7 Things: Impeachment questioning starts as media says Jones is undecided, negative Senate attacks to finally hit airwaves, Ivey is injured and more …

7. And they call Trump a tyrant

• Notorious liar U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has a plan to combat disinformation that is ridiculous, scary and almost certainly unconstitutional as it would set up a government entity to police speech and declare which speech is “acceptable.”
• In a statement, Warren said,  “I will push for new laws that impose tough civil and criminal penalties for knowingly disseminating this kind of information, which has the explicit purpose of undermining the basic right to vote.” These laws are the criminalization of speech at the discretion of those in power.

6. This will get you fired

• At G.W. Trenholm Primary School in Tuscumbia, Alabama, a part-time school resource officer used the bathroom in the teachers’ lounge and left his gun in the bathroom.
• Mayor Kerry Underwood said that students aren’t allowed in the teachers’ lounge, but the school resource officer has since been relieved of his position.

5. School boards will abuse their power to stop charter schools

• During National School Choice Week the Birmingham Board of Education in a special-called meeting spiked two charter school applications. One of them was the Magic City Acceptance Academy, which would be an LGBTQ-affirming charter school.
• The board denied the application following the review committee’s recommendation due to the lack of detail with financial plans, operational plans and educational program design. Michael Wilson, who would’ve been principal of Magic City Acceptance Academy, said, “We were really hoping to form a collaborative partnership with Birmingham City (Schools) to work with youth who are having difficulties not only in the city, but in the surrounding areas.”

4. Alabama prison closed

• Prison reform is a big deal in Alabama; one of the issues is the aging physical prisons, and the Department of Corrections took a “backward step,” according to State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster), to address some of those issues by closing portions of William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore and relocating 600 of the prisoners to other prisons.
• Other prisons across the state are already over-crowded. It is unclear how this will impact the ongoing conversations with the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney Jay Town, who said he was “disappointed that we were not privy to the decision to close Holman at the time such a decision was being considered.”

3. Governor Kay Ivey has fractured her shoulder

• Governor Kay Ivey sent out a statement to let people know that she’ll be sporting an arm sling for a little while after she tripped over her dog and fractured her shoulder.
• Ivey said her dog “unintentionally tripped me up, and I hit my shoulder.” She added, “You’ll see me in a sling, but this won’t slow me down a bit!”

2. The negative attacks are about to finally get going

• The Club for Growth Action super PAC is going to start airing opposition ads to U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) that are going to focus on Byrne’s “record of sending American tax dollars overseas and his support of special interests as he runs in the Alabama Senate Republican primary.”
• The ad is going to start running on January 30 and will last for two weeks in the Huntsville and Birmingham area. The president of the PAC, David McIntosh, has claimed that Byrne “works for special interests” rather than working for the people of Alabama. He also said Byrne won’t “support President Trump and his agenda … but it could be someone like Tommy Tuberville.”

1. Impeachment questions start — the media pretend Jones may vote to acquit

• With the outcome predetermined, the most exciting day of the incredibly boring impeachment trial took place on Wednesday when U.S. Senators were allowed to ask questions of both the House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump’s defense team.
• While this is still dragging on, the GOP appears to have the votes to block new witnesses. Now, the media is reporting that multiple Democrat senators may be ready to acquit the president, but this still seems like an unlikely outcome for Alabama’s junior U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL).