Look at the University of Florida and their schedule: They have a game with the University of Kentucky at home and an away game at Florida State. Which game do you think will get played (if there is a season)?

Kentucky, because it is in the same conference.

But Lexington and Gainesville are 708 miles away, while Gainesville and Tallahassee are around 150 miles away from each other.

So logistically, having Kentucky come to Florida is a bigger “hassle” but that game might get played.

If you can rationalize this using science, medicine, politics, logic, common sense or wild guesses, let me know.

This ridiculous decision all but dooms a season because it is indefensible and silly.

So, how do we fix this?

Throw out the conferences for a season and replace them with 50 state divisions and reset the schedule completely.

If the distance is an issue, and that’s the best reason I can come up with to end non-conference games, this eliminates that.

This will force every state to play all games in their home state, with no exceptions. These are trying times after all.

Here is a potential Alabama schedule:

9/5 – Alabama A&M  at Alabama
9/12 – Faulkner at Alabama
9/19 – Alabama at Samford
9/26 – Alabama at Troy
10/3 – UAB Blazers at Alabama
10/10 – Birmingham-Southern Panthers at Alabama
10/17  – Alabama at West Alabama
10/24 – Alabama at Alabama State
11/7 – Jacksonville State at Alabama
11/14 – North Alabama at Alabama
11/21 – Alabama at South Alabama
11/28 – Auburn at Alabama

This will be good for these schools to play the powerhouse. Maybe fans eventually get to see these games in person; the schools could even get some of that sweet TV revenue.

The rankings can be done, the same with the coaches’ and media polls.

When this schedule is done, have your conference championships and College Football Playoff as normal.

Is this the perfect system? No.

This is going to require innovation and new ideas. If you want an actual college football season, this is the best bet.

Any conference that thinks it is going to continue on, as usual, is crazy. The sports media is set for self-destruction with their thirst to insert politics into America’s avenues for escape. Killing the college football season is their goal.

They will chip away at them until they relent.

Economies will be further destroyed, jobs will be lost (in their industry as well), and lives will be changed forever.

When college football is officially canceled, we will all know things have changed for good.

It will happen.

• Based on the lack of attention or even comments made about what’s happened in her own district, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has made it pretty clear that she doesn’t care if people tear down monuments, and now she’s basically saying just that.
• Now in Baltimore, protesters took down a statue of Christopher Columbus, and when asked about the situation at a news conference, Pelosi said, “People will do what they do.” She added that she thinks “that from a safety standpoint it would be a good idea to have it taken down if the community doesn’t want it.”

5. Football is slipping away across the country — The SEC is next

• The Ivy League has canceled fall sports and the Big 10 has decided its teams will only play in-conference football games this year in a move that makes it more unlikely that any football will be played during the upcoming fall. The Pac 12, ACC and Big 12 are expected to follow suit.
• The SEC has not made a decision at this point, but one is expected in late July. With all the other conferences saying they will not play these games, it seems unlikely that non-conference games will be played because we have decided that  Florida playing Kentucky is far more dangerous than Florida vs Florida State for some reason.

4. Investigation launched into U.S. Army handout

• U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) took issue with flyers that were distributed by U.S. Army officials at Redstone Arsenal that said President Donald Trump’s MAGA slogan was “covert white supremacy,” and now there will be an investigation into said flyers and how they were used.
• Army spokesperson Cynthia O. Smith said that they started an investigation “as soon as Department of the Army leaders were made aware of these products.” She insisted, “The Army is and will continue to remain an apolitical organization,” adding the materials in question were “copied from a non-government website.”

3. Sewell alleged to have used campaign funds improperly

• A report by Roll Call has been released about members of Congress that have used campaign funds to pay dues for social clubs, and U.S. Representative Terri Sewell (D-Birmingham) was featured in the report for spending $9,000 at City Club Birmingham in the last three years.
• Campaign funds can be used on fundraisers and campaign-related meals, but a significant amount of the funds Sewell spent at the club were on membership fees, which is prohibited by the Federal Election Commission. It’s detailed that “Sewell’s campaign spent more than $2,800 on dues to City Club Birmingham and $222 in similar fees to The City Club of Washington, both of which are owned by ClubCorp USA Inc.” However, Sewell’s campaign told Yellowhammer News that the expenditures were all legal.

2. More than 2,000 coronavirus cases in one day

• Alabama continues to see a surge in new coronavirus cases, and a new record has been set by seeing 2,164 new cases in one day. Jefferson County has seen 343 new cases and Madison County saw an increase of 287 cases. The overall statewide count is now 48,588 cases.
• The positive test percentage is also up to 14.6%, up from 11%. Currently, 1,110 people are hospitalized with the virus.

1. Senate Pro Tem Marsh’s comments on coronavirus draw scrutiny 

• State Senator Del Marsh (R-Anniston) appears less concerned about the coronavirus spike in the state than most public health officials, stating, “I’m not as concerned as much as the number of cases — and in fact, quite honestly — I want to see more people, because we start reaching an immunity as more people have it and get through it.”
• Marsh obviously is talking about the oft-discussed herd immunity, an idea that is being treated as a non-existent thing by the media today, but if it does not exist in some form, then a vaccine is irrelevant. Most seem to believe a vaccine is possible soon, even though it may not provide immunity forever but any herd immunity is impossible without a vaccine.

• In an interview, former Vice President Joe Biden was asked if “some” police funding should be redirected, and Biden said “absolutely.” His 2020 presidential campaign has insisted that Biden doesn’t support defunding the police, but doesn’t think they need military equipment since this is how they “become the enemy” in communities.
• Biden also called for police reform and prison reform, saying, “It should be a rehabilitation system, not a punishment system.” It’s not surprising that Biden has taken this position as calls to remove funding from the police have grown more popular among Democrats.

5. Supreme Court decisions continue to roll out

• In a saga that has gone on for seven years, the United States Supreme Court has finally decided that moral and religious objections to birth control are a way around the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. The media is framing this as a “conservative decision,” but the final ruling was 7-2 with liberal judges siding with Little Sisters of the Poor.
• In the case of President Donald Trump’s financial records and tax returns, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue their final rulings on the issues. Two of those dealing with subpoenas for records with the subpoenas are coming from the House Oversight Committee and the House Intelligence and Financial Services Committee. Trump claims that they don’t have the authority to request the records, but even if the court rules in favor of subpoenas, the records wouldn’t be made public unless done so by a court order.

4. Alabama small businesses getting more support

• A new program called “Revive Alabama” has been announced by Governor Kay Ivey that will provide $100 million in coronavirus relief for small businesses throughout the state.
• The maximum value that will be given out is $15,000; funds are available on a first come first served basis through the Alabama Department of Revenue. Revive Alabama is funded through the $1.9 billion the state received through the CARES Act.

3. Leadership at Redstone Arsenal under review for labeling MAGA racist

• U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) has said that some U.S. Army officials at the Redstone Arsenal in North Alabama might have violated the Hatch Act by using federal government resources to distribute “racist and partisan political propaganda.”
• In a statement released by Brooks, he says that officials distributed “materials that, among other offensive things, labels President Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan or ‘Celebration of Columbus Day’ as white supremacist.” Brooks would like for the U.S. Army to conduct an investigation and hold the guilty parties accountable.

2. Madison County healthcare executive: Masks work — here’s how

• Now that there’s a mask mandate in Madison County, there was a press conference held where Crestwood Medical Center CEO Dr. Pam Hudson explained how effective masks can be in the community, saying that if just 80% of the community wears a mask, transmission of the coronavirus would be cut by 90%.
• Hudson said that the area has seen an increase in cases of the coronavirus, explaining, “Much asymptomatic transmission is likely going on.” She also encouraged people to consider “masking and social distancing as a temporary vaccination,” since an actual vaccine is still “months” away.

1. Masks ordered for Alabama schools

• While masks aren’t a requirement across the state for schools restarting in the fall, the Alabama Department of Education has ordered 2.5 million reusable masks, which would be enough for each student and staff member to have three.
• The department clarified that “local public health officials and local elected officials, local school systems will determine if facial coverings are required. There is not a statewide facial covering mandate.” Hoover City Schools and Montgomery schools have already said that they’ll have a mask requirement for pretty much everyone except for someone sitting at their desk in the classroom.

• President Donald Trump has made it clear that it is his intention to have schools reopen in the United States with as much in-class participation as possible. He told governors Tuesday, “It’s very important. It’s very important for our country. It’s very important for the well-being of the student and the parents. So we’re going to be putting a lot of pressure on: Open your schools in the fall.”
• States across the country clearly have different ideas for how they will move forward with Alabama laying the groundwork for in-class and online learning, Florida moving forward with plans for schools to reopen next month, and Washington state laying out a plan that allows children of color to go back to school first.

5. Ivey giving money to nursing homes for testing

• Governor Kay Ivey will be using $18.27 million of the CARES Act funding that the state received to get coronavirus testing for those living and working in nursing homes, which Ivey said “we must do everything possible to contain the spread within their walls.”
• The funding will be distributed by the Alabama Nursing Home Association Education Foundation. Ivey added “During the pandemic, it is critical we take care of our seniors and most vulnerable residents.”

4. Trump wants Bama

• During the White House summit on reopening schools, University of Alabama System Chancellor Finis St. John was asked by President Donald Trump if “Alabama will be playing some great football?” Trump also asked, “What’s going on with Alabama?”
• St. John told Trump that having football “creates great difficulties and complexities” but the University of Alabama is “planning to play the season.” Trump responded by saying, “Say hello to the coach. Great coach.”

3. 700,000 jobs supported in-state during coronavirus pandemic

• The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a coronavirus national relief program, supported 700,000 jobs throughout Alabama, according to the Small Business Administration, which announced that 65,806 PPP loans were distributed across the state. 
• The SBA also revealed that 82% of the small business payroll was covered by PPP loans, and the loans totaled about $6.2 billion. Across the country, $521.48 billion in PPP loans was paid out, which protected 51,125,937 jobs.

2. Fauci supports statewide mask orders

• During a live-stream event with U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), Director of the National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci discussed the coronavirus in Alabama and throughout the country, and while there isn’t a statewide mask order in Alabama, Fauci voiced support for one.
• Fauci said that “a statewide mask order is important because there is variability in people taking seriously or even understanding the benefit of masks.” Fauci did clarify that he doesn’t support a nationwide order, and he doesn’t think one will happen, either.

1. Deaths and hospitalizations are up

• The latest projections from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predict over 200,000 deaths for the United States and 3,443 deaths for the state of Alabama by November 1, but it suggests that number could be cut significantly if masks are worn consistently.
• Obviously, this takes into account the increase in cases for the state of Alabama and the total hospitalizations in Alabama that continue to go up significantly with more than 100 people who have been hospitalized in Alabama in one day, bringing the total current hospitalizations to 1,016.

Those are the stakes.

The latest order in Alabama comes from the health department of Madison County.

But they can’t do that! They did. If you don’t like it, keep reading.

This will not be the last order in the state. Governor Kay Ivey will probably get in on the action at some point, and many will be infuriated by it.

Much of the response to almost any order by the government in this regard is being met with two responses: “Yay! Government!” or, “How dare they? This is a violation of my rights.”

Both responses are wrong.

It is odd to ask the government to implement these rules that will be almost impossible to enforce. The enforcement tasks retail employees with being forced to ask customers to mask up or leave.

And, imagine if the government did send in the police to enforce these rules. These same people think cops are killing African-Americans for sport.

So, what are these cops to do when someone refuses and becomes belligerent? Arrest them? Use force?

One of the hot takes right now is that people shouldn’t call the cops on black people at all because it could be a death sentence.

Should the stores call the police on people who refuse? Because 80-year-old Mabel greeting customers at Walmart isn’t going to stop a rampaging herd of women who won’t mask up.

We will not see that.

The correct answer is the same answer we have had for months. More people should mask up on their own, and those who oppose it should stop and think about what they are doing by running their mouths online.

The more you go off about how your freedoms are under assault, the more restrictions we are seeing. It seems counter-productive.

If you want a more normal society, put on a stupid mask.

Even Donald Trump agrees.

But if you really believe this is an affront to your very freedoms, do something about it.

I will even provide you the venue to do so.

Let’s fight one of these ordinances and get it knocked down.

Donate to my GoFundMe campaign that will help me fund a lawsuit against the tyrannical government of Madison County. I will hire lawyers to fight this battle in court and if we win, the orders shall crumble before our feet as we ride to freedom mask-less.

The Madison County Health Department has taken a step many people have informed me is unconstitutional, they are mandating that citizens wear masks in public.

If this is so unacceptable, let’s put our money where our mouth is and hire a legal team to take down this tyrannical local government.

Donate now and I will hire attorneys and fight this fight for you.

Or, you can comment on social media and tell everyone how in 1930 they found masks don’t stop the flu or how the government said masks were not needed in February.

This stuff is foolish and gets us nowhere. Recent studies show that face coverings do not stop anything 100%, but it is better than nothing.

I have already explained that your social media griping has not worked, so try something else.

https://business.facebook.com/TheDaleJackson/posts/10157590173486270

But understand this: there will be no “herd immunity,” there will be no “let it burn through the population,” and we will not “just learn to live with it.”

If you push those narratives, you have lost embarrassingly.

The battle is over. Your “no mask” position is a fringe position.

Keep this up and it will impact the 2020 presidential election.

The worst this coronavirus pandemic is, the less-likely Trump wins the election.

He knows it, they know it.

You can incorrectly believe the data is fake. You can share obvious fake stories about your neighbor’s friend’s cousin’s gardener who waited in line for a test but never got one and how they got positive results if you need to (yes, I read this all over the internet last week and heard this on my radio show today).

Or you can help us take whatever precautions we can that will help us get back to normal, get the economy going again and work to “Keep America Great.”

You cannot do both.

The only path to normal at this point is that we stop the numbers from going up. We need to do what we can to make that happen.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• President Donald Trump took to Twitter to voice his opinion about schools reopening in the fall, and said, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL!!!” It’s been a concern about whether schools will reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Trump explained that “Corrupt Joe Biden and the Democrats” want schools to stay closed throughout the fall semester “for political reasons, not for health reasons,” which he reasoned was to “help them in November.” Many people, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have been advocating for children to return to the classroom.

5. Money going to schools for distance learning

• The Alabama State Department of Education has been awarded $48 million by Governor Kay Ivey, which comes from the funding provided to the state through the CARES Act. The money will be used to support schools in the upcoming academic year.
• Ivey’s office specified that the money will be separated into $10 million to have school buses equipped with WiFi, $26 million to help with learning and achievement gaps, $9 million to tutoring resources and $4 million for textbook and library resources.

4. Tuberville is leading in fundraising

• With the final fundraising reports coming in before the U.S. Senate runoff on July 14, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville has reported to the FEC that he raised $652,389 from April 1 to June 24, and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reported raising $439,734.
• Tuberville only has $448,204 cash-on-hand, while Sessions has $500,331 cash-on-hand. Sessions has spent slightly more, $688,639, than Tuberville, who has spent $663,004. From the period of June 25 to July 3, Tuberville raised $195,300 while Sessions raised $36,800.

3. Sessions calls for Tuberville to release people from their NDAs

• When former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville’s hedge fund went belly up, his partner was sentenced to jail but he settled with the victims. Now, his opponent former U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions wants those affected by this incident released from non-disclosure agreements they agreed to as part of a court settlement.
• Sessions also hit Tuberville for allowing the whole thing to transpire in his name, saying, “Either [Tuberville] was greedy, incompetent, naive and lacked knowledge; or he actually deliberately participated in an activity that was criminal.”

2. Don’t violate your quarantine — you could be fined

• The Alabama Department of Public Health has verified that if you’re supposed to quarantine due to testing positive for the coronavirus but you violate that quarantine, you could be fined up to $500 per violation.
• In a statement released by the ADPH, the coronavirus is described as “dangerous, and sometimes, deadly virus.” The ADPH said that violating “the home quarantine is a misdemeanor” and can result in fines for the required 14-day quarantine.

1. Cover your face

• The Alabama Department of Public Health has announced that as of Tuesday at 5:00 p.m., face coverings will be required in Madison County, which was requested by the Madison County Board of Health. This order was expected after Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and Madison Mayor Paul Finley came out in support of a requirement last week.
• Face coverings will be required in indoor spaces, public transportation and outdoor public areas with 10 or more people. While they’re not required for church and worship services, they’re strongly encouraged. Exceptions do exist, such as for those younger than two-years-old or while eating and drinking.

U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) knows that he needs people to vote against the GOP candidate and not for him. This is just a math question at this point.

Can Jones and his allies in the media (national and local) damage his opponent and make people skip the race?

Doubtful, but I bet there are zero surprises in former Senator Jeff Sessions’ (R-AL) record. It’s the main reason so many Republicans are mad at him. They know all about his recusal as U.S. Attorney General and how mad that made President Donald Trump.

Trump wants Tuberville, and Trump may get his way.

But, if Tommy Tuberville is not the Republican nominee after next Tuesday, it will not be the fault of Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump, Clifton Robinson, John David Stroud, the Washington Examiner or the New York Times.

It will be his own fault.

The former football coach has run a campaign for the attention of President Donald Trump while running the least Donald Trump campaign of all time.

The premise that Trump would sit on a lead and run out the clock is absurd, but Tuberville has said that is what he is doing.

Trump wants 10 debates with his opponent, but Tuberville won’t do one.

People say Trump is a counter-puncher, but that is a lie. Trump is an aggressive punch-thrower and is constantly looking to knock his foes out of the fight.

Whether they are worthy of the fight or not, Trump swings away.

Tuberville does not.

When the Washington Examiner brought to the surface a story that has been bubbling on social media and in text messages about a more than 20-year-old allegation that then-coach Tuberville was soft on a player charged with statutory rape, his campaign barely responded.

The most that was mustered in response was from Tuberville campaign chairman Stan McDonald during a weekly appearance on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” who said, “It is something that originates from people who are trying to bring Tommy Tuberville down. So, that is not something we’re going to participate in.”

This was a different time in America, obviously, which is why it will get new legs in a 2020 general election.

Is this politics? Yes. Last-minute campaign noise? Obviously. A reason to swallow the whistle? Nope.

When the New York Times reported on a shady hedge fund that Tuberville was involved in, did his campaign respond?

Nope.

There are allegations that Tuberville’s business partner was involved in a massive fraud that saw him sentenced to 10 years in prison, and the Tuberville response was one of weakness.

McDonald and pro-Tuberville Grit PAC employee Brad Presnall both begged off the question by claiming that the coach was just a small-time football coach who didn’t know any better. The big city folks conned him, too.

Tuberville said he was just a swindled pawn, a victim, and he was manipulated.

“They sued me because I invested in it, and he used my name to get other people to put money in,” he stated.

Could you ever see that from Donald Trump? I can’t.

The facts also paint a different story, but not a better one:

But a review of public court records shows that he had a broader role. While he was not picking stocks, or even a frequent presence in the office, Mr. Tuberville made introductions to potential investors, had business cards identifying himself as managing partner, and leased a BMW and got his health insurance through the company. Its offices in Auburn were filled with his coaching memorabilia. In 2010, he traveled to New York with Mr. Stroud to meet potential brokers for the fund, and was kept in the loop on decisions about hiring, according to email traffic.

But what would Trump do here?

Why would the Trumpian candidate sit back and let this all go on around him without firing off a few tweets taking on the New York Times or the fake news media?

Why wouldn’t Tuberville seek out the cameras, which he could summon at any time, to come take his testimony about what really happened?

None of this dooms Tuberville on July 14. Everyone knows he has a lead.

And we all know the media and their Democrats can’t wait to attack Tuberville on these issues, but the idea that Alabama voters will go into a polling place to vote for President Donald Trump in November while also pulling the lever for soon-to-be-former U.S. Senator Doug Jones is laughable.

The real question in all of this is where is Tommy Tuberville, and why isn’t he punching back? Trump supporters want a fighter and an outsider. His huge early lead was indicative of the outsider part, but the fighter part never materialized.

If that is who Tommy Tuberville is, then he needs to get out there and prove it.

Right now he is taking body blows. Maybe he can withstand them, but that is harder to do while sitting on a lead and hoping he can run out the clock.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• Before the planned Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore, there were people saying the monument should be destroyed, calling it a symbol of “white supremacy.” However, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) is speaking out in support of keeping the monument. 
• Brooks has announced that he’s co-sponsoring the Mount Rushmore Protection Act that’s been authored by U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-SD). Brooks said that Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt “contributed monumentally to America’s greatness and share a common legacy of spreading freedom and liberty throughout the world.” He added, “Their places on Mount Rushmore are well-deserved as exemplars of what it took to make America great, and efforts to denigrate their contributions are beyond reprehensible.”

5. Vaccine early next year, hopefully

• As cases grow at a rapid rate, even with deaths falling, Director of the Global Health Institute Dr. Ashish Jha has said that a vaccine by early 2021 is very likely, but the effectiveness of said vaccine is still up for debate. Jha said he’s “very worried about supply chains, about having enough vials and syringes, and all the stuff.”
• Jha noted that it could be roughly a year before there’s widespread vaccination of everyone within the United States, but he expects that China will have the first vaccine as there are over a dozen in clinical trials. He went on to say that “it might be the kind of vaccine where you need to get one every year.” 

4. Palmer wants to see a debate

• Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has made it clear that he’s willing to debate former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, but Tuberville has declined every invitation, and now U.S. Representative Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) is calling for a debate before the U.S. Senate runoff. 
• Palmer said that the “candidates owe it to the voters to have a debate,” adding that not being willing to debate shows “severe weakness.” Palmer went on to say what “Alabamians need to realize is that in two years, Richard Shelby is leaving,” making a point about how voters need to be looking for who is going to be the senior senator. 

3. Man charged in Riverchase Galleria shooting

• Over the weekend, a shootout took place at the Hoover Riverchase Galleria that left three people injured and 8-year-old Royta Giles, Jr. dead, and now Montez Coleman is being charged for the shooting. 
• It’s been discovered that the shooting started through an argument between Coleman and another group of men who were all shooting at each other. Coleman will be charged with capital murder and three counts of third-degree assault. 

2. Tuberville’s financial past becomes a campaign issue

• Last week, it was an allegation about former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville being soft on a player convicted of a misdemeanor. This week, the latest opposition dump is about how after Tuberville left Auburn, he entered into a strange world where he started up a hedge fund that ended with his partner sentenced to 10 years in jail and Tuberville himself settling civil lawsuits. 
• Tuberville told the New York Times that he was just an investor in the fund, but the paperwork also shows Tuberville pitched investors, had “managing partner” on his business cards and had a BMW and health insurance paid for through the company.

1. Trump praises America — the media and their Democrats hate it

• During President Donald Trump’s weekend event at Mount Rushmore, the president defended the United States from a growing mob of detractors and their allies in the media, saying, “Our children are taught in school to hate their own country & to believe that the men & women who built it were not heroes but were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies.”
• This, of course, infuriated those who profit off the lies with CNN setting the tone for the 4th of July coverage by declaring, “President Trump will be at Mount Rushmore, where he’ll be standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans.” CNN went on to have a weekend of coverage about how divisive his event was while also implying the monument was the latest piece of America that had to go, only stopping to complain about how people weren’t wearing masks.

Jackson closes the show with a “parting shot” at people who refuse to wear masks, even though President Donald Trump has made it clear that there are times when it is appropriate for everyone to wear them.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

5. More than 1,100 coronavirus cases in one day

• The Alabama Department of Public Health has added 1,162 coronavirus cases in the state in just one day. There were also 22 more hospitalizations bringing the total currently to 797, and there were 14 people who died, bringing total deaths to 961.
• Ten counties have 57% of the new cases, which includes Mobile, Madison, Jefferson, Tuscaloosa, Marshall, Morgan, Baldwin, DeKalb and Montgomery counties. There were 5,788 tests conducted across the state in one day.

4. Record jobs numbers as economy continue to recover

• The headlines screamed of June numbers far better than the experts expected. Much to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s chagrin, there were 4.8 million jobs created and an unemployment rate that fell to 11.1%, with President Donald Trump saying, “Today’s announcement proves that our economy is roaring back. It’s coming back extremely strong.”
• But tens of millions are still out of work as the American economy continues to reel from the effects of rising coronavirus numbers and a patchwork of economic lockdowns that seem to be increasing in number again.

3. Ivey open to making changes

• Governor Kay Ivey’s spokesperson Gina Maiola said that “Ivey is certainly open to the discussion” of changing Confederate holidays, but those decisions have to go “through the Legislature.”
• Maiola added that Ivey “believes that while we cannot change the past or erase our history, she is confident that we can build a future that values the worth of each and every citizen,” and the holidays in question would be Robert E. Lee’s birthday, Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis Day.

2. Tuberville attacked for his handling of a player’s rape case from Auburn

• With less than two weeks to go before the run-off for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, voters are starting to see what type of attacks former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville could see in November from U.S. Senator Doug Jones and the media.
• The attack stems from the 1999 season when wide receiver Clifton Robinson received a one-game suspension after pleading guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor (a misdemeanor) as a plea deal following being charged with the second-degree rape of a 15-year-old girl. Robinson would later be arrested on assault charges and subsequently convicted for the battery of an off-duty police officer years after leaving Auburn.

1. No, there were not coronavirus parties in Tuscaloosa

• A Tuscaloosa City councilwoman repeated a stupid rumor that students at Alabama colleges and universities were hosting parties with bowls full of money as prizes for getting the coronavirus, and the national media ran with the story as if it was fact, but don’t expect a retraction.
• There is obviously no evidence that any such events actually took place — not a single Facebook post, tweet or Instagram story supports this narrative, but the narrative was helpful for the media and the desires for a mandatory mask ordinance from Tuscaloosa’s leaders.

• White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany has announced that the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, Washington, has been disbanded, adding that “Seattle has been liberated.” She emphasized that “in President Trump’s America, autonomous zones will have no sanctuary.”
• McEnany also said that “CHAZ was a failed four-week Democrat experiment by the radical left.” She added that “law and order” has been restored, and while the Democrat leadership in these areas let these issues drag on, President Donald Trump couldn’t let it go on any longer. 

5. Doug Jones is campaigning on wearing a mask

• A new reelection ad for U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) has been released called “For Each Other,” where he encourages people to wear masks to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus throughout the state. 
• In the ad, he says, “Wearing masks and social distancing is about protecting each other.” He goes on to explain how wearing masks can help keep those with underlying health conditions from getting the virus and emphasized that we need to do this “so our small businesses open safely and get our economy moving.”

4. Children in Huntsville hospitalized

• While the coronavirus tends to not affect children as severely as the elderly community, they’re still not immune to the virus as there are now five children at Huntsville Hospital fighting the virus. 
• Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers detailed that one of the children is a four-month-old infant and another is a four-year-old cancer patient. Spillers is encouraging people to wear face masks, adding that “it’s time to think about others when you resist wearing face coverings.”

3. Cases continue to rise

• Alabama hospitalizations for the coronavirus have been at a record high for two days now, with the most recent number of people hospitalized reaching 776, which is 61 new hospitalizations in one day. 
• While disturbing news of parties in Tuscaloosa where kids tried to catch the virus made national news, there were 21 new deaths, making the total 947. There was a daily increase of 906 cases, making the overall case count 38,442. Since March 13, there have been 2,803 hospitalizations. 

2. Trump says wearing a mask is good when needed

• In what is a clear shift by President Donald Trump, the president is now saying he would have “no problem” with wearing masks at public events where it makes sense.
• Trump also weighed in on the calls for mandatory mask ordinances, saying he doesn’t think they are needed but that he is “all for masks” and that he “thinks masks are good.”

1. “Face masks are coming”

• Coronavirus cases continue to rise, and Madison County has seen a surge in recent days. Now, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle is considering a mandatory mask ordinance to help prevent the spread of the virus. Battle simply said that “[f]ace masks are coming,” adding he hopes to see Governor Kay Ivey look toward a state requirement. 
• Mobile is getting in on the act early, but Councilman John Williams, the single “no” vote, made it clear that he is for masks but against making them mandatory. He advised, “I think you need to wear a mask. I just simply don’t think this ordinance is going to make people wear them.”

Just wait. If the numbers continue to rise, the restrictions will return.

You will whine, “But … Dale! They can’t make me wear a piece of cloth over a part of my body.”

They can.

Alabama Code 13A-12-130: 

(a) A person commits the crime of public lewdness if:

(1) He exposes his anus or genitals in a public place and is reckless about whether another may be present who will be offended or alarmed by his act;  or

(2) He does any lewd act in a public place which he knows is likely to be observed by others who would be affronted or alarmed.

(b) Public lewdness is a Class C misdemeanor.

Is your nose the same as your genitals? No.

Is your mouth the same as your anus? No.

Now, I am not a simple small-town southern lawyer, but I think that I could probably rationalize a similar law for the part of your body that expels droplets that contain the coronavirus.

Should they? No.

Mandatory mask ordinances and orders are a bad idea because they are generally unenforceable, but the ignorant resistance to this is just as asinine.

I’ve been told masks cut oxygen and cause people to pass out.

This is clearly not true. The guy working at Walmart wears a mask eight hours a day, and he can power through it.

I’ve been told rape victims and people with autism can’t wear masks.

Let’s ignore that. Even if true, this has nothing to do with the science and is just a ridiculous red herring. This is not about 100% compliance.

I have been told that the surgeon general said not to wear masks early on in this pandemic.

What changed?

A lot.

1. The numbers
2. The understanding of the virus
3. The availability of PPE

The government shouldn’t be in the business of policing this, because it would require the police to make this work.

But what about our new socially conscious corporations? They are all about performative wokeness and their ham-fisted statements about “Pride” and #BlackLivesMatter this month, right?

If they really believe that #BlackLivesMatter (or #AllLivesMatter), they should require people to wear masks inside their stores. Obviously, this puts the enforcement on an hourly retail employee and places their employees against an army of people who don’t know what they are talking about.

Go on social media, and see how reasonable those people are.

But if they believe this is important, make these people act out. Shame them.

Here is the bottom line: All the people who refuse to wear masks in indoor public-settings have nothing on their side except the willingness to be stubborn.

The anti-mask crowd and the folks rioting in the streets are very similar in attitude, but the anti-mask crowd doesn’t have the guts to actually do anything.

They express it online and on social media, but they are an obnoxious minority, and anonymity breeds stupidity. But the Internet is not real life.

Overall, 65% of U.S. adults say that they have personally worn a mask in stores or other businesses all or most of the time in the past month, while 15% say they did this some of the time. Relatively small shares of adults say they hardly ever (9%) or never (7%) wore a mask in the past month, and 4% say they have not gone to these types of places.

Polling shows most Americans support wearing masks, but more should be doing it. Unfortunately, those that need to be convinced are unwilling to be reasoned with.

This attitude only drags out this issue, makes it worse, and damages our state further.

Also, President Donald Trump disagrees with this line of thinking, and agrees with me.

Trump to Fox Business Network, amid rising Republican pressure: "I’m all for masks. I think masks are good." Says he has worn them on occasion and thinks he looks good in them

— HowardKurtz (@HowardKurtz) July 1, 2020

If this petulant attitude keeps up and numbers of cases keep rising, you will see more ordinances, and a state-wide mandate will follow.

Wear the stupid mask in public, or the government will attempt to make you.

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• Former Vice President Joe Biden has already said that his running mate will be female, but now he’s making even more promises about potential Supreme Court picks, saying that he hesitates to “follow anything the president does at all, because he usually does it all wrong.”
• Biden went on to say that he’s “putting together a list of a group of African-American women who are qualified and have the experience to be in the court,” but he added that the list won’t be released for a while. 

5. New York wants to defund the police as AOC tells you what it means

• Attempting to bow down to the insane demands of the “Black Lives Matter” movements, such as calls to defund the police, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing through a $1.5 billion dollar cut to the city’s $6 billion budget for police that everyone knows will disproportionally hurt people of color and the poor.
• Dismissing this huge cut to the police in the nation’s largest city isn’t enough. Progressive darling and standard-bearer U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ()D-NY) reminded white liberals and the media that “Defunding police means defunding police.”

4. NYT sources: “There were dissenting opinions within the intelligence community”

• The non-stop flow of questionable information from unnamed sources continues to say that the Trump administration knew about Russian attempts to get the Taliban to kill American soldiers, even though the same sources acknowledge that “disagreement among intelligence officials about the strength of the evidence about the suspected Russian plot and the evidence linking the attack on the Marines to the suspected Russian plot.”
• Lawmakers briefed on the matter said the “the underlying intelligence was conflicting.” The White House press secretary said, “There was not a consensus among the intelligence community,” adding, “[T]here were dissenting opinions within the intelligence community, and it would not be elevated to the president until it was verified.”

3. Trump isn’t coming to campaign for Tuberville anymore

• Earlier reports said that President Donald Trump had planned to visit Mobile to hold a campaign rally for former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville before the runoff election on July 14, but CNN is now reporting that Trump’s campaign has canceled the plans. 
• Technically, the Tuberville campaign never confirmed the reports that Trump would be holding a rally for him, but as the news made headlines, the campaign never said otherwise. 

2. High fatality rate for seniors in Alabama with coronavirus

• Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, while at a press conference with Governor Kay Ivey, brought attention to the high fatality rate of those over 65 who get the coronavirus in Alabama, with about one in nine diagnosed dying. 
• Harris explained, “About three-quarters of all of [Alabama’s] deaths have occurred in our seniors, even though they’re only about 17 percent of our cases.” He described this as “a tragedy” as 926 people in Alabama have passed away from the coronavirus, with 726 of those being 65 years and older. 

1. “Safer at Home” order extended

• On Tuesday, the Alabama Department of Public Health added 854 cases to the coronavirus count, making the total case count 37,536. Governor Kay Ivey’s “Safer at Home” order has now been extended until July 31 but there are no major changes to the order. 
• During the press conference to announce the extension, Ivey did say that she will “reserve the right to come back and reverse course,” adding, “When you’re in public, for goodness sake, wear a mask.”

• Those in Alabama who have used up all of their unemployment benefits may be eligible for Extended Benefits (EB), as announced by the Alabama Department of Labor; this is just for those who have already gone through the 14 weeks of Alabama unemployment and 13 weeks of CARES Act benefits. 
• Those who receive EB will also receive the extra $600 per week from the CARES Act until it expires on July 31. EB has only been made available when the unemployment rate is over 5.9%, which will make this the first time since the 2008 recession that these benefits are available. 

5. New Tuberville ad released just two weeks before runoff

• Federal super PAC Club for Growth Action is releasing a new ad for former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville Tuesday for his U.S. Senate campaign, and the main focus of the ad is how Tuberville is pro-Trump. 
• The ad takes aim at former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions by saying that “Alabama wants winners, not recusers.” It also describes Tuberville by saying he’s “a real leader, won’t back down, has Trump’s back. Enough with swampy politicians.”

4. Colleges to offer coronavirus testing

• Before students go back to college campuses in the fall, they’ll have a chance to be tested for coronavirus after Governor Kay Ivey announced that the tests would be funded through $30 million from the COVID relief funding.
• The testing will be free for students, and it’s going to be organized by the University of Alabama System, but testing is offered on all public-school campuses. Dean of UAB School of Medicine Dr. Selwyn Vickers said that the decision to have testing on private school campuses will be left up “to the institutions and their campus leadership.”

3. Huge defeat for conservatives at the Supreme Court

• Chief Justice John Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, once again dealt a blow to the conservative cause when he sided with the court’s more liberal judges to knock down a Louisiana law “regulating abortion clinics.” This happened after Robert declared the case he cited to make his decision to be wrongly-decided.
• Obviously, the media and their Democrats’ fears that the court would lurch to the right were unfounded and Republicans hoping that Roe v. Wade could potentially be up for review seems less likely, barring another appointment and another term by President Donald Trump.

2. Many questions remain about the latest Trump-Russia story

• Of course, the American media had already made up its mind when there were reports from unnamed sources that Russia was paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers. The allegation included that the President of the United States knew about this and didn’t care. 
• Much of the pushback on the story is related to the fact that the intelligence was never confirmed nor was the president ever briefed on it, with CBS News’ Katherine Herididge reporting, “[T]he intelligence collection report reached ‘low levels’ NSC but did not go further, not briefed POTUS, or VP because it was deemed ‘uncorroborated’ and ‘dissent intelligence community.'”

1. Cases are on the rise everywhere in Alabama

• Coronavirus cases are increasing across the state, but North Alabama is also starting to see a spike after appearing to have very few issues, with 38 patients at the main Huntsville Hospital. There’s also been an increase in patients at the hospitals in Marshall County and Athens.
• Huntsville Hospital CEO David Spillers said that the average age of coronavirus patients in the hospital is mid-50s, but added, “Young people are not immune. It’s rare but it happens.” There’s a 16-year-old on a ventilator in Huntsville, and Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong has said that “we don’t have this pandemic under control” anywhere in the country, not even in Madison County.

First, and reasonably so, Daniels wants the Confederate flag removed from Alabama State Trooper uniforms. This is such a non-issue, that should be resolved quickly, that State Senator Artur Orr (R-Decatur) said during a radio appearance on Friday that he didn’t even know they had the Confederate flag on them.

Daniels also wants a monument to the “Confederate Cause” that is placed near the steps of the Madison County Courthouse removed. This is happening, slowly, but the statue put up in 1905 will be moved from the courthouse to the Confederate section of Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.

Those issues are almost no-brainers. They may take time, but they will probably happen as soon as the slow gears of government turn and make it so.

Of the more contentious discussions we will see in Alabama over this topic will be the attempted defunding of Confederate Memorial Park and the potential end of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.

Daniels has taken issue with the $600,000 budget allotment to this park, and Alabama Democratic Party spokesman Wade Perry accused State Rep. Will Dismukes (R-Prattville), who opposes this defunding idea, of disloyalty to the United States and called for him to resign.

My take: Perry is a clown. He is just using this to get attention, meanwhile the elected leaders are using his outlandish behavior to show that they are being more reasonable by contrast. They are right.

Daniels believes some local municipalities will want to keep their statues local, saying it is “so that they can have discussions about history locally.”

But last week, both Daniels and Dismukes appeared on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” and a compromise may have emerged. Both agreed that Confederate Memorial Park could continue to exist, potentially as a stopping point for removed monuments, with Daniels noting, “I’m not against moving them to the Confederate park, but I think that if we’re going to have a park it should talk about all of Alabama history park, not just Confederate history. I think that Confederate history is certainly a part of Alabama history.”

Daniels called this a “good compromise.”

With both Dismukes and Daniels, two very different leaders from two very different parties, open to the idea of compromise, we may be nearing an amicable solution for the continued operation of Confederate Memorial Park in some form.

If Alabama’s leaders could settle this issue and help us all move on, we will all be far better off.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• Of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombers, Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr., a member of the Ku Klux Klan, had been the last one living, but Governor Kay Ivey announced that he has died in prison. 
• Blanton was successfully convicted by U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) when he was serving as a U.S. Attorney in 2001 for the bombing killed Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair. 

5. Trump tweeted and then deleted a video where someone said “white power”

• Over the weekend, President Donald Trump tweeted video of the retirement community The Village in Florida in which rival protests took place. In a video of the incident, a man is heard mockingly yelling “white power!” while other seniors shout profanities at each other. 
• In the video, the man who shouted about white power was driving a golf cart with Trump campaign posters, and Trump tweeted, “Thank you to the great people of The Villages.” While he has since deleted the video, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said that Trump didn’t hear what the man said but stated, “What he did see was tremendous enthusiasm from his many supporters.”

4. New York Times report alleges Russia has put bounties on U.S. troops

• In a “bombshell” report filled with anonymous sources and denied by the director of National Intelligence, there are allegations that Russia has been offering bounties for killing American soldiers, which the report says President Donald Trump knew of and did nothing about.
• The White House says the bounty allegations did not appear in the president’s daily brief and the National Security Council says it has not found the intel assessment as described by the reporting.

3. CDC team has arrived in Alabama

• Due to the continued rise of coronavirus cases across the state, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sent a team to help the pandemic response through assisting the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH). 
• There are five CDC professionals that will be in the state until at least July 3. The ADPH had “requested the help of the team that includes an epidemiologist, a medical epidemiologist, an epidemiologist/data analyst, a risk communicator and an informatics/visualization specialist.” The team will be reviewing responses and giving recommendations based off data. 

2. Students will be in the classroom and online in the fall

• State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey has announced that when public schools reopen in the fall, they plan to have students back in the classroom but they will be able to choose to continue learning online if they desire or need to. according to Mackey, about 15% of parents have concerns about sending their kids back to school. 
• While additional school activities like sports and band “will resume” but “look different,” State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris has advised that they expect to see an increase in coronavirus cases when schools return in the fall, but that schools going back is “necessary.”

1. There won’t be federal mandates to wear masks

• While former Vice President Joe Biden says he will use his power to force people to wear masks, Vice President Mike Pence has said that the White House will “defer to governors” on the issue of mandatory masks when asked if there would be any federal mandates requiring people to wear masks in public amid the coronavirus pandemic. He added that they “want to defer to local officials, and people should listen to them.”
• In Alabama, cities and counties are preparing for mask ordinances in Selma, Mobile, Tuscaloosa and Decatur.

Jackson closes the show with a “parting shot” at people who refuse to understand that these monuments to the “Confederate cause” are coming down and we need to let the process play out.

https://business.facebook.com/watch/?v=738873370209950

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• After a noose was found in the garage for Bubba Wallace’s car at the Talladega Superspeedway, an FBI and Department of Justice investigation took place and determined that the knot in question had been in the garage since at least October 2019, so it didn’t add up to being a hate crime against Wallace.  
• Now, NASCAR has released an image of said noose. NASCAR President Steve Phelps said “the noose was real.” Based on the image, the door pull very clearly looks like a noose but the mere existence of the noose doesn’t make it a hateful act. 

5. Ivey admits mistake on shutdowns

• While speaking to the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce, Governor Kay Ivey talked about how 2020 hasn’t gone how anyone expected with a year that started with a 2.9% unemployment rate before revisiting her “Stay at Home” order and the labeling of businesses as non-essential.
• Ivey said, “I never wanted to create the belief that my administration viewed certain businesses as more important than others. All jobs and all businesses are essential and important to our state.” She went on to say it was unclear if another “Stay at Home” order was possible with increasing infections of COVID-19 in the state.

4. Byrne wants to see bipartisan legislation passed

• As it becomes increasingly clear there will be no substantial police reform, U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) spoke on the House floor in favor of passing bipartisan legislation on police reform, like the JUSTICE Act that Byrne co-sponsored but was voted down by Democrats on Wednesday.
• Byrne remarked that he felt “compelled” to speak out against racism “under the present regrettable circumstance.” He went on to say that we’re all “created in the image of God and are of equal and inestimable moral worth.” Byrne also detailed how long black people have been fighting for equality and what they’ve endured along the way, emphasizing that the House has to “work together, not in parallel partisan efforts.”

3. Unemployment is still climbing

• The Alabama Department of Labor has reported the most recent unemployment numbers, showing that from June 14-20 there were 18,671 new claims, 11,311 of which were directly related to the coronavirus. The week before saw 18,367 claims. 
• Unemployment claims have decreased slowly since the initial shutdown caused by the pandemic. The claims are still more than 10 times higher than the week before the shutdown, which saw only 1,824 unemployment claims. 

2. More states leaning towards mask mandates

• As new cases of COVID-19 surge across the nation, local and state mask ordinances, with questionable enforcement plans, are becoming more common with Nevada becoming the 19th state to put one in place. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak (D) stated, “For Nevada to stay open, we must make face coverings a part of our daily lives.”
• In states without mask ordinances, local governments are starting to get in on the act. While only Birmingham and Montgomery have them in Alabama, Huntsville and other municipalities have been talking about them in recent days.

1. Alabama sees record high coronavirus numbers again

• Yesterday, Alabama saw the highest number of coronavirus cases in one day that it’s seen throughout the entire pandemic with 1,129 new cases. 
• More than 90% of Alabama counties are reporting new cases. The positive rate of infection is roughly around 8.6%, which is where it’s stayed since June 14. Cities like Decatur and Mobile have decided to cancel their 4th of July celebrations due to the rise in cases. 

The coronavirus pandemic changed that. Trump and his allies can now hardly point to 47.2 million unemployed claims in the last 14 weeks and claim success.

They can point to the pandemic and lay credible blame on that as the reason for the economic slide and hope for a rebound to push him over former Vice President Joe Biden, who barely has to leave his basement to jump in the polls.

When people talk about the pandemic damaging the economy, they are right, but then the argument jumps to “What did President Trump do to end the pandemic, blunt the impact of it, and help the nation recover?”

U.S. Representative Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) was asked about this Thursday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” and said the answer was “easy” to see.

According to Palmer, President Trump “shut down all travel between the U.S. and China, and then immediately after that shut it down between the U.S. and Europe,” and the people angry at him now criticized him for doing that early on.

Palmer is right.

Palmer emphasized, “The models were showing in March that we could have 1 million to 2 million, 2.2 million, people die from this.”

“The objective of the task force was to flatten the curve,” he said, adding that it was a “fantastic success.”

Palmer is right.

But what about now?

Now we are seeing record numbers in cases — not deaths — but cases. Deaths are dropping steadily due to better methods and the “flattening of the curve.”

Alabama saw multiple record days this week alone.

It almost appears that most Americans and the president himself are beyond this pandemic as if it is over. It’s not.

Hopefully, the number of deaths continues to decline, but if the cases continue to grow, it will be hard for the president to claim he has handled this issue effectively. This will cost him dearly in November.

It may be time for the president to reverse himself on the mask issue and declare the mask to be an essential part of both fighting this and getting him reelected.

Yes, on March 3 the authorities were wrong and lied (that is what it was) when they said masks don’t work to slow the spread because they didn’t want to see a run on masks.

That bad information persists to this day, and it could be deadly.

The latest estimate says that 30,000 people could be saved if we move towards more masks. A complacent society is not going to do that on its own.

President Trump could lead the way on this issue, and he should. It would be the best thing for the country and his reelection.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• As COVID-19 cases continue to grow throughout the country, Republican officials across the country are finding themselves calling for masks to be worn, although not required. 
• U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) says, “Everyone should just wear the damn mask.” Last week, Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey has reversed his position blocking cities from implementing mask bans. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) also wants GOP convention-goers to wear masks when the Republican National Convention comes to Jacksonville.

5. Secretary of State Merrill says Democrats are inflaming racial tensions

• Recently, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State released an ad that reinforces the idea that requiring a photo ID and other ballot laws are “rooted in white supremacy,” but Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is pushing back against this narrative. 
• With Merrill as chair of the Republican Secretaries of State Committee, the record number of voters registered throughout the state while he’s been in office is being used as an example against this narrative. Merrill said, “Democrats are spreading lies and inflaming racial tensions at a time when our country most needs unity, Republicans are leading by example and giving citizens a voice and an opportunity to exercise their right to vote.”

4. Democrats oppose police reform

• The police reform bill that was led by Republicans failed in the U.S. Senate when it was voted down by Democrats. The vote to start a debate was 55-45, with only three Democrats, including U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL), voting with Republicans.
• Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said “our Democratic colleagues are poised to turn this routine step into a partisan impasse,” but the main differences between the Republican and Democrat bills were that Democrats want to outright ban chokeholds, while Republicans want a ban unless an officer’s life is being threatened. Also, Democrats want to end qualified immunity. 

3. State Rep. Hall demands monument everyone agrees should be removed must be removed

• State Representative Laura Hall (D-Huntsville) went to the Madison County Courthouse to advocate for the removal of the Confederate monument that stands outside, and as it’s up to the Madison County Commission, Hall voiced concern “about the commission’s commitment to move forward.”
• The commission has decided to request permission to remove the monument, but since it’s over 40 years old it’s illegal to remove due to the 2017 Memorial Preservation Act and removal would result in a $25,000 fine. While Hall has called this law “unjust,” Commissioner JesHenry Malone is asking for people to be patient as they work through the legalities of having the state moved.
  

2. Repeal the Memorial Preservation Act?

• House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) has previously spoken out against the state funding of the Confederate Memorial Park, and now he’s called on the state to remove the Confederate flag from State Trooper uniforms and repeal the 2017 Memorial Preservation Act. 
• Daniels explained that he supports “fully repealing the 2017 preservation act” and very plainly explained that “it would make me feel good to remove the Confederate statues or any semblance of Confederacy in general.” He also said there needs to be more comprehension of what the Civil War was all about, and questioned how do we change “the hearts and minds of the people that are governing this state.”

1. Flynn case dismissed, Obama/Biden implicated

• After being requested by the Justice Department and a ruling from a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been dismissed by a lower court on the same day it was revealed that former President Barack Obama and his Vice President Joe Biden pushed for his investigation even after disgraced former FBI Director James Comey told them that the Flynn call with the Russians was “legit.”
• The direct order was for “Flynn’s petition for a writ of mandamus be granted in part; the District Court is directed to grant the government’s … motion to dismiss; and the District Court’s order appointing an amicus is hereby vacated as moot, in accordance with the opinion of the court filed herein this date.” President Donald Trump has called this decision “Great!” but the judge still seems unlikely to make a move.

• A “part-time employee” from the Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth’s office has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a release from Ainsworth’s office. The release specified that the employee only works “a handful of hours each week.”
• The statement also specified that the employee that tested positive was already working in a separate workspace from everyone else and the last time they were in office was last Thursday. All of the workspaces are being cleaned, and employees will work from home while everyone’s coronavirus test results come back. 

5. Jones is campaigning on equality

• While U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) could be facing former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions or former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, he’s now campaigning on equality. In his first campaign ad, he’s asking people to “join” him on “the road to racial justice.”
• The ad, titled “Together,” is Jones discussing the death of George Floyd and a push for equality, saying, “Across Alabama folks are struggling with seeing this injustice and inequality and wanting to see that end. We cannot let this moment pass. The road to racial justice has taken far too long—but it’s a journey that we must make and we must make it together. Come join me.”

4. Attack ads are out against Sessions

• GRIT PAC has released an attack ad against former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the 2020 U.S. Senate election, using quotes of what President Donald Trump has had to say about Sessions. Meanwhile, a Trump-backed candidate in South Carolina just got crushed and handed the president a rare primary loss.

• The ad points out how Trump has described Sessions as “scared stiff,” “weak,” “mixed up,” “confused” and “ineffective.” The narrator of the ad goes on to say, “Trump couldn’t count on career politician Jeff Sessions to have his back, because Sessions only looked out for himself — that’s what career politicians do.”

3. Coronavirus vaccine is coming

• Dr. Anthony Fauci went before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee about the coronavirus and he said that getting a coronavirus vaccine is a matter of “when and not if.”
• Fauci went on to add that the coronavirus vaccine could be ready as soon as the end of this year, or early next year, and the United States has continued to increase testing to fight the virus, with about 27.5 million Americans having been tested.

2. You’ll lose benefits if you refuse to work

• As the state has reopened, many people have gone back to work, but some have refused to go back. Many speculated people would refuse to go back to work when the federal government added $600 per week to state unemployment benefits. 
• There have been 3,336 employees reported by their employers for refusing to return to work, and about two-thirds of those are under review while one third have lost benefits. Department of Labor spokesperson Tara Hutchinson has even clarified that “a general fear” of the coronavirus “is not a valid reason” to not return to work. 

1. No noose is good news

• NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace has been making headlines after it was reported that a noose was found in the garage for the car he drives, and with Wallace being the only black driver in NASCAR, the news warranted investigations into if this was a racially motivated attack. It was determined to be false, but Wallace seems motivated to keep this controversy going.
• As the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice investigated the incident, they found that the “noose” in question had actually been in the garage since at least October 2019 and is part of the garage. According to a release from U.S. District Attorney Jay Town, “nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned for garage number 4 last week.”

• 16th Street North in Birmingham has recently been considered for renaming to “Black Lives Matter Boulevard,” but the Birmingham City Council has changed direction at the request of activists. 
• In a letter to the Birmingham City Council, activists argued that renaming a street that played a historical role in the civil rights movement wouldn’t send the same strong political statement that it has in places like Washington, D.C., but instead, “Renaming 16th Street would disrespect the very movement that undergirds this current fight for justice.”

5. There will be three presidential debates

• Former Vice President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign has agreed to have three presidential debates during the general election against President Donald Trump, but said that Trump asking for more debates is just him trying “to change the subject” and create a distraction.
• Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon in a letter wrote that Biden “will accept and participate in the Commission’s planned Presidential candidates’ debates for September 29, October 15, and October 22.” She went on to add that they “hope that President Trump would not break that tradition or make excuses for a refusal to participate.”

4. No football could bring major hurt to local economies

• For Tuscaloosa, not having college football this fall could be “economically catastrophic,” according to Mayor Walt Maddox. He added, “Even a mitigated football season with restricted attendance and number of ball games would have dire economic consequences.”
• From 2014-2015, Tuscaloosa County saw $18.8 million in economic impact per home game, which totaled $131.5 million by the end of the season, but if coronavirus cases continue it’ll be more difficult to have a full football season and packed stadiums safely. 

3. Coronavirus cases are starting to go down again

• After seeing a considerable spike in coronavirus cases throughout Alabama in recent weeks, it seems that daily case numbers are finally falling again, with only 433 cases confirmed on Monday. 
• Over the weekend, there were 472 cases on Sunday and 543 cases on Saturday, which is vastly different than the previous weekend when we saw 1,902 cases. Now the state’s seven-day average has fallen to 591.3, which is the lowest it’s been since June 11. 

2. Tuberville potentially does better against Jones than Sessions, but they both win

• The data firm Cygnal has released more polling data on the 2020 U.S. Senate race, in which former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be in a July runoff to determine who will be on the ballot against U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) in November. 
• In a general election scenario, both Tuberville and Sessions would defeat Jones, but Tuberville does a bit better with 49.7% and Jones at 35.7% and 12.7% undecided, whereas when Sessions is put in the equation, he gathers 44.7% against Jones’ 35.2%, with 17.5% undecided. 

1. Trump signing executive order on immigration restrictions

• President Donald Trump will expand immigration restrictions and limit the number of guest-worker programs allowed, which will include H-1B visas, through an executive order as many Americans are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Trump has already restricted some green cards, and this will be the first restrictions on guest-worker programs. The executive order will stop H-1B tech worker visas, some J work and education exchange visitor visas, L executive transfer visas and H-2B seasonal worker visas.

That doesn’t make him a Confederate sympathizer or a bad person. Painting him this way makes most normal people roll their eyes, but what if Alabama Democrats were being reasonable here?

What if Democrats decided that Confederate Memorial Park would be a good end spot for all of these monuments they want to be taken down?

Before America got into the business of tearing down monuments to the Confederacy, as well as George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, the common argument for removing statues was to put them in Confederate cemeteries or in museums.

Well, this park is both.

Dismukes on Huntsville WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show” appeared to be open to some form of compromise and change to the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.

Dismukes said Monday that he could envision an amendment that would allow cities to move the monuments without breaking the law or waiting for a mob to tear them down.

“I think if a city takes it down, it has to go to Confederate Memorial Park and the city has to pay for the transportation and the setup fees,” Dismukes advised.

My takeaway:

What if a compromise was created that would allow all of the monuments around the state that will be coming down to be moved to Confederate Memorial Park? Maybe we could go further and create a commission to help paint an accurate picture of the Civil War-era in Alabama that everyone can appreciate and learn from, good and bad.

We could do that, or we could continue to demonize each other, call our fellow Alabamians racists with no reason and further divide ourselves.

Listen:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.

• As former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s book is set to be released, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) is suggesting that new impeachment articles and Bolton’s testimony could come soon. 
• While appearing on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Schiff was asked by host Chuck Todd if they would wait until after the November election “to start the process,” and Schiff said that “if we conclude that there are important things he says that needs to be exposed to the public” they shouldn’t wait. He added, “Exposure of this president’s conduct is the best way to protect this country.”

5. Defund NASCAR?

• Just before the GEICO 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway, someone protesting NASCAR banning the Confederate flag flew a small plane over the speedway with a banner reading “DEFUND NASCAR.” Attached to the banner was also a Confederate flag. The GEICO 500 was the first NASCAR event to allow fans to attend, only allowing 5,000 people. 
• It has also been found that a noose was left in the garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, the only black driver. NASCAR responded by promising to launch an immediate investigation to identify the person or persons responsible to “eliminate them from the sport.”

4. Marshall isn’t budging on defunding police

• While speaking at the Fraternal Order of Police Conference in Lee County, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made it clear that we won’t be defunding the police, but he did address the argument of more funding to mental health in Alabama by defunding police. 
• Marshall explained that they “embrace the fact that we want to encourage more resources to be in place for mental health services,” but that shouldn’t be done “at the expense of law enforcement.” 

3. George Wallace is next

• As there are efforts to remove Confederate names and monuments, there is now a push to remove former Alabama Governor George Wallace’s name from community colleges, streets, buildings and a tunnel. 
• Through petitions on change.org, people are arguing that Wallace’s name should be removed from places due to his early stance on desegregation and statements such as “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

2. Dismukes isn’t going to resign

• The Alabama Democratic Party is calling for State Representative Will Dismukes (R-Prattville) due to his “public support of the lost Confederate cause” after Dismukes posted a family picture at the Confederate Memorial Park. 
• Alabama Democratic Party executive director Wade Perry said that Dismukes is “stuck in the past,” adding, “If little Will wants to play dress-up and pretend to fight for the lost cause, he should resign. His job is to pass laws that help Alabamians, not honor folks who fought to preserve the institution of slavery.” While Dismukes hasn’t released an official statement, he’s made it clear that he won’t resign. 

1. No one sabotaged the Trump rally

• After a lower turnout than expected, just under 6,200 people, at President Donald Trump’s first campaign rally since the shutdowns due to the coronavirus, rumors began to spread that the 1 million ticket requests came from “teens on TikTok” looking to sabotage the rally. 
• Campaign manager Brad Parscale has denied this narrative, saying, “Leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don’t know what they’re talking about or how our rallies work.” He went on to explain the process of getting rid of false ticket requests, but Parscale ultimately said that the low turnout was due to the media narrative about the coronavirus, riots and potential for violence at the event.