Presented by The Prosper Group.

1. Trying to reason with hurricane season.

• The National Hurricane Center expects a weather disturbance to become a tropical storm Friday as it moves toward Alabama and Florida on the northern Gulf Coast.
• The disturbance, which would be named Nestor, should bring a wet weekend across much of the state.
• A tropical storm warning is in effect from the Mississippi-Alabama line to Yankeetown, Florida, and from Grand Isle, Louisiana to the mouth of the Pearl River.
• Forecasters expect blustery winds and heavy rain in parts of Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida, followed by the Carolinas and Virginia by Sunday.
• Baldwin County Schools has cancelled all school-related activities today, including football games, amid the threat of tropical weather.
• Read more and see the full forecast from James Spann HERE.

2. Municipalities announce agenda.

• Leadership from the League of Municipalities said during a press event on Thursday that their main focus in the upcoming 2020 legislative session would be on retaining local authority for cities and towns across the state.
• Greg Cochran, the League’s Deputy Director, said the group would be fighting against legislation that gives preemptions or exemptions on taxation, which he said impacts city budgets.
• “Every year I would say 60% of the bills we engage in are preemption bills or exemption bills; bills that take local authority away,” Cochran said. “We play a lot of defense.”
• One bill the League will be fighting is a 5G cellular infrastructure bill that Cochran says is too restrictive for municipalities in how they can protect their rights-of-way.
• Cochran said that agreements with certain cities have already been made with wireless providers and they see 5G technology being an inevitable part of the state’s future, but the current legislation that would create a state-wide standard is taking away municipalities constitutional rights.
• “5G will be rolled out to the citizens of this state, but we feel like this is a little more restrictive legislation that we would rather not get into,” Cochran said.
• Sen. Arthur Orr sponsored the 5G small cell bill last year, and recently told Alabama Daily News he believed cities need to “be reasonable” in dealing with the emergence of the new technology.
• “I see this as a public good, that the public is being denied in most places in Alabama and I’d like to see some kind of an agreement reached and this enhanced cellular service be offered all across the state,” Orr said at a recent meeting of the Small Cell Wireless Technology Committee.
• Full story from ADN’s Caroline Beck HERE.

A message from The Prosper Group.

• On an ever-changing platform, Facebook is changing the requirements for political advertisements.

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

3. Kamille McKinney still missing.

• A person of interest in the abduction of a 3-year-old Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney has been released from jail after being arrested on unrelated charges.
• 39-year-old Patrick Devone Stallworth bonded out of the Jefferson County Jail early Thursday. His bond was set at $500,000 on seven child pornography charges.
• Stallworth and his girlfriend, 29-year-old Derrick Irisha Brown, were arrested Sunday after police released surveillance images of the SUV believed to be involved in abduction Saturday outside at a birthday party. Stallworth has not been charged with any crime in connection with the child’s disappearance.
• Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith went on television Wednesday to plead directly to those who have the girl or have information about her whereabouts.
• “If you have her and you don’t know what to do, I want to talk to you… I want to give you safe passage. Please bring her to one of our fire stations, police stations, a hospital. If you don’t know what to do or where to go and you’re frightened, we’re here to help you. Our goal is to reunite this 3-year-old baby with her family,” he said.
• Meanwhile, WIAT-TV reports the Jefferson County Commission has approved $8,000 to be added to the $20,000 CrimeStoppers reward for information in the case. With the addition of a $5,000 reward from Gov. Kay Ivey’s office, the rewards total $33,000.
• Full story HERE.

4. Will Whatley: On impeachment, factors beyond Ukraine in play.

• Will Whatley is back this week with a column analyzing the various factors at play with President Donald Trump and House Democrats’ march toward impeachment.
• While the substance of the inquiry appears to be the circumstances of the Ukraine situation, factors unrelated to that could actually play a big role in determining if impeachment actually has any legs, he writes.
• Even though they aren’t related to impeachment, the president’s actions on Turkey and the Kurds, his tax returns, and the decision to host the G7 Summit at his Florida resort complicate matters by threatening to undermine the staunch support of loyal Republicans.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Will’s full column HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — President Donald Trump framed the U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal with Turkey as “a great day for civilization,” but its effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of his own making.
• After hours of negotiation in Ankara, the two nations Thursday agreed to a five-day cease-fire in the Turks’ deadly attacks on Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, but some fighting continued early Friday in a northeast Syrian border town. The Kurds were U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State group but came under assault after Trump ordered U.S. troops to leave the area earlier this month.
• The agreement requires the Kurds to vacate a swath of territory in Syria along the Turkish border in an arrangement that largely solidifies Turkey’s position and aims in the weeklong conflict.
• Vice President Mike Pence, who reached the deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hailed the agreement as the way to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey’s invasion.
• But he remained silent on whether it amounted to a second abandonment of America’s former Kurdish allies, many of whom are branded as terrorists by Ankara. The deal includes a conditional halt to American economic sanctions and no apparent long-term consequences for Turkey for its actions.
• Full story HERE.

• HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A former Alabama sheriff will avoid going to prison after pleading guilty to failing to file tax returns.
• News outlets report a federal magistrate sentenced former Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin to two years on probation during a hearing in Huntsville on Thursday.
• The 55-year-old Franklin also must perform 300 hours of community service.
• Franklin faced a maximum sentence of six months in prison for failing to file tax returns for 2015. That same year she had taken $160,000 from a jail food account and provided it to a car lot.
• Franklin and her lawyer had argued the money was a loan, but a judge concluded it was personal income.
• Franklin didn’t seek re-election to a third term last year. She told reporters the episode is behind her now.

• BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A grand jury is set to see the capital murder case of an 18-year-old Alabama man accused of killing a 78-year-old man this summer.
• Al.com reports the Eric Kindred’s case on Wednesday was ordered to the grand jury for an indictment consideration. Kindred, of Birmingham, is accused of killing Louis Zicarelli in August.
• Birmingham police say Zicarelli answered a knock at his door one night that month and was shot to death. His wife was home, but wasn’t harmed in the attack. Police say Kindred had burglarized the Zicarelli home earlier that same day and stole Zicarelli’s car.
• Police say the two men lived in the same neighborhood. The same street was the scene of a double slaying in 2017.
• Kindred remains in custody with a $450,000 bond.

• TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A crash involving a school bus killed a Tuscaloosa man who was driving a car but didn’t injure any students.
• News outlets report that the accident involving a Tuscaloosa city school bus happened Thursday morning on Alabama 69.
• The Tuscaloosa News reports the driver of the car, 53-year-old Michael Conner, was fatally injured. But no children aboard the bus were hurt.
• Photos and video from the scene show a car with severe damage to its front end near the rear of a yellow school bus. Ambulances and fire trucks are nearby.

A message from The Business Council of Alabama

Alabama has a proud history of fostering innovation and inspiring great ideas that have transformed how we live, work and do business.

The Alabama Incentives Modernization (AIM) Act is a transformative piece of legislation that primes Alabama for success by ensuring that entrepreneurs and technology-based companies have the tools they need to flourish in our state.

Simply put, the AIM Act is a game-changer.

Read more from Business Council of Alabama President and CEO Katie Boyd Britt.

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