7 Things: Debate battle rages, more rapid tests coming to Alabama, gas tax produces results and more …

7. Biden and Harris release their tax returns

•  Just before the first presidential debate, former Vice President Joe Biden released his 2019 tax returns. This comes after a report about President Donald Trump’s tax returns claimed that he only paid $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017. In Biden’s records, it shows that he and his wife Jill had an adjusted gross income of $985,233 and paid $299,346 in taxes. This is a substantial decline in income since 2017, when they reported over $11 million in adjusted gross income and $4.6 million in 2018.
• U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and her husband Doug Emhoff also released their tax return for 2019, showing that they had an adjusted gross income of $3,095,590 and owed $1,185,628 in taxes. Harris and Emhoff paid $35,390 in charitable donations for the year; the Bidens paid $14,700 in charitable donations.

6. Later call for alcohol

• The Alabama Beverage Control Board has voted to end the 11:00 p.m. curfew for alcohol sales placed on bars and restaurants, which was started earlier in the year as an attempt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
• Bar owners have spoken about how the early closing time has financially impacted them, with Kevin Cook of Paper Doll Bar even saying that their sales have dropped by about 40%. He added that it’s “drastically hurt everybody.”

5. The gas tax is helping

• The Rebuild Alabama Act will raise the gas tax by two more cents on Thursday, October 1, and again on October 1, 2021. Officials are bringing attention to the five highway projects and over 70 local road projects that have been made possible through the gas tax.
• Once the tax is in full effect next October, it’s expected to bring in $320 million every year. Even with the pandemic this year, the tax has still brought in close to the expected amount according to the Alabama Department of Transportation.

4. Alabama could outlaw abortion if Barrett is confirmed

• Judge Amy Coney Barrett is pro-life, and now Planned Parenthood Southeast’s vice president of external affairs Barbara Ann Luttrell has said that if “Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme court, Alabama could be at the center of the fight to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
• Luttrell is estimating, based on decisions by some states that show they’re looking to outlaw abortion, “abortion access could be eliminated for an estimated 25 million women of reproductive age with Barrett on the Supreme Court.” Twenty states are “hostile” toward abortion and have either placed restrictions on abortion, attempted to ban abortion, or have “trigger” laws that would ban abortion as soon as Roe v. Wade is overturned.

3. Former Governor Bentley blames others for his appointment

• While commenting on the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, disgraced former Governor Robert Bentley blamed Governor Kay Ivey’s decision to hold a special election for possibly risking the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s latest potential justice.
• Answering a question no one asked, Bentley tweeted, “If there is a rejection or even a razor thin confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to SCOTUS, it will be because those who made the decision to change the AL Senate election to 2017 after it had already been set.”

2. Rapid tests coming to Alabama

• The Trump administration will be supplying states with rapid-result coronavirus tests, as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced, and Governor Kay Ivey has said that Alabama will receive “over 1 million” tests.
• Ivey released a statement where she applauded this decision and said, “Before we knew much about this novel virus and before we had our first confirmed case in Alabama, President Trump and his Administration have been diligent in providing any additional resources that we needed in our state.”

1. What a show

• Last night’s debate was a complete show of craziness as President Donald Trump battled with both the moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, and his opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden. Little was actually ascertained and no knockout blows were delivered.
• The president interrupted regularly and attempted to knock Biden off his game but no real viral moments presented themselves and made this debate a draw, but Biden may come off better at the end of the day with no major snafus when the big questions were about his ability to sound lucid and together.