Good morning!

Here’s your Daily News for Monday, September 7.

 

1. A moment of silence for COVID-19 victims today

• A moment of silence for the more than 12,000 Alabamians who have died as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is planned for noon today.
• The remembrance is organized by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama Hospital Association.
• Alabamians are encouraged to participate from wherever they are and remember not only those who have died, but also those who are currently suffering with COVID, the families of those affected and the health care workers caring for them, a press release from UAB said.
• To date, 12,416 Alabamians’ deaths have been attributed to the virus and there have been a total of 724,688 cases, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
• Sunday, there were 2,724 Alabamians in hospitals across the state with COVID-19, 54 of them children. Of the adult patients, 84% were unvaccinated.
• Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

 

2. Inside Alabama Politics

 

• ‘Getting close’ on a prison deal;
• How PACs are faring entering the cycle;
• Will James make a run for gov? Will Blanchard?
• More Pitts & Perkins drama;
• Counties ask for $10M reimbursement from state for county jail strains;
• Connie Rowe moving upstairs?
• Review: Dino’s or the Bar Formerly Known as Bud’s.

 

 

3. Congressional committee questions Alabama’s ‘slow’ distribution of rental assistance

• About $15.5 million in pandemic Emergency Rental Assistance has gotten to 2,308 Alabamians as of last week, according to the Alabama Housing Finance Authority, the entity charged with distributing up to $263 million in federal funding.
• At first glance, that seems like a slow distribution of federal funds meant to help people in crisis. That’s why a congressional committee sent a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey last week asking why the state hasn’t been quicker to disperse the funds.
• The reasons? Most applications for assistance have been withdrawn because applicants started but failed to complete the process. Many applications remain started but not completed, still more are in various stages of follow up or final review. In all, only 950 applications for rental assistance in Alabama have been denied.
• Read the full story from Caroline Beck and Mary Sell HERE.

 

4. Taliban stops planes of evacuees from leaving

• At least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days, officials said Sunday, with conflicting accounts emerging about why the flights weren’t able to take off as pressure ramps up on the United States to help those left behind to flee.
• An Afghan official at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that the would-be passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas, and thus were unable to leave the country. He said they had left the airport while the situation was sorted out.
• The top Republican on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, said that the group included Americans and they were sitting on the planes, but the Taliban were not letting them take off, effectively “holding them hostage.”
• The final days of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan were marked by a harrowing airlift at Kabul’s airport to evacuate tens of thousands of people — Americans and their allies — who feared what the future would hold, given the Taliban’s history of repression, particularly of women. When the last troops pulled out on Aug. 30, though, many were left behind.
• Read more HERE.
• Also read an inside account of the chain of decisions within the Biden administration that led to the calamitous execution of the withdrawal from the Wall Street Journal HERE.

 

5. Column: The miracle of America in the Afghanistan debacle

 

• Ever since the suicide bomb at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and 160 Afghans, tributes to those souls lost have poured in from Americans trying to reconcile the difficult news.
• Brandon Essig, a Birmingham lawyer and former Marine, offers a unique perspective for today’s Daily News.
• Here’s an excerpt:

• Read Brandon’s full piece HERE.

 

 

Headlines

INSIDE ALABAMA POLITICS – September 7, 2021

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Moment of silence today for COVID-19 victims

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Congressional committee questions Alabama’s ‘slow’ distribution of rental assistance

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Taliban stop planes of evacuees from leaving

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Column: The miracle of America in the Afghanistan debacle

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Amid virus surge, rising vaccination rates offer hope

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama to use $12 million in relief funds to recruit nurses

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Alabama reports almost 9,200 coronavirus cases in schools

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Biden tells storm-ravaged Louisiana: ‘I know you’re hurting’

 

ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Two anchors of COVID safety net ending, affecting millions

 

AL.COM – UAB nurses protest as COVID pandemic rages on: ‘We are extremely overwhelmed’

 

AL.COM – Several Alabama schools to take virtual days, require masks after Labor Day

 

AL.COM – Court rules Tuscaloosa special education teacher not liable in student sexual assault suit

 

AL.COM – Alabama freshwater mussel proposed for endangered species protection

 

AL.COM – Shortages of supplies and workers will delay Gulf rebuilding after Ida

 

AL.COM – Alabama moves almost all city elections to 2025: ‘Suffering from election fatigue’

 

Montgomery Advertiser – ‘Blessed to see this’: Louisiana couple survives COVID, loses new home to Hurricane Ida

 

Montgomery Advertiser – Pelham Fire Officials remember former Battalion Chief who died from COVID-19

 

Decatur Daily – Local jails seen as models for following procedures to keep COVID cases down

 

Decatur Daily – In the community: Friday night scenes

 

Decatur Daily – Mother pleads for public’s help after 4-year-old son fatally shot while visiting Chicago

 

Times Daily – Tennessee River Litter Tournament offers cash for cleaning up river

 

Times Daily – Artist Curtis Shannon presents “In a Landscape” at Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts

 

Times Daily – UNA honoring military, first responders, health care workers on 9/11

 

Anniston Star – Amazing grace extolled during Sacred Harp singing

 

Anniston Star – JSU to host communitywide 9/11 remembrance

 

Anniston Star – Jacksonville woman killed in Friday two-vehicle crash

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – Standoff at Tractor Supply Co. in Bessemer ends, man in custody

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – UAB nurses gather outside hospital, asking for better working conditions

 

WBRC Fox 6 Birmingham – How to manage COVID exposures at home

 

Tuscaloosa News – What population decline means for Alabama’s smallest counties

 

Tuscaloosa News – Alabama football fans: Here’s what’s new this season in Tuscaloosa

 

YellowHammer News – U.S. Rep. Palmer: ‘Disturbing’ Biden would call Afghanistan ‘an extraordinary success’ while flags flown at half staff

 

YellowHammer News – State Sen. Beasley on new prison deal: ‘I want Barbour County and Bullock County to be protected’

 

Gadsden Times – Rainbow City Council authorizes purchase of Lumley Road property

 

Gadsden Times – What population decline means for Alabama’s smallest counties

 

Gadsden Times – Two years later, no answers in the death of Johnny Lee Rhodes

 

Dothan Eagle – The Latest: Taliban disperse Kabul rally, arrest journalists

 

Dothan Eagle – Soldiers, planes fight intentional wildfires in Spain

 

Dothan Eagle – European Union to seek daily fines against Poland over justice system independence concerns

 

Opelika-Auburn News – European Union to seek daily fines against Poland over justice system independence concerns

 

Opelika-Auburn News – Hong Kong activists slam government for foreign agent label

 

Opelika-Auburn News – Merkel seeks to boost party before election, rebukes deputy

 

WSFA Montgomery – UAB nurses gather outside hospital, asking for better working conditions

 

WSFA Montgomery – Prattville car dealership doing well amid pandemic

 

WSFA Montgomery – Dannelly Field preparing for arrival of F-35 fighter jets in 2023

 

WAFF Huntsville – UAB nurses gather outside hospital, asking for better working conditions

 

WAFF Huntsville – Woman who helped create disturbing, viral video to be sentenced Tuesday

 

WAFF Huntsville – Albertville City Schools launch student advocacy program

 

WKRG Mobile – Blinken says US working with Taliban on flights

 

WKRG Mobile – Seoul: Taliban gov’t must respect basic rights

 

WKRG Mobile – Alabama to hold recognition ceremony for POW/MIA at state capitol

 

WTVY Dothan – Dothan Hospital COVID-19 update

 

WTVY Dothan – TROY to honor military, observe anniversary of terrorist attacks during Sept. 11 football game

 

WTVY Dothan – Fatal accident on Highway 90 in Jackson County

 

WASHINGTON POST – New Texas voting bill deepens growing disparities in how Americans can cast their ballots

 

WASHINGTON POST – Justice Department to protect women seeking an abortion in Texas

 

WASHINGTON POST – A website for ‘whistleblowers’ to expose Texas abortion providers was taken down — again

 

NEW YORK TIMES – Veterans Struggle With Issues That Are Often Invisible to Others

 

NEW YORK TIMES – The Masked Professor vs. the Unmasked Student

 

NEW YORK TIMES – Defying Threat of Violence, Women Join in Protest Against the Taliban

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Taliban Crack Down on Protest Led by Women in Kabul

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – Deals Spree Puts Banks on Track for Busiest Ever Year

 

WALL STREET JOURNAL – El Salvador Becomes First Country to Adopt Bitcoin as National Currency

 

 

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