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The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday honoring six airmen killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed over western Iraq during Operation Epic Fury earlier this month.

The resolution was introduced by U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery), along with Sens. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), and Todd Young (R-Ind.).

The resolution honors three members of the 99th Air Refueling Squadron based at Sumpter Smith Joint National Guard Base in Birmingham — Maj. Alex Klinner, Maj. Ariana G. Savino, and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt — along with Capt. Seth R. Koval, Capt. Curtis J. Angst, and Master Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons of the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio.

“When you see flag-draped caskets carrying heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice, it’s a sobering reminder of the cost of America’s freedom,” Tuberville said. “Each of these service members showed generational courage, and this resolution is just a small part of ensuring their stories are never forgotten.”

Britt said the nation owes a permanent debt to the fallen airmen.

“Our nation will be forever grateful to these American heroes for their exemplary service and ultimate sacrifice,” Britt said. “We will never forget their selflessness as they bravely fought to protect and defend Americans.”

Last week, members of the Alabama delegation in the House led a floor tribute for the airmen killed in Iraq.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

U.S. Sen. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) continues to gain some momentum in his bid to become the next U.S. Senator from Alabama.

According to the latest poll by Pulse Decision Science for Club for Growth PAC, Moore now has a 31%-26% lead over Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in the Republican primary. Jared Hudson received 13% of support in the poll, and 21% are still undecided.

The congressman also got a boost with endorsements from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

“Barry Moore has been a strong conservative voice for the people of Alabama, and I know he’ll bring that same commitment as we work to pass our shared Republican agenda in the Senate,” Thune said. “I’m proud to endorse Barry in his race to become the next U.S. Senator from Alabama.”

Barry Moore has proven himself to be a strong, conservative champion for Alabama and President Trump’s agenda,” Scott said. “His tireless fight for common sense is exactly what Alabama expects from their next U.S. Senator, and I look forward to working with him to secure prosperity for the next generation.”

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Moore had already received some major endorsements from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Turning Point Action, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), among others.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

With the May 19th Republican primary less than two months out, the race to succeed term-limited Attorney General Steve Marshall is the one statewide race in 2026 where law enforcement endorsements show tangible professional credibility, on top of the local political muscle they carry in any other race on the ballot.

The primary contest between former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell, longtime Chief Counsel to current AG Steve Marshall, Katherine Robertson, and Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey, has shaped up to be one of the marquee prizefights of the 2026 campaign cycle.

Fundraising and polling tell part of the story. But in Alabama politics, law enforcement endorsements tend to reflect real relationships, regional influence, and professional trust in ways that other campaign currency cannot easily replicate.

After a steady flow of endorsement announcements from all three camps over the past 10-plus months, Yellowhammer News dug in and took stock of where each candidate’s law enforcement coalitions stand.

A comprehensive list of each candidate’s endorsements are indexed below.

Alabama, like most states, has three major categories of publicly-elected law enforcement officials:

DAs, sheriffs, and police chiefs are the AG office’s primary partners in prosecuting criminals, enforcing state law, and coordinating statewide law enforcement strategy.

Measured against those three groups, each candidate has staked out distinct territory.

According to Robertson’s campaign, her 25 sheriff endorsements represent more than a third of every elected sheriff in Alabama, which reflects a level of backing from law enforcement that is unmatched in the field.

According to Mitchell’s campaign, his coalition of 19 police chiefs, seven sheriffs and home county district attorney, when paired with polling on the race, shows a clear picture of the race with Mitchell as the frontrunner.

According to all three candidates, each of their endorsement scorecards are far from final.

Pamela Casey, who has served as the Blount County District Attorney since 2010, touted the support of 14 of her district attorney counterparts across the state.

As the candidate with the most limited statewide profile compared to challengers, Casey lacks the fundraising success that her opponents wield. In September, she loaned herself $500,000 to attempt to overcome that gap.

However, Casey argues that disadvantage, along with her experience in the field, is a good thing for the state’s next top cop.

“I’m endorsed by real people who have done the job – not associations with agendas and big money,” Casey said in a statement to Yellowhammer News.

“For two decades, I have stood in Alabama courtrooms holding violent criminals and child predators accountable. When voters hear that record, they see the difference between talking about being tough on crime and actually doing it,” Casey added.

In addition to the DA endorsements, Casey has been endorsed by 3 police chiefs.

Jay Mitchell currently leads among police chiefs, with 19 endorsements.

Mitchell is a former Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice, who stepped down to run for the office last year.

Mitchell has also assembled 19 police chief endorsements, the most of any candidate in that category, largely concentrated in northwest Alabama. That geographic clustering is somewhat unexpected for a Mobile native, though it may reflect his years of statewide visibility as a Supreme Court Justice.

Mitchell’s lone but standout DA endorsement comes from from Mitchell’s home county, Mobile County District Attorney Kieth Blackwood.

“Law enforcement leaders across the state are lining up behind Jay because they know that if he is the Attorney General, they will be empowered to do their jobs confidently—with the full backing of his office,” Mitchell’s campaign said in a statement. “Jay is the candidate they trust to back the blue through thick and thin.”

Then there is Katherine Robertson’s support among Alabama sheriffs, which warrants its own accounting. Robertson has secured endorsements from 25 of Alabama’s 67 county sheriffs.

As Chief Counsel to Attorney General Marshall for the last decade, these likely extend from the institutional bonds she formed under their tenure together.

In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Robertson’s campaign argued she is “unquestionably” the law-enforcement-backed candidate — as well as the most experienced — pointing to nearly a decade working alongside Marshall on parole, capital punishment, sentencing, gang enforcement, child exploitation, and other heavy functions of the office.

“For the past ten years as Chief Counsel, I’ve worked side-by-side with sheriffs and deputies to enforce the law, support victims, and keep our communities safe,” Robertson said in a statement to Yellowhammer News. “That experience isn’t just a resume line—it’s the foundation that prepares me to lead the Attorney General’s Office from day one.”

“The overwhelming support from a majority of Alabama’s Republican sheriffs speaks volumes. These are the men and women who rely on the Attorney General to be a knowledgeable and strong partner in fighting crime and pursuing justice—they know who will stand with them, and it’s me,” Robertson added.

Robertson has also drawn endorsements from two police chiefs: David Hyche of Calera, and Clay Morris, who endorsed her while serving as Pell City’s chief, but has since moved to lead the Hoover Police Department.

As catalogued by Yellowhammer News throughout 2025, the Mitchell and Robertson campaign traded barbs on a monthly basis over the scale and the legitimacy of the funds they raised. Toward the beginning of each month, candidates for statewide office must report the dollar figures they raised and spent through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.

Throughout that time and still today, Mitchell’s campaign raises objections to Robertson’s fundraising means.

Mitchell’s campaign argued to Yellowhammer News that only 41% of Robertson’s funding comes from in-state donors compared to his 96% — and that she “has accepted $1.75 million in dark money.”

Mitchell’s campaign added that he “leads in every poll we’ve seen–including those shared publicly and privately,” a spokesperson argued, despite Robertson’s campaign outspending his two-to-one, according to FCPA data.

His campaign also pointed to a compilation of four public polls taken between August 2025 and February 2026, in which Mitchell has led every survey, ranging from 9.0% to 13.0%, while Robertson and Casey have yet to crack double digits.

Latest filings indicate Mitchell indeed continues to lead fundraising — but Robertson’s campaign is experiencing a rapid infusion of financial support that quickly amounted a campaign warchest that now tops $2 million.

Mitchell’s current cash-on-hand total stands at $2.7 million while Casey’s sits at just over $600,000.

But with just over 50 days until the primary election date, endorsements only matter as much as the paid media budgets behind them — and in a low-turnout primary, that calculus is still very much unsettled.

After all, in tight race with many undecided voters up for grabs expected to go to a runoff, votes that the support of local law enforcement can win could make all the difference needed.

Jay Mitchell 

Katherine Robertson 

Pamela Casey 

Carter Ashcraft is a state and political reporter for Yellowhammer News. He is a student at the University of Alabama School of Law and has worked professionally across roles in Alabama state government. He can be reached at carter@yellowhammernews.com. 

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) has proposed a new bill which would get a handle on the chaos that the NCAA transfer portal has produced over the last half decade.

This week, Tuberville proposed a bill he is calling the “Student Athlete Act Of 2026” which would prevent athletes from being able to transfer as many times as they want and return to a system where a second transfer would require sitting out a full season.

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“The transfer portal has made it easier than ever for athletes to move from one program to another, and repeated transfers have contributed to a system that often resembles unrestricted free agency rather than amateur competition,” Tuberville said.

During an appearance on Outkick, Tuberville spoke about the bill and shared his goals in what it would mean for the future of college athletics, a future that looks more and more precarious by the day.

“Sixty to seventy percent of them (college programs) don’t even look at high school athletes, they look at the portal and say ‘How can we win now? How can we bring players in?’ It’s going to bring the price down on a lot of these players in which to me, it’s ok because they’re going to be making money anyway,” Tuberville said. “I’m all for them making money. But for them to keep selling themselves for $50,000 to $100,000 more, I think it’s creating a huge problem.”

The bill also targets eligibility concerns as athletes increasingly remain in college longer to maximize NIL earnings.

It would give student-athletes a hard five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of any sort of injury or hardship request to prevent the endless court cases regarding eligibility.

“I’ve talked to President Trump about it, he knows it and understands it. We can’t get into all the antitrust, the agents, we can’t do that,” Tuberville continued. “That’s gotta be handled by the NCAA. But one thing we can do is stop this transfer every year, and give these kids the chance to get a degree, and one time transfer if they have a death in the family, circumstances or don’t get along with the coaches…But, if you use it, it’s over with. But if you use it, you have to sit out a year, though most of them won’t do that anyway.”

Citing statistics of over 10,000 college football players entering the portal this year alone, Tuberville says the emphasis on education has been completely lost.

“This year alone, in 2026, we’ve had over 10,000 young men get into the transfer portal in college football, that probably will not get a degree when they transfer because once you transfer, it takes forever to get those hours back because most of them don’t transfer,” he said. “So, we’re trying to put education back into college sports, common sense.”

What happens next remains uncertain, but Tuberville’s proposal is promising — and likely to gain broad support from fans if it can clear the necessary hurdles.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.

Alabama State Rep. Prince Chestnut (D-Selma) wants to make sure that young women are protected from a dangerous procedure in the Yellowhammer State.

Last week, Chestnut introduced legislation that would establish the crime of female genital mutilation, provide criminal penalties, and provide an exception only under limited circumstances when medically necessary.

“I just don’t see any benefit to having it,” Chestnut said Tuesday on “The Rightside” with Allison Sinclair and Amie Beth by Yellowhammer News. “And so I think we need to ban that, and we need to create criminal penalties for the practice.”

The bill defines female genital mutilation as “the practice of partially or totally removing the external genitalia of a girl or young woman for nonmedical reasons and has been criminalized in the United States federally and in multiple states.”

A sobering fact most Alabamians probably don’t know is that while the state prides itself on protecting its most vulnerable, Alabama remains one of only a small handful of states with no law specifically criminalizing female genital mutilation.

Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, and New Mexico — plus the District of Columbia — have yet to pass anti-FGM legislation.

Those states, for that reason, is not a club Alabama wants to be in, Chestnut says.

“I brought the bill forward because, for one, female genital mutilation really, the practice really doesn’t have any health benefits for the people that it’s practice on,” Chestnut continued. “And, you know, just from the literature that I’ve read, I don’t say that I’m an expert at this, but it appears that in some medium, in some foreign countries, they do this to take away, I guess, the maybe the sexual desires or urges of young women, so that they would be more compliant when they get with their husbands, etc.”

The state lawmaker is hopeful the measure will pass this year with bipartisan support.

“I would hope that it would be pretty easy, but we do know that this has been tried before in the state, and we haven’t been able to get it across the finish line,” he explained. “Representative Rod Scott brought this of, I think, two years in a row, and for some reason, it did not make it through. And I’m hoping that that this time we can, we can get this thing on through because I really didn’t change much from the bill that he drafted a few years ago, just a few minor edits. And so I’m hoping that there wouldn’t be, I can’t foresee any objection to it.”

The legislation would make it a Class B felony for anyone that does the procedure or if a parent, legal guardian, or has immediate custody or control of a female under 19 years of age and knowingly allows, authorizes, or directs another individual to do it.

“But of course, you know, sometimes it’s Alabama legislature, sometimes there’s lobbyists who get involved in things that maybe influence other legislators,” Chestnut added. “And so I’m hoping, though, that this, because this is just something that I think all of us can get on board behind.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) called on Republican holdouts in the Senate Monday to end the filibuster so Congress can pass the SAVE America Act, a voting integrity bill that has been blocked by Senate Democrats.

Appearing on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Tuberville warned that failure to pass the bill would have lasting consequences for Republicans.

“If we don’t pass this, we’ll never have another secure election in this country because we’ll never have any kind of majority again,” Tuberville said. “It’s just amazing to me how we’re letting this opportunity pass us by.”

Tuberville said four or five Republican senators have refused to vote to end the filibuster, which currently requires 60 votes to advance legislation. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, meaning they would need near-unanimous support to break the threshold.

“We got about four or five Republicans that just refused to bust the filibuster,” Tuberville said.

Tuberville suggested the holdouts are motivated by opposition to President Trump rather than principled concerns about Senate tradition.

“I would imagine that a lot of it has to do with Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Tuberville said. “They just don’t like him at the end of the day. I represent the people of Alabama; I don’t represent myself.”

He also dismissed arguments about preserving Senate tradition.

“I keep hearing about the tradition of the Senate that we’re different from the House. Yeah. We’re different. We don’t get anything done,” Tuberville said.

The SAVE America Act would require photo identification for voters and proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration. Democrats have used the filibuster to block a vote on the bill.

Tuberville also noted that Senate Democrats have blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security over disputes with Trump administration immigration enforcement policies.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) pointed to Friday’s opening of Hadrian’s Factory 4 in Cherokee as further evidence that Alabama is emerging as a destination for major industry investment.

In an interview with Yellowhammer News at the event, Moore said the facility speaks to the state’s fundamental strengths.

“Alabama had a land, labor and climate that was conducive to a growing economy,” Moore said. “And people are starting to realize that Alabama, we are open for business.”

The 2.2-million-square-foot facility will produce submarine components for the U.S. Navy through a $2.4 billion public-private partnership with Hadrian, an advanced manufacturing company.

The project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs paying north of $70,000 a year.

Moore emphasized the real-world impact of the investment on Northwest Alabama.

“There’s no government program like a job,” Moore said. “These are $70,000 a year jobs to Northwest Alabama. That’s great for us.”

Moore, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Auburn) gubernatorial campaign, said he would bring the same economic development approach he used in the state legislature to the federal level.

“When I was in the state legislature, we brought Austal, Airbus, Remington, Polaris, all those companies to Alabama, because we realize that we’ll reduce the red tape and cut the taxes,” Moore said. “We’ve got the workforce.”

“When you go to the Senate level, you just simply take that approach, and you take it to the whole state, not just to your congressional district,” he added. “The delegation has to work together, like we did with Space Command, like this, and there’ll be more of this in the future, because we have a great delegation. We’re gonna have a great governor. There’s a great opportunity for Alabama.”

Moore was among several members of the Alabama congressional delegation in attendance Friday, including Sens. Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery), Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville), Mike Rogers (R-Saks), Dale Strong (R-Huntsville), and Gary Palmer (R-Hoover). Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and Hadrian CEO Chris Power also spoke at the ceremony.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen lobbed the latest bomb in the 2026 race for Lt. Governor of Alabama against John Wahl, accusing him of participating in and supporting an event honoring Ramadan at an Anniston Islamic center.

In a press release Tuesday, Allen’s campaign shared photographic evidence appearing to show Wahl at what a March 5 Facebook post described as a “Ramadan Interfaith Dinner in Anniston.”

The post, appearing under the account of Monther Sahir Ibrahim, listed Wahl among the attendees and included multiple photos from the event.

Also according to Allen’s campaign, a 2025 Anniston Star piece previously described the annual gathering as an ‘Iftar dinner’, which is the traditional meal by which Muslims break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Allen did not mince words — and Wahl quickly responded.

“When John Wahl chose to enter an Islamic Center to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Ramadan earlier this month, he showed us that he does not share the same values as the majority of Alabamians. He can’t spin this. There is no excuse for participating in the celebration of Islamic Ramadan,” Allen said in a statement on Tuesday.

“There is no excuse to go to a place that operates a mosque and a school to indoctrinate children into Islam, even if you are invited to do so. You will never find me in an Islamic Center or a mosque. I am a committed Christian. I want no part in Islam and the vast majority of Republicans in this state and across this country agree with me.”

In his news release, Allen took aim at the Anniston Islamic Center itself, which, according to its own website, lists among its stated goals the propagation of “Islamic principles and teachings to both Muslims and non-Muslims” and the development of institutions “to serve Islam and Muslims.”

Wahl wasted no time responding. He pushed back on both the political and theological bases of Allen’s attack.

Wahl has been Allen’s opponent in the race since late January after he received the public blessing of President Donald Trump.

On Tuesday, Wahl insisted he was invited by local officials and community leaders to what was presented to him as a community interfaith gathering, and said the invitation he received made no mention of Ramadan.

He said his sole purpose in attending was to openly share his Christian faith.

“I was invited by local officials and community leaders to attend a community interfaith gathering, not a celebration of Ramadan. Wes Allen knows this, and he knows there were dozens of elected officials and other candidates there as well. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the Allen campaign to deceive voters.

I attended this event for one reason—to speak openly about my faith and the values that guide my life and public service.

As a committed Christian, I will never hesitate to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ—anywhere, with anyone. Scripture calls us to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. That means showing up, engaging with others, and boldly sharing the hope of Christ with everyone. Questioning my faith for doing exactly that is absurd, and it reflects politics at its very worst.

The suggestion that I somehow embrace Muslim values or Ramadan is not only false—it is ridiculous. Anyone familiar with my life, my record, and my service knows that my Christian faith is central to who I am.

Wes Allen’s attempt to use my faith as a political weapon shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the Gospel. He claims that a ‘committed Christian’ stays away from those who believe differently. I would remind Wes that Jesus did not stay in the synagogue—He went to the well to speak to the Samaritan woman, He entered the homes of the rejected, and He commanded us to go into all the world.”

The 2026 Alabama Republican Party primary election will be held on May 19 — now 56 days away.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270. 

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) called Friday’s ribbon-cutting of Hadrian’s Factory 4 in Cherokee the culmination of years of work to bring economic opportunity back to a part of the state he said had been left behind.

“I grew up less than an hour from here,” Aderholt told the crowd at the 2.2-million-square-foot facility. “There’s so many parts of this state and our country that sometimes got left behind. But this is really going to be the factory of the future.”

The facility, located at the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park in Aderholt’s 4th Congressional District, will produce components for the Navy’s Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs.

The project represents a $2.4 billion public-private partnership between Hadrian and the U.S. Navy.

The site was formerly home to FreightCar America, which closed its operations and moved production to Mexico in 2021.

Aderholt said the transformation of the dormant industrial site into a defense manufacturing hub was deliberate and long in the making.

“This project didn’t happen by accident,” Aderholt said. “It happened because people believed in this community and because we made a deliberate effort to bring opportunities back to places that had long been overlooked.”

Before continuing with the ceremony, Aderholt asked the crowd to join him in a moment of silence for Major John “Alex” Kleiner, a 33-year-old husband, father, and Auburn graduate from Trussville, Alabama, who was killed during Operation Epic Fury in the Middle East.

“Their sacrifice is a reminder that what we’re doing here today matters and has a real impact here at home and literally around the world,” Aderholt said.

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Aderholt said the facility will offer jobs paying north of $70,000 a year.

He pointed to three factors that made the Shoals region attractive for the project: energy available at reasonable rates through the Tennessee Valley Authority, inland water access via the Tennessee River, and the local workforce.

“This is just the beginning,” Aderholt said. “We’re all going to make sure that we work to see this coming to fruition. We’ll be coming back for more ribbon cuttings and more groundbreakings.”

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Saks) framed the project within a broader national push to rebuild America’s defense industrial capacity after what he described as a dangerous period of underinvestment.

“Our nation, going into last summer, was at the lowest level of defense spending as a percentage of GDP that it had been in since before World War II,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) met with President Trump to urge raising defense spending to 5% of GDP, which Trump agreed to do.

“You’re at the beginning of a process that’s going to be very emphatic and fast paced, with a lot of energy from the administration to get behind it,” Rogers said. “We need to get more partners doing exactly what Hadrian is doing here today. We need to get more people in the defense industrial base making the things that keep us free and safe.”

Rogers reminded the crowd that American industrial strength was decisive in the 20th century’s defining conflicts.

“When you look at World War II and the Cold War, the way we won both of those wars was through our industrial strength,” Rogers said. “That’s the way we’re going to retake our peace through strength status.”

The facility is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs and reach full production capacity within 24 months.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

Across Alabama, many conservatives are looking at what the Alabama State Republican Party’s Steering Committee is doing and saying it feels like the party is eating its own young.

A steering committee that claims to want growth, openness, and new blood is instead blocking multiple Alabamians from even appearing on the Republican ballot.

This isn’t just contradictory — it’s a complete reversal of the party’s own message that “everyone is welcome” and “we want more people involved.”

I was denied Republican Party ballot access after enduring a vicious and unprofessional hearing by the Alabama Republican Party’s steering committee — a ruse designed to make it look like the process was fair when the decision had already been made beforehand. Nothing I could have said or done in the hearing could have changed their minds.

Instead, candidates are being told “no” behind closed doors by a group that, many say, doesn’t even follow its own bylaws and changes the rules whenever it suits them on a whim.

People who might have run for different offices are now saying, ‘Why bother? The insiders will just block me.’ That’s not healthy for any democracy. If voters feel shut out, they won’t just stay home — they’ll start looking for a third party that actually wants them.

A steering committee that refuses to explain its decisions isn’t protecting the party — it’s protecting incumbents.

And voters see right through it. If incumbents need to be shielded from challengers, maybe the problem isn’t the challenger.

I am not alone as others who were denied ballot access by the ALGOP received letters rejecting their attempt to get on the ballot—and they also have said that they weren’t given a single reason why.

No explanation. No due process. No transparency.

Many see that as clashing directly with the spirit of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees that when your rights are affected, you’re entitled to know why through due process.

Instead, a small group behind closed doors is deciding who gets to run and who gets shut out — and observers say they aren’t even following their own bylaws while doing it. That’s not how a confident party behaves. They preach transparency and inclusiveness, but their denial letters come with nothing but silence.

To many voters, this looks less like a steering committee confident in its ideas and more like a group trying to protect incumbents by eliminating competition before voters ever get a say. I believe in the principals of the Republican Party and live those ideals in my daily life.

The Alabama Republican Party is filled with great people, both within the executive committee and everyday citizens all across Alabama. That’s why decisions that hold the future of the party in their hands being made by a small number of steering committee members are so puzzling. 

On the 250th birthday of the United States — a milestone meant to celebrate freedom, self-government, and the right of the people to choose their leaders — Alabama is watching a political machine decide who gets to run and who doesn’t.

Many Alabamians see that as the opposite of America.

A confident party trusts voters. A nervous one tries to choose for them. What the steering committee is doing looks to many like a group shutting out new voices while claiming they want more people involved. I don’t believe a majority of Republican Party executive committee members across the state are in support of what the steering committee does.

You can’t say you’re the party of growth and then a small group of insiders slam the door on your own voters. That contradiction is exactly why people all around the state of Alabama are furious.

The louder this gets, the more people are asking a question that would’ve been unthinkable a decade ago: Has Alabama reached the point where it needs a third party? A party that doesn’t shut down competition. A party that doesn’t fear its own voters. A party that doesn’t treat ballot access like a privilege granted by insiders.

If the party leaders keep shrinking the tent, they shouldn’t be surprised when people start building a new one. People aren’t switching to Democrats — they’re switching off entirely.

If people feel unwelcome, they won’t run. If they feel unheard, they won’t vote, but maybe that is the goal after all.

Angelo “Doc” Mancuso is a dermatological cancer surgeon and an independent candidate for Alabama House District 7.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) believes there are many examples of how the Democratic Party has been co-opted by the radical left in America.

The senator has grown impatient with her colleagues on the other side of the aisle for being so unwilling to make a deal and fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS is the lone major agency that was not funded by Congress when they enacted the full-year FY2026 spending for most of the rest of government.

“Look, this is just completely unnecessary and unfortunate in so many ways,” Britt said Sunday on Fox News. “We have men and women who have stepped up to serve our Department of Homeland Security. We’re seeing TSA right there, and they’re not getting a paycheck. It’s unacceptable. We want our Democratic colleagues to sit down with us and find a pathway forward…The first time they sat down with us was on Thursday.”

Britt thinks the base of the Democratic Party has just gone too far to the left on most issues.

“[W]hen I’m looking at what the Democratic Party has become, it is literally that the far left has taken over, is in the driver’s seat of the Democratic Party,” she argued. “We’re seeing that with them paying for protesters in a number of places, but also with the rhetoric that’s created and kind of stirring that up, calling ICE officers Nazis and Gestapo.”

“I mean, really, what we have to do is go back to making sure we’re standing shoulder to shoulder with our law enforcement officers,” she continued. “That we are abiding by the law, enforcing the law, that we know that the way you do it matters, that we’re going to do it the right way, but we’re we’re not going to vilify this.”

Britt has also been pushing the No Shutdown Paychecks to Politicians Act, which would ensure that members of Congress do not receive a paycheck during a government shutdown.

“I believe if Congress wasn’t getting a paycheck right now, that they would be much more eager to find a solution about this,” she said. “And I believe John Kennedy has a bill, and it says that if we don’t do our job, and that if people aren’t getting paid in the government that have stepped up to serve the United States government, then Congress shouldn’t get a paycheck either.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) is continuing the fight against the rise of radical Islamism in America.

Moore, who is also a candidate for the U.S. Senate, introduced the Defeat Sharia Law in America Act last week.

The legislation to clarify that discrimination carried out through the implementation of Sharia Law violates the protections guaranteed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Our Constitution and the rule of law must always come first in this country,” Moore said. “The Defeat Sharia Law in America Act makes clear that using Sharia Law as a basis to discriminate against Americans violates the Civil Rights Act, and it ensures that foreign legal doctrines cannot undermine the freedoms and equal protections guaranteed by our Constitution.”

https://x.com/RepBarryMoore/status/2034699912642806193

The congressman is a member of the Sharia-Free America caucus, which was launched earlier this year and is meant to spark conversation throughout the halls of Congress and the entire country about the dangers of Islamic Sharia Law.

“Radical ideologies that reject American values pose a real threat to our communities and our young people,” Moore added. “Congress has a responsibility to ensure that the Constitution, not any foreign or religious legal code, remains the highest law of the land.”

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), who is also a member of the Sharia-Free America caucus, has introduced companion legislation in the upper chamber.

“Radical Islam and Sharia Law are a CANCER,” Tuberville said. “We’ve seen it infiltrate and tear down Europe. We CANNOT let this poisonous DEATH CULT tear down America.”

https://x.com/SenTuberville/status/2034711012859944962

Key provisions of the Defeat Sharia Law in America Act include:

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) and Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) joined federal and military leaders Friday in Cherokee for the ribbon-cutting of Hadrian’s Factory 4, a $2.4 billion submarine manufacturing facility that both senators described as transformational for Alabama and critical to American defense.

The 2.2-million-square-foot facility at the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park will produce components for the Navy’s Columbia- and Virginia-class submarine programs. The project combines more than $1.5 billion in private capital from Hadrian with $900 million in federal funding through Navy appropriations.

Tuberville told the crowd the project’s impact will extend far beyond the factory walls and far beyond the near term.

“This is not a five or 10 year project,” Tuberville said. “Most everybody in here will be dead and gone, and they’ll still be building submarines here.”

“There will be hundreds of billions of dollars that will be sent to Northwest Alabama with this project alone,” Tuberville continued. “It’s not just this project. There will be buildings built all around several counties, building infrastructure for making parts. It’s like bringing a car manufacturing place in. You don’t build the parts here. You put them together. They’ve got to be built in other places.”

Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, Tuberville said the facility stands apart from other major investments Alabama has attracted in recent years.

“We have multi-billion dollar companies that have moved to this state over the years. We have some more coming,” Tuberville said. “Nothing more important than this.”

Britt framed the project against the backdrop of a growing gap between American and Chinese naval production capacity. A U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence assessment found that China’s shipbuilding capacity exceeds that of the United States by more than 200 times.

“We saw a declassification several years ago of the fact that China can build ships over 200 times faster,” Britt said in remarks to reporters. “We know that we have to elevate. Alabama is going to be the center of doing that.”

During her speech, Britt described the facility as part of a broader shift in American manufacturing.

“This is transformative for the Shoals. It’s transformative for Alabama, for Mississippi, for the entire region and our nation,” Britt said.

“We Alabamians are going to be part of rebuilding, transforming and supercharging America’s domestic manufacturing and defense industrial base,” she added.

Both senators credited President Trump’s leadership and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included $29.2 billion in defense funding that helped make the project possible.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville), whose district includes the Shoals, was instrumental in bringing the project to Northwest Alabama after years of effort to attract investment to the region.

‘This project didn’t happen by accident,’ Aderholt said. ‘It happened because people believed in this community and because we made a deliberate effort to bring opportunities back to places that had long been overlooked.

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, who spoke at the ceremony, called the facility “the beginning of the Golden Fleet,” referring to the Trump administration’s initiative to restore American maritime power.

Phelan said the factory represents a new approach to defense procurement, with Hadrian’s private capital going in first and the Navy’s commitment following based on demonstrated performance.

“We are done with free money from the Department of the Navy to defense primes,” Phelan said. “Risk is shared. Performance is required.”

The facility is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs paying north of $70,000 a year, according to officials.

Hadrian’s AI-powered manufacturing platform is designed to train workers with no prior manufacturing experience to full productivity within 30 days.

Factory 4 is the first of three planned facilities aimed at addressing bottlenecks in the maritime industrial base. Hadrian CEO Chris Power said the company ultimately envisions five large-scale facilities to support the Golden Fleet initiative.

The Cherokee site, formerly home to FreightCar America before its closure in 2021, is the first large-scale inland manufacturing facility dedicated to the U.S. maritime industrial base.

Also in attendance Friday were House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Saks), Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville), Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), Dale Strong (R-Huntsville), and Gary Palmer (R-Hoover), alongside state and local leaders.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

On Monday, Governor Kay Ivey announced that the Trump administration has approved Alabama’s final Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program proposal, which now officially unlocks nearly $460 million in grants to bring high-speed internet to the last unserved corners of the state.

Today’s milestone is the most powerful testament to well over a decade of sustained attention from state leaders to close Alabama’s digital divide.

“This approval marks an important step forward in our work to close the digital divide in Alabama,” Governor Ivey said in a statement.

“Reliable high-speed internet is essential for economic growth, education, healthcare and everyday life. I am proud of the collaboration between our state leaders, ADECA, local communities and providers that made this plan possible. With this progress, we are ensuring that families and businesses across Alabama will have the connectivity they need to thrive in the modern economy.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) signed off on the plan, which funds 63 projects designed to reach approximately 92,000 currently unserved locations statewide.

With completion of those projects, Alabama will achieve full broadband coverage as defined by NTIA.

Of the 63 projects, 71% will use fiber technology, 24% will use low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology, and 5% will use hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) technology.

Awardees span a wide range of national and Alabama-based companies and cooperatives:

Amazon – $8.83 million total

Ardmore Telephone Co. – $2.63 million total

AT&T – $72.96 million total

Brightspeed – $14.31 million total

Comcast – $132.36 million total

Farmers Telecommunications Cooperative – $4.23 million total

Millry Telephone Company, Inc. – $9.45 million total

mStreet Fiber Alabama – $24.21 million total

Point Broadband – $1.82 million total

Premier Broadband– $46.35 million total

SP Broadband – $57.6 million total

SpaceX – $7.85 million total

Spectrum Southeast – $16.61 million

Windsteam Alabama – $17.86 million total

Zitel – $41.87 million

ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said the approval reflects years of deliberate groundwork.

“This approval reflects the strong partnership between Alabama, the federal government, internet providers and local communities across our state,” Boswell said.

“Under Governor Ivey’s leadership, our goal has always been clear – deliver reliable, high-speed internet to every eligible location in Alabama in the most responsible and cost-effective way possible. This plan and these projects position our state to do exactly that while ensuring these investments will support Alabama’s communities, businesses and families for generations to come.”

RELATED: Be Linked Alabama: Interactive map lights up broadband growth

The roots of Monday’s announcement stretch back to around 2010, when Republicans took control of both chambers of the Alabama Legislature for the first time in 136 years and broadband connectivity quickly emerged as a priority of the new majorities.

What followed was a massive scale-up of legislative and executive actions spanning more than a decade.

By the time BEAD funds became available, Alabama had the institutional infrastructure, partnerships and policy framework in place to move faster and more efficiently than nearly any other state in the country.

According to ADECA and Governor’s Office, that disciplined focus has paid off in how far Alabama has stretched the available dollars.

Of the original $1.4 billion allocated to Alabama, ADECA is saving more than $800 million, over 60% of the original allocation.

The 63 funded projects average less than $5,000 per location served, a figure that compares favorably to national benchmarks.

When ADECA submitted the final proposal to NTIA in September, many states’ BEAD deployments were running $4,000-$10,000 per location, with remote areas pushing averages even higher.

Alabama came in at the low end of that range, which placed the state among the highest echelon of affordability and effectiveness.

Former Alabama Senate Majority Leader Clay Scofield, who was central to those efforts during his time in the Alabama Legislature, said today from his role as CEO of the Energy Institute of Alabama, that the Trump administration’s approval, and the state’s award of more than $460 million, is a “transformational milestone in our state’s broadband journey.”

“As a result of Governor Kay Ivey, the Alabama Legislature, and electric utilities and internet service providers across our state developing, prioritizing, and implementing a plan for broadband expansion that has been a model for states across the country to follow, we have secured significant levels of funding from the federal government that will impact the lives of tens of thousands of Alabamians,” Scofield said.

“This is yet another huge leap forward for our state and our mission to extend high-speed internet access to all Alabamians.”

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.

Lawrence County Sheriff’s deputies responded Saturday evening to the home of State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity) after his 6-year-old son accidentally shot his 13-year-old brother in the back of the shoulder.

Yarbrough’s wife called 911 to report the incident. The family transported the injured child to the emergency room before deputies arrived and later took him to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Brian Covington told the Decatur Daily.

Covington said the 6-year-old had retrieved a .556-caliber AR-style rifle and accidentally fired it, striking his 13-year-old brother in the back of the shoulder.

The 13-year-old suffered non-life-threatening injuries and is reportedly back home recovering. Yarbrough, his wife, and four other children were inside the home at the time of the shooting.

The case is under investigation and has been forwarded to the Lawrence County District Attorney’s Office, according to the sheriff’s office.

The first-term lawmaker has not publicly commented on the shooting. Yellowhammer News reached out to Yarbrough for comment, but did not hear back at time of post.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

Senate Democrats voted down an amendment by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) that would have barred schools receiving federal funds from allowing transgender women and girls to compete in female athletic programs, the fourth time Tuberville has brought the policy to the Senate floor.

The amendment failed 49-41 on March 20 during Senate debate on the SAVE America Act, a Republican voting bill that tightens voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements.

Tuberville filed the amendment at the request of President Trump, mirroring language from his Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

On Saturday, Tuberville took to the floor of the U.S. Senate, challenging Democrats to justify casting such an anti-women, anti-competitive vote.

“Senate Democrats just voted AGAIN to block my bill to protect women and girls sports,” Tuberville said.

“This is an 80-20 issue but, as usual, woke Democrats are siding with the 20%. I encouraged every one of them to look into the camera and explain to their sisters, daughters, and granddaughters why they are okay with their rights being stolen by a man dressed up as a girl.”

https://x.com/sentuberville/status/2035435119784108376?s=42

Tuberville first introduced the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in 2023 and reintroduced it as S.9 in 2025.

The bill seeks to define sex under Title IX as “based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” for purposes of athletic competition.

The standalone bill has been referred to committee but has not advanced, leading Tuberville to repeatedly force votes on the policy through amendments to other legislation.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) wants to make sure that members of Congress don’t get paid during any time of federal government shutdown.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is the lone major agency that was not funded by Congress when they enacted the full-year FY2026 spending for most of the rest of government.

“I can promise you that if the staff in this building, if the men and women in this building, if members of Congress, House or Senate, weren’t getting a paycheck right now, they’d be much more eager to come to the table and to have a conversation and to figure out a pathway forward,” Britt said on the Floor of the Senate Friday.

https://x.com/SenKatieBritt/status/2034800137537536328

Late last year, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, introduced legislation that ensures members of Congress do not receive a paycheck until the federal government reopens following a shutdown or lapse in appropriations.

“I really think we should think long and hard about Senator Kennedy’s bill,” Britt explained. “I fully support it. I hope that we can get every one of our colleagues down here to do the same, Mr. President, because what Senator Kennedy’s bill says is that if there are people who have stepped up to serve our government in any capacity that are not getting a paycheck as a result of this body not doing its job, then we shouldn’t get one either. I think that’s pretty common sense.”

The No Shutdown Paychecks to Politicians Act ensures that Members of Congress do not receive a paycheck during a government shutdown. Members will also not receive back pay.

The Withhold Member Pay During Shutdowns Act (S.3057) would also mandate that payroll administrators for each House of Congress keep members of Congress’ paychecks in escrow accounts during a government shutdown. The funds are only disbursed at the start of the next Congress.

“I fully support it,” Britt continued. “If there are men and women who have stepped up to serve, in this instance, the Department of Homeland Security, which Mr. President, the very mission of that is to keep our homeland safe, to keep American citizens safe, many of them taking an oath to do just that, and they are not getting a paycheck. If they’re not getting one, we shouldn’t be either.”

The senator believes it’s important to force Democrats to go on the record and vote against such a common sense provision.

“So let’s put Senator Kennedy’s bill on the floor,” she said. “Let’s do it, and let’s see where everybody falls on this. And I can guarantee you, if this body and that body don’t get paychecks, they’ll be much more eager to make sure that other people get theirs. So Mr. President, I urge this body to take a look at Senator Kennedy’s legislation. I fully support it, and hope that we will vote on that in the days to come.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

The Alabama Butterbean Festival has come to an end after 20 years in Pinson, but conflicting accounts remain over what led to the festival’s closure and whether anything similar might take its place.

In a March 17 press release, the Clay-Pinson Chamber of Commerce announced it is restructuring and moving away from its traditional role, saying newly elected leadership in Clay and Pinson had chosen not to continue funding the organization “in its current form.”

The Chamber said the shift would move its focus toward fundraising initiatives and partnerships benefiting education and first responders.

Festival organizers separately confirmed the event’s end in a Facebook post, writing, “After 20 incredible years in Pinson, Alabama, The Alabama Butterbean Festival has come to a close.”

But Pinson Mayor Hoyt Sanders disputed the Chamber’s characterization in comments to the Trussville Tribune, saying the city had not voted to withdraw funding for the festival or formally end support for the Chamber.

“It is an incorrect statement that we voted to pull funding for the Butterbean Festival,” Sanders told the Tribune.

According to the news outlet, Sanders said city officials had been asking questions about the Chamber’s broader service agreement, not the Butterbean Festival itself.

“We had a couple questions about the general service side,” Sanders said. “In my mind we were working through some things and then were notified about their decision yesterday.”

The Chamber’s press release, however, framed the move as a response to a significant shift in municipal support.

Board President Dean Kirkner said the organization was “disappointed by the decision from new city leadership to withdraw financial support,” but added that the Chamber’s commitment to Clay and Pinson remains strong.

The dispute appears to center not only on the festival, but on the Chamber’s wider role. The Tribune reported that discussion at Pinson’s Feb. 5 council meeting focused on questions about what the Chamber was providing outside of the annual event.

Former Pinson Mayor Robbie Roberts added another layer of context in his own Facebook post, saying he spoke with several Chamber board members and came away believing there was little hope for an Alabama Butterbean Festival this year.

Roberts said the Chamber owns the Alabama Butterbean Festival name, mascot and web address, tracing that ownership to the merger of the original festival group into the Chamber.

He also said the Chamber had been asked whether it would host the event for a flat $10,000 fee without any guarantee of broader Chamber funding, but that Chamber leaders maintained the organization and the festival were not separable.

Roberts wrote that while the city may try to host another fall festival, “it doesn’t look like it will be the ‘Alabama Butterbean Festival.’”

That account differs somewhat from Sanders’ comments to the Tribune. Sanders said the city would try to preserve the event in some form.

“We will be looking to make efforts to keep it going,” Sanders told the newspaper.

What appears settled for now is the fate of the Alabama Butterbean Festival itself: the Chamber and festival organizers have both announced that it has ended.

What remains unsettled is whether Pinson can create a successor event — and whether the city and Chamber can resolve the dispute over how one of the community’s signature traditions came to a close.

Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at sherri@yellowhammernews.com.

Federal and state leaders converged Friday in Cherokee, Alabama to mark the opening of a massive new defense manufacturing facility, a project expected to transform Northwest Alabama into a key hub for U.S. naval production.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, held at the Barton Riverfront Industrial Park on the site of a former railcar manufacturing facility, drew a crowd of military officials, elected leaders, industry partners and community members.

The 2.2-million-square-foot facility will anchor shipbuilding and maritime production tied to the U.S. Navy.

“This is about that kick-ass Alabama spirit,” said Chris Power, founder and CEO of Hadrian. “We’re betting on the people of this state to step up and deliver when it matters most.”

Hadrian, an advanced manufacturing company focused on precision components for defense and aerospace, is partnering with the U.S. Navy on the project.

The facility, known as Factory 4, will mass-produce critical submarine components supporting both Columbia- and Virginia-class programs, helping address long-standing production bottlenecks in the maritime industrial base.

According to company officials, the facility will utilize Hadrian’s AI-powered manufacturing platform to streamline production, reduce supply chain bottlenecks and operate more efficiently than traditional defense manufacturing systems.

“We are done with free money in the Department of the Navy to the defense primes industry”, said Power. “The president directed us to move faster. Congress has cleared a path, the Navy has set the requirement, and today Hadrian is setting the foundation to deliver that capacity to the workers who will fill this facility. You are not just building parts, you’re building the submarines that underpin our nuclear deterrent and our most survivable nuclear deterrent.”

Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan, U.S. Sens. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery), Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), U.S. Reps. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville), Mike Rogers (R-Saks), Dale Strong (R-Huntsville), and Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside state and local leaders.

The project represents a more than $2.4 billion public-private investment, combining over $1.5 billion in private capital with $900 million in federal funding, and is part of a broader effort to expand domestic shipbuilding capacity.

Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan highlighted the project’s role in rebuilding America’s industrial capacity and military readiness.

“This is not just another factory. This is a different model,” Phelan said.

“This is not just an investment in infrastructure. It is an investment in the American worker in Alabama communities and in the future of American security. This is how we begin restoring the industrial base and it returns in service of the American taxpayer and maritime dominance. This is what the Golden Fleet looks like in execution,” he said.

The project revives a long-dormant industrial site, previously home to FreightCar America before its closure in 2021, and positions the Shoals as an emerging center for advanced manufacturing tied to national defense.

RELATED: U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt op-ed: The Shoals is ready for its next encore

Rep. Aderholt, whose district includes the Shoals, called the project a long-awaited milestone after years of effort to redevelop the vacant site.

“We are opening a factory of the future,” Aderholt said. “The Shoals is ready, and this facility shows what’s possible when you invest in communities that are willing to compete and win.”

The facility is expected to create up to 1,000 high-quality jobs and reach full production capacity within about two years. Officials say its highly automated systems will allow workers to be trained and production-ready in as little as 30 days, significantly faster than traditional defense manufacturing.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers warned that the U.S. must rebuild its defense base to meet growing global threats.

“We were at a dangerously low level of defense spending,” Rogers said. “We’re at the beginning of a process to rebuild our defense industrial base, and it’s going to take partners like this to get us where we need to be.”

Sen. Tuberville emphasized both the strategic and economic significance of the project.

“They’re going to be building submarines in Alabama, on a river,” Tuberville said.

“The economy here will boom. It will explode and you will be protecting this country because we’re behind in submarines and ships, behind China,” he said. “China is our number one adversary. And by golly, we’re not going to let them continue to outrun us in anything. And the people here in Muscle Shoals will make sure that that doesn’t happen for years and years to come.”

Senator Britt pointed to the broader impact on American manufacturing and workforce development.

“American manufacturing is the backbone of American strength, and Alabama is going to help revitalize it and make sure that we are ready for whatever the world sends our way,” Britt said.

“Our great state has known this for a long time, and that’s the National Defense means a great deal to Alabama. But what the world continues to find out is that Alabama means a great deal to our National Defense,” she said.

Closing the ceremony, Power had a special message for Northwest Alabama’s workforce.

“I also want to remind everybody that what is the point of having shared responsibility unless you also give the responsibility upside to the workforce,” he said. “So everyone in this building who comes and works for us are also the equity holders in Hadrian, because I cannot ask you to step up unless we also let you share in the rewards and the wealth will be great here.”

Courtesy of 256 Today.

Ben Raines, the award-winning environmental journalist, filmmaker, and charter captain whose documentary and book “Saving America’s Amazon” gave the Mobile-Tensaw Delta its internationally recognized name, weighed in Wednesday on the Stockton solar controversy during an appearance on FM Talk 106.5’s “Midday Mobile with Sean Sullivan.”

His verdict on the land itself was blunt.

“This property is not pristine Baldwin County Wetlands,” Raines said. “It’s heavily impacted already. It’s covered in planted pine – being grown, planted after being cut over.”

The property at the center of the controversy is the proposed site of a 260-megawatt Silicon Ranch solar farm, contracted to supply power to a Meta data center in Montgomery.

The project has drawn fierce local opposition, with residents saying they were blindsided by plans to convert more than 4,500 acres of Mobile County land to solar panels.

That backlash prompted State Sen. Greg Albritton (R-Atmore) to file SB354, a one-year statewide solar moratorium that has cleared committee and awaits a full Senate vote.

Albritton’s bill has drawn fierce opposition from industry.

The American Clean Power Association, the national trade group representing utility-scale solar developers, expressed to Albritton in a letter this week that a statewide moratorium could hamper an industry employing more than 3,000 Alabamians and send a message to businesses nationwide that Alabama is an unpredictable place to invest.

Ben Raines, whose credibility on Delta ecology is unmatched in the state, acknowledged that beautiful waterways run through the property, specifically calling out Rains Creek, a spring-fed tributary with some personal affection — but he said the broader land picture matters enormously in these decisions.

“EO Wilson described planted pine plantations as biodiversity deserts,” he said, referencing the legendary Alabama-born Harvard biologist who wrote the foreword to Raines’ own book. “That’s what we’re looking at for most of this property.”

Raines also noted that a large residential subdivision had previously been proposed for the same site — and that such development would be “so much more destructive” to the surrounding creeks and Delta ecosystem than solar panels.

“A solar farm can easily avoid the wetlands and not have a dramatic impact on these creeks,” he said, “versus a subdivision or a factory site.”

Raines argued if something is going on that land, solar isn’t the worst option, and Alabamians should be careful which hills they choose to defend.

“You’ve got to pick your ditch to die in,” he said, quoting one of his old editors, “because you can’t die in every one of them.”

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X at @Grayson270. 

The mayors of Alabama’s ten largest cities have thrown their collective weight behind legislation to extend and expand the state’s historic rehabilitation tax credit program, which is currently set to expire at the end of 2027.

The group, known as the Alabama Big 10 Mayors and representing a nonpartisan coalition of the state’s ten largest cities: Huntsville, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, Hoover, Dothan, Birmingham, Auburn, Decatur, Montgomery, and Madison, endorsed companion bills SB313 and HB452.

The bills would extend the state income tax credit for qualified rehabilitation expenses of certified historic properties and increase the annual credit amount.

The legislation is sponsored across party lines by State Sens. Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro), Andrew Jones (R-Centre), and Roger Smitherman (D-Birmingham) in the Senate, and by State Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) in the House.

The Alabama Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit is a 25% refundable tax credit available to owners of income-producing properties who substantially rehabilitate historic properties that are listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and are at least 75 years old.

The refundable nature of the credit is significant: unlike many tax credits, this one can provide a cash benefit even if a developer’s tax liability is low — a meaningful advantage for nonprofits and smaller developers.

When paired with the federal Historic Tax Credit, a 20% credit permanently established in 1981 as part of a Reagan-era economic stimulus package, projects can potentially receive up to 45% of rehabilitation costs back through tax incentives.

That level of subsidy is often the difference between a historic renovation being financially viable or not, the mayors say.

“Historic tax credits have consistently delivered results for Alabama’s cities and towns,” they said in a joint statement. “This program turns underutilized and vacant properties into thriving assets – creating jobs, generating private investment, and strengthening local economies.”

Alabama’s original Historic Preservation Tax Credit was instituted in 2013 and expired in 2016.

When renewal came up in the 2016 legislative session, the bill was blocked by Senate leadership amid concerns about the program’s cost to the state budget and disparities between urban areas, which had abundant qualifying properties, and rural communities with fewer options.

The credit was re-established in 2017, limited to tax years 2018 through 2022, with $20 million available annually and a 40/60 split between rural and urban counties. The program was subsequently renewed again, and currently provides $20 million in tax credits per calendar year through 2027.

Bills on the table this session would push that expiration to 2032, raise the annual cap, and add enhanced incentives specifically for rural communities.

“These projects are more than preservation—they are catalysts for growth,” the mayors said. “They increase property values, expand the tax base, and create vibrant places where people want to live, work, and invest.”

“This legislation continues a smart, forward-looking investment in Alabama’s future,” the mayors concluded. “We urge the Legislature to pass this legislation and continue supporting a program that delivers real economic impact for communities across our state.”

An earlier impact study commissioned by the Alabama Historical Commission found that for every one dollar of tax credit allocation the state invests in the program, $3.90 is returned to state and local tax collections over a 20-year period.

The same study found developers consistently said rehabilitations would not have been financially possible without the credits.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.

Alabama House Ways and Means Education Committee Chairman, State Rep. Danny Garrett (R-Trussville), said Tuesday in an interview with “The Rightside” in partnership with Yellowhammer News that Alabama school choice represents a modest investment relative to the state’s total education spending — and reflects a broader shift toward giving Alabama families more options.

Garrett pushed back on claims that the CHOOSE Act is draining resources from public education, putting the $100 million school choice allocation in perspective against Alabama’s $10.9 billion education budget.

“If I gave you $50,000 and said, give me $600 back — that’s the magnitude of the $100 million we’re putting towards school choice in terms of what the education community receives,” Garrett said. “So it’s not the big focus. It should not be the focus.”

Garrett was responding to a recent opinion piece in which a North Alabama superintendent claimed school choice was costing his system hundreds of millions of dollars. Garrett dismissed the figure as mathematically unsound.

“I think somebody needs some remedial math,” Garrett said.

The chairman said school choice reflects how Alabamians live and what they expect from public institutions.

“Everybody in life today wants customization, flexibility and choice in every aspect of our life, and yet we have this education box,” Garrett said. “Open that school choice door — it opens the door to customization, flexibility and choice, which needs to happen in public education.”

Garrett said the legislature has had to step in on basic reforms that should have come from within school systems, including cell phone bans, third-grade reading requirements, and discipline authority for teachers.

“Why did it take legislation to say you can’t have cell phones in the classroom? Why did it take legislation to say you can’t pass third grade if you can’t read?” Garrett said. “There’s a lot of things a public education system can do.”

On funding, Garrett said school choice is financed responsibly from excess revenue growth rather than by cutting public school budgets.

“We decided to limit our budget growth, and the money that we get in excess of that goes into a waterfall,” Garrett said. “That’s how we’re funding school choice. That’s how we’re funding the Raise Act.”

Alabama’s fiscal year 2027 Education Trust Fund budget totals $10.9 billion including supplemental appropriations.

Tuesday was day 23 of the legislative session. There are seven legislative days remaining.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with “The Rightside” in partnership with Yellowhammer News from the Alabama State House that he hopes his tenure will be remembered for moving Alabama in a conservative direction — and not backing down from big fights.

As he prepares to leave office, Ainsworth says he’s staying in the fight with newly-launched Freedom First Alabama, a coalition he sees as central to Alabama’s conservative political future.

Ainsworth, who is term-limited as lieutenant governor, said the work of he and colleagues in government during his term will lasting mark on the state’s political direction.

“I hope first that I treated people with respect, that we had character, that we made a difference from a conservative standpoint, that the state was in a lot better shape than when we started, and that we weren’t afraid to take on the establishment,” Ainsworth said. “We weren’t afraid to take on big issues.”

Ainsworth said he views public service as a calling with a higher purpose.

“I hope first that I treated people with respect, that we had character, that we made a difference from a conservative standpoint, that the state was in a lot better shape than when we started, and that we weren’t afraid to take on the establishment,” Ainsworth said. “We weren’t afraid to take on big issues.”

Ainsworth said he views public service as a calling with a higher purpose.

“I think you got one life to make a difference. You better make a difference while you’re here,” Ainsworth said. “Why did God put me in this position? Well, I hope I made a difference to improve our state in all the different areas.”

Looking ahead, Ainsworth spoke about his support for Freedom First Alabama, a coalition of conservative lawmakers and business groups launched earlier this session that includes the Alabama Farmers Federation, the Business Council of Alabama, the Alabama Policy Institute, and other prominent statewide organizations.

Ainsworth described the coalition as a necessary counterweight to what he called a well-funded and well-organized liberal infrastructure pushing big-government policies in Montgomery.

“Liberals and Democrats are well-organized, they’re well-funded, and they come in and sometimes attack on all kinds of different fronts — whether it’s property rights, whether it’s supporting traditional teachers unions, whether it’s tort reform,” Ainsworth said. “I think it’s important to have a coalition of conservative lawmakers and conservative business groups.”

Ainsworth said Freedom First Alabama has a two-part mission — pushing back against the liberal agenda while also proactively advancing conservative priorities.

“It’s two-part: one, to push back against the liberal, woke agenda, but then also to push for things we want to get done,” Ainsworth said. “That’s what I do. And I think that’s one of the things I’m pretty good at, is articulating a message for things we want to get done.”

Thursday was day 24 of the legislative session. There are six legislative days remaining.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.

A Republican lawmaker is pushing legislation that would bar abortion providers and organizations that support abortion from teaching sex ed in Alabama public schools, promoting faith-based presenters and a “success sequence” framework in their place.

State Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover) discussed SB209 in an exclusive interview with “The Rightside” in partnership with Yellowhammer News at the Alabama State House on Tuesday, saying it is designed to protect students from inappropriate content and keep groups like Planned Parenthood out of Alabama classrooms.

“We put a clause in there — if you are an abortion provider, or if you support abortion, your group cannot come in and teach in our schools,” DuBose said. “Planned Parenthood, they don’t need to be teaching sex ed in our schools.”

DuBose said she wants schools to partner instead with faith-based organizations that send nurses and other presenters to teach age-appropriate topics including sexting, online pornography, and bullying.

Among DuBose’s highest-profile victories was her long-running push to codify sex-based definitions in Alabama law.

Her House legislation advanced the issue in earlier sessions, and in 2025 the effort culminated in enactment of the “What is a Woman Act,” which brings “clarity, certainty, and uniformity” to Alabama law regarding sex-based terms and safeguards separate male and female spaces.

RELATED: Lawmakers send ‘What is a Woman Act’ to Governor Ivey to be signed into law

She also highlighted what she called the “success sequence” as a core component of the curriculum she envisions.

“We talk about the success sequence, which means you graduate from high school, get married, and then have a baby, and you’re like 99% chance of being successful in life,” DuBose said.

DuBose, who has previously sponsored legislation defining “male” and “female” in Alabama law and protecting women’s sports, said she has taken it upon herself to handle the legislature’s most sensitive social issues.

“I keep hearing these bills that have the word sex in them called ‘Susan bills,’ because it’s awkward for the men. Men don’t like discussing this stuff, but it’s necessary in the world in which we live,” DuBose said. “I have taken it upon myself.”

Tuesday was day 23 of the legislative session. There are seven legislative days remaining.

Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at sawyer@yellowhammernews.com.