7. Black Sons of Confederate Veterans member wants monuments kept
- Daniel Sims is a black man and member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and during a now viral interview with a local news station, he advocated for keeping Confederate flags on display and leaving monuments up. In the interview, he displayed multiple depictions of the flag.
- Sims said he is adopted and he has adopted his family’s heritage, saying that he “went to an all-white school, grew up in an all-white neighborhood. My grandfather was white, and he was the main one who fought in this war here. And he’s taught me everything I know.” He added that if he’s “got anything to do with it, ain’t no monument going to come down.”
6. No, Trump didn’t say don’t fund the post office
- While interviewing on Fox News, President Donald Trump discussed the issue of mail-in voting and the United States Postal Service, and Trump said that in the coronavirus relief package, Democrats have detailed that the USPS needs $25 billion. The president added, “[T]hey need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.”
- Trump went on to say that “if we don’t make a deal that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting.” Now, people are saying this is voter suppression and calling for Trump to be impeached again.
5. Peace agreement in the Middle East
- Progress in creating a peaceful Middle East took a step forward yesterday when the United States helped broker a peace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to stabilize a region of the world that has required a large amount of American military interventions in the past.
- Obviously, not everyone is happy. American Democrats (except for Biden who thinks he did it) and the media view this as a problem while Iran and Turkey have called this peace deal “dagger” in the backs of Palestinians and the region’s Muslim populations. The Trump administration intimated that this was only the first step in this process and other deals could be announced soon.
4. Mazda Toyota is upping its Huntsville investment
- The current Mazda Toyota Manufacturing investment is currently at $2.311 billion in North Alabama after the company announced that they’d be increasing their investment by $830 million during an event in Huntsville that was held virtually.
- To detail what the investment will cover, Governor Kay Ivey made an announcement saying that it will “incorporate new cutting-edge manufacturing technologies to its production lines and provide enhanced training to its workforce of up to 4,000 employees.”
3. Good coronavirus news is good
- For three straight days, the state of Alabama saw new case numbers below 1,000 for the first time since June. This is great news, but it doesn’t end there. The average of new coronavirus cases (1,156) is down 18% in a week from 1,415 on August 6.
- Hospitalization across the state saw an average of 108 coronavirus patients per day last week, but the average was between 160 and 200 since July 17 and the first time the rate has declined week to week since all of this started. There is some grim news, too, as Alabama saw one of its highest mortality weeks so far with 24 people dying on average each day.
2. Unemployment claims are down
- New data released by the Alabama Labor Department shows that 9,468 people filed for unemployment last week, which is the second-lowest week we’ve had in unemployment since March 14.
- Jefferson County had the most claims at 1,142, Madison County had 573, Mobile County had 1,025 and Montgomery County had 459. This continues the downward trend for nearly a month now.
1. Biden is advocating for a national mask mandate
- Presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden has come out in favor of a national mask mandate to fight the coronavirus, despite 34 states already having a mandate, and President Donald Trump is now accusing Biden of trying “to politicize a pandemic.”
- During a press briefing, Trump addressed the idea of a national mask mandate, and emphasized, “Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the scientific evidence and putting left-wing politics before facts.” He added that a national mask approach by Biden is “regressive, unscientific and bad for our country.”
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