MONTGOMERY — The Ways and Means Education committee of the Alabama House of Representatives advanced a $7.2 billion budget on Wednesday, with $91 million in increases from the previous year. The budget, which would be in effect for fiscal year 2021, is much more modest than what had been discussed by leaders before the coronavirus […]

MONTGOMERY — A bond issue worth $1.25 billion that would finance school improvements across Alabama cleared an important hurdle on Tuesday when it received a favorable report from the Alabama House Ways and Means Education committee. The legislation was sponsored by State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) and would constitute the largest state investment in school […]

MONTGOMERY — Alabama Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) on Tuesday expressed frustration with his Senate colleagues and said that his chamber will only consider local bills and state budgets during the remainder of the pandemic-inhibited legislative session. McCutcheon says the conditions agreed upon during the resumption of the legislative session by himself, Senate […]

State Senator Cam Ward (R-Alabaster) has introduced a bill that would, for a period of two years, redirect all the money gathered by the Rebuild Alabama Act into a small business stimulus fund. Since the bill amends Alabama’s constitution, the public would get to vote on the proposal during the July runoff if it is […]

The Alabama Department of Labor (ADOL) paid out $503 million in unemployment benefits between March 16 and May 1, per numbers released Monday. The $503 million was disbursed among 206,694 claimants. According to a release from the department, those claimants make up 84% “of those filing COVID-19 related active claims since March 16, 2020.” According […]

Congressman Robert Aderholt (AL-04) has hired Alex Vanderford to be the manager of his 2020 reelection campaign. Vanderford is a native of the district Aderholt represents, raised in Muscle Shoals. He is a graduate of Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee. After working on now-U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) victorious campaign in 2018, Vanderford was […]

Around lunchtime on Tuesday, military planes will perform flyovers of the hospitals in several of Alabama’s larger cities. The Alabama National Guard, which announced the news on Twitter, is coordinating the flyovers. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to show support for medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Jets will appear in Birmingham, […]

Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) announced Monday that he has promoted Alabama native Marshall Yates to serve as his new chief of staff. Yates has been working for Brooks since early 2017, most recently as his legislative director. He has previously held numerous roles on Republican campaigns and other conservative institutions. In a statement, Brooks described […]

The corporations in the Yellowhammer State listed on the New York Stock Exchange have not received loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) meant for companies with less than 500 employees, according to a database compared by the financial website FactSquared. Alabama is home to the headquarters of 16 publicly traded companies as of 2019, […]

Auburn basketball standout Isaac Okoro signed with two agencies this week, the next step in what observers expect will culminate in a top-10 selection in this year’s NBA draft. Earlier in the year, Okoro took the first step of preliminarily declaring his intention to enter the NBA draft. He still has not yet taken the […]

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions appeared on the Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Thursday evening and had sharp words when asked about former FBI Director James Comey. Comey’s name has returned to headlines in relation to revelations this week about questionable behavior by the FBI in their investigation of former National Security Advisor […]

Chasiti Shepherd, president of BGrace Media in Birmingham, was appointed to the National Small Business Association Leadership Council this week. The National Small Business Association (NSBA) is comprised of over 65,000 member businesses across all 50 states. It is the nation’s oldest small-business advocacy group and operates without partisan preference. “As a small-business owner, I […]

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions is calling for large companies to give back loans they received under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). “[B]ig corporations are taking large sums meant for the little guy. Every one of them should return these loans immediately, and the Small Business Administration should ensure those funds go to struggling small […]

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf joined an Auburn University live stream on Thursday to discuss his agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Wolf’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the cabinet-level agency that oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). As such, his department has faced unique challenges in recent weeks during the […]

The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) retains $162 million dollars in investments outside of the United States, even as contributions declined considerably in the wake of a scandal that forced the retirement of co-founder Morris Dees. Reporting published Wednesday by the Washington Free Beacon revealed the current state of the much remarked upon Montgomery group. […]

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) medical experts on Wednesday described with measured excitement the results experienced by COVID-19 patients treated with the drug remdesivir. Remdesivir is an antiviral drug that showed promising results for treating the novel coronavirus in a much-discussed clinical trial that the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) published […]

Former State Sen. Bryan Taylor (R-Prattville), who was most recently Governor Kay Ivey’s general counsel, is rejoining the law firm of Bachus, Brom & Taylor that he cofounded in 2013. Taylor left the governor’s office in fall 2019 to support his wife Jessica’s candidacy for Alabama’s Second Congressional District. Known in Montgomery for being one […]

The Huntsville Hospital System and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology are teaming up to study patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, according to a release from the companies on Wednesday. The goal of the study is to develop a treatment for the respiratory disease COVID-19. “A COVID-19 treatment is the best way to bridge the […]

Twenty-five airports across the states of Alabama will be receiving grants that to fund improvements, according to a release from U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) on Wednesday morning. Together, the grants total $60,999,054, some of which was made possible by the $2.2 trillion federal stimulus bill also known as the CARES Act, which was passed […]

On May 1, the City of Birmingham will begin requiring all people who go out in public to wear an item that covers their face. The order is an effort to reduce coronavirus cases as many Birmingham residents will soon begin returning to work. The city council of Alabama’s largest city approved the ordinance unanimously […]

MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey on Tuesday announced her plan to reopen Alabama’s economy in careful phases over the upcoming weeks. Speaking at a press conference in the state capitol, Ivey announced that some retailers will be able to reopen as of Thursday, April 30 at 5:00 p.m. CT, but only if they institute safety […]

Alabama Public Television (APTV) will stream on its website the committee meetings and votes for the remainder of the regular 2020 session of the Alabama state legislature. The heads of Alabama’s two legislative bodies, House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) and Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh (R-Anniston), agreed earlier this week that the remainder of the […]

The Hyundai manufacturing plant in Montgomery is resuming work on a partial basis this week after being shut down for over four weeks due to coronavirus precautions. The plant will operate one shift per day for the remainder of the week, and will resume operations at full capacity next week, according to reports Monday from […]

The University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital will soon deploy a mobile coronavirus testing unit that will drive to Birmingham neighborhoods and provide testing to local citizens. “Not all patients in Birmingham … want to or can come to a downtown drive-thru testing site. So we want to be able to go to them, and […]