The 7 Things You Should Be Talking About Today

1. Not a great day for the White House, as Chief of Staff John Kelly grounds Jared Kushner

— President Donald Trump’s son-in-law lost his security clearance, limiting his ability to see classified information and severely limiting his ability to advise the president on sensitive matters.

— Four countries allegedly tried to figure out ways to use Kushner’s business dealings to their advantage.

2. Armed volunteer security forces, including citizen volunteers in schools is proposed in the legislature

— “This concept is not for every county, I’ll be the first to admit that” said Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow.

— I’ve been told, by a member of law enforcement, that there is currently 1 armed school employee in Franklin County.

3. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle takes the first real shot at Governor Ivey in the Governor’s race

— Internal polling has Battle in second place, with a little over 10%, his comment made on a blog about Ivey attending too many cocktail parties are a serious escalation of this race.

— Regular whispers among politicos is that Ivey likes to have a drink now and then, it’s usually said as media-types roll their eyes… not put on campaign blogs.

4. Alabama special elections go off with predictably tiny turnout

— Rep. John Knight lost to “Coach” David Burkette in the Democrat primary for Senate District 26 in Montgomery.

— Parker Duncan Moore beat Tom Fredricks in the Republican runoff for House district 4 in Limestone and  Morgan counties.

5. More Trump districts turn from red to blue, it’s starting to look like a trend

— Two Democrats won Republican state legislative seats, marking the 39th legislative flips since President Trump’s presidency began.

— Democrats are picking up seats they shouldn’t and they are polling better overall, this could spell the beginning of a bad year for Republicans.

6. Birmingham’s new mayor targets Delta after Georgia Republicans kill tax incentives for the airline

— Georgia lawmakers killed a tax deal that would have benefited Delta Air Lines after Delta cut ties with the National Rifle Association.

— Mayor Randall Woodfin tweeted to Delta telling them that they should “chat” with Birmingham and he followed up with a statement stressing, “Birmingham is open for business”.

7. A judge with “Mexican heritage” sides with Trump on the border wall

—  Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was made famous by Trump during the Trump University lawsuit, ruled against Trump opponents who tried to stop the border wall from being built.

— Curiel made clear his decision was about the law not his political beliefs: “It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”