Blind spots. We’ve all got them. Some, for example, believe their singing voice to be a divine blessing although it might more accurately be described as a curse. Others assume their Facebook friends want to see their every meal. Still others ignore that they do, in reality, need deodorant.

Not all blind spots are this trite, however. History makes that much clear.

Alabama is, unfortunately, host to one of the most obvious and horrid of blind spots: the slavery of the Antebellum South. The fact that many slave-owners were faithful church-goers, Sunday school teachers, and reputable members of the community ought to remind us of how even the most evident evils can be hidden from our moral view.

Our school district does not provide school bus service, so parents must take their children to and from school each day. Waiting in line to pick up our children provides a first-hand lesson about an important category of economic contests.

Troy Elementary School dismisses students at 3pm. I always want to be one of the first parents in line when I pick up my son. Chuck then gets perhaps an extra ten minutes at home. And I show him that he is important enough to me that I will make time to be first in line.

Only try as I might, I have not yet this year gotten close to the front of the line. Even arriving 30 minutes early is not enough. The people of Troy love their children very much, which makes Troy a great place to live. We also seem to have very flexible schedules.

As a group, we parents face a reality: only one person will be first in the pickup line. The line is an example of what economist Robert Frank labeled positional goods – where we care about our position relative to others. The pursuit of positional goods can be wasteful.

7. Trump and the Cherokee nation respond to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s ancestry test

— The strange move involved Warren releasing a video that declared “the results strongly support the existence of an unadmixed Native American ancestor” from six to ten generations ago which means she is between 1/64th to 1/1024th native American.

— Any fair-minded observer would view this a rebuke of Sen. Warren’s claims to be a “woman of color” not a response to President Trump’s “attacks”.

6. Alabama Republicans may be softening on Medicaid expansion

— Republicans in Alabama have been steadfastly against the Medicaid expansion proposal because it will require an additional outlay of up to $200 million dollars. This is a wildly unpopular idea amongst Republican legislators but lame-duck Republica State Senator Gerald Dial is stepping out and advocating for it.

— While this is one of Democratic candidate for Governor Walt Maddox’s issues, support from legislators switching positions after an election wouldn’t be much of a surprise. They did something similar in 2007 with a pay raise, and in 2015 Governor Robert Bentley advocated for additional revenue after running a campaign saying that very thing would not be necessary.

5. Three percent of U.S. taxpayers pay a majority of taxes in the United States

— A trope from the media and their Democrats is that tax cuts only help the top 1 percent, this is patently false, in fact, the top few percents of the American citizens pay a majority of taxes collected in this country.

— Amazingly, the top 1,409 taxpayers pay more income tax than the bottom 70 million, with expectations in the fiscal year 2018 to be close to $1.7 trillion dollars which surpasses 2017’s collection of $1.5 trillion dollars.

4. The Saudis are ready to admit they had something to do with a journalist’s death

— Saudi Arabia will reportedly admit that they accidentally killed Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi during an interrogation that went south. The alleged claim will be that they were just trying to abduct the journalist from Turkey.

— This all comes less than 24 hours after the President seemed to accept the denial of the leader of the oil-rich kingdom that has made a threat to retaliate against any nation that sanctions them.

3. Governor Kay Ivey has assigned a new chairman of the Alabama Board of Pardon and Paroles and froze paroles for 75 days

— Governor Ivey has issued an executive order that freezes all early paroles for 75 days, which requires the board implement a plan of which Ivey and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall approve.

— Ivey and Marshall acted yesterday, and for good reason. 100 more violent inmates were set for possible early release before the end of October.

2. President Donald Trump tours areas devastated by Hurricane Michael 

— The President spent the day on the Gulf Coast, taking a helicopter tour of and visiting damaged Panama City and Lynn Haven on the ground where he spoke to survivors and handed out water bottles before heading to Georgia.

— The President praised Alabama’s Governor saying, “She’s in there fighting” as he praised the farmers damaged by the storm, “[T]hinking about our GREAT Alabama farmers…We are with you!”

1. Alabama Senator Doug Jones doesn’t get why people are upset with him over his vote against Justice Brett Kavanaugh

— Speaking to Alabama Public Televsion’s “Capitol Journal”, Jones lashed out at the Alabama Republican Party. Jones said: “This is the same Republican Party who voted for a guy last year – who continued to support someone who ran against me who there were very, very serious and credible allegations. This is a Republican Party that puts party over state, party over country. So, I’m not surprised they put this in political tones. The very thing that I avoided from the beginning, from my standpoint and my standpoint was what mattered to me and my staff – we were not looking at this in political terms.”

— The problem with Jones’ analysis here is that he doesn’t seem to grasp that the state views him as turning their back on them. He supported the wishes of Senators Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren as opposed to those in the state of Alabama.

Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and Dr. Waymon Burke take you through this week’s biggest political stories, including:

— Did the Kavanaugh vote doom Sen. Doug Jones and other red state Democrats?

— Do Governor Kay Ivey and President Donald Trump’s popularity kill any chance for Alabama Democrats?

— Why are Taylor Swift’s and Kanye West’s politics being treated so differently?

After President Trump’s election, members of the establishment media determined it was time to reevaluate their performance.

Media decided it was more important “Now More Than Ever” they acknowledge that “Democracy Dies In The Darkness.” They decided their job was to check the most powerful person in the world. By focusing on this, they also acknowledged that they weren’t doing that from 2009-2016. Because they refocused their efforts, their results were that 90-plus percent of their coverage has been negative.

Because of this, the president continues to weaponize a term, invented by Hillary Clinton, and call them out. He does this by calling out “fake news media” as “the enemy of the people.” He’s pretty clear he isn’t talking about all news, although admittedly, he and his supporters are often guilty of calling all news they disagree with “fake news.”

This phrasing has caused the stuck pig to squeal, and the news media continue attacking, going as far as having the poster boy for bias and inappropriate behavior, CNN’s Jim Acosta, storm out of a press briefing in a huff because Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t repeat what he wanted her to and calling her “Un-American.”

These people are so inside their bubble that they don’t even understand it.

I laid this out to people in a White House press briefing.

WATCH:

Police in Mississippi say a man charged in a crime spree that included a killing in Alabama has been apprehended in Houston.

News outlets report U.S. Marshals took 31-year-old Devarian Edwards into custody Friday.

Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and Dr. Waymon Burke take you through this week’s biggest political stories including:

— What do the recent polls done on Alabama’s statewide races tell us?

— Is Sue Bell Cobb wise to advocating for the raising of taxes while running for the Democrat Gubernatorial nomination?

Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and Dr. Waymon Burke take you through this week’s biggest political stories including:

— If Gov. Kay Ivey has a 67 percent approval rating, can she be beat?

— Do members of Congress have any idea what Facebook actually does and do they have any business regulating it?

— How is Democrat Sen. Doug Jones more popular than Sen. Richard Shelby and can this last until Jones’ re-election?

J. Pepper Bryars, editor of Yellowhammer News, joins Jackson and Burke to discuss the role of new media in 2018 and what role it will play in the midterm elections.

Jackson closes the show with a “Parting Shot” directed at folks on the right who are thrilled about Speaker Paul Ryan leaving Congress and he explains what they can expect next.

The countdown is on! What’s happening as the session winds down? Read below to find out!

1. Gun bills might be finished for this session . . .  

With time quickly winding down in the legislative session, the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee had a meeting scheduled on Tuesday to consider several things: a bill that raises the age to by an AR-15 from 18 to 21, a bill that would allow judges to take firearms away from individuals who might use them for self-harm or harm to others, and a bill that would ban the sale of AR-15s and other similar guns. The meeting was canceled due to lack of participation—only 4 of the 11 representatives on the committee showed up for the meeting. Additionally, the house, on Tuesday, left without debating Representative Will Ainsworth’s (R-Guntersville) bill to arm teachers. With the session expected to end next week and with no action on the bills this week, it appears that time has run out for these bills this session. Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) has said that Ainsworth’s bill will come up again next session, while Ainsworth has called on Governor Ivey to call a special session to consider school safety proposals.

2. But school safety still looks to be a priority of the legislature.

The Alabama Senate moved one step closer to requiring police officers to get a criminal conviction before taking a citizen’s property, but states that have already implemented such limits have run into loophole: the federal government.

Alabama lawmakers passed their ban through a state Senate committee last week under the impression they had the authority to ban civil forfeiture in their state. New Hampshire passed a bill similar to Alabama’s in 2016, but state and local police are still managing to take property without a criminal conviction.

The federal equitable sharing program, which allows state and local police to partner with federal authorities when making forfeitures, effectively ignores state-level limitations.

“The government ought to be required to prove that criminal conviction before being able to seize stuff,” Republican state Sen. Arthur Orr told the Heartland Institute. “The idea that the government can take a citizen’s property without a criminal conviction does not sit well with most people that I discussed this issue with.”

From Lincoln to William McKinley to Theodore Roosevelt, and from Warren Harding through Calvin Coolidge, the Republican Party erected the most awesome manufacturing machine the world had ever seen.

And, as the party of high tariffs through those seven decades, the GOP was rewarded by becoming America’s Party.

Thirteen Republican presidents served from 1860 to 1930, and only two Democrats. And Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson were elected only because the Republicans had split.

Why, then, this terror of tariffs that grips the GOP?

Consider. On hearing that President Trump might impose tariffs on aluminum and steel, Sen. Lindsey Graham was beside himself: “Please reconsider,” he implored the president, “you’re making a huge mistake.”

Twenty-four hours earlier, Graham had confidently assured us that war with a nuclear-armed North Korea is “worth it.”

“All the damage that would come from a war would be worth it in terms of long-term stability and national security,” said Graham.

A steel tariff terrifies Graham. A new Korean war does not?

“Trade wars are not won, only lost,” warns Sen. Jeff Flake.

But this is ahistorical nonsense.

The U.S. relied on tariffs to convert from an agricultural economy in 1800 to the mightiest manufacturing power on earth by 1900.

Bismarck’s Germany, born in 1871, followed the U.S. example, and swept past free trade Britain before World War I.

Does Senator Flake think Japan rose to post-war preeminence through free trade, as Tokyo kept U.S. products out, while dumping cars, radios, TVs and motorcycles here to kill the industries of the nation that was defending them. Both Nixon and Reagan had to devalue the dollar to counter the predatory trade policies of Japan.

Since Bush I, we have run $12 trillion in trade deficits, and, in the first decade in this century, we lost 55,000 factories and 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs.

Does Flake see no correlation between America’s decline, China’s rise, and the $4 trillion in trade surpluses Beijing has run up at the expense of his own country?

The hysteria that greeted Trump’s idea of a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent tariff on aluminum suggest that restoring this nation’s economic independence is going to be a rocky road.

In 2017, the U.S. ran a trade deficit in goods of almost $800 billion, $375 billion of that with China, a trade surplus that easily covered Xi Jinping’s entire defense budget.

If we are to turn our $800 billion trade deficit in goods into an $800 billion surplus, and stop the looting of America’s industrial base and the gutting of our cities and towns, sacrifices will have to be made.

But if we are not up to it, we will lose our independence, as the countries of the EU have lost theirs.

Specifically, we need to shift taxes off goods produced in the USA, and impose taxes on goods imported into the USA.

As we import nearly $2.5 trillion in goods, a tariff on imported goods, rising gradually to 20 percent, would initially produce $500 billion in revenue.

All that tariff revenue could be used to eliminate and replace all taxes on production inside the USA.

As the price of foreign goods rose, U.S. products would replace foreign-made products. There’s nothing in the world that we cannot produce here. And if it can be made in America, it should be made in America.

Consider. Assume a Lexus cost $50,000 in the U.S., and a 20 percent tariff were imposed, raising the price to $60,000.

What would the Japanese producers of Lexus do?

They could accept the loss in sales in the world’s greatest market, the USA. They could cut their prices to hold their U.S. market share. Or they could shift production to the United States, building their cars here and keeping their market.

How have EU nations run up endless trade surpluses with America? By imposing a value-added tax, or VAT, on imports from the U.S., while rebating the VAT on exports to the USA. Works just like a tariff.

The principles behind a policy of economic nationalism, to turn our trade deficits, which subtract from GDP, into trade surpluses, which add to GDP, are these:

Production comes before consumption. Who consumes the apples is less important than who owns the orchard. We should depend more upon each other and less upon foreign lands.

We should tax foreign-made goods and use the revenue, dollar for dollar, to cut taxes on domestic production.

The idea is not to keep foreign goods out, but to induce foreign companies to move production here.

We have a strategic asset no one else can match. We control access to the largest richest market on earth, the USA.

And just as states charge higher tuition on out-of state students at their top universities, we should charge a price of admission for foreign producers to get into America’s markets.

And — someone get a hold of Sen. Graham — it’s called a tariff.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, “Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever.”

COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill on Thursday to protect children from cyberbullying in honor of a 10-year-old boy who committed suicide last year.

Fifth grader Jamari Terrell Williams took his own life after he was bullied online last October. Rep. John Knight, a Democrat from Montgomery, sponsored the bill to add cyberbullying and harassment off school grounds to the current law protecting students from bullying at school.

Bipartisan House members expressed support for the bill because of similar situations of cyberbullying and student suicides in their own districts.

Williams’ mother Monique Davis was present in the statehouse for the bill’s passage. The bill had 88 co-sponsors in the 105-member House and now moves to the Senate.

(Image: Pixabay)

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

 
 
In today’s world of texting and instant messaging, soft skills are still important. High school students will need to have a firm grasp of these concepts to ensure their future career success in the highly competitive job market.

The young people will be America’s future workforce. By the year 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the number of employees the U.S. economy needs will grow to 161 million – a 10.8 percent increase since 2012.

Employers need motivated and highly skilled employees to lead their organizations. Successful employers today often focus on maximizing profit margins and meeting the bottom line. They develop strong workplace cultures and recruit the best talent available.

Many top business experts believe the most important skills that employees must have today include time management, motivation and communication skills. These skills are essential to effectively planning and organizing projects with supervisors and co-workers.

Equipping high school students with essential skills (what soft skills are often called today) is a top priority for Alabama’s Career and Technical Education programs and student organizations – the National Future Farmers of America Organization; JROTC; SkillsUSA; Health Occupations Students Of America-Future Health Professionals; DECA; Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda; Jobs for Alabama’s Graduates; Family, Career and Community Leaders of America; and the Technology Student Association.

Alabama’s CTE program offers middle and high school students the chance to participate in more than 300 career-related courses and programs statewide. Students can earn college credit (while still in high school) through dual-enrollment classes. They can also earn nationally recognized credentials, such as Adobe Certified Associate, Microsoft Office Specialist, and Certified Nursing Assistant. Hundreds of other credentialing opportunities are available for students.

Essential skills are emphasized in our state’s CTE programs and classrooms. Students often work in “project teams” to complete class assignments. Some teachers and classes even require students to officially “clock in” to simulate a real-world work experience.

Students also engage in hands-on learning. They apply the core math and science concepts they have learned in the traditional classroom to real-world scenarios and class projects. They begin to build good problem-solving skills and techniques.

Some classes even have designated team leaders and managers to simulate an actual work environment. Students learn responsibility and practice good communication with peers.

The average graduation rate nationally for high school students concentrating in CTE programs is 93 percent, while the national graduation rate for students not participating is 86 percent.

AlabamaWorks, a new and highly respected state initiative that unites the many components of workforce development, is also providing students, parents and even experienced professionals with helpful tips and information on workplace requirements, expectations and credentials. This initiative has excellent resources for students, prospective employees and employers.

AlabamaWorks also focuses on dual-enrollment opportunities for students and promotes essential skills development. AlabamaWorks is bridging divides between employer and employee expectations.

Soft skills are still relevant, important and needed today. This term has been re-branded, but it continues to serve the same great purpose – preparing our young people for a lifetime of success!

To learn more about AlabamaWorks’ partner programs, visit www.alabamaworks.com.

(Collie Wells is the interim deputy state superintendent of education, career and technical education at the Alabama Department of Education.)

Birmingham Interim Police Chief Orlando Wilson said investigators are seeking to piece together the exact circumstances surrounding Wednesday afternoon’s shooting at dismissal time at Huffman High School, one of the city’s largest. He added that the probe will involve scouring school surveillance video for clues and completing interviews among students and staff at the large magnet school.

“At this particular time, we are considering this accidental,” the police chief said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon just hours after the shooting. “Right now, we have a lot of unanswered questions.”

The shooting prompted a brief lockdown though students were subsequently released late Wednesday and authorities said they had subsequently determined that the shooting was not perpetrated by “someone from the outside” the school.

Wilson declined to say who fired the gun or to identify what firearm, adding it had been recovered by authorities.

No arrests were immediately reported, and the two students weren’t identified.

“We are asking questions from the staff, the students, anyone who was in that area,” Wilson said. “This should not happen in schools.”

He said police have already questioned students but declined to say how many. Wilson did confirm metal detectors were in place and functioning in the school.

Huffman High in northeast Birmingham is one of the largest high schools in the city. The Birmingham City School system said in a statement that the shooting prompted a brief lockdown and added two students were involved as school was letting out. It later said the schools would be open Thursday even as civic leaders and others were mourning the loss of life.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said the deceased student would have turned 18 in about 30 days and was a senior “who had aspirations and dreams to be a nurse.”

“We are not just talking about some person, (we’re) talking about losing a part of our future. Our hearts are heavy,” Woodfin said.

Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring said her goal was to support the family of the teen who died and to reassure parents about the safety of their children.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey released a statement Wednesday evening that she was saddened by the student’s death.

“I am praying for the family of this young lady who has tragically lost her life way too early … it reaffirms that there is no place for students to have firearms or other weapons on campus.”

The shooting took place just a day after Ivey created a school safety council in Alabama to make recommendations on security. The security plan would ensure schools have an updated security response plan for sharing information about potential threats. It also would require schools to train students and school employees on how to respond to an emergency situation.

Multiple bills also have been proposed in the Alabama legislature after 17 people were killed last month in a shooting rampage at a Parkland, Florida, high school. Varying proposals by Republicans would arm either teachers or volunteer security forces in schools. Meanwhile, measures sought by Democrats would seek to limit or ban the sale of assault weapons. The proposals face a tight deadline before the end of Alabama’s legislative session this election year.

(Associated Press, copyright 2018)

If selling construction tools is not the kind of thing you would expect female entrepreneurs to do, you don’t know the Head family of Birmingham.

Maryam “Mimi” Head bought the Ram Tool Construction Supply Co. in 1984 with no prior distribution experience and methodically built the small company into a major force in the Southeast, adding product lines and acquiring competitors, according to a history on the company’s website.

Daughter Hillery Head, one of the Yellowhammer 2018 Women of Impact, joined the firm in 1993 and became CEO in 2009 when her mother retired.

Under the younger Head’s leadership, Ram Tool’s growth has accelerated. It acquired Marco Supply in 2012, expanding into three cities in South Carolina, Charlotte, N.C., Washington, three Virginia cities and Charleston, West Virginia. Ram Tool also opened a new store in San Antonio.

Ram Tool has bought new companies or expanded into new locations every year since. Last year, it celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Today Ram Tool operates in 36 cities. According to the company website, on one project, it made 1,740 deliveries, with orders arriving every day for more than six months.

“So needless to say, going the extra mile is just the beginning for us,” the company says.

In 2016, Head told BHM BIZ that the toughest challenge she faced as CEO was working through the Great Recession, which crushed the construction industry.

“We were forced to tighten our belt quickly and dramatically,” she wrote.

Head, a Yale University graduate, told Business Alabama that her mother picked Ram Tool despite a lack of experience in the field because she wanted “a legitimate, real business” that offered growth opportunity. She said her mother taught her never to settle for easy answers.

“Another thing she taught us was to not have ‘analysis paralysis,’” she told the publication. “Better to go ahead and make a decision quickly and move on with that. If it’s the wrong decision, it’s easier to back up and to reverse than to just sit around and not do anything. So it’s important to make decisions quickly and then move to execute them quickly.”

Head also told the publication that her company’s sales team tries to stay a cut above the competition by saying “yes” to customers even when they want tools not in stock. She recounted one time when the firm found an aerial drone for a client in Dallas.

“We always try to say, ‘Yes, we can’ and to do it quickly,” she told Business Alabama. “A lot of times the customer just needs to know that we’re working on it and that we’re on it.”

Brendan Kirby is senior political reporter at LifeZette.com and a Yellowhammer contributor. He also is the author of “Wicked Mobile.” Follow him on Twitter.

When he was a sophomore in high school, Lew Burdette was kidnapped, stabbed, thrown down into a well, shot in the head and left for dead.

Burdette miraculously escaped and survived to tell the horrible tale as his testimony of faith and to use it as his grounds for empathizing with the abused children and mothers who become residents of King’s Home.

“I was the victim of a very violent act,” Burdette, the president of King’s Home, told Yellowhammer News. “It wasn’t abuse, but I can relate on some level to being subjected to a violent act, being the victim of a crime. Things like that that happen to you are no fault of your own, but don’t become a victim, you know, get over that victim mentality that you have your whole life in front of you and there is hope.”

King’s Home is a Chelsea-based ministry of 22 therapeutic group homes and independent-living facilities stretched out through Shelby, Jefferson, Tuscaloosa and Blount counties, all of which house residents who are fleeing domestic violence or other abusive situations.

“It’s a way to start over in life,” Burdette said.

Twelve of the homes are for teenagers, and those homes are headed by couples who have children of their own.

The homes offer the children stable home environments and opportunities to deal with their pasts and move on with their futures.

“The issues and coping issues that teenagers are having today are so much different than they were even fifteen years ago when I started with King’s Home,” Burdette said. “The horror that some of these kids go through is really devastating.”

The other ten homes are for adult mothers with children.

Burdette connected the dots between his own experience and the experience of King’s Home residents.

“We’ve all needed help somewhere along the way in life, and we’ve all had things that have happened to us along the way in life,” he said. “The life that you’ve experienced in the past doesn’t have to be that way.”

His own story is almost as extraordinary as the success of the ministry.

“One kid came into my office before Christmas, he said, ‘Hey Mr. Lew I just want you to know how much it means living here at King’s Home because I never dreamed I’d be able to play football and he’s the starting safety on his high school football team.”

Last May, King’s Home saw twelve kids graduate high school. Ten went to college, one joined the military, the other got his welder’s certification and is already making over $20 per hour.

For more information about King’s Home, click here and to read more about Lew Burdette’s story, click here.

 
 
Manufacture Alabama announced Monday that it has endorsed Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in his campaign to retain his office, according to a news release from the group.

“Steve Marshall has proven himself as a champion for manufacturers and has a distinguished track record of advocating for our members,” said George Clark, president of Manufacture Alabama.

Marshall is running for the GOP nomination against Alice Martin, Chess Bedsole and Troy Kong.

Manufacture Alabama is “focused on the competitive, legislative, regulatory and operational interests and needs of manufacturers and their partner industries and businesses” in the state, the release said.

“Manufacturing is incredibly important to our state’s economy, and I am honored to have received the endorsement of our state’s only manufacturing association,” Marshall added.

The Republican primary is June 5.

(@jpepperbryars is the editor of Yellowhammer News and the author of American Warfighter)

Dr. Nancy Dunlap may not be a household name, but her impact in the field of medicine has extended far beyond Alabama’s borders.

Dunlap, an emeritus professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is among the women to be honored this month at the Yellowhammer Women of Impact event.

Dunlap was special adviser to the Alabama Medicaid Advisory Commission and served on the National Health Policy Conference Advisory Board. Also a member of America’s Top Doctors, she served under former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley as secretary of the Emergency Response Commission to Address the Health Care Crisis.

In 2013, the National Governors Association tapped her to serve as physician-in-residence at the organization’s Center for Best Practices Health Division, where she helped develop recommendations for states to contain health care costs, manage diseases and improve technology.

“Her expertise and long-standing dedication will be very beneficial to our work for the nation’s governors,” National Governors Association Executive Director Dan Crippen said in a statement announcing her appointment at the time.

Later in 2013, Dunlap left Alabama to take a job as interim dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine while the school searched for a permanent replacement. She served in that capacity for 18 months and then returned home to Alabama.

It is not just in medicine where Dunlap has made her mark, however. She has served the broader community in a number of ways. Most recently, she participated on a search committee that selected Melanie R. Bridgeforth to take over as president and CEO at the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin also tapped her after his election last year to co-chair an advisory committee on social justice issues to help the incoming administration set priorities for the first 100 days.

Dunlap in 2016 joined the board of Southern Research, a nonprofit that works on drug discovery and development, advanced engineering research, and energy and environmental research.

Dunlap participated in a Women in Pulmonary Symposium at UAB and talked about the need to nurture women in science fields.

“I do believe that there is a tendency in every professional field to believe that women, particularly when they have families, would have balance issues. As a result, women aren’t put in leadership positions and fall behind their male peers,” Dunlap said, according to a report on UAB’s website. “If you haven’t held those leadership positions at a certain point, you fall behind professionally and can’t catch up. That’s why it is very important to nominate young faculty members to professional organizations.”

Those young female faculty members looking for a role model could find few better than Dunlap.

Join Women of Impact honoree Gov. Kay Ivey and special guests from across the state for a Birmingham awards event March 29 honoring the 20 Yellowhammer Women of Impact whose powerful contributions advance Alabama. Details and registration may be found here.

Brendan Kirby is senior political reporter at LifeZette.com and a Yellowhammer contributor. He also is the author of “Wicked Mobile.” Follow him on Twitter.

A recent study commissioned by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Alabama reveals that the commercial construction industry had a total output impact of $11.8 billion in 2015, but industry experts say unless young people who do not plan to go to college receive trade and craft training and go into construction-related fields, those numbers won’t be sustainable.

“We have an aging workforce, and we were like, we have got a problem and we have got to do something about it,” said Jay Reed, president of ABC Alabama, in an interview with Yellowhammer News.  “We could not continue to be a $12 billion industry in Alabama if we did not start filling the pipeline.”

That’s why industry partners have created the Academy of Craft Training program, a public/private partnership between the construction industry and the State of Alabama’s K-12 education system.

The partnership involves support from local school boards, state workforce training programs, and the construction companies.

“We’re paying for the teachers, local schools pay for transportation, AIDT is paying for the building,” Reed said.

A construction-education partnership is already a natural fit — Reed said the most surprising piece of data from the ABC study showed the industry contributed an estimated $444 million to Alabama’s Education Trust Fund in 2015.

For the 2016-17 school year, 16 Birmingham-metro area high schools sent students to the simulated workplace at the Alabama Workforce Training Center to receive NCCER construction-related training in building construction, masonry, HVAC/plumbing, welding and electrical.

This year, 26 schools are participating and districts in Huntsville and Mobile are looking to participate as well.

Gov. Kay Ivey visited the AIDT Workforce Development Training Center, where the Academy training is held, and said, “The jobs of tomorrow are going to require a postsecondary certificate or degree, or it’s going to require students getting hands-on training that prepares them to enter the workforce immediately after graduation from high school.”

Reed said he sees support for the program in Montgomery.

“The state’s investment in these kids will be paid back in three years. Anyone who knows business knows if you get a return on investment in three years, it’s a good investment,” Reed said. “This is the future of construction training.”

(Opinion) A bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) that would raise the state’s minimum age for all tobacco purchases from 19 to 21 years old has gained the support of five Alabama physician groups, and it has a good chance of passing.

“Smoking remains one of the most preventable causes of heart disease by making the heart work harder and raising the blood pressure, which can trigger a stroke,” Medical Association President Jerry Harrison, M.D., said in a statement of support for the bill earlier this month. “So, raising Alabama’s legal tobacco age limit by a couple of years in order to add years to our children’s lives only makes sense.”

Putting aside the question of whether Pringle’s bill would actually mitigate tobacco use, and particularly cigarette use, among teens, the bill and the primary arguments used to support it are bad for this reason: they treat all tobacco products as equally dangerous.

All tobacco products are not created equally, and it’s not even close. Cigarette smoking is quite obviously dangerous, responsible for some 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the CDC. An estimated 41,000 of those deaths are connected to secondhand smoking. There’s no avoiding that harsh reality, and there should be a serious debate about the freedom to smoke vs. public health.

It is important, though, to note the CDC’s precise language: cigarette smoking is responsible for an estimated 1 in 5 deaths annually, not tobacco use.

We all know this, but cigarette smoke is dangerous because it is riddled with harmful chemicals and because most cigarette smokers smoke habitually, the effects of those chemicals upon the respiratory system and the heart are catalyzed.

Pipe tobacco and cigars are not consumed in the same fashion as cigarettes and simply do not carry the same risks. Pipe tobacco and cigar smoke are not typically inhaled and do not contain the carcinogens that cigarettes do.

As for chewing tobacco, it presents dangers of lip and gum disease but does not bring with it risks of lung cancer and heart disease which, again, are what kill smokers.

Unfortunately, because cigarettes contribute to so many deaths and because they are the most commonly consumed form of tobacco, they distort debates about tobacco policy. If we are going to regulate tobacco use because of the harm it causes, we must be responsible enough to make distinctions between cigarettes and other forms of tobacco which are not nearly as harmful.

Jeremy Beaman is in his final year at the University of Mobile and also writes for The College Fix. Follow him on Twitter @jeremywbeaman.

The national association for Republican state attorneys general recently endorsed Steve Marshall is his campaign to remain Alabama’s top law enforcement officer.

Marshall, a former district attorney in north Alabama, was appointed attorney general last year when Luther Strange left for the U.S. Senate.

He is now running in the Republican Primary against former U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, former Attorney General Troy King, and Mobile lawyer Chess Bedsole.

Key quotes from the Republican Attorneys General Association:

— “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) is proud to stand with Attorney General Steve Marshall and offer him our association’s full endorsement. Like President Donald J. Trump, he values our law enforcement, is strong on crime and is dedicated to keeping Alabamians safe.

— “Marshall has been serving Alabama – protecting their communities and fighting crime – for years. First, as the District Attorney of Marshall County, and now as attorney general. Marshall has been a tireless advocate for a safer Alabama, working directly with local law enforcement to combat violent crime and collaborating with Governor Kay Ivey’s and President Donald J. Trump’s administrations to tackle the opioid epidemic.”

— “Marshall has been an impressive new addition to the RAGA community, joining his colleagues from his very first day in office to fight federal overreach and restore state sovereignty. In his first year, Marshall has emerged as a dynamic leader and an ardent defender of the Constitution and the rule of law.”

The Republican Primary is June 5.

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During a tele-town hall held Monday night, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said the possibility of balancing the federal budget is up to American voters.

 “Yeah, it’s possible,” Brooks said, “if the American people do a much better job than they have been doing of electing congressmen and senators who will vote for a balanced budget constitutional amendment that forces us to do the right thing on the one hand, or on the other hand, will vote for senators, congressmen – and I should add presidents in that list – who are more conscious of our financial limitations, thereby forcing us to make the tough decisions where we prioritize what we want to spend money on and those things of the lowest priority simply don’t get the money because we don’t have it.”

Brooks said many voters aren’t sending the right people to Congress.

“But unfortunately, the people across America, particularly in the major cities, the people that they’re sending to Washington, D.C., they are wholly and completely financially irresponsible,” he said, calling them “debt junkies.”

Brooks also entertained the idea of an Article 5 Convention, which would allow states to bypass Congress in order to amend the Constitution to include a balanced budget provision.

“If you know people who are in different states around the country, try to get them to talk to their legislators to get that resolution passed so that the states can bypass Congress,” he said.

Brooks and U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) were the only two members of Alabama’s congressional delegation who voted against Congress’s recent budget deal, which would add an estimated $320 billion to the deficit over the next decade. Brooks has called it the worst piece of legislation he has voted on since being elected to Congress, with no close second.

At his town hall meeting in Chickasaw last week, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) met with a room full of constituents who wanted to know why Nicholas Cruz was able to massacre 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and what could be done to prevent future mass shootings.

Byrne discussed the shooter’s mental state, as well as the FBI’s lack of response to repeated warnings about him, but he quickly pivoted to the years-old conversation about violent media and their ability to incite violence in their consumers, an issue about which there is significant debate.

“It bothers me every time I see one of these video games, or one of these movies or television shows, that we’ve allowed to get violence to the point of where it’s a fantasy,” Byrne said. “Violence has been fantasized and that feeds into the immature minds of young men.”

President Donald Trump raised the same concern last week during a meeting with state lawmakers.

“We have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it. … We may have to talk about that also,” he said.

Cruz was evidently an avid player of violent video games. Last week, a neighbor told the Miami Herald that Cruz “escaped his misery” by playing violent video games.

“It was kill, kill, kill, blow up something, and kill some more, all day,” the neighbor said.

Byrne expressed that large media companies hold blame.

“We’ve got people who make billions of dollars in this country off of feeding that to our young people,” he said.

“I think that we’re going to have to have a hard look in Congress, and we already are, at what’s happening on all of these websites and all of these digital platforms like Google and Facebook and all of that,” Byrne said. “I think they have been irresponsible.”

Most notably, Byrne expressed what absolute free speech advocates fear more than anything.

“I think we do have a right in government to go to them and say ‘we’re going to regulate you so that you don’t harm American society and the American public,’” he said. “I do think there are things that we can legitimately, legally, and constitutionally do with some of these platforms that are basically putting stuff out there that’s like poison for young minds.”

The Supreme Court has decided that not all types of speech are guaranteed protection under the First Amendment, including obscenity, slander, and child pornography among others. Even so, Byrne acknowledged a tension between enacting such policies restricting violent media and the freedom of speech.

“I’m not for trampling first amendment rights any more than I’m for trampling second amendment rights,” he said.

Byrne discussed improving the NICS system (National Instant Criminal Background Check System), arming teachers who want to be armed and encouraging the FBI and other law enforcement to better share information as possible solutions, while arguing that he didn’t think stricter gun laws would have prevented the killing in Parkland.

Ultimately, Byrne said the problem is a societal and cultural one.

“We’re not talking about that because that is a symptom of the breakdown of American society, and we need to start rebuilding our society beginning with our families,” he told Yellowhammer.

“We’ve got to talk about how the glorification of violence, the fantasy of violence, is infecting young minds,” he said. “And it’s infecting young minds to the extent that some of them are willing to go off and do what this kid did.”

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CHICKASAW — After meeting with constituents at his 106^th town hall this week, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope) spoke with Yellowhammer News about a number of issues facing Congress, beginning with health care.

“I don’t think we’re done with health care,” Byrne said. “We repealed the individual mandate and we passed tax reform, but I think we’ve got a lot of other things we need to do.”

The congressman fielded at least one question from a constituent about the recent budget deal, which he voted for. Conservatives criticized Republicans in Congress for passing the deal because it significantly increased the deficit and debt, something they voted firmly against under President Barrack Obama.

Only two Republican members of Alabama’s Congressional delegation voted against the budget — U.S. Reps. Gary Palmer of the Birmingham area and Mo Brooks of Huntsville.

“I had great concerns,” Byrne said. “Gary Palmer and I had the same concerns, and he fell one way, I fell the other.”

The problem, he explained, was the U.S. Senate.

“Essentially when you have a Republican Senate that requires 60 votes and you’ve got to get a deal with the Democrats, you’re going to end up with bad deals,” he said. “In order for us to get the money we needed to adequately fund our military, we had to agree with a bad deal with the Democrats.”

Pressed on whether he voted for a bad deal, Byrne made a distinction.

“It’s a good deal for defense. It’s a bad deal for domestic discretionary,” he said.

Ultimately, Byrne said it was appeals from the administration that quelled his deficit concerns.

“Yes, talking to (White House Chief of Staff) Kelly and talking to Secretary Mattis convinced me that on balance, the better decision was to make sure that we protected America first,” he said.

Asked what he thinks is the most important piece of legislation passed during this session, Byrne didn’t equivocate — the National Defense Authorization Act.

“It was in that act that we turned America back around to making the appropriate choices to defend the country,” he said. “And we did it in such a way to where we actually went beyond what the president wanted us to do, but we knew it was the right thing to do.”

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