7 Things: Giuliani associates with ties to Ukraine arrested, Trump slams Sessions again, Zeigler/Ivey drama and more …

7. The gas tax is “working”

• The Alabama Department of Transportation and Governor Kay Ivey have released a list of the current road projects in the state that will be funded by the increased gas tax.
• A total of 28 city and county road projects will be funded with $30.1 million. The projects must begin within the next two years but are expected to start next year.

6. TVC is backing Space Command in Huntsville

• The Tennessee Valley Corridor organization has sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense Mark Espy arguing that the U.S. Space Command headquarters should be located at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, instead of in other locations in Colorado or California.
• The letter stated that Redstone “is an ideal location for the new headquarters for a wide variety of reasons, including infrastructure, proximity to existing Defense Department and civilian space organizations and highly skilled workforce in space technology.” The TVC represents 12 congressional districts within Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Virginia.

5. El Paso shooter pleads not guilty

• On Thursday, the 21-year-old who went into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire, killing 22 people, pleaded not guilty during an initial hearing. He’s already confessed to the shooting to Dallas police as well as saying that he targeted Mexicans.
• Prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty, and the Department of Justice called the mass shooting domestic terrorism. About two dozen people were also injured in the shooting and two of them are still in the hospital.

4. Biden is still leading, but Warren is catching up

• The latest Fox News poll shows that in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, former Vice President Joe Biden is still leading with 32 points and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) isn’t far behind with 22 points.
• Whereas Warren has gained six points since last month’s poll, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has lost one point, putting him at 17 points, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) only has 5 points and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is at 4 points.

3. Zeigler vs. Ivey

• After State Auditor Jim Zeigler and Governor Kay Ivey qualified for the Place 1 delegate position on President Donald Trump’s 2020 Republican National Convention, Zeigler sent out a press release suggesting that Ivey only signed up to run after Zeigler was qualified.
• Zeigler promised in his press release that this year, the campaigns for the delegate spot will likely draw attention, and said that Ivey “has not yet challenged me to a debate,” but the Alabama Republican Party has confirmed that Ivey was actually qualified before Zeigler, and Ivey paid her qualifying fee and filled out all of her forms before he did.

2. Jeff Sessions is just trying to enjoy the day, Trump is being petty

• During an interview with Sebastian Gorka with the Daily Caller, President Donald Trump took aim at former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the first senator to endorse him, saying that Sessions “was an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama…. And I just wish he’d never endorsed me.”
• Elaina Plott from the Atlantic reached out to get Sessions’ reaction to Trump’s comments, and Sessions told Plott that he didn’t have a comment, and he’s just enjoying a “beautiful Alabama October day.”

1. Two Guiliani associates arrested

• As the president is embroiled in a Ukraine phonecall “scandal,” his personal lawyer, and a key player in that matter, Rudy Giuliani was having lunch with two foreign businessmen with ties to Ukraine hours before they were arrested at an airport in Washington, D.C. on campaign finance issues.
• The issues at hand do not involve President Donald Trump and the charges are that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman used straw donors to donate to a super PAC to funnel money to former Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX), who was trying to get the ambassador to Ukraine removed “after several congressional colleagues reported to me that the current U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was disparaging President Trump to others as part of those official duties.”