7. Attempts to undercut State Treasurer Young Boozer’s decision to deny Birmingham-Southern College a $30 million loan are afoot in the Alabama Legislature with State Sen. Jabo Waggoner (R-Vestavia Hills) introducing Senate Bill 31. The bill would make Executive Director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education Dr. Jim Purcell the decision-maker on loan approval for the school which claims it needs the money to stay open.
6. A church shooting occurred at Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston, leaving the shooter and the 5-year-old child she brought with her dead and in Alabama a young teen with a warrant for murder was caught with a gun at the Church of the Highlands in Birmingham.
5. Alabama native and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital after “emergent bladder issues” before he was expected to head to Europe for meetings with NATO and for discussions about Ukraine. This comes weeks after Austin was hospitalized without telling the White House of Congress sparking outrage and concern about who was in charge at the Defense Department.
4. President Joe Biden refused to do a Super Bowl interview but addressed the big game by pretending that the inflation his administration caused was actually being caused by evil greedy corporations. Biden bizarrely tweeted, “You know, when buying snacks for the game, you might’ve noticed one thing, sports drinks bottles are smaller, bag of chips has fewer chips, but they’re still charging us just as much.”
3. The media and their Democrats are attacking the Biden Department of Justice after a special counsel chose to not charge President Joe Biden for his classified documents issue but laid out that his elderly forgetfulness and functional issues made him unprosecutable, which is odd to say about a president. More confusingly, Biden’s own administration and campaign is taking a victory lap on his confusing press conference saying, “The president spoke powerfully.”
2. Taylor Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl in overtime 25-22 in Las Vegas. Gambling interests should take note as $23.1 billion is estimated to be gambled on the game by 1-in-4 Americans and some of that could be gambled in Alabama next year.
1. Legislators might be attempting a Medicaid expansion plan in the latest comprehensive gambling bill by providing funds for the expansion even though it would require Gov. Kay Ivey to expand it. IF passed, the bill includes a provision that would allow the tax dollars to be used to provide health care “for adults with income below 138 percent of the federal poverty level and parents or other caretaker relatives of dependent children with income between 14 and 138 percent of the federal poverty level.”
Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN, on Talk 99.5 from 10-11 a.m., and on Talk Radio 103.9 FM/730AM WUMP from noon to 1 p.m.
