7 Things: Ivey ramps up campaign as Tim James officially enters race, no government shutdown, Michigan school shooter’s parents charged and more …

7. Omar is looking for a vote on Boebert’s committee appointments

• The conflict between U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has intensified to the point of Omar saying she expects House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to hold a vote on removing Boebert from her committees. Democrats’ insistence that they punish Republicans in this way will be used if Republicans take over the House in 2022, and the media will raise concerns about it while hyping these punishments today.
• Omar indicated that Pelosi has promised to “take care of this.” Omar said of her phone call with Boebert, “Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments. She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call.”

6. Masks are trying to make a comeback

• As the Omicron variant has continued to emerge in the United States, many officials within the Biden administration have made a point to push for Americans to use more mitigation efforts to fight the virus. Now, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is encouraging people to wear masks again.
• President Joe Biden has spoken in favor of masking many times recently, but Murthy said, “[T]he precautions we have been talking about the last year or so are all the more important now than ever.” He went on to say people should be “wearing masks in indoor spaces” and be “in well-ventilated spaces,” as well as encouraging people to get vaccinated.

5. Parents of Michigan school shooter are being charged

• James and Jennifer Crumbley are the parents of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, the suspect in the Oxford High School shooting where four people were killed. Both parents have been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter due to the circumstances, to which they have pled not guilty.
• James and Jennifer Crumbley were each assigned $500,000 bond and GPS monitoring if released. The parents have claimed that Ethan was not given full access to the gun he used in the killings, but Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald has said the parents purchased the gun for Ethan only four days before he used it.

4. Alabama voted 7-2 against short term spending

• Short-term spending has been passed for the federal government, passing in the U.S. Senate 69-28 and in the U.S. House of Representatives 221-212. However, for those from Alabama, only U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) and U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) voted in favor of the spending.
• U.S. Representative Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) said that “a continuing resolution is no way to govern.” He added, “Democrats have spent this entire year focused on pushing through colossal social spending programs while failing to work with Republicans on one of the most basic functions of Congress: funding the federal government.”

3. Ivey has released her first campaign ad

• During the SEC Championship Game, Governor Kay Ivey’s first TV ad for her gubernatorial campaign aired. The ad labeled Ivey “Alabama’s Most Conservative Governor.” Ivey says in the ad, “Thank God we live in Alabama.”
• Ivey adds, “There’s no Critical Race Theory in our schools, I signed the strongest pro-life law in America, I stood with Trump to ensure no election here ever be stolen, and we created thousands of new jobs.”

2. Ivey sent a letter to Biden on the vaccine mandate

• To speak out against President Joe Biden’s decision to place a vaccine mandate on private employers and employees through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Governor Kay Ivey has sent a letter to OSHA assistant secretary Doug Palmer in which she called the mandate “misguided.” 
• Ivey advocated for OSHA to reject adopting the mandate and said, “My administration encourages COVID-19 vaccines as a safe and effective but opposes overreaching COVID-19 vaccination mandates imposed by government.” The governor released a statement later in which she outlined, “The Biden Administration is driving distrust and anxieties about this vaccine…Alabamians and Americans alike should never have to choose between getting this shot and putting food on the tables for their families. We are fighting these mandates every step of the way, any way we know how.”

1. Tim James is running for governor

• While there’s been no formal announcement, paperwork has been filed with the Alabama Secretary of State’s office for former gubernatorial candidate Tim James to run for the office again, this time against Governor Kay Ivey. The race is about to get crowded with former Ambassador Lynda Blanchard reportedly entering the fray.
• James is not planning to actually launch his campaign until January, but he has said, “If I was sitting in space looking at what the legislature has done, there is no way you could convince me that this conservative state that we live in, in the Bible Belt, is Alabama because I cannot believe the legislation that they have passed or tried to pass. It is in conflict with everything Alabamians stand for.”