7. Not so “Sweet Home Alabama?”
- Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. has called for a boycott of the University of Alabama due to the new abortion law and is calling on other donors, out-of-state students, and businesses to do the same.
- Culverhouse and the university were already involved in a dispute over the money he’s donated to the school, as well as asking for the school to return $10 million, and the general counsel for the university board has suggested that the University of Alabama Law School be renamed and all $21.5 million of his donations be returned.
6. Keeping businesses in Alabama
- A bill meant to bring more high-tech jobs to Alabama and keep them here was passed by the Alabama Senate on Wednesday. It would give more rural cities the power to incentivize companies coming to Alabama as other states are targeting Alabama.
- Economic incentives as a method of recruitment have done wonders attracting multiple international companies and relocating American companies to the state; this would allow more communities to recruit for those incentives.
5. Some patients want medical marijuana
- As the Alabama House appeared to be stalled on medical marijuana legalization, many who are dealing with chronic health conditions urged the House Health Committee to approve the medical marijuana bill.
- Senate sponsor State Sen. Tim Melson (R-Florence) has made it clear that with the House not ready to move forward on his bill, he is prepared to move towards a study commission on medical marijuana with potential legalization possible down the road in the 2020 session.
4. Free speech on college campuses
- After an embarrassing display in the House last week where members of the Alabama Democratic Party declared that they were for using government power to silence their opponents, the Alabama Senate Education Policy Committee advanced the bill that would allow more free speech on college campuses.
- The bill would require Alabama’s public colleges and universities to actually protect the First Amendment free speech rights for students and faculty, eliminate free speech zones, stop mobs from silencing voices they disapprove of and provide a course for legal action for violations by public higher education institutions under the legislation.
3. Doug Jones can’t stop smiling
- Whoever is running Roy Moore’s Twitter account responded to criticism by President Donald Trump and others by nonsensically saying, “Ever wonder why the mere mention of my name scares the ‘hell’ out of the Washington DC establishment, liberals, and LGBT? Like Pres Trump I want to see America great again, but this is a job only God can do!”
- The potential Roy Moore candidacy for 2020 scares Republicans because he is an awful candidate. So far, Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01, the NRSC, President Donald Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. have all made it clear that they don’t think Moore can beat U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL).
2. Louisiana joins anti-abortion melee
- The latest state to jump in on pro-life legislation is Louisiana. The state legislature passed a “heartbeat” bill, which would require women to get an ultrasound before they could have an abortion, and if there’s a fetal heartbeat then they wouldn’t be allowed to follow through with the procedure. This law only goes into effect if a similar Mississippi law is upheld.
- Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA) is expected to sign the bill into law. The Democrat being involved in this measure all but ensures the criticism of the bill will be muted because it shows there are pro-life Democrats across America who aren’t enthralled with the left’s lurch towards abortion fanaticism.
1. Impeach, impeach, impeach!
- More and more Democrats are putting the pressure on to impeach President Trump after special counsel Robert Mueller’s statement that recapped his findings in the Russia investigation revealed nothing new. He emphasized that his report didn’t exonerate the president even though that wasn’t his job and it’s not what prosecutors do.
- After Mueller’s statement, the media continued to get the story wrong and say that the president would have been charged had there not been a DOJ guideline. This led to the DOJ and Mueller’s team to issue a statement saying, “The Attorney General has previously stated that the Special Counsel repeatedly affirmed that he was not saying that, but for the OLC opinion, he would have found the President obstructed justice. The Special Counsel’s report and his statement today made clear that the office concluded it would not reach a determination — one way or the other — about whether the President committed a crime. There is no conflict between these statements.”
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