PRESENTED BY THE POARCH CREEK INDIANS

Good morning and Happy Friday! Here’s your Daily News for November 9.

1. They’re recounting in Florida.

• Razor-thin margins in Florida’s bitter races for the U.S. Senate and governor are raising the specter of possible recounts.
• That would potentially prolong two of the most closely watched contests of the nation’s midterm elections.
• In the governor’s race, Democrat Andrew Gillum’s campaign said Thursday he’s readying for a recount. He conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night. As of Thursday afternoon, DeSantis led Gillum by 0.47 percentage point.
• Meanwhile, Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson has begun preparing for a potential recount in a race still too close to call against Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Nelson’s lawyer called that race a “jump ball” — though Scott’s campaign urged Nelson to concede. Scott held a 0.21 percentage lead over Nelson on Thursday afternoon.
• The tight races underscored Florida’s status as a perennial swing state where elections are often decided by the thinnest of margins. Since 2000, when Florida decided the presidency by 537 votes in a contest that took more than five weeks to sort out, the state has seen many close elections, but never so many dead heats in one year.
• And like 2000, the counting process is becoming contentious.
• Republicans DeSantis and Scott are NOT having it and speaking out about what they call suspect election practices in, where else, Palm Beach and Broward Counties.
• Read more HERE.

2. No Oyster Season.

• There won’t be an oyster season on the Alabama coast in the coming year.
• It’s an unusual move caused by a lack of oysters in state waters.
• Conservation officials announced the decision during a meeting with seafood harvesters and dealers in southern Mobile County.
• Oyster seasons have been closed in past years because of disasters like hurricanes or the BP oil spill in 2010, and the number of oyster boats working the area has been in decline.
• But Scott Bannon, director of the Marine Resources Division, said this year marked the first time there won’t be a season because of a lack of oysters.
• A weeklong season last year produced only 136 sacks of oysters, down from 7,000 sacks in 2013, he said.
• The move means wild oysters won’t be harvested from state waters until at least the fall of 2019. It won’t affect farm oysters.
• I’m told state officials will not allow Mountain Oysters as a substitute, living up to a campaign promise of Gov. Kay Ivey.
• Read more HERE.

A Message from The Poarch Creek Indians

• Being a Tribe and a distinct group of people requires moving forward, and in so doing, helping Alabama move forward on this land we all call home.
• That’s the message of the Poarch Creek Indians’ new advertising campaign that launches this week.
• Poarch’s 2018 campaign includes two much-anticipated commercials, “Land” and “Craft” — real stories about real people in the place they call home.
• The spots use iconic cinematography to send hopeful messages about tradition and home, and the power we all have as communities to positively impact the wellbeing of our neighbors.
• Everyone that you meet on screen and in voiceover is Poarch Creek. All scenes and locations are authentic to the Tribe.
• Click here to watch the first spot, “Land.”

 

3. Scoop: Jack Williams to see charges dismissed.

• Federal prosecutors are set to dismiss charges against State Rep. Jack Williams today.
• Williams was indicted back in April as part of a bribery scheme involving former Majority Leader Micky Hammon, State Rep. Randy Davis, former GOP Chairman Marty Conners, and G. Ford Gilbert, a California-based medical executive.
• The charges against Williams never made sense. Prosecutors said that his calling a committee hearing on a diabetes bill the others were trying to push through amounted to corruption.
• Anyone who has spent five minutes in the State House knows public hearings happen all the time, and they aren’t always a good way to advance legislation.
• Williams stepped down from the Legislature this year to pursue a seat on the Jefferson County Commission. That didn’t work out, mostly because he was running as someone indicted for bribery.
• Now, prosecutors are dismissing all charges because there isn’t any evidence that Williams broke the law.
• I’m sure it will feel good for Williams to have the charges dropped and his name cleared, but you can’t undo the damage done to his career.
• Mighty powerful federal government we have.

4. Skip Tucker: An election post-mortem.

5. News Briefs.

• Nearly two-thirds of Alabamians voted a straight-ticket, a record number that reflects political polarization and likely boosted Republicans in their easy sweep of state races.
• According toSecretary of State John Merrill, about 1.1 million of the 1.7 million ballots cast on Tuesday were straight-ticket votes: 661,898 Republican and 460,408 Democratic.
• Merrill said that is a record high for straight party ticket voting in the state.
• Read more from Kim Chandler HERE.

• A U.S. appeals court has blocked President Donald Trump from immediately ending an Obama-era program shielding young immigrants from deportation, saying the administration’s decision was based on a flawed legal theory.
• A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously kept a preliminary injunction in place against Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
• The U.S. Supreme Court could eventually decide the fate of DACA, which has protected about 700,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families that overstayed visas.
• Earlier this week, the Trump administration took the unusual step of asking the Supreme Court to take up the case even before any federal appeals courts had weighed in. It was the second time the administration sought review of its DACA decision by the Supreme Court.
• Read the full story HERE.

• The UAB football program has been better than ever since its resurrection.
• The Blazers (8-1, 6-0 Conference USA) enter Saturday’s home finale against Southern Miss with a chance to claim a berth in the league title game in just the second season since the program’s resurrection following a university-ordered shutdown. UAB is the home of the nation’s top scoring defense.
• A 16-6 record on the comeback trail exceeds even coach Bill Clark’s expectations.
• “I think in my wildest dreams, it would be something like this,” Clark said.
• This could wind up being the Blazers’ best season. The 1993 team posted the program’s best record, 9-2 as a Division I-AA (now FCS) independent.
• What’s more impressive is how UAB got to this point.
• Read the whole story HERE.

Headlines.

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