coronavirus Archives

7. The masks are back, even though we know they don’t work against the coronavirus.

6. Believe it or not, there are more instances of Hunter Biden and his associates meeting with White House officials while he was grifting during his dad’s time as vice president.

5. Mugshot raises $7 million over the weekend and the campaign and others will be using it a lot to raise much much more.

4. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) reacted to the mugshot of former President Donald Trump, noting that he has seen that scowl before when the former coach would beat him at golf.

3. Weekend of football awfulness in Alabama (and elsewhere) with guns, plenty of fights, and a coach throwing his headset at his son.

2. They are now trying to kick Trump off the ballot in multiple states

1. Racist shooting in Jacksonville, Fla., brings the media and their Democrats, like former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) and the state’s No. 2 Democrat, to blame Republicans. But those same people are silent about the lack of a manifesto in Nashville or other racially motivated shootings.

Listen here:

Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10 a.m. to noon.

7. This would never happen to a black student at a predominantly white school

Student Michael Newman attended Howard University for two years (2020-2022) before being expelled. Now he is suing the school for $2 million because of their “hostile learning environment” and for the “pain, suffering, emotional anguish and damage to his reputation.”
Newman was reportedly banned from online chat forums for asking to discuss “whether (1) Black voters didn’t question turning to government for solutions, and (2) reliably voting for the same party every election disincentivized both parties from responding to the needs of the black communities.” He was verbally abused despite apologizing and releasing a statement trying to clarify his good intentions, blocked from all online methods of defending himself, then expelled.

6. South Carolina proposes “Yankee Tax”

South Carolina is not happy about the millions of northeasterners moving to their state and apparently reducing their quality of living. So they’ve proposed a “Yankee tax” which would require those moving in from out of state to pay a one-time fee of $500: $250 for new driver’s licenses and $250 for vehicle registrations.
State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch claims this fee is to make new residents “catch up with the rest of us” and that he thinks $500 won’t stop people from moving to the state. He just wants them to contribute to the state’s infrastructure upfront. Meanwhile, California and New York have proposed legislation to tax people for trying to leave the state.

5. Virginia trying to stop China from buying farmland near military bases

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants to sign a bipartisan bill that would ban the Chinese Communist Party from buying farmland in the state, especially near military installations such as Quantico and the Pentagon.
Recent U.S. Department of Agriculture records reveal that Chinese companies and private citizens own an estimated 14,000 acres of Virginia farmland and 1.6 million acres across the country. They’re also investigating a partnership between Ford and a Chinese-owned company, which they’re calling a “Trojan Horse” infiltration of American supply chains.

4. Britt and Tuberville seek to extend Medicare program to rural hospitals

Sens. Katie Britt (R-Montgomery) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), along with a bipartisan group of senators, are seeking to extend the Wage Index Hospital Policy, which offers aid to rural hospitals. The senators have asked Medicare and Medicaid for a 4-year extension, in large part because COVID disruptions made it impossible to evaluate the impact of the program.
Britt said, “Every Alabamian deserves access to quality care and the opportunity to thrive in safe, strong communities – no matter their ZIP Code.” This request comes despite the recent discussion of Medicare’s impending insolvency. On the other side, Alabama has come under criticism for being the only state in the country to not cover genetic breast cancer screenings through Medicaid.

3. Let’s roll on the executions

On Friday, The Alabama Department of Corrections announced it is as “prepared as possible” to resume executions. The Alabama Department of Corrections finished its review of the execution process under Gov. Kay Ivey’s order and now the moratorium on executions is over. Attorney General Steve Marshall is clearly ready to get these executions started again.
Now, a new rule which would prevent criminals from abusing last-minute appeals that call off their executions. The ADOC is also seeking to increase the number of medical professionals who can oversee executions, following issues with attaching IV lines to inmates. Opponents of capital punishment are claiming that the internal review did not identify or seek to fix any problems.

2. REAL school choice options are here

The Parental Rights in Children’s Education Act (PRICE Act) could provide about $6,000 a year in tax dollars for each child in Alabama. The money would be put into an educational savings account (ESA) which could then be applied to private schools, church-based schools, homeschooling, or a public school outside their zoned district. Alabama would phase this system in over four years, with families under an income cap eligible to apply for the first two years, and everyone eligible by the fourth year.
“Number one, it’s the parents’ responsibility to determine what is best for their child,” said State Sen. Larry Stutts (R-Tuscumbia). “Number two, the money ought to follow the child. And number three main point, if you don’t want to participate, you don’t have to participate.”

1. Energy Department says COVID-19 leaked from a lab

The Energy Department revised its stance to state that COVID-19 likely came from a Wuhan lab leak after all. The report, shared with the Wall Street Journal, did not share the new evidence that led them to this “low confidence” conclusion. This was dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” and there are still some in the highest level of government who won’t admit it.
Back in 2021 the FBI already said they thought with “moderate confidence” that COVID-19 came from a lab leak. The CIA is still being cagey, but naturally emerging animal sources have never been definitively identified.

Every year for the past 60-something years, Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lays out our nation’s defense priorities for the upcoming year.

I’ve written before about how important the NDAA is both for our district and for the United States, as a whole.

Last week, the House passed the final version of the Fiscal Year 2023 NDAA. It now heads back to the Senate before ultimately going to the President’s desk. The NDAA historically has bipartisan input and is a real team effort.

I’m especially proud of this year’s NDAA because my colleagues and I were able to secure several major victories, while eliminating numerous bad provisions in the bill. The win I’m most proud of is the repeal of the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on active and reserve servicemembers.

The Secretary of Defense imposed this mandate in August 2021, which resulted in servicemembers being separated from service as well as making it tougher to recruit new servicemembers. This was a tough battle that we have been fighting for months, but the fight isn’t over.

We are now pushing the Department of Defense (DoD) to reinstate and provide full veterans’ benefits to servicemembers separated from service for simply refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

We also fought hard to keep bad things out of this bill. This includes a push to force our daughters to register for the draft, to establish a gender advisory commission task force at the DoD, or to spend your tax dollars on climate change initiatives. These are just a few examples of the dozens of terrible things we stripped out of this bill.

This NDAA ensures our armed forces are fully funded to combat growing threats around the world, it gives our servicemembers a much-needed pay raise to combat inflation, and modernizes our military, all while cutting waste to save taxpayers billions of dollars.

It’s no secret China’s military expansion and modernization is at an unprecedented rate. We absolutely cannot allow them to become the dominant world power, and that’s why we worked so hard to make sure our military has the best tools and equipment they need to keep the United States strong and ready to overcome any threats.

While no bill is perfect, I am thrilled the FY23 NDAA has passed the House. This is a win for Alabama and the United States of America.

Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He lives in Mobile with his wife Tina.

Brown University economist Emily Oster recently suggested a “pandemic amnesty” for “the many important choices we had to make under conditions of tremendous uncertainty.”

Her essay has riled many libertarians still angry over the unprecedented restriction of freedom. If public health officials fully accepted the professor’s observations about uncertainty, I could accept letting bygones be bygones.

Professor Oster correctly observes that “gloating and defensiveness” uses up “social energy” and produces “heated, unpleasant and, ultimately, unproductive” discussions. The Professor was called a teacher killer and worse for her analysis demonstrating that schools could be safely reopened, making her attitude noteworthy.

Amnesty differs from forgiveness, as Barry Brownstein reminds us. Amnesty is legal; individuals forgive. Forgiveness contributes to mental and emotional health. In addition to Professor Brownstein’s examples, Nelson Mandela said after 27 years in prison, “I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted ignorance as a fundamental social and economic condition. Everything we know about the economy must be learned or discovered. The nature of economic knowledge ensures discovery never ends, as economist Friedrich Hayek explained. While scientific knowledge is objective and constant across time and place, economic value is subjective and consequently conditional.

This has profound implications for society, beginning with the limited nature of expertise. Experts cannot know enough to make good decisions for others, much less plan or organize the economy. Experts unaware of their limits exhibit what Hayek called, “The Fatal Conceit.”

Today most government and university experts deny the limits of expertise. A field like public health where university programs train government bureaucrats almost surely will exhibit this conceit.

Public health must recognize its proper role in a free society. A liberal society recognizes all citizens’ equal moral value. Morale equality means that government must serve citizens, not the other way around. The consent of the governed must be tangible and continuously reaffirmed.

I used the term free society to highlight the danger of by rule by experts. Elite experts fervently believe that their guidance improves citizens’ lives, so they (illegitimately) infer consent to their dictates. Yet experts, in addition to overestimating their expertise, frequently presume everyone wants exactly what they do; they forget that value is subjective.

The public health profession must learn its proper role in a free society because most people would consent to temporary restrictions on freedom to control disease transmission. Government’s “police powers,” including but especially public health, are vulnerable to abuse.

Public health disregarded fundamental ignorance and exhibited the “Fatal Conceit” throughout the pandemic. Consider the oft-repeated admonition to “follow the science.”

Science only informs us about tradeoffs, perhaps that banning public gatherings could save X lives. We then must decide how to act based on our personal values. Too many public health officials slipped into authoritarian control mode as opposed to helping Americans make informed decisions.

The evidentiary base for the nonpharmaceutical intervention policies comprising the “lockdowns” was basically nonexistent, as a comprehensive 2019 review concluded.

Whether such measures truly save lives likely mattered for most Americans in deciding whether to put our lives on hold. Many officials made unsubstantiated claims of effectiveness and appeared indifferent to the truth; the CDC, for instance, never conducted a randomized control trial of masks.

Censoring dissenting voices, as the ongoing litigation by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri is revealing, was inexcusable. Scientific and economic discovery require challenging preconceptions and experimentation, not enforced silence.

The campaign to smear the proponents of the Great Barrington Declaration’s focused protection alternative to society-wide lockdowns reflects a moral failure of health officials.

Acting in a world of ignorance and discovery inevitably produces decisions later appearing cringeworthy. Mistakes made in ignorance are forgivable only if experts acknowledge their ignorance and learn humility.

Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday to uphold the right of U.S. Air Force members to seek religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, was joined by attorneys general in 22 other states in filing a September brief in support of the airmen’s case.

In hailing the court’s decision, Marshall asserted that Air Force personnel should not have to sacrifice religious liberty while serving in the Armed Forces.

“An airman may sacrifice much serving his country. That sacrifice should not include his right to religious liberty,” said Marshall. “We have protections in place to ensure that an Airman enjoys largely the same rights to religious liberty as his fellow citizens. Those include the Free Exercise Clause and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“This appeals court ruling underscores that the religious liberty of Air Force personnel cannot be trampled by the government.”

The attorney general detailed that after the Air Force mandated service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine, nearly 10,000 branch personnel requested exemptions on religious grounds. According to Marshall, the Air Force granted only 135 exemptions, with most that qualified having been scheduled to retire soon after.

“[I]n February, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of Air Force service members seeking religious-liberty exceptions to the vaccine mandate,” he said. “In March, a federal district court ruled in their favor, placing a preliminary injunction barring the Air Force from disciplining any member for claiming a religious-liberty exemption to the vaccine mandate.

“After the Air Force appealed the federal district court ruling, I joined with 20 fellow attorneys general in supporting the statutory and constitutional rights of the Airmen who were denied their rights. The victory this week in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ensures the injunction protecting religious exemptions will continue in effect for Air Force members, including those on active duty, in the reserves, in the Air National Guard, and in the Space Force.”

Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer and the 22 other attorneys general filed a brief in April before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the Defense Department’s similar failure to grant religious exemptions for military personnel from COVID-19 inoculation.

Marshall also filed an August brief supporting Navy personnel’s right to seek religious exemption from the branch’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Alabama was joined by Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming in filing the brief.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Canada’s Fraser Institute just released the 2022 Economic Freedom of North America (EFNA) index. The good news: Alabama’s economic freedom increased slightly. The bad news: we still trail three neighboring states.

Economic freedom refers to freedoms to buy, sell, work, and start businesses. A free economy relies on “personal choice and markets to answer basic economic questions such as what is to be produced, how it is to be produced, how much is produced, and for whom is production intended.”

Free markets presumably produce prosperity; measuring how closely economies approach the free market ideal is crucial to testing the markets and prosperity hypothesis.

The state economic freedom index involves 10 component variables aggregated into three areas: government spending, taxation, and labor market freedom. Each component is scored from 0 to 10, with 10 the highest observed amount of freedom and 0 the least.

A state’s score averages the three area scores. The 2022 rankings use data from 2020 due to lags in the compilation and publication of some components.

Alabama’s economic freedom score is 6.41, up slightly from, and ranks 22 nd . The top-rated state is Florida with a score of 7.94 while New York ranks last at 4.25. We rank 32 nd on government spending, 9th on taxation, and 22 nd on labor market freedom.

Our rank is respectable but trails three of our neighbors. Florida, as mentioned, ranks 1st , Tennessee ties for 4th , and Georgia is 8th ; we beat only #37 Mississippi. Competition between states is real, so trailing our neighbors might affect the recruitment of businesses to Alabama.

Choices must be made in constructing any metric, and we should ask if plausible alternative choices might affect our score.

The minimum wage is one component of labor market freedom. Alabama does not have a state minimum wage and prohibits cities from imposing their own. Yet we do not get a score of 10 on this component because the index applies the Federal minimum wage in states without a minimum wage.

Labor market freedom also includes the percentage of unionized workers. The EFNA does not use Right-to-Work status of states. Unions in principle are voluntary organizations, but the government often sets the rules for unionization to favor unions. Our score for this component exceeds the national average but would be better if adjusted for Right-to-Work.

The average score for states increased slightly from 2019, from 6.13 to 6.23. By contrast, Fraser’s Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) reported declines due to the COVID-19 response. Why the difference?

The EFNA compiles two state freedom measures, one including national policies to parallel EFW ratings, and one using state policies. My discussion above refers to the state-focused metric. The EFNA scores including national policies declined since the COVID policies affecting measured economic freedom – trillions in spending, money supply growth, and restrictions on international travel – originated in Washington.

States enacted stay at home orders and closed businesses and schools, but these do not enter the economic freedom index. Yet many regulations were also relaxed during the pandemic, like to-go alcohol sales by restaurants, occupational licensing, and telehealth. The EFNA also misses this deregulation.

The pandemic highlights a weakness in the EFNA, not accounting for state constitutional limits. Alabama has a state income tax, but our constitution limits the maximum rate. This provides greater certainty regarding future policy than in a state with a similar top tax rate and no constitutional cap. Alabama’s constitution also limits the maximum rate and base for the property tax.

America’s founders thought that true freedom meant that government could not infringe freedom. If government can take your property but chooses not to, your property arguably is not yours by right. The Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from trespassing on our rights.

Many Americans were shocked by state business closures and stay-at-home orders. The lack of constitutional limits on emergency powers compromises our property rights and personal freedom. These constitutional infirmities should be addressed before the next pandemic.

The state of Alabama will be immune from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) expected decision to add the COVID-19 shot to the agency’s Vaccines for Children Program.

A CDC advisory committee voted Wednesday to recommend the COVID-19 shot’s addition to the program, which would make the vaccine free for children across the United States. The agency is anticipated adopt the recommendation today.

While the CDC’s action could make the shot mandatory for children in many states, Alabama is shielded from the decision due to state law. States hold the ability to determine whether or not the CDC’s scheduled vaccines for children are required for school admittance.

Attorney General Steve Marshall told Yellowhammer News the addition of a new vaccine has no impact on Alabama’s inoculation schedule due to the state non-adherence, statutorily or by practice, to the CDC’s current schedule.

NOTE: The CDC’s vote this week on child immunizations and the COVID-19 vax will not impact Alabamians. Read up on our law here: https://t.co/F2UJFXC9EB

— Attorney General Steve Marshall (@AGSteveMarshall) October 20, 2022

Senate Bill 267, passed by State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) in May 2021, banned vaccine passports in the Yellowhammer State. Included in one of the bill’s provisions is the prohibition of public schools requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for students.

Shortly after the bill was signed into law, Marshall issued a public notice detailing the law’s interpretation.

“[N]o government, school, or business in Alabama may demand that a constituent, student, or customer, respectively, be vaccinated for COVID-19 or show proof of his or her vaccination for COVID-19,” the attorney general’s notice stated.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Like the start of many new businesses and pursuits, Pop Ramen’s origins began during the pandemic. And after two years of speed bumps and hard work, the new food truck is finally ready to hit the streets of Birmingham with its creative take on ramen. Pop Ramen is the brainchild of chefs Addison Porter and Cory Bolton, longtime friends and industry veterans who met working at Birmingham seafood restaurant Ocean several years ago. During COVID, they made the move from Tuscaloosa back to Birmingham to take jobs at the former Fancy’s on the Fifth in Avondale, and that’s when the idea for Pop Ramen sprung about.

“In the middle of COVID, we were thinking about what we were cooking at home all the time,” Bolton remembers. “What’s something that spoke to us, and how can we translate that into a business that might have a better footing during times like COVID? That kind of came as a noodle cart, and then it kind of evolved from there.”

Bolton says the idea to make creative ramen bowls comes from years of personal experience. As a fine dining chef, long kitchen hours meant getting home at midnight or later every night. He’d come home exhausted and craving a hearty meal. Ramen was often the answer.

“There’s nothing open, there’s nothing to eat, and you’ve been cooking all day,” he says. “But you got two packs of ramen, a pork chop in the fridge from yesterday, a little bottle of chili peppers one of your coworkers gave you, then you make this amalgamation of flavor and fun. It’s maybe not authentic and maybe not perfect, but it’s what you have, and you can find a lot of comfort in that bowl of noodles in the moment.”

Bolton and Porter are looking to bring that same comfort—but with a chef’s twist—to their menu at Pop with satisfying bowls like the Breakfast at Midnight rice bowl with honey glazed pork belly, soy-cured egg, bacon, cucumber, carrots, spicy mayonnaise, and sweet soy, as well as their most popular ramen creation the Chicken & the Egg. The signature dish includes a double helping of noodles, lemongrass chicken broth, wok-fried chicken leg, soy-cured egg, carrot, edamame, pickled ginger, sweet chili, and a nostalgic special they’ve dubbed “food court chicken.”

“It’s reminiscent of those little sweet and spicy, salty bites of chickens that you get on a toothpick when you’re walking the mall,” Porter says. “So, it’s kind of an American evolution of ramen. As Americans, we take that source material and adapt it to our palates and what’s available to us regionally and locally. Our way of life shapes how we eat things and enjoy things. There’s also a lot of nostalgia to it.”

The pair shows off their cooking chops with chef-inspired touches like the wok-friend chicken leg featured in the Chicken & the Egg bowl. It’s cooked in multiple parts for maximum flavor. First, it’s marinated in their own blend of spices and seasonings and grilled, so it gets a nice char on the skin. Then, it’s flash-fried for extra crisp, and finally it’s finished in a wok with house made sauce. “It’s a lot of layers, and there’s some ‘chefy’, technical work there,” Porter says.

For the project, Porter and Bolton have partnered with Paget Pizitz and Harriet Despinakis, Birmingham restaurateurs known for their popular grilled cheese concept Melt and former burger spot Fancy’s on the Fifth, where they first met the pair.

“COVID is a time where you either swim or sink, and they swam. I think that really inspired us to have faith in them,” Pizitiz says. “When Harriet and I see their passion, it makes us passionate for them as well. Also, they’re damn good cooks. They’ve talked about this for so long. We wanted to see their dreams come true and make it a win-win for everybody.”

The truck is set to start popping up at Melt, Neon Moon, in neighborhoods, and beyond, soon. Keep your eye out on the Pop Ramen Instagram for updates on where you can find the truck next.

(Courtesy of SoulGrown)

The National Federation of Independent Business announced its endorsement for Alabama’s two highest-ranking elected officials Wednesday.

NFIB Alabama PAC, which supports the interests of the state’s small business community, is supporting Gov. Kay Ivey and Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth in their bids for re-election.

Additionally, the organization announced its endorsement of Attorney General Steve Marshall and Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Rick Pate.

In a news release, NFIB State Director Rosemary Elebash praised the officeholders’ support of Alabama small businesses during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been a rough couple of years for small businesses here and throughout the country, beginning with the pandemic and continuing today with inflation, supply chain disruptions, and a labor shortage,” said Elebash.

“These leaders, though, have risen to the challenge. They guaranteed that Main Street businesses could remain open without endangering the health of their employees or their customers. They understand why small businesses matter to Alabama’s economy and maintained an environment that helped local businesses succeed.”

Elebash detailed the efforts of Ivey and Ainsworth to ensure small businesses received necessary support from the state in maintaining operations during the pandemic.

“Governor Ivey helped Alabama’s small businesses get through the pandemic by approving the Alabama Small Business Grant and depositing funds into the state’s Unemployment Trust Fund to avoid a 500% unemployment tax increase for employers,” she said.

“Will Ainsworth chaired the effort to Reopen Alabama Responsibility Committee and made recommendations that helped the state’s business community by allowing them to reopen quickly. He also championed the legislative effort to repeal the minimum Business Privilege tax and eliminate the tax on the first $40,000 of business personal property tax.”

Regarding the work of Marshall and Pate, NFIB’s state director said the elected officials utilized their offices to support Alabama’s small business community.

“Steve Marshall has joined the NFIB Small Business Legal Center on several cases before the federal district courts resulting in important wins for small business owners,” said Elebash. “Commissioner Pate has provided steady oversight of two of the largest sectors for Alabama’s small businesses, farming and forestry.”

“That’s why I’m proud to announce the NFIB Alabama PAC is endorsing Kay Ivey, Will Ainsworth, Steve Marshall, and Rick Pate for reelection.”

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

“We Dare Defend our Rights,” reads Alabama’s official state motto. This maxim was put to the test during the Biden administration’s COVID-19 mandate campaign.

Emerging as a champion against federal overreach, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall employed every legal option at his disposal to combat federally instituted masking and vaccination decrees.

For his efforts, Marshall became subject to routine criticism from liberal in-state media and left-wing ideologues.

Undeterred by the political left’s opposition to his fight, Marshall insists that “if I worried about social media, I wouldn’t be doing this job very long.”

In a recent conversation with Yellowhammer News, Marshall detailed Alabama’s efforts to combat the administration’s unconstitutional pandemic-era decrees.

Nearly a year has passed since President Joe Biden announced his administration’s intentions to utilize the power of the federal government to mandate vaccination upon vast portions of the American public.

“One thing that we knew very quickly, not only in our office but our colleagues around the country, is that we would be part of this pushback against what we believed, and now has been confirmed, were the illegal actions of the administration,” said the attorney general.

When asked what the governing party’s motivations were in issuing the edicts, he suggested that they were acting on the concept that the federal government holds the power to embark on such an ambitious policy quest.

“I think the motivation is this belief that the federal government gets to make all the decisions, and that’s just simply not the way our constitutional structure works,” Marshall advised. “And specifically, within the context of federalism is the idea that a majority of the authority to govern the day-to-day lives of the people are left to the states and not the federal government as a whole.”

While garnering no support from left-wing media, Marshall noted the overwhelming support his office received from Alabamians over its fight against the administration’s pandemic rules.

“It’s almost universal support,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times I get stopped by people on the street, people that I see at the grocery store say, ‘Thank you for being willing to engage in that fight.’ … My job is to follow the rule of law and to embrace the sovereignty of Alabama to make decisions.”

According to Marshall, the administration’s actions were blatant assaults on state sovereignty. When such an infringement occurs, the attorney general declared that it is his duty to combat it.

“And when you see our Legislature clearly does not engage in any effort to legislate in this area that has historically been the role of states to decide inoculation regimes or vaccine policies involving its citizens, for the federal government to suddenly attempt to exercise power there, you know it’s my responsibility to push back,” he said.

For Marshall, utilizing the courts to push back against federal overreach extends well beyond COVID-19 mandates.

“Although much of the discussion here is kind of about vaccines and the overreach of the federal government, part of the reason we engage in these fights is not only the specific issue that’s involved and whether or not that violates the law, but also it’s really continuing to draw the line in the sand with the federal government about their authority and their ability to impact decisions that go on at the state level,” he said.

“To the extent we don’t fight, every time we give the federal government and inch they’re going to take a yard,” Marshall said. “And so, when we fight the spectrum of these cases, not just in the vaccines but in the cases in which we’re involved, there’s a broader policy of federalism and the rule of law in play. I think it’s very important for Alabama’s voice to be heard.

“I’m very pleased that I have the opportunity to work with colleagues across the country as we have these various battles.”

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Gov. Kay Ivey has announced that the Yellowhammer State’s tourism industry is projected to produce more than $24 billion in revenue in 2022.

Ivey made the announcement Tuesday during the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Auburn. State tourism and hospitality industry professionals were on hand for the annual conference.

During her address, Alabama’s chief executive discussed challenges the robust tourism industry faced stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Ivey, 2021 saw Alabama record its second-best year for tourism-related expenditures.

“Our economic development numbers for last year made 2021 the second-best year in our state’s history,” she said. “Without a doubt, our tourism industry has been and continues to be a major contributor to that fact. While the national industry lost 42 percent of its revenue, Alabama ranked in the top five states for the least amount of revenue lost.

Gov. Kay Ivey spoke Tuesday to the Alabama Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Auburn. (Governor’s Office/Hal Yeager)

“Our tourists spent a record of almost $20 billion. Alabama was the fourth most-searched state, according to the U.S. Travel Association. As I said in May: We’re just getting started! Folks, today while I am among some of the best in the tourism industry, I want to share something I think all of you will be excited about, but you certainly won’t be surprised.”

Based off projections provided by Alabama Tourism Department Director Lee Sentell, the Yellowhammer State is estimated to generate $24 billion in 2022.

“Barring any unexpected downturns, Director Sentell informs me that Alabama is on trajectory to exceed expectations,” Ivey said. “Based on the adjusted numbers, it looks like your industry is going to exceed $24 billion dollars this calendar year. Twenty four!”

“I am proud to say that in the past 10 years, our industry has more than doubled,” she said. “We have grown from $11 billion dollars in 2013 to more than $24 billion dollars this year. And since I have been governor, I am extremely proud that our tourism industry has grown by $10 billion.”

Ivey said her administration will continue to bolster the tourism industry.

“These are the kind of results that are taking Alabama flying at full speed ahead,” she said. “I’ll leave you with this: As we head into the next four years, I assure you that you have a governor who is committed a thousand percent to supporting the tourism industry and to the work that each and every one of you do.”

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Monday he had filed an amicus brief to a lawsuit on behalf of U.S. military personnel against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The U.S. Navy SEALs v. Biden lawsuit features 35 Navy service members, who are assigned to Naval Special Warfare Command Units, challenging the administration’s vaccine decree on the basis of First Amendment protections.

The plaintiffs, who were not granted a religious exemption from the edict, are asserting their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.

In a statement announcing the brief’s filing, Marshall railed against the progressive administration’s “heavy-handed approach” to its mass vaccination campaign.

“Perhaps more than any other of President Biden’s vaccine mandates, his heavy-handed approach has been most profoundly felt by the U.S. military,” said Marshall in a release. “Just over a year ago, military personal were ordered to begin taking COVID-19 vaccinations and many who asserted religious objections to the vaccine were summarily denied. Records indicate that while more than 4,000 Naval active duty and reserve sailors submitted requests for religious accommodations, all but a few dozen had their requests denied.”

According to Alabama’s chief law enforcement officer, service members are entitled to religious exemptions from forced vaccination.

“Many thousands in uniform are being denied their constitutional rights by the Biden administration’s blanket refusal to grant their wishes for religious exemption from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” he said. “U.S. military personnel deserve and are indeed entitled to the same First Amendment protections of their religious liberties as any other American citizen.”

Marshall joined state attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming in filing the brief before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Last Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that the Biden administration cannot enforce its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors in the state of Alabama.

Due to its participation in a lawsuit seeking to halt the mandate, Alabama, along six other states and the Associated Builders and Contractors, will be free from the decree’s enforcement.

In the ruling, which was issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the three-judge panel’s majority outlined that only the parties that joined the lawsuit would be granted relief from the administration’s mandate.

Issued by the White House in September 2021, Executive Order 14042 dictated that certain federal contractors mandate their respected workforces to become vaccinated against COVID-19.

The following month, Attorney General Steve Marshall joined a lawsuit with the six other state attorneys general in an effort to prohibit the “lawless and authoritarian” mandate’s implementation in their respected states’ jurisdictions.

The lawsuit alleged that the edict was “untenable” for state agencies that perform contract services for the federal government. The plaintiffs pointed to the “billions of contracting dollars” that could be in jeopardy if the contractors fail to comply with the executive order.

In a statement celebrating the ruling, Gov. Kay Ivey said Friday the court’s decision was a victory for “common sense.”

“Here in Alabama, we continue to fight for common sense, and today’s ruling is another win for not only common sense, but for freedom,” she said. “Many Alabamians, myself included, were strongly opposed to these outrageous mandates, and we fought back and won. I am proud to continue standing up for Alabamians.”

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Like many students around the country, Alabama students struggled to succeed during two years of school closures, mask mandates, and other issues related to COVID.

Late last school year, AL.com highlighted the stress on local teachers and students, and the 74 Million covered meal shortages due to COVID-related supply chain issues.

But for one small group of Alabama students, the last two years not only didn’t slow them down but allowed many of them to take great strides forward into the future.

Approximately 5,500 students attend Alabama Virtual Academy and Alabama Destinations Career Academy, two online schools that serve students in various grades throughout the state, and they collectively saw an increase of nearly 100% from pre-COVID years.

“Our families appreciated the individualized support we provided our students that meet both their academic and social emotional needs,” said Melanie Barkley, executive director at ALVA. “Our schools were built upon an online first model that served our students well throughout the pandemic where no days were lost to shut downs.”

But for schools like ALVA and ALDCA, it wasn’t enough to just maintain the status quo. They took steps to move their kids into the future. ALVA has connections with over 20 Alabama community colleges, giving their students a chance at dual enrollment, a way to take college level classes, earning valuable credits and keeping down future tuition costs, all while still in high school.

ALDCA also has connections with 23 out of 24 Alabama community colleges as well as Auburn, Troy, Jacksonville State and The University of Alabama Early College. In addition, ALDCA is an online high school built around career pathways in health sciences, IT, and advanced manufacturing, all designed to give high school students a sense of what these careers may look like before they head off to college or the job market.

2022 ALDCA senior Ezrael G. was enrolled in the IT pathway and also took courses at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. He was on track to complete 12 college credit hours before the end of the school year, while still in high school, setting him up for success at the next level.

“High school should be a place where kids learn new things, try new opportunities. If you’re curious about IT or Nursing, wouldn’t it be better to sort that out before you head to college? We give you that chance,” said Dr. Kisha Tolbert, head of school at ALDCA.

But what about performance? We know that some critics slam online schools on testing and other issues. We can say that ALVA had a higher graduation rate than the state average, testing scores aligned closely with their school districts, and most importantly, ALVA and ALDCA students did not experience any reading loss because of disruption caused by COVID.

Former ALVA student Abigail Barr summed it up best. A National Merit Scholar, who was waiting on answers to her college applications from Columbia and Harvard, recently told us that “my wonderful teachers have done their very best to provide me with foundational opportunities like AP classes and dual enrollment with local universities so that I could be one step closer to achieving my lofty goals. The classroom environment has felt increasingly personalized over my time with ALVA, and I’m forever grateful for it.”

School has started for Alabama kids, and we wish them all a wonderful school year. For more information on either school, please visit alva.k12.com/ or aldca.k12.com/.

Melanie Barkley is the executive director Alabama Virtual Academy

Dr. Kisha Tolbert is the head of school at the Alabama Destinations Career Academy

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration required all troops and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) personnel to become inoculated against the virus.

Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress unsuccessfully attempted to pass a bill to rescind the vaccine mandate and reinstate any members of the military who were separated from service due to noncompliance with the decree.

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise), unrelenting in the fight against the requirement, recently led a letter to DOD Secretary Lloyd Austin asking him to rescind the mandate in wake of the latest easing of requirements by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“To ensure the continued safety and readiness of our country’s bravest men and women,” the letter reads, “and to reflect the most up to date guidelines released by the CDC, we request that the military immediately reverse it’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for all military personnel and civilian contractors. We also request that those who were unfairly forced to separate from the military be given the option to be reinstated with back pay.”

Along with the letter, Moore also released a statement calling service members being terminated over the vaccine mandate a “purge of patriots.”

“With updated CDC guidance for the unvaccinated, the Department of Defense’s final fig leaf justifying its purge of patriots for refusing vaccination has been stripped away,” said Moore. “During a time of global turmoil and missed recruitment targets reaching the level of a national security crisis, the military has absolutely no justification for sacrificing readiness in favor of virtue signaling and the appeasement of this administration’s political base. The military vaccine mandate must end, and all our servicemembers so cruelly separated due to this disastrous policy must be rehired with full backpay.”

Woke Pentagon policies are purging patriots from our military and leading to recruitment shortages approaching the level of national security crisis. With the government’s own science no longer justifying a military vaccine mandate, Secretary Austin must side with servicemembers. https://t.co/0zG6PQut5Y

— Rep. Barry Moore (@RepBarryMoore) August 23, 2022

Joining Moore’s letter were U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), Ben Cline (R-Va.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Byron Donalds (R-Fla).

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

7. Representatives advocating for rent pauses had no issue collecting

During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) were both congresswomen who advocated for pausing rent payments, but they both continued collecting rent payments from tenants during this time.
According to disclosure forms, Tlaib brought in about $100,000 from a rental property throughout 2020 and 2021, while Pressley brought in about $117,500 from four properties combined during the pandemic.

6. Carl is cosponsoring new election reform legislation

In an effort to strengthen elections across the country, U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) has cosponsored the “American Confidence in Elections Act.” The legislation is meant to address issues found in the 2020 presidential election.
Carl stated, “There’s no doubt the 2020 elections had issues, which is why the ACE Act is critical to restoring our election integrity by providing states with important tools to help with the delivery of ballots, verification of signatures, using voter ID, giving observers access to the process, updating voter lists, and conducting post-election audits.”

5. Ivey has responded to Newsom’s criticism

Gov. Kay Ivey has responded to criticism from California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over Alabama spending COVID-19 relief money on “super-sized prisons” rather than education.
Ivey countered Newsom, saying, “[F]olks are making their choice, leaving California in droves and calling ‘red states’ like Alabama home. Down here, we’re focused on public safety. And if we’re talking covid relief, we’ve invested billions in our students. Common sense – that’s the Alabama way.”

4. Alcohol sales at Bryant-Denny Stadium

After much debate and concern about over-indulgence and a changed gameday experience, Alabama football fans and visitors will be able to purchase alcohol in the stadium until the end of the 3rd quarter on game days. The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board gave approval to an alcohol license for Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Not everyone is happy about this decision. Tuscaloosa resident David Parr said he isn’t going to the games this year because of the approval and inexperienced drinkers, “I did not buy my tickets this year. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to be watching from my TV at home, but I just feel that strongly about it.”

3. CDC is conducting an overhaul

It’s been announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Rochelle Walensky that the agency will be changing some of its procedures in an attempt to be more effective due to errors recognized throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the major errors was changing the policy based on political pressure and not science.
Walensky said, “My goal is a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.” Walensky also said, “I feel like it’s my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years.”

2. Lawrence County GOP apologizes, NAACP wants chair fired

Recently, the Lawrence County Republican Party used a picture on Facebook of a GOP elephant that included three Ku Klux Klan hoods. Since the use of the image, chairman Shanon Terry has apologized for the image by saying, “A Google search picture of a GOP elephant was used and later found to have hidden images that do not represent the views of beliefs of the Lawrence County Republican Party.”
The Lawrence County NAACP has scheduled a press conference for Friday, where they’re expected to call for Terry’s resignation over the use of the image. Earlier this week, House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) said, “Shame on the Lawrence County Republican Party for this disgusting image.”

1. People don’t believe the Inflation Reduction Act will act to reduce inflation

The recently signed Inflation Reduction Act was originally sold as a measure to reduce inflation. Now that it has been passed, the legislation’s core players seem to acknowledge that isn’t going to happen. Replacing the talk on inflation is talk of $369 billion of spending on climate and energy programs, with promises of tax rebates after you spend thousands on renewable energy.
Americans don’t trust our political elites and polling shows they do not buy the Inflation Reduction Act one bit. A new poll shows 57% of voters believe this bill will either have no impact on inflation or will actually make inflation worse.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Monday slammed Alabama’s plans to construct new prisons in an effort to help solve the state’s issues with over-crowded criminal detention facilities.

The progressive governor took issue with Alabama’s utilization of $400 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to construct the new prisons, which will be built in Escambia and Elmore Counties.

In a video tweeted from Newsom’s campaign account, the coastal governor blasted Alabama’s “super-sized prisons.”

“Let’s look at the choices they’re making,” said Newsom of Republican governors. “When states received new federal money, CA gave 3.5 million kids college savings accounts. Alabama spent it on two super-sized prisons. Actions speak louder than words.”

“Lotta talk about education & “choice” from these GOP governors,” he wrote in the tweet. “Let’s look at the “choices” they’re making. When states received new federal money, CA gave 3.5 million kids college savings accounts. Alabama spent it on two super-sized prisons. Actions speak louder than words.”

Lotta talk about education & "choice" from these GOP governors.

Let's look at the "choices" they're making.

When states received new federal money, CA gave 3.5 million kids college savings accounts.

Alabama spent it on two super-sized prisons.

Actions speak louder than words. pic.twitter.com/khHpcKrJOc

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) August 15, 2022

In response, Gov. Kay Ivey took a dig at Newsom by pointing to the amount of Golden State residents fleeing California for Republican-controlled states. Alabama’s chief executive also advised that her administration was “focused on public safety” and had “invested billions” in public education.

“And yet, Governor, folks are making their choice, leaving California in droves and calling “red states” like Alabama home. Down here, we’re focused on public safety,” declared Ivey. “And if we’re talking covid relief, we invested billions in our students. Common sense — that’s the Alabama way.”

And yet, Governor, folks are making their choice, leaving California in droves and calling “red states” like Alabama home.

Down here, we’re focused on public safety. And if we’re talking covid relief, we invested billions in our students. Common sense — that’s the Alabama way. https://t.co/2vxSTNcmCW

— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) August 16, 2022

Newsom is widely considered to be a potential Democratic contender for the party’s 2024 presidential ticket.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

For most of us, the pandemic is basically over. The elderly and ill should take appropriate precautions and the rest of us should move forward hopefully.

For Democrats running for Congress in New York, the pandemic is raging and they want mandatory restrictions reinstated across the board and wish to add mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for children who attend public school.

Watch:

Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9AM weekdays on WVNN and on Talk 99.5 from 10AM to noon.

7. There have been more than 20,000 COVID-19 deaths in Alabama

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) has reported more than 20,000 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic started in 2020. It was originally estimated that the state would have about 25,000 coronavirus deaths within the first month of the pandemic.
Alabama has had more coronavirus-related deaths than countries such as Israel, Australia and New Zealand. However, cases, deaths and hospitalizations have heavily declined in 2022 compared to previous years as new variants have weakened the virus.

6. Rules for medical marijuana approved for licensing

In another step to legalizing some forms of medical marijuana in Alabama, the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission has approved rules and regulations for companies to get licenses that will allow them to distribute products.
The commission has also announced that applications for a license will be open from October 31 through December 30 of this year, with licenses going out as soon as June 2023. It’s expected that medical marijuana products will not be available until at least the end of next year.

5. Inflation for July may have declined, but food prices are still at a 40-year high

For July, inflation did not decline but slowed from 9.1% to 8.5%, while food prices are still 13.1% higher than they were this time of year in 2021. Additionally, the price of groceries increased 1.3% in July. This large increase in only a month is the highest seen since 1979.
Some products saw more drastic increases than others since last year, with butter up more than 26%, eggs have increased 38%, potatoes are up 13.3%, coffee increased 20%, and meats have risen 10.9%.

4. Biden had to have known about the raid

U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) has reacted to the reports that President Joe Biden knew nothing about the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, saying, “I refuse to believe that.”
Carl added, “Anytime you’re going to do anything that involves the president of the United States or the ex-president of the United States, you had better brief the president, because he’s got to protect that office—not just for Trump—but for Obama before and himself in the future. This has opened up a whole new avenue that I hope we don’t go down.”

3. Questions against the FBI are not dangerous but threats are

After calls for investigations or defunding the FBI, which are completely fair, there have been more extreme calls for violence or civil war, and current FBI director Christopher Wray has responded calling these statements “deplorable and dangerous.” Wray said, “I’m always concerned about threats to law enforcement. Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with.”’
It has been suggested that a man who tried to breach an FBI office in Cincinnati might be reacting to the agency’s raid on Mar-a-Lago. 42-year-old Ricky Shiffer, who was alleged to have been in Washington, D.C. on January 6 but had not been charged with any crime, allegedly posted on social media that people should “kill the F.B.I. on sight.” 15 minutes after the attack, he allegedly posted, “Well, I thought I had a way through bullet proof glass, and I didn’t. If you don’t hear from me, it is true I tried attacking the F.B.I., and it’ll mean either I was taken off the internet, the F.B.I. got me, or they sent the regular cops.” Insane.

2. Garland approved the raid but get also doesn’t want the FBI questioned

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland held a press conference on Thursday afternoon, where he discussed the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and some of the reactions to the raid. Specifically, Garland attempted to deter any calls for investigation into the FBI or the raid on the 45th president’s compound.
Garland said, “I will not stand by silently while the [FBI’s] integrity is unfairly attacked…The men and women of the FBI and the DOJ are dedicated and patriotic public servants.”

1. Ivey is doing well

Recently, liberal aldotcom “writer” Kyle Whitmire attempted to raise questions over Gov. Kay Ivey’s health due to a lack of public appearances and unreturned texts and e-mails. Ivey’s spokeswoman Gina Maiola responded to the questions, saying that Ivey is in good health.
Maiola said, “While I did not want to give any credibility to these bogus rumors, I do want to be sure to clear the air and set the record straight. Governor Ivey is doing great, and she continues to thank the Good Lord of keeping her healthy and cancer-free. We look forward to her leading the state of Alabama for years to come.”

7. Better late than never, kids

Students in Birmingham City Schools are finally showing up to class. Roughly 23% of kids didn’t show up on the first day of school but now they are starting to trickle in. The reason for low attendance, if you ask Superintendent Dr. Mark Sullivan, was because parents were working, which makes no sense. It appears as if those parents are still at work because there are still a large number of kids missing.
City Councilman Darrell O’Quinn isn’t really helping when he says he doesn’t think his kid had any instruction on day one, “Perhaps they’ve had some experience that informs whether or not they show up that first week.”

6. No, we don’t need to defund the FBI

After the FBI raid at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called for the defunding of the bureau.
Former U.S. Attorney Jay Town has responded to this, saying it’s “the absolute wrong thing we should be saying right now,” and suggested that people should be calling for double-checking the investigations. He added, “[Y]es, we have to answer some more questions, but defund the FBI, all that’s doing is stalling whatever momentum we have on this red wave going into November, and we just can’t allow that to happen.”

5. No migrants were forced to go to New York

In response to criticism from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has clarified some aspects of migrants being sent from Texas to New York City and Washington, D.C. Adams has alleged that migrants were forced onto buses, but Abbott has said that this is not true.
Abbott said, “In addition to Washington, D.C., New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within sanctuary cities.” Abbott has said that all of the individuals placed on buses had signed waivers before being relocated.

4. Remove the vaccine requirement for travel, Ivey is dead on

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Gov. Kay Ivey has joined with 16 other governors requesting that he remove the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for international travel. The letter states that these types of policies “put us at a competitive disadvantage as our states work to welcome international travelers, attract foreign business prospects, and host global athletic competitions. Your actions are hurting our states’ economies and unnecessarily hampering our economic growth as a nation.”
In her own statement, Ivey questioned, “Why is this Administration ok with letting folks flood through the gates at our Southern Border unaccounted for while we make it harder for the ones doing things the right way or simply just visiting.”

3. Trump pleaded the Fifth

During his deposition in New York, former President Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment, and he’s said that it was on the advice of his attorneys. Trump also said that the situation was an “unfounded politically motivated Witch Hunt.”
Trump said, “I did nothing wrong, which is why, after five years of looking, the Federal, State and local governments, together with the Fake News Media, have found nothing. We cannot permit a reengage and out-of-control prosecutor to use this investigation as a means of advancing her political career … This is a vindictive and self-serving fishing expedition, the likes of which our Country has never seen before.”

2. Palmer has called out the double standard in the justice system

Recently, U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) pointed out where there were double standards in the justice system, saying that the recent FBI raid at former President Donald Trump’s home was an “unprecedented search and seizure.”
Palmer went on to say that this shows “the length the Biden Administration and Democrats will go to destroy their political opponents.” The congressman added, “There were no evening raids of residences or seizures of documents when Hillary Clinton and her lawyers held classified emails on a private server or after she had that server wiped while the DOJ sat by and waited for it to be turned over … This contrast shows that we live in a two-tiered justice system where evidence of wrongdoing doesn’t matter, only your political beliefs.”

1. Inflation is growing slightly less than expected… hooray?

For the month of July, national inflation slowed by about 0.6%, going from 9.1% in June to 8.5% in July. But it is still one of the highest rates since 1981. The higher months are June, May and March (tied) of this year. While this is an improvement, it is still far from where the country started at the beginning of the year and well off from the beginning of President Joe Biden’s term, much like gas prices.
Prices didn’t increase from June to July, a point that was made by a rattled and raspy Biden, who touted this as a huge success. The largest factor in the inflation rate falling slightly was due to gas prices. Part of the cause of fuel prices declining, though, is due to international demand.

On Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey joined a letter with 16 of her Republican governor counterparts calling on President Joe Biden to remove the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international travelers to the United States.

In their letter to the nation’s chief executive, the Republican governors asserted that the administration’s vaccine requirement for international travelers placed the United States at an economic disadvantage to other countries.

“The continued requirements, even as other countries are moving in the opposite direction, put us at a competitive disadvantage as our states work to welcome international travelers, attract foreign business prospects, and host global athletic competitions,” the governors wrote. “Your actions are hurting our states’ economies and unnecessarily hampering our economic growth as a nation.”

Calling the decision to lift the vaccine requirement “common sense,” Ivey advised that the mandate held adverse consequences for American industry.

“Yet again, I’m proud to stand with my fellow Republican governors in advocating for common sense. The bottom line is that the current international travel restrictions are hurting America’s economy, which as of last week, is officially in recession,” noted Ivey in a statement. “This issue has negatively impacted American business and our supply chain, and it is past time we ease the burden for travelers visiting our country for work or leisure.”

Alabama’s chief executive took exception to the Biden administration’s implementation of liberal border policies all while restricting legal international travel to the United States.

The governor concluded, “I, like many of my fellow Alabamians and Americans ask the question: Why is this Administration ok with letting folks flood through the gates at our Southern Border unaccounted for while we make it harder for the ones doing things the right way or simply just visiting?”

Read the governors’ full letter to Biden:

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

Attorney General Steve Marshall on Tuesday announced that he had filed an amicus brief on behalf of the State of Alabama against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 mask mandate for public transportation.

The amicus brief, which joined by 22 additional states, supports a lawsuit challenging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask mandate that was issued in January 2019. The mandate was halted by a federal court in April of this year.

In a statement announcing the brief’s filing, Marshall advised that the attorneys general acted to ensure that the “unlawful” mandate was not reinstated.

“President Biden, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has tried to force Americans to abide by his unlawful public-transportation mask mandate that not only oversteps his regulatory authority but is also not based upon sound science,” said Marshall in a release. “Fortunately, President Biden’s illegal mask mandate was blocked by a federal court in April, and I am pleased to join 22 other attorneys general in filing this brief to ensure that it is not reinstated on appeal.”

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that the CDC lacked proper legal authority to issue such a decree. They contend that the agency’s assertion that the mandate was lawful due to its power to require “sanitation” measures exceeded its authority.

The brief’s filers also argue that the CDC cannot demand that domestic travelers be examined without evidence that they are carrying disease. The mandate requires a visual inspection of every traveler without any individualized suspicion, according to the attorney general’s office.

Alongside decrying the agency’s failure to follow its notice-and-comment procedures, the brief outlines that the CDC did not take into account measures that had been implemented at the local level.

The agency, argue the attorneys general, cannot implement the mandate unless it finds local measures to be inadequate. According to Marshall, the CDC did not study measures put in place by local municipalities.

Marshall was joined by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia in filing the amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Dylan Smith is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL

For nearly 70 years, the United Way of East Central Alabama (UWECA) has been serving the community, supporting a range of programs and services that have helped improve the quality of life for individuals and families across the region.

And yet, for all the organization experienced during those decades, the COVID-19 pandemic was like nothing that came before.

“It really changed the way we operated,” said Shannon Jenkins, UWECA president and CEO. “It was a scary, unknown time for everyone.”

While the pandemic forced UWECA staff to separate and work remotely in some circumstances, Jenkins said, “It probably took us more outside our office, to be honest with you, than being inside the office, because we really were on the front lines, continuing to serve.”

The Alabama Power Foundation is among the many organizations that help support the UWECA and its partner agencies’ work to address serious issues in the region, such as homelessness and food insecurity. Learn more about UWECA and how it connects organizations, leaders and resources to lift up the region in this video.

United Way of East Central Alabama: bringing leaders and resources together for a better community from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)

7. Kamala Harris hosted a meeting where everyone introduced themselves with pronouns

During a meeting with disability advocates for the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Vice President Kamala Harris introduced herself in the meeting by saying, “I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, I am a woman sitting at a table wearing a blue suit.”
While at the meeting, Harris addressed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions and states outlawing abortion by saying, “[T]hese abortion restrictions that are being put in place in our country, by extremist so-called leaders in various states, will have disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities.”

6. Child labor in Alabama

A report by Reuters has disclosed that a Hyundai supplier’s manufacturing facility in Luverne employed child labor as part of their manufacturing process. The issue came to light after a missing illegal immigrant minor was located and found to have worked at the plant with her siblings and father.
The employer, SMART Alabama, LLC, claims that they used an employment agency to staff their positions and did not know that child labor was being used. SMART issued a statement denying “any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment under these laws.” The company added, “SMART finds the act of human trafficking and the exploitation of vulnerable populations tragic.”

5. Gay men need the monkeypox vaccine first

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, gay men should be on the priority list for receiving the monkeypox vaccine, reaffirming the analysis that the virus is primarily impacting the gay male population.
Fauci stated that it’s “essential that all countries work closely with communities of men who have sex with men to design and deliver effective information and services, and to adopt measures that protect the health, human rights and dignity of affected communities.”

4. Alabama wedding venue under fire

After a couple decided they wanted to get married at Swann Lake Stables in Birmingham, they read the contract to find that the venue did not allow same-sex weddings at their location. The heterosexual couple disagreed with that and decided the business must bend to their will to host their wedding. Swann Lake Stables told them no.
Marjorie Jones, one of the owners, said the venue has that rule to “honor God” and would not be changing it for this couple. The news media and social media are now trying to pressure the venue to change its policy with some invoking Birmingham’s non-discrimination ordinance but the owners seem to be holding firm, with Jones noting that her view of marriage is that the Bible says to “be fruitful and multiply.”

3. Trump predicts Republican victories in 2022

Former President Donald Trump spoke at the America First Policy Institute summit this week, where he indicated that he could run for president again in 2024. He also predicted Republican wins in the 2022 midterm general election.
Trump said, “We gather today on the verge of a historic midterm election. The American people are poised to reject the failed reign of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and the radical left in a momentous landslide.” He went on to add, “This November, the people are going to vote to stop the destruction of our country and they’re going to vote to rescue America’s future.”

2. Alabama joining lawsuit tying school funding to transgenderism

Alabama, along with 21 other states, entered into a lawsuit against the federal government over new school food program policies that would force schools to change certain policies concerning transgender students or risk losing funding.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall advised, “Joe Biden and his administration are obsessed with imposing their extremist sexual policies on the people of our great nation, adults and children alike. Their latest plan…is to hold schoolchildren’s food hostage unless their schools submit to the left’s radical ‘gender identity’ agenda. This immoral and illegal scheme cannot stand.”

1. Ainsworth unhappy with masking narrative pushed by ADPH

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) released a new ad campaign in an attempt to “normalize masking,” and Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth criticized the campaign by saying the ADPH had “overstepped the boundary.”
Ainsworth went on to say, “I don’t think they need to get into this idea we need to normalize masks. That is just insane, right? This has gotten to the point now we understand what we’re dealing with. This is very similar to a flu. We’re going to have to learn to live with it.” Ainsworth later added, “We’re going to push back, and masking is not going to become a normalizing thing. Our kids are going to school. I do not think they need to be wearing masks. You want to go to your jobs or restaurant or just go out, I don’t think you should have to wear a mask.”