7. A unique approach to road projects in North Alabama
- Some road projects in Huntsville and Madison County could receive more funding through a partnership with the Alabama Department of Transportation. The projects total around $500 million with the state, Madison County, Huntsville City and Madison City.
- The funding would be for projects related to Memorial Parkway and I-565, as well as other areas. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said that ALDOT has “been open.” He added, “But you know, a lot of the devil’s in the details – exactly how much we’re going to end up spending and how much it’s going to cost and what the roads are.” There are seven total projects that have been proposed for the partnership, and Madison County Commission chairman Dale Strong said the county and cities are offering to cover $270 million of the cost. Battle also said, “[W]e’re going to put in more (money) than most communities would just to get a priority on the road packages.”
6. Florida wants to prevent “discomfort” in racial sensitivity training
- The Senate Education Committee in Florida has approved a bill supported by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) that if Critical Race Theory or discrimination is going to be taught, it can’t make students or employees feel “discomfort.” For some reason, this is being treated as unreasonable and with claims that this is only about white people, which is false, so the media is running with it.
- The bill, called “Individual Freedom,” states, “An individual should not be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race.” The sponsor of the bill, State Senator Manny Diaz (R-Fla.), said, “No individual is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely but the virtue of his or her race or sex. No race is inherently superior to another race.”
5. The Supreme Court rules that the January 6 Committee can have access to Trump records
- The committee investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol was given the go-ahead to look at the documents of the Trump administration, allowing the members on the board to look over the records before they cherry-pick what to release as they attempt to piece together how President Donald Trump allegedly planned the day’s events.
- According to news reports, 700 pages will be turned over to include activity logs, schedules, speech notes and three pages of handwritten notes from then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. With this information, the committee has even more to go over before it issues its report.
4. Maybe the Democrats can take “no” for an answer now
- On the eve of the anniversary of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the Democrats failed to get his “voting rights” bill through the U.S. Senate after refusing to acknowledge they did not have the votes to overcome the Senate’s filibuster.
- After the vote, U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) continued to be maligned by the media and their Democrats.
3. You can tell the U.S. Senate in Alabama race is heating up
- With the primary vote set for May 24, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) has announced the beginning of his U.S. Senate campaign that will travel across the state. The tour has been titled the “Meet MAGA Mo Tour” and will stop in every county across the state. In the statement announcing the campaign tour, Brooks said, “The primary job of a United States Senator is to reflect the will of the constituents he represents…I will work my hardest over the next months to meet with every voter and answer every question that I can.”
- Candidate Mike Durant has a new ad out hitting President Joe Biden on his failure in Afghanistan in which Biden says he has no regrets on his handling of the withdrawal. In the ad, Durant says, “Why does Joe Biden disgust me? Thirteen dead in Afghanistan. Thirteen more Gold Star families, because of him.” But a mid-90s news report unearthed by a shady website alleges that Durant admitted he knew his father abused his sister but buried her on television when asked about it. This is the kind of allegation that can roil a campaign.
2. Bipartisanship leads to a deal on spending of $772 million in COVID-19 money
- In a rare sign of bipartisanship, Alabama’s Republicans and Democrats seem to be on the same page when it comes to spending $772 million on projects in the state. The projects range from $277 million for expanded broadband, $225 million for drinking water and wastewater systems, $152 million for various hospitals, nursing homes and other medical needs, $79.5 million to Alabama’s unemployment trust fund, $20 million for first responders, $11 million to pay for inmates being held in county jails, and even $7.8 million to monitor the spending of the money.
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House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) explained his support by noting many Democrats “represent rural areas that are unserved.” He added that this kind of infrastructure (broadband and water/sewer improvements) could be the difference between “attracting an industry long-term [and] not having any industry at all.”
1. Biden is trying to revamp his image as poll numbers continue to tank
- President Joe Biden held an embarrassing press conference on Wednesday afternoon to mark his first year in office. Because of the many shortcomings of his administration, his poll numbers continue to fall as he tried to claim inflation isn’t that big of a deal, stated pandemic continues but is getting better, surprised the world when greenlit a small invasion into Ukraine by Russia and told an absurd lie about unnamed Republicans that would vote for all his bills if they weren’t so scared of former President Donald Trump.
- During his speech, Biden attempted to convey that his administration is learning from their many mistakes and attempting to make corrections. However, this falls on jaded ears as a majority of the country has turned on the president. The latest poll data released from Quinnipiac shows that Biden is at a 33% job approval rating and 53% who don’t approve.
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