1. Sessions makes it official

• Jeff Sessions officially announced his bid to return to the U.S. Senate Thursday night.
• During an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Sessions pledged to support President Donald Trump, the very man who forced him out as U.S. Attorney General a year ago after months of vicious attacks.
• “If I return to the Senate, no senator in the Senate would be more effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda than I would,” Sessions told Carlson.
• Candidates already contending for the nomination include former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Bradley Byrne. Both are already criticizing Sessions of insufficiently defending Trump.
• “Alabama deserves a Senator who will stand with the President and won’t run away and hide from the fight,” Byrne said Thursday night.
• New polling from the Club for Growth, a Washington political group that has been encouraging Sessions to run, shows that 71 percent of Republican primary voters have a favorable view of Sessions, whereas 20 percent view him unfavorably.
• That polling, which includes an updated ballot test question, is in the full story HERE.

2. Cannabis Commission drafting bill

• Some north Alabama lawmakers on the Alabama Medical Marijuana Study Commission say they’re confident they can get legislation approved during the 2020 legislative session, but at least some law enforcement groups are already raising concern.
• Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, sponsored the medical marijuana bill that passed out of the Senate in the 2019 session. In the House, lawmakers changed the legalization bill to instead create this study commission.
• The commission on Thursday went over new draft legislation.
• “It’s got a lot we still need to work on but it’s getting close,” Melson, a medical doctor, said. “I’ve tried to address everyone’s concerns that’s come forward with them.”
• Barry Matson, director of Alabama’s District Attorneys Association, said he was concerned that not enough regulations are currently in the legislation to keep medical marijuana out of the hands of those who won’t use it medically.
• “I’m telling you, it will be used and abused, from the doctor’s side, from the dispensary side and from the patients’ side,” Matson said. “If you’re going to do it, you need to do it right because so many states took an emotional vote and jumped into it prematurely.”
• Bertha Madras, a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School and also sits on President Donald Trump’s opioid commission, shared some of the same concerns as Matson.
• She said that some of the qualifying medical conditions listed in the legislation to use medical cannabis are too vague and can open the door for any illness to be added to the list.
• Full story from ADN’s Caroline Beck HERE.

3. State says opioid settlement should be based on impact

• Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said that if multi-state litigation against Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers is settled, he thinks settlement money should be distributed based on the drugs’ toll on a state, not its population.
• “The real battle or issue in that case, as well with any other recovery coming forward, is not so much the recovery of money from the defendant, but in fact how that money gets allocated,” Marshall said.
• Marshall, speaking this week at a meeting of Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, said he wants to make sure that any money received from opioid litigation be invested in reducing addiction in Alabama. He said the council’s plans will help determine how the money will be used.
• A federal bankruptcy judge this week agreed to keep nearly 2,700 lawsuits against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and hundreds more against the family members who own the company on hold until at least April so the sides can keep working toward a settlement, the Associated Press reported. Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement in September that could be worth up to $12 billion.
• Marshall is co-chair of the opioid council and said the collaborative effort by various state agencies has led to progress in the deadly fight against opioids since the council’s first meeting in 2017.
• “We’re not where we need to be but we’re a long way from where we were,” Marshall said.
• Full story from ADN’s Caroline Beck HERE.

4. AG working on fish kill penalty

• The Alabama Attorney General’s office in now involved in the state’s action against Tyson Foods following a June spill in north Alabama waterways.
• The AG’s office is paying a Massachusetts company to “analyze valuation on loss due to the Mulberry Fork spill, determine economic impact on affected counties and provide expert testimony if needed,” according to a summary of the contract.
• Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office declined to comment on the status of the state’s efforts with Tyson. Earlier this week, Marshall told Alabama Daily News people could “read between the lines” about what the contract met.
• Marshall toured the impacted portion of river in September, according to media reports.
• In June, a Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Walker County dumped thousands of gallons of sludge into the Sipsy and Mulberry Forks of the Black Warrior River, resulting in the largest recorded fish kill in state history. According to Tyson and ADEM, about 220,000 gallons of waste water spilled from the River Valley Ingredients plant in Hanceville, killing as many as 175,000 fish.
• The company says fish died because of low oxygen levels in the water, not chemicals.
• Full story from ADN’s Mary Sell HERE.

5. Suspect arrested in college student’s disappearance

• A man wanted in the disappearance of UFC fighter Walt Harris’ stepdaughter has been apprehended in Florida, but the whereabouts of the woman he’s accused of abducting remained a mystery early Friday.
• Ibraheem Yazeed was arrested in Florida and booked into the Escambia County Jail early Friday, jail records show. He’s charged with first-degree kidnapping in the disappearance of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, who was last seen at a gas station in Auburn, Alabama, on Oct. 23.
• Blanchard, a student at Southern Union State Community College, was reported missing the next day. Her car was later found abandoned in Montgomery, more than 50 miles away. Police said the car was damaged and contained evidence that Blanchard had been harmed.
• Yazeed was already known to authorities: He was freed from an Alabama jail in February after prosecutors said he beat a man unconscious and “near death” in a vicious robbery, court records show. He faces attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery in that earlier case.
• Full story HERE.

Headlines

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