7 Things: Inflation Reduction Act passes without a Republican vote, entire Alabama police department disbanded over racist text and more …

7. Fireworks went rogue at Trash Pandas game

After the Rocket City Trash Pandas game at Toyota Field on Friday night, some of the fireworks during the postgame celebration went rogue and accidentally shot into the crowd. A statement from Pyro Shows has been released since the incident.
Pyro Shows said, “After considerable investigation into the incident last night, we discovered that a particular product had been incorrectly inserted and secured into its holder. During our continuing look at our procedures regarding the device, the supporting equipment and the technicians that use it, we are eliminating it from the show until that device and supporting procedures have been fully updated to assure providing safe shows for our customers.” At least one individual was minorly injured during the incident.

6. Sanctuary cities aren’t loving being sanctuary cities

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently responded to New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ outrage over Texas sending migrants to New York, despite the city’s claims that it was a sanctuary city for migrants.
Paxton said, “[I] t’s just interesting to see some of these mayors who have invited and have created sanctuary cities to suddenly start complaining that they’ve got a few thousand immigrants when we’re dealing with millions. So it’s kind of a statement, first of all, fairness and hey, why don’t you pay attention to our real problem on the border? You’re experiencing just a small part of it.”

5. Calls for the state to have closed primaries increase

The conversation over closing Alabama’s primary elections has grown louder, and now former Alabama Republican Party chair Terry Lathan has voiced support for the idea of making voters register with their desired political party.
Lathan said, “It is time. I do believe it’s time.” Lathan also said that if voters want to change their registration, “you can change it…you can change it back and forth if you want, and it’s incumbent on the voter to do that.”

4. Jerry Carl: More IRS agents should be concerning

U.S. Representative Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) has raised concern over the “Inflation Reduction Act” and how the legislation would add 87,000 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents. Carl outlined, “Well, I think the first thing in that bill that scares me to death is 87,000 new IRS agents.”
Carl added, “[I]t should scare everybody to death…I don’t believe for a minute that these IRS agents are just going tackle fraud, big businesses and deep pockets…that is a lot of open cases that they can open up and go after, and I just don’t believe it’s just tax loopholes as they’re referring to it.”

3. Trump wins CPAC poll

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), former President Donald Trump won the straw poll for the 2024 presidential election, receiving 69% of the vote, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) came in second place with 24%.
In a previous poll, Trump gained only 59% of the vote while DeSantis had 28%. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) earned 2% in the poll, but everyone else considered didn’t surpass 1%. In response to the poll, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich said, “President Trump remains the most dominant force in American politics, and as yet another poll shows, it’s a reality that will propel the growth and success of the Republican Party through the Midterms and beyond.”

2. Vincent Police Department is no more

A clearly racist text between two members of the Vincent Police Department has set off a chain of events that has led to the complete dissolution of the police department in the small Shelby County town. The unclever texter asked, “What do y’all call a pregnant slave?” The texter answered, “BOGO Buy one, get one free.”
It is still unknown who actually sent the text, but before the ending of the department, there were only three staff members — police chief James Srygley, assistant chief John L. Goss and Lee Carden. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, which condemned the texts, said they would be “providing emergency law enforcement related service to the citizens (of Vincent) at this time.”

1. Inflation Reduction Act passes

The controversial Inflation Reduction Act has passed strictly down party lines in the U.S. Senate after Vice President Kamala Harris provided the tie-breaking vote. Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said, “Democrats will pay the price in November for raising taxes on families during a recession.”
Obviously, both Alabama U.S. Senators, Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) voted against the bill. U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) declared, “It’s a special kind of stupid to raise taxes during both a recession and inflation—that’s called stagflation, which is what we have right now as a result of President Biden’s policies.”