7. Officers won’t be awarded anymore
- Despite previous reports, Madison police officers won’t be awarded for their actions during the October 27 encounter with Dana Fletcher in the Planet Fitness parking lot. Madison Mayor Paul Finley said the decision was “ill-advised and ill-timed, and I apologize to our community.”
- The private ceremony to honor the three officers involved was set to take place Tuesday night, and Finley said that he looked into the ceremony and apparently it wasn’t what he had originally anticipated, adding, “[A]s Mayor it is always my responsibility to manage City Hall and I should we that responsibility.”
6. Alabama is behind in Census count
- The 2020 U.S. Census is particularly important for Alabama since it will easily affect how many congressional representatives the state has, but currently, Alabama has fallen behind Tennessee and Kentucky in census participation, with only 59.8% of citizens completing their Census forms.
- The national average currently is at 62.1%, and more than 65% of citizens in Kentucky have filled out their forms while over 61% of those in Tennessee have filled theirs out. In Alabama, Madison and Shelby Counties have seen response rates over 70%, but Coosa, Wilcox, Perry, Sumter have the worst response rates of less than 41%.
5. Daily coronavirus briefings to start again
- President Donald Trump is set to resume daily coronavirus briefings on Tuesday, which stopped on April 27. The briefings stopped around the time that Trump made comments about disinfectant being used against the coronavirus.
- During previous briefings, Trump came under harsh criticism for the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and now with more than 140,000 deaths across the nation, the upcoming briefings will likely bring similar criticisms.
4. Absentee ballots will be available for August and November elections
- Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is making it available for those concerned about the coronavirus to vote through an absentee ballot for the municipal elections in August and the general election in November, such as was available for the runoff election on July 14.
- Merrill released a statement saying, “We will continue to see that Alabamians have the opportunity to safely participate in the electoral process during these challenging times.” On August 25, almost all Alabama cities, except for Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Gasden, Auburn, Dothan and Bessemer, will elect a mayor and city council members.
3. Schumer pushing for Democrats to oppose McConnell relief bill
- A new coronavirus relief bill is being drafted by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is calling for Democrats to oppose the bill if it doesn’t uphold priorities similar to what’s included in the HEROES Act.
- Schumer said he believes the $1 trillion package that McConnell is prepared to introduce “will prioritize corporate special interests over workers and main street businesses, and will fail to adequately address the worsening spread of the coronavirus,” adding there’s a lack of investment in communities of color, hazard pay, unemployment benefits and rent assistance. However, McConnell has already shown he’s open to working with Democrats to create a relief package that will pass.
2. Renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge
- The push to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma has gained more attention and support after the death of U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-GA), who had his skull fractured by an Alabama State Trooper on Bloody Sunday, and now some are pushing to rename the bridge for Lewis.
- A petition to rename the bridge John Lewis Bridge has gained nearly 500,000 signatures, and the creator of the petition, Micheal Starr Hopkins said, “Edmund Pettus was a bitter racist, undeserving of the honor bestowed upon him.” U.S. Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC) said we “ought to take a nice picture of that bridge with Pettus’ name on it, put it in a museum somewhere dedicated to the Confederacy, and then rename that bridge and repaint it, redecorate it: the John R. Lewis Bridge.”
1. $170 million going to school resources
- Governor Kay Ivey has announced that $170 million is going to be used to help prepare schools in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and the funding comes from the $1.9 billion Alabama received through the CARES Act.
- According to Ivey’s office, $100 million of the funding will go to the Educational Remote Learning Devices Grant Program and $70 million is for the State Department of Education’s Health and Wellness Grant Program. Some of what will specifically be provided are salaries for school health care workers, coronavirus testing, nurse facility improvements, resources for screening students and isolating those who are symptomatic.
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