1. Judge hears elected judiciary case.

• A U.S. district court heard arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging Alabama’s system of electing state appeals court and supreme court justices.
• The plaintiffs, the Alabama NAACP on behalf of several black voters, claim the system is unfair and produces an all-white judiciary.
• “…because we have racially polarized voting, blacks are never going to have an opportunity to elect anyone to the highest courts in the state,” said plaintiffs attorney Keith Harrison.
• The state, led by Assistant Attorney General Jim Davis, argue that voters’ party preferences, and not race, are the reason the state’s top courts are filled by white judges.
• “It’s not race. It’s party and it’s issues,” Davis said. “The voters in Alabama know which party is pro-life. The voters in Alabama know which party is pro-Second Amendment.”
• Read the full story from Kim Chandler HERE.

 

2. Feds nab man for gun trafficking.

• Prosecutors are charging an Alabama man with illegal gun sales in a case that involves weapons advertised online at Armslist.com and shipped to buyers in Mexico, New York and California.
• In a newly unsealed affidavit, a federal agent says Arkeuntrez Kenyez Lareco Washington told him that he’s sold guns to out-of-state buyers since 2016 after watching a documentary film about firearms trafficking.
• Washington admitted to using FedEx, with phony names and no return addresses, to ship packages to California and New York, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent wrote in the sworn affidavit.
• The investigation began last month, when a federal agent reviewed “firearms multiple sales” reports associated with Washington. Such a report is generated when someone purchases two or more firearms within a five-day period from a federally licensed gun dealer.
• From there, authorities found that he’d purchased many of the weapons from Hoover Tactical Firearms and Academy Sports and Outdoors stores in the Alabama cities of Hoover and Birmingham, court records show.
• Full story HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

3. Skip Tucker: The Times has changed.

• When the New York Times changed its front page headline this week to be more negative toward President Donald Trump, Skip Tucker took notice.
• Kowtowing to criticism, The Times changed a headline from “Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism” to “Assailing Hate But Not Guns.”
• Skip observed that “the brave Times caressed its underbelly with its tail, whined, and changed its headline.”
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Skip Tucker’s full column HERE.

 

4. AARP: Fix the Rx price problem.

 

• In a guest op-ed for Alabama Daily News this week, AARP Alabama Director Candi Williams is talking about the high cost of prescription drugs and what can be done about it.
• Studies show that between 2012 and 2017, the average cost of brand name prescription drug treatment in Alabama increased 58 percent. That’s a lot, especially considering Alabamians’ average income increased by less than five percent.
• The hardest hit are seniors, AARP argues, and Congress can take action to curb the skyrocketing costs.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read her full op-ed HERE.

 

5. AP News Briefs.

 

• Police in Alabama have identified a man accused of leaving a threatening letter at a business that had displayed a rainbow flag.
• News outlets report Homewood police obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday for 83-year-old James Willoughby Wood. The note was found last month on the back door of Salon U.
• AL.com reports Homewood police Sgt. John Carr says Wood will be charged with misdemeanor harassing communication once he’s arrested. Carr says detectives haven’t made contact with Wood and don’t know the motive behind the letter.
• Homewood detectives reviewed surveillance video to identify the person responsible. Wood was picked from a photo lineup.
• Issam Bajalia owns the salon and says he and other workers had just returned from New York City’s World Pride event when the letter was found.

• Sears is closing its last full-size store in Alabama.
• The company announced Tuesday it will shut down 26 full-size Sears stores and Kmart locations nationwide in late October. That includes the Sears at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, which is Alabama’s largest shopping mall.
• Traditional retailers are being battered by online sellers, and Sears says it has to reduce the number of its largest stores. Sears will still have smaller locations it calls “hometown stores” in eight cities statewide.
• Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last fall. The company has closed hundreds of stores in recent years.

• An Alabama woman is in jail after authorities say they found her two infant children covered with ant bites.
• A statement from the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office says 37-year-old Lizabeth Ann Landers is charged with two counts of reckless endangerment.
• The sheriff’s statement says officers answering a call about possible child neglect on July 31 found Landers’ two 3-month-old children inside their home covered with ant bites. The woman was outside the home.
• Authorities say the children’s bodies were swollen, and both were taken to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham for treatment.
• The Decatur Daily reports Landers’ bail is set at $12,000. Court records aren’t available to show whether she has a lawyer to speak on her behalf.

• An Alabama truck driver has been arrested more than a year after his 18-wheeler full of jet fuel slammed into a car and killed an Auburn University student.
• News outlets report 45-year-old Robert Anthony Lockwood was indicted Tuesday on a manslaughter charge in the death of 20-year-old Cassidy Meadows in July 2018.
• The indictment says an investigation revealed Lockwood was distracted by an electronic device and never applied the brakes before slamming into Meadows’ Kia Soul, which was stopped due to traffic.
• Lee County Coroner Bill Harris says it took Auburn firefighters nearly three hours to extricate Meadows from the vehicle due to the damage. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

 

 

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