7. The College Football Playoff selection committee has announced they will add a new strength-of-conference metric based on each league’s schedule grind, a data point that could help an SEC team with a 9-game slate separate from a similar-record team in a weaker league.

6. Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his probes into President Donald Trump before the Senate Judiciary Committee as Republicans grilled him; the entire thing was a boring flop that no one really cares about, with the only real news being an embarrassing question from U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt that triggered a meme from the reaction of U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery).

5. U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) called it “despicable” that former special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed “checks from hardworking Alabamians who donated to President Trump” and turned over home addresses to the Biden DOJ, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee his team “blatantly targeted conservatives” and undermined Speech or Debate protections for senators.

4. Hyundai Motor Company President and CEO José Muñoz said the automaker will invest about half a billion dollars in Alabama to move Tucson hybrid production from Korea to Montgomery, add Santa Fe work, and build new engines and an extended-range EV powertrain, dodging the 15% tariff on Korean-built vehicles at a plant that already employs about 4,200.

3. Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Program director David Wales said the Inflation Reduction Act (which did not act to reduce inflation) made Medicare drug coverage “four times higher for us than we ever paid before,” shifting cost onto the plan covering about 350,000 educators and retirees, after PEEHIP’s board asked the Education Trust Fund for two hundred twenty-two million dollars more in fiscal 2028.

2. ALdotcom FINALLY meekly reported a Duval County, Florida, judge entered a May 2022 final stalking injunction against Alabama Senate District 2 Democrat Rudolph Drake after a woman alleged he grabbed her, refused to leave her home, followed her to South Carolina, and said she “deserved a bullet in head if he didn’t have anything to lose,” with Republican John Roberts calling the record “deeply concerning” and Alabama Democrats and the candidate remaining silent.

1. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps published a 25-page letter urging U.S. voters to punish President Donald Trump in the November 3 midterms, with spokesman Hossein Mohebbi calling him “an inveterate liar” and “insanely avaricious,” blaming him and Israel for the war, and claiming the U.S. economy is “on the precipice of collapse.”

Listen here:

Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN.