7. Georgia passed a heartbeat bill and Hollywood is fighting back
— Hollywood actor Alyssa Milano has called for a “sex strike,” which involves liberal women not having sex with the goal of allowing more abortions. Other liberals have criticized this idea because it robs women of the joys of sex, it ignores LGBTQ people somehow and “sex strikes don’t stop sexual assaults from being perpetrated.” Also, some production companies have said that they will not film in Georgia after they passed their abortion ban. Christine Vachon of Killer Films, David Simon of Blown Deadline Productions and Mark Duplass of Duplass Brothers Productions have all come out in opposition to the state’s heartbeat bill and will not film in the state. Georgia has become a hotspot for filming TV shows and movies, including “Black Panther,” “The Walking Dead” and “Stranger Things.”
6. President Donald Trump is doing particularly well with female voters
— The Center for Responsive Politics analysis showed that 45 percent of Trump’s campaign donations during the first quarter came from women. Trump received the third highest percentage among 2020 presidential candidates, just behind Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) at 52 percent of donations coming from women and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) at 49 percent. Trump is still facing high disapproval ratings from women, but the donation analysis suggests that he has a strong core following of female voters. The press secretary for the 2020 Trump campaign Kayleigh McEnany said, “Democrats pander to women. President Trump acts for women and speaks to women.” Trump also had the most female donors out of any other candidate in the first quarter at 10,329 women, whereas Harris had 3,850 and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had 3,271.
5. False alarm — There are no cases of measles in Alabama
— Last week it was announced that a five-month-old baby girl in Pell City was diagnosed with measles. After further testing, the CDC released an analysis that the results were negative for measles. Currently, 23 states have seen an outbreak of measles. So far this year, the Alabama Department of Public Health has investigated 252 possible measles cases, and 82 of those cases remain open. The fear of a measles outbreak has been a topic of conversation around the state. State Rep. Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) has proposed ending all non-medical exemptions for vaccinations.
4. New tariffs have gone into effect; China is expected to respond in-kind
— President Trump has kept his word to increase tariffs on China unless a trade deal was reached between the two countries. Those tariffs took effect on Friday and will impact $200 billion in Chinese imports because American officials believe the Chinese have walked back an agreement the two nations were working on. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) warned the White House about this gambit going on for an extended period saying, “The longer we’re involved in a tariff battle or a trade war, the better chance there is that we could actually enter into a recession because of it.” On Sunday, Trump economic advisor Larry Kudlow acknowledged that Americans will pay the costs of these tariffs and it could cause economic pain.
3. Reports indicate that a piece of property in Alabama appears to be linked to a terrorist training camp
— The land located in Macon County has been linked to a terrorist training camp in New Mexico where children were being trained to commit mass shootings. The property in Alabama is owned by Siraj Wahhaj, who lived on the compound in New Mexico with other adults and children. Five adults were indicted by a federal grand jury for kidnapping and firearms violations. Assistant Director McGarrity said in an FBI statement, “The defendants in this case allegedly were preparing for deadly attacks and their targets included law enforcement and military personnel, the very people who are committed to protecting all of us.” Wahhaj had been seen traveling from Georgia to New Mexico when the car overturned. Wahhaj was traveling with seven children and one other adult, they told authorities that they were going to New Mexico to go camping.
2. President Trump’s wall is getting some funding from the Department of Defense
— The Pentagon has approved a spending plan to spend $1.5 billion to build 80 miles of border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan approved the funding, and said, “The funds were drawn from a variety of sources, including cost savings, programmatic changes and revised requirements, and therefore will have minimal impact on force readiness.” This $1.5 billion combined with the $1 billion that was redirected earlier in March this year is a direct response to President Trump’s national emergency declaration.
1. Abortion ban bill to be voted on; Planned Parenthood is worried about the bill and Attorney General Steve Marshall is prepared to defend it
— The bill that would criminalize performing an abortion may pass with or without an exception for rape and incest included in the bill, but Rep. Terri Collins (R-Decatur) said she will kill the bill if the exception is included. Planned Parenthood has made it clear that they are worried about this bill taking down Roe v. Wade. Either way, Attorney General Steve Marshall has said that his office will be prepared to defend the bill no matter what it looks like. Marshall added, “Once the legislature finishes its work on the bill this session, it sounds like Tuesday they’ll take that backup, whatever is passed and hopefully the governor signs, we’ll be prepared to defend it. And we’ll defend it with facts.” The bill is set to be voted on in the Senate on Tuesday.
