7 Things: Convicted felon Don Siegelman claims the election he lost was stolen, Alabama’s unemployment rate is historically low and more …

7. Granholm is being criticized for being massively out of touch

• U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently suggested that Americans struggling with inflation should buy solar panels, saying, “If you are low income, you can get your home entirely weatherized through the expansion from the bipartisan infrastructure laws,” since there’s a new tax rebate offered through the Inflation Reduction Act.
• Granholm went on to say, “If you are moderate income, today you can get 30% off the price of solar panels … it’s a significant incentive.” Many people said Granholm was essentially out of touch with the financial reality most families are facing with 40-year high inflation. Cementing the fact that she is out of touch, in the same interview, she said the price of gasoline was dropping because of the great work President Joe Biden has done expanding the gasoline supply, which is not true at all.

6. Wisconsin will ban BLM and pride flags in classrooms

• A new policy for schools in Wisconsin has been approved by the state’s school board that will ban all Black Lives Matter and pride flags from classrooms. Superintendent Stephen Plum said, “Teachers and administration will not have political flags or religious messaging in their classroom or on their person.”
• The ban also includes “We Back the Badge” signs, as well as school employees from displaying preferred pronouns in their email signatures. In protest to the ban, one student said at the school board meeting, “I am not controversial. I am not political. I am a person.”

5. Outcry has started against proposed birthing center regulations

• New regulations and restrictions could be placed on birthing centers after the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) proposed a resolution for several centers that could be built across the state. Some of the regulations could make it illegal to use a midwife.
• In response, Alabama State Board of Midwifery (ASBM) chair Noel Leithart said, “If adopted, these rules would effectively prohibit any licensed midwives from starting or even working in any birthing center in Alabama. This proposal drastically reduces the ability of licensed midwives to care safely for women and babies in Alabama, especially rural areas.” In Alabama, there are 37 rural counties that don’t have a hospital with an OB unit.

4. Education secretary misses the point completely

• Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, discussion and criticism over teachers have increased. U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asserted that these criticisms have influenced the ongoing teacher shortage, saying it’s “a symptom of something that’s been going on for longer than the pandemic and that’s a teacher respect issue.”
• Cardona went on to say that over “the last couple years, you know, our educators have bent over backwards … yet the pandemic really pushed many of these educators out of the profession because in many cases, you know, educators were not being respected when schools had to close … We need to make sure we’re supporting our educators, giving them the working conditions where they feel connected to the community and feel supported in the work that they’re doing.”

3. Younger generations are rejecting party affiliations

• A new Gallup poll shows that a majority of young voters within the Millennial and Gen Z generations aren’t affiliating as Republicans or Democrats, but instead remain Independent voters.
• The poll shows that 21% of Millennials are Republican, while 27% of Millennials are Democrat. 17% of Gen Z are Republican, 31% of Gen Z are Democrat, and 52% of both demographic cohorts have identified as Independent.

2. Alabama unemployment maintains 2.6%

• The Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) announced that for July, the state’s unemployment rate stayed at the record low of 2.6%, meaning that there are about 59,419 people unemployed. ADOL secretary Fitzgerald Washington advised that there’s been an increase of “more than 34,000 jobs since last year.”
• Gov. Kay Ivey said the state has “more people working than ever before. We will not relent on our efforts. We will continue working hard to support businesses as they seek more employees, while also connecting folks in our workforce with existing resources to ensure they are highly skilled and well-equipped.”

1. Blanchard wants out of voting machine lawsuit and felon Siegelman wants in

• A lawsuit in Alabama claims that voting machines in the 2020 presidential election were compromised. Now, former Gov. Don Siegelman (D), a felon and conspiracy theorist, has expressed interest in joining the lawsuit after former gubernatorial candidate Lindy Blanchard has requested to be removed.
• Siegelman alleged that his reelection loss in 2002 was due to inaccuracies in electronic voting machines. He said, “For our democracy to work, everyone who is entitled to vote should be able to vote. Secondly, we must have confidence in the outcome of our elections. We can’t point fingers at Russians and declare meddling in our elections without being willing to have an audit of our own elections when properly challenged.”