7. Father of Highland Park shooter could face charges

• Police investigating the mass shooting at a July 4 parade and the father of the shooter is now receiving the bulk of the media attention because the killer has confessed. In addition to the confession, more information about his home life is becoming available.
• Robert Crimo, Jr., the father of Robert Crimo III, signed an affidavit to sponsor his son on a gun application. The signatory agreed to be “liable for any damages resulting from the minor applicant’s use of firearms or firearm ammunition.” The shooter was no longer a minor when the murders occurred and purchased the guns himself, but police say the investigation is ongoing.

6. Why do kids like white men so much?

• New York University has received funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the amount of $40,391 to determine why children “favor whiteness and maleness over other identities.” The funding is for a research project called “Societal assumptions regarding typical personhood and other effects on reasoning development.”
• A description of the project states, “Despite national rises and racial and gender diversity, white men remain vastly overrepresented across a host of domains within the U.S., from media, to politics, to clinical research. Such overrepresentation poses severe costs to the rest of society – women of all races, men of color, and gender-nonconforming individuals – particularly within the domain of health, where clinical trials have historically prioritized the experiences, perspectives, and health outcomes of white men.” The project is scheduled to conclude by January 31, 2025.

5. Roy Moore loses again

• In another blow to his reputation, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore lost in a $95 million defamation case against marginally-funny comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and that was upheld by a three-judge panel. The case was based on Moore being tricked into receiving a made-up award and then having a “pedophile detector” tested on him.

• The three judges believed the segment was “clearly comedy” and no reasonable viewer would believe the allegations being made against Moore were serious. In 2017, equally unproven allegations were made against Moore from decades before, and many people actually believed them.

4. Possibility of no special session

• Alabama Senate Majority Leader Clay Scofield (R-Guntersville) recently discussed the idea of the legislature being called into a special session by Governor Kay Ivey to deal with funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARPA), stating that he was unsure if a session would take place.
• Scofield said, “[I]t is still firmly up in the air whether or not that we even need to have a special session or if we can in fact wait until potentially around our organizational session.” He went on to indicate that there was a lack of guidelines around how the funds can be spent, saying, “This round has a little more scrutiny from the treasury on what it can and cannot be spent on.”

3. Alabama attorney receives medal of freedom

• At the White House, a Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who has represented people such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks and former U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-Ga.). President Joe Biden described him as “[o]ne of the most important civil rights lawyers in our history.”
• During the ceremony, Biden went on to say, “Fred’s legal brilliance and strategy desegregated schools and secured the right to vote. He went on to be one of the first elected African Americans to the Alabama State Legislature since Reconstruction. An ordained minister, he imbued a righteous calling that touched the soul of our nation. And at 91-years young, he’s still practicing law. And he’s still keeping faith in the best of America.”

2. Texas will return illegal immigrants to the border

• An executive order from Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) allows the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to return illegal immigrants to the southern border. Abbott stated, “While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border.”
• Abbott went on to say, “As challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.” Counties within Texas had asked for a similar measure to be taken, with some deeming the issue an “invasion” and asking for the governor to do the same.

1. Collins unsure if abortion law modifications are coming

• State Representative Terri Collins (R-Decatur) is unsure if there will be any changes to the Human Life Protection Act, which she sponsored since it has taken effect in the state.
• Collins stated, “I don’t see a clear cut one way or another right now…I think right now we’re looking to see kind of where everything’s landed,” and went on to add, “I’m trying to see what people are saying and what they’re wanting…I think doctors have a lot of concerns. I hear a lot of ectopic pregnancy. It’s the thing that the medical, those that are practicing, understand those deeper issues, and they don’t understand the law. I think that we need to clarify some of those things, which we can do without changing the law, we can do just by going through what are the legitimate concerns, which ones are real.”