Hello Mobile Environmental Justice Champions!

This month is MEJAC’s 13th anniversary month 🎂

Keep reading below for upcoming community events and important news!!

Please save the date for the next Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition Community Meeting:

• Monday, September 14, 2026 from 5-7pm
• Our Community Meetings are the 2nd Monday of every month and are conducted virtually (not in-person)

This month’s AGENDA includes:

• Prichard Data Center concerns
• Community event announcements
• Public Participation Review:
  • Eight Mile open-burning violation
  • Premium Plate Supply synthetic minor air pollution permit (Axis)
  • Proposed EPA cuts to minor air permit public participation (to make data centers easier to permit)
• …and more!

MEJAC Community Meetings are OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Meeting login credentials will be shared in a reminder email sent on the morning of our next meeting.

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THE 2026 GENERAL ELECTION IS COMING UP!

‼️Despite the racist chaos that has played out in Montgomery this year, our Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has ruled that the election calendar will proceed as planned. Check out the important dates below and TUNE IN if you care about your rights!

🗳️ Check your voter registration status: myinfo.alabamavotes.gov/voterview/

🗳️ Register to vote or update your registration: sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/voter/register-to-vote

🗳️ Check in with your family and friends to make sure they are both registered where they live AND have a plan to vote on election days!

You can find out more about the candidates in your districts and about how to vote here: www.vote.org ‼️

📞 Every Tuesday leading up to Election Day, 12pm & 6pm (via Zoom) – Stand Up Mobile and the NAACP Alabama State Conference are hosting a “Dialing for Democracy” Phone Bank to reach voters, share vital information, and strengthen our community ahead of the November 3 General Election. Join on Zoom (Meeting ID: 851 1734 0045, Passcode: Nov3). One call can make a difference! #REVIVETHEVILLAGE

🚪 Saturday, September 12, 5:30pm – “Get Out the Vote” canvassing: let’s knock some doors! Join the Mobile NAACP, Stand Up Mobile, and the Greater Mobile NCNW to reach voters ahead of the November 3 General Election. Meet at Bethel AME, 714 Savannah St, Mobile, AL 36603.

🎟️ Need a perk to help Get Out The Vote for this critical election? Canvass or phone bank anytime before the game and earn one free ticket to the Gulf Coast Challenge!

👀 ARE YOU AWARE that local, Mobile-area civil rights organizing is critical to how the Voting Rights Act was implemented nationwide? Lookup “Mobile v Bolden” to learn more about the contributions to the legal protections that we ALL enjoy by those who came before us!

ABOUT THE NOVEMBER 3, 2026 GENERAL ELECTION:

‼️The November 3 General Election is the one that decides who actually takes office. Unlike the party primaries in August, EVERY registered voter, regardless of party, votes the same ballot on November 3 and may weigh in on every contest, from the Governor’s race to your U.S. House seat, the Public Service Commission, and more.

In Congressional District 1, the U.S. House race is between Democratic candidate Clyde Jones and Republican Jerry Carl.

Make sure you are registered and have a plan to vote!

October 19, 2026: The voter registration deadline for the November 3 General Election. You can check your status and register using the links above.

Voting absentee? To request an absentee ballot, your application must reach your county’s Absentee Election Manager by October 27 if returned by mail, or by October 29 if returned by hand. To return your completed ballot, it must be received by noon on Election Day, November 3 if mailed, or hand-delivered to the Absentee Election Manager’s office by 5 p.m. on November 2.

In Mobile County, you can vote absentee the same day you apply if you go in-person to the Mobile County Probate Court. The same deadlines above apply, and the Probate Court offices observe Monday-Friday business and federal/state holiday hours.

This is what the Alabama Election Map for US Congressional Representation looks like after the racist changes that the Alabama legislature enacted and the US Supreme Court upheld:

 

 

RECURRING MONTHLY EVENTS

• 2nd and 4th Tuesdays and Saturdays of every month – The Africatown Food Bank distributes free food aid boxes on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays and Saturdays of every month. Volunteers to help load and distribute boxes are always welcome! Contact Rochelle Williams (plateaupacers@gmail.com) or Daphnee Frieson (daphnee.frieson@icloud.com) to let them know your interest!

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• All month long, Tuesdays thru Saturdays, 10am-5pm – The incredible Africatown Heritage House is open to the public and is FREE to all Mobile County residents. If you haven’t already visited, please do take the time to walk through the spellbinding exhibit space and experience the power of Africatown’s history, past and present in the form of “Clotilda: The Exhibition at the Africatown Heritage House”.This month’s Heritage Lecture Series speaker is MEJAC’s own Ramsey Sprague on the topic of “The Shapes of Africatown: The Defined and Undefined Boundaries that Help Tell the Africatown Story,” on Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. Limited capacity: RSVP required at (251) 206-5268.

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• Tuesday, September 15, 5pm – The Africatown Redevelopment Corporation (ARC) conducts its monthly board meeting publicly at Africatown Hall (2201 Papermill Road) on the third Tuesday of every month at 5pm. For more info about the ARC: https://www.atownrc.com/

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• Wednesday, September 16, 5-7pm – Mobile United hosts a Mobile Green Drinks “monthly happy hour for environmentally thoughtful folks” 2026 meetup series at Braided River Brewing Company, 420 St. Louis Street, Mobile, AL 36602.September’s topic is “Getting to Know Your Candidates”‼️Networking begins @ 5 p.m.
  5:45-6:15 – presentation and Q & A with the presenter
  6:15-6:30- Learn about the loads of upcoming environmental action opportunities around Mobile
  7:00 – Stay for trivia fun or not!
  For more info about Mobile United: https://www.mobileunited.org/

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• Thursday, September 17, 11:30am – The Africatown Business and Community Panel, a coalition of Africatown community non-profits and neighboring business partners, meets quarterly at the Mobile County Training School Whippets Alumni Den, 800 Whitley Street in Plateau/Africatown.This quarter’s meeting welcomes the City of Mobile’s Public Works Executive Director Shonnda Smith for an update on the Africatown Welcome Center.Please RSVP by Monday, September 14 with mmullins@mpactpublicaffairs.com to ensure enough lunches.

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• Sunday, September 27, 3pm – The Mobile NAACP will conduct its General Membership meeting in person at Truevine Missionary Baptist Church, 1850 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Ave, Mobile, AL 36617. The mission of the NAACP is to achieve equity, political rights, and social inclusion by advancing policies and practices that expand human and civil rights, eliminate discrimination, and accelerate the well-being, education, and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.

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• ONGOING – “The Africatown Experience Boat Tour” unveils the remarkable story of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States, by taking participants directly to the site of the scuttled ship at Twelve Mile Island in the Mobile Delta.Private group reservations are available, contact Chiquitta Howard with Africatown Freedom Tours at 251.374.6767. This is more than a sightseeing tour: it’s a chance to reflect on history, honor the past, and celebrate the enduring spirit of a community.For more information, including other future dates and to reserve your spot, visit: Blakeleypark.com/:

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• ONGOING (First Saturday of every month at 9am) – Despite federal funding cuts, the STEMMing The Tide / AL-YASS program will continue as a monthly Professional Development Series for Alabama Educators, including those in the Mobile County Public School System!Alabama educators are invited to join STEMMing The Tide and AL-YASS (Alabama Youth Action for Sustainability Summit) for a monthly professional development series focused on helping teachers embed citizen science into their classrooms and connect students with real-world environmental research. These sessions will provide practical classroom ideas, resources, and opportunities to connect with community partners along the coast and across Alabama!We will meet virtually on the first Saturday of each month at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom starting in September.

  To stay connected or learn more, please reach out to klanier@uab.edu or AlabamaYAS@gmail.com. You can also visit the STEMMing The Tide website at https://stemmingthetide.weebly.com/.

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UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENTS & UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES

• Thursday, September 10, 6–8pm – Gulf Coast Creation Care hosts its Native Plant Pollinator Garden Kickoff & Reception at 922 Conti Street, Mobile. Come learn how to start your own pollinator garden, which native plants give you blooms from early spring to late fall, where to find them on the Gulf Coast, and tips from local gardening experts. Free; please RSVP to info@gulfcoastcreationcare.org. (Park in front of 922 Conti St or in the Robert Mudd Jr. law-office lot across the street.)

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• Friday, September 11, 2026, 10am–1pm – The Africatown Plateau-Pacers will present their annual “Fall Into Good Health” Health Fair at the Hope Community Center (Robert L. Hope Community Center, 850 Edwards St), Mobile, AL 36610. Admission is FREE and everyone is welcome, with free health screenings (blood pressure, glucose, BMI, cholesterol and more), wellness resources and tips, a chance to meet local health professionals and community partners, and family-friendly activities and giveaways for all ages.September is Sickle Cell Awareness & Self-Care Month: know your status and make self-care a priority! Info: 251-716-6555, Plateaupacers@gmail.com, or Facebook @Africatown Plateau Pacers. #HealthIsWealth

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• ONGOING – Africatown Welcome Center: Share Your Africatown Story
  The Africatown Welcome Center, a new gateway to the community that is tentatively slated to open in late December 2026 or early January 2027, will host exhibits telling Africatown’s story, and the City of Mobile is inviting the community to help fill those exhibits.Residents, descendants, and organizations are invited to submit content that could include photos, documents, artifacts, oral histories, and other materials relevant to Africatown’s history and living culture for consideration in future Welcome Center exhibits.If you have exhibit suggestions or content to contribute, email AfricatownWelcomeCenter@cityofmobile.gov as soon as possible for consideration.

  The proposed FY2027 City of Mobile budget backs this work with a $757,345 line item committed specifically to the Africatown Welcome Center, which is a standalone allocation rather than money folded into a general public-works fund.

  For some numbers fun: the City of Mobile’s General Fund budget is about $404 million; its Capital Improvement Program is $32 million (roughly 7.9% of the General Fund), of which each of the seven council districts receives $4 million. Seen that way, the Welcome Center’s dedicated $757,345 is about 0.19% of the entire General Fund, a fraction of a slice in percentages, but an investment in Africatown’s future nonetheless.

  Photo: City of Mobile

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• ONGOING – Clotilda Memorial: Now in the Finalist Proposal Phase
  The national call for a memorial honoring the 110 African captives trafficked to the United States aboard the Clotilda has moved forward. The Alabama Historical Commission’s Request for Qualifications closed August 9, 2026. Selected artists and design teams will now develop site-specific proposals in the next phase, each receiving a $2,000 honorarium for their designs. The total project budget is $2,000,000.The memorial is being developed in collaboration with Clotilda descendants, Africatown residents, and connected diasporic communities, with the goal of realizing it by 2028. Learn more at TheClotildaMemorial.info.

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• Reimbursement Deadline: September 30, 2026 – Is Your Home Rain Ready? You can get reimbursed for Rain Barrels & Rain Gardens in Alabama. Auburn University’s Ginn School of Engineering, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the City of Mobile, and Naturally Mobile have partnered on Rain Ready Alabama, a rebate program that reimburses Alabama residents and businesses for installing rain barrels or creating rain gardens on their property. Simple stormwater upgrades like these can keep polluted runoff out of Mobile Bay and its tributaries, ease pressure on Mobile’s overburdened sewer system, and build household-level resilience against the heavy rains we see year-round. Applying is a three-step process: check your eligibility online, fill out the application, then submit receipts through the reimbursement form after you buy or build. Learn more and apply at rainready.auburn.edu.

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• ONGOING – Disaster Preparedness Survey: Help Shape Mobile’s Resilience Planning
  The Community Foundation of South Alabama and the University of South Alabama are conducting a Disaster Preparedness Survey of Mobile residents to identify the strengths and needs of our community’s disaster response and to inform new resilience initiatives for the City of Mobile. Given the flooding, hurricane, and industrial-hazard exposures that environmental justice communities know firsthand, resident input is exactly what researchers need to make the resulting plans reflect frontline realities rather than agency assumptions.To participate, scan the QR code on the survey flyer or follow this link. Participants will enter a monthly drawing for a $200 gift card. Questions about your rights as a research participant can be directed to the USA Institutional Review Board at 251-460-6308 (or toll-free 866-511-6509), or by email at ahotard@southalabama.edu.

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• Thursday, October 1, 4–7pm – The limestone rock distributor in Magazine Point, Rogers Group, will host an Open House at its facility at 1920 Bay Bridge Cutoff Road to see recent upgrades that the company says will reduce dump-truck traffic, noise, and dust for nearby neighbors, including a new High-Capacity Hybrid Material Handler for offloading barges and a series of overland conveyors. Attendees will be treated to dinner and can talk directly with Rogers Group representatives about how the upgrades will affect the community.

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• Sunday, November 1, 2026, 3pm – The Mobile NAACP will host its 2026 Freedom Fund Awards Banquet with the theme “The Ballot Is Our Power: Reclaiming Democracy in Challenging Times” at Calirojae on Dauphin Island Parkway, just two days before Election Day. The keynote speaker is Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood. Individual tickets are $75 and reserved tables of 8 are $600. RSVP early by emailing mobilealnaacp@gmail.com. Sponsorships and souvenir-booklet ads are also available (ad submission deadline October 1).

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FEATURED NEWS STORIES:

📚 05/26/26, MEJACoalition.org – Doing it Differently: Hard Earned Lessons from Engaging with a Proposed AI Data Center on the Africatown side of Prichard – This is a deep dive into the proposed AI Data Center on the Africatown side of Prichard presented by MEJAC after many, many hours of deliberations, Africatown community consultation, and an actual tour of the company’s other data centers in Atlanta.

📚 06/12/26 – AL.com – South Alabama residents loudly reject proposed data center: ‘Community has spoken’ – “Another south Alabama community is saying no to a new data center. On Thursday, representatives with Edged Energy, a data technology company, held a town hall with residents and Prichard’s leadership to discuss a proposed data center in the city. Around 200 people attended the meeting, despite no air conditioning in the Prichard City Hall auditorium. And the heat almost certainly did not help calm residents who are fiercely opposed to the data center. “It’s hot, and people are irritated,” said Ramsey Sprague, president of the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition, who attended the meeting. “It’s hard to absorb new information when people are yelling and shouting.”

📚 07/13/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – Alabama data center non-disclosure agreements raise transparency concerns – “After months of resistance, officials in a historic suburb of Birmingham have released a non-disclosure agreement between city leaders and developers of a hyperscale data center.

The release of the agreement came after environmental groups threatened to sue Bessemer over its unwillingness to share public documents related to the proposed construction of a 4.5 million-square-foot hyperscale data center on the rural southwest edge of the city of 25,000.

The text of the non-disclosure agreement, originally effective in February 2025 and amended in February 2026, prohibits “the City of Bessemer” from publicly releasing information related to Project Marvel in any of six categories, including information about the project’s developers, site plans, and reports or studies or any “other information that would reasonably be considered non-public.”

📚 07/16/26 – TennesseeLookout.com – EPA administrator calls statewide data center moratorium a ‘cop-out’ – EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin dismissed statewide data-center moratoriums as a “cop-out,” drawing pushback from state officials and community groups.

📚 07/17/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – Virginia fails to require data centers to use clean energy – Virginia legislation failed to require data centers to use clean energy, leaving the fossil-fuel-heavy grid to absorb the demand.

📚 07/30/26 – AL.com – Residents seek accountability, written guarantees on $6 billion data center – “As plans move forward for a $6 billion data center expected to begin construction in north Mobile County this fall, about 50 residents gathered at a community center in Mt. Vernon on Monday alongside local politicians and political candidates, seeking answers and assurances that one of South Alabama’s largest proposed developments will be built responsibly.

The gathering also brought into focus a frustration that has become central to opposition surrounding the project in unincorporated Mobile County: Why aren’t elected officials doing more to protect residents who feel they have little say over what happens next?

“They are your representatives and we elect them,” said Gena Daniels, a 20-year Mt. Vernon resident who said one of the community’s biggest concerns is that no local government body has the authority to tell Beacon Data Centers “No” or issue a moratorium to slow data center projects.”

📚 08/02/26 – AL.com – Communities shouldn’t pay the price for a railroad merger: op-ed – “Ask anyone in Trussville what a blocked railroad crossing means, and you won’t hear about freight efficiency or national logistics. You’ll hear about missed school pickups, delayed commutes, businesses cut off from customers and, most importantly, the fear that an ambulance or fire truck could lose precious minutes trying to reach someone in need. Those same concerns are shared in communities all across the state of Alabama.

That is why the proposed merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern deserves far more than a discussion about corporate efficiencies. The Surface Transportation Board is not charged with deciding whether this merger benefits two railroad companies. Rather, its responsibility is to determine whether the merger serves the public interest. For Alabama communities, that determination should begin with a focus on public safety.

Railroads are indispensable to our state’s economy. They move the raw materials, manufactured goods and agricultural products that support thousands of Alabama jobs. We should welcome a strong freight network. But we should also expect that economic progress doesn’t come at the expense of the communities through which those trains travel every day.”

THE LATEST NEWS STORIES:

📚 08/02/26 – Fox10TV.com – Important meeting this week to discuss Mobile River Bridge – The Mobile MPO was set to vote on adding the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway to the region’s transportation plan, a public participation moment on the corridor project.

📚 08/02/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Wildfire smoke is now the primary pollutant affecting pregnancy, study shows – A study of 64.5 million pregnancies (2003–2019) found that as pollution from cars and industry fell, rising wildfire-smoke pollution offset those gains and is linked to low birth weight and preterm births.

📚 08/04/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Alabama Public Service Commission approves solar project supporting data center – The PSC greenlit a new solar project tied to data-center load, a concrete example of generation being built to serve the data centers residents are scrutinizing in Macon and Bullock Counties.

📚 08/04/26 – Reuters.com – Trump’s EPA was wrong to terminate billions in climate grants, US appeals court rules – A federal appeals court upheld an injunction protecting roughly $20 billion in clean-energy and environmental-justice grants that Trump’s EPA tried to freeze. Millions of dollars in this grant program was approved for Mobile County Environmental Justice communities.

📚 08/05/26 – GPB.org – Georgia data center activists are alarmed. EPA wants to change Clean Air Act – Ties the Southeast data-center boom to EPA’s move to weaken Clean Air Act protections that shield fenceline communities.

📚 08/06/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Alabama lawmakers should learn from Arizona’s SNAP crisis – A warning that Alabama faces a looming SNAP administration crunch as more than 80,000 Alabamians have already lost benefits.

📚 08/06/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Voting Rights Act commemoration comes with warnings after Supreme Court rulings – The Southern Poverty Law Center marked the Voting Rights Act’s 61st anniversary, celebrating its impact while warning that recent Supreme Court rulings have gutted its protections.

📚 08/07/26 – MyNBC15.com – Corps refuses public hearing on Mobile Bay dredging plan that keeps “mud dumping” option – The US Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District denied residents and oyster farmers a public hearing on its Mobile Bay dredging plan, which preserves the in-bay “mud dumping” disposal option. MEJAC was among the many local agencies that formally requested a public hearing.

📚 08/08/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – Alabama Seeks to Lower Gas Utility Profits for the First Time in 40 Years – For the first time in 40+ years, the PSC held hearings to potentially cut the profit rate of Spire, Alabama’s largest gas utility, after the Attorney General’s office couldn’t reach a rate deal. PSC staff will compile the testimony and exhibits from the docket and are expected to make a recommendation to the commissioners in time for their next meeting in September.

📚 08/08/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Trump administration eyes coal reserves under federal lands in Alabama, western states – A USGS report found hundreds of billions of tons of coal beneath federally owned land, fueling the administration’s push to expand mining under an “energy dominance” banner.

📚 08/11/26 – LagniappeMobile.com – ‘Mud dumping’ remains contentious issue – A local deep-dive on the fight over spraying dredge spoil into Mobile Bay and the “Save Our Bay” 60% beneficial-use rule taking effect Oct. 1.

📚 08/11/26 – MyNBC15.com – New Alabama law at odds with Army Corps’ 20-year dredging plan – Alabama’s new beneficial-use dredging law could clash with the Corps’ long-term Mobile Bay maintenance plan, setting up the next phase of the bay fight.

📚 08/13/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Doug Jones addresses data centers, healthcare in central Alabama swing – The Democratic gubernatorial nominee reaffirmed a data-center moratorium pledge and addressed healthcare during central-Alabama campaigning.

📚 08/15/26 – Fox10TV.com – Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project takes another big step forward Friday – The toll authority approved financing for the $3.2B Mobile River Bridge and Bayway, the major infrastructure project reshaping the Mobile River corridor.

📚 08/19/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – Proposed Data Centers Could Use More Electricity Than All Alabama Homes Combined, Analysis Shows. Who Will Pay? – An analysis finds Alabama’s proposed data centers (Prichard and north Mobile County included) could out-consume every home in the state, raising the who-pays rate-burden question central to Environmental Justice complaints about industrial development.

📚 08/19/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Data centers are not inevitable. It’s time for state laws to catch up. – A commentary arguing Alabama needs stronger state guardrails on data centers, the fight now playing out in Prichard and the Black Belt.

📚 08/20/26 – MyNBC15.com – Mayor Cheriogotis releases first proposed budget – Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis’s proposed FY2027 budget continues city investment in Africatown (including the opening of the $5.1M Africatown Welcome Center) and puts $14.9M toward expanding Second Line Transit.

📚 08/22/26 – WBHM.org – Proposed data centers could use more electricity than all Alabama homes combined. Who will pay? – The public-radio version of the cost-burden analysis, useful local framing for how data-center growth could push up Mobile-area residents’ bills.

📚 08/25/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Lowndes County residents demand transparency in hyperscale data center development – Residents of majority-Black Lowndes County are demanding transparency over a secretive 1,500-MW hyperscale data center.

📚 08/26/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Rural health grants aimed at offsetting Medicaid cuts go to 80 unique institutions – One-time rural health grants went to 80 institutions as the state weighs whether they can offset Medicaid cuts in a non-expansion state with nine rural hospital closures.

📚 08/26/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – A Florida Community Aimed to Address a Legacy of Pollution. The Trump Administration Cancelled Its Funding. – A Florida community lost millions when its environmental-justice grant was terminated, a cautionary tale as courts fight over the program.

📚 08/27/26 – WDHN.com – TSU rapid response team tours Shiloh community amid mitigation project construction – Texas Southern University’s Bullard Center rapid-response team toured the flood-plagued Shiloh community near Elba as ALDOT began mitigation work on flooding that began in 2018, when a Highway 84 expansion left the Black neighborhood sitting below the road.

📚 08/27/26 – TheGuardian.com – Trafficked on the last US slave ship, Cudjo Lewis never returned home to Benin. But his descendant has – “Cassandra Lewis’s Benin citizenship reflects a broader push by African countries to reconnect with diaspora descendants
Lewis’s cousin and president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, Altevese Rosario, said that Lewis’s new citizenship was important both for their family and for the larger community of descendants.

“Cassandra has paved the way for our remaining family members to regain our connection, to regain our citizenship that was stolen from us,” she said. “For the broader Clotilda descendants community and African American communities across this nation, it signals a pathway to the citizenship that was stolen from us. That signals to African Americans as a whole that the continent wants to rejoin with us, in community and family.”

📚 08/27/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Alabama Attorney General’s Office wants public PSC vote on data center contracts – The AG’s office is pushing for a public PSC vote on data-center power contracts, opposing a “deemed approved” process that could let Alabama Power sign huge deals with no public vote.

📚 08/28/26 – Fox10TV.com – Africatown mural unveiled at Mobile County Training School library – A new mural honoring the Clotilda story and survivor Cudjo Lewis was unveiled at the historic Mobile County Training School library

📚 08/28/26 – EnergyandPolicy.org – Alabama Power promises data center protections, but its proposed rate structure redacts them – The parts of Alabama Power’s proposed data-center rate structure that could raise residential bills are blacked out, undercutting the utility’s public assurances.

📚 08/30/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – ‘Unbearable’ heat in uncooled Alabama prisons – A climate-and-equity look at extreme heat harming incarcerated Alabamians as summers intensify.

📚 08/31/26 – MyNBC15.com – Prichard questions validity of permit issued before data center moratorium – Prichard moved to void the building permit issued July 30 for the Edged data center beside Africatown, and to refund the developer’s $224,000 in fees, days before the city’s Aug. 4 moratorium.

📚 09/01/26 – Fox10TV.com – Mobile City Council approves contract for Africatown Welcome Center museum – The Council approved a $240,000+ contract with Watermark Consulting to design and build the museum at the $5.1M Africatown Welcome Center on Bay Bridge Cut-Off Road, which broke ground in May 2025. “The center will also serve as the first stop for people visiting Africatown.”

📚 09/01/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Alabama Public Service Commission lowers rate of return for energy company – The PSC cut Spire’s guaranteed profit but let it raise the fixed monthly charge, a live example of how PSC decisions shape residential utility bills.

📚 09/02/26 – MyNBC15.com – Africatown Welcome Center: From Clotilda discovery to a new gateway for the community – A look at the $4.6M welcome center as a gateway to Africatown, directing visitors to the Heritage House and water tours, with an anticipated opening in late 2026 or early 2027. “Really, it’s about the community and the development of the community.”

📚 09/02/26 – ALReporter.com – Alabama PSC lowers Spire return, raises fixed gas charge – This article notes the $2.50 fixed-charge increase that hits low-usage households hardest.

📚 09/02/26 – AlabamaReflector.com – Tommy Tuberville outlines new data center approach as opposition to facilities mounts – The GOP gubernatorial nominee now backs letting communities reject data centers and taxing them at the top bracket, a shift

📚 09/04/26 – ALReporter.com – Report: SNAP cuts deepen food insecurity in the Deep South – A report quantifies how federal SNAP cuts hit Deep South households hardest, a core equity concern for Mobile-area families struggling with food insecurity.

📚 09/04/26 – InsideClimateNews.org – Underserved Communities Again Ask Courts to Restore Justice Grant Funding – Representatives for underserved communities filed new litigation to restore the $3 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program after the administration terminated it, the latest turn in the Environmental Justice grant program court fight.

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