Good morning!
There’s no major update to the Senate District 27 situation. We reached out to ALGOP to ask if the coin flip plan would proceed in light of ALEA’s statement and they haven’t yet responded. We’ll keep at it.
Here’s your Daily News for Tuesday, June 28.
1. Alabama school choice advocates encouraged by SCOTUS ruling on funding
- School choice advocates in Alabama say they are encouraged by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on private and religious schools and state funding.
- The high court ruled 6-3 that it is unconstitutional for Maine’s K-12 tuition support program for private schools to exclude religious schools.
- Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the majority opinion that although states don’t have to give money for private education at all, they cannot do so while excluding religious schools.
- “I think it shows that the right thing to do is to fund children, not school systems,” said Rep. Charlotte Meadows, R-Montgomery about last week’s decision. “It clears the way for us to have a school choice act that doesn’t get caught up in a lawsuit.”
- Alabama lawmakers in recent years have proposed taxpayer money be used to send children to private schools. The latest of these attempts was the Parents’ Choice Act sponsored by Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, and Meadows. The bill, which Marsh called “the mother of all school choice bills,” ultimately stalled during the 2022 legislative session.
- The Parents’ Choice Act would have created education savings accounts where parents could keep a certain amount of money that they would’ve paid in taxes for public education and use it to fund their child’s schooling at the institution of their choice.
- Read more from Maddison Booth HERE.
2. 46 migrants found dead in abandoned trailer in San Antonio
- Forty-six people were found dead after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including four children.
- A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck shortly before 6 p.m. Monday and discovered the gruesome scene, Police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer and bodies remained inside as authorities responded to the calamity.
- San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 46 who died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life.”
- “This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said.
- It’s among the deadliest of the tragedies that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross the U.S. border from Mexico.
- Read more HERE.
3. Groups oppose $725M Alabama bond sale for building prisons
- A coalition of advocacy groups is opposing Alabama’s plan to sell $725 million in bonds to finance construction of two new supersize prisons.
- The Communities Not Prisons coalition, a group formed to oppose the construction, and other organizations issued statements Monday opposing the looming bond sale.
- The state is expected to go to the bond market today, to provide financing for the construction plan. That money will be added to $135 million in state funds and $400 million in pandemic relief dollars that the state already agreed to put toward the construction project.
- The prisons are to house up to 4,000 inmates and replace existing facilities. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, and lawmakers who approved the plan last year, have touted it as a partial solution to the state’s longstanding prison woes.
- Critics argue the state is ignoring the bigger issues — prison staffing levels and leadership — to focus on buildings.
- Read more HERE.
4. Supreme Court backs coach in praying on field after games
- The Supreme Court said Monday that a high school football coach who knelt and prayed on the field after games was protected by the Constitution, a decision that opponents said would open the door to “much more coercive prayer” in public schools.
- The court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the conservative justices in the majority and the liberals in dissent.
- The case forced the justices to wrestle with how to balance the religious and free speech rights of teachers and coaches with the rights of students not to feel pressured into participating in religious practices. The liberal justices in the minority said there was evidence that Bremerton (Washington) High School Coach Joseph Kennedy’s prayers at the 50-yard-line had a coercive effect on students and allowed him to incorporate his “personal religious beliefs into a school event.”
- Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision “sets us further down a perilous path in forcing states to entangle themselves with religion.”
- But the justices in the majority emphasized that the coach’s prayers came after the games were over and at a time when he wasn’t responsible for students and was free to do other things.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority in the ruling, declared, “The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”
- Gorsuch noted that it would be wrong to treat everything public school teachers and coaches say and do as speech subject to government control, he wrote. If that were the case, “a school could fire a Muslim teacher for wearing a headscarf in the classroom or prohibit a Christian aide from praying quietly over her lunch in the cafeteria,” he wrote.
- Read more HERE.
5. Jan. 6 panel to hear from Meadows aide
- The House panel investigating the events leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot will hear public testimony today from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide who was a key witness in the committee’s original investigation.
- Hutchinson, a special assistant and aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has already provided a trove of information to the committee and its investigators and sat for multiple interviews behind closed doors.
- In brief excerpts of testimony revealed in court filings, Hutchinson told the committee she was in the room for White House meetings where challenges to the election were debated and discussed, including with Republican lawmakers.
- Hutchinson previously told the committee that Meadows had been advised of intelligence reports showing the potential for violence on Jan. 6 and that several Republican lawmakers who had been involved in efforts to reject the electoral tally or submit “fake electors” had sought pardons to avoid potential criminal prosecution.
- Hutchinson also told the committee that Meadows and others working on Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were told by the White House counsel’s office that a plan to use fake slates of electors as part of the president’s desperate effort to cling to power was “not legally sound,” according to court documents.
- The precise subject of today’s hearing remained unclear, but the panel’s announcement Monday said it would be “to present recently obtained evidence and receive witness testimony.”
- The hearing is scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon Central Time.
- Read more and watch it live HERE.
Headlines
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama school choice advocates encouraged by SCOTUS ruling on funding
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – 46 migrants found dead in abandoned trailer in San Antonio
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Groups oppose $725M Alabama bond sale for building prisons
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Supreme Court backs coach in praying on field after games
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Jan. 6 panel to hear from Meadows aide
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – ALEA: Senate District 27 voter was not issued license, registered to vote
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – More than 1 million voters switch to GOP in warning for Dems
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Capitol Journal: June 24, 2022
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Legendary Shoals recording region now offering incentives
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – G-7 leaders confer with Zelenskyy, prep new aid for Ukraine
AL.COM – Alabama airports struggle with nationwide flight cancellations: ‘Pack your patience’
AL.COM – ‘Abortion is healthcare’: Roe v. Wade decision protested in Tuscaloosa
AL.COM – Single provisional ballot threw east Alabama Senate race into deadlock
AL.COM – Columnist Roy Johnson: Did Bernie Sanders supporters who voted for Trump pave way for Supreme Court abortion ruling?
AL.COM – North Alabama Methodists agree to pay $448,216 in Boy Scout abuse settlement
AL.COM – How many LGBTQ+ people in Alabama have children?
AL.COM – Alabama gas prices down 13 cents in the last 2 weeks
AL.COM – Alabamians captured by Russians in Ukraine could face death penalty; prisoner swap a possibility
Montgomery Advertiser – ALEA disputes story of provisional ballot in Auburn-area GOP Senate primary
Montgomery Advertiser – Montgomery-area home prices rose 3.4% in May, with houses for sale in high demand
Montgomery Advertiser – Police charge Montgomery man in apparent drive-by shooting of 12-year-old Nelson Harris
Decatur Daily – ALEA: Senate District 27 voter not registered to vote
Decatur Daily – Decatur officials consider ending near-ban on Airbnb-type rentals
Times Daily – Senate District 27 GOP race comes down to coin flip
Times Daily – Argument leads to murder charge in Russellville
Times Daily – GPS ping locates Ohio murder suspect’s body in Falkville
YellowHammer News – Steve Marshall: ‘We’re prepared to enforce the law’ on abortions — ‘Law enforcement will do the same’
YellowHammer News – Eligibility of potential Senate District 27 tying vote in question as contest heads to coin flip
YellowHammer News – U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer offers bill allowing states to require citizenship proof for voter registration
WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Illegal commercial dumping on the rise in Birmingham
WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Abortion pills could be the next legal fight
WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Adoptions could rise after U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
Tuscaloosa News – Changes at the University of Alabama: Three new deans assume leadership roles
Tuscaloosa News – West Alabama Food Bank to move to Tuscaloosa in January, citing the need for more space
Tuscaloosa News – Donaldson inmates ignite garbage pile they say was drawing pests into prison
Gadsden Times – Annual donation by GSCC President Murphy to provide for Cardinal Foundation scholarship
Gadsden Times – Marshall County man charged with domestic violence after wife found shot
Gadsden Times – JSU science team to investigate lives of ancient Viking settlers in Iceland this summer
Dothan Eagle – Florida judge hears arguments on state’s new abortion law
Dothan Eagle – Andrew Giuliani invokes famous dad in bid for NY governor
Dothan Eagle – South Carolina man wins $100,000 lottery after using strategy he saw on TV
Opelika-Auburn News – Biden suspends rules limiting immigrant arrest, deportation
Opelika-Auburn News – California voters to weigh constitutional right to abortion
Opelika-Auburn News – Lawyer who advised Trump says federal agents seized phone
WSFA Montgomery – Montgomery district attorney to hosts third “Second Chance Job Fair” Tuesday
WSFA Montgomery – Alabama coaches react to Supreme Court prayer decision
WSFA Montgomery – Groups request ARPA money for public transportation
WAFF Huntsville – Cullman County Sheriff: Child dies after being found unresponsive in vehicle
WAFF Huntsville – Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) teaches infants life-saving skills for water emergencies
WAFF Huntsville – Rep. Aderholt announces grant for Northwest Alabama Regional Airport
WKRG Mobile – US House: Boebert primary, runoffs, incumbent vs. incumbent
WKRG Mobile – Election 2022: Abortion central in first post-Roe primaries
WKRG Mobile – Jan. 6 panel to hold surprise hearing, present new evidence
WTVY Dothan – Plenty of events to choose from to celebrate Independence Day
WTVY Dothan – Convicted Dothan killer dies in prison
WTVY Dothan – Local woman collects over $2,000 for Saliba Center repairs
WASHINGTON POST – Frustration, anger rising among Democrats over caution on abortion
WASHINGTON POST – Pence leans in on abortion, as Trump, other potential 2024 candidates are more cautious
WASHINGTON POST – Former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson expected to testify at surprise hearing
NEW YORK TIMES – Democrats Press the White House for a More Assertive Response to Roe’s Fall
NEW YORK TIMES – At Least 46 Migrants Found Dead in San Antonio
NEW YORK TIMES – These are some of the deadliest instances of migrant deaths on the southern border.
WALL STREET JOURNAL – G-7 Meeting Concludes With Focus on China
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Elon Musk Has Twitter’s Data, but Getting Answers on Spam Accounts May Be Tougher
WALL STREET JOURNAL – Municipal Bonds Increasingly Held by Funds Instead of Individuals
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