Good morning! This rain… boy, I don’t know.

Here’s your Daily News for Thursday, December 20.

 

1. Government is funded… almost

• Late last night the Senate passed a continuing resolutionkeeping afloat at current levels the fourth of the government that wasn’t already fully funded.
• The House can pass it today or tomorrow to avoid a partial shutdown.
• Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but (1)many members haven’t returned to Washington for various reasons, (2) some Republicans want to keep fighting for wall money, and (3) Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie is forcing a bunch of laborious roll call votes. Could be a fun day in the House!
• Bottom line: there is no deal to fund a border wall, and the can has been effectively kicked into next year. The CR lasts through Feb. 8.
• Some of President Trump’s most ardent supporters are frustrated by him seemingly giving in on wall funding. Freedom Caucus leader Mark Meadows said the base “will just go crazy” if he signs a bill without wall funding. Kellyanne Conway took tough questions about “softening” positions from the usually-reliable Fox & Friends crew.
• At the same time, some lawmakers aren’t loving how one $5 billion bucket of money has shut down the appropriations process. That’s understandable, especially seeing as how Mexico was always supposed to pay for all this, right?
• Read more HERE.

 

2. Making sense of the Ethics decision.

• On Wednesday, the Alabama Ethics Commission voted to dismiss a complaint by Troy King that Attorney General Steve Marshall violated the Fair Campaign Practices Act by accepting campaign contributions from the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA).
• King argued that RAGA accepts money from other political action committees (PACs) and that, since Alabama law bans PAC-to-PAC transfers, Marshall couldn’t accept the donations.
• At issue is whether a state ban on PAC to PAC transfers applies to a federal PAC like RAGA.
• A guidance memo on the Secretary of State’s website says no, it doesn’t. Literally, it reads “Federal PACs are not subject to the Fair Campaign Practices Act.”
• Ethics Commission Director Tom Albritton disagrees with that interpretation. He says that the law’s mention of “out-of-state” committees means the PAC-to-PAC ban should apply to federal PACs. He began making this case publicly earlier this year.

• State law requires the Ethics Commission to “Approve a manual for all candidates, principal campaign committees, and political action committees, describing the requirements of the Fair Campaign Practices Act that shall be published by the Secretary of State.”
• Secretary of State John Merrill told me the guidance memo has been in place for years. He wasn’t sure if there was ever a formal vote to approve the memo, but it has been in the PAC filing for as long as there has been anything to review.
• Albritton told me he and the Ethics Commission never approved that guidance memo on the Secretary of State’s website.
• Yet, he didn’t say the memo was wrong, only that the language applies to registering and reporting requirements, not the PAC-to-PAC ban.
• Confused yet? You’re not the only one.

• There’s a reason a lot of people were watching this case.
• The Ethics Commission was ultimately voting on whether or not to refer this complaint to a prosecutor.
• In other words, had they voted differently, a district attorney could have charged AG Marshall with a crime.
• Thing is, many Alabama candidates have accepted donations from federal PACs just like Marshall did for years. The sheer amount RAGA contributed stands out, but donations are donations.
• So yeah, people were watching.

• The state’s top election official has a public guidance form saying Federal PACs aren’t subject to Alabama law, the state’s top Ethics administrator says that’s incorrect and the form is irrelevant, and, even though the law says the two entities are supposed to coordinate on these things for public consumption, they apparently haven’t.
• This confusion/uncertainty/disagreement was also private until pretty recently.
• The Ethics Commission seems to have said this: When the law isn’t clear, we should clarify the law. We don’t go charge people with crimes and ask a jury to.
• That’s reasonable. It’s also something to keep in mind today while the usual suspects try to tell us the sky is falling.

 

3. Dems “experiment” with Russian tactics in Jones/Moore race.

• A fascinating article by New York Times reporters Alan Blinder and Scott Shane details how Democratic operatives working to elect Sen. Doug Jones attempted to replicate the same deceptive tactics used by the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential contest.
• In fact, Jonathon Morgan, the same guy who prepared an intelligence report for Congress on Russian social media efforts, was involved in the Alabama “experiment,” they report.
• [Morgan says his involvement was just for research. Purely academic, you understand.]
• The effort sought to “enrage and energize Democrats” and “depress turnout” among Republicans through fake social media pages and what amounts to trolling of unsuspecting voters and encourage write-in campaigns.
• The whole thing cost only $100,000 – a drop in the bucket of a $50 million race.
• It is seen perhaps more as a warning of things to come, as clever and craven political animals take advantage of a less and less discerning public.
• Maybe we should all delete our facebook pages.
• Read the whole thing HERE.

 

4. State growth stagnant.

• Alabama’s population growth ain’t great.
• The state grew by about 12,751 people this past year. As Brian Lyman cleverly notes, that’s almost enough to fill up half of Cramton Bowl.
• That said, we aren’t losing population like some other states are. Still, a growing population is key to economic and political success.
• Brian digs into the latest Census Bureau estimates to find some reasons as to why this is the case. Hints: births, deaths, and migration.
• Read his full story for the Advertiser HERE.

 

 

5. Skip Tucker: What the Dickens is Christmas anyway?

• Despite the dreary weather, Skip Tucker is in the Christmas spirit this week.
• His column takes us through a history of Christmas, from Christ to Constantine to a Christmas Carol.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Skip’s full column HERE.

 

Bonus: A special honor

• President Donald Trump has appointed Dr. Annette Shelby, wife of Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, to serve on the Kennedy Center Advisory Committee.
• Committee members act as ambassadors to their home states on behalf of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and its national education and outreach programs.
• This is a very special honor, and Dr. Shelby is known for pouring herself into causes she supports.
• Sen. Shelby said he was excited for his wife and remarked about her qualifications for the post.
• “I am very proud of my wife, Annette, for her nomination today by President Trump to be a member of the Kennedy Center Advisory Committee,” he said.
• “She spent her career as an academic, teaching at both the University of Alabama and Georgetown University for more than 30 years. Annette has been widely recognized for her distinguished career of teaching, research, and service. She has worked diligently to earn this honor.”
• Read more in Caroline Beck’s writeup HERE.
• Congrats, Dr. Shelby!

 

News Briefs.

• President Trump announced Wednesday he is pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria. The reason? We’ve defeated ISIS and our troops need to come home.
• The move “blindsided” many, including many Trump backers on Capitol Hill. It seems to have gone against his own experts assessments and advice.
• As recently as August, the Pentagon estimated there were still at least 14,500 ISIS soldiers in Syria.
• Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two weeks ago said the U.S. still has a long way to go in training local Syrian forces to prevent a resurgence of ISIS and stabilize the country.
• John Bolton, the president’s national security adviser, said in September that the U.S. would keep a military presence in Syria as long as Iran was active there. “We’re not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders and that includes Iranian proxies and militias.”
• This morning the president is defending his decision on Twitter saying “Russia, Iran & Syria are not happy about the U.S. leaving, despite what the FAKE NEWS says.”
• Full story HERE.

• Alabama prisons are getting some extra money to spend on improving security.
• Gov. Kay Ivey’s office announced that a new $64,000 federal will help the Department of Corrections buy new equipment and conduct additional training.
• Some of the money will go toward protective gear that correctional officers can use when handling dangerous narcotics.
• Grant funds also will be used to train two investigators in retrieving data from cellphones, which can provide evidence during investigations. Rules bar inmates from having phones behind bars, and the presence of the devices inside prisons has become a problem for authorities.
• The system will also purchase additional surveillance equipment.
• Alabama prison officials are devoting additional resources to security to both prevent crimes inside prisons and reduce corruption.

• The Trump administration is setting out to do what this year’s farm bill didn’t: tighten work requirements for millions of Americans who receive federal food assistance.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday is proposing a rule that would restrict the ability of states to exempt work-eligible adults from having to obtain steady employment or participate in job training to receive food stamps.
• Currently, able-bodied adults ages 18-49 without children are required to work 20 hours a week to maintain their SNAP benefits. The House bill would have raised the age of recipients subject to work requirements from 49 to 59 and required parents with children older than 6 to work or participate in job training.
• The work requirements were championed by Alabama’s Rep. Mike Rogers, but ultimately did not make it into the final version of the Farm Bill.
• The bill passed with assurances from the White House that executive action would be taken to implement the food stamp work requirements.
• Read more HERE.

 

Headlines.

 

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