Good morning! Congrats to former Alabama golfer Justin Thomas on another big PGA Tour win. Here’s your Daily News for Monday, August 6, 2018.

1. July fundraising reports.

• Fundraising reports are in for the month of July. There are some surprising results, and some not so surprising.
• Walt Maddox kept pace with Kay Ivey in money raised and actually ended the month with more cash on hand.
• Bob Vance has a significant cash advantage over Tom Parkerin the race for Chief Justice.
• Look for Republicans to bounce back with major donors and PACs after everybody takes a breather from the primary.
• Look for Democrats to step it up with online fundraising, including from the network of out-of-state donors.
• Here’s the full list of what major candidates raised, spent, and reported on hand for the month of July.
• Also read: Brian Lyman: Democrats show fundraising strength. Can it last?
• And Mike Cason: Vance Out-raises Parker in July

2. Report: Parkland shooter denied proper help. 

• A new report shows school officials in Parkland, Florida botched the handling of special education needs for would-be killer Nikolas Cruz in the years preceding the massacre.
• The school released the report last week with major parts heavily redacted, but clever reporters at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper figured out a way to see the redacted parts.
• It’s another tragic example about how federal, state, and local authorities failed to recognize and deal with a potential violent threat.
• The story comes as many Alabama students return to school this week.
• Many school districts have updated their security protocols and some are seeking to participate in the state’s “Alabama Sentry Program” that would allow some trained, certified administrators to be armed.
• Trisha Powell Crain reports for AL.com that one in four Alabama public schools does not have a school resource officer, or police officer (I think that includes elementary & primary schools FWIW).
• State Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey has sent a memo to school systems emphasizing that the program is voluntary and outlined a suggested multi-step process for schools that want to participate.

3. State takes comments on Medicaid work requirements.

• The Alabama Medicaid Agency is seeking public comments on its proposal to implement work and job training requirements for able-bodied beneficiaries.
• Medicaid says the changes will “improve their health outcomes and improve their economic stability which will assist the state in having healthier citizens. We look forward to working with CMS as we move towards approval of this waiver application that will allow Alabama to have a more sustainable Medicaid program.”
• The Legislature has been kicking around the idea of work requirements for a while. But back in March, Gov. Kay Ivey directed Medicaid Director Stephanie Azar to develop a plan and implement it.
• The state submitted its waiver request to the federal government a month ago. Right around the same time, a federal judge halted a similar plan in Kentucky (a Medicaid expansion state).
• If you’re into reports, you can read the state’s full Medicaid Work and Job Training Requirements application HERE.
• You can read all the related documents and learn how to submit a public comment via the Alabama Medicaid website HERE.

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

Ivey targets Maddox on gun policies

• ADN’s Caroline Beck wrote over the weekend about how Gov. Kay Ivey’s campaign is using the public gun policies in Tuscaloosa against opponent Walt Maddox.
• Alabama is known as a pretty pro-gun state. Yet, you have gun control activists marching in Birmingham and Montgomery.
• Read her full story HERE.

Trump acknowledges Russia meeting  

• President Donald Trump defended his son, Don Jr.’s meeting with the Russians in a weekend tweet.
• But he also acknowledged the meeting was about getting damaging info on Hillary Clinton.
• Some are making a big deal of it, some say it’s nothing different from what he said a few months ago.
• One thing is true: the meeting was never about adoption policies, which President Trump, his son, and the White House all said it was.
• Russia stuff aside, it’s not okay to use adoption to explain away a political problem.

Alabama Accountability Act

• The Montgomery Advertiser’s education report Krista Johnson has a multi-part story on the impact of the Alabama Accountability Act.
• One takes a look at the students who are benefiting from the AAA, which includes many low income students but not as many from failing districts as you might think.
• Another looks into how taxpayers are benefiting from the AAAby contributing a share of their taxes to opportunity scholarships.

5. Bloody Chicago: 40 shot in 7 hours.

• This newspaper lede sounds like it comes from a war zone:

Starting about midnight Saturday, at least 40 people were shot citywide, four fatally, in a period of less than seven hours as gunmen targeted groups at a block party, after a funeral, on a front porch and in other gatherings, according to authorities.

• That’s not from Kabul or Bagdad, but rather from The Chicago Tribune.
• America’s Second City continues to be a haven for gun violence.
• Also, don’t miss this: authorities were mainly concerned with the Lollapalooza concert downtown thinking there could be a copycat Las Vegas shooting. Instead, it was spread out in neighborhoods throughout the city.
• Read more from the Chicago Tribune HERE.

Headlines.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Major candidates’ July fundraising report. 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Ivey targets Maddox on gun control policies.

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – State takes comments on Medicaid work requirements. 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Jobs boom favors Democratic counties, not Trump strongholds

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – In a change, Trump says meeting’s purpose was Clinton info.

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – Was state’s hire of MPS CSFO a strike against transparency?

DOTHAN EAGLE – The Dothan Fire Department will eventually relocate one station and build another.

DOTHAN EAGLE: As school begins in Houston County, teachers and students look to create a safe environment

YELLOWHAMMER NEWS – Gov. Ivey sets sights on education policy while Maddox focuses on process.

YELLOWHAMMER NEWS – Luther Strange still fighting against liberal environmental agenda.

DECATUR DAILY – Sunfish and snails face off against economic development.

DECATUR DAILY – Council considering purchase of surveillance cameras despite privacy concerns.

DECATUR DAILY – State takes comments on Medicaid work requirement.

OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS – Editor Troy Turner:  Alabama awaits critical decision from Air Force; T-100 project at stake.

OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS – Concrete dream: Some envision new I-14 route through South.

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – ‘Granny’ immigrant advocates roll into Montgomery before border stop.

SELMA TIMES JOURNAL – Rep. Sewell discusses rural wastewater infrastructure.

LAGNIAPPE – Columnist Jeff Poor:  Alabama’s internet haves, have-nots.

AL.COM – Social justice monument being planned near Confederate statue in Alabama.

AL.COM – 1 in 4 Alabama public schools don’t have a security officer, survey shows.

AL.COM – Continental Motors starts work on new Mobile factory.

AL.COM – Pelosi, Clinton, Moore: The ‘boogeymen’ in Alabama’s political campaigns.

AL.COM – Columnist John Archibald:  You got trouble, Alabama, and its name is Haney.

AL.COM – Columnist John Archibald:  Alabama don’t need no stinkin’ debates.

WASHINGTON POST – Trump at a precarious moment in his presidency: Privately brooding and publicly roaring.

WASHINGTON POST – Columnist George Will:  America is sacrificing the future.

WASHINGTON POST – Trump acknowledges, defends 2016 meeting between son, Kremlin-aligned lawyer.

NEW YORK TIMES – Parkland Shooting Suspect Lost Special-Needs Help at School When He Needed It Most.

NEW YORK TIMES – ‘Too Little Too Late’: Bankruptcy Booms Among Older Americans

NEW YORK TIMES – The Outsize Hold of the Word ‘Welfare’ on the Public Imagination.

Front pages (Images link to newspaper websites, which you should visit and patronize)