7. Huntsville doesn’t have plans for COVID relief money yet
- With other cities across Alabama already making plans for the funds they received through the American Rescue Plan, Huntsville is yet to decide where any of the $35 million they received goes. Mayor Tommy Battle has already said that the city is “going to be very, very careful with this.”
- Battle explained that some of the concern is a decision that could change the way they’re allowed to spend the money later on, and then they have to pay back some of the funds. Final decision on how money can be spent won’t be known until about September. Battle said the city is “going to be very, very conservative until we get all of that together.”
6. Shelby and Tuberville opposing tax aimed at farms
- U.S. Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) are both standing up against the possible tax increase on family-owned businesses proposed by President Joe Biden to fund his infrastructure plan through a capital gains tax.
- In a letter to Biden, the whole Senate Republican caucus explained why Biden should do away with the possible increase, saying that this would be “a new backdoor death tax on Americans.” The letter added that the proposal is “a significant tax increase that would hit family-owned businesses, farm, and ranches hard, particularly in rural communities.”
5. Pelosi blocks Jim Jordan and Jim Banks from riot committee
- U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had previously chosen U.S. Representatives Jim Banks (R-IN) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) to join the committee to investigate the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has rejected these members.
- Pelosi said that she was rejecting the members due to “respect for the integrity of the investigation with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these members.” McCarthy responded by saying, “Republicans will not be party to their sham process and will instead pursue our own investigation of the facts.”
4. Concern over Republicans who took money from AEA in 2018 grows
- State Representative Charlotte Meadows (R-Montgomery) is raising concerns over the Alabama Education Association (AEA) gaining so much sway in the previous legislative session where the delay in the Literacy Act was approved but was later vetoed by Governor Kay Ivey.
- Meadows is particularly concerned about the financial contributions the AEA has made to different political campaigns. She said that during the 2018 election cycle, there were a number of Republicans who accepted donations from the AEA’s “union” AVOTE. Meadows added that anyone who takes money from the AEA needs to be “aware of what they’re going to be expected to vote on because if we don’t’ as a state really focus on improving education, regardless of who we’ve gotten money from, we’re hurting the future – not just our current – we’re hurting future generations.”
3. Tuberville wants answers on Critical Race Theory
- After the National Education Association (NEA) decided to start researching those opposed to Critical Race Theory, U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to the NEA to get more information on their plans for the information they gather.
- The letter describes the NEA as “the nation’s largest labor union representing over 3 million school faculty” and that they’re “deeply concerned” over the group’s actions. Tuberville and Blackburn are also specifically asking to know what information is going to be collected, as well as: “For what purpose will this research be used?”
2. The pointless proxy war between the establishment and the base in the U.S. Senate race continues
- Recently, U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) spoke to the National Journal where he spoke highly of candidate Katie Britt and declared that Britt is “highly qualified, and a very rational person.” He also suspects that U.S. Representative Mo Brooks’ (R-Huntsville) “camp is probably calling on the president.”
- Shelby said that a lot of people would think Brooks would be an irrational senator, adding, “Look at his record.” Brooks responded to Shelby’s comments by calling Britt “his former, relatively inexperienced employee.” He went on to say, “U.S. Senate seats should never be inherited or bought, they should be earned and decided by the people of Alabama.”
1. Alabama doctor lies on Facebook and gets national news coverage
- The American media has discovered an Alabama doctor because of a misleading story written at al(dot)com that frames her as a compassionate person concerned about people at the end of their lives. The actual Facebook post she wrote shows a very different side that mocks people who are dying. Almost all of the coverage focuses on comments made by Dr. Brytney Cobia of Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham about holding the hands of patients and apologizing that it is too late for the vaccine as they are being intubated, a story that is most certainly a lie.
- The fawning coverage ignores the beginning of the post where she mocks her dying patients for not getting the vaccine and says she is increasing the number of people who want to get the vaccine as they are coming around at their last moment. She wrote, “I’ve made a LOT of progress encouraging people to get vaccinated lately!!! Do you want to know how? I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections.” This is not compassion, and it is obviously untrue, but it fits the narrative that dumb southerners are not getting vaccinated and they are paying for it. It is grotesque. The Alabama media and their friends in the national media don’t care that it is a made-up story.
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