By Anna Barrett | Staff Writer
“We are people of all denominations, all races, can’t we be more friendly?” - Marion Box, a 96-year-old protester in Oxford speaking on the divisiveness of the country ahead of its 250th anniversary.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Ralph Chapoco
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday agreed that people incarcerated within Alabama’s prisons are not receiving adequate mental health care, but rolled back several requirements a lower court imposed to address the problem. The judges said that the suicide rate in Alabama’s prisons is “staggering,” and the Alabama Department of Correction’s mental health care is “horrendously inadequate.”
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
By Andrea Tinker
A group of about 25 people in Oxford gathered on Saturday to protest the Trump administration ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary. Those gathered spoke of the administration’s immigration policies, the SAVE Act and President Trump’s refusal to sign any legislation until the SAVE Act passes.
COMMENTARY
By Brian Lyman
Saturday marks America’s 250th anniversary, and the 125th anniversary of Alabamian Robin White’s murder - a Black man who was lynched. For the first time in the state’s history, White’s murders were convicted, but were later pardoned. Editor Brian Lyman writes that the American promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is limited to “real Americans.”
ICYMI
Alabama Department of Youth Services updates several policies | Ralph Chapoco, Alabama Reflector
Protesters in D.C. rally for priorities to counter Trump’s 250th anniversary programming | Ashley Murray, D.C. Bureau
US Supreme Court rules Trump administration can end legal protections for 350,000 Haitians | Ariana Figueroa, D.C. Bureau
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