7. Some good job numbers for Alabama last month: The Alabama Department of Labor says the state’s labor force participation reached 57.2% in December, a record high, with wages going up as well, but the unemployment rate is slightly up. Alabama’s Secretary of Labor Fitzgerald Washington notes, “As we continue to see growth in our labor force participation rate, with our prime-age worker participation rate increasing by nearly a half of a percentage point over the year, we will continue our efforts to reach more of underutilized workforce populations.”
6. Everyone seems to think the NCAA “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) policy drove Nick Saban out of college football, which he denies. U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have stated they believe it was NIL and now Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders is stating Saban didn’t like dealing with “parents that are parents-slash-agents, homie-slash-the bagman,” adding, “Coach has done some tremendous things in our game. Coach is financially secure, times 20. It’s like, ‘Man, I don’t need this. I don’t need this.’”
5. Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers (R-Saks) is making it clear that the drama surrounding the unprofessionalism and chaos surrounding Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s failure to tell the White House and Congress about his hospitalization in unacceptable. Rogers wrote in a letter to Austin, “Specifically, I am alarmed you refused to answer whether you instructed your staff to not inform the President of the United States or anyone else of your hospitalization. Unfortunately, this leads me to believe that information is being withheld from Congress.”
4. After being swatted at his Auburn home ON CHRISTMAS Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) has joined his colleague Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in offering an anti-swatting bill that would create stricter penalties for swatting including up to 20 years in prison if the attempt or attempts lead to serious injury. There has been several lawmakers, of both parties, celebrities, and religious institutions being targeted with swatting recently and the calls for action have increased.
3. The so-called spiritual advisor of a convicted murderer admitted in a column to aldotcom that his murderer client is clearly guilty and that most in Alabama want him dead. He also claimed killing him was wrong because he “knows Smith” and “could fill pages with reasons not to execute Smith,” like the fact that he goes to church, he’s a proud dad, and a jury didn’t sentence him to death BUT he is also pretending the real concern is for his own life in the execution process and ridiculous asks if, “Don’t people know that murder is wrong” while ignoring that Smith isn’t being “murdered.”
2. Alabama State Rep. Andy Whitt (R-Harvest) is the latest Alabama politician pushing an almost-sure-to-fail gambling plan, it includes every type of gambling imaginable except cock-fighting. Whitt claims this is “NOT an expansion of gambling in the state of Alabama. In fact, the most significant result of the legislation will be the elimination of some 500 illegal gaming sites in Alabama” but that will be a hard sell because they could just shut those sites down.
1. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has dropped out of the presidential race 2 days before the New Hampshire presidential primary and endorsed Donald Trump for president. This upset Never Trumpers, Trump’s biggest fans, the media, Disney defenders, DeSantis biggest supporters, and Nikki Haley fans.
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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, on Talk 99.5 from 10-11 a.m., and on Talk Radio 103.9 FM/730AM WUMP from noon to 1 p.m.
