The 7 Things You Should Be Talking About Today

1. There is still no clear bill on immigration that can pass the House and Senate

— The bill to end the government shutdown includes a promise to bring a vote on immigration to the Senate; no one knows what that bill is.

— Unfortunately for those who are party to that deal, they can’t force the House to pass anything or assume President Donald Trump would sign whatever they come up with in the Senate.

— Rep. Mark Meadows said Speaker Paul Ryan believes any bill should start in the House “with the most conservative bill”.

2. Democrats are angry as they acknowledge government shutdown was for nothing

— Activists are furious with senators for reopening the government without an immigration deal of any kind.

— United We Dream’s executive director says, “This vote means deportation”.

— Murshed Zaheed, of CREDO Action, said the Democrats’ caving highlights Sen. Chuck Schumer’s willingness to betray progressives. “Call it the #SchumerSellout”.

3. Alabama Democrat senator Doug Jones meets with President Donald Trump

— Newly elected Senator Doug Jones met with President Trump and Senator Joe Manchin to discuss what kind of immigration bill the two red-state Democrats could support.

— Jones sounds like he will be a player in the larger immigration debate: “I am hopeful that the relationships and trust we have built together in recent days will translate to more progress in the future.”

— Jones’ support of ending the shutdown has drawn ire from Democrats and skepticism from Republicans.

4. Alabama is the 10th most affected state by government shutdown

— Wallethub used six metrics and determined Alabama would be affected by furloughs and the CHIP program.

— Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville furloughed 12,000 employees in 2013;  contractors that serve the government were affected as well.

— In spite of the popularly held opinion, Wallethub says blue states rely more on the federal government than red states do.

5. 5 months of text messages missing cause problems at the DOJ

— The FBI confirmed to multiple congressional committees that they have lost months of texts messages between two controversial employees who played roles in the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and the alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

— Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the DOJ will “leave no stone unturned” in the hunt for these missing text messages.

— Conservatives are weary of this kind of technical glitch after watching Hillary Clinton and her employees wipe, destroy, and hide communications from investigators with no penalty.

6. Hoover teacher suspended for using a racial slur

— A Hoover High School teacher told students to “turn the n****r tunes off”.

— The teacher was responding to a student playing Tupac in a nutrition class where students are allowed to play music.

— The parent of the student involved says the issue is the “comfort level” of the teacher and believes he should be fired.

7. Another Alabama city has come out against a change in Alabama’s online sales tax bill

— Hoover and Mobile have argued against the change that will benefit Amazon, who will now have to collect more taxes because of their purchase of Whole Foods.

— The current law collects a voluntary 2 percent sales tax and spreads it around the state but, now that Amazon has local stores, they are no longer eligible for this program under the current law.

— The Association of County Commissions continues to claim that the change in the law is necessary to allow counties to continue to benefit from Amazon’s online sales.