7. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper won’t admit it, but he made the case for President Donald Trump revoking CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance
— Clapper appeared on CNN Sunday morning to make the argument that the president was entering dangerous territory by revoking the clearances. Instead, he made the president’s point by saying, “John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself, John is subtle like a freight train and he’s gonna say what’s on his mind.”
— Brennan, who many said was being silenced, appeared on “Meet The Press” on NBC after participating in multiple interviews in the last week.
6. Blount County has decided to be Alabama’s “test county” for putting “In God We Trust” in schools
— When the Alabama legislature passed a law allowing local school boards to put religious-themed displays in their schools, they knew it would be challenged in court once a school’s district took the leap.
— Attorney General Steve Marshall appeared on WVNN radio last Friday and stated he was ready to defend the law in court. Florida also passed a similar law but theirs requires the motto to be posted.
5. Huntsville teachers’ pay raises are all but gone, but you won’t hear about it until they are
— North Alabama’s largest school district has a budget of roughly a quarter-billion dollars. They are in rough shape, recently announcing that a budgeting “error” made things worse. They misspent federal dollars, and may have to pay $10 million to figure out what went wrong.
— Months ago, a pay raise for teachers was approved without a real way to pay for them. Sources say they will be cancelled.
4. Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to highlight how out of control our courts are
— The Trump administration’s battles with the federal court system is almost as dramatic as their battle with the media. Sessions highlighted these “erroneous rulings” at a conference in Iowa.
— The battles over sanctuary cities, DACA and the travel bans are running into “nationwide injunctions” that require costly litigation and delays in implementing policies.
3. White House counsel Don McGahn is talking with Mueller and Rudy Giuliani continues to feed the media silly quotes
— Depending on who you are listening to, Don McGahn had the blessing of the White House to talk with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and he was a “terrific witness” for the president, or he has flipped and this will be the guy who takes Trump down.
— Trump’s attorney, and the public face of the defense, told NBC’s Chuck Todd that the “Truth isn’t the truth,” which in context makes sense, but in a 2018 media environment, it is stripped of context and turned in to a four-word quote.
2. Alabama’s incumbents in good shape — the national GOP is not
— No one of the Alabama Congressional delegation has much to be concerned about in the midterms. The closest race of all seven seats is Congresswoman Martha Roby’s, and she is predicted by fivethirtyeight.com to win 59-41.
— A tougher midterm lies ahead for Republicans nationwide, who fivethirtyeight.com believes have a 70 percent chance of losing the House. There are far more Solid D (188) seats than Solid R (146) seats. That means more seats for Republicans to defend, and that means less money for each one.
1. Alabama and the U.S. economy continues to churn out results
— There are more people working in Alabama than ever. This boosts Governor Kay Ivey’s argument for re-election and means we have six more weeks of Walt Maddox crying about debates.
— Alabama had record low unemployment for the third straight month, 30,000 more people are working than this time last year and the average weekly salary is up as well.
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