7 Things: Climate change being blamed for the cost of the Mobile Bay Bridge, Alabama’s auto business booms, Omar blasts ALGOP and more …

7. Prescription prices hurt Alabamians

• AARP Alabama has released new data that shows 35% of Alabamians stopped using prescription drugs due to high prices and people with cancer, heart disease and prediabetes or diabetes were of those more likely to be unable to afford their prescriptions.
• AARP Alabama State Director Candi Williams said, “While prescription drug prices continue to skyrocket, Americans are being forced to choose between filling life-saving medications or paying rent and buying food.” According to figures provided by AARP, between 2012-2017 the price of prescriptions used to treat cancer, diabetes and heart disease all nearly doubled in price.

6. Eight-week abortion ban blocked

• U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs has temporarily blocked the eight-week abortion ban in Missouri right before the law was going to take effect due to pending court proceedings with Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri.
• Whereas federal law allows states to ban abortions after 24 weeks, PP and ACLU are claiming that the Missouri law is unconstitutional for going against Roe v. Wade, and the Missouri law only allows abortion in the case of a medical emergency.

5. Democrats will do anything to impeach President Trump

• From a court filing from the House Judiciary Committee, members of the committee have suggested that the impeachment investigation into President Trump started before former special counsel Robert Mueller finished his Russia investigation.
• Previously, Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) claimed that impeachment proceedings didn’t officially begin until just before Nadler petitioned to get information on the Mueller report from a secret grand jury, but now the court filings from Monday suggest that the impeachment proceedings actually started on March 4, whereas Mueller didn’t release the report to Attorney General William Barr until March 22.

4. Worker center is demanding the release of board member and son

• Marcos and Juan Baltazar were detained by ICE last Thursday during a routine check-in Homewood, Alabama, and have been transferred to an ICE facility in Gadsden, and now Adelante Alabama Worker Center is demanding that ICE release the two.
• ICE spokesman Bryan Cox has explained the issue, saying that Juan “who was formerly a minor, is now an adult. Once you are no longer a sole caregiver for a minor child, that impacts your status as well. the person turning 18 has a change of circumstance,” but members of the community gathered in Birmingham with Adelante to demand the men’s release.

3. Ilhan Omar benefits from ALGOP’s move to expel her from Congress

• This weekend, the Alabama Republican Party voted to support a worthless resolution calling for United State Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be removed from Congress. Omar was more than happy to respond to it by slamming the ALGOP, saying, “If you want to clean up politics, maybe don’t nominate an accused child molester as your Senate candidate?”
• While there was no chance that Omar was going to be removed from Congress after the ALGOP vote, there was a 100% chance that Omar, the media and their Democrats would jump on a group of Alabama Republicans voting to remove a female Democrat of color from a swing state from Congress and that is exactly what is happening.

2. The auto industry is big business in Alabama

• The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama released a study that noted that Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, through its plants and suppliers, was responsible for bringing more than $12 billion in economic impact and 45,647 jobs.
• Alabama continues to see foreign auto investment in the state, with each auto plant bringing suppliers into the region. And as more suppliers locate here, the more attractive it becomes for new manufacturing.

1. Climate changes cited as a reason for the Mobile Bay Bridge costs

• As if your average Alabamian needed another reason to oppose this $2.1 billion project, now those proposing the project have explained a large portion of the cost of the project to attributed in part to “federal regulations” that “integrate consideration of climate change and extreme weather event impacts.”
• The ALDOT document says that new highways and bridges “must be resilient to climate change and extreme weather events,” which may explain why the project’s costs have ballooned from the original $900 million pricetag.