7. In a hilariously tone-deaf move, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will be leveraging his embarrassing national profile from the 2024 vice presidential run with Kamala Harris and launch a town hall tour Friday in the GOP-held districts of Rep. Zach Nunn in Iowa and Rep. Don Bacon in Nebraska, expanding soon to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio, to counter Republican leaders’ advice to skip in-person events after raucous receptions tied to Trump’s agenda, like Education Department cuts. He told CNN on Wednesday that he’s driven by constituents’ frustration with unaccountable representatives and a lackluster Democratic response, aiming to hand them a “megaphone” to fight back, echoing his survival of Tea Party protests as a congressman in 2010, after hundreds of invitations flooded in following his X post decrying GOP avoidance. Hopefully this will mean he will be offering up a 2028 run. Walz stressed this isn’t about crowds or personal gain but ensuring even 20 attendees in any state feel heard, contrasting his proactive outreach with other Democratic leaders’ hesitancy as the party “finds its feet” after HIS post-election loss to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
6. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters and agitators, including about a dozen arrested after skirmishes with NYPD outside Gracie Mansion and City Hall Park, rallied for Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student and legal U.S. resident detained by ICE on Saturday for his role in anti-Israel campus protests, branding him a “political prisoner” criminalized for exercising free speech. The Trump administration, alleging Khalil organized disruptive protests and distributed pro-Hamas flyers, aims to deport him from a Louisiana detention center, a move temporarily blocked by U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman as civil rights groups decry it as an attack on First Amendment rights. With tensions flaring, including self-defeating chants of “intifada revolution” and taunts at police, Khalil’s case heads to a Wednesday court hearing, spotlighting President Donald Trump’s vow to purge antisemitism from campuses following the Israel-Hamas war’s onset in October 2023, while his pregnant American wife and supporters demand his return to New York.
5. A mistrial was announced in Grove Oak, after seven days of deliberation left jurors “hopelessly deadlocked” in the homicide case of Keith Sullivan, who shot Greg Bagwell dead on his porch at 2 a.m. on May 8, 2023, asserting self-defense under the Stand Your Ground law. Sullivan’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, also known for defending New Yorker Daniel Penny, argued Bagwell, a known arsonist and drug addict with a revoked bond, posed an imminent threat to Sullivan’s family, making the shooting a clear-cut justification that he found surprisingly contested in a state typically supportive of self-defense rights. The judge declared the mistrial after jurors couldn’t agree, leaving unresolved whether Sullivan’s actions to protect his wife and teenage daughter from Bagwell, who had a history of unpredictable violence, legally warranted acquittal in this rural community case.
4. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) on Wednesday applauded the termination of nearly half the U.S. Department of Education’s staff as “a good start,” insisting that the agency is ripe for complete shutdown, wastes resources on “woke indoctrination” and union support, when states like Alabama could better educate kids in core subjects with devolved funds. Gov. Kay Ivey reinforced this by endorsing President Donald Trump’s push to possibly dismantle the department via executive order, citing Alabama’s capable education framework as proof federal involvement isn’t needed. Tuberville, who met McMahon before her nomination and deemed her ideal to overhaul the “bureaucratic nightmare,” joined Ivey in trusting Trump’s vision, both seeing the layoffs, announced Tuesday by McMahon as part of a focus on efficiency, as a precursor to restoring educational control to the states for national greatness.
3. State Rep. Mack Butler (R-Rainbow City) has been a very busy legislator lately, as he re-introduced a bill to prohibit K-12 discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation, stating that adults are intentionally “sexualizing children” with pronouns and pride flags, a stance he says mirrors President Donald Trump’s executive order and has House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter’s (R-Rainsville) support and, with Sen. Keith Kelley (R-Anniston) carrying it in the Senate, the bill should be a yes vote. Beyond classrooms, Butler aims to rein in Magic City Acceptance Academy’s pro-LGBTQ focus by slashing its funds, arguing “power of the purse” will force compliance where other efforts failed. Concurrently, he seeks to block health departments from spending public money on vaccine ads — calling $18.6 million spent since 2019 “collusion with Big Pharma” — allowing only in-office materials with adverse effect warnings, reflecting his broader push against perceived overreach and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
2. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), speaking on Fox Business, likened the hardship Americans will face from President Donald Trump’s escalating tariffs, already hitting Canada, Mexico, and China, with the Europe Union, Brazil, and South Korea next on April 2, to the “pain” his football players endured, promising “no pain, no gain” as a path to economic strength despite a destabilized stock market and EU’s $28 billion retaliation set for April 1. He sharply rebuked Democrats for criticizing the tariffs amid signs of an economic downturn, telling them to “shut up” since they “didn’t do anything right” under President Joe Biden, and contrasted their lack of vision with Trump’s “gameplan” alongside Howard Lutnick to slash spending and regulations. Tuberville framed Trump’s tariff-driven policies as the nation’s “last chance” to restore greatness, urging people to accept short-term struggles for long-term gains, confident that “President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing” even as global trade tensions and domestic anxiety mount.
1. Alabama’s entire GOP House delegation helped secure a 217-213 victory for a Continuing Resolution hiking military and border spending, which Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) tied to Trump’s America First agenda, though Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) slammed its “reckless” slashes to research and housing, reflecting a lone Democratic yes from Jared Golden (D-Maine). Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) torpedoed the bill’s chances by refusing the eight Democratic votes needed against a 53-seat GOP majority, minus Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) fiscal hawk “no,” and warning of a Friday midnight shutdown unless Republicans back his April 11 CR plan. As House Democrats from their Virginia retreat echo Schumer’s call and the Speaker’s adjournment dares the Senate to falter, internal Democratic splits, like U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (R-Pa.) being open to a deal but the base is pressuring Democrat senators to vote “No” could shut the government down.
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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 on WVNN at 10 p.m.
