7 Things: Alabama doesn’t know where it’s at with vaccines, Trump won’t be convicted in his second impeachment trial, virtual schools won’t have virtual standardized tests and more …

7. Colorado making another push to keep Space Command from Alabama

• The congressional delegation from Colorado is still hoping for a chance to get U.S. Space Command for their state, despite the decision to move the headquarters to the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
• The delegation has sent a letter to President Joe Biden saying that “significant evidence exists … that President Trump’s political considerations influenced the final decision.” The Air Force has already clarified multiple times that the decision was made because Huntsville was the “preferred location” and wasn’t a politically motivated decision.

6. Bill to keep students competing in sports with their biological gender

• The Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2021 is being co-sponsored by U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) and Barry Moore (R-Enterprise). The purpose of the bill is to prevent transgender females from participating in female-only sports.
• Brooks said, “Girls are being robbed of college scholarship opportunities and will be robbed of the virtues learned from fair play competition like perseverance, teamwork, and determination.” He went on to add that allowing males to “compete in women’s sports isn’t progress, it is a major step backwards and it ought to stop.”

5. These standardized scores are not going to be good

• Students in Alabama that are in the second through eighth grade will receive a new standardized test in March. It will be given in person, and there will not be a virtual option for students, according to State Superintendent Eric Mackey.
• There are about 30% of students who are still attending school virtually. The Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program summative test should’ve been given last spring, but schools closed before the test was given, and now Mackey has said he’s not sure “what participation will be like.”

4. Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun

• After years of federal judges being used to attempt to block President Donald Trump’s agenda and the increased use of nationwide injunctions to stop the policies dead in their track, President Joe Biden’s first taste of that tactic has paused the new president’s attempt to stop all deportations for the first 100 days.
• The media and their Democrats have forgotten all their talk about how there aren’t liberal judges and conservatives judges. CNN and others are now concerned that a “conservative judiciary” will be used to “thwart” Biden’s agenda.

3. End this silly impeachment mess

• After U.S. senators were sworn-in as jurors in now-former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) forced a vote to declare the entire preceding unconstitutional. His point of order went down with 55 senators voting to declare it was allowed by the U.S. Constitution. The vote may have failed, but it did expose that a conviction is completely impossible.
• Only five Republican U.S. Senators voted that they believe the Constitution allows for the impeachment of a former official. They are Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). The thought that 12 other Republicans will eventually join them in convicting Trump seems unlikely given that they all view the act itself as unconstitutional.

2. Biden is just going to keep saying bigger numbers

• President Joe Biden initially said that he wanted to complete 100 million vaccinations within his first 100 days in office, but now he’s increasing that goal. Biden is saying that he wants there to be an average of 1.5 million coronavirus vaccine doses administered every day.
• The Biden administration has recently faced criticism for the goal of 100 million doses within the first 100 days because the nation was already on track for that without Biden intervening. Biden has also said that he thinks the vaccine could be widely available to people by spring.

1. ADPH seems confused as to where Alabama is at on vaccination

• After admitting that they didn’t know exactly where the state was on vaccinations and on the heels of President Joe Biden ordering 200 million more doses of the vaccine, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey says the state will receive a slight increase in the number of vaccine doses in the near future.
• Ivey made it clear that, while this is good, it is not good enough. She advised, “Any margin of increase is appreciated, but we have a long way to go to be able to provide them to any Alabamian who wants one. Along with Dr. Harris, I’ll continue to advocate to our federal partners that we must be more efficient in shipping these to the states in order for us to get shots in arms.”