Good morning! Here’s your Daily News for Wednesday, September 12.

1. Florence to be major event.

• A “perfect storm” like combination of factors is threatening to make Hurricane Florence a truly catastrophic event.
• It is expected to make landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina early Saturday morning with winds upwards of 140 mph. Rains will reach as far west as Alabama, but will really be a problem up the eastern seaboard.
• This is the closest storm to Katrina or Ivan we have seen. Maybe worse. In fact, the National Weather Service warning is eerily similar to the final Katrina warning:
• “This will likely be the storm of a lifetime for portions of the Carolina coast, and that’s saying a lot given the impacts we’ve seen from Hurricanes Diana, Hugo, Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, and Matthew. I can’t emphasize enough the potential for unbelievable damage from wind, storm surge, and inland flooding with this storm.”
• Read more HERE.

2. Maddox pitches lottery, Medicaid expansion to retirees.

• Democratic nominee for governor Walt Maddox pitched his ideas for a state lottery and Medicaid expansion to group of state retirees Tuesday.
• He also used the appearance to ratchet up his rhetoric in criticizing Gov. Kay Ivey.
• Maddox called it “senseless” that Alabama doesn’t have a lottery to fund education and other state services. He also called expanding Medicaid the “greatest economic development proposal” in state history.
• Of course, for either proposal, Maddox would need the support of the Alabama Legislature, which will likely continue to be dominated by Republicans. A lottery would also require a vote of the people.
• All that plus the latest back-and-forth between Maddox and Ivey in Kim Chandler’s full story HERE.

3. Two Trade Things.

• Don’t care about boring old trade? You should!
• Big things are happening regarding our two largest trading partners: China and Canada.

• After getting hustled out of an updated draft North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian negotiators have been trying to come to terms with the United States to get back in.
• Now those talks have reached the level that PM Justin Trudeau will get involved.
• That’s promising. We want a deal with Canada. And remember that would be good for agriculture and the automotive industry.

• The Chinese are upping the ante in our little trade war by signaling they will stop licensing some American companies to do business in China.
• But check out why. This passage from the AP report stands out: “China is running out of American imports for penalties in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes, which has prompted worries regulators might target operations of U.S. companies.”
• As they threaten these companies, the Chinese are also reportedly trying to get the companies to lobby the Trump Administration against more tariffs.
• I’m not saying we’re winning the trade war, but we ain’t exactly losing.

• Canada and China are connected in this way: making a deal with Canada and having a firm new NAFTA in place puts us in a stronger negotiating position with China.
• Former Deputy Trade Rep. Bob Hormats had this to say on Fox Business:
• “They’re linked. Clearly [Trump] is thinking about whether he wants to add another $200 billion to the list [of import tariffs]. He wants to decide whether to do that relatively soon. And if he decides, having Canada behind him makes it that much easier.”
• A lot is about to happen on this issue, and you can sound smart to all your friends by reading and watching these stories: CANADA HERE and CHINA HERE.

4. Skip Tucker finds the Goon.

• If it’s Wednesday, we’re reading Skip Tucker.
• You had to figure Skip might have an opinion on the whole Colin Kaepernik / Nike flap, right?
• He does. And pardon the cynicism amid Nike’s feel good campaign, but Skip sees it as little more than cold corporate marketing.
• “Listen. What Nike is doing is marketing, and they have wizards far smarter than all us suckers will ever be. So while my personal belief is that the corporate giant might have honesty in its marketing, it is marketing. If the ad campaign Research and Development didn’t par, not a single Colin commercial would’ve aired.”
• He also harkens way back to an old Popeye character called “The Goon of Goon Island.”
• Read Skip’s latest HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• In headlines that write themselves, Jimmy Buffett is getting ready to launch his own brand of medical marijuana.
• It’s called – no joke – Coral Reefer.
• “I have followed and studied with keen intensity the recent evolvement of the medical marijuana story,” Bubba said. I’ll bet he has.
• No word on whether you can get a combo package by being a resident at the planned Margaritaville retirement
• Read more HERE.

• This is concerning: Russia is holding its largest scale war games since the Soviet era.
• 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 vehicles, 1,000 aircraft and 80 ships are being put to use in the exercises.
• The timing coincides with North/South Korea talks, so some people think it’s a signal that Russia wants to be known as the dominant power in the region.
• Read more HERE.

• The UAB College of Nursing has opened up its new facility and it’s impressive.
• The $32 million campus building is state of the art and is designed to help the state meet the rising demand for nurses.
• Read more and see the photos HERE.

Headlines.

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