7. Decatur school system to sue 3M over landfill
- Decatur City Schools has sent a letter to 3M, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with its intent to sue 3M due to the toxins leaking from a closed landfill into a “creek and groundwater leading to the Tennessee River.”
- The closed landfill is located under the former Brookhaven Middle School, and the Decatur City Schools are seeking for 3M to “cleanup of the solid and hazardous waste and removal” of toxins and “chemicals from the soils, surface water, and groundwater on the property.”
6. The flu is here
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared there is a high level of flu-like illness in Alabama and 28 other states.
- It is not too late to get vaccinated, and you might want to because the CDC says there have been roughly 3.7 million flu illnesses, leading to 32,000 hospitalizations and 1,800 deaths in the ongoing 2019-2020 flu season.
5. Durbin doesn’t want people deciding how they’ll vote before impeachment comes to the Senate
- Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) has expressed that he’s unhappy with Sheffield, Alabama native Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) already voicing that they’re against impeachment before the trial has begun.
- Durbin did also say that Democratic senators shouldn’t be for impeachment before the articles have come to the Senate. Durbin added that “when it comes to saying I’ve made up my mind, it’s all over, for goodness sakes, that is not what the Constitution envisioned.”
4. Pelosi will yield
- Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short has said that he believes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “will yield, there’s no way she can hold this position.” Short also said that “her position is really untenable.”
- Pelosi has hesitated to send the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate as she waits for the Senate to set their process, and now Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is also pushing to add witnesses, to which Short questioned why there needs to be added witnesses when they have claimed the case is “so airtight.”
3. Medical marijuana bill coming to Alabama legislature
- Twelve out of 18 commissioners on the Alabama Medical Cannabis Study Commission have voted to recommend a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Alabama.
- Chairman State Senator Tim Melson (R-Florence) said the vote shows “that two-thirds thought the legislation was reasonable and well thought-out.” Melson plans to introduce the legislation after the legislative session begins on February 4, 2020.
2. Jones is probably going to vote to remove Trump from office
- U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) is attempting to rationalize how voting to remove President Donald Trump from office won’t cost him his reelection bid while appearing on ABC’s “The Week,” which is hosted by the totally impartial former President Bill Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos.
- Jones said that this impeachment “is a much more serious matter” than the “political consequences,” adding this has more to do with “how we want our presidents to conduct themselves.” He explained, “It has to do with the future of the Senate and how the Senate should handle impeachment and articles of impeachment that come over.”
1. Doug Jones won’t be reelected
- John Couvillon of Louisiana’s JMC Analytics has released independent polling information which showed a near-majority (and a large plurality) of voters don’t support U.S. Senator Doug Jones’ (D-AL) reelection campaign.
- Only 34% of the voters who responded support Jones, but 48% oppose and 18% are undecided. When matched up against former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope), Jones was close but still loses to all of the top three candidates.
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