7 Things: Gas tax and tolls are coming, Texas upset with NASA, everyone wants ‘Bama and more …

7. Illegal immigrant sentenced to 99 years

• Jorge Ruiz, the illegal immigrant who veered into oncoming traffic back in October and crashed into Marlena Hayes, killing Hayes, has been sentenced to 99 years and three months.
• When Ruiz crashed into Hayes, he was speeding and there were open and unopen cans of beer in his car. Despite these facts, some in the Alabama media think his sentence was too much.

6. Poultry plants knowingly hired illegal immigrants

• After the poultry plants in Mississippi were raided, all five companies have been investigated further. Now, federal immigration officials have reason to believe that the companies knowingly hired illegal immigrants, according to videotaped statements of managers.
• Some of the illegal immigrants had Social Security numbers that belonged to the deceased, some wore ankle monitors because they were waiting for their deportation hearing, and some of the workers had been hired by the same manager but used a different name upon rehiring. Both Koch Foods and Peco Foods have a long history of hiring illegal immigrants.

5. New polls bring new wrinkles to 2020

• According to a new poll by Fox News, out of the Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden is still in first with 31%, which is the same rate he was polling at in March 2019, but U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has jumped to second place with 20%, which is a 16% increase since March.
• President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are sliding with a glut of bad news as the media and their Democrats attack. As of today, all four leading Democratic candidates are still shown as beating President Trump in 2020.

4. Omar and Tlaib barred from entering Israel; Trump supports Israel

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has barred U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from entering Israel. President Trump tweeted that Israel would “show great weakness” if they allowed Tlaib and Omar into the country, and he went on to tweet that Tlaib and Omar “are very anti-Jewish and they are very anti-Israel. I think it is disgraceful the things they’ve said.”
• Netanyahu, who recanted on Tlaib, has said that the congresswomen’s boycott of Israel was a leading reason in barring them from Israel. The prime minister has also said that the visit was planned with the objective “to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy,” but of course, Omar has already said that Netanyahu is imposing a “Muslim ban” in Israel.

3. 15 states are fighting back against Alabama

• Fifteen states, including New York, California, Washington and Nevada, and cities like the District of Columbia, Seattle, Atlanta and others have decided to fight Alabama’s federal lawsuit against the U.S. Census Bureau to count only legal citizens in the 2020 Census.
• The group of states and cities have used the Constitution to strengthen their argument, and New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “The United States Constitution is crystal clear that every person residing in this country at the time of the decennial census – regardless of legal status – must be counted, and no matter what President Trump says, or Alabama does, that face will never change.”

2. Texas wants what Alabama has

• It’s expected that on Friday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is going to announce that the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama will head up the development of two of the three moon landers needed for the 2024 mission.
• However, Politico has reported that U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S. Representative Brian Babin (R-TX) have signed a letter written to Bridenstine requesting that he reconsider Texas for leading the moon lander development, arguing that it would be more “cost-efficient, streamlined, and effective approach” if they were developed where astronaut corps and mission control are based, as well as being the place with “the longest history and deepest institutional knowledge of human space exploration.”

1. Get ready for the gas tax

• On September 1, the six-cent increase on a gallon of gas will take effect, which will raise Alabama’s overall tax on one gallon of gas to 24 cents and 25 cents for diesel. Other increases will take place on October 1, 2020, when there will be a two-cent increase, and then another two cents on October 1, 2021.
• Meanwhile, the talk of tolls is almost all located in the southern part of the state, but if these plans for tolls move forward, there will be growing opposition, according to State Representative Andrew Sorrell (R-Muscle Shoals), who advised, “When they start tolling I-565, it is going to be an issue in our area,” adding, “It’s going to be an issue in North Alabama.”