7. The Democrat field continues to grow as more Senators enter the fray

— Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced her intentions on “Good Morning America.” After the announcement, one of the co-hosts asked an absurd question, wondering, “Is this country, after what [President] Trump has unleashed and what we have seen, ready for the first woman of color president?”

— The field now includes three senators, two former congressman, a congresswoman, a businessman and a former Housing and Urban Development secretary.

6. Two police officers killed over the course of one week in Alabama; Judge denies bond for alleged cop killer

— Mobile Police Department Officer Sean Tuder was killed when executing a search warrant. This comes one week after Birmingham Police Department Sgt. Wytasha Carter was killed while investigating a car break-in the Sunday before.

— Marco Antonio Perez, 19, was charged with capital murder and is being held without bond. He and his mother are both being charged in relation to a staging a fake kidnapping in an attempt to evade arrest on previous charges.

5. For over a decade, Alabama has been struggling with its prison and now a controversial option has emerged

— Governor Kay Ivey may be planning to create a plan that would allow private companies to build prisons and then lease them to the state. The plan could cost one billion dollars and not require legislative approval.

— Attempts to get a plan through the legislature to address the issue have failed, including an $800 million dollar plan in 2017, leaving few options for the state.

4. Governor Kay Ivey tours storm-ravaged Wetumpka

— On Monday, Ivey saw parts of tornado-damaged Wetumpka, where an EF-2 tornado is thought to have touched down on Saturday afternoon with wind speeds reaching close to 130 mph.

— Ivey noted the decimation of the storm and the resiliency of Alabamians, saying, “We’ve lost a lot of property – 35-plus homes either demolished or badly damaged. There’s a lot of discomfort in the area. One of the refreshing things that I find so rewarding is so many people in this area have volunteered to help put Wetumpka back in order. That’s special.”

3. The Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations bring the normal complaints and a call to remove Robert E. Lee from the holiday in Alabama

— State Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham) is proposing legislation to create a stand-alone day for King — the day it is federally recognized. He wants to move Lee’s commemoration to the state Confederate Memorial Day.

— 18,000+ people have signed a petition to make the move. States like Arkansas have uncoupled the holidays, removing Lee’s name completely.

2. The mainstream media has a really bad three-day weekend as they botch two major stories of a failed takedown of the president and a lynching of high school kids

— Last Thursday and Friday, a bombshell that was thought “if true” would have severely damaged the Trump presidency blew up in the face of the mainstream media when special counsel Robert Mueller’s office released a statement debunking a damning Buzzfeed report.

— Some journalists and celebrities spent their Saturday attacking attendees of the undercovered March for Life for a made up slight towards a pretend war hero. When that failed, they focused their direction towards a 2015 basketball game from the same school.

1. We are one month into the government shutdown and Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) seems to be optimistic even though most of his fellow Democrats do not

— Jones bucked his party, saying he was “optimistic” that the president was operating in “good faith.” He added he still thinks the government should be opened before a final deal is made, but that seems unlikely.

— Even though Trump has compromised on three issues, to some in his base’s chagrin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to kill the compromise before the president even made his statement offering the deal.