1. Sheriff arrested on ethics charges.

 

• Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely was arrested Thursday on theft and ethics charges that include accusations of taking money from campaign and law enforcement accounts.
• Blakely, who has been sheriff of the north Alabama county since 1983, was booked into his own jail Thursday. He was later released on $49,000 bail.
• Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said a grand jury indicted Blakely on 13 charges. The office said the charges include taking money from campaign and law enforcement funds and using his position to get interest-free loans. He allegedly took money from a safe that was used to store the Limestone County inmates’ personal funds.
• “Public officials are entrusted to perform their duties honestly and above reproach. When that bond of trust is broken, our society suffers undue harm,” Marshall said in a statement. My office — working with our federal and state partners — is committed to ensuring that the violators of the public trust be held accountable under the law,” Marshall said.
• Full story HERE.

 

2. DNC whacks Worley.

• The Democratic National Committee’s Credentials Committee on Thursday voted to strip Alabama Democratic Party leaders of their seats at the convention after months of the state party failing to comply with DNC directives.
• The panel recommended revoking the credentials of Chairwoman Nancy Worley and Vice-Chair Randy Kelley. The full DNC will have to approve the recommendation on Saturday, but it typically accepts the recommendations.
• Worley and Kelley would stay in their state roles, but won’t have a seat on the DNC.
• National party officials in February ordered new elections after finding procedural irregularities with Worley’s and Kelley’s election last year. Party officials also ordered the state party to develop an affirmative action plan and revise bylaws to provide representation of more minorities — not just African Americans.
• Worley said the challenge was filed by people unhappy with her election and suggested it was an effort to minimize the influence of African Americans.
• Worley said there is a “special circle in hell that is going to be as hot as it can be” for people who try to strip black voters of their voting rights, and told members they will need water, “cause you are going to be burning in hell for taking away people’s voting rights.”
• Read the full story from Kim Chandler HERE.
• Also read more from Brian Lyman HERE and from Mike Cason HERE.

 

 

3. ALGOP delegate dust-up.

• When Alabama Republicans meet Saturday for their annual summer meeting, party members will consider whether or not to change the way national convention delegates for presidential candidates are decided.
• Currently, delegates are elected by voters during the GOP primary leading up to a presidential election. That’s why in 2016 there were eleventy names listed on the back of the primary ballot for all those presidential contenders. Winning a delegate position is fun because, if your candidate picks up enough votes, you get to go to the national convention.
• The proposed bylaw would instead give the authority of choosing delegates to the Alabama Republican Party’s State Executive Committee.
• It’s causing a bit of a stir within the party, and this week a flyer was anonymously circulated by mail criticizing the proposal and asking the 463 executive committee members to oppose it.
• That led party leaders, including ALGOP Chairwoman Terry Lathan to push back in emails against the “misinformation” and clarify the proposal.
• ADN’s Will Whatley has the flyer, the emails, and the reaction from party leaders in a new story HERE.

 

4. New Schools for Alabama gets $25 million to grow charters.

• New Schools for Alabama, a non profit organization that works to grow public charter schools in the state, has been approved for $25 million in federal grant funding.
• The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement each year awards competitive grants to state entities that seek to expand public charter schools.
• New Schools for Alabama asked for $25 million “to kickstart and sustain the presence of high- quality charter schools throughout Alabama, specifically for our most educationally disadvantaged students,” according to its submitted application.
• Advocates hope to increase the number of charter schools in Alabama by at least 15 over the next five years, focusing especially on disadvantaged students. The group said it also wants to make the state a nation leader in the quality of the charter authorizing process.
• Each individual school will be eligible for $1.5 million in start-up funding.
• Other grant winners included the New Hampshire Department of Education at $46 million and the Washington State Charter Schools Association at $19 million. New Schools for Alabama notched the highest scored on its grant application.
• “We’re really excited about what this can do for kids,” New Schools Executive Director Tyler Barnett told Alabama Daily News.
• “Our mission is to support the growth of excellent public charter schools in Alabama to ensure that every child has access to a quality public education. This funding will allow us to accelerate that growth and expand access to excellent public charter schools.”
• This story will be updated as more information and reaction comes in from state leaders.

 

5. AP News Briefs.

 

• A central Alabama man is charged with murder in the shooting death of his father.
• Montgomery County sheriff’s authorities tell news outlets that 35-year-old Keith Scarborough is being held in the slaying of 72-year-old Jerry Scarborough.
• Officers called to a rural home found the older man dead of a gunshot wound early Wednesday.
• Sheriff’s Capt. George Beaudry says it’s not unclear what prompted the gunfire.
• Court records aren’t available to show whether Scarborough has an attorney to speak on his behalf.

• Seven Alabama middle school students were hospitalized for heat distress symptoms after participating in an outdoor gym class.
• News outlets report about 30 students at Wetumpka Middle School complained of being overheated Thursday afternoon while they were walking and running on the track.
• Superintendent Richard Dennis says the seven sick students were all sixth graders and they received treatment for dehydration.
• One of the hospitalized students told WSFA-TV that the gym was being used for picture day, so the physical education classes were held outside.
• The outlet’s weather team says the temperature around the time the students became ill was in the low- to mid-90s with a heat index near 100 degrees.
• Dennis says the school is investigating.

• An Alabama man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.
• U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town says U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon sentenced 49-year-old Jerry Wayne Hamilton Jr., of Sylacauga, on Wednesday.
• In a news release Thursday, Town says court documents show Hamilton spoke with who he believed to be a 15-year-old girl on several dating and chat apps between Oct. 13, 2018 and Oct. 21, 2018. In fact, Town says, Hamilton was communicating with an undercover detective.
• On Oct. 21, Hamilton arrived at a book store to meet the “teenager” but instead was met and arrested by the Mountain Brook Police Department.
• Town says Hamilton deserves every day of his 120-month sentence “because of his reprehensible acts.”

• Israel was responsible for the bombing of an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq lost month, U.S. officials have confirmed, an attack that would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s years-long campaign against Iranian military entrenchment across the region.
• The confirmation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strongly hinting that his country is behind recent airstrikes that have hit bases and munitions depot belonging to Iran-backed paramilitary forces operating in Iraq.
• The mystery attacks have not been claimed by any side and have left Iraqi officials scrambling for a response, amid strong speculation that Israel may have been behind them. Earlier this week, the deputy head of the Iraqi Shiite militias, known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, openly accused Israeli drones of carrying out the attacks, but ultimately blamed Washington and threatened strong retaliation for any future attack.
• There have been weeks of speculation in Israel that the army is attacking targets in Iraq.
• In an interview with a Russian-language TV station on Thursday, Netanyahu indicated the speculation is true.
• “I don’t give Iran immunity anywhere,” he said, accusing the Iranians of trying to establish bases “against us everywhere,” including Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
• Asked whether that means Israel is operating in Iraq, Netanyahu said: “We act in many arenas against a country that desires to annihilate us. Of course I gave the security forces a free hand and the instruction to do what is needed to thwart these plans of Iran.”
• Full story HERE.

• Against the backdrop of a vulnerable economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell takes center stage Friday with the financial world seeking clarity on whether last month’s first Fed rate cut in a decade likely marked the start of a period of easier credit.
• The confusion has only heightened in the days leading to the annual gathering of global central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at which Powell will give the keynote address.
• Investors are looking for a clearer signal from Powell that he and other members of the Fed’s interest rate committee support further rate cuts to counter a slowing global economy and calm turbulent markets. Yet they might not get it.
• The CME Group, which tracks investor bets on central bank policy, is projecting the likelihood that the Fed will cut rates at least twice more before year’s end.
• Adding to the pressures on the Fed, Trump has kept up his attacks on the central bank and on Powell personally, arguing that Fed officials have kept rates too high and should be cutting them aggressively.
• Full story HERE.

 

Headlines.

 

 

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