7. Democrats do not have the votes they need to pass the House’s gun control
- The Democrats and their media will make a lot of noise about gun control that has been passed in the U.S. House, but the fact that they don’t have everyone in their caucus on board makes that all but impossible in the U.S. Senate, filibuster or not.
- U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has made it clear that he is not in support of the Democratic bills. Republicans like U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) believe some compromise is still possible. Portman stated, “Tightening the background check system is possible. The House bill is too broad and goes too far for the Senate.”
6. Another executive order already being challenged
- President Joe Biden signed an executive order to halt all drilling permits on federal lands and waters, and now Alabama has joined a lawsuit to challenge this decision. The lawsuit currently includes 12 other states.
- Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Biden’s order is a “direct affront to American families’ livelihoods and our national security.” Marshall added that this goes against “the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA).”
5. Bernie Sanders is coming to Bessemer
- To help advocate for unionization, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will be visiting Bessemer, Alabama, on Friday to talk with Amazon employees. Previously, Sanders had said that he wanted to end Alabama’s right-to-work law.
- Actor Danny Glover and activist/rapper Killer Mike will also join Sanders on Friday. Votes will be counted on Tuesday next week to decide if Amazon workers in Bessemer will join the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union.
4. Expanding vaccine access to veterans
- The Strengthen and Amplifying Vaccination Efforts to Locally Immunize All Veterans and Every Spouse legislation that will allow more military veterans access to the coronavirus vaccine has been signed into law. U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) was an original cosponsor of the legislation.
- This law will expand which veterans can get the vaccine at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. Tuberville said that he’s “proud to support a bill that increases accessibility to the vaccine for our service members and their spouses.”
3. Shelby won’t be making an endorsement for his replacement
- As expected, U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) has announced that she won’t be running for U.S. Senate as the current officeholder U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) states that he has no plans to make an endorsement in the race. It’s still early in the race, but two candidates have already announced.
- U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) announced this week that he’s running for Shelby’s seat, and former U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia Lynda Blanchard has also announced. Shelby did say that if President Donald Trump “put his stamp on anybody, it would help them right now.”
2. Kamala Harris will oversee border crisis, which is odd
- President Joe Biden has announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will oversee the response to issues at the southern border as it’s anticipated a record number of migrants will come to the area in the upcoming months.
- Previously, Harris has supported decriminalizing crossing the border, and she’s compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Ku Klux Klan. In the announcement, Biden said, “When she speaks, she speaks for me.”
1. Alabama’s education is still not great for minorities in the COVID-19 era
- The U.S. Department of Education has released data on schools across the country, showing how many students are still virtual and how many are back in the classroom. In Alabama, 58% of fourth-graders are back in the classroom full time, 17% are on a hybrid schedule and 22% are learning remotely. But the racial disparity is really shocking, as only 10% of white students are learning remotely while 47% of black students, 32% of Asian students, 29% of economically disadvantaged students, 19% of students with disabilities and 16% of Hispanic students are doing the same.
- For those learning remotely, 27% have no live instruction from their teachers. The president of A+ Education Partnership Mark Dixon said this lack of live instruction “is only going to exacerbate some existing concerns for students,” including learning gaps.
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