7. New program to assist illegal aliens wanting to enter the U.S. for some reason
- President Joe Biden will be launching a new program in Calexico, San Diego, Nogales, El Paso, Laredo, Eagle Pass and Brownsville that will provide legal assistance to migrants under the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
- The program will be called Legal Access at the Border (LAB), which will give legal services to migrants wanting to enter the United States. In the 2021 fiscal year, there were more than 1.7 million migrants detained at the border, which is the highest amount since President Ronald Reagan was in office in 1986.
6. U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema has been censured by Arizona Democrats
- The Arizona Democratic Party leaders have voted to censure U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) after she recently voted against passing Democrat-supported legislation to federalize the election process and do away with the filibuster. Sinema and U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) were the only Democrats to vote against the effort.
- The censure was for “her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy.” While Sinema isn’t up for reelection until 2024, there are already Arizona efforts to pull donors from the senator and find a candidate to primary her.
5. Unemployment rate remains unchanged
- The December unemployment rate has been released for December 2021 by the Alabama Department of Labor, and the rate remained at 3.1%, unchanged from November 2021. However, this was a 1.6% improvement from December 2020.
- The unemployment rate has stayed at 3.1% for months. ADOL Secretary Fitzgerald Washington advised, “Since last year, more than 36,000 people are no longer counted as unemployed, and we saw more than 7,000 additional people shift to the unemployed column since last month.”
4. Biden policies could hit Alabama hard
- As President Joe Biden has focused his energy policies on green energy and climate change, some of these changes could negatively impact Alabama and utility prices. Public Service Commission President Twinkle Cavanaugh said that these issues could become all too real in the state soon.
- Cavanaugh explained that this has to do with the White House Interagency Council on Environmental Justice and how “every decision that is made out of Washington, whether or not it is on a regulatory basis or on a legislative basis, would have to go through this council and they would have to decide how would it affect our climate.”
3. State Representative Penny McClammy pushing to eliminate the grocery tax (sort of)
- There will be another effort to eliminate the grocery sales tax by State Representative Penny McClammy (D-Montgomery) in this legislative session. McClammy outlined, “Now that Representative Knight is no longer with us, I still feel as though it is important for us to introduce his bill and keep moving forward on trying to get it through.”
- McClammy explained that her bill would focus on giving more control to local governments about how sales tax funds are handled from the grocery tax since this would not do away with the entire tax.
2. Hopefully, Ukraine is not weak
- Strangely, after four years of relative silence during the Trump administration, where then-President Donald Trump was accused of being a Russian asset, Russia now appears to be poised to make a move to take part of Ukraine or install their own regime after destabilizing the country.
- In response to this, the United States is sending arms and reportedly prepared to stage thousands of troops, aircraft and warships in the Baltics and Eastern Europe. Our allies, even NATO allies, seem less keen on this approach, with Germany not even allowing third parties to transfer their weapons and France looking to cut the U.S. out of talks while starting four-way talks with France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
1. Alabama State Superintendent tests positive as more schools go virtual
- Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey is the latest public official to test positive for the coronavirus. This comes as, at least, one-in-three students across the state learned virtually last week. One of the more recent changes is that students in Huntsville City Schools and Madison County Schools will learn from home the entirety of this school week as coronavirus cases surge. The school systems have been alternating between in-person and virtual learning from the beginning of the school year
- School districts will be fully remote or offering remote learning including schools all over the state, from the state’s largest school system in Mobile County, Bessemer City Schools, Bullock County Schools, Elmore County, Dekalb County Schools, Scottsboro City Schools, Shelby County Schools and Tuscaloosa City Schools.
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