH, Co-Lead of the CDC Vaccine Task Force said at the EMS briefing that:

    “We’ve given more than 559 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and that’s three times the amount of vaccine that’s usually given in a flu season. A good majority of that has been mRNA vaccines that have been proven safe and effective at preventing complications from COVID-19, including severe disease, hospitalization, and death.”

    “Currently there are multiple manufacturers that are conducting clinical trials to assess the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine among children younger than five years of age. Once complete, those manufacturers must submit an application to the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA will then review the data and if there’s good evidence of safety and effectiveness, they will authorize the vaccine under emergency use for children in this age group.”

    “If you’re boosted, you are 21 times less likely to die from COVID-19. So, vaccination remains the most effective and safest way to prevent COVID-19.”

    “Over time you’ll have waning immunity and that is why we’ve been recommending a booster dose of vaccine. What we’re really concerned about there is preventing hospitalization and death. And these vaccines are very good at preventing these severe outcomes.”

    Dr. John T. Brooks, MD, CDC Senior Medical Adviser, added to the EMS briefing the following:

    “BA2 variant represents 35% of circulating variants nationally… There is no evidence that BA2 variant results in more severe disease, nor does it appear to be more likely to evade immune protection. But it does have increased transmission in comparison to the related BA1 variant that circulated in the US peaking during January of 2021.”

    “We’re watching the signals in Western Europe and the UK and then also in parts of Asia. The situation in the US has an important difference from those: we have very high levels of immunity in this country, 95% of Americans have some evidence of either having been vaccinated or previously infected with COVID. We think that’s very high compared to some other places in the world.”

    “We live in one world, and we’re only as safe as a plane ride away. It’s important that we protect everyone in our world community. Untreated COVID-19 infection is the source of new variants. People who are not vaccinated and become infected can become the source of new variants to emerge. These are good reasons to want to provide the vaccine to everyone possible.”

    “This pandemic is not over and we have to be prepared to take care of ourselves and to take care of others. Should there be a resurgence? or should there be another pandemic coming after this one? History has shown us over and over this is not the last one. My message here is to be prepared for the future.”

    Persons in Greene County interested in more information or to make an appointment for a vaccination or a booster, may call the Greene County Public Health Department at 205-372-9316; or the Greene County Physicians Clinic at 205-372-3388, Ext. 4.

  • COVID-19

    As of April 2, 2022, at 10:00 AM
    (According to Alabama Political Reporter)

    Alabama had 1,295,468 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
    (2,960) more than last week with 19,290 deaths (80) more
    than last week)

    Greene County had 1,868 confirmed cases, (2) more cases than last week), with 48 deaths

    Sumter Co. had 2,574 cases with 50 deaths

    Hale Co. had 4,708 cases with 105 deaths

    Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142; ages 5 and up.

  • Newswire: World Trade Organization head predicts food riots in poorer countries due to Ukraine war

    Ngozi Okonjo Iweala

    Mar. 28, 2022 (GIN) – Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the head of the World Trade Organization, is warning that skyrocketing global food prices as a result of the war in Ukraine could trigger food riots from people going hungry in poor countries.
     
    WTO Director General Okonjo-Iweala urged food-producing countries against hoarding supplies and said it was vital to avoid a repeat of the Covid pandemic, when rich countries were able to secure for themselves the bulk of vaccines.
     
    In an interview with The Guardian of the UK, the WTO director general noted the dependence of many African countries on food supplies from the Black Sea region.
     
    “I think we should be very worried. The impact on food prices and hunger this year and next could be substantial. Food and energy are the two biggest items in the consumption baskets of poor people all over the world,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
     
    “It is poor countries and poor people within poor countries that will suffer the most.”
     
    Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, said 35 African countries were dependent on food imported from the Black Sea region, adding that Russia and Ukraine were responsible for 24% of global supplies of wheat.
     
    After being strongly critical of the “vaccine apartheid” that affected Africa during the pandemic, she said WTO member states had to resist the temptation of protecting their own food stocks.
     
    “It is a natural reaction to keep what you have – we saw that with vaccines. But we shouldn’t make the same mistake with food.”
     
    The last time rising food prices sparked food riots was between 2006 and 2008. Protests broke out in developing countries as prices in a wide range of food, oil and other primary commodities increased in dramatic fashion, in some cases more than doubling within a few months. Policymakers were presented with the challenge of simultaneously addressing hunger, poverty, and political instability.
     
    In Africa, food riots swept across the continent, from Egypt and Tunisia in the North, to Burkina Faso and Senegal in the West, and Madagascar and Mozambique in the South.

    The crisis reinforced the extent to which oil and food markets have become highly interdependent, and highlighted the relative inability of national governments and the international community to adequately deal with
    dramatic surges in food prices.
     
    “We must make sure we learn the lessons from vaccines and previous food crises,” Ms. Okonjo-Iweala said. “I am not sure we can fully mitigate the impact of the war in Ukraine because the numbers involved are huge, but we can mitigate some of it.” 

  • Newswire : New report reveals that Black and Latinx youth are 50% more likely to face juvenile incarceration than their white peers

    Group of multiracial incarcerated young people

    By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    Two kindergarteners in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, tried their best to pick a fight, throwing feeble punches at an older and much larger boy who insulted one of their mothers.
    
Police, having seen the fight online, couldn’t determine which boys were part of these mundane events but arrested 11 other kids – all were Black and all of them in elementary school – who purportedly were there and watched the fight unfold.
According to The Sentencing Project, the children, some of them in handcuffs, were brought to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center. Authorities ran them through an undefined “filter system” that determined some needed to be locked up.
    
In Rutherford County, roughly half of the arrested kids are detained.
According to Rutherford County Judge Donna Scott Davenport, who approved the detentions, “Being detained in our facility is not a picnic at all. It’s not supposed to be. It’s a consequence for an action.”
    
Children alleged “action” – watching a fight and not breaking it up – isn’t a crime in Tennessee.
    
But it folds nicely into new data from the Sentencing Project, which revealed that youth detentions and commitment revealed sharp racial and ethnic disparities.
According to the report titled “Too Many Locked Doors,” youth of color encounter police more often than their white peers and are disproportionately arrested despite modest differences in behavior that cannot explain the extent of arrest disparities.
    
The disparities in incarceration begin with arrests but grow at each point of contact along the justice system continuum, the authors of the 27-page report found.
In roughly one-quarter of delinquency cases throughout the decade, a youth was detained pre-adjudication.
    
Moreover, the authors determined that children of color are more likely to face detainment than their white peers when arrested.
    
Despite states and counties’ traditional reliance on detention when responding to misbehaviors and offenses committed by youth, the scope and impact of youth incarceration in the United States are not fully understood, and traditional counts understate its size.
    
“Every time juvenile courts decide to confine a young person, even for short stays, devastating and life-long consequences may result,” said Josh Rovner, Senior Advocacy Associate, and the author of the new report. “Understanding the full scope of kids’ incarceration is critical to protecting youth and ensuring equal justice for youth of color,” Rovner noted in a news release.
    
The Sentencing Project said the report offers a fresh look at nationwide juvenile courts data, such as the frequency of youth detention after encounters with law enforcement and out-of-home placements after court hearings. More than one in four youth are detained upon their arrest, a ratio that has slightly worsened over the last decade.
    
In 2019, officials recorded nearly 200,000 instances of youth detained upon their arrest, often for less than two or three weeks. In addition, more than 55,000 times youths were sent to out-of-home placement after their court hearings.
    
Every other year, a one-day count occurs to provide a snapshot of the extent of youth incarceration; that count overlooks more than four out of five instances of a child or adolescent being removed from their home.
    
“Too Many Locked Doors” offers a more comprehensive view of youth incarceration. According to the report, overall, there is far fewer youth in detention and commitment than a decade ago, due primarily to declines in youth offending and arrests.
    
However, when American children and adolescents are arrested, the juvenile justice system too often detains and commits them. In addition, the youth of color face even more harsh treatment than their white peers.

  • Newswire : Biden signs Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill into law

    Emmett Till
    NAACP “A Man Was Lynched Today” Banner

    President Joe Biden on Tuesday, March 29, signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022, which makes lynching a federal hate crime.
    
Earlier this month, the bipartisan measure passed both chambers of Congress. Named after Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American savagely murdered by a group of white men in Mississippi in 1955, the legislation received push back from three Republicans – Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Chip Roy of Texas. Each were the lone votes against the bill.
    
Emmett Till’s murder sparked the civil rights movement which ultimately led to bills like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other social justice laws.
    
“I could not have been prouder to stand behind President Biden as he signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law,” National Urban League President Marc Morial stated.
    
“The act of lynching is a weapon of racial terror that has been used for decades, and our communities are still impacted by these hate crimes to this day,” Morial continued. “This bill is long overdue, and I applaud President Biden and Members of Congress for their leadership in honoring Emmett Till and other lynching victims by passing this significant piece of legislation.”
    
According to the bill’s text, “Whoever conspires to commit any offense … shall (A) if death results from the offense, be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”
    
“(B) In any other case, be subjected to the same penalties as the penalties prescribed for the offense of the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.” Specifically, the legislation makes lynching a federal hate crime, punishable by up to life in prison.
    
The measure had faced defeat for more than 100 years, with lawmakers attempting to pass the legislation more than 200 times. The House finally passed the bill on a 422-3 vote.
It passed unanimously in the Senate.
    
“This is a moment of historic consequence. Despite more than 200 attempts to make lynching a federal crime over the past 120 years, it has never before been done,” added Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio).
    
“We are proud Congressman Bobby Rush remained steadfast in championing this critical legislation,” Beatty asserted. “This bill clearly conveys our nation will no longer ignore this shameful chapter of our history, and the full force of the U.S. federal government will be brought to bear against those who commit this heinous act.”
    
Lynching counts as a longstanding and uniquely American weapon of racial terror that has for decades been used to maintain the white hierarchy,” said Rush (D-Illinois).
    
“Perpetrators of lynching got away with murder time and time again — in most cases, they were never even brought to trial. Legislation to make lynching a federal crime and prevent racist killers from evading justice was introduced more than 200 times, but never once passed into law,” Rush stated.
    
The founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, Rush previously promised to do all he could to push the legislation through before his retirement.
    
The congressman recalled that he was 8 years old when he saw photos of Emmett Till’s brutalized corpse in Jet Magazine. “That shaped my consciousness as a Black man in America, changed the course of my life, and changed our nation,” Rush affirmed.
    
New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker noted that between 1936 and 1938, the national headquarters of the NAACP hung a flag with the words “A man was lynched yesterday.”
“That was a solemn reminder of the reality Black Americans experienced daily during some of the darkest chapters of America’s history,” Sen. Booker remarked.
    
“Used by white supremacists to oppress and subjugate Black communities, lynching is a form of racialized violence that has permeated much of our nation’s past and must now be reckoned with,” the Senator continued. “Although this bill will not undo the terror and fear of the past, it’s a necessary step that our nation must take to move forward.”

  • Newswire : Confirmation hearings for Judge Jackson wraps with independent witnesses

    Judge Katanji Brown Jackson


    With public hearings, the historic – and mostly despicable – confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded on Thursday, March 24. And the Republican Party punctuated their four-day-long, racially-charged, and otherwise disrespectful digs at Judge Jackson.
    
In the classic “I’m not racist, I have a Black friend” portion of their shameful and spineless public denigration of the accomplished Harvard Law graduate, the GOP trotted out First Liberty Institute associate counsel Keisha Russell, a Black woman.
    
Russell, a favorite of GOP allies Fox News and other decidedly Republican-leaning networks, spent her testimony discussing critical race theory. “CRT makes race the predominant factor,” Russell remarked as she read a prepared statement. “America’s history as a lesson and blueprint as to how we must constantly seek to uphold and protect America’s founding promises. For these reasons, First Liberty opposes the nomination.”
    
Additionally, the GOP trotted out Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and administrative law professor Jennifer Mascott, both opposing Judge Jackson’s nominations, falsely stating that the Biden administration has embraced “ideology of the anti-incarceration and anti-police movement.”
    
Mascott insisted that Judge Jackson “may have a different view than traditionally applied methods of originalism,” a philosophy Republican-appointed judges have embraced.
    
Perhaps more forceful than the committee members, Democratic witnesses pushed back.
“We have waited far too long for this day, but we are nonetheless overjoyed that it has finally arrived. Judge Jackson’s presence on the court will matter tremendously,” said Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
    
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) decried the assault on Judge Jackson because of her gender and race. The congresswoman urged the Senate to consider Judge Jackson’s record.“[This is a] glass ceiling that many Americans believed that they would never live to see broken,” Congresswoman Beatty asserted. “Judge Jackson’s confirmation vote must not be isolated to her gender or her race. Instead, I urge you to examine her credentials and sterling judicial records closely. They read like a storybook for a perfectly prepared jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court.”
    
With the close of Thursday’s public hearings, the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to meet on Monday, March 28. The committee has tentatively scheduled a vote on the nomination on April 4.
    
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said he expects a full vote by April 11.
Democrats hope that some Republicans join them in voting to confirm Judge Jackson. Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), one of the main actors in these hearings, voted in 2021 to confirm Judge Jackson to the powerful D.C. appellate court.
    
Sen. Graham has signaled he’ll vote against confirmation this time.
 Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine, also voted to confirm Judge Jackson in 2021.
    
If the confirmation vote splits along party lines, Vice President Kamala Harris will cast the tiebreaker, assuring Judge Jackson’s ascension as the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice.


  • Alabama New South Alliance endorses statewide candidates for May 24th Democratic Primary

    Malika Sanders Fortier- Governor
    Will Boyd- U.S. Senate

    The Alabama New South Alliance (ANSC) endorsed statewide
    candidates at its meeting on Saturday, March 26, 2022, at the embassy suites Hotel in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. ANSC is the sister organization of the Alabama New South Coalition.

    Over one hundred fifty delegates from across the state participated in the screening and recommendation of candidates for the Democratic Primary to be held on May 24, 2022.

    The delegates heard from and questioned five of the six Democratic candidates for Governor of Alabama, including Patricia Salter Jamieson, a nurse and mental health counselor from Birmingham; Yolanda Flowers, an educator from Birmingham; Malika Sanders Fortier of Selma, Attorney and Alabama State Senator-District 23; Arthur Kennedy from Louisville, Alabama; and Doug ‘New Blue’ Smith, a Montgomery businessman and participant in the transition team for six prior governors.

    Each of the candidates had three minutes to introduce themselves and ten minutes for questions from the audience. All of the candidates supported increasing the minimum wage, improving education, Medicaid Expansion and prison reform. Malika Sanders Fortier had the strongest platform in terms of a “blueprint for the beloved community in Alabama”. Malika Fortier Sanders overwhelmingly received the ANSA endorsement.

    The delegates heard from the three candidates for U. S. Senator, all African-Americans, running for the seat vacated by the retirement of Richard Shelby. Two of the candidates appeared virtually, Brandaun Dean, former Mayor of Brighton and Lanny Jackson of Birmingham. Candidate Will Boyd of Hoover, who is the Presiding Bishop of the Zion Ministries and was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2018.

    Boyd indicated that he and Walt Maddox lost the 2018 Gubernatorial election by 220,000 votes statewide, while there were 237,000 Black voters who did not turn-out to vote. “We can win this and turn our state blue, if we get a great turn-out by Black votes and the support of white voters, who voted for Doug Jones, when he ran for Senate.” Will Boyd received the ANSA endorsement for the U, S. Senate seat.

    The ANSC delegates heard from several Democratic candidates who are running unopposed in the statewide primary on May 24. The group agreed to endorse them as well. This included: Pamela Lafitte for Secretary of State; Anita Kelly for Alabama Supreme Court – Place 5 and; Yvette Richardson for State Board of Education – Place 2.

    The ANSA also endorsed for Congressional Districts: Vimal Patel in District 2; Kathy Warner-Stanton in District 5 and incumbent Congresswoman Terri Sewell in District 7.

    In other multicounty races, the following candidates were also endorsed by ANSA: Henry ‘Hank’ Sanders for Alabama State Senator-
    District 23; Larine Irby Pettaway for State Representative- District 67; Curtis Travis, State Representative-District 72; Robert Turner Jr., District Attorney, 4th Judicial District, Barrown Lankster, District Attorney, 17th Judicial District; and Bob McMillan, District Attorney, 35th. Judicial Circuit. Charlotte M. Tesmer, District Attorney, 2nd. Judicial District Circuit.

    The Alabama New South Alliance County Chapters will endorse candidates on the county level.
     
    For more information contact Shelley Fearson at 334-262-0932
    or 334-799-9757 or Email: alabamanewsouth@aol.com

     

  • Greene County School System receives $1,337,678 in annual Federal Programs, separate from various COVID relief funds

    The Greene County Board Education held its monthly meeting March 28, 2022. The week’s delay was due to Spring break observance the previous week. As part of his report to the board, Superintendent Dr. Corey Jones scheduled Dr. Charlayne Jordan-Riley, Federal Programs Coordinator, to present an overview on role and importance of federal programs in our schools.
    Dr. Riley opened with the purpose of federal programs, which is to “…ensure that all children have a fair and equal opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.” She stated that her role as Federal Programs Coordinator is to plan, develop, direct, implement and evaluate all functions related to federal programs and grant programs.
    Dr. Riley describe the various federal funds and uses coming into the system, noting that for fiscal year 2022, Greene County Schools received $1,337,678. The system’s allocations are based on the average daily attendance of students. Federal Program funds support the following: personnel salaries and benefits; professional development; educational programs; teacher supplements; classroom supplies, equipment and hardware; parent engagement activities and the executor administrator. She noted that the system’s Parent Resource Center, housed at the former Peter J. Kirksey Career Center, will hold it open house soon.
    Federal Programs also provide resources to assist homeless students.
    In addition to the annual federal funds allocations, the system has been awarded federal resources through COVID Relief Funding. The ESSER (CARES ACT) which is the Coronavirus Aid Relief & Economic Security Act for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund provided $864,032 in the initial allocation ESSER I; ESSER II has allocated $3,319,901; and ARP ESSER (American Rescue Plan At has allocated $7, 461,407. Dr. Riley clarified that all these funds are not on hand, but the system has access to them and the funds must be spent in a timely schedule.
    In other business the board approved the following recommendations by Superintendent Jones.
    Employment: MarShae Powell, Bus Aide, Transportation Department; Kadijah Hunter, Substitute Teacher, Science Department, Greene County High School, for 2020-2022 School Term; Zaddrick Smith, Physical Education Teacher, Eutaw Primary School; J’kia Carpenter, Kindergarten Teacher, Eutaw Primary School for the 2021-2022 School Term; Barbara Woods, Full-time, Cook Robert Brown Middle School; Clara Simmons, Substitute Cook, Robert Brown Middle School.
    Resignation: Dorothy Powell, Bus Aide, effective February 24, 2022.
    Supplemental Contract: Vanessa Bryant, Cheerleader Coach, Robert Brown Middle School for 2021-2022 School Term.
    The following administrative items were approved by the board.
    * Payment of all bills, claims, and payroll.
    * Bank reconciliations as submitted by Ms. Marquita Lennon, CSFO.
    * Lighting Services Agreement between Greene County Board and Alabama Power
    * Contract between Greene County Board and LAF Sign Language Interpreting Services.
    * Contract Agreement between Greene County Board and Uniti Network Services.
    * ACT Booth Camp

  • COVID-19

    As of March 27, 2022, at 10:00 AM
    (according to Alabama Political Reporter)

    Alabama had 1,292,508 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
    (947) more than last week with 19,210 deaths (117) more
    than last week)

    Greene County had 1,866 confirmed cases, (3) more cases than last week), with 48 deaths

    Sumter Co. had 2,570 cases with 49 deaths

    Hale Co. had 4,697 cases with 104 deaths

    Note: Greene County Physicians Clinic has testing and vaccination for COVID-19; Call for appointments at 205/372-3388, Ext. 142; ages 5 and up.