1. States move to oppose Alabama’s Census lawsuit.

• Fifteen states and several cities are intervening to oppose Alabama’s lawsuit challenging who is counted in the U.S. Census.
• Attorney General Steve Marshall and Congressman Mo Brooks last year spearheaded a federal lawsuit that argues the Census should only count legal residents of the United States, and not those in the country illegally. States with stricter immigration policies, like Alabama, stand to lose congressional representation and federal funding, while states with more lax laws stand to gain, they argue.
• Now those states that stand to gain (or at least stand to lose if Alabama wins) are officially pushing back, asking to intervene in the lawsuit.
• “No individual ceases to be a person because they lack documentation. The United States Constitution is crystal clear that every person residing in this country at the time of the decennial census — regardless of legal status — must be counted, and no matter what President Trump says, or Alabama does, that fact will never change,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement on the court filing.
• The states seeking to intervene in the lawsuit are: New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The United States Conference of Mayors, the District of Columbia and nine other cities and counties, including Seattle and New York City, are also asking to join the lawsuit. The city of Atlanta also asked to intervene in a separate court filing.
• Read the full story from Kim Chandler HERE.

 

 

2. Roby speaks.

• U.S. Rep. Martha Roby on Wednesday spoke publicly for the first time since announcing she would not seek a sixth term in Congress.
• Addressing the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce’s “Eggs & Issues” event, Roby used the opportunity to talk less about her own decision not to run and more about how grateful she has been to represent the area in Congress.
• Peppered with questions about why, exactly, she’s not running and whether she’ll run for something else in the future, Roby stuck to her story that it was just time and that she really doesn’t have any political plans for the future.
• Read more from the Advertiser’s Brian Lyman HERE and from AL.com’s Mike Cason HERE, or watch WSFA’s coverage HERE.
• Later in the day, I caught up with my former boss for a longer discussion about her decision, the state of Congress, and her plans. That’ll be on the next “In the Weeds” podcast, so you’ll have to #waitforit.

 

3. Making their case for Montgomery mayor.

• Candidates vying to become the Capital City’s next mayor took part in the first and maybe only major televised forum Wednesday night.
• WSFA and the League of Women Voters hosted the event, which was broadcast and live streamed by WSFA and several radio stations.
• This is a major event in the race because it’s perhaps the biggest opportunity for candidates to appeal to a large audience of voters.
• If you know anything about Montgomery, the topics were obvious: fixing the broken school system, reducing gun violence, jumpstarting economic growth, and so on.
• Frontrunner Steven Reed mostly stuck to the script playing error-free ball, while those competing for that second place slot – Artur Davis, David Woods, J.C. Love, Elton Dean and Ed Crowell – tried to stand out among the field with novel or memorable answers.
• That wasn’t easy to do amid 11 candidates and the short answer times.
• Among the lesser known candidates, Victorrus Felder stood out as a passionate and serious candidate.
• WSFA has the questions and answers broken down into categories, which you can watch for yourself HERE.

 

4. Feds to ease trucker regulations.

• The Trump administration took a key step Wednesday toward relaxing federal rules that govern the length of time truck drivers can spend behind the wheel, a move long sought by the trucking industry but opposed by safety advocates who warn it could lead to more highway crashes.
• The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an agency of the Transportation Department, issued proposed changes to the “hours of service” rule , which dictate breaks truckers are required to take, and their time on and off duty.
• “It puts a little more power back in the hands of the drivers and motor carriers,” said Raymond Martinez, head of the federal safety agency. Martinez said the agency listened to drivers and their calls for safer and more flexible rules.
• Trade groups that represented truck drivers and motor carriers have pushed for years for less rigid hours of service rules, arguing that the regulations were too rigid and out of step with the daily realties confronting most truck drivers. They found a supporter in President Donald Trump, who has made rolling back layers of regulatory oversight a priority.
• Full story HERE.

 

5. Steve Flowers: The story of Floyd Mann

• Steve Flowers has an interesting column this week on Floyd Mann, who headed the Alabama State Troopers during the late 1950s.
• Of course, that was when civil rights tension and violence was starting to really heat up.
• In contrast to the infamous Bull Connor who would succeed him, Mann worked to ease tensions, not inflame them.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Steve Flowers’ full column HERE.

 

5. AP News Briefs.

 

• President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that trade talks with China can wait until tensions in Hong Kong have eased, tweeting: “Of course China wants to make a deal. Let them work humanely with Hong Kong first!”
• Trump also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a “great leader” and saying he could quickly resolve the unrest in Hong Kong if he wanted to. “I have ZERO doubt that if President Xi wants to quickly and humanely solve the Hong Kong problem, he can do it. Personal meeting?” Trump tweeted.
• Trump has previously said little about the protests in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, except to make it clear he believes that Hong Kong and China need to “deal with that themselves.” He has urged the two sides to exercise caution and voiced hopes that the situation will be resolved peacefully.
• His more extensive comments Wednesday came as U.S. stock markets tumbled, in part because of uncertainty over the trade standoff with Beijing. Investors have also been rattled about the widespread protests in Hong Kong. Flights resumed at Hong Kong’s airport after two days of disruptions that descended into clashes with police.
• While Trump has been reticent to take sides, some Republican and Democratic members of Congress have voiced their support for the protesters.
• Full story from Kevin Freking HERE.

• Tyson Foods is blaming temporary piping installed by a contractor for pollution that killed tens of thousands of fish in a north Alabama river.
• An open letter posted by an arm of the agricultural company says about 220,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater was released from a River Valley Ingredients plant at Hanceville on June 6.
• The company says a contractor had installed temporary piping that failed. It says waste reached the Black Warrior River’s Mulberry Fork, where an estimated 175,000 fish were killed.
• The company says fish died because of low oxygen levels in the water, not chemicals. The company says oxygen levels are now normal and fish are returning.
• State conservation officials say it could take years for the river to recover, and area residents have filed suit.
• Story link.

• A federal judge has sentenced an Opelika woman to prison for embezzling more than $600,000 from volunteer fire departments in Alabama.
• U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town said Wednesday that a judge sentenced 63-year-old Andrea Payne to 42 months for wire fraud.
• Town’s office says Payne served as the treasurer of the Talladega County Association of Volunteer Fire Departments between 2012 and 2018, and was responsible for distributing tax revenue to 15 volunteer fire departments. Prosecutors said she used some of the money to pay her credit card bills.
• Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that she also used the money to take cruise vacations and for cash advances off her credit card.
• Payne pleaded guilty in April to wire fraud.

• An Alabama high school’s senior class president who was involved in a collision with a school bus has died.
• News outlets report 17-year-old Christopher Rogers died Tuesday afternoon. He had attended Central High School in Phenix City.
• Phenix City police said the accident happened Friday when Rogers was headed south on Highway 165 and the bus turned onto the highway. Three students, one monitor and a driver were on the bus. Police Capt. Darryl Williams says no one on the bus was injured, but the occupants were taken to a hospital as a precaution.
• A passenger in Rogers’ car was treated and released.
• Williams said in a news release Wednesday that police will investigate the crash and the findings will be submitted to a grand jury for review.

• A 4-year-old giraffe has died unexpectedly at the Montgomery Zoo and Mann Wildlife Learning Museum.
• A news release from the zoo says Connye the giraffe died Monday. Zookeepers noticed she was in an unusual position and animal care and veterinarian teams were sent in, but they weren’t able to stabilize her condition.
• The statement says Connye didn’t show any symptoms of illness in the days or weeks before her death. It says state veterinarians at the Thompson Bishop Sparks Diagnostic Laboratory will perform a necropsy and the findings will be publicly available.
• Connye was born at the zoo on March 23, 2015.

 

Headlines.

Front Pages (images link to newspaper websites, which you should visit and patronize)