7. 18 Democrats in the Alabama State House abstained in a vote that increased penalties for shooting into occupied automobiles and dwellings, again they didn’t want to go on the record where penalties for shooting into occupied automobiles and dwellings would be increased. The reasoning is pretty infuriating, State Rep. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham) objected because it did not limit access to guns AND she was concerned that someone could face life imprisonment for shooting their guns during celebrations like New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July.
6. Alabama’s law that could penalize helping someone travel to another state for an abortion does not seem long for this world after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and federal judge Myron Thompson clashed over the matter. Thompson wrote, “Alabama can no more restrict people from going to, say, California to engage in what is lawful there than California can restrict people from coming to Alabama to do what is lawful here.”
5. A “yes” vote on gambling. State Sen. Garlan Gudger (R-Cullman) was one of many politicians looking to “set the record straight” for his lottery/gambling vote with his constituents after messages suggested his vote would be “expanding government” and gambling in the state. Gudger highlighted the reduction of bingo parlors in Alabama from over 60 to just 7, lack of sports betting, and the proposal of an educational lottery with a vote by the people as his goal.
4. President Joe Biden’s speech on anti-Semitism was surprisingly pretty strong given that he recently suggested both sides of the college campus chaos are at fault (the two sides being the people being targeted for hate attacks and the side doing them) and is withholding support and ammo from Israel. Biden spoke clearly and accurately about what is happening: “Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews. It’s absolutely despicable, and it must stop. Silence and denial can hide much, but it can erase nothing. Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous, they cannot be married — buried — no matter how hard people try.”
3. A little gamesmanship is afoot in the Alabama Legislature after House members appear to have struck a blow against the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA) for opposing the gambling bill. Legislation to create a corporation governing the Alabama Farm Center project faced a setback due to insufficient support from House members but ALFA says it plans forward with planning and construction at the Hallmark Farm site in north Jefferson County.
2. Former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial is just being used to embarrass him with little attempt to expose the alleged crime. Yesterday, porn star Stormy Daniels explained in graphic detail the sexual encounter the two had. Daniels, to the normal person, appears to have been trying to suggest that the interaction was non-consensual saying that Trump “stood up between me and the door, not in a threatening manner” and that she felt and imbalance of power. This description led to Trump’s attorneys to seek a mistrial because it suggested an illegal act he is not charged with; it was not granted.
1. In what can only be seen as a huge legal and political win for former President Donald Trump, his criminal trial over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago appears to have been delayed to a date after the November elections. Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed the trial in Florida due to significant issues around classified evidence, canceling the May trial date without setting a new one, leaving all three remaining criminal cases against him without trial dates.
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Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN and from 10-11 a.m. on Talk 99.5 and News Radio 1440, with a rebroadcast Talk Radio 103.9 FM/730AM WUMP from 3-4 p.m.
