Presented by

The Economic Development Association of Alabama

1. More than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique.

• It’s hard to fathom a death count of more than 1,000 from a natural disaster we are familiar with, but that’s what the African country of Mozamique is facing today after a cyclone ravaged the country over the weekend.
• The storm struck Beira, an Indian Ocean port city of a half-million people, then moved inland to Zimbabwe and Malawi with strong winds and heavy rain. But it took days for the scope of the disaster to come into focus in Mozambique, which has a poor communication and transportation network and a corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.
• Speaking on state Radio Mozambique, Nyusi said that while the official death toll stood at 84, “It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths.”
• More than 80 people were killed in Zimbabwe’s eastern Chimanimani region and more than 50 in Malawi, according to official figures. Hundreds more were reported injured and missing, and nearly 1,000 homes were destroyed in eastern Zimbabwe alone.
• Doctors Without Borders said rivers have broken their banks leaving many houses fully submerged and around 11,000 households displaced in Nsanje, in southern Malawi.
• U.N. agencies and the Red Cross helped rush emergency food and medicine by helicopter to the stricken countries.
• Full story HERE.

2. Genealogy testing led to murder, rape arrest.

• A prosecutor says he’ll seek the death penalty against a man charged in the slayings of two Alabama teenagers nearly 20 years ago.
• District Attorney Kirke Adams says 45-year-old Coley McCraney can be prosecuted for capital murder in the killings of 17-year-olds Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley.
• Adams told a news conference Monday that one of the multiple capital counts against the man includes a charge that one of the victims was sexually assaulted during her slaying in 1999.
• Authorities say they used DNA matching to confirm that evidence from the killings was tied to McCraney.
• The suspect was found by the same genealogy database techniques used to apprehend the suspected “Golden State Killer” last year.
• Law enforcement interest in using genetic genealogy to crack cold cases has ballooned since the high-profile arrest of the suspected California serial killer who was found by running crime scene DNA through a genealogy database.
• Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker, who said he always believed the case could be solved, said the Golden State killer arrest inspired them to try something similar. “Let’s try that,’ Walker recalled.
• McCraney is a truck driver and a preacher at his own church in Ozark.
• Read the full amazing story from Kim Chandler HERE.
• Also read The Dothan Eagle and watch WTVY’s coverage.

A message from the

Economic Development Association of Alabama

3. Marsh advancing wall bill.

• A bill sponsored by Senate Pro Tem Del Marsh would allow Alabamians to donate some of their income tax return to the construction of a wall on the southern border by checking a box on their tax return documents.
• Senate Bill 22 is expected to be in the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee today and Marsh told Alabama Daily News that he plans on doing everything he can to get the bill to the Senate floor for a vote this week.
• Marsh said that his original reasoning for proposing the bill was because of problems he faced when trying to send money to We Build the Wall, Inc.
• “I wanted to create an avenue that would, one, give a way for Alabamians to show support for (President Donald) Trump and for building the wall, but also to allow them to participate in that process,” Marsh said.
• Immigrant rights groups oppose the bill and say any tax exempt donations send “clear message to immigrants that we are not welcome here.”
• Caroline Beck has the full story with more comments from Marsh, and you can read that HERE.

4. LEAD Academy will open this year.

• It looks like Montgomery will open a public charter school in 2019 after all.
• After winning a Supreme Court case last week, LEAD Academy says it is scheduled to open in August.
• School leaders said the plan is to open August 19 with 360 students in K-5.
• “We have a lot of work to do,” said Ryan Cantrell, Vice President of the LEAD Academy board. “But we are committed to opening Montgomery’s first public charter school for kindergarten through fifth grade to students on August 19th.”
• The Alabama Public Charter School Commission approved LEAD Academy’s application in February 2018, but the Alabama Education Association sued to challenge that decision in what many saw as a delay tactic.
• Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in favor of the LEAD Academy, and the school subsequently executed a contract with the state’s charter commission.
• Board Chair Charlotte Meadows confirmed the class size will be 24 students.
• “We are the same school we set out to be a year ago with a focus on STREAMS: Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts, Math, and Social and Emotional Learning,” Meadows said.
• “And high expectations for our faculty, our students, our parents, and of course, ourselves.”
• Watch the full story from WSFA’s Jenn Horton HERE.
• Read more from the Montgomery Advertiser’s Krista Johnson HERE.

5. Inside Alabama Politics.

• The Process: How the gas tax really passed;
• The Upshot: who gets the spoils and who gets spanked?
• What happened at SPLC?
• Senate 2020 Update: The Full Mo;
• Montgomery Mayor update;

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