Presented by The Prosper Group.

 

 

*Amber Alert Update*

• An Amber Alert is still active this morning after 3-year-old Kamille McKinney was kidnapped from a birthday party in Birmingham Saturday.
• Police issued an Amber Alert after someone in a blue Toyota Sequoia grabbed the child and drove away while she was outside with friends about 8:30 p.m.
• The alert says Kamille, whose family calls her “Cupcake,” is 3-feet tall and weighs 60 pounds. She was wearing a pink Minnie Mouse T-shirt and had yellow, white and blue bows in her hair.
• A person of interest has been taken in for questioning.
• Law enforcement said they would have an update later this morning. For now watch the latest from WBRC HERE and read more of the background story from Carol Robinson HERE.

 

 

1. Drugged driving: State looks to boost enforcement, prosecution.

 

• Throughout Alabama, hundreds of impaired drivers have taken prescription and illegal drugs, often with alcohol, according to information compiled by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences.
• Now, the state is looking to improve its enforcement mechanisms and increase prosecutions for drugged driving.
• In fiscal year 2018, the five most detected substances were: alcohol, marijuana, amphetamine, alprazolam and meth. All were at levels that would impair drivers, and regularly in combination, according to ADFS.
• But blood draws are often collected hours after a suspect is pulled over or in a traffic wreck. After law enforcement has to locate a judge to sign a warrant for the draw and take the suspect to a hospital or a jail that has a phlebotomist. In that time, fast-metabolizing drugs like marijuana and cocaine can dissipate.
• Alabama will soon be the first state to collect saliva from DUI suspects for confirmatory forensic laboratory testing. And some want to make blood drawing from impaired driving suspects quicker.
• ADN’s Mary Sell has the full story, including the interesting statistics on which substances are most common for impaired driving. Read that HERE.

 

2. Trade wins.

• The Trump administration and China declared a temporary truce Friday in their 15-month trade war.
• The administration agreed to suspend a tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports that was set to take effect Tuesday. And China agreed to buy up to $50 billion in U.S. farm products.
• The two countries are leaving the thornier issues — including U.S. allegations that China forces foreign countries to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market — until later negotiations.
• The tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports was set to rise Tuesday from 25% to 30%.
• The de-escalation in tension between the world’s two largest economies was welcomed by financial markets. The U.S.-China hostilities have alarmed investors and escalated costs and uncertainties for many businesses. Yet the grievances that led them to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods remain largely unresolved.
• President Donald Trump announced the cease-fire in a White House meeting with the top Chinese negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He. The news followed two days of talks in Washington, the 13th round of negotiations between the two countries’ delegations.
• “It took us a long time to get here, but it’s something that’s going to be great for China and great for the USA,” Trump said.
• Read the full story HERE.

 

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• Reach out to Jeff Vreeland with The Prosper Group today for help.

 

 

3. Byrne on Fox & Friends: investigate Biden.

• Congressman Bradley Byrne this morning used an appearance on “Fox & Friends” to call for the investigation of Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, and his business dealings during his father’s time in office.
• Byrne is introducing a resolution calling for the House Committees on Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Government Reform, and Financial Services to begin investigations of business dealings of Hunter Biden during the time his father was vice president. Byrne says he wants Congress to investigate whether those business dealings resulted in improper conflicts of interests, and whether Hunter Biden’s work affected United States foreign policy or a foreign government or foreign entity’s response.
• The resolution will not see the light of day in a Democrat-led House of Representatives, but it’s a messaging move for Byrne, who is running for U.S. Senate, and possibly for House Republicans, who need some counter measures for the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.
• Fox News hits are a big deal for Republican politicians and pretty hard to come by. For one, a lot of GOP primary voters watch Fox News all day long. But, probably most importantly, Trump himself is known to watch a lot of Fox News – in particular Fox & Friends – so if Byrne can get some kind of Twitter shout out here it would be big for him. No tweets as of this writing.
• See Byrne’s full, in-studio interview HERE.

 

4. US pulling out of northern Syria; full withdrawal possible.

• The United States appears to be heading toward a full military withdrawal from Syria amid growing chaos, cries of betrayal and signs that Turkey’s invasion could fuel a broader war.
• Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that President Donald Trump had directed U.S. troops in northern Syria to begin pulling out “as safely and quickly as possible.” He did not say Trump ordered troops to leave Syria, but that seemed like the next step in a combat zone growing more unstable by the hour.
• Esper, interviewed on two TV news shows, said the administration was considering its options.
• “We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancing armies and it’s a very untenable situation,” Esper said.
• The U.S. has had about 1,000 troops in northeastern Syria allied with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to combat ISIS. The Pentagon previously had pulled about 30 of these troops from the Turkish attack zone along the border. With an escalation of violence, a widening of the Turkish incursion and the prospect of a deepening conflict, all U.S. forces along the border will now follow that move. It was unclear where they would go.
• Full story HERE.

 

5. AP Top 25.

• LSU moved up to No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll, giving the Southeastern Conference the top two teams in the country for the 29th time and putting the Tigers behind No. 1 Alabama less than a month before the rivals meet in Tuscaloosa.
• The Tigers jumped from No. 5, past No. 3 Clemson and No. 4 Ohio State, after beating Florida in a matchup of unbeaten teams Saturday night. LSU received 12 first-place votes Sunday in the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank while Alabama received 30 first-place votes and is No. 1 for the third consecutive week. The Crimson Tide host the Tigers on Nov. 9.
• Florida is 9th, Georgia is 10th, and Auburn is 11th in the poll.
• See the full AP Top 25, including the various stats and storylines HERE.

 

News Briefs.

 

• MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Scattered rain across Alabama hasn’t been enough to ease the wildfire threat.
• The Alabama Forestry Commission says all 67 counties remain under a fire alert that was first issued last month.
• The agency’s website says four active wildfires involving 50 acres were burning Friday, and 16 more fires were contained or controlled.
• State fire crews have responded to more than 173 wildfires that burned more than 1,800 acres of land this month. That includes a 365-acre fire in Sumter County and a 122-acre fire in Shelby County.
• Dry conditions spread rapidly across the state last month because of a lack of rainfall and record high temperatures. The state says it recorded 472 blazes that burned more than 6,000 acres in September.
• Additional rain is forecast in coming days.

• LIVINGSTON, Ala. (AP) — A $2.5 million federal grant will help develop new workers with a goal of expanding economic development in rural west Alabama.
• The money is going to the University of West Alabama for work in a 10-county region.
• The area includes some of the state’s poorest counties, and officials sometimes cite the lack of qualified workers as part of the problem.
• The grant will fund programs to develop new workers, recruit them into industry and get them working. It will also establish and expand rural apprenticeship initiatives.
• The grant was awarded by the Labor Department in partnership with the Delta Regional Authority and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
• The University of West Alabama is one of eight organizations in five states to receive the money.

• NANTAHALA, N.C. (AP) — Authorities have identified the body of a woman found dead in a North Carolina creek as that of a forensic FBI photographer from Alabama.
• Citing a Graham County sheriff’s statement, news outlets report authorities have identified Kathleen Polce Miller, of Huntsville, as the woman found dead in the Nantahala National Forest on Oct. 7.
• Emergency call records obtained by The Ashville Citizen-Times say a man reported a woman falling into water and not being able to get out on Oct. 6. Chief Deputy Chuck Stewart tells WAFF-TV that the call was placed by Miller’s husband.
• Stewart says the two had stopped while on their way to a campsite. He says Miller likely drowned, though her official cause of death is pending. The FBI says Miller wasn’t on duty.

• BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The National Park Service has named a superintendent to oversee new civil rights historical sites in Birmingham and Anniston.
• The federal agency says Kris Butcher will take over at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Freedom Riders National Monument starting Oct. 27.
• Both sites were created during the final days of the Obama administration, and both are undergoing work to get them ready for the public.
• The Birmingham site encompasses parts of the city’s historic downtown black business district including the hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed during demonstrations in 1963.
• The Anniston site marks the bus station where interracial Freedom Riders were attacked in 1961. Their bus was attacked again and burned a few miles away.
• Butcher worked at a park site in Maryland.

 

 

Headlines.

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