7. Municipal elections underway in Alabama
- Many local elections are taking place Tuesday across the state of Alabama for non-partisan local offices, including mayors, positions on school boards and city councils.
- With most media, including local media, fixated on what is happening nationally, these local positions which handle policy-making for cities and schools are usually low-turnout low-information affairs that rarely capture the attention of the general public, and this year that is especially true.
6. Support shown for repealing monument act
- Alabama State Representative Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) has pre-filed a bill that would repeal the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which currently prohibits removing Confederate monuments.
- House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) has co-sponsored the bill, and the Democratic Caucus has also announced their support for the legislation. Daniels has said, “It’s time for our state government to stop fighting harder to preserve its racist history than it does to protect its citizens’ basic rights.”
5. Football rankings have been released
- Every year, the Associated Press releases the preseason rankings of college football teams, and this year the University of Alabama is starting off at No. 3, while Auburn University is at No. 11.
- These preseason rankings also include Oregon at No. 9, Penn State at No. 7 and Ohio State at No. 2, but none of those teams will be playing this fall as the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences have already postponed until spring.
4. New guidelines for handling the coronavirus in Alabama schools
- The Alabama Department of Public Health has released new guidelines for schools attempting to decipher students’ potential coronavirus symptoms and when a student may need to be sent home from school and which ones can stay in school.
- Apparently, the fear is that schools may be sending too many children home for harmless runny noses or allergies, so the ADPH is now citing major/minor symptoms and advising that schools only send home kids if they have major symptoms like a new cough, a new loss of taste or smell or a new bout of difficulty breathing, which should really clear things up.
3. Jones is fundraising for Schumer lieutenant from Alabama
- In a new email sent out to his supporters, U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) is fundraising for a vice chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, as well as U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
- The email says, “Now more than ever, it’s clear we need better leadership in the Senate.” It adds, “This is an opportunity to rally together against partisanship.”
2. Tuscaloosa is shutting it down
- Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox on Monday announced that he was issuing an executive order that would keep bars closed and prohibit bar service at restaurants until September 8 due to the increase in coronavirus cases on the University of Alabama campus.
- Maddox added that they will “make investments into our bars and restaurants to help them in this difficult time.” Governor Kay Ivey voiced support for the decision, saying that if they don’t act quickly, “it leaves potential for a situation to get out of hand, which would require even tougher, longer-lasting decisions to be enacted.”
1. RNC underway
- As the Republican National Convention kicked off for the first day, the Republican Party formally nominated President Donald Trump as the Republican candidate in the 2020 presidential election. State Representative Andrew Sorrell (R-Muscle Shoals) participated in the roll-call vote where he cast all of Alabama’s 50 delegates for Trump.
- The American media hated night one of the RNC and mocked its diversity. Speakers of note included former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who spoke against the racial fearmongering the media is doing, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), who spoke about the opportunities being created by the Trump administration, and Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who relayed how they were targeted by a malicious prosecutor for defending themselves against a mob that entered their property. President Donald Trump spoke to frontline workers and American citizens his administration freed from precarious situations oversees.
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