PRESENTED BY the Stop The HIT Coalition

Good morning and Happy Friday! Here’s your Daily News for November 16.

1. Attempted assassination in Demopolis.

• 17th Circuit District Attorney Greg Griggers survived an apparent assassination attempt in downtown Demopolis Thursday.
• Griggers was shot in the face by Steve Smith, an ex-State Trooper who Griggers’ office had questioned about a shooting at the home of a judge more than 20 years ago.
• Smith, the assailant, was shot and killed on the spot by an investigator from Griggers’ office.
• It appears Griggers was ambushed while returning from lunch with members of his staff.
• Michael Jackson, the District Attorney from the neighboring 4th Circuit said Griggers was taken to the hospital and is expected to recover.
• Read more from AP & staff reports HERE.
• Read more from the Demopolis Times HERE
• Read more from the Tuscaloosa News HERE.
• Watch the story on WBRC Fox 6 HERE.

2. Perdue headed to Wiregrass as Roby, Shelby press Feds for help.

• Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Alabama Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan today will join U.S. Rep. Martha Roby to tour farm damage from Hurricane Michael in Alabama’s Wiregrass.
• They’ll visit the McAllister farm in Gordon, Alabama, a town that was took particularly strong winds.
• Cotton, timber, livestock and produce in Southeast Alabama were all impacted by the storm with direct losses estimated at more than $204 million.
• Sen. Richard Shelby spoke to President Donald Trump about the plight of farmers in the Wiregrass during a meeting about Senate priorities in the lame duck session. The president agreed to help, Shelby said.
• In a speech from the House floor, Roby said the government needs to get this recovery right.
• “I want the people I represent to know that my offices stand ready to help during this challenging time… We must get this right, and we must ensure Alabama’s farmers are included in all recovery efforts.”
• Alabama Daily News’ Will Whatley has the full story HERE.

A Message from the Stop The HIT Coalition

• What is responsible for shredding billions of dollars more than Banksy?
• That’s right, the 2020 Health Insurance Tax (HIT).
• It will add more than $16 billion to the cost of insurance for middle-class families in 2020.
• Absent immediate Senate action, the 2020 HIT will begin driving up the cost of care for hardworking Alabamians in 2020.
• Senator Doug Jones can help address skyrocketing healthcare costs by co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation (S. 3063) to suspend the Health Insurance Tax in 2020.
• Ask Senator Jones to stop the HIT on Alabama small businesses and hardworking families.

3. Progress: infant death rate at all time low.

• Alabama’s infant death rate has fallen to an all-time low just a year after it was among the worst in the nation.
• The Alabama Department of Public Health says new figures show the state’s infant mortality rate declined to 7.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2017.
• That means 435 infants died before reaching their first birthday compared with 537 infant deaths in 2016. The death rate that year was 9.1 deaths per 1,000 births.
• Officials say the improvement could be linked to fewer teen pregnancies and fewer women smoking while they are pregnant.
• Full story including the APDH report itself HERE.

4. Phillips & Glenn arrested, but still no indictment from JeffCo.

• Trey Glenn, the EPA’s Southeast Administrator was arrested Thursday. So was Scott Phillips, the former Alabama Environmental Management Commissioner.
• You remember that the two were indicted on Tuesday by a Jefferson County grand jury. Phillips is accused of violating the state’s ethics laws, specifically provisions barring public officials from accepting gifts. Glenn is accused of knowing about or helping Phillips violate the law.
• Glenn and Phillips previously had a firm together and were contracted by Balch/Drummond to test soil on the EPA’s original 35th Avenue Superfund site.
• So, we have announced criminal charges, arrests and even mugshots. Yet, there have been no indictments released.
• The Jefferson County Circuit Clerk’s office won’t release them. They’ve referred questions to the Alabama Ethics Commission, which was involved in the investigation.
• This morning, Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albrittion told me he there’s no reason why Jefferson County shouldn’t be releasing the indictments by now. He said the indictments apparently haven’t yet been processed and put online by the Jefferson County Circuit Clerk’s Office.
• Until the indictments are made public, we don’t know exactly what Glenn and Phillips are accused of beyond what the press releases say.
• And, given Glenn’s position in the Trump Administration, the story is starting to get national attention. Just saying JeffCo might want to get on the ball.
• Glenn released a statement denying any wrongdoing:
• “The charges against me are totally unfounded, and will be vigorously defended,” he said. “I am innocent and expect to be fully vindicated.”
• Full story HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• Three people, including a child, were injured when their vehicle collided with a passenger train in southwest Birmingham.
• The collision happened just before 4 p.m. Thursday at a railroad crossing. Fire officials said the injured were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
• Read more HERE.

• A trustee who teaches finance at Birmingham-Southern College has been named president of the small, liberal arts school.
• Officials announced Thursday that Daniel Coleman will take over as president at the Methodist-affiliated school.
• Coleman replaces Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith, who cited health reasons in stepping down from the post in October.
• Coleman serves on the school’s board of trustees and teaches finance classes as an adjunct professor. A statement from the school says he was chief executive of the global financial service firm KCG Holdings until its sale last year.
• The 54-year-old Coleman takes over as president on Dec. 3. The Birmingham native has degrees from schools including Yale University and the University of Chicago.
• That’s it. That’s the story, but if you want a link, it’s HERE.

• Florida’s acrimonious U.S. Senate contest is headed to a legally-required hand recount after an initial review by ballot-counting machines showed Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson separated by fewer than 13,000 votes.
• The race for governor between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum appears to be over, with DeSantis with a large enough advantage over Gillum to avoid a hand recount in that race.
• The recount has been a mess. One large Democratic stronghold in South Florida was unable to finish its machine recount by the Thursday deadline due to machines breaking down. Meanwhile, election officials in the Tampa Bay area decided against turning in the results of their machine recount, which came up with 846 fewer votes than originally counted. And Broward County finished its machine recount but missed the deadline by a few minutes.
• Scott is calling on Nelson to end the recount battle, saying it’s time “to respect the will of the voters and graciously bring this process to an end rather than proceed with yet another count of the votes — which will yield the same result and bring more embarrassment to the state that we both love and have served.”
• Six election-related lawsuits are pending in federal court.
• The situation drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Mark Walker.
• “We have been the laughingstock of the world, election after election, and we chose not to fix this,” Walker said at a hearing Thursday.
• Read more HERE.

Bonus: Rick Dearborn takes role at Heritage.

Headlines.

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