7. Beer and wine delivery
- State Representative Gil Isbell (R-Gadsden) has plans to bring a bill up in the next legislative session that would legalize the delivery of beer and wine from “a number of companies and businesses that deliver groceries” already.
- There’s potential for changes to be made to the legislation as Isbell is still in talks with the Alabama Beverage Control (ABC) Board, but Isbell did say, “Under this COVID situation, I think ABC has looked at things a lot differently.”
6. University of Alabama to start vaccinating
- At the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, there are about 3,500 doses of the coronavirus vaccine that are going to be administered at the University Medical Center by Friday this week, as announced by the dean of UA’s College of Community Health Sciences Dr. Richard Friend.
- Friend detailed that these doses will go to “Health care providers, first responders, Capstone Village residents and employees and vulnerable populations in the UA community.”
5. Alabama hits 3,000 hospitalizations
- The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 3,064 hospitalizations due to the coronavirus with a seven-day average of 2,834 hospitalizations per day. This is up big from December. It is expected that deaths will continue to climb at a faster rate as well.
- State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris sees this getting worse. He advised, “I believe, unfortunately, we are going to see even worse numbers than we have now, and the ones we have now are pretty bad.” Harris added, “We are being overwhelmed right now.”
4. Alabama state representatives thank congressional members for election challenge
- Five Alabama state representatives have signed a letter thanking members of Alabama’s congressional delegation for voting to reject electors from certain states on Wednesday.
- Those state representatives include Chip Brown (R-Mobile), Shane Stringer (R-Citronelle), Jeff Sorrells (R-Geneva), Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise) and Wes Allen (R-Troy). The letter states, “As residents of Alabama we want to thank you for taking a stand for the integrity and security of our electoral process,” and asks others to join in the challenge.
3. Rogers will join vote objection
- U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-Saks) has announced that he will join U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) in voting “against the Electoral College results for the 2020 election.”
- Rogers said that there have been “far too many instances of alleged voter fraud that have called the legitimacy of the election results into question. In addition, election officials in certain states appear to have deliberately acted in an unconstitutional manner to manipulate the results.”
2. Sure, why not do another investigation
- A small effort is being led by U.S. Representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Kathleen Rice (D-NY) to open a criminal investigation into President Donald Trump. The representatives have requested that FBI Director Christopher Wray open the investigation due to the president’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
- In a letter to Wray, the representatives said, “As members of Congress and former prosecutors, we believe Donald Trump engaged in solicitation of, or conspiracy to commit, a number of election crimes. We ask you to open an immediate criminal investigation into the president.”
1. Trump and Biden campaigned in Georgia; Now, the state votes
- President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden both showed up in Georgia just before the U.S. Senate runoff between U.S. Senators David Perdue (R-GA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.
- Before Election Day on January 5, there had already been over 3 million people cast ballots, which is about two-fifths of all registered voters in the state. In the November general election, about 4.9 million voters participated.
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