7 Things: FDA approves the vaccine, Alabama congressmen join Texas’ lawsuit against battleground states, Jefferson County Health Officer could see powers limited and more …

7. Biden to leave his basement and head to Georgia

• Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced that he’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, to help campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.
• This comes after President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence visited the state this week to campaign for U.S. Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA).

6. Alabama is being sued

• There’s officially been a lawsuit filed against the State of Alabama and the Alabama Department of Corrections by the Department of Justice for prison conditions violating the 8th and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
• Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said they’ve “determined that Alabama violated and is continuing to violate the Constitution because its prisons are riddled with prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner violence. The violations have led to homicides, rapes, and serious injuries.”

5. No student information stolen in Huntsville City Schools cyber attack

• The Huntsville City Schools has suffered a ransomware attack, but it has been announced that no student information was stolen, as announced by spokesman Craig Williams. It’s also been said the Chromebooks that K-8 graders use weren’t affected and will be returned to the students.
• The released statement said that their “main area of focus is for Windows devices, which are used by high school students and teachers.” They will be replacing all teacher’s devices and inspecting high schooler’s devices.

4. Birmingham won’t defund police

• Despite calls from some to defund police departments across the country, and some even calling for just that in Birmingham, Mayor Randall Woodfin has said that the city will not be defunding their police department because he doesn’t believe that is what people want actually want.
• Woodfin said that there’s a greater “volume” of people calling for more police presence, not less. He also detailed that about 90% of the police department’s budget, which is $92 million, is for salaries. Woodfin said, “Unless you want me to fire police officers, we won’t be defunding police.”

3. Limiting Jefferson County Health Officer powers

• A bill will be prefilled for the upcoming legislative session by State Representative David Wheeler (R-Vestavia Hills) that would look to limit the authority of the Jefferson County State Health Officer. Wheeler’s legislation would require that the health officer consult an advisory board before health mandates are issued.
• The legislation would create a nine-member “Jefferson County Citizens Health Advisory Board” which would “provide recommendations to the Jefferson County Board of Health on general policies, direction, strategies, and the mission of the Jefferson County Board of health as the advisory board deems appropriate.”

2. Alabama congressmen join Texas lawsuit

• As Texas continues to challenge the voting procedures in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania, there have now been 106 U.S. House Republicans who are seeking to delay the certification of the Electoral College votes.
• U.S. Representatives Gary Palmer (R-Hoover), Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) and Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) were some of those who signed the amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. Representative Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) is still in the process of formally joining the brief after a technical error left his name off.

1. Vaccine approved by FDA

• The advisory committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, making it the first coronavirus vaccine to be approved in the country (and the fourth country in the world to approve this specific vaccine). Alabama will have the vaccine next week, but there will be some issues.
• There were four members of the committee that voted against approval, 17 that voted for it, and one member who abstained. The committee voted on whether the vaccine’s benefits “outweigh its risk for use in individuals 16 years of age and older.”