Presented by AlabamaWorks!

 

1. ‘Sweet Grown Alabama’ now accepting applications.

• The state’s new agricultural branding program – “Sweet Grown Alabama” – is now accepting membership applications from growers.
• The new initiative is intended to enhance marketing opportunities for Alabama farmers and their products. Growers can apply to have their products carry the “Sweet Grown Alabama” logo and be placed in an online searchable database of state agricultural products.
• State Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate and fellow program board members Jimmy Parnell, president of the Alabama Farmers Federation and Alfa Insurance Companies; and Horace Horn, vice president of economic development for PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, travelled the state Monday to announce the new program opportunities.
• “Gaining members is the first step in a cycle to bring fresh, local, high-quality products to Alabama consumers,” Pate said. “We need farmers to brand their products so we can promote them to consumers.”
• Read more HERE.

 

2. Trump: GOP should ‘get tougher’ in impeachment fight.

• President Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans to “get tougher and fight” against the quickly moving House impeachment inquiry.
• The House GOP did just that Monday, moving a bid to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a leader of the impeachment inquiry.
• Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., sponsored the resolution, which criticizes the way Schiff is conducting the investigation. Biggs and other Republicans say Schiff misled voters when he “manufactured a false retelling” of a conversation between Trump and Zelenskiy at a committee hearing last month. Schiff has said his words were meant as a parody.
• “Chairman Schiff deliberately misled the American people during a high-profile hearing last month, and he has persistently used his perch on a vital committee to spread falsehoods about President Trump,” Biggs said.
• Democrats successfully blocked that motion in a 218-185 party line vote.
• Trump, meanwhile, said some GOP lawmakers “are great fighters. But they have to get tougher and fight because the Democrats are trying to hurt the Republican Party for the (2020) election.”
• Read more HERE.

 

 

 

 

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3. Just what they wanted: Dem primary becomes about Hillary.

• As they jockey to position themselves to become the party’s nominee, Democratic presidential contenders are having to deal with the inconvenient presence of the previous nominee.
• Hillary Clinton lately has played a more prominent public role than most former party nominees, putting some campaigns in an awkward spot.
• The latest dustup happened when Clinton suggested that Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is a Russian asset being groomed by Moscow to play spoiler in the 2020 election as a third party candidate.
• That prompted many of the candidates to defend their fellow candidate, while also paying appropriate homage to Clinton.
• Gabbard herself pounced on Clinton’s comments “the queen of warmongers … and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.”
• Yet, she’s also raising a lot of money for the Democratic National Committee as a fundraising headliner.
• So is Clinton’s reemergence a positive or negative for Democrats?
• Bill Barrow’s story from the campaign trail HERE.

 

4. Jessica Taylor on Fox & Friends: ‘join our conservative squad’

• After announcing her candidacy for Congress on Monday, Prattville businesswoman Jessica Taylor earned a prominent national television appearance Tuesday morning.
• Appearing on “Fox & Friends,” Taylor touted herself as a small town native who had grown up to become an attorney and run a successful business. She said represents a “new generation” ready to form a “conservative squad” to take on liberal Democrats led by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.
• Asked by host Brian Kilmeade if she was concerned about the “growing” influence of socialism within the Democratic Party, Taylor said “absolutely.”
• “We need somebody to convince my generation that more government is not the answer. More government is the problem.”
• See the full interview HERE.

 

5. News Briefs.

 

• BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Another search has failed to turn up signs of a 3-year-old Alabama girl who’s been missing more than a week.
• Media outlets report that volunteers joined police, rescue workers, firefighters and others on Sunday searching for Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney in an area east of Birmingham.
• But the search didn’t produce the results officials were hoping for, and authorities haven’t announced additional searches.
• McKinney has been missing since Oct. 12, when she disappeared from a public housing project in Birmingham where a birthday party was being held.
• Police arrested two potential persons of interest and are looking for at least one more, but they say they don’t know where the child might be.
• An amber alert issue for the girl has been extended to neighboring states.

• BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama city council has approved an ordinance prohibiting smoking in a 100-block zone around schools and health facilities.
• The Birmingham City Council unanimously approved the rule last week. It’ll go into effect on Dec. 1.
• The ordinance says the no-smoking zone will be called the “health district” and will cover the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Children’s Hospital and Veteran’s Administration Medical Center.
• The council banned smoking in most places in 2012 and gave violators a fine.
• Council President Valerie Abbott says she’s worried about enforcing the ordinance but Health Officer and CEO of the Jefferson County Department of Health Mark Wilson says a few “gentle reminders” will be enough.
• The ordinance doesn’t include vaping; Wilson says he hopes the council will amend the ordinance in the future.

• BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A University of Alabama student has pleaded not guilty to calling in a bomb threat to Louisiana State University’s stadium during a football game.
• The Advocate reports 19-year-old Connor Bruce Croll, of Crozet, Virginia, pleaded not guilty Monday. He was charged Friday with communicating false information, a felony with a max 20-year sentence.
• Booking records says Baton Rouge police received a call during the game between LSU and the University of Florida stating there was a bomb at Tiger Stadium.
• Records say the call was traced back to Croll and he was arrested by University of Alabama police.
• Police say Croll acknowledged making the threat in an attempt to interrupt the game because a friend was in danger of losing a “large bet.”
• Croll’s next court appearance is in January.

• ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) — Investigators are trying to determine what caused a small plane to crash in rural Alabama, killing the pilot.
• WBRC-TV reports the Calhoun County coroner’s office has identified the pilot as 70-year-old Harvell Jackson Walker, of Fayetteville, Georgia.
• Officials found the crashed plane and Walker’s body after two searches.
• County Sheriff Matthew Wade says his office received a call from an Air Force base in Florida on Sunday night, when their search and rescue team reported losing a plane on radar.
• Air Force coordinates and a family member who could track Walker’s phone pinpointed the area where officials found the crashed plane on private property.
• Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board looked through the wreckage Monday, trying to find a cause of the crash.

• DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A 20-year-old Alabama man accused of shooting a friend to death at a pool party last year has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
• The Dothan Eagle reports Fisher Corbin Shipes entered his plea Monday. A Houston County grand jury indicted him in September 2018 in the death of 19-year-old Christian Mullins.
• Dothan police have said they responded to a home in May 2018 and found Mullins suffering from a shotgun wound to his torso. A friend of Mullins first told police he was shot by an unknown assailant. But police said they discovered that story was false and later accused Shipes of firing at Mullins from across the room “while consuming an alcoholic beverage.”
• Dothan Police Investigator Curtis Stephens said Shipes believed the shotgun was unloaded.
• Sentencing is scheduled for January.

• MADISON, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say they are looking for a suspect following a shooting that left one person dead outside an Alabama grocery store.
• Police in the Huntsville suburb of Madison say a person found wounded at a Kroger store on Sunday afternoon died later at a hospital.
• Officials haven’t identified the victim, but Madison police Capt. John Stringer tells news outlets that investigators are looking for a male suspect.
• The store remained opened, and police say there isn’t any danger to the public.

 

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