DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ The presidential race is set, but ‘uncommitted’ remains an option in Louisiana and Missouri.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Nick Corasaniti | Neil Vigdor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

Georgia, with its long history of the suppression of Black voters, has been ground zero for fights about voting rights laws for decades. The result has been a slew of laws that included restrictions to voting, like limiting voting by mail and adding voter ID requirements. He found that the growing racial turnout gap since the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby had been felt most acutely by younger voters across the country. In Bulloch County, Ga., Winston County, Miss., and Newberry County, S.C., the racial turnout gap among young voters grew by 20 percentage points or more between the 2012 and 2020 elections. Seeing a more substantial racial turnout gap among young voters cuts against some conventional wisdom about recent changes to voting laws.

Persons: Barack Obama, Lowndes County —, Georgia —, Michael Podhorzer, Lowndes, Obama, Holder, “, Podhorzer, ” Podhorzer, Biden, Bernard Fraga, ” Fraga, Emily Elconin, Donald Trump, I’ve Organizations: Black, Republican, Justice Department, Brennan, Valdosta State University, Emory University, The New York Times, The Times, Times Locations: Georgia, Lowndes County, Shelby County, Shelby, Bulloch County ,, Winston County, Miss, Newberry County, S.C, Atlanta, Dearborn, Mich, Arizona , Georgia, Michigan, Nevada , Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, onpolitics@nytimes.com

☆ The Supreme Court and Young Voter Turnout
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-22 | by ( Nick Corasaniti | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Georgia, with its long history of the suppression of Black voters, has been ground zero for fights about voting rights laws for decades. The state has often seen stark differences in turnout between white and nonwhite communities, with the latter typically voting at a much lower rate. But not always: In the 2012 election, when Barack Obama won a second term in the White House, the turnout rate for Black voters under 38 in Lowndes County — a Republican-leaning county in southern Georgia — was actually four percentage points higher than the rate for white voters of a similar age. According to new research by Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., by 2020, turnout for younger white voters in Lowndes was 14 percentage points higher than for Black voters of the same age. It is impossible to tell for certain, with many variables, such as Obama no longer being on the ballot.

Persons: Barack Obama, Lowndes County —, Georgia —, Michael Podhorzer, Lowndes, Obama Organizations: Black, Republican Locations: Georgia, Lowndes County

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is expanding a program to help rural communities with serious sewage problems get technical help to plan improvements and apply for funding. “For the first time ever, these communities are going to get an assessment about ... what is the status of their wastewater infrastructure. Still, “the water infrastructure gap is is greater than the resources we have,” and the Biden administration will continue to advocate for more funding, she said. The tribe has received funding to pump septic tanks and develop educational materials, and is applying for funding for infrastructure improvements, Fox said. The town of White Hall, in Lowndes County, Alabama, has developed wastewater treatment and funding options to address sewage that sometimes ran into yards.

Persons: —, Radhika Fox, ” Fox, Biden, Fox, We’re, ”, Catherine Flowers Organizations: WASHINGTON, Biden, U.S . Environmental, San Carlos Apache, Center for Rural Enterprise, Environmental, Associated Press, Walton Family Foundation, AP Locations: South, Southwest, U.S, Arizona, White, Lowndes County , Alabama

☆ Meet the guy in charge of deciding how to spend $1.2 trillion from Biden’s infrastructure bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

You can see in the funding for the infrastructure bill that we’re working hard to do all of that. We want to build generational wealth and do it in a way that heals communities rather than separates them. Between the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS act, there’s been a $1.8 trillion dollar investment. You may recall that when this conversation started about three or four years ago, the number was $6 trillion. So $1.2 trillion is significant, but it’s just a downpayment on what the real needs are.

Persons: Mitch Landrieu, Joe Biden, Biden’s, Landrieu, Bell, you’ve, We’re, Biden, it’s, He’s, he’s, there’s, I’ve, Catherine Thorbecke, ”, David Tolley, WeWork, Adam Neumann, Neumann, ’, AFTRA, Ramishah Maruf, “, ” It’s Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, White, Infrastructure Investment, Jobs Act, Economic Security, Infrastructure Law, SAG, ’ Locations: New York, New Orleans, Lowndes County , Alabama, Napakiak, Alaska, China, America, Hollywood

☆ Police video shows a car flying off a tow-truck ramp at full speed on Georgia highway — watch here
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Nathan Rennolds | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Police bodycam footage showed the moment a driver hit a ramp at full speed on a Georgia highway. Lowndes County officers were already attending to a traffic stop when the car flew past them. The 21-year-old female driver survived the incident but sustained serious injuries. It soared around 120 feet into the air before smashing down into another car. Officials said the driver of the vehicle was a 21-year-old woman from Tallahassee, Florida.

Persons: —, Crystal Zion Organizations: Service, Privacy, Police, Morning, Good Morning, Georgia Governor's, of Highway Locations: Georgia, Lowndes, Lowndes County, Tallahassee , Florida, Good Morning America

☆ Alabama Discriminated Against Black Residents Over Sewage, Justice Dept. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Linda Qiu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said it had reached an interim agreement with the health departments of Alabama and one of its rural counties over practices found to discriminate against generations of Black residents. Under the agreement announced Thursday, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department said they would improve wastewater infrastructure, measure the health risks associated with raw sewage exposure, and stop penalizing residents who cannot afford adequate treatment systems. The agreement represents “a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Ala., who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Catherine Coleman Flowers, an environmental activist who grew up in Lowndes, said that residents of the county, like those in many other rural communities, use wastewater systems installed on the grounds of homes and businesses rather than a centralized sewage treatment plant operated by a local government. But the county stood alone in penalizing residents for sanitation issues that were outside their control, she added.

Mortgage borrowing limits are the same in all Alabama counties. Mortgage borrowing limits in Alabama are the same in every county in 2022: $726,200 for conforming mortgages and $472,030 for FHA mortgages. How do mortgage borrowing limits work? If you want to buy a home that costs more than the conforming mortgage limit in your county, you'll need to get a jumbo mortgage. Alabama borrowing limits in 2023 by countyCounty Conforming mortgage limit (single-family home) FHA mortgage limit (single-family home) Autauga $726,200 $472,030 Baldwin $726,200 $472,030 Barbour $726,200 $472,030 Bibb $726,200 $472,030 Blount $726,200 $472,030 Bullock $726,200 $472,030 Butler $726,200 $472,030 Calhoun $726,200 $472,030 Chambers $726,200 $472,030 Cherokee $726,200 $472,030 Chilton $726,200 $472,030 Choctaw $726,200 $472,030 Clarke $726,200 $472,030 Clay $726,200 $472,030 Cleburne $726,200 $472,030 Coffee $726,200 $472,030 Colbert $726,200 $472,030 Conecuh $726,200 $472,030 Coosa $726,200 $472,030 Covington $726,200 $472,030 Crenshaw $726,200 $472,030 Cullman $726,200 $472,030 Dale $726,200 $472,030 Dallas $726,200 $472,030 DeKalb $726,200 $472,030 Elmore $726,200 $472,030 Escambia $726,200 $472,030 Etowah $726,200 $472,030 Fayette $726,200 $472,030 Franklin $726,200 $472,030 Geneva $726,200 $472,030 Greene $726,200 $472,030 Hale $726,200 $472,030 Henry $726,200 $472,030 Houston $726,200 $472,030 Jackson $726,200 $472,030 Jefferson $726,200 $472,030 Lamar $726,200 $472,030 Lauderdale $726,200 $472,030 Lawrence $726,200 $472,030 Lee $726,200 $472,030 Limeston $726,200 $472,030 Lowndes $726,200 $472,030 Macon $726,200 $472,030 Madison $726,200 $472,030 Marengo $726,200 $472,030 Marion $726,200 $472,030 Marshall $726,200 $472,030 Mobile $726,200 $472,030 Monroe $726,200 $472,030 Montgomery $726,200 $472,030 Morgan $726,200 $472,030 Perry $726,200 $472,030 Pickens $726,200 $472,030 Pike $726,200 $472,030 Randolph $726,200 $472,030 Russell $726,200 $472,030 St. Clair $726,200 $472,030 Shelby $726,200 $472,030 Sumter $726,200 $472,030 Talladega $726,200 $472,030 Tallapoosa $726,200 $472,030 Tuscaloosa $726,200 $472,030 Walker $726,200 $472,030 Washington $726,200 $472,030 Wilcox $726,200 $472,030 Winston $726,200 $472,030Note: In every county in Alabama, if you want to borrow more than the baseline loan limit of $726,200, you'll need to get a jumbo mortgage.

☆ Tornadoes reported as storms cause flooding, damage across the South
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes hit the ground in Mississippi on Tuesday evening and Alabama was in the forecast path of the storms during the overnight hours. The national Storm Prediction Center said in its storm outlook that affected cities could include New Orleans; Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee; and Birmingham, Alabama. Additional reports of property damage near Columbus were received by the Weather Service, according to Lance Perrilloux, a forecaster with the agency. Craig Ceecee, a meteorologist at Mississippi State University, peered out at “incredibly black” skies through the door of a tornado shelter in Starkville. The National Weather Service reported nearly 4 inches of snow on the ground at the airport by noon.

CNN —Severe storms and tornadoes swept through parts of the South from Tuesday into Wednesday morning, killing at least two people in Alabama and damaging homes, other buildings and downing trees in several states, officials said. Tornadoes decimate parts of AlabamaThe tornado that killed two in the Flatwood area near Montgomery had winds estimated at 110 mph, the National Weather Service said. The storm, which might have included a tornado, sounded “like a train coming through,” Perkins told CNN on Wednesday. “We were successful in getting (to) some people that had to hunker down in their homes that were messed up,” Austin told CNN on Wednesday. Some parts of the South, including between Huntsville and Birmingham in Alabama, saw between 2 and 4 inches of rain Tuesday.

CNN —Numerous tornadoes – including a few intense ones – are possible Tuesday evening for parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi as severe storms rake the area, a situation that moved forecasters to issue a special tornado watch alerting residents to an unusual level of risk. Track the storms as they develop >>A “particularly dangerous situation” tornado watch, reserved for the most significant severe-storm threats and used in only 3% of watches, was issued for central Mississippi, northeast Louisiana and southwest Arkansas, and is in effect until 2 a.m. CT. It is the second such watch issued Tuesday and covers many of the same locations as the first, which has expired. This comes as severe storms could hit a much wider area of the United States from Tuesday into early Wednesday, from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest, with tornadoes, damaging winds and hail, forecasters said. “Numerous tornadoes (are) expected with a few intense tornadoes likely,” along with scattered large hail and scattered damaging wind gusts up to 70 mph, forecasters said in the special tornado watch.

☆ NAACP says Jackson’s water problems are civil rights issue
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Brad Vest / Getty Images fileThe U.S. Justice Department is working to improve Jackson’s water system. There were warnings the Jackson water system was struggling before it failed. Tate Reeves, a Republican, has blamed Jackson’s water problems on mismanagement by city leaders. Reeves declared an emergency for the water system in late August and brought in out-of-state crews to help make repairs. Before the city’s latest water crisis, though, Reeves expressed his own opposition to state funding for Jackson water improvements, saying he wants to hold down Mississippi’s overall debt level.

Search resuls for: "Lowndes"

11 mentions found