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7 Things: Coronavirus cases could be slowing, big testing push for Alabama college students, AG disputes DOJ’s prison report and more …

7. Cruz: Democrats are keeping schools closed to hurt Trump

  • U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and accused Democrats of trying to keep businesses and schools closed as a way to hurt President Donald Trump in the upcoming election, which is now less than 100 days away.
  • Cruz said that the Democrats have “cynically decided [the] best way to defeat Donald Trump is to shut down every business in America, shut down every school in America.” This is a thought shared by others as Democrats continue to push unemployment benefits rather than payroll tax cuts in the upcoming economic relief packages.

6. Jones wants to extend unemployment benefits

  • During a Facebook Live press conference, U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) mentioned his support of extending the $600 per week unemployment benefits that the CARES Act has provided throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but what he “really would favor is something that can pass Congress.”
  • Members of the Senate should see the details of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) new stimulus package early this week, but Jones said that he’s “concerned the unemployment benefits are going to get even worse,” as Paycheck Protection Program benefits are set to expire soon, too. 

5. More checks are coming

  • During CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that another $1,200 payment to citizens is coming as part of the next economic stimulus package, but Kudlow added he “would have preferred a payroll tax cut, on top of that check.”
  • Kudlow went on to say that the current unemployment benefits of $600 per week in addition to state benefits are making it more difficult for businesses to “hire people back,” saying that they’ve “had a flood of inquiries and phone calls and complaints” from businesses, which was an original concern of the added benefits.

4. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time

  • Civil rights icon and former U.S. Representative (D-GA) John Lewis will have his body taken to the U.S. Capitol, where it will lie in state, but before he headed to Washington, D.C., he was honored in Alabama with a final trip over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma before being laid in repose in the Alabama State Capitol. 
  • At the site of Bloody Sunday, Lewis’ casket was moved on a horse-drawn caisson and carried across the bridge over a carpet of rose petals meant to signify the blood that was shed there. Currently, there is a movement to rename the bridge in his honor, but it is unknown if that will succeed as some want to honor all marchers and others want the bridge to remain named after the former U.S. Senator and KKK leader in a sign of defiance.

3. Marshall not happy with DOJ prison report

  • Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall appeared on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” over the weekend where he discussed the Justice Department’s report on Alabama prisons and criticized the timing. 
  • The report detailed “systematic unconstitutional conditions” within Alabama’s men’s prisons, which Marshall said some of these issues are “dated.” He expressed displeasure with how they didn’t include “the significant efforts made by the department to be able to remedy some of the issues that’s been identified.” Marshall said that they weren’t given the report before it went to the public and had no “opportunity to be able to specifically respond to information” that was incorrect. 

2. 200,000 college students in Alabama are about to be tested

  • As part of the plan called GuideSafe, over 200,000 college students are going to be tested for the coronavirus as they return to campus. UAB infectious disease specialist Dr. Michael Saag said they’ve been developing the plan “to test up to 10-15,000 students a day as they return to campus over a three and a half week period.”
  • GuideSafe will have more than 50 colleges participating, and it’ll pay for students to be tested through the CARES Act funding that Alabama received. Many schools will require a negative test from students before they start classes. Dr. Saag emphasized the importance of testing since there are “about 39.4 cases per hundred thousand [people].” He added, “And with that number in the state, there’s a 40% likelihood that if you had 10 people in a room, just 10, one of those 10 would be infected.”

1. Let’s not spike the football yet, but coronavirus cases are slowing

  • The most recent coronavirus case numbers from the Alabama Department of Public Health show only 1,037 cases in one day, which is the lowest amount of case numbers in one day since July 7, and brings the statewide total to 77,351. 
  • Hospitalizations have gone from 1,536 down to 1,425. The drop in case numbers come 10 days after Governor Kay Ivey announced the statewide mask mandate.

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