Good morning!

Here’s your Daily News for Monday, July 26.

 

1. How has recent heavy rainfall impacted Alabama farmers?

 

• Alabama farmers are looking at this summer’s unusually heavy rains as both a blessing and a curse.
• Large amounts of rainfall are great for some crops like corn and wheat but vegetable and fruit growers are having to abandon a large portion of their crop, especially in south Alabama.
• “We’ve probably gotten a year’s worth of rain in three months,” Jeremy Sessions, a farmer in Mobile County, told Alabama Daily News.
• But most farmers are counting their blessings, saying they would much rather be dealing with too much rain than not enough.
• “We don’t want to complain about the rain because I can’t get the water any other way,” Richard Edgar, a farmer in Elmore County, said.
• The heaviest rains have been in the northern and southern parts of the state, but all of Alabama has experienced significantly above average rainfall.
• Read more from Caroline Beck HERE.

 

 

2. Alabama prison officer convicted in inmate abuse case

• A one-time shift commander who supervised officers at an Alabama prison was convicted of letting another worker abuse a prisoner, prosecutors said Friday.
• Willie Burks, 42, was the fourth officer convicted on federal charges in the abuse, which occurred at the Department of Corrections’ Elmore prison. Three other former officers pleaded guilty previously.
• A sentencing hearing was scheduled for November for Burks, who faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He was convicted after a three-day trial.
• Read more HERE.

 

 

3. Senators race to seal infrastructure deal

• Senators are racing to seal a bipartisan infrastructure deal as soon as today, as pressure is mounting on all sides to show progress on President Joe Biden’s top priority.
• Heading into a make-or-break week, key senators and staff spent the weekend trying to reach a final agreement. One major roadblock is how much money should go to public transit. But spending on highways, water projects, broadband and others areas remains unresolved, as is whether to take unspent COVID-19 relief funds to help pay for the infrastructure.
• Late Sunday, the Democrats and the White House sent a “global” offer to Republicans to close out the remaining issues.
• Typically, spending from the federal Highway Trust Fund has followed the traditional formula of 80% for highways and 20% for transit. Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Tom Carper of Delaware say they will oppose the deal if transit funding falls below that.
• The lead Republican negotiator, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, said the two sides were “about 90% of the way there” on an agreement.
• Read more HERE.

 

4. SEC takeover: Expansion would just mean more power, wealth

• Barring a dramatic change of direction, Texas and Oklahoma are moving toward taking the Red River Rivalry to the Southeastern Conference in a seismic shift that will have repercussions in college sports from coast to coast.
• According to multiple reports, the first and significant formal step of the process could come as soon as today with the two schools informing the Big 12 they will not renew the contractual agreement that binds conference members until 2025.
• The Big 12 said Sunday night its executive committee of Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec, Baylor President Linda Livingstone and Commissioner Bob Bowlsby held a video conference with Oklahoma President Joe Harroz and Texas President Jay Hartzell.
• If the Big 12 can’t get Oklahoma and Texas to reverse course, expect the lawyers to take over. An early departure could cost the schools well over $100 million combined to get out of that grant of rights.
• But a pot of gold awaits in the SEC and having the Longhorns and Sooners linger as lame ducks doesn’t have much upside for the Big 12.
• The SEC signed a $300 million deal with ESPN last year that gives the network rights to all SEC football games starting in 2024 and is expected to bump the conference’s annual distribution to its members to about $68 million. The Big 12 distributed $34.5 million per school recently.
• There is a good chance that come kickoff of the 2022 college football season, Texas and Oklahoma will be in the Southeastern Conference.
• Read more from Ralph Russo HERE.

 

5. Huntsville native Nicholas Dunlap wins US Junior Amateur

• Nicholas Dunlap won the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship on Saturday at The Country Club of North Carolina, beating Cohen Trolio 3 and 2 in the 36-hole final.
• The 17-year-old Dunlap, from Huntsville, Alabama, won three straight holes to take control and finished off the 18-year-old Trolio, from West Point, Mississippi, with a par win on the par-3 34th.
• “My heart is still beating 100 times fast,” said Dunlap, the first champion from Alabama. “This is unbelievable. In junior golf, this is the big one, and to have my name on it, I can’t even put it into words.”
• Dunlap earned a spot next year in the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, and next year in the U.S. Amateur. Dunlap and Trolio had already secured spots in the U.S. Amateur next month at Oakmont before the event began.
• Dunlap has committed to attend the University of Alabama and play on its golf team.
• Full story HERE.

 

 

Headlines

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – How has the recent heavy rainfall impacted Alabama farmers?

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama prison officer convicted in inmate abuse case

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Senators race to seal infrastructure deal as pressure mounts

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – SEC takeover: Expansion would just mean more power, wealth

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Huntsville native Nicholas Dunlap wins US Junior Amateur

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama offering $5 incentive for inmates to get shots

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Fauci says US headed in ‘wrong direction’ on coronavirus

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Grant to help fund transportation building at Alabama

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Beware of budget gimmicks in push for massive spending deals

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Activist who helped desegregate Birmingham library dies

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Daily News Digest – July 22, 2021

 

AL.COM – Alabama Democratic Party chair calls for firing of prisons commissioner, parole board chair

 

AL.COM – Fauci says Gov. Ivey ‘has every right to be frustrated’ by Alabama’s low vaccination rate

 

AL.COM – Lt. Gov. Ainsworth calls on Tarrant councilman who used n-word to resign

 

AL.COM – Ivey press secretary: ‘Government cannot force you to take care of yourself’

 

AL.COM – Mobile battles largest COVID outbreak; health officer “extremely disappointed” and debunks vaccination myths

 

AL.COM – Columnist John Archibald: Political panic pandering didn’t start with a pandemic

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Katie Britt talks about her campaign for U.S. Senate

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Katie Boyd Britt wants to solve the state’s problems, but is that what Alabama wants?

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Alabama prison deaths continue to rise in July

 

Decatur Daily – Fire destroys Marsha Avenue home, dog missing

 

Decatur Daily – Archives acquire witness stand used in Scottsboro Boys trials

 

Decatur Daily – Illegal off-road driving damaging Bankhead National Forest

 

Times Daily – How has the recent heavy rainfall impacted Alabama farmers?

 

Times Daily – Engineer to examine Colbert Animal Shelter flooding problem

 

Times Daily – Shoals Industrial Development Committee approves additional road funds

 

Anniston Star – School families brave heat for Anniston back-to-school event

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Health officials suggest being selective with who you hang out with amid Delta Variant

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Health experts say kids can catch COVID-19 at the same time as flu, strep, and RSV

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Health officials suggest being selective with who you hang out with amid Delta Variant

 

Tuscaloosa News – Katie Boyd Britt wants to solve the state’s problems, but is that what Alabama wants?

 

Tuscaloosa News – PHOTOS: 13th Annual Sokol Park Rodeo

 

Tuscaloosa News – PHOTOS: Cowboy hats and rodeo

 

YellowHammer News – Ainsworth calls for resignation of Tarrant city councilman over use of racial slur

 

YellowHammer News – Casey Eaton, a systems engineering doctoral student, earns Amelia Earhart Fellowship

 

YellowHammer News – Tuberville opposes Democrat-backed labor legislation, says it undermines worker freedom

 

Gadsden Times – Katie Boyd Britt wants to solve the state’s problems, but is that what Alabama wants?

 

Gadsden Times – JSU to expand football stadium to include new dining, residence halls

 

Gadsden Times – Rainbow City partners with Major Command for nation’s first cyber-city hall

 

Dothan Eagle – Malaysia’s Parliament opens after 7 months, emergency to end

 

Dothan Eagle – Olympic broadcasters curb sexual images of female athletes

 

Dothan Eagle – Olympics Latest: Djokovic remains on course for Golden Slam

 

Opelika-Auburn News – China calls US policy ‘misguided’ in high-level talks

 

Opelika-Auburn News – Lebanese billionaire poised to be named premier-designate

 

Opelika-Auburn News – German business confidence sinks as virus clouds outlook

 

WSFA Montgomery – 2 injured in Saturday boat crash on Lake Martin

 

WSFA Montgomery – Arrest made in Eufaula weapons incident investigation

 

WSFA Montgomery – Man killed in ATV crash in Tallapoosa County

 

WAFF Huntsville – One person drowned at Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville

 

WAFF Huntsville – First week of Sheriff Blakely trial wraps up with a rollercoaster of testimony

 

WAFF Huntsville – DeKalb County EMA director concerned about increase in COVID cases

 

WKRG Mobile – Small plane makes emergency landing on I-10 in Santa Rosa County

 

WKRG Mobile – Shalimar man indicted for wife’s stabbing death found dead in jail cell

 

WKRG Mobile – Mobile police arrest man for murder of woman at Avalon Plaza Apartments

 

WTVY Dothan – SE Health sees “significant” increase in COVID hospitalizations

 

WTVY Dothan – Midland City holds annual Railroad Festival

 

WTVY Dothan – ‘I hate to see anyone suffer’: Ivey urges Alabamians to get vaccinated

 

WASHINGTON POST – As coronavirus surges, GOP lawmakers are moving to limit public health powers

 

WASHINGTON POST – Jan. 6 select committee to open investigation amid political chaos and controversy

 

WASHINGTON POST – First came the ransomware attacks, now come the lawsuits

 

NEW YORK TIMES – As China Boomed, It Didn’t Take Climate Change Into Account. Now It Must.

 

NEW YORK TIMES – In Louisiana, Vaccine Misinformation Has Public Health Workers Feeling ‘Stuck’

 

NEW YORK TIMES – Live Olympics Updates: Tonight’s Men’s Gymnastics Final Could Be a Nail-Biter

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Bitcoin Jumps as Much as 20% to a Six-Week High

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Stock Futures Retreat After Dow’s Record

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – A Key Gauge of Future Inflation Is Easing

 

 

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