7 Things: Alabama lawmakers suggest guardrails for data centers and flock cameras, Sewell whines about mail-in voting, war with Canada, and more …

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August 26, 2026

7. Country music icon Dolly Parton died Tuesday in Nashville at age 80, with nephew Bryan Seaver announcing, “Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey ordered flags lowered through Sept. 1 and praised her Imagination Library for mailing more than 2 million free books to children in all 67 counties, saying “We will always love you, Dolly.”

6. Huntsville municipal voters kept most incumbents in place Tuesday as City Council members David Little and Bill Kling held Districts 2 and 4, school board winners included Holly McCarty and Payten Redfearn, and the District 3 City Council race headed to a Sept. 22 runoff between incumbent Jennie Robinson and Liliana Peinder.

5. Canada announced tariffs of 15% to 50% on more than 700 American goods starting Sept. 8 after talks collapsed, targeting paper products, appliances, steel and aluminum, the United States importing $328,000,000 worth of Canadian toilet paper in 2024 even as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer insisted “there’s no possible way” the dispute will affect consumers.

4. Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed distanced himself from Twitch streamer Hasan Piker after incendiary comments, saying, “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me,” while Piker claimed any disavowal was “purely tactical,” as is the Democrat Socialist of America faction’s blasting of the potential presidential run of U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), calling her an “opportunist dilettante.”

3. ICE arrests jumped to 49,571 in July, the highest monthly total of President Donald Trump’s second term and a 70% increase from February, with more than half of those arrested having no criminal history, and the numbers just get better from there.

2. U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) slammed the Supreme Court’s decision allowing President Donald Trump’s mail-in voting restrictions to move forward, telling on Democrats, and highlighting illegal votes, “President Trump is terrified of losing at the ballot box in November” and calling the ruling “shameful” because “voting by mail is safe, secure, and used by millions of Americans, including President Trump himself.”

1. State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) laid out potential Flock camera guardrails including warrants for non-emergency access, data retention of “a year or less,” and tougher penalties for people who abuse the system because, “I don’t think a misdemeanor cuts it,” while State Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville) said lawmakers will find a “middle ground” on data centers since “AI is out of the bottle” and “I don’t want it stored in China,” as Governor-elect National Championship-winning Coach U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) backs development and Doug Jones, the cowardly caretaker former junior senator in an ill-fitting suit, who looks like he just woke up and stole his shoes from a homeless person and who will never be governor, attorney general, or U.S. Senator again, has called for a one-year moratorium on data centers for political reason.

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