7. There is never an actual bomb
- On Thursday morning, a 16-year-old called a bomb threat into Gardendale High School at about 5:00 a.m. and school was delayed until 10:30 while the school was searched for any explosives.
- The 16-year-old was a student at the high school and has since been arrested for making a terrorist threat, but the teen won’t be charged as an adult so his name hasn’t been released and officials haven’t released specifics on the threat.
6. Alabama is supporting Remington
- Alabama is one of the 10 states joining 22 House Republicans and the National Rifle Association in support of Remington Arms in the liability court ruling for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by filing briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court.
- In 2015, relatives of nine of the victims and one survivor filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Remington, claiming that the company should’ve never sold a weapon that dangerous, as well as saying that through video game product placement the company targeted young at-risk males, but the briefs were filed due to the 2005 federal law that protects gun makers from liability.
5. John Merrill is looking into voter fraud in Montgomery
- Thursday, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill announced that there have been 12 alleged incidents of voter fraud from the municipal election in Montgomery last week; no reports of suppression have been made.
- The 12 incidents are under investigation by the secretary of state’s office, but so far no fraud has been confirmed. Merrill has said that in the municipal election there was “human error” since election workers didn’t follow procedure sometimes, but the upcoming runoff will be monitored by 10 election observers.
4. Terrorist watchlist could be weakened by court ruling
- A terrorist watchlist that kept some people from traveling may be in danger of being modified or ended altogether after close to two dozen Muslim U.S. citizens won a victory in federal court against the FBI and other federal agencies, however, it is unclear what could happen next.
- There are currently over 1 million people on this watchlist, with less than 5,000 Americans, and many are suggesting the list be used to keep people from purchasing firearms. Now that the list has been ruled against, that seems less likely than it did previously.
3. Alabama has a role in #Sharpiegate
- The question has been asked for the better part of the week, “Did the president use a sharpie on a map?” as if it was Watergate, and now a Trump aide has released a statement declaring he told the president that Alabama was in the line of fire and Trump retweeted an Alabama National Guard tweet declaring, “#HurricaneDorian is projected to reach southern Alabama by the early part of the week.”
- Cable news hosts and commentators are questioning whether the president committed a crime (he didn’t) as if this is going to take him down after Russia, tax returns and porn stars were all declared to be “the beginning of the end” of Trump’s presidency.
2. Cancel culture takes out University of Alabama dean
- With the “resignation” James. R. Riley, former University of Alabama’s assistant vice president and dean of students, over some stupid tweets, our insatiable thirst for the blood, careers, and platforms for our political enemies has claimed another victim.
- Riley’s ridiculous tweets about racism, the American flag, white people and privilege were pretty run-of-the-mill liberal thought, but once Breitbart and Fox News’ Laura Ingraham got involved, it caused a ruckus on the Internet that a major American university couldn’t withstand for some reason.
1. Legislation on gun control has been sent to the White House by the DOJ
- In the wake of mass shootings, the Department of Justice has sent a package of legislative options on what to do about gun violence to the White House for consideration.
- President Donald Trump has already indicated that he would be willing to consider or approve gun control, depending on how reasonable, but he has also insisted that he strongly supports Second Amendment rights.
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