7 Things: Alabama lawmakers not happy about Biden’s student loan ‘plan,’ U.S. Rep. Moore still fighting military mandate and more …

7. Alabama man arrested at U.S. Capitol riot told officers they’d lose, they did not

• Bobby Wayne Russell of Falkville, Alabama was present at the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and was arrested this week on two felony and four misdemeanor charges, all of which were related to the riot.
• The felony charges are assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement and interfering with law enforcement. According to authorities, during the riot, Russell refused to leave and told officers, “I’m not scared of you and I’m not weak,” and went on to say, “There’s more of us than you guys, you’re gonna lose.”

6. Department of Justice advised against prosecuting Trump

• A March 24, 2019, memo from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been released that shows the DOJ at the time recommended against prosecuting former President Donald Trump on charges related to the Russia investigation and obstruction of justice.
• The former assistant attorney general for the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel wrote in the memo, “[W]e believe that certain of the conduct examined by the Special Counsel could not, as a matter of law, support an obstruction charge under the circumstances. Accordingly, were there no constitutional barrier, we would recommend, under the Principles of Federal Prosecution, that you decline to commence such a prosecution.”

5. Union vote in Scottsboro ends in tie, it is a Starbucks store

• In Scottsboro, Alabama a Starbucks location had been considering joining the Starbucks Workers United union that’s based in New York, but the National Labor Relations Board has reported that the recent vote on unionizing ended in a tie.
• There were four ballots that were challenged in the vote, eight votes were for unionizing, and eight votes were for against unionizing. Before unionizing can be determined, a hearing has to be held concerning the challenged ballots, and then either side could move to contest the results.

4. Alabama won’t be sued over unemployment backlog

• Montgomery County Judge James Anderson has ruled that the State of Alabama and other officials in the state won’t be sued for the backlog of unemployment claims. The complaint by Legal Services Alabama previously stated in their complaint, “Plaintiffs have experienced extreme delays at every step of the unemployment process.”
• The lawsuit was previously dismissed, but a request had been brought up for Anderson to reconsider the matter and he declined. Alabama Department of Labor spokesperson Tara Hutchinson said, “We are hopeful that this issue will finally be put to rest, and that ADOL can spend more of its time working to serve the people of Alabama.”

3. Alabama’s best employers list is out

• The Forbes’ 2022 America’s Best-in-State Employers list has been released. The list was created by surveying 70,000 employees in the United States across 25 industries. There were 45 companies ranked overall, with the first 15 standing out the most.
• The best employers in Alabama started with NASA, followed by Southern Company, 3M, Hoover City School District, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Northrop Grumman, Auburn University, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Starbucks, Verizon Communications, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, The Home Depot, and AIRBUS in 15th. If you are counting at home, that is five government entities, four government contractors, a chemical company, a power company, an insurance company, Verizon, Starbucks and Home Depot.

2. Moore wants the military COVID-19 vaccine requirement ended

• U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) requesting that the requirement for U.S. military members to have the coronavirus vaccine be rescinded.
• The letter states, “With updated CDC guidance for the unvaccinated, the Department of Defense’s final fig leaf justifying its purge of patriots for refusing vaccination has been stripped away. During a time of global turmoil and missed recruitment targets reaching the level of a national security crisis, the military has absolutely no justification for sacrificing readiness in favor of virtue signaling and the appeasement of this administration’s political base. The military vaccine mandate must end, and all our servicemembers so cruelly separated due to this disastrous policy must be rehired with full backpay.”

1. Student loan forgiveness is here, and it’ll cost $300 billion

• President Joe Biden has announced that for everyone with student loan debt, payments will remain paused until at least the end of the year. But for some individuals, they will have their debts forgiven for undergraduate student loans. For individuals who receive Pell Grant, they can have up to $20,000 forgiven, and individuals with a salary below $125,000 can have up to $10,000 of debt forgiven. For all other individuals, Biden said they will be able to “cap repayment at 5% of your monthly income.” Currently, the student loan debt nationally is about $1.6 trillion.
• U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) criticized the decision, saying, “I’m totally against it because I had to pay mine back. Everybody that I’ve known that took a loan had to pay theirs back. That’s part of the process.” U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) lamented, “It’s going to be inflationary on a number of levels, but particularly in terms of college tuition and that hurts everybody. When the federal government got involved with student loans tuition skyrocketed, and that impacts everybody whether you’ve got a loan or don’t have a loan, and I just don’t think that’s the way we’ve got to go.”