1. Protests come to Montgomery.

• Activists protesting the Thanksgiving night shooting of E.J. Bradford in the Galleria came to Montgomery last night.
• Lead protestor Carlos Chaverst, Jr. and several others demonstrated outside the home of Attorney General Steve Marshall.
• They were yelling things like “recuse yourself” and “hands up don’t shoot,” according to AL.com Crime Reporter Carol Robinson.
• Montgomery and State Police responded to control the crowd, which eventually dispersed.
• Chaverst was arrested last week and banned from the Galleria property for a year.
• He and others had vowed to bring their demonstrations to Montgomery to protest Marshall’s decision to assume the prosecution of the Galleria shooting cases.
• Marshall did that after his office reviewed information showing a possible conflict of interest for Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr.
• Chaverst and other protestors campaigned for Carr’s election.
• Read more from Carol HERE and from WSFA HERE.

 

2. Pardons & Paroles responds.

• The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles has sent its response to Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall for how it is going to correct issues with early paroles and errant victim family notifications.
• Back in October, Ivey put a 75-day moratorium on early paroles, changed the Board’s leadership, and ordered a plan of corrective action.
• Ivey and Marshall were dissatisfied with the Board’s first draft, saying it had “too many unanswered questions.”
• The new, updated plan proposes revising how early parole candidates are reviewed and hiring a consultant to see what changes need to be made within the organization.
• They aren’t removing anybody from their jobs, but that’s one of the things a consultant can recommend. Kind of like the Bobs in Office Space.
• Anyway, read more from Mike Cason HERE and from WSFA HERE.
• And you can read the corrective action plan in its entirety at Alabama Daily News HERE.

 

3. The big fight for 2019?

• A legislative debate 25 years in the making is coming to a State House near you in 2019.
• Alabama’s struggle to properly fund infrastructure maintenance and construction has been well-known for some time.
• But solutions have been elusive – like raising the gas tax for the first time since 1992 and indexing it to correspond with growth.
• It’s a complicated issue that only gets more so when you add in the various political elements at play: a generally conservative and tax-averse legislature, lots of new lawmakers coming to Montgomery, urban-rural or city-county splits.
• AL.com’s John Sharp takes a deep dive into some those issues in his latest piece, which you should take the time to read today.

 

4. Matthew Stokes: Education & Population.

• There’s been a lot of news about education and population lately.
• On education, school grades being released, Montgomery forming the first charter feeder system, and advancements in career tech.
• On population, the unfortunate reality that Alabama’s stagnant growth could cost us political influence in the form of a lost congressional seat.
• ADN Columnist Matthew Stokes sees a confluence here.
• The best way to attract new businesses and people to our state is through ensuring a quality public education system, he argues.
• Just take for example what the University of Alabama did with expanding its student population and attracting enrollees from all over.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Matthew’s full column HERE.

 

5. News Briefs.

 

Another inmate killed

• Another inmate has been stabbed to death in an Alabama prison.
• 24-year-old Terrance Andrews was killed Saturday at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville.
• DOC says Andrews was found unresponsive and with multiple stab wounds after a fight inside a prison housing area.
• The prison system identified a suspect in Andrews’ death and said he will be charged with murder. That man is serving a life sentence for a 2006 murder conviction in Baldwin County.
• Andrews was serving a 25-year sentence on a 2013 first-degree robbery in Mobile County.
• Nine inmates have been fatally stabbed in state prisons since January.

 

Endangered fish

• Federal officials are putting a fish whose habitat is threatened by development in southern states on the endangered species list.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is adding the Trispot Darter fish to the list.
• The Trispot Darter can be found in the Coosa River watershed in northern Alabama, northern Georgia and southeastern Tennessee. It also survives in the Conasauga River watershed, above the confluence with the Coosawattee River in Georgia and Tennessee, according to the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity.
• Being placed on the endangered species list makes it illegal for the freshwater fish to be caught or sold.
• It can also complicate commercial development in areas near known habitats.
• Read more HERE.

Obamacare legal fights

• A federal judge in Texas who recently declared the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional has stayed his ruling to allow for appeals.
• That means “Obamacare” remains in effect while litigation continues.
• It also clears the way for appeals that could eventually give the Supreme Court another shot at deciding the law’s constitutionality.
• In any case, nobody is going to lose coverage while the legal fight continues.

Trump to slow Syria pullout?

• After meeting with President Trump, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said the president has ordered a slowdown to the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Syria.
• “I think we’re in a pause situation,” Graham said outside the White House.
• Trump announced earlier this month that he was ordering the withdrawal of all the roughly 2,000 troops from war-torn Syria, with aides expecting it to take place swiftly. The president had declared victory over the Islamic State group in Syria, though pockets of fighting remain.
• Graham had been an outspoken critic of Trump’s decision, which had drawn bipartisan criticism and led to the resignation of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.
• The announcement also had shocked American allies, including Kurds who have fought alongside the U.S. against the Islamic State group and face an expected assault by Turkey.
• “I think we’re slowing things down in a smart way,” Graham said, adding that Trump was very aware of the plight of the Kurds.
• Read more HERE.

 

 

Thank you!

• The Alabama Bankers Association
• Troy University
• The Business Council of Alabama
• The Alabama Farmers Federation
• The Alliance for Alabama’s Infrastructure
• The Boeing Company
• The Poarch Creek Indians
• Leverage Public Strategies
• The Prosper Group
• Virtus Solutions
• The Alabama Wholesale Beer Association
• The Alabama Petroleum Council
• The Alabama Coal Association
• Stop the HIT Coalition

 

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