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Good morning!

Here’s your Daily News for Tuesday, March 29.

 

1. What’s on tap

• It’s the 24th legislative day of the 2022 session and we are officially in the home stretch.
• We might be just 13 days away from Sine Die on April 11, but that could easily turn into much longer. The session could technically last until April 26, but I don’t know anyone who wants to drag it out that long.
• The House convenes at 1 p.m. today, the Senate at 3 p.m.
• The House’s special order calendar includes the proposed Alabama Numeracy Act to beef up math education in grades K-5 and House Bill 230 to regulate the medical care and treatment of pregnant inmates in Alabama Department of Corrections’ prisons.
• Also at the bottom of the calendar is House Bill 423 from Rep. Paul Lee, R-Dothan, providing further regulation over the proliferation of telemedicine in Alabama.
• In the Senate Finance and Taxation Education committee this morning is House Bill 50 from Rep. Rolanda Hollis, D-Birmingham. It would address the issue of “period poverty” by ensuring girls in Title I schools have access to free feminine hygiene products.
• Read more about that bill and the rest of what’s on tap from Heather Gann and Mary Sell HERE.

 

2. Capitol Journal: ALEA’s Jonathan Archer & Comm. Jean Brown

• Last night on Capitol Journal, we ran through what to expect during these next few weeks of the legislative session.
• I was also pleased to be joined by particularly pertinent guests.
• Senior Services Commissioner Jean Brown discussed the recently signed legislation that will create a registry of those who have committed elder abuse as well as the new elder abuse refuge center being developed in Shelby County.
• Jonathan Archer, chief of the Driver’s License Division at ALEA, was in studio talking about the upcoming changes to the state’s driver license system that will involve temporary closures of offices in every county next month.
• Watch the full interviews HERE.

 

 

 

A message from

Southern Research

• Double lab space to study infectious diseases like COVID-19
• Expand capacity to research chronic diseases
• Create 500+ jobs
• Double Southern Research’s annual economic impact to $300 million

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Florida officials fight back against rowdy spring breakers

• Rowdy spring break crowds have forced curfews and led some establishments to close their doors from Miami Beach to Florida’s Panhandle.
• Law enforcement officials in Bay County, Florida, said that they won’t tolerate the bad behavior from spring breakers after a 21-year-old from Alabama was shot in the foot Sunday during a shooting in Panama City Beach.
• “The crowd that has been here this weekend, there are no words that can describe the way they have behaved themselves, conducted themselves and the amount of laws they have broken,” Panama City Beach police Chief J.R. Talamantez said after the shooting. “We are doing the best to manage this situation.”
• Police received word that the large crowd was out of control just before the shooting happened on Sunday afternoon. Six people were detained and officials said they could be charged with attempted murder related to that shooting.
• Law enforcement confiscated 75 guns, which they spread out on a table during a news conference on Monday in Panama City Beach.
• Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said 161 people were booked into the county jail during a “difficult, trying and dangerous weekend. He noted that 78 of those arrested were from Alabama.
• Read more HERE.

 

 

4. Ukraine, Russia hold new talks

• The first face-to-face talks in two weeks between Russia and Ukraine began Tuesday in Turkey, raising flickering hopes there could be progress toward ending a war that has ground into a bloody campaign of attrition.
• An adviser to the Ukrainian president said the meeting in Istanbul was focused on securing a cease-fire and guarantees for Ukraine’s security — issues that have been at the heart of previous unsuccessful negotiations.
• Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country was prepared to declare its neutrality, as Moscow has demanded, and was open to compromise over the contested eastern region of Donbas — comments that might lend momentum to negotiations. But even as the negotiators assembled, Russian forces hit an oil depot in western Ukraine and demolished a government building in the south, with several deaths.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aim of a quick military victory has been thwarted by stiff Ukrainian resistance.
• In fighting that has devolved into a back-and-forth stalemate, Ukrainian forces retook Irpin, a key suburb northwest of the capital, Kyiv, Zelenskyy said late Monday. But he warned that Russian troops were regrouping to take the area back.
• “We still have to fight, we have to endure,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. “This is a ruthless war against our nation, against our people, against our children.”
• Read more HERE.

 

5. Op-Ed: Alabama is Last in Math. The Numeracy Act Will Change That.

• The House today will take up Senate Bill 171, which is aimed at addressing Alabama’s last-in-the-nation scores in math.
• Corrin O’Brien of the A+ Education Partnership contributes an op-ed for the Daily News explaining what the bill does and how it can help improve the state’s struggling schools.
• Here’s an excerpt:

“Only 22% of Alabama students were proficient in math on the 2021 ACAP state assessment, including only 11% of low-income students and 7% of Black students. This puts us dead last nationally. In addition, there are currently 28 K-5 schools that have 0% of students proficient in math. 

“Our students deserve better. In fact, they need better if they are to be prepared for the real world. The Alabama Legislature is considering a bill, the Alabama Numeracy Act (SB 171), to address this challenge with intensive teacher and student support. It is awaiting final passage in the House of Representatives today.”

• Read O’Brien’s full op-ed HERE.

 

Headlines

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – What’s on tap: Bill to provide feminine hygiene products in schools

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Capitol Journal: ALEA’s Jonathan Archer & Commissioner Jean Brown

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Florida officials fight back against rowdy spring breakers

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Ukraine, Russia hold new talks aimed at ending the fighting

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Op-Ed: Alabama is Last in Math. The Numeracy Act Will Change That.

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Budgets, major bills pending in final weeks of legislative session

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama creates registry for elder abuse convictions

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Congressional Republicans, bullish on midterms, plot return to power

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Biden finds no respite at home after returning from Europe

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Ukraine leader says he seeks peace ‘without delay’ in talks

 

AL.COM – With county support, Mobile downtown airport project over 80 percent funded

 

AL.COM – BA.2 Omicron variant identified in south Alabama

 

AL.COM – Judge releases emails to Jan. 6 committee; says Trump likely committed crimes related to election

 

AL.COM – 25,000 Alabamians owed average of $800 from IRS: Here’s who is eligible

 

AL.COM – Second Alabama Amazon union vote count begins today: When will we know who won?

 

AL.COM – $120 million data center opens in Auburn to expand access to fiber networks

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Suspect in Autaugaville shootout arrested and charged with murder, assault

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Crime, public safety at forefront of Alabama mayors’ meeting in Tuscaloosa

 

Montgomery Advertiser – With guilty pleas in, what happens next in the Prattville barbershop killings case?

 

Decatur Daily – Orr math-instruction bill headed for vote this week

 

Decatur Daily – Alabama school donates missile, launcher to veterans museum

 

Times Daily – Major bills pending in final weeks of legislative session

 

Times Daily – Long-Lewis names February Hero of the Month

 

Times Daily – World War I project’s legacy takes center stage

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Grocery store being planned for Birmingham’s west side

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Tuscaloosa’s Steve Brown talks entertainer safety after Oscars slap

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Birmingham City Council voting on how to spend $53 million surplus in city budget

 

Tuscaloosa News – SPLC union: Civil rights organization’s return-to-office policy shows racial disparity

 

Tuscaloosa News – Crime, public safety at forefront of Alabama mayors’ meeting in Tuscaloosa

 

Tuscaloosa News – Cool runnings: Thousands gather for Tuscaloosa Half Marathon and 5K

 

YellowHammer News – Could a refined UAH space weather model help scientists find life elsewhere?

 

YellowHammer News – Tuberville: ‘We’re losing the war on drugs down at the border’

 

YellowHammer News – ‘No step too high for a high stepper’: Ivey featured at shooting range in latest campaign TV ad

 

Gadsden Times – Ramsey seeking re-election to the the Etowah County Commission

 

Gadsden Times – Grant will help Etowah Sheriff’s Office, other agencies get phone, digital data in probes

 

Gadsden Times – SPLC union: Civil rights organization’s return-to-office policy shows racial disparity

 

Dothan Eagle – An unforgettable, pugnacious night at the Oscars; Zelenskyy’s latest plea; gas prices drop, slowly

 

Dothan Eagle – Arab, US top diplomats in Israel as Mideast dynamic shifts

 

Dothan Eagle – Ukrainians claim to retake ground ahead of latest talks

 

Opelika-Auburn News – UConn reaches 14th straight Final Four, tops NC State in 2OT

 

Opelika-Auburn News – Shanghai lockdown tests ‘zero-COVID’ limits, shakes markets

 

Opelika-Auburn News – India plans Sri Lanka power project after China’s is shelved

 

WSFA Montgomery – Man shot in Montgomery Monday night

 

WSFA Montgomery – Darryl Albert sworn in as new Montgomery police chief

 

WSFA Montgomery – Emergency Missing Child Alert issued for 4-month-old girl last seen in Sardis City

 

WAFF Huntsville – What revenue from gas, grocery tax goes toward; what could happen if suspended

 

WAFF Huntsville – First-time homebuyers may run into unexpected obstacles

 

WAFF Huntsville – Tennessee Valley EMT preparing to volunteer in Ukraine

 

WKRG Mobile – After Russian forces pull back, a shattered town breathes

 

WKRG Mobile – Ukraine’s other fight: Growing food for itself and the world

 

WKRG Mobile – From Hollywood’s illusion factory, some unexpected reality

 

WTVY Dothan – Man faces arson charges after fire engulfs two buildings

 

WTVY Dothan – Hartford Police Department sees crime uptick with spring break travelers

 

WTVY Dothan – DFD working two fires in downtown area

 

WASHINGTON POST – Kyiv and Moscow meet for peace talks in Istanbul with different expectations

 

WASHINGTON POST – Ukraine claws back territory in country’s north ahead of talks in Istanbul

 

WASHINGTON POST – Germany, urged to ‘stop Putin’s war machine,’ resists Russian energy embargo

 

NEW YORK TIMES – Live Updates: Ukraine and Russia Discuss Possible Cease-Fire While Trading Strikes on Multiple Fronts

 

NEW YORK TIMES – ‘I Make No Apologies’: Biden Says His Putin Comments Were an Expression of Moral Outrage

 

NEW YORK TIMES – New Focus on How a Trump Tweet Incited Far-Right Groups Before Jan. 6

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Ukraine and Russia Hold Talks as Zelensky Criticizes West on Sanctions, Arms

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – UnitedHealth to Buy Home-Health Firm LHC Group for $5.4 Billion

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Consortium Near Deal to Buy Nielsen for $16 Billion Including Debt

 

 

 

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