7. College Football Playoff tickets plummet
— It could be that the location is all the way on the West Coast or it could be the game is the fourth Alabama/Clemson matchup in five years, but if you want to experience another Alabama national championship, the tickets can be had for a good price.
— Ticket scalpers could actually lose money on this game. TicketIQ reports that that $475 tickets are going for as little as $135 in some places and other tickets can be had for on StubHub at $115.
6. Alabama’s governor and legislators are ramping up their discussion on a gas tax
— With the gas tax looming over the next legislative session Governor Ivey signaled she and other leaders have been working on a plan, saying, “I’ve been working with House and Senate leadership to get to the bottom of all of this and come up with a plan.”
— Not everyone is signed on to a new gas tax. Some legislators are preparing to push for $63 million in budgetary versions to be returned to infrastructure needs before asking the citizens for new revenue.
5. Impeachment, anti-Semitism and the end of the Electoral College
— The media and some Democrats in leadership tried to play down the fervor for impeaching President Donald Trump during the election. But the election is over so members are declaring they want to “Impeach that motherf****r“.
— Showing that Democrats are still hurting over 2016, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) has proposed abolishing the Electoral College solely because Hillary Clinton lost. He said, “[T]he winner of the popular vote did not win the election because of the distorting effect of the outdated Electoral College. Americans expect and deserve the winner of the popular vote to win office. More than a century ago, we amended our Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators. It is past time to directly elect our President and Vice President.”
4. The Retirement System of Alabama is investing in newspapers for some reason
— Alabama’s retirees now own the sole owner of a chain of newspapers that has 68 daily newspapers and more than 40 non-dailies plus websites in 22 states, including five small papers in Alabama.
— But this bet may not be all bad as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett have purchased newspapers in the last few years.
3. ALGOP chairwoman Terri Lathan joins the chorus of GOP politicians in Alabama to point out how preventable the rape of a child was
— Alabama Congressmen Mo Brooks and Bradley Byrne spoke out about the Shelby County crime, the Republican leader released a statement saying, “Here’s yet another illegal immigrant criminal reality that isn’t in some other state’s backyard, it’s in ours – and it’s heartbreaking as well as infuriating.”
— Lathan also pointed out that an open border put our citizens and lawmakers in danger. She voiced support of the president’s attempts to fix the border while criticizing Democrats, telling Yellowhammer News, “President Trump is trying to fix our broken immigration policy while the Democrats are doing nothing to stop these illegal immigrants from harming our own people as well as placing our law enforcement officers in danger. It is irresponsible to keep fighting the president on this issue for political gain and grandstanding.”
2. Attorney General Steve Marshall shames Nancy Pelosi and Congress on border funding
— AG Marshall has now called on the new Congress to fully fund a border wall and highlighted the impact not doing so has had on his state, “I am deeply troubled by the steady stream of dangerous illegal drugs entering my state and the impact it has on our citizens and law enforcement”, adding, “Drug trafficking, human trafficking and many violent crimes committed in Alabama can be traced to criminal elements crossing our country’s borders and the failure of current efforts to secure our border.”
— Marshall criticized Democrats and singled-out Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) by name, stating, “Shame on them and shame on Speaker Pelosi for turning a blind eye to continued security threats to Americans by refusing to fund a border wall and the vital operations of U.S. Homeland Security.”
1. Some of Nancy Pelosi’s first moves as Speaker of the House is to pass bills that have zero chance of becoming law
— Even though Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the shots, and former-Speaker Paul Ryan is out of the U.S. Capitol, the main decision-makers in this shutdown battle seem no closer to actually opening the government. President Trump says he will not budge on his border demands.
— Speaker Pelosi is attempting to appear to be acting in good faith by choosing to ignore funding any border security while calling a vote Thursday night on a budget plan that funds every shutdown federal agency for the balance of Fiscal Year 2019. This goes nowhere and everyone knows it.
