Gasoline prices are on the rise again and this comes as no surprise to American motorists who, until recently, have only been able to select from several electric vehicle models to reduces their gasoline dependence and forget about wildly fluctuating prices at the pump.
As you being to think about the next vehicle you may purchase, give some consideration to one of the more than 50 battery electric (BEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) models currently available. This number is expected to double by the end of 2022 and options will include full-sized pick-up trucks and SUVs.
Concerns about electric vehicle cost, range and long-term maintenance – including the long-term life of the battery – are diminishing. Manufacturers are addressing these concerns head-on by offering generous warranties. Prices for many models start in the $20,000 range, especially for a buyer who takes advantage of the federal tax credit, which can be up to $7,500. (more…)
Recruiting, training and empowering a highly skilled workforce driven by business and industry needs is giving Alabama a competitive edge for economic growth.
We see the results of this sound strategy throughout the state. As Governor Kay Ivey recently announced, Alabama’s economic development activity in 2020 generated approximately $5 billion in new investments and nearly 10,000 job commitments. This level of job recruitment is astounding, especially considering the challenges the coronavirus posed to economic developers in 2020. These new jobs will help to lower or keep low our unemployment rate, which is already the lowest in the Southeast.
In economic development, some analysts focus on incentive packages that states offer to attract new businesses. But good business leaders know the most important resource a state can offer is a pool of talented, well-trained and ready workers. (more…)
When great powers stump their toe on foreign policy, the initial pain, though slight, often causes loss of focus, a stumble and sometimes a more serious accident.
Sixty years ago, the United States sponsored an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba, and the colossal failure ultimately damaged our nation’s reputation, emboldened our enemies, worried our allies, and clouded our vision of proper objectives for foreign relations.
President John Kennedy’s inauguration was a cause for much optimism as a young, vibrant breath of fresh air would lead America in a new direction. His inaugural address was an inspiring call to a new nationalism of service to the world at large, and he promised that the United States would do all in its power to protect freedom around the globe. (more…)
Democrats have been struggling to force their radical agenda through Congress, so now they are trying to pack the Supreme Court by adding 4 additional justices. House Democrats, led by Jerry Nadler, unveiled the Judiciary act of 2021 last week, which would ultimately expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices.
After the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett last year, President Trump had effectively managed to reshape the Supreme Court for the next several decades (which is arguably one of his most tangible accomplishments). Thanks to President Trump, the Supreme Court now has a 6-3 majority, creating a huge problem for Democrats. Unable to ram through their radical agenda without interference from the courts, many Democrats are now seeking to change any rule they find a nuisance or a hinderance. That’s nothing new for them, though. (more…)
A 2019 California law reclassified drivers for ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft as employees instead of contractors. California voters overturned this law via referendum in November 2020. Congress is now considering imposing similar definitions on the entire country.
At issue is the classification of workers as either employees or as independent contractors. Economists focus on decision rights, or who gets to make decisions, when analyzing how we organize economic activity. While employment is generally longer-term (an employee knows to continue showing up), decision-making is also involved. Bosses make decisions about the use of an employee’s skills and time; contractors do a specified task for a price.
The legal distinction between employee and contractor reflects this. According to IRS rules, a business decides what, when, and how an employee does. Contractors decide how and when they do tasks. (more…)
The Alabama Department of Public Health reports that over 18,000 health care workers have contracted COVID 19 serving the people of our state. We do not know how many of these individuals have died from the disease as a result of their service. The aftermath of the COVID 19 epidemic on Alabama’s health care workers will probably impact an entire generation of Alabama’s medical professionals.
The Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame is the only independent Alabama organization that exists to recognize and salute all of our state’s health care workers who demonstrate outstanding devotion, leadership, expertise, and courage in the health care service of Alabama’s citizens. This year, we were overwhelmed by worthy candidates. The recipients should include workers from doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists who have saved lives on a daily basis, to environmental services staff who cleaned the contaminated ICU rooms and kept everyone safe. Health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, doctor’s offices, and emergency services have risked their lives for us. Their families have borne the same uncertainty as service members’ families whose loved ones are deployed in combat zones. These workers have carried the pain and suffering associated with COVID deaths for the rest of Alabama’s society. Like our military, these fellow Alabamians have answered the call without hesitation. While focused on saving lives and protecting coworkers, they have also worried about bringing this deadly disease home to family or neighbors. (more…)
Most people know that Alabama’s defense industry is a key driver of the state’s economy and major employer of Alabamians across the state. What can be less apparent is the impact that federal and state politics and polices have on the defense sector. With U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the top Republican on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, set to retire at the end of this term, many federal, state and industry leaders are concerned that the flow of federal dollars could dry up.
The first two articles in this three-part series focused on the major challenges the Alabama congressional delegation and state leaders face to maintain North and Central Alabama’s defense sectors. This article will dive into the issues confronting Southwest Alabama, particularly the Gulf Coast’s shipbuilding industry.
The key programs that have driven the shipbuilding industry in Alabama are the Littoral Combat Ship, known as LCS, and the Expeditionary Fast Transport ship. The LCS program has been the more prominent of the two, sustaining thousands of jobs and $1.8 billion in economic impact in the Mobile area. While work continues on previously contracted ships, its builder, Austal USA, fell short in a bid to secure a contract to build the next generation of small surface combatants for the U.S. Navy. Austal will need to secure future contracts to remain afloat (pun intended). (more…)
Electric Vehicles (EVs) have emerged as one of the fastest-growing technology solutions in the field of transportation.
While that statement may be surprising, more than 40 different EV models can currently be purchased in the U.S., and that number is expected to more than double by 2022. Through July 2020, more than 1.5 million plug-in vehicles have been sold in the U.S., and that rate is forecast to accelerate as the federal government prioritizes EVs, more electric cars hit the market, prices continue to decrease and EV infrastructure grows.
Conservative estimates suggest there could be 3 million electric vehicles on American roads by 2025, with more optimistic forecasts indicating that number could be as high as 6.9 million. Volvo recently announced that they plan to sell only electric vehicles by 2030. Similarly, General Motors plans to phase out gas powered vehicles as well and go fully electric by 2035. Ford and other automotive manufacturers have also announced plans for the expansion of electric vehicle production. (more…)
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, more than 28,000 incidents of child abuse and neglect are reported each year.
Providing Alabama’s children with the adequate care and protection they deserve is what we are called as a community to do. It’s critical that we create a system for nurturing children from cradle to adulthood.
Embrace Alabama Kids believes that each of us can play an important role in protecting the most vulnerable among us. That’s why our ministry, which has provided homes, healing and hope to hurting children for more than 130 years, will shine a spotlight on ways communities can make a difference. (more…)
Liberal advocacy groups have been working hard to lobby members of the Alabama Legislature to push bills this session that will weaken the criminal justice system and put more felons on the streets. Many of their friends in the media are repeating these one-sided arguments. If that occurs, the losers would be crime victims.
So far, they have succeeded with legislation being churned out that will take valuable tools away from prosecutors and clog up the courts with prisoners petitioning the courts to resentence them to fewer years in prison or just plain let them out.
In the past two weeks, they were even victorious in getting a divided Alabama House of Representatives Judiciary Committee to pass a bill to repeal Alabama’s Habitual Felony Offender Law, a valuable tool that gives prosecutors the ability to seek longer sentences for repeat criminals who continually victimize citizens. (more…)
Last month, House Democrats rammed through two pieces of sweeping gun control legislation: H.R. 8 – Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 and H.R. 1446 – Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021. I voted against these unconstitutional attempts to strip away the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. These pieces of legislation would effectively give the federal government unprecedented control over firearm transfers by making the background check waiting period indefinite and criminalizing the transfer or loan of a gun to a law-abiding citizen.
House Republicans have been fighting these unconstitutional efforts tooth and nail. When the Democrats brought H.R. 8 to the floor, Republicans offered an amendment to ensure U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is notified when an illegal immigrant is attempting to purchase a firearm. This amendment is critical to protect the safety of the American people, especially at a time when there is a massive surge of illegal immigrants across our southern border because of President Biden’s failure to lead and enforce our immigration laws. Unfortunately, House Democrats refused to even consider this common-sense amendment to protect law-abiding Americans. (more…)
For the last few decades, our state has proudly led both the southeast and the nation in economic development, industrial recruitment and job creation, and closets at the Alabama Department of Commerce are overflowing with awards recognizing our successes and shovels commemorating groundbreakings.
Even today, as the U.S. continues to struggle with the economic fallout from the global COVID-19 pandemic, Alabama is faring better than most other states with regards to incoming tax revenues, and our employment rate ranks in the top 10 in the nation.
Though some of our citizens remain jobless and in obvious need of help, Alabama’s economic blessings are abundant. (more…)
With the approaching retirement of U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), along with several new faces in Alabama’s congressional delegation, the state’s defense industry and leaders are rightly concerned about the flow of federal dollars running dry in the coming years. However, with a little under two years left of Shelby’s term and the remainder of the Alabama delegation well positioned to cement his legacy securing key defense funding for the state, it is not all doom and gloom.
This is the second of a three-article series covering the top challenges for Alabama’s state and federal leaders to ensure the state’s continued dominance as a defense industry powerhouse. While the first article focused on North Alabama and the effort to maintain U.S. Space Command’s basing in Huntsville, this article will cover the needs of the broadly defined Central Alabama defense industry.
Unlike North Alabama, Central Alabama’s defense equities are spread across a wide geographical area. For the purposes of this article, this area starts northeast of Birmingham at the Anniston Army Depot and runs as far south as Fort Rucker in the Wiregrass. The third article in this series will cover the defense issues of the Alabama Gulf Coast, which is confined to Alabama’s First Congressional District. (more…)
The Biden administration seems intent on renewing the war against fossil fuels to combat global warming. Before going down this path, I hope Americans will consider Alex Epstein’s argument in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.
A moral argument requires a standard of value, and Mr. Epstein’s is human life. As he explains, “I think that our fossil fuel use so far has been a moral choice because it has enabled billions of people to live longer and more fulfilling lives.”
Many environmentalists do not share this standard. Mr. Epstein describes their standard as minimizing human impact on the environment. Environmentalist Bill McKibben desires a world where, “Human happiness would be of secondary importance.” David Graber hopes, “Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.” (more…)
As President Biden prepares this week to sign a number of sweeping and unconstitutional gun control executive orders and announces his appointment of a committed anti-gun activist to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, it is the proper time to reflect upon the past and ongoing efforts that Alabama House Republicans have taken to protect the Second Amendment freedoms of our state’s citizens.
Just this week, we passed legislation carried in the House by State Rep. Proncey Robertson (R-Mount Hope) that allows Alabamians to acquire lifetime conceal/carry firearm permits, which saves the trouble and inconvenience of having to travel to the local sheriff’s office and reapply each time a current permit expires.
The bill also allows law enforcement officers to better protect our families by providing tools to identify convicted felons and other individuals who have had to surrender their gun rights after judges ruled they pose a danger to the public.
Another bill currently being considered in the House is the “Alabama Firearms Protection Act,” which is sponsored by State Rep. Shane Stringer (R-Mobile) and seeks to shield Alabamians from state or local government enforcement of overreaching federal firearms laws. (more…)
What is a conscience? It can be tough to use words to define something that we all know and in our hearts, understand. However, right now, here in the United States, it’s important that we talk about conscience.
Our conscience is the inner voice that tells us if something is right or wrong. It allows us to judge whether we should or should not do something or say something. It actually does more than allows us to decide right versus wrong, it compels us to do so for the good of ourselves and our community. For a person of faith, conscience is the product of their faith and religious practice.
Exercising our conscience and allowing it to guide our actions, both public and private, is an essential part of practicing and living our religion. As the compass that guides us it cannot, it must not, be subject to force and coercion. This is an absolute and is especially true if that force and coercion comes from the government. This absolute is so important that in 1993 by a unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and near-unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) was passed and then signed into law by President Clinton.
The law “ensures that interests in religious freedom are protected” and that “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion…” Men and women who are guided by a conscience formed by deeply held religious beliefs and who stand firm against violating these beliefs have been protected by RFRA. However, more and more an aggressive, leftist, secular agenda seeks to force men and women of faith to act and speak in ways that directly contradict their conscience. With the recent passing of the Equality Act by the House of Representatives and with a president who is committed to a radical agenda, the threat to religious conscience and the free practice of religion has increased dramatically. This growing threat is a threat to all Americans. (more…)
As the principal of Cordova Elementary School, I know how access to high-speed internet is critical for educating our students. I’ve seen first-hand how inadequate internet service hinders our children as we work to prepare them to thrive in the 21st-century world that we live in and, to be totally honest, I am worried about my students.
We’re located in a rural part of Walker County and the unfortunate truth for many of our students, and thousands of others across the state, is that they don’t have access to reliable internet at home.
This problem was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, when our classes had to be held virtually and many of our students struggled to keep up with their online learning because of poor connection to broadband at their homes. That’s frustrating for students, parents, teachers and administrators alike. No student deserves to fall behind because of where they live.
That’s why I support Senate Bill 215, which will help to significantly expand high-speed broadband internet to rural, unserved, and underserved areas across our state. (more…)
It is no secret that Alabama contributes heavily to the U.S. national defense. From rocket manufacturing facilities and Redstone Arsenal in North Alabama to the shipbuilders and Coast Guard base on the Gulf Coast, Alabama is key to the military, intelligence community, law enforcement and space sectors.
What many may not know is how reliant these industries are on politics and policy at the federal and state levels. For decades, the Alabama congressional delegation, led by U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), has consistently secured authorization and funding for major defense and space projects to be completed in the Yellowhammer State. These efforts require countless hours of appropriations and policy negotiations in Washington, enabled by Shelby’s seniority on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
With Shelby set to retire in 2022 and several new faces in the congressional delegation, the Alabama defense industry and state leaders are concerned about the flow of federal dollars running dry in the coming years. However, it is not all doom and gloom. U.S. Representatives Mike Rogers (AL-03), Robert Aderholt (AL-04) and Mo Brooks (AL-05) continue to hold key positions which will help continue Alabama’s dominance in the defense industry. In addition to these veteran lawmakers, newly elected U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and U.S. Representative Jerry Carl (AL-01) secured key committee and subcommittee assignments which will further aid in these efforts.
This article is the first of three covering the major challenges and opportunities the Alabama congressional delegation and state leaders will face to maintain Alabama’s preeminence in national security. Covering all of Alabama’s defense interests would take a more in-depth and lengthy study, so this is by no means intended to serve as an encyclopedic record of all the incredible work being performed in the state. (more…)
In February of 2020, Janiyah Davis, a fourth-grader from Philadelphia, walked through the doors of the U.S. Capitol Building and into the House Gallery. Along with her mother, they sat down on the second row.
“No parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government school,” President Trump argued from the speaker’s desk in his State of the Union address. He then told Janiyah’s story, who was zoned for a public school that did not meet her needs, and how the Pennsylvania governor had rejected a bill that would have expanded school choice. As a result, Janiyah was stuck on a waitlist.
That is, until President Trump got involved. In front of the entire world, Janiyah heard from the president that she was, in fact, off the waitlist and would be attending a school of her choice. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more genuine smile and reaction to the president’s words in that room than Janiyah’s. (more…)
Since taking the reins of power in the D.C. swamp earlier this year, socialist Democrats have eagerly taken to the tasks of destroying our economy, erasing our borders and wielding the threat of cancel culture correctness like a blunt force bludgeon.
But perhaps the policy initiative that carries the most potential for lasting and long-term damage to our nation is the radical “transgender” agenda.
Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Sanders and other far-left extremists, including members of the complicit fake-news media, are seeking to mainstream the notion that a man can suddenly become a woman, and vice versa, by simply clicking their heels together and wishing it so, much like Dorothy Gale returning home from the Land of Oz.
When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats chant “trust the science” like it is a hypnotic mantra, but their position on so-called “transgender” issues indicates they do not even trust basic biology. (more…)
West Coast cities have passed “Hero Pay” ordinances increasing grocery store workers’ pay by up to $5 per hour. Numerous stores have closed in response, putting the heroes out of a job. Such poor economic policies produce avoidable harm.
Cities passing “Hero Pay” ordinances include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Seattle. The laws apply (in most cases) to large chain-owned stores and have mandated $4 or $5 per hour temporary pay increases (frequently for 120 days) due to workers’ exposure to COVID-19. Proponents point to grocery chains’ profits during the pandemic as evidence that they can afford the extra pay.
Kroger is one chain which has closed stores after Hero Pay ordinances. The California Grocers’ Association, which is challenging the laws in court, claims that the pay hikes will increase labor costs by 20% and overall costs by 5%. (more…)
There has been much debate lately about how we name public buildings and whether we should remove some names because of long ago actions that no longer conform to contemporary societal practices.
Public buildings are always tricky to name as evidenced by the fact that just a couple of years ago, the University of Alabama Law School was named after Hugh Culverhouse, Jr. in acknowledgment of a very generous donation. However, Culverhouse’s donation was later returned and his name was chiseled from the law school’s facade.
At Alabama State University many years ago, in-fighting and disputes among the trustees resulted in the Joe L. Reed Acadome being renamed.
Scandals and criminal convictions have caused other public facilities to suffer the same fate. A variety of buildings once named after Healthsouth founder Richard Scrushy no longer sport his name. (more…)
Would you allow someone who is not a medical doctor or trained surgeon to operate on your heart, kidneys or lungs? Of course you wouldn’t. Yet some Alabama legislators are trying to change the law to allow people who are not medical doctors or trained surgeons to operate on your eyes.
It sounds like a bad – and unsafe – idea because it is. Unfortunately, these legislators might succeed because many are confused about the differences and distinctions between ophthalmologists and optometrists.
There are big differences between the two. First, ophthalmologists are medical doctors and optometrists are not. Optometrists do not go to medical school, nor are they required to complete a surgical residency. (more…)
When the pandemic reached Alabama a year ago last month, a lot of businesses and schools and office workers simply moved online. It wasn’t always perfect – “You’re on mute” – but having a good internet connection let a lot of businesses avoid closing. It allowed our children to keep learning and a lot of people to keep working.
If they lived in the right ZIP code.
Here in the third decade of the 21st century, when the phones in exour pockets are smarter than the computers that guided the astronauts to the surface of the moon, there are pockets of Alabama without broadband internet, and that’s unacceptable. (more…)