1. The Tea Party movement is officially dead, Congress passes absurd spending bill
— The House passed the legislation Thursday, voting 256-167 with Democrats and Republicans coming together to pass it less than 24 hours after the 2,300-page bill was made public
— Sen. Rand Paul failed to kill the bill, Alabama Republicans Mo Brooks (Huntsville) and Gary Palmer (Hoover) voted against the bill.
2. Macedonians wanted to get involved in the 2017 Alabama Senate race
— Embattled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNN that the tech giant attempted to kill off users from Macedonia who were sharing “fake news” stories about the Senate race.
— Facebook still hasn’t commented on exactly what these Macedonians were trying to accomplish, but most reports indicate they were trying to help Roy Moore.
3. A small victory for school security moves forward in the legislature, legislature fails on “stand your ground“
— Alabama schools can now use money from a technology fund for school security, this could be used to harden schools or hire security officers.
— The bill involves $58 million being made available to the state’s K-12 schools, community and four-year colleges.
4. Alabama House approves bill that would allow the Ten Commandments in public building, for some reason
— Alabama voters will vote on whether or not to add a provision to the state Constitution that would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public buildings.
— Another federal lawsuit over the Ten Commandments is just what Alabama needs, Democrats are already threatening one.
5. H.R. McMaster is out as National Security Advisor, former UN Ambassador Bolton is in
— President Trump accepted McMaster’s resignation and then named John Bolton, a Fox News conservative foreign policy commentator, to succeed him.
— McMasters and Trump had multiple policy disagreements, including issues on North Korea and Iran. Bolton is more in line with Trump’s thinking.
6. House intel Committee finds no collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign, still no evidence of collusion
— The report releases the committee’s final report into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the release was opposed by Democrats.
— The findings are another report of “no collusion”, the report offered up 44 findings, including that Russia attacked U.S. political institutions.
7. It’s a trade war, China targets U.S. goods
— China announced plans for reciprocal tariffs on 128 U.S. products causing unease, Alabama soybeans could be hit.
— The U.S. goods have an import value of $3 billion in 2017, they include wine, fresh fruit, dried fruit and nuts, steel pipes, modified ethanol, and ginseng which will all see a 15 percent tax, a 25 percent tariff could be imposed on U.S. pork and recycled aluminium goods if a bigger deal can not be reached.
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