the exchange Archives

(Video above: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) enters the “Yellowhammer Exchange” with Cliff Sims)

In an exclusive interview, Yellowhammer News founder and CEO Cliff Sims sat down with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul over the weekend to discuss the Senator’s possible 2016 Presidential run, what the Republican party needs to do to attract new voters, his foreign policy positions, and even played a little word association game.

“I have good news and bad news,” Paul told the audience at the Alabama Republican Party dinner over the weekend. “The good news is your government is open. The bad news is your government is open.”

The libertarian-leaning senator’s speech was well-received by Alabama conservatives, and Yellowhammer’s interview gives a more in-depth look at a political figure who has burst into the national conversation in recent years, and is possibly aiming to be the leader of the free world.

Check out the full exclusive interview in the video above.

It’s only been three months since Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL2) was appointed to serve on the Select Committee to investigate the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. But the heated debate surrounding the attack and its aftermath, which once dominated news cycle after news cycle, has for the most part cooled down. The committee’s mission to uncover the truth about what happened, however, presses on.

Rep. Roby sat down with Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims last week at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham to discuss a variety of issues, including the Benghazi committee’s ongoing work, on an episode of “The Exchange.”

“We met with the families of the four individuals who lost their lives to give them an opportunity to come speak to the full committee — Republicans and Democrats,” Roby said, discussing the committee’s recent work. “We also participated in a full FBI briefing that was classified but really provided (us with) exposure to the full scenario… When I was chairman of (the Subcommittee on Military Oversight and Investigations) and led the investigation on Benghazi, it was very specific to our military assets — what we had, why we couldn’t get to certain places — but there’s a whole scope and breadth of this that is way bigger than that.”

Roby praised South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, who is leading the Select committee, and said Republicans and Democrats on the committee have come together and “demonstrated that this is a serious committee that is committed to finding the truth on behalf of the American people and the families of the four American lives that were unnecessarily lost.”

Sims asked Roby to respond to critics who often say the committee is little more than political grandstanding.

“What do you say to those folks who say this is a political maneuver to mess with 2016 presidential politics and doesn’t really have anything to do with what actually took place in Benghazi?” Sims asked.

“Well it very much has to do with what took place in Benghazi,” Roby replied. “There’s everything that happened leading up to the attack, the attack, and then what happened in the aftermath. The twelve of us on the committee are committed to finding the truth and in order for us to stay legitimate in the eyes of the American people, it’s our job not to put on political rhetoric, but to stay focused on a fact-finding mission. So far, you’ve seen these twelve individuals conduct themselves in that way.”

Check out the full interview in the video above. For more episodes of The Exchange, click over to Yellowhammer TV.

Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sat down with legendary meteorologist James Spann in the ABC 33/40 studio recently to record an episode of The Exchange, Yellowhammer’s weekly interview with an Alabama politician, business leader or otherwise notable Alabamian.

The interview is being rolled out in pieces throughout this week.

Part 1: James Spann: ‘Alabama is my family, we’ve been through a lot together’
Part 2: Spann on global warming alarmists: ‘This stuff is so outrageous’

In Part 3 of The Exchange with James Spann, Sims noted that many people in the South have grown up around severe weather to the point that they are “nonchalant” about it. That, Sims said, makes Spann’s job more difficult because he has to convince his viewers to take proper precautions during inclement weather.

“I think in a very real way that lives are in your hands,” Sims said. “Do you ever feel the weight of that?”

“During the event, no. We’re so busy there’s not time to think, there’s no time to get emotional,” Spann replied. “You think about it the next day, and you think about it the next month and you think about the next year, but you don’t think about it that minute.”

Spann specifically recalled the historic Alabama tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011 as an event that still weighs on him.

“That day was surreal. I felt like to some degree I didn’t do an adequate job because the death toll was so high. We knew about every single tornado that day and 252 people died, which is insane,” Spann said. “I thought the death toll should have been about 30. In 30 cases there was nothing you could do, it was your day. But for 222 of those people there was a safe place within walking distance and they had plenty of time to get there… After that I went through all the phases of grief and anger and was down for a while. Now I want to roll up my sleeves and get this thing fixed.”

(Above: Cliff Sims talks to James Spann about climate change)

The interview will be rolled out in pieces throughout this week.

Previous Spann segments:
James Spann: ‘Alabama is my family, we’ve been through a lot together’

In Part 2 of The Exchange with James Spann, Sims asked the beloved weatherman to talk about the politically-charged issue of global warming from the perspective of a meteorologist.

“We’ve got policymakers up in D.C. that are making public policy based on the premise that the science of climate change is definitive — that global warming is happening, men are causing is we’ve got to do something to avert some catastrophic something happening,” Sims noted. “What do you say to those folks who say the science is done, that it’s a done deal on this?”

“Number one, the science is never settled,” Spann said. “Anybody that says that, they don’t understand science. Here’s what we all agree on: the climate is changing. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t agree with that. The question involves, does man play a role in climate change. And that’s where there’s disagreement.”

As Sims alluded to in his opening statement, the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced new rules limiting carbon emissions from power plants. A study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce predicts the mandates will cost the United States more than 220,000 jobs over the next several years. Spann didn’t get into the political or economic side of the debate, but clearly bristled at the idea that so much attention would be given to limiting what he referred to as “the lifeblood of the plant.”

“My position is this,” Spann began, “is C02 a greenhouse gas? Absolutely. Is it a pollutant? No. It’s the lifeblood of the planet. Can you have too much of a good thing? Yes.

“How much CO2 do you emit in your lifetime?” Spann asked Sims rhetorically. “If you see the statistics on that, you would be a pollutant that should be removed, according to some of the stuff I see. To hear some of the outrageous claims — I saw one the other day that floated by, and this was a legitimate news organization and a legitimate guy — it said global warming is going to make us eat the corpses of our dead! This stuff is so outrageous.”

After Spann laid out his position, he urged viewers to read the work of Dr. John R. Christy, the Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

“John is our state climatologist,” Spann said. “John speaks so eloquently on this subject and he is the most qualified to speak on the subject. I recommend people listen to what he has to say about it.”

Check back throughout the week for more from Yellowhammer’s interview with James Spann.

The interview will be rolled out in pieces throughout this week. In Part 1, Spann talks about why he feels so close to the people of Alabama, and how social media has drastically changed his job.

Other episodes of The Exchange that you might enjoy:

Sims kicked off the interview by referring to Spann as a “living legend,” which the weatherman laughingly said just means that he’s old.

From there, Sims jumped straight into the questions, asking Spann what he believes has allowed him to develop such a deep relationship with people all over the state.

“I think it’s just time. I think if you spend time with somebody — and I’m talking decades — you just become family. And to me, this city and this state is my extended family,” Spann said. “I came here in the late 1970s, that’s how long I’ve been here. And we’ve been through a lot together. If you think of all the weather events, this state has some of the most remarkable weather in the world, some of the most diverse weather on the planet. We’ve been through snow storms, we have been through hurricanes, we have been through tornadoes, we have been through floods, we have been through heat waves, we’ve been through droughts — together. And I just think it bonds us together.”

Watch Part 1 of Spann in The Exchange above, and check back throughout the week for more.

(Above: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence defends his “Healthy Indiana” plan in an interview with Yellowhammer’s Cliff Sims)

While Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was in Birmingham to speak at the Alabama Republican Party summer dinner, he sat down with Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims to film an episode of The Exchange, Yellowhammer’s weekly interview feature.

Rather than releasing the entire interview at once, Yellowhammer is rolling it out in pieces throughout this week, an approach we will be trying out with future Exchange interviews as well.

Previous portions of the interview:
1. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in Alabama discussing opting out of Common Core
2. Gov. Pence: Gary Palmer ‘man of integrity, strong conservative views’

After becoming Governor of Indiana in January of 2013, Pence drastically cut taxes and implemented school choice reforms, both of which earned him the praise of conservatives in his state. But his decision to expand Indiana’s Medicaid program raised some eyebrows, especially as many other Republican governors, like Alabama’s Robert Bentley, refused to add more people to the government’s healthcare rolls under ObamaCare.

“A decision you made as governor that surprised some folks was that you expanded Medicaid,” Sims said. “How do you reconcile the conservative approach that you’ve taken with some of these other issues with expanding what a lot of people would say is a giant government entitlement program under ObamaCare?”

Pence contended that his plan is actually a Medicaid expansion alternative that would expand the program using a state plan that promotes personal responsibility.

“When I was in the Congress, I was one of the leading opponents of ObamaCare,” Pence said. “I think ObamaCare should be repealed lock, stock and barrel. But any sensible repeal of ObamaCare should be accompanied with free market reforms that give people more choices in the purchase of health insurance, and it should be paired with block granting Medicaid back to the states so that states like Indiana and Alabama can craft Medicaid programs that’ll meet the unique needs of their population.”

But Pence’s critics say that is not what his plan does.

“By definition, Medicaid block grants give states a fixed, lump sum of federal dollars in exchange for broad autonomy in providing Medicaid benefits. Pence’s plan features neither of these elements,” a Forbes op-ed recently stated. “Under Pence’s ObamaCare expansion, Indiana will draw down increasing amounts of ObamaCare in exchange for adding more people to the Medicaid rolls.”

Pence contends, however, that his plan, dubbed Healthy Indiana, has been extremely successful and now boasts over 40,000 enrollees.

“We actually have people who are eligible for Medicaid who have health savings accounts, that choose preventative care, that move from emergency room to primary care,” he said. “It’s been an unqualified success in Indiana.”

Pence also said that he ruled out a state-based healthcare exchange, which ObamaCare called for, and did not expand “traditional Medicaid.”

“I think traditional Medicaid is a deeply flawed program that ill-serves people that are enrolled in it,” he said. “In Indiana we won’t expand traditional Medicaid. But if we can empower individuals through these health savings accounts known as ‘power accounts’ to take greater ownership in their own healthcare, I think it’s going to be right for Hoosiers. I think consumer-driven healthcare is the future of healthcare in this country.”

Pence’s Medicaid plan will no doubt be a major point of debate if he decides to run for President in 2016.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has said he will continue to oppose expanding Medicaid.

For more episodes of The Exchange, check out Yellowhammer TV.

In this week’s episode of The Exchange, Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sits down with Alabama Governor Robert Bentley at the State Capitol to get his thoughts on his first few years in office, what he hopes to accomplish in a second term, and what he wants to be his legacy.

For more episodes of The Exchange, head over the Yellowhammer TV.

Want to skip around? Use the outline below to navigate the conversation:

0:33 — Question: You received 89% of the vote in the Republican primary. What did you do in your first term that compelled the people of Alabama to give you such a vote of confidence at the ballot box?

0:48 — Gov. Bentley gives his take on why House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his re-election bid in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District

Quotable Moment:
1:00 — “If you forget about the people, they’re going to forget about you. I don’t want to ever forget about the people because that’s who I serve.”

1:06 — Question: How did the the tornado outbreak exactly 100 days after you taking office set the tone for your first term?

2:28 — Gov. Bentley discusses his approach to economic development

Quotable Moments:
2:59 — “We are a right to work state. That is very important”
3:18 — “The thing that I do that a lot of governors don’t do is I keep my mouth shut.”

4:37 — Question: The unemployment rate ticked up a little this year. What do you attribute that to?

Quotable Moment:
4:58 — “We have 50,000 more jobs today than we did when we took office, and we’ve announced 55,000 more jobs.”

5:48 — Question: What can you do to push back against what a lot of people believe is an encroaching Federal Government?

Quotable Moment:
6:07 — “Most people call it ObamaCare. I tend not to do that very much, simply because it’s a philosophy, it’s not a person.”

6:42 — Question: For the first time in Alabama history, over 1 million people are enrolled in Medicaid. What can you do in your second term to address that?

Quotable Moment:
7:14 — “My goal is not to have more people on Medicaid, not to expand Medicaid, but to have less people on Medicaid (and) have more people working at real jobs…”

8:08 — Question: What can you do to push back against the ever-expanding power of the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency?

Quotable Moment:
8:25 — Bentley to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy: “Gina, who comes up with these crazy ideas?… You’re killing jobs! Do you not care that we have 16,000 coal miners in Alabama and you’re going to kill their jobs?”

9:47 — Bentley explains what will happen to Alabama if the Obama Administration is allowed to destroy the coal industry.

10:32 — Sims asks Gov. Bentley about what he wants his legacy to be.

Quotable Moments:
11:37 — “I don’t want anyone to ever say that I was a caretaker of the governor’s office, because I’m not.”

12:17 — “We want to make the state work more like a business, more efficient, and we want to save the taxpayers’ money.”

12:38 — “I’m here to help solve problems. That’s what I did as a doctor and that’s what I’m going to do as governor.”

(Video Above: Sen. Richard Shelby enters The Exchange)

Six months after an Alabama state senator from Tuscaloosa named Richard Shelby got elected to Congress, U.S. President Jimmy Carter delivered his infamous “malaise speech.” Over the next three-and-a-half decades, Shelby perhaps more than any other Alabamian would have a front row seat for history — from the winning of the Cold War and the tragedy of 9/11, to the Reagan boom and the Obama bust.

Nowadays, walking around Tuscaloosa with Richard Shelby is similar to what it must be like to walk around The Vatican with the Pope.

His local office is tucked in the corner of a Greek Revival-style, 127,376-square-foot federal building on University Blvd. that the Tuscaloosa News called “the crown jewel of the city of Tuscaloosa’s Downtown Urban Renewal Project.” Not more than a mile away sits the 200,000 square foot Shelby Hall Research Center at the University of Alabama. Neither building would exist without Shelby’s ability to acquire the funding to make it happen. As a matter of fact, buildings on four university campuses around Alabama bear his name for that reason.

So when we walked into Hooligans, a Mediterranean restaurant that is a favorite among locals, Shelby was met with a combination of reverence and curiosity.

But the long-time senator’s lack of pretentiousness disarms the room almost immediately. He waits his turn to order at the back of a line that snakes almost out the door. He spends most of his time before ordering talking up how good the lamb is and debating the proper pronunciation of “gyro.” He initiates conversations with anyone close enough to listen. He’s a politician, there’s no doubt about that. Shelby has lived most of his adult life in perpetual campaign mode. But he comes across more like someone who’s just entirely comfortable in his own skin at this point.

Hooligans with Tuscaloosa's Federal Building in the distance (Image: Google maps) — Hooligans with Tuscaloosa’s Federal Building in the distance (Image: Google maps)

Shelby turned 80-years-old earlier this year, a fact that surprises most people who’ve spent any amount of time around him. He still travels to every county in Alabama every single year, hosting town halls and visiting local businesses, a practice that he believes has played a major role in making him one of the longest-tenured elected officials in the country.

It’s that experience that gives Shelby a unique perspective on wide variety of issues, from national security (he served on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1995 to 2003), to financial policy (he chaired the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs from 2003 until 2007). If Republicans retake the senate this year, he will likely reassume his post at the top of the Banking Committee.

In this week’s episode of The Exchange, Sen. Shelby talks about what it’ll mean for Alabama if Republicans win the majority in the Senate. He also shares what he thinks about some of the country’s most prominent elected officials (Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Jeff Sessions, etc), why he’s concerned about another housing crisis, and more.

Check out the video of our interview above. Interested in more episodes of The Exchange? Click over to Yellowhammer TV.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

(Above: Sen. Shelby shares his thoughts on Common Core)

Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sat down with U.S. Senator Richard Shelby in his Tuscaloosa office earlier this week to film the latest episode of The Exchange, a weekly interview series that runs on Yellowhammer on Sunday mornings.

Their conversation touched on a wide range of topics, including the upcoming mid-term elections, what it would mean for Alabama if Republicans retake the Senate, and Sen. Shelby’s thoughts on some of the key leaders on the national political scene.

But in one of the most interesting portions of the interview, Sims asked Shelby to share his thoughts on Common Core, the national education standards that have become a hot-button issue across the country this year, especially in Republican-controlled states.

“I would be very wary of Common Core for the simple reason (that) sooner or later you’re going to have a federal mandate, probably enforced through the Department of Education all across the country,” Shelby said. “You don’t know what it’ll lead to.”

Alabama’s senior U.S. senator said that the promises made by Common Core advocates may sound good in theory. However, he believes that when put into practice, Common Core’s centralized, one-size-fits-all approach runs against two centuries of precedent with regard to how America’s education system was meant to be structured.

“It sounds good, you know, in an abstract way — we’ve got to have the basic courses for everybody in America,” said Shelby. “But in America, we’ve run our schools overall for 200 years locally and statewide. At the end of the day our children will compete with all of them. If they’re in New Hampshire or if they’re in California or in Alabama, they have to compete. But I believe the local people ought to decide.”

What do you think about Sen. Shelby’s thoughts on Common Core? Let us know in the comment section below or by tweeting @YHPolitics. Check back Sunday morning for the full interview with Sen. Shelby. For past episodes of The Exchange, click over to Yellowhammer TV.

(Video Above: Rick & Bubba enter The Exchange)

Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims sat down with the self-proclaimed “two sexiest fat men alive,” Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey, to see what makes the Alabama-based, nationally syndicated talk radio giants tick.

Rick & Bubba’s on-air partnership is over two decades old, but Bubba still remembers how it all started at a small station in Gadsden, Alabama.

“We were needing a morning show guy and I suggested they get Rick, my old college buddy… So I went and tried to get Rick and we couldn’t get him because he wanted too much money, and that’s kind of a thing I like about Rick now,” Bubba laughed. “But it really was a God thing.”

Rick & Bubba are well-known for their down-home, southern style, but Sims asked the two if there was ever a time when they had trouble getting on air because they don’t sound like typical morning talk show hosts.

“Bubba was the part owner of a radio station and the staff threatened to leave if Bubba kept recording commercials,” Rick joked.

“Yea, I didn’t get to do anything. I couldn’t get on the air,” Bubba added. “So when I see them now I give them a little ‘howdy do.'”

Rick & Bubba’s real-life friendship has been a significant factor in their on-air success, even in the midst of adversity. Rick’s 2-year-old son tragically drowned in 2008. Rick explained in The Exchange that it was a profound moment in the history of the show.

The Rick & Bubba Show had experienced so much success to that point that it could have been easy for some people to dismiss all the talk about their faith as “easy.” “Of course you believe in God,” they could say, “look what all you’ve been given.” With the death of Rick’s son, Rick said it was an opportunity to show the world that they truly believed what they said they believed. But it wasn’t easy.

“I remember trying to go back on the air the first day, and for the first time in my entire life, I didn’t feel like I could do it,” Rick recalled. “I couldn’t imagine going back on the air and trying to do something that would be kind of meaningless — some little silly something… And I remember telling God, ‘I can’t do it.’ And that’s when God said, ‘Well, now you’re ready. You’ve never had to depend on Me for this before, and now you’re so weak you can’t even tie your shoes to get ready for work. Your problem never was that you weren’t strong enough. Your problem was that you weren’t weak enough. And now do the show the way I want it done.'”

Rick & Bubba have also gotten more active in politics in recent years. They hosted one of the country’s first Tea Party rallies back in 2009, and have publicly endorsed several candidates in Alabama during this election cycle.

“For the first time in my life, I really believe this country is headed to be a socialistic, soft tyranny, gigantic central government society,” Rick said. “And I look at my children… And I look at the society they may face, and I think, I’ve been given a platform, I’ve been given a voice. And I really have struggled with, as a Christian, where do we really belong in all of this? And I was driving along one day and I was listening to the voice of Adrian Rogers, and he said, ‘I’ve had people ask me, ‘should Christians be involved in elections and changing policy in a free society?’ And he said, ‘my reaction to them is, ‘How could you be a Christian and not be involved?’ … We’re at a point now where we’ve got to quit running the same old people.”

While most of The Exchange with Rick & Bubba looked back at the last 20 years they’ve been on the air, at the end, Sims asked them to look ahead 20 years and sum up in a nutshell the legacy they hope to some day leave behind.

“If we’ve gone 20 years on the air, and we’ve had no eternal impact for the Kingdom of God — nobody has evaluated themselves, as we are called to do; no one has come to the Gospel, as we are called to do; if no one has been made disciples like we’re told to do — if we have not done those things, then this has been a monumental waste of time,” Rick said.

Bubba agreed, but also added, “I hope that people have laughed when they didn’t have anything to laugh about — when they were headed to surgery, when they were headed to a funeral, when they had things not going good in their life, they’d been laid off — that they swung by the radio and got a laugh over something that’s totally ridiculous.”

Check out the full, must-watch interview in the video above.

Interested in past episodes of The Exchange? Click over to Yellowhammer TV.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joins Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims to discuss her new television show, “Amazing America;” where she sees herself fitting in to the conservative movement; the GOP’s chances to win back the senate; what she thinks about the rift between the “establishment” and the Tea Party, and more.

Oh, and Alabama? Mrs. Palin says the Republican-controlled Yellowhammer State is “really doing something right.”

Check out the full interview above, which was recorded after Palin’s speech to the Baldwin County Republican Party at The Wharf in Orange Beach, Ala.

Follow Yellowhammer News on Twitter @YHPolitics and “like” us on Facebook.

(Above: Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims interviews Great Souther Wood CEO Jimmy Rane)

Yellowhammer’s video crew sat in a nearly empty 1950s-style soda shop in Abbeville, Ala. around 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon and started recapping everything we had seen over the previous several hours.

Abbeville, the oldest remaining colonial settlement in East Alabama, is a town of just under 2,700 people in the southeast corner of the state. Its population in the 1950s was roughly the same as it is today. It has one high school, one middle school and one elementary school, and is served by a single radio station — WESZ, “Oldies 98.7.”

Many of the downtown storefronts and a local theatre marquee have been restored to the way they looked at a time when Elvis was emerging as the face of rock-n-roll and the jury was still out on whether capitalism or communism would prevail as the globe’s dominant economic system.

It’s the kind of town that isn’t so much stuck in the past as it is nostalgic — sentimental about the values that its residents have passed down to each other for generations.

And at the center of it all is the town’s most famous resident, Jimmy Rane, perhaps better known as “The Yella Fella.”

Rane founded Great Southern Wood Preserving in Abbeville 44 years ago when he started peddling treated lumber out of the back of a red, 1961 pickup truck. Today the company is the largest of its kind — not just in Alabama, not even just in the United States, but in the entire world.

“We’re in 27 U.S. states, every Caribbean country, every central American country, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uraguay, China and Taiwan,” Rane had told us at his company’s headquarters earlier in the day. “We’re competing on a world stage.”

The company employs roughly 1,000 people. But even after hearing the details of Great Southern Wood’s almost unfathomable success on a global scale, it was Rane’s devotion to his rural Alabama hometown that stuck out above it all.

Rather than expanding Great Southern Wood’s Abbeville headquarters as the company grew, Rane chose to renovate buildings in other parts of town, like the old Standard Oil gas station, and turn them into office space. By doing that the company’s exponential growth has had an even greater impact on the town.

His passion for historical preservation has led him to renovate properties all over Abbeville. Even the the soda shop the Yellowhammer crew stopped in before leaving town, Huggin’ Molly’s, was opened by Rane in 2006.

Huggin' Molly's, Abbeville, Ala. — Huggin’ Molly’s, Abbeville, Ala.

We covered a lot of ground in the on-camera interview conducted in Rane’s second-floor office at Great Southern Wood HQ — from his thoughts on the economy and his non-profit foundation, to his role as President Pro Tem of the Auburn University Board of Trustees and the Super Bowl commercial in which he played a starring role.

But it was Rane’s final answer of the interview that lingered with me as we packed up to head north.

It has been suggested in the past that Great Southern Wood’s business would actually benefit from moving out of Abbeville, that a relocation to a larger hub of commerce would further strengthen the company’s robust bottom line.

“Why Abbeville?” I asked. “What makes this place so special?”

“Why not Abbeville?” Rane replied with the slightest glimmer of a tear welling up in his eye. “I think that’s the better question. Abbeville is home. I’ve lived here all my life. My mother’s family has been here a long time. My friends and family are here. Abbeville is composed of really fine, educated people who want an opportunity… so why not? I want to do all I can to help make Alabama as great as it can be.”

Yellowhammer’s full interview with Jimmy Rane can be viewed above. Like “The Exchange” and want to make more episodes possible? SHARE this post on Facebook, Twitter and email quickly and easily by using the buttons below.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims sat down with Great Southern Wood Preserving CEO Jimmy Rane yesterday in Abbeville, Ala. to shoot the latest episode of “The Exchange.”

RELATED: Check out recent “Exchange” interviews with Steve Forbes and Austal President Craig Perciavalle

Over four decades ago, Rane started Great Southern Wood with one employee and a 1961 one-and-a-half ton pickup truck. Today, it’s the largest company of its kind in the entire world, with 15 treating facilities around the United States, doing business all over the globe.

There are a lot of reasons the company has been so successful, not the least of which is Rane’s leadership, but the company’s savvy marketing has played a big role as well.

Rane is perhaps best known around the country as the “Yella Fella,” a no-nonsense cowboy in a yellow outfit who takes out bad guys and re-builds rotten towns with YellaWood, Great Southern Wood Preserving’s brand of pressure treated pine.

YellaWood produced a series of videos starring Rane as the Yella Fella, including a Super Bowl ad.

Jimmy Rane as "The Yella Fella" — Jimmy Rane as “The Yella Fella”

Sims asked Rane on Thursday where the idea for the Yella Fella came from and what he initially thought about it.

“When they walked in I said, ‘Are you crazy? You want me to dress up like this yellow cartoon cowboy?'” Rane recalled. “Anyway, it worked out. We did it for several years. I had a good time.”

To say it “worked out” is probably an understatement. The ad campaign raised Rane’s profile to the point that many people began speculating that he might actually run for governor in 2010. He decided not to run, but his incredible track record in business and his widely-recognizable face and name continue to make him a point of speculation every election cycle.

Would he ever consider running? Watch the full interview on Sunday to find out his answer to that question so much more. In the mean time, check out the preview above.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

(Above: Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims interviews Shaun McCutcheon)

Shaun McCutcheon hadn’t gotten much sleep when he strolled into The Club, a members-only establishment perched atop Red Mountain in the Birmingham suburb of Homewood, Friday afternoon around 2 p.m.

“Do you know where I can get some coffee?” He asked as Yellowhammer’s video crew assembled a makeshift set. “I worked through the night last night. Had a little bit of an emergency, but we got it taken care of.”

McCutcheon is one of the hottest interviews in American politics right now. His name has been a headline in every major publication in the United States. He was the featured guest on the longest-running television series in broadcasting history. Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate who spent $100 million on the last presidential race, recently requested an audience with him. His e-book, Outsider Inside the Supreme Court, is out today. And he’s being courted to chair numerous non-profit organizations that advocate for freedom of speech.

But he hasn’t allowed the whirlwind of attention to keep him away from his “day job” for too long. Back in Alabama and out of the deafening roar of the D.C. political class, McCutcheon is going about his day-to-day life running his wildly successful engineering firm, Coalmont Electrical Development Corporation.

When the Supreme Court of the United States announced its decision on the case bearing his name, McCutcheon was working on the electrical system of a Tennessee steel mill. The work site was so loud that he didn’t even notice his phone ringing off the hook. When he finally saw the dozens of missed calls, he listened to the messages informing him that he had won. He celebrated for a moment, then went back to work.

His aw shucks demeanor and small business background made him an ideal spokesperson for the extremely contentious debate surrounding the fundamental question of when free speech ends and corruption begins. He laughs off the smear campaigns that have been launched against him. There are numerous websites entirely devoted to attacking him personally.

As we chatted on Friday, he seemed simultaneously amused and bewildered by the attention as he scrolled through the #McCutcheon hashtag on Twitter.

“That Colbert guy is my favorite,” McCutcheon said of Stephen Colbert, host of the late-night satirical Comedy Central show The Colbert Report. “He’s been pretty funny in his tweets about my case.”

People are worried that the McCutcheon ruling will bring change to politics. But it will mostly bring large bills and checks.

— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) April 4, 2014

The “McCutcheon” name is now to political consultants and candidates what “Roe” is to abortion advocates, “Miranda” is to criminal defense attorneys, and “Brown” is to civil rights activists.

But most people still don’t entirely understand what all the fuss is about. The soundbites have devolved into “democracy for sale” on one side and “freedom of speech” on the other. In reality, it’s much more nuanced than that, as are most cases that rise to the Supreme Court.

Political donors are currently subject to limits on the amount of money they can contribute to candidates. $5,200 is the most a donor can give to any one candidate — $2,600 in the primary and another $2,600 in the general. That’s called the “base limit.” This number is the amount of money the Federal Election Commission believes protects donors’ First Amendment right to engage in the political process, while remaining below the threshold at which a donor could “buy” too much influence with a candidate or elected official.

But on top of the base limit, there is also a cap on the total sum of money a donor can donate to federal campaigns in general. It’s called the “aggregate limit,” and it’s set at $123,200.

At least it was until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in McCutcheon v. FEC that the aggregate limit is unconstitutional.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion.

“The government has a strong interest… in combatting corruption and its appearance,” Roberts wrote. “We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a specific kind of corruption — quid pro quo corruption — in order to ensure that the government’s efforts do not have the effect of restricting the First Amendment right of citizens to choose who shall govern them.”

In other words, the high court ruled that limiting the total amount of money American citizens can give to a wide range of candidates is a violation of their First Amendment Rights. The individual limit of $5,200, however, stays in place.

McCutcheon’s allies have argued that lifting the aggregate limit would help quell the growing power of Super PACs, which can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money as long as they don’t “coordinate” with a specific campaign. The age of Super PACs was ushered in by another controversial Supreme Court decision, Citizens United.

Critics of the Court’s ruling say it will allow a small number of big donors to have an outsized impact on federal elections.

But regardless of one’s position on the Supreme Court’s decision, it’s impossible to deny its impact on the political process.

Shaun McCutcheon sat down with Yellowhammer this week for our weekly interview feature, “The Exchange.” You can check out the interview above, and let us know what you think in the comment section below or by tweeting us @YHPolitics.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

(Above: Yellowhammer News CEO Cliff Sims interviews Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle)

Craig Perciavalle kicked off 2013 by becoming President of Austal USA, America’s largest aluminum shipbuilding company, with roughly 4,000 employees in Mobile, Ala. A little over a year later, he’s leading the company through a period of unprecedented growth and cranking out the most advanced ships the U.S. Navy has ever had in its fleet. Austal is currently building Joint High-Speed Vessels (JHSV) and Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), both of which are so fast that their top speed is classified.

Mr. Perciavalle sat down with Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims this week for The Exchange, a regular feature in which Yellowhammer discusses current events and other topics with a state or national business leader or political figure, or notable Alabamian.

Is there someone you would like to see featured in The Exchange? Send us an email HERE with “Exchange Guest” in the title.

Did you know Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., tried to kill the Littoral Combat Ship, but Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., saved it? Did you know the most advanced ships in the Navy are being run on Microsoft Windows? Find out about that and so much more — including what’s making Alabama so attractive to companies around the world — by watching the video above.

Here are some of the top quotes from this week’s sit-down with Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle.

On what it’s like to operate the Navy’s most advanced ships:

The command infrastructure on the ship is Windows based. It basically looks like you’re looking at your desktop in your office. It’s got all the permissions and all the security features that are necessary to be in a military environment. But at the end of the day, it enables us to upgrade the systems on the ship, or ‘plug-and-play’ other weapons or other mission packages on the ship much more easily than a traditional Navy ship has been able to do in the past.

On working with Alabama’s Congressional delegation:

It’s phenomenal… I’ve been in this position for a little over a year now and the appreciation that I have for what they do has just gone beyond my imagination… They provide a tremendous amount of support for us — both with state support with supporting the operations, as well as support on the Hill.

On an Alabama-built ship making it into a Disney movie that made a half-billion dollars at the box office:

It’s the LCS Independence. It’s Tony Trihull in the Cars 2 Movie. We didn’t know it was going to happen. We had some employees that were sitting in the movie theater and they were like, ‘Holy cow, that’s our ship!’

Tony Trihull from Cars 2 (Photo: Pixar Films)

On what’s making Alabama so attractive to companies right now:

First and foremost is the support the state gives industry here. They realize they need to provide support for companies to have them move to the area and grow the economics of the state. That’s been tremendous for us with AIDT training. We get a lot of support with that. We’ve had some support in the facility growth that we’ve had — both from the county, the City of Mobile and the State of Alabama. That partnership between the State of Alabama and industry is really second to none from what I’ve seen… That’s the main reason why people are attracted to come into the state… That’s just going to make the state of Alabama grow into an incredible economic powerhouse going forward.

On Austal employees rejecting unionization 3 times and Alabama’s status as a right-to-work state:

That’s probably the second leading attractive part of being in the State of Alabama — a right to work state… We focus on treating our employees right and creating a very good work environment for them.

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(Above: Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle visits “The Exchange”)

Yellowhammer CEO Cliff Sims sat down with Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle yesterday to discuss a wide range of issues — from how Sen. Richard Shelby, R- Ala., saved the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) to the fact the LCS inspired a character in Disney’s Cars 2, which brought in over a half-billion dollars at the box office.

Perciavalle raved about the advantages of doing business in the state of Alabama. Austal employees approx. 4,000 Alabamians in the Mobile area. He said the state will likely continue to attract international companies like Austal and Airbus who are looking for a low-tax, business-friendly place to do business in America.

But there were two specific things Austal’s president mentioned that make Alabama an especially attractive place to locate. One of them is Alabama’s status as a right-to-work state.

“That’s probably the second leading attractive part of being in the state of Alabama — a right-to-work state,” Perciavalle said. “At the end of the day, we focus on treating our employees right and creating a very good work environment for them.”

Austal employees have voted to reject three attempts by the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union to unionize the plant — in 2002, 2008 and most recently in 2011.

Want to find out what Perciavalle believes is the most attractive part of doing business in Alabama? Come back to Yellowhammer Sunday morning to see Perciavalle’s complete interview in “The Exchange.”

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

Zan Green Rainy Day Patriots Yellowhammer Politics — Zan Green, Rainy Day Patriots

Zan Green, President of the Rainy Day Patriots Tea Party group, posted the following open letter to Governor Bentley on behalf RDP’s members:

We are encouraged by Governor Bentley as he speaks of staying the course with the other governors of the 34 states who are proposing to refuse to set up state healthcare exchanges. We expect him, as our last line of defense against the Tyranny of the Federal Government, to protect the citizens of Alabama. He will be saving Alabama taxpayers billions of dollars by defying the federal government.

ObamaCare gives the federal government the authority to step in and operate an exchange itself in Alabama, but those who would be eligible will be paid in full by the federal government, not Alabama. ObamaCare also requires a state run exchange before subsidies can be given, without one, this would not be funded. Congress has not appropriated any funds for this contingency. In effect, these governors can neutralize the devastating financial effects of ObamaCare. This should be an easy call for any fiscally responsible governor.

The Supreme Court’s ruling against the Obama administration’s attempt to blackmail states by withholding the Medicaid payments if the exchanges were not set up, has paved the way for governors and state legislators to become the real heroes of the fight against ObamaCare. We respectfully ask you, Governor Bentley, to be one of these courageous governors. We will support you and all the other governors who have taken on this fight to protect our country from the over-reaching Federal Government.
Governor Bentley we beseech you to protect Alabamians.

Zan Green, President
and All Members of the Rainy Day Patriots Tea Party

State Representatives Blaine Galliher Yellow Hammer Politics — Blaine Galliher

Governor Bentley’s Legislative Director Blaine Galliher made the rounds on Facebook on Friday posting the following message:

Governor Robert Bentley believes that the Affordable Health Care Act is the single worst piece of legislation to be passed in our lifetimes. He believes it is neither affordable nor about health care and he is exploring all possible avenues through which he can stop this law from ever being implemented in Alabama. This includes all legal and political options and he is reaching out to all conservative governors to get as many as possible to join him in his fight against this unjustified and unwise federal intrusion.

As a part of this effort, Governor Bentley has appointed a tribunal of lawyers with expertise in constitutional law and this health care bill to advise him on the options our state has as it relates to this legislation.

Furthermore, Governor Bentley participated in a conference call with 20+ other governors from across the nation on this very issue on Friday morning and will attend a meeting with those governors next week.

Just this aftertoon, Governor Bentley and Governor Rick Perry of Texas had a long phone conversation where Governor Perry agreed with Governor Bentley regarding his thoughts on fighting this legislation and opposing its implementation in conservative states. Governor Bentley feels that the best course of action would be for as many conservative governors as possible to work together to determine the best course of action as it relates to this issue.

Again, Governor Bentley is leaving no stone unturned in his efforts to build a coalition of conservative governors to devise a legal strategy that would give our state, and all conservative states, the best defense.