The 7 Things You Should Be Talking About Today

1. S-hole debate continues with multiple different versions of the original events; Trump says he’s not racist

— Senators Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham appear to confirm Trump used the vulgarity attributed to him.

— Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue have denied they heard the comment. Cotton would later say his comments were misrepresented.

— President Donald Trump has denied making the comment all together and added, “I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed. That I can tell you.”

2. Business Council of Alabama says Sen. Richard Shelby saved the Toyota-Mazda deal

— BCA President Bill Canary has credited Shelby with recent good economic news, “Without his principled stands, (Toyota and Mazda) would have gone to North Carolina, especially if Mr. Moore was elected.”

— Canary also said he thought Shelby deserved a commendation not a censure.

— He also claimed the Air Force’s announcement of Alabama as the home of the F-35 was related to Shelby’s job performance.

3. Roy Moore supporters target Sen. Shelby for not supporting the Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate race

— Three Republicans have asked the Republican Executive Committee to censure Shelby, a move unlikely to yield results.

— Robocalls have been made calling Shelby a turncoat and suggesting he resign.

— The campaign is tied to a Dallas-based businessman Christopher Ekstrom who said he still has Richard Shelby to kick around, “We no longer have Bob Corker to kick around, we no longer have Jeff Flake to kick around, but we do have Richard Shelby to kick around up and down the street until he gets out.”

4. Deal on Dreamers looks to be in trouble

— President Trump tweeted on Sunday that the deal is probably dead, “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our Military.”

— A bipartisan agreement appeared to be in the works, but that seems to be out the window after Trump’s reported comments sparked days of heated words and accusations of racism.

— The alleged deal included a pathway to citizenship for “Dreamers” and $1.6 billion for border security, which is far less than he wanted.

5. Sen. Jeff Flake is going to compare President Trump’s criticism of the media to Joseph Stalin in an upcoming speech

— Sen. Flake will reference Trump’s “enemy of the people comment” and say his words are unwarranted.

— The Arizona Senator has been increasingly critical of Trump over the past few weeks.

— President Trump’s criticism of the press has been a consistent weapon of his since he began his campaign for President.

6. Hawaii panic caused by an operator who “pushed the wrong button“

— Hawaiians are angry about an errant alert that sent terror through the island over the weekend.

— The text alert was sent out as a mistake during a routine internal test of the emergency missile warning system.

— The drills were restarted in November of last year; the operator chose “Test missile alert” instead of “Missile alert”.

7. 164 total companies have offered bonuses and pay raises while citing tax cuts as the reason

— Americans for Tax Reform compiled the list of companies offering the perks that have been tied to the tax cuts.

— The benefits impact million of employees in multiple sectors.

— The tax cuts, in conjunction with the stock market reaching record highs continue to be a bright spot in the Trump presidency.