7. Florence is trying to remove their Confederate monument

• The Confederate monument outside the Lauderdale County Courthouse may be removed, as the Florence City Council has just voted to seek permission from the State for the statue’s removal. The council is also requesting that the county commission move to relocate the monument.
• The city council is wanting to move the monument to the Florence City Cemetery. The Huntsville City Council and Madison County Commission are dealing with a version of this same situation for the Confederate monument outside the Madison County Courthouse.

6. Alabama is a great place to live

• Every year, U.S. News releases a list of the “Best Places to Live” in the United States, and for the 2020-2021 list, several Alabama cities were ranked. To qualify for the list, U.S. News said cities have “to have good value, be a desirable place to live, have a strong job market and a high quality of life.”
• Huntsville was ranked highest of all Alabama cities at 15th, and the next on the list from the state was Birmingham at 109th, followed by Montgomery at 123rd and Mobile at 135th. The four largest cities in the state all made the list.

5. Birmingham will host March Madness

• In 2023, Birmingham will be hosting the first two rounds of March Madness, the NCAA Tournament for Division 1 men’s basketball. This will take place at the BJCC. In 2025, the BJCC will also host the Division 1 women’s basketball southern regional.
• Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said that this decision “is a perfect example of cooperation between public and private partners to elevate Birmingham’s position as a great place to host world class events like March Madness.” The BJCC is currently undergoing renovations and will reopen in 2022.

4. Relief is unlikely before the election

• It’s unlikely that a coronavirus stimulus or relief package could be approved before November 3, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Mnuchin said that getting something done “before the election and executing on that would be difficult.”
• Mnuchin has been in talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) over relief packages, but there are still key disagreements, particularly on the issue of a national coronavirus testing strategy. President Donald Trump and economic adviser Larry Kudlow have voiced support for a bill that would be even larger than the initially proposed $3.4 trillion.

3. Trump and Biden are both holding town halls Thursday night

• President Donald Trump has produced the results of a coronavirus test to show that he no longer has the virus and will be holding a town hall event on NBC News on Thursday night. Former Vice President Joe Biden will also hold a town hall event on ABC News at the same time.
• Savannah Guthrie will moderate Trump’s town hall. These events are taking place instead of the second presidential debate, which was canceled after campaigns continued to go back and forth over the format once the debate was going to be held virtually. The third debate, if it happens, will be on October 22.

2. Nick Saban tests positive for coronavirus

• University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban has tested positive for the coronavirus, as announced by the University of Alabama Athletics Department. Director of Athletics Greg Byrne has also tested positive.
• Saban reported that he’s asymptomatic and said that as soon as he knew his results he “left work and isolated at home.” Ole Miss, who Alabama played on Saturday, has reported “an issue” with positive tests recently.

1. Hunter Biden’s emails are unveiled; Big Tech then hides story

• The New York Post has now published two stories about how the former Vice President Joe Biden had reportedly misled the American people about meetings arranged by his son with individuals associated with foreign entities, such as the controversial Ukrainian energy company Burisma and Chinese entities. But social media companies don’t want you to see it.
• Even though the Biden campaign itself questionably disputed the report based on his official schedule, tech giants Facebook and Twitter have chosen to “slow down the spread of the story” and forbid the House Judiciary GOP from sharing the story, even though there has been no discrediting of the story. Wednesday night, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said, “Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable.” However, the link is still blocked.