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Now, here’s your Daily News.

1. McCain to be honored.

A message from the Alliance for Alabama’s Infrastructure

• President Ronald Reagan was a great leader for many reasons, and one was knowing how to apply common sense to big national problems.

• He’s right. If we wait too late, we will be forced to rebuild our infrastructure at far too high a cost.

• We can do better – and now is the time.

• Join the movement to improve Alabama’s infrastructure. Click HERE to learn more and get involved with the growing #FixALRoads effort.

3. AL.com podcast focuses on The Machine.

• Are you into podcasts? I’m into podcasts. They are an increasingly-popular medium for news and storytelling. I like to listen when I’m driving.

• AL.com’s Reckon brand is launching a new podcast today. It’s called “Greek Gods” and it focuses on an old political intrigue: the University of Alabama campus organization known as “the Machine.”

• I got to preview some of the episodes and interview podcast co-host John Archibald about the project. Read my full story on it HERE.

• My take? It is what it is. Stories about the Machine have been around for decades and they’ll probably be around for many more.

• It can vary from nefarious to silly, but it all demonstrates how ridiculously serious we take ourselves in college.

• Here was a great and telling quote from John that maybe encapsulates this idea:

• “You know, I think most people who have been through it over some period of time are able to look at it with a little bit of humor because, again, when you’re in college everything is so heightened. Everything is so important. You think you’re changing the world with everything you do. Everything matters so much and becomes so intense.

• “Todd, I’m 55 years old and we’re sitting here talking about this college organization. It’s absurd on a lot of levels… So I hope people can both understand that it’s something that happens and also take it with a grain of salt.”

• Read more and see about how to listen HERE.

4. Death row inmates choosing new Nitrogen execution method.

• Many Alabama Death Row inmates are voluntarily choosing a newly enacted method of execution – Nitrogen gas.

• The reasons? Though unproven, it is said to be painless, and some have described the current three-drug lethal injection cocktail as “tortuous.”

• But probably just as likely is that inmates may get to delay their executions. That’s because they have two years to challenge a form of execution.

• And because none were compelled by their agreements with the Attorney General’s office to give up that right, those opting for Nitrogen can still file legal challenges to the form of execution.

• It kind of makes you wonder where we are headed with the death penalty in this state, both from a legal and process standpoint.

• Kim Chandler has a full story on the situation, including reactions from the author of the new Nitrogen law – Sen. Trip Pittman – and the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – Sen. Cam Ward.

• Read that full story HERE.

 

5. News briefs, or what you may have missed.

• ADN’s Caroline Beck had a great weekender digest full of great stories.

• Don’t miss her write-up on the dueling polls from Senate District 10 where Craig Ford and Andrew Jones are facing off.

• Also she caught up with Sen. Doug Jones at “Eggs and Issues” in Montgomery and wrote a story about what all he talked about.

• My friend Cameron Smith has an excellent column out today on how and why Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to face an onslaught from President Trump.

• He argues that it is Trump’s preference for his lawyers to be “fixers” and Sessions’ inability to play that role that has him in hot water.

• His column is worth your time this morning.

• Dr. Gilberto Sanchez has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role defrauding patients and the government in a medical scam.

• They keep calling it a “pill mill” operation, but Sanchez wasn’t making drugs. He was prescribing them and ordering other treatments, while bilking the Medicaid and Medicare systems.

• This is the same federal case in which State Rep. Ed Henry was also indicted.

• Read and watch more from WSFA’s Jenn Horton HERE.

Bonus: Matthew Stokes

• ADN Columnist Matthew Stokes is back starting off the week with a think piece on where President Trump’s recent legal troubles put the Republican Party going forward.

• He writes that, even though we don’t know how or when the Cohen plea might impact the Mueller investigation, Republicans would be wise to consider how real this gets over the long term.

• Here’s an excerpt:

• Republicans have tolerated Trump in order to pass their legislative agenda. As a conservative, I thought that bargain unwise, but I understood the political calculations.

• Now, the bill has come due, and the party is left with a choice between upholding the rule of law, or blissfully carrying on their support of a man who regards himself, his family, and his associates as above the law and immune to its consequences.

• Tough stuff. Read Matthew’s full piece HERE.

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