Good morning! There are 22 days until the November 6 General Election. Here’s your Daily News for Monday, October 15.

1. The latest from hurricane recovery.

• President Donald Trump will visit hurricane ravaged Florida and Georgia today.
• His visit comes as a large swath of destruction remains in what FEMA Director Brock Long called some of the worst he’s ever seen.
• Tyndall Air Force Base took a direct hit and sustained “catastrophic damage,” which is now visible from photos and aerial drone footage.
• While most of the focus has been on Mexico Beach and Panama City, inland towns like Wewahitchka, Blountstown, Bristol, and Marianna are also devastated and will take years to recover.
• Also perhaps overlooked is Columbia, Alabama, where “the entire town is damaged” according to the mayor.
• In Dothan, about 2,000 residents remain without power as crews continue to work around the clock.
• Dothan City and Houston County Schools remain closed. Dothan had fall break starting later in the week anyway, and officials are still finding water damage to school property.

• The Alabama Farmers Federation has established a relief fund to help farmers and ranchers who were devastated by the storm.
• Many cotton crops were damaged to the point that they cannot be harvested, leaving farmers who were counting on a bumper crop with just half the expected harvest or less. Peanut farmers and cattle ranchers were also negatively impacted.
• The fund will only go to help losses not covered by a farmowner insurance policy, crop insurance, or disaster relief programs.
• Full story w/ more information on how to help HERE.

2. Ivey, Marshall meet w/ Parole Board.

• Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall are meeting with members of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles this morning.
• The Board has come under increased scrutiny from district attorneys and victims advocacy groups for what they characterize as releasing violent offenders from prison early at “an alarming rate.”
• WSFA 12 News reporter Jenn Horton first reported a trend in which inmates with long sentences – even life sentences in some cases – were getting paroled early. After that initial report, 47 parole candidates were removed from the docket to be considered by the Board. Board staff told Horton that decision came from Executive Director Eddie Cook.
• Ivey’s and Marshall’s meeting with the Board is at 8:30 this morning, and there is a news conference scheduled afterward.
• We’ll be there. For now read more HERE.

3. Trump on 60 Minutes: climate change, Mattis, North Korea, etc.

• President Donald Trump covered a wide range of topics during a sit-down interview with CBS News’ Leslie Stahl for 60 Minutes.
• The president repeatedly hyped the interview via twitter, so he must have been pleased with the interview.
• Stahl asked whether or not he still held the same opinions from previous statements like climate change being a “hoax” and his “love” for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
• The result was an illuminating interview, at least I thought.
• If you didn’t catch it last night, watch it in its entirety and read the transcript HERE.
• Don’t miss his description of Washington, D.C.:
• “So I always used to say the toughest people are Manhattan real estate guys and blah, blah… Now I say they’re babies.”
• He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking.
• “This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it’s full of lies, deceit and deception,” he said.
• Also, excellent weather in the Spring and Fall.

4. Matthew Stokes: Dissecting Maddox’s campaign ad.

• ADN Columnist Matthew Stokes turns his attention to the Walt Maddox for Governor campaign today, and specifically their TV ad.
• While Maddox says all the right things and looks the part, Stokes sees all sizzle and no steak.
• Going more than an inch deep on the issues would reveal some major inconsistencies, particularly on guns and abortion, Stokes writes.
• Here’s an excerpt:
• “As for the pro-life declaration, Maddox may well be personally opposed to abortion, and good for him if so. But as a matter of public policy, the question is what measures would he support to protect unborn life? He has already spoken out against this year’s Amendment 2 that aims to ensure the state constitution can’t be used to allow abortion on demand. That’s not a good start. If liberals’ nightmare comes true and the Supreme Court gives states more authority over abortion restrictions, would Gov. Maddox support instituting legal limits on abortions, such as a 25-week ban?”
• Read Stokes’ full column HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• We’re covering competitive state legislative races, and the latest is House District 94.
• That’s where Republican State Rep. Joe Faust is facing a challenge from Democratic political newcomer Dannielle Mashburn-Myrick.
• This Baldwin County district has traditionally voted conservative, but it contains the progressive Eastern Shore enclave of Fairhope and Point Clear, where Doug Jones found support in some key precincts last December.
• Like every other race, the issues of Medicaid expansion, infrastructure funding and a lottery are being discussed.
• Read Caroline Beck’s Sunday story diving into the race HERE.

• A $25 million “mega” sports complex once many considered a “pipe dream” is set to begin construction soon in Gadsden.
• The 139-acre site could fit as many as 14 soccer fields and accommodate tournaments for baseball and softball as well.
• State Rep. Craig Ford, who sponsored the legislation to establish the Etowah County Mega Sports Complex Authority, said youth sports tournaments can bring in tourism dollars that have a big impact on the economy. Read and watch more HERE.

• A new cotton gin being built in Centre, Alabama will soon be complete, and it could be the most technologically advanced machine of its kind in the world.
• Anne Shumaker of the Gadsden Times reports the new gin can “process, bale, strap and wrap” a bale of cotton in 72 seconds. 50 bales can be completed in an hour.
• If you grew up in a cotton and gin-making town like I did, you know those numbers are impressive.
• Also impressive are the photos, which you can see inside Shumaker’s full story HERE.

• The Montgomery Advertiser ran Brian Lyman’s profile stories of Gov. Kay Ivey and challenger Walt Maddox this Sunday, and they’re worth a read.
• Read Brian’s Kay Ivey profile HERE and his Walt Maddox profile HERE.

Headlines.

 

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