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Daily News Digest – December 1, 2021

Presented by the

Alabama Municipal Electric Authority

Good morning!

Here’s your Daily News for Wednesday, December 1.

 

1. Some news

  • Don Dailey, host of Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal program, yesterday announced his retirement after ten years at the desk and a 40-year career on air.
  • Don is a mainstay at the State House and a hardworking, no-nonsense journalist. We hate to see him leave the Capitol Press Corps but wish him well in his next chapter.
  • Also announced yesterday is that the new host of Capitol Journal will be, well, yours truly.
  • I’ve been tapped to begin hosting the show beginning in January right as the legislative session is set to begin.
  • I’m grateful to the APT leadership for their confidence in me to take over such a meaningful news space and I’m eager to get started.
  • One thing everyone should know: nothing changes with Alabama Daily News. You will still get the same thorough reporting on Alabama politics delivered to your inbox each day. In fact, there are some exciting enhancements on the way. More on that soon.
  • Read and share the full story from Mary Sell HERE.

 

 

2. ‘Drive Electric Alabama’ campaign promotes EVs

  • The state this week launched Drive Electric Alabama, an electric vehicle education and marketing program.
  • According to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, which is leading the education effort, the campaign will include television, radio and digital advertising, as well as billboards and events aimed at increasing Alabamians’ awareness surrounding EV technology, affordability, charging and other related topics.
  • The inaugural marketing campaign, known as “Electric Gets You There,” stresses the cost savings associated with electric vehicles as well as EVs’ functionality.
  • There are more 5,000 electric vehicles currently registered to Alabamians. Just a few years ago there were less than 2,000, Alabama Daily News previously reported.  Growing use has increased the demand for EV charging infrastructure and ADECA is developing a statewide infrastructure plan.
  • “As automakers make significant investments in electric vehicles, we know more and more motorists will consider purchasing one,” Gov. Kay Ivey said in a written statement. “In addition, automobile manufacturing is one of Alabama’s key industries, and we want to make sure that this economic engine remains vibrant for Alabama’s workers.”
  • Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

 

 

 

A message from the

Alabama Municipal Electric Authority

  • One million Alabamians depend on reliable, affordable, innovative public power.
  • Public utilities employ 93,000 people in local jobs across the United States. Revenues from public power utilities go back into the community.
  • 2,000 communities large and small across the U.S. trust public power.
  • To learn more about AMEA and public power, visit www.AMEA.com.

 

 

 

3. Confederate group opposing suit over Tuskegee monument site

  • A Confederate heritage group will fight an Alabama county’s lawsuit that could lead to the removal of a rebel monument in the heart of nearly all-Black Tuskegee, the group’s lawyer said Tuesday.
  • While Macon County has asked a court to give it the deed to a downtown square where the memorial has stood for 115 years — potentially a key first step toward taking down the statue — the United Daughters of the Confederacy owns the square legally and wants the monument to remain, said Jay Hinton, an attorney for the group, in its first public response to the court fight.
  • “All of those members have ancestors who are honored by that monument,” he said.
  • The monument, located in front of the county courthouse in a city of 9,400 that is 97% Black, has been the subject of on-and-off protests and attempts to remove it for decades.
  • The monument went up at a time when groups all over the South were erecting Civil War memorials to honor rebel troops and portray the cause of the slave-holding Confederacy as noble. Hundreds have been taken down in recent years as they came to be seen as symbols of racial oppression against Black people.
  • Read more from Jay Reeves HERE.

 

4. Conservatives eagerly await Supreme Court abortion arguments

  • It’s the moment conservatives have been waiting for.
  • Oral arguments at the Supreme Court today represent the best opportunity leaders on the right have had in decades to gut the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which codified a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb.
  • If they are successful, it could validate years of often painstakingly granular work that ultimately remade the Republican Party from an alliance of business-friendly leaders into a coalition of cultural conservatives and evangelicals who turned the issue of abortion into a national flashpoint. Even if the justices don’t explicitly overturn Roe, they could open the door to a flurry of new restrictions that would please the right.
  • Buoyed by a court that is now dominated by a 6-3 conservative majority, some leading Republicans were already expressing confidence on Tuesday.
  • The justices will weigh whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks, with limited exceptions — well before the current established point of “viability,” at around 24 weeks. The court is also weighing challenges to a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks — before many women even know they’re pregnant.
  • The court could decide to uphold current precedent, could let the law stand, effectively doing away with the current viability standard, or could overturn Roe entirely.
  • “This is the first time that they have clearly had a majority of pro-life-leaning justices,” said Columbia Law School’s Carol Sanger, an expert in reproductive rights. “So they have the votes if they choose to use them.”
  • Read more from Jill Colvin HERE.

 

 

5. Powell’s warning: Fed to tighten credit faster than expected

  • Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says that the appearance of a new COVID-19 variant could slow the economy and hiring, while also raising uncertainty about inflation.
  • The recent increase in delta cases and the emergence of the omicron variant “pose downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation,” Powell said Monday in prepared remarks to be delivered to the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. The new variant could also worsen supply chain disruptions, he said.
  • Powell’s comments come after other Fed officials in recent weeks have said the central bank should consider winding down its ultra-low interest rate policies more quickly than it currently plans. They cited concerns about inflation, which has jumped to three-decade highs.
  • Yet Powell’s remarks suggest that the additional uncertainty raised by the omicron variant may complicate the Fed’s next steps.
  • “Greater concerns about the virus could reduce people’s willingness to work in person, which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply-chain disruptions,” Powell said.
  • Read more HERE.

 

 

 

Headlines

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – APT Capitol Journal host Don Daily to retire; ADN’s Todd Stacy to take over as host in January

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – ‘Drive Electric Alabama’ campaign promotes EVs

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Confederate group opposing suit over Tuskegee monument site

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Conservatives eagerly await Supreme Court abortion arguments

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Powell’s warning: Fed to tighten credit faster than expected

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Union to get do-over vote at Amazon’s Bessemer facility

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Bill would keep GOMESA funds in Baldwin, Mobile counties

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama paroles drop further; releases lag for Black inmates

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – FedEx driver questioned about hundreds of packages in woods

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Biden: new variant cause for concern, not panic

 

AL.COM – Alabama poultry workers walk off the job ahead of Wayne Farms contract vote

 

AL.COM – After 56 years, JCCEO ‘done,’ says board chair, after pressured to relinquish CSBG grant

 

AL.COM – Alabama says spiritual advisor can be in death chamber for new nitrogen method of execution

 

AL.COM – North Alabama coroner failing to do job, grand jury says, could be impeached

 

AL.COM – ‘Nearly everything we have is delayed’: How the supply chain crisis is frustrating Alabama cities

 

AL.COM – Amazon made ‘free and fair’ Bessemer union election ‘impossible,’ labor official rules

 

AL.COM – Columnist Dana Hall McCain: American justice gets two key wins.

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Louisiana federal judge blocks nationwide COVID vaccine mandate for health care workers

 

Montgomery Advertiser – COVID-19 omicron variant uncertainty adds to Alabama health officials’ list of concerns

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Search teams comb woods after hunters find human remains in Autauga County

 

Decatur Daily – Retiree bonus bills back in 2022 session

 

Decatur Daily – Cooperative group to assist local school districts with ovens

 

Decatur Daily – Coburn capital murder case delayed due to defendant’s health

 

Times Daily – ‘Drive Electric’ campaign promotes EVs

 

Times Daily – Tuscumbia rings in Christmas parade season

 

Times Daily – UNA alumnae to speak at commencement ceremonies

 

Anniston Star – Leaf trucks on the go in Anniston this week

 

Anniston Star – Piedmont police investigate shooting at inn

 

Anniston Star – Anniston man killed in motorcycle crash Monday

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Birmingham Urban League hoping to fill gap after JCCEO shuts down

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Man found dead in apartment fire, person taken into custody

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Asian shares mixed after omicron worries rattle Wall Street

 

Tuscaloosa News – Louisiana federal judge blocks nationwide COVID vaccine mandate for health care workers

 

Tuscaloosa News – COVID-19 omicron variant uncertainty adds to Alabama health officials’ list of concerns

 

Tuscaloosa News – Five things to do: Here’s how to get into the Christmas spirit this weekend in Tuscaloosa

 

YellowHammer News – APTV ‘Capitol Journal’ host Don Dailey to retire; ADN’s Todd Stacy to take over as host in January

 

YellowHammer News – State Sen. Albritton: Gaming coming again in 2022 legislative session

 

Gadsden Times – Louisiana federal judge blocks nationwide COVID vaccine mandate for health care workers

 

Gadsden Times – Pilgrim’s Pride lawyers try to get rendering plant case moved to federal court

 

Gadsden Times – Illegal guns found; two arrested in DeKalb County

 

Dothan Eagle – UN migration agency: COVID has ‘radically altered’ mobility

 

Dothan Eagle – Abortion rights at stake in historic Supreme Court arguments

 

Dothan Eagle – Live updates: Growing number of Germans in ICUs with virus

 

Opelika-Auburn News – UN migration agency: COVID has ‘radically altered’ mobility

 

Opelika-Auburn News – US, SKorea to bolster alliance at talks but questions remain

 

Opelika-Auburn News – Japan suspends new flight reservations as omicron spreads

 

WSFA Montgomery – Wiregrass family shares their journey for National Adoption Month

 

WSFA Montgomery – Alabama woman speaks out following 11-day disappearance

 

WSFA Montgomery – Asian shares mixed after omicron worries rattle Wall Street

 

WAFF Huntsville – Orbit providing free bus rides in honor of Rosa Parks Day

 

WAFF Huntsville – Decatur Utilities repairing water leak on Indian Hills Road Wednesday

 

WAFF Huntsville – NASA administrator visits Marshall Space Flight Center

 

WKRG Mobile – Live updates: Growing number of Germans in ICUs with virus

 

WKRG Mobile – Japan suspends new reservations on all incoming flights

 

WKRG Mobile – EXPLAINER: What are Colombia’s ex-FARC splinter groups?

 

WTVY Dothan – Asian shares mixed after omicron worries rattle Wall Street

 

WTVY Dothan – Fed marshals nab Dothan murder suspect on the run

 

WTVY Dothan – Arrest has been made in murder of Houston County man

 

WASHINGTON POST – Stricter coronavirus testing being weighed for all travelers to U.S.

 

WASHINGTON POST – How Mississippi ended up with one abortion clinic and why it matters

 

WASHINGTON POST – FDA advisers narrowly recommend authorization of first antiviral pill to treat covid-19

 

NEW YORK TIMES – Covid Live Updates: U.S. Considers Tougher Rules for Travelers

 

NEW YORK TIMES – The Next Challenge to Vaccinating Africa: Overcoming Skepticism

 

NEW YORK TIMES – 3 Students Are Killed in Michigan School Shooting

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Stock Futures, Oil Rise, Pointing to More Seesaw Moves on Omicron Uncertainty

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Global Inflation Set to Be Higher for Longer, Says OECD

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Omicron Variant Sends Policy Makers Scrambling as Science Lags Behind

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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