Greene County Democrat

Category: Health

  • Newswire : The Travel Bans Chilling Impact

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    “Another shameful moment for our nation’s foreign policy” is what ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Greg Meeks calls President Trump’s latest travel ban on 12 countries. President Trump reinstated his first-term travel ban based on national security concerns. Beginning June 9, 2025, at 12:01, citizens of the designated countries are banned from entering the United States.
    The entry bans citizens from the following countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

    The 12 countries on the travel ban list comprise seven African nations and one Caribbean nation. This ban will impact commerce and possibly diplomatic relations with these countries. Congressman Meeks says, “Trump’s travel ban is discriminatory from the ground up, and ultimately self-defeating—it even betrays our Afghan allies who supported U.S. troops over our twenty-year war and were waiting for their visas to enter the United States.”
    President Trump also signed a ban on international students attending Harvard University, a school he has been battling with over issues such as antisemitism on campus and discrimination against white, Asian, male, and straight individuals. The Trump administration is also concerned with China’s foreign influence and perceived woke ideology. Chioma Chookwoo of American Oversight says, “A quarter of Harvard’s student population is international.” Harvard has challenged these actions in court and won a preliminary injunction to halt the denial of student visas.
    The latest travel ban has far-reaching implications for higher education in the United States. North Carolina Democratic Congresswoman Alma Adams told Black Press USA, “Nationwide, we have more than 1 million international students who contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year.” In Adam’s home district, she says the University of North Carolina at Charlotte” has 2,000 international students from nearly 100 countries.” The congresswoman, who also is a member of the House Committee on Education, says, “These students are coming to our country to better their education and consistently give more than they receive.”
    “Between this latest travel ban, the freeze on student visa processing, and other chilling actions to deter international students, the Trump administration is creating a self-inflicted brain drain that further damages our economy and undermines U.S. influence and soft power,” offered Meeks.

  • Newswire : Disdain for the poor: Job Corps shutdown sparks outrage

     Job Corps – careers begin here

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    For over six decades, Job Corps has been one of the most effective federal programs aimed at helping disadvantaged youth overcome poverty. Created as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act of 1964—a cornerstone of his War on Poverty—Job Corps has helped millions of low-income Americans gain education, housing, job skills, and a pathway to employment, particularly African Americans and other marginalized communities.
    Now, in what critics are calling a direct assault on America’s poor and working-class youth, the Trump administration is suspending operations at all Job Corps centers nationwide. The Department of Labor’s decision made public on May 30, has already resulted in thousands of students being abruptly sent home from residential campuses, leaving many with nowhere to go and no immediate support.
    From Detroit to Memphis to Clearfield, Utah, stories have emerged of stunned students and outraged parents. “Everybody right now don’t know what to do,” said Haley Hawkins, a student from the Dr. Benjamin L. Hooks Job Corps Center in Memphis. “They feel like this is a dead end.” In Detroit, 16-year-old Carleton Davis had just settled into the program when he and dozens of others were told to pack up and leave. His mother, recovering from breast cancer and recently unhoused, feared what would come next.
    The closures affect 99 contractor-operated centers and align with Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer claimed the centers are no longer achieving the outcomes students deserve and cited financial strain as justification for the pause. But many lawmakers across party lines have condemned the move. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted the decision, noting the value of centers in her home state. “They have become important pillars of support for some of our most disadvantaged young adults,” she said.
    Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) accused the administration of prioritizing “tax cuts for billionaires” over proven programs for poor and working-class youth. The stakes are enormous. Job Corps serves youth between the ages of 16 and 24, most of whom are low-income, have dropped out of school, or face other barriers to employment. Many have aged out of foster care, experienced homelessness, or had contact with the criminal justice system. The program offers not only training in skilled trades such as healthcare, auto tech, and culinary arts but also provides room, board, and wraparound services, including counseling and healthcare.
    Historically, the Job Corps has been especially vital to African Americans. According to data from the Cleveland Job Corps, the majority of its 12,000 graduates over two decades were Black women. Across the nation, the program has offered a rare safe harbor for Black and Brown youths seeking alternatives to crime and poverty.
    Its roots stretch back to the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s, which gave work to young men during the Great Depression. Modeled in part on the CCC, Job Corps was designed to serve both urban and rural youth, with a large portion of participants historically coming from the South and other poverty-stricken regions. Despite occasional criticisms over operational issues, Job Corps has demonstrated strong outcomes. Over 80% of graduates either enter the workforce, join the military, or pursue further education. Students typically improve at least two grade levels in literacy and math while enrolled.
    At its heart, the Job Corps mission remains simple yet powerful: provide vulnerable youth with a chance. “For so many people in this program, their lives have been very challenging,” former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said recently. “Job Corps has been the game-changer.”
    With this administration’s decision, many said the message to low-income Americans—particularly African Americans and others in underserved communities—is loud and clear: support systems that have worked for decades are expendable. Programs that create opportunity, equity, and stability are being dismantled to make way for budget cuts that disproportionately favor the wealthy. “These aren’t kids in a youth home that got caught in a crime,” Pastor Mo, a Detroit minister and advocate, said. “These are kids who are trying to avoid getting caught in a crime.”

  • Newswire : Pentagon says: National Guard, Marine deployment in Los Angeles Costs $134 million

    Protestors in Los Angeles oppose deportation of immigrants and Trump’s military response

    By Bart Jansen, USA Today
    Defense officials said the Pentagon is spending $134 million to deploy 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to respond to protests against federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
    Bryn MacDonnell, a special assistant to the secretary of Defense, said the cost for the 60-day deployment for travel, housing and food is coming out of operations and maintenance accounts.
    “What’s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA?” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California, asked at a House Appropriations subcommittee on the Defense Department’s budget. “Why are you sending warfighters to cities to interact with civilians?”
    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump “believes in law and order. Every American citizen deserves to live in a city that’s safe,” Hegseth said. “We’re proud to do it.”
    As of Tuesday morning, June 10th, the Los Angeles Police Department reported 45 arrests related to the protests. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has gone to Federal court to oppose President Trump’s calling in the National Guard, without his consent as the governor of the state.

    Aguilar said troops were seen sleeping on floors and not provided food, fuel or water from the Defense Department, reflecting a lack of preparation for the deployment.
    “I want to express my severe concern with the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without consultation with the state of California,” Aguilar said. “Why were we unprepared to provide them basic necessities?”
    Hegseth called the criticism “disingenuous” for a hasty deployment and said he was personally monitoring the mission.
    “There are moments when you make do as best you can temporarily,” Hegseth said. “We are ensuring they are housed, fed, water capabilities in real time – from my office because I care that much about the California Guard and the Marines.”

  • Newswire : Defending Medicaid cuts, Ernst tells Iowans, ‘We all are going to die’

    Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, on Capitol Hill in January.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times
     

    By Annie Karni, New York Times


    Senator Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa, had a gloomy message for constituents at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, on Friday morning: “We all are going to die.”
    Ms. Ernst was fielding questions about cuts to Medicaid that were included in the domestic policy bill working its way through Congress, when someone in the audience yelled out that the effect would be that “people are going to die.”
    “Well, we all are going to die,” Ms. Ernst responded, drawing jeers from the crowd.
    Ms. Ernst appeared taken aback by the negative response. “For heaven’s sakes, folks,” she said.
    Democrats moved quickly to call attention to the comment from Ms. Ernst, a second-term lawmaker who is up for re-election next year. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee circulated a video clip of the moment, calling Ms. Ernst’s remark “stunningly callous” and saying that it came as Republicans in Congress were pushing massive cuts to Medicaid that would leave “millions of Americans uninsured in order to pay for a tax giveaway for billionaires.”

    The sprawling legislation Ms. Ernst was discussing, which contains a $4 trillion tax cut that would provide the biggest savings to the wealthy, also would make several changes to Medicaid, including adding a strict new work requirement, an end to state provider taxes to help states match Federal funds, and other steps. The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the bill would cause around 10 million Americans to become uninsured.
    Ms. Ernst’s comment on Friday came after town hall attendees interrupted her as she was highlighting provisions in the domestic policy measure that seek to ensure that undocumented immigrants, who are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid, would not receive any services. As they defend the legislation, Republicans often refer to that aspect of it, suggesting that the only major changes it would make to Medicaid would be cracking down on waste and abuse in the program, including illegal use by undocumented people.
    Still, it is the more morbid portion of Ms. Ernst’s remarks that Democrats are likely to play on repeat in campaign ads against her in the coming months.
    Ms. Ernst’s Democratic challenger Nathan Sage, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and currently leads the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce, was in the audience and said he was stunned when he heard her remark.
    “It was this jaw-dropping moment — how the hell can you say something like that?” Mr. Sage said in an interview. “The crowd was already hot. She was there to answer questions and get out. It just showed she doesn’t care about us.”
    Mr. Sage said he attended the town hall to hear voters’ top concerns. “The overall feeling from everyone in the room was she’s doing what she needs to do to keep her job,” he said.
    With her re-election top of mind, Ms. Ernst, a survivor of sexual assault and the Senate’s first female combat veteran, earlier this year caved to a right-wing pressure campaign and voted to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite expressing reservations about his bid.
    In a statement, a spokesman for Ms. Ernst said that Democrats were trying to “fearmonger against strengthening the integrity of Medicaid.”
    The spokesman added: “There’s only two certainties in life: death and taxes, and she’s working to ease the burden of both by fighting to keep more of Iowans’ hard-earned tax dollars in their own pockets and ensuring their benefits are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse.”

     

  • Newswire : Courts to review legality of Trump’s tariffs

    By April Ryan, NNPA White House Correspondent

    The Trump White House vows to appeal the three-judge panel of the United States Court of International Trade’s ruling that the proposed presidential tariffs exceed his legal authority. This ruling means neither President Trump nor his administration can arbitrarily invoke tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
    The three judges appointed by former Presidents Reagan, Obama, and Trump unanimously made the decision. The courts essentially deemed the president’s tariff declaration invalid. Democratic Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett says President Trump “has a lot of emergencies in his mind for sure.” However, Crockett emphasized that this nation is not in an emergency to declare tariffs. “That act declared we are under siege. We are not at war,” assured Crockett.
    Congress, which typically holds the purse strings under the Constitution, regulates import commerce with foreign nations. Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingle believes “it’s a win for consumers. It will not immediately increase costs in stores, which is what I’m worried about. But what’s the next step?” At the White House podium this week, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.”
    However, the ruling temporarily alleviates growing concerns about the cost of imports, from food to cars and more.  Thursday, Dingle told Black Press USA in Mackinac, Michigan, at the Detroit Regional Chamber of Congress Meeting, “Every industry needs certainty, and they’re all dealing with a lot of uncertainty. The autos don’t want to be a ping pong ball. They’re too trying to keep their heads down and figure it out. So what we need for the industry and other companies is certainty.” The Trump administration has already filed motions to change the decision. Meanwhile, Crockett, a lawyer turned politician, says she’s “excited that some branch of government put a check on the executor.”

  • Newswire : Stolen, returned, remembered: 19 Black Americans reburied in New Orleans

    African drummers participate in funeral ceremony for the remains of 19 Black Americans returned by Germany university and  New Orleans Second Line

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

    More than 150 years after their crania were taken from New Orleans and shipped to Germany for racist scientific experiments, 19 Black Americans were finally laid to rest. In a moving display of remembrance and restoration, Dillard University, the City of New Orleans, and University Medical Center held a traditional jazz funeral and memorial service to honor the 13 men, four women, and two unidentified individuals whose remains were stolen in the 1870s by a local physician and sent overseas.

    The ceremony, held on May 31, included student pallbearers, an interfaith service, and a burial at the Katrina Memorial. “This was not just an act of remembrance,” Dr. Eva Baham, chair of the Repatriation Committee and former Dillard professor, said during an appearance on Black Press USA’s Let It Be Known News morning show. “It was a restoration of humanity.”

    Each person was memorialized in a handcrafted funeral vessel etched with their name, age, and date of death. The vessels featured Adinkra symbols representing universal spirituality and were carried by students from universities in the New Orleans area. The service involved multiple faiths—including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, SGI Buddhism, the Baha’i tradition, and West African rituals—to honor the unknown spiritual identities of the deceased. “This was deeply cultural and deeply intentional,” Baham said. “We weren’t going to bring them home just to store them away. They were brought back with reverence and sealed into the earth.”
    The repatriation followed a 2023 outreach by the University of Leipzig, where the crania had been housed for over a century. Researchers there acknowledged the harm done and initiated the return. The remains, all traced to individuals who died at Charity Hospital in 1871 and 1872, were taken during a time when pseudoscience like phrenology falsely claimed to measure intelligence and inferiority by skull shape—an ideology used to justify slavery and racial hierarchy.
    “This is how we begin to heal from the atrocities committed in the name of science,” Baham said. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Dillard University President Monique Guillory, and community leaders led the ceremony. The final resting place, the Katrina Memorial, sits near the historic grounds where Charity Hospital once buried the poor and marginalized. “We may never know where their full bodies are,” Baham noted. “But perhaps—just perhaps—we brought them back together in spirit.”

  • Newswire : New highly infectious COVID-19 variant detected in the U.S.

    Patient getting a vaccination for COVID-19

    By Headline Smart

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the presence of a new, highly infectious COVID-19 variant in the United States, including New York City. The variant, known as NB.1.81, was initially detected in the U.S. in late March and early April among international travelers arriving at airports in California, Washington State, Virginia, and New York City. Additional cases have since been reported in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.
    The CDC has stated that the number of cases in the U.S. is currently too small to be accurately tracked in the agency’s variant estimates. However, experts are raising concerns due to the variant’s rapid spread in China, where it has become the dominant strain. The variant has led to a significant increase in COVID-19 cases across Asia, with China experiencing a surge in hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
    Hong Kong authorities have reported a significant increase in COVID-19 cases, reaching the highest levels in at least a year. This surge has been attributed to the NB.1.81 variant, which has resulted in 81 severe cases in the past month, including 30 deaths. Most of these cases have been among adults aged 65 and older.
    In mainland China, the percentage of patients visiting the ER due to COVID-19 has more than doubled in the past month, from 7.5% to over 16%, according to public health authorities. The percentage of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in China has also doubled, reaching over 6%.
    Despite these statistics, the Beijing-controlled government in Hong Kong has downplayed the severity of the variant, stating that it does not appear to be more dangerous than previous variants. However, experts warn that the variant’s rapid spread in China, Hong Kong, and other areas indicates an increase in hospitalizations.
    The CDC’s airport tests have revealed the extent of the variant’s spread, with infected travelers having passed through China, Japan, South Korea, France, Thailand, the Netherlands, Spain, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Like other forms of COVID-19, the variant can cause symptoms such as coughing, a sore throat, fever, and fatigue.
    Experts have noted that the new variant appears to spread more easily, although it does not seem to be more severe. However, Dr. Edwin Tsui, the head of Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection, has warned that the variant should not be taken lightly, as evidence suggests it may have evolved to further evade the protections of COVID vaccines.
    The CDC has recently announced that it will no longer recommend that healthy children and pregnant women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. This decision comes as the Trump administration plans to limit annual booster vaccines to seniors and other high-risk groups.
    The shift in the federal response to stopping covid vaccines for certain segments of society and the increase in cases of measles and the uptick in COVID and flu at the beginning of the year has Americans pondering what we know or don’t know. Medical professionals are concerned there is something else on the horizon. Bird flu is a concern. Dr. Jehan El-bayoumi, a practicing physician and instructor at Georgetown University Medical Center spoke with Black Press USA on the rise in these illnesses and concerns the medical profession has.

  • Newswire : Billions ripped from Minority-Owned Firms under Trump

    By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent


    The Trump administration is dismantling the very programs created to correct generations of systemic racism and economic exclusion—programs that helped level the playing field for Black, Latino, Indigenous, and women entrepreneurs. In a series of targeted assaults, Trump has moved to destroy the federal government’s most effective tools for uplifting historically disadvantaged communities, threatening billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs.
    In the most devastating move yet, Trump’s Justice Department filed to end the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program, a nearly $37 billion affirmative action initiative that for decades guaranteed at least 10 percent of federal transportation contracts would go to minority- and women-owned firms. The administration now claims the DBE program violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause, siding with two White-owned companies that sued because they didn’t want to compete with firms led by people of color.
    If approved, the settlement would kill the DBE’s founding mission—to address the entrenched discrimination that has locked out marginalized groups from federal contracting. The Biden administration previously defended the program, recognizing that race-neutral alternatives alone cannot erase centuries of inequality. But Trump’s team reversed course, citing the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious college admissions to justify gutting one of the country’s last-standing economic justice efforts.

    “Today’s decision helps ensure that the voices of minority- and women-owned businesses will be heard in a case that directly threatens their opportunity to participate fairly in federally funded transportation work,” said Brooke Menschel, Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward. “With this ruling, the court has recognized what’s at stake—not just for these businesses, but for the longstanding principles of redressing past discrimination in our economy.”
    At the same time, Trump signed an executive order aimed at neutralizing the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)—the only federal agency solely dedicated to supporting minority-owned businesses. Under President Biden, the MBDA helped secure over $3.2 billion in contracts and $1.6 billion in capital for entrepreneurs of color, creating or preserving more than 23,000 jobs. Trump’s action, combined with a recent court ruling that barred the MBDA from considering race in program eligibility, threatens to erase those gains. “These actions are designed to kill progress,” said Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. “This isn’t just neglect—it’s sabotage.”
    Even as Trump claims to champion small business, his policies have delivered devastating blows to those most in need. A Kentucky judge previously issued an injunction weakening the DBE program, and now Trump’s administration is making that decision permanent. Meanwhile, courts and right-wing organizations aligned with Trump are challenging the very legality of race-conscious aid, using the courts to do what Congress would never allow—turn back the clock on civil rights. In response, a coalition of minority- and women-owned business groups successfully petitioned the court to intervene. Their warning is blunt: without DBE and MBDA protections, many minority-owned firms will collapse.
    “This decision is an important step forward in the hearing of minority- and women-owned businesses who want to ensure that Congress’s laws creating and maintaining the longstanding ‘Disadvantaged Business Enterprise’ contracting program are preserved,” said Douglas L. McSwain of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. ”They will have the opportunity to demonstrate that the program is important and needed to help prevent ongoing discriminatory practices.”

  • May proclaimed “Foster Care Month”

    Left to right: Carmeshia Gibson-Adult Protective Service Worker; Jean Colvin-Therapeutic Foster Parent, Takeisha Knox-QA and Resource Supervisor, Leon Coleman- Foster Parent, Modesta Smiley-Service Caseworker, Mattie Gray-Foster Parent, Stacia Wilson-Foster Parent, LaTonya Hanible Wooley-Service Supervisor, Lela Coleman-Foster Parent;   Probate Judge Rolonda Wedgeworth sitting and not pictured were Wilson Morgan-Director and Kelley R. Wilson-Service Caseworker

     

    State of Alabama -Greene County Foster Care Month May 2025

    Whereas, The family serves as the primary source of love, identity, self-esteem, and support and is the very foundation of our communities and our State; and
    Whereas, In Greene County there are 24 children in foster care; being provided with a safe, secure, and stable home along with the compassion and nurturance of a foster family; and
    Whereas, Foster families, who open their homes and hearts to children and adults whose families are in crisis play a vital role in helping children and families heal and reconnect and launching children into successful adulthood and adults into safety, security ; and
    Whereas, There are 3 Foster Family Homes, 1 Kinship Guardianship Home, 1 Therapeutic Trained Foster Care Provider in Greene County and there is still greater need for more foster care providers; and
    Whereas, There are numerous individuals and public and private organizations who work to increase public awareness of the needs of children and adults who are in foster care as well as the enduring and valuable contribution of foster parents and the foster care ‘ system’ is valued and respected because of the may lives that are touched in a positive manner;
    Therefore I, Honorable Judge Rolonda M. Wedgeworth, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Probate Judge of Greene County, do proclaims the Month of May in the Year of 2025 to be ‘Foster Care Month’ in Greene County and encourage citizens to volunteer their talents and energies on behalf of children and adults in foster care, foster parents, and the child welfare professional working with them during this month and throughout the year.

  • Eutaw City Council sets election for August 26, 2025; Qualifying begins June 10 and ends June 24.

    The Eutaw City Council in its regular meetings on May 8 and 27 set the basic rules for the Tuesday, August 26, 2025, election for Mayor and five City Council positions by district. If no candidate wins a majority of the votes for Mayor or in their district for City Council member, there will be a Run-off Election scheduled for September 23, 2025, for the top two vote-getters in each race.
    The election is open to all registered voters who have lived in the city or their respective district for 30 days or more prior to the election. The polls will be open from 7:00 AM until 7:00 PM on election day and for the run-off election, if necessary.
    The Polling places are District 1: Greene County Baptist Christian Center; District 2: Eutaw Activity Center, this is a change from Robert H. Young Community Center (formerly Carver School) because the center is closed for repairs; District 3: Morrow Brown Community Center in Branch Heights; District 4:First Presbyterian Church; District 5:National Guard Armory; and the Absentee Ballot at City Hall.
    The Council approved the Notice of Election, Setting Polling Places, Appointing Election Officials and other necessary steps for holding the election in August. This included a request to the County Commission to use county owned electronic counting machines for the election, which has been approved by the County Commission. City Clerk Sha’Kelvia Spencer and Assistant Clerk, Joe Powell, are the main election officials and absentee ballot managers.
    Qualification for office begins June 10, 2025, daily from 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, and goes for two weeks until June 24, 2025, at City Hall. You need to see the City Clerk to qualify. The qualification fee is $50.00 for the mayor’s office and for a city council seat. You will also need to file a Statement of Economic Interest with the State Ethics Commission, within five days of qualifying for office or you may be disqualified.
    The City Council then discussed payment of $6,500 in claims for repairs to driveways from Eugene Bryant, Dorothy Beverly, and Mary McMillan . Mayor Latasha Johnson said that she had made the repairs because they cost less than $10,000 each and were part of her “day-to-day responsibilities” as mayor. Council member Tracy Hunter said she was not aware that the Mayor had a threshold of $10,000 for spending, without approval by the City Council. Mayor Johnson said that this threshold had been agreed to at the beginning of her term to allow for emergencies and other immediate demands.
    This discussion was a repeat of a continuing dispute between the Mayor Johnson and some of the City Council on her authority to conduct the day-to-day business of the city and their responsibility for finances. Mayor Johnson said she would ask for prior approval of expenses when possible and adhere to her $10,000 threshold for emergency expenses, that were within the city’s approved budget. The Council then voted to approve the $6,500 expenditure.
    In other business, the Eutaw City Council:
    Approved a request from Chief Tommy Johnson to purchase ammunition for officer’s firearm training.
    Approved Sams registration and renewal for five years.
    Approved the Municipal Water Pollution Prevention Annual Report.
    Approved easement request for Alabama Power to connect power to
    Alabama Fiber building behind the National Guard Armory.
    Approved travel and expenses for several city staff and police officers to attend conferences and training.

    The conflict over responsibilities and control of finances came up again in the Council comments section of the agenda. Councilman Woodruff asked the Mayor about refilling potholes on Ann Street, trash collection near the lagoon and status of the city’s small tractor. The Mayor replied that she needed authorization to buy materials to fix the potholes in many city streets and asked for this to be placed on the next agenda. She said that rainy weather had delayed the trash pick-up near the lagoon. The Mayor also reported that the city’s small tractor had turned over while cutting a ditch and there was still a need for a larger tractor and bushhog to cut grass in the city. “We are thankful that the tractor accident did not result in any injuries to the driver,” said Mayor Johnson.
    Councilman Woodruff asked Mayor Johnson, “What is the best way to communicate with you? I have tried sending emails and calling but you do not respond. Then we wind up asking questions in the meeting which leads to a hostile environment in the meetings.” Mayor Johnson did not directly answer this question, but said, “The Council should help me to accomplish my day-to-day responsibilities.” She did not specify the best ways to communicate with her.
    Council member Valerie Watkins asked about trucks parking on streets in the city and causing damage. The Mayor asked Watkins to find out who owned the trucks, so she could deal with the problem. Watkins said she was reporting the problems but was unable to find the identity of the truck owners.
    Residents of the city who regularly attend the City Council meetings are dismayed that the Mayor and Council have not found a way to overcome disagreements and conflicts in the best interest of all the city’s residents.