7. No surprise, Harris can’t answer questions on student loan “relief” funding
- Recently, Vice President Kamala Harris was asked about how the federal student loan forgiveness plan will be funded, which could cost upward of $500 billion, but Harris refused to give a straight answer.
- Harris said, “First of all, a lot of people who are criticizing what we rightly did in following through on a commitment that we made to forgive student loan debt are the same people who voted for a tax cut for the richest Americans.” Harris went on to say a majority of people making less than $75,000 per year will benefit from the plan, but still gave no answer to how it’ll be paid for.
6. Confucius Institute at Alabama A&M is closing
- The Confucius Institutes that have been tied to the Chinese Communist Party have been operating at two universities in Alabama: Troy University and Alabama A&M in Huntsville. The Confucius Institute at Alabama A&M has now closed.
- The National Association of Scholars has said that Confucius Institutes “undermine academic integrity and promote censorship,” but the Confucius Institute at Troy University looks like it is here to stay and was even awarded “Confucius Institute of the Year” in 2017.
5. Woodfin has criticized Birmingham Water Works for high bills
- On Facebook, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin posted a live video where he started the video with a Trumpesque greeting saying, “Good morning to everyone except the water works board, and that’s the Birmingham Water Works Board.”
- Woodfin criticized the board for how they’re operating after he received a call from the citizen who said they were billed $451 for water usage, despite being out of town for 15 days of that billing cycle. The Birmingham Water Works is not under city management, and Woodfin said, “We need this board to get out of the way and allow the general manager and their team of people that are responsible or day-to-day operation to do their job.”
4. Alabama has had more deaths than births for two years
- The Alabama Department of Public Health and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris has announced that for two years, 2020 and 2021, Alabama had more deaths than births on record. Harris made comments on the situation while appearing on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal.”
- Harris said that it’s the first time in the state’s history that there have been more deaths than births for two consecutive years. Harris did clarify that it was due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s “much more deadly than any other outbreak we have ever experienced in the history of our state. And when you look at total numbers of deaths, it’s more deadly than, of course, than the Spanish Flu pandemic. Obviously, we’re a larger state now than we were then. But the death rates are about the same. It’s just been a really terrible time.”
3. Trump should get an apology for raid on Mar-a-Lago, according to Carl
- U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) has regularly criticized the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, but he recently said that Donald and Melania Trump deserve an apology. Carl said, “For the FBI to go in and just raid a place like this and go through his wife’s personal stuff – I mean, that’s about as offensive as you can get. That’s borderline perversion…There’s got to be some accountability there. To go in and treat him and his family like common criminals is where the real issue here is for me. I mean, I think the president, I think his wife, I think this country deserves an apology.”
- Additionally, depending on what media outlet you are reading, the FBI removed either a “limited” or “only a ‘limited‘” number of documents that related to attorney-client privilege from Mar-a-Lago during their raid of the resort. The Department of Justice admitted this in a court filing, “identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information” and has “completed its review of those materials.” Surely, no one read those documents.
2. CNN is about to get another former FBI agent to join McCabe
- As investigations into former President Trump continue, it has been reported by the Washington Times that the agent who killed the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop has been removed (fired or resigned under pressure) from the agency.
- It is alleged that Timothy Thibault was under congressional investigation for political bias issues related to the Biden laptop raised by an FBI whistleblower and his handling of politically sensitive investigations but the agent was not involved in the raid on Mar-a-Lago, so that investigation is totally apolitical. Thibault was reportedly escorted out of his office by “headquarters-looking types” but he will get to keep his pension and benefits even after being disgraced.
1. Vaccine requirements for contractors ended
- Gov. Kay Ivey has praised a recent decision to end the coronavirus vaccine mandate for contractors in Alabama after a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The judges ruled that only those state involved with the lawsuit would be impacted, and Alabama was one of those involved.
- Ivey said, “Here in Alabama, we continue to fight for common sense, and today’s ruling is another win for not only common sense but for freedom. Many Alabamians, myself included, were strongly opposed to these outrageous mandates, and we fought back and won. I am proud to continue standing up for Alabamians.” But the Ivey administration was hardly anti-mandate, she privately had resisted calls to push for bills to ban vaccine mandates, however, she did sign the legislation (unrelated to this story) when it passed.
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