Robert Bentley impeachment hearings suspended for investigation by AG Luther Strange
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has suspended hearings into the Articles of Impeachment filed against Governor Robert Bentley because the attorney general’s office is conducting a related investigation. Andalusia-Republican state Rep. Mike Jones on Wednesday said the committee decided to put the proceedings on hold at the request of Attorney General Luther Strange. “As I said at the first meeting on the Articles of Impeachment, this committee would work cooperatively with other investigating agencies and today’s action testifies to that,” said Jones in a news release. “We are temporarily suspending activity at the attorney general’s request but we are not abdicating our responsibility. Everything the committee has done remains in effect.” In a letter to Jones on Thursday, Strange said it would be “prudent and beneficial” to delay the work of the committee. “I respectfully request that the Committee cease active interviews and investigation until I am able to report to you that the necessary related work of my office has been completed,” wrote Strange. Speaker of the House, Monrovia-Republican Mac McCutcheon says he supports the committee’s decision. “While I have complete confidence in the Judiciary Committee and its special counsel, I believe that moving forward with the impeachment hearings while there is an active criminal investigation would put a number of parties in a difficult position,” McCutcheon said in a news release. “I support pausing the committee investigation and allowing the criminal proceedings to run their course.” Bentley released his own statement in response to the letter from Strange and the decision to suspend the impeachment proceedings. “I respect the position of the Attorney General and the leadership of the House of Representatives. My focus will continue to be on doing the work of the people of Alabama,” said Bentley. The decision to suspend the proceedings comes just days before the committee was scheduled to set a date to take testimony and evidence. The House Judiciary Committee began Bentley’s impeachment hearings in June.
Donald Trump: ‘Here we go again’ with Hillary Clinton scandal cycle
Donald Trump warned on Thursday that a cloud of investigation would follow Hillary Clinton into the White House, evoking the bitter impeachment battle of the 1990s in a closing campaign argument meant to bring wayward Republicans home. Clinton and her allies, led by President Barack Obama, told voters to get serious about the dangers of Trump. As polls show Trump closing in on Clinton in key battleground states, her campaign is rushing to shore up support in some long-standing Democratic strongholds. That includes the campaign’s Michigan firewall, a remarkable situation for a candidate who looked to be cruising to an easy win just a week ago. Clinton’s shrinking lead has given Trump’s campaign a glimmer of hope, one he’s trying to broaden into breakthrough before time runs out. That means courting the moderate Republicans and independents who have been the holdouts of his campaign, voters turned off by his controversies but equally repelled by the possible return of the Clintons. Trump directed his message at those voters at a rally in Jacksonville, where he zeroed in on questions of Clinton’s trustworthiness and a new FBI review of an aide’s emails. “Here we go again with the Clintons — you remember the impeachment and the problems.” Trump said. “That’s not what we need in our country, folks. We need someone who is ready to go to work.” Obama and allies, meanwhile, are seeking to keep the spotlight on Trump, charging that his disparaging comments about women and minorities, and his temperament make him unfit for office. The stakes are higher than a typical election and Americans need to get serious about the choice, Obama told students at Florida International University in Miami. “This isn’t a joke. This isn’t ‘Survivor.’ This isn’t ‘The Bachelorette.’” Obama said. “This counts. Obama openly taunted the former reality-TV star, zig-zagging from mockery to dire warnings to boasting about his own record in office. And he repeatedly returned to his new campaign catchphrase capturing his disbelief in the unpredictable race to replace him. “C’mon, man,” he said, to cheers. The president’s mission in the final push before Tuesday is to fire up the Democratic base — and bait the Republican into veering off message. Democrats are counting on Trump not to have the discipline or the ground game to capitalize on a late surge. But the famously unconventional Trump has so far hewed closer to convention, running some upbeat ads, bringing out his wife for a rare campaign appearance and even talking publicly about trying not to get distracted. “We don’t want to blow it on Nov. 8,” Trump said Thursday at the rally in Jacksonville, his fourth in Florida in two days. Trump’s path to victory remains narrow. He must win Florida to win the White House, no easy feat. Still, his campaign has been buoyed by tightening polls there and in other key battlegrounds, as well as by signs that African-American turnout for Clinton may be lagging. Clinton’s weekend schedule underscored the Democrats’ fresh anxiety. She is due to campaign Friday in Detroit, where a large turnout of black voters has long been crucial to success, following up on a last-minute meeting by former President Bill Clinton with black ministers on Wednesday night. Clinton and Obama, along with their spouses, will campaign together for a final pre-election rally in Philadelphia next Monday evening. Trump has had far fewer allies carrying his message. But previously reluctant surrogates were out on the trail Thursday. Sen. Ted Cruz, his GOP primary foe, campaigned with vice presidential candidate Mike Pence outside Des Moines, Iowa. Still, Trump’s onetime bitter rival never mentioned the Republican nominee by name in a 14-minute speech, while lauding Pence and pushing for the re-election of Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley. Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, made her first appearance on the trail since the Republican convention in July. At a get-out-the-vote rally in the Philadelphia suburbs, the former model tried to counter the Clinton campaign’s pounding attacks on her husband as setting a poor example for children. She told the group that if she becomes first lady she will focus on combatting online bullying as part of her work. “Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers,” she said. Melania made no reference to her husband’s regular name-calling on social media. On Twitter, Donald Trump has called Clinton “crooked,” ”pathetic,” ”liar,” ”a fraud” and “very dumb.” He’s called Cruz a “true lowlife pol!” and a “complete and total liar.” Trump’s daughter Ivanka was campaigning in New Hampshire. Trump isn’t the first Republican to raise warnings of a new cycle of scandal and investigation. Republicans lawmakers have recently threatened to block Clinton’s Supreme Court nominees, investigate her endlessly or even impeach her over her use of private emails as secretary of state. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday hit back, saying any effort to impeach Clinton “would be a brazen attempt to nullify the vote of the American people” and would be a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said he was “really despaired” by the talk. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump tells backers to ‘watch the polls’ — but signups slow
Donald Trump regularly warns his crowds to closely watch polling places to prevent Democrats from stealing the election. But his campaign has failed to enlist many to serve as official poll watchers in major population centers, according to spot checks by The Associated Press. In some key regions, Democratic monitors will far outnumber Republicans on Election Day. The Trump team seeks volunteers on his website to “Help Me Stop Crooked Hillary From Rigging This Election.” But it’s unclear what the campaign does with its list — voters in Arizona and Virginia who signed up were never contacted. While specific rules vary from state to state, poll watchers generally are registered voters appointed by the campaigns to sit in polling places and observe. They can point out potential problems to election officials and, in some states, challenge whether a voter is actually eligible. But they cannot campaign for their candidates or confront voters themselves. In many of the largest cities in battleground states, Democratic poll watchers are set to substantially outnumber Republicans. Even in Philadelphia, a place Trump has singled out as being at high risk of vote fraud, there has been no surge in Trump poll watchers. The city had a total of 4,200 signups as of last week — only about 480 of them from the city’s 119,000 Republicans. “I’m handling everything, and I would say this is about average,” said Joseph DeFelice, the head of Philadelphia’s Republican Party. DeFelice said he is concerned about how Republicans are treated on Election Day in some overwhelmingly Democratic neighborhoods, but said he isn’t worried by the absence of more observers. When roughly 1,500 Republican poll watchers volunteered for the 2004 election, “that was way too many,” he said. “The Democrats will have three to four times the number of poll watchers that we do.” It’s not clear why there is a discrepancy between Trump’s rhetoric urging poll watchers and the lack of signups: whether it was a failure by the campaign to organize or if it was never truly a true campaign priority. The Trump campaign did not respond to requests by The Associated Press by phone and email to discuss the issue. In Pennsylvania and some other battleground states, poll watchers can still be registered. But in hotly contested Florida, it’s already too late: the registration period ended Oct. 25. In Miami-Dade County — containing 999 precincts and more than 10 percent of Florida’s voters — Trump’s campaign has registered only 150 poll watchers, compared to the Clinton campaign’s 903. The local Republican Party registered 88 more — but even including those, Democratic poll watchers in Miami-Dade will outnumber Republicans nearly four to one. In other counties, Trump’s poll watchers are more evenly matched or even outnumber Clinton’s. But after surveying election officials in Florida’s 10 most populous counties, the AP found that Clinton’s people far outnumber Trump’s. Local Republican committees helped narrow the gap but did not close it. Trends are difficult to interpret among Florida counties that provide historical data. In Duval County, which Mitt Romney carried with 51 percent, Romney’s 277 election observers in 2012 have shrunk to just 60 for Trump. In Orange County, which Obama won with 59 percent of the vote, 20 poll watchers registered for Mitt Romney in 2012 have exploded into 294 for Trump. Carolyn Bourland, a retired teacher in Orlando, said Trump’s campaign encouraged her to become seriously involved in an election for the first time of her life. “It’s like being an investigator. You have your eyes and ears,” she said. She said she was worried about genuine attempts to rig the election. “It’s shocking how much of this stuff is going on,” she said. But she said she was clear on the limitations of her role. “You’re not allowed to campaign for any candidate, and if you see something suspicious, you go to the person in charge,” she said. In some of Ohio’s biggest population centers, Republicans have preserved their options to send in election observers. In both Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, which Obama won with 69 percent and 60 percent, respectively, local Republican officials have submitted tentative paperwork to have a poll watcher in each of the counties’ roughly 825 precincts. But Franklin County GOP Central Committee Chairman Brad Sinnott said he expected few, if any, of those slots would be filled. “That would be pointless,” said Sinnott, who also sits on the Franklin County Board of Elections. Under Ohio’s bipartisan election administration system, Republicans and Democrats both share oversight of elections, rendering serious concern about improprieties moot, he said. At the Trump campaign’s request, Sinnott said the local party has reserved spots for observers. If people want to fill them, actual election workers will provide them with a chair, if available, and “normal human courtesy,” Sinnott said. But Sinnott doesn’t expect either Democrats or Republicans to turn out in force for election monitoring. They’ll have better things to do Nov. 8. “Our local parties will be trying to influence election behavior,” he said. “Not watching others vote.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Wikileaks reveals Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman inquired about Don Siegelman pardon
A new round of WikiLeaks documents released Tuesday reveal Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta reached out to White House officials advocating for the release of imprisoned former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on multiple occasions. The Democratic Governor of Alabama from 1999 until 2003, Siegelman was convicted by a federal jury for the bribery of federal funds in 2006 on allegations that he sold a seat on a hospital regulatory board to former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in exchange for $500,000 in donations to his unsuccessful 1999 campaign to get Alabama voters to approve a state lottery. He was also convicted of obstruction of justice. However, advocates for Siegelman believe he was part of a political hit-job concocted by the Bush White House and Karl Rove. According to the series of emails released last month, Podesta first heard about Siegelman in a July 2014 email from professor Robin Metz of Knox College, Podesta’s alma mater. “This whole affair, thanks to Rove and the Bush thugs, is an outrage, a travesty, and a dangerous miscarriage of justice,” Metz wrote. It’s unclear of whether or not Podesta took any action on behalf of Siegelman at the time, but a June 2015 message from Jack Knox, whom, according to the email, Podesta had met while running the promenade along the East River in New York City — prompted him to act. “It would be timely to issue a pardon before the accumulation of evidence of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct explodes under the Obama administration,” wrote Knox. “The grotesque railroading of a Progressive and good man who Rove could not legitimately defeat at the polls is clearly a scandalous black mark in the history of American justice. Better to rectify it before it’s too late.” Podesta then forwarded the email to White House Counsel under President Barack Obama, Neil Eggleston. “This is the random shit that happens to me running in NYC,”Podesta said in the correspondence. “You looking at the Siegelman case.” Then, in January 2016, Podesta received another email from Knox informing him the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from “America #1 political prisoner” Siegelman, making a presidential pardon his last hope to reduce his sentence. Podesta again forwarded the email along to Eggleston, writing, “Putting back on your screen.” Podesta efforts may have been in vain, as Siegelman, now 70, has yet to be pardoned. He has been serving his 6½ year sentence at a Louisiana prison camp since his conviction, and is scheduled to be released in August 2017.
WikiLeaks founder denies Russia behind Clinton campaign email hacking
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denied Thursday that the Russian government or any other “state parties” were his group’s source for more than 50,000 hacked emails from the files of Hillary Clinton‘s campaign chairman, John Podesta. In separate statements from WikiLeaks and in an interview with a television network supported by the Russian government, Assange dismissed warnings that Russia was the main actor behind cyberintrusions on Podesta and other politically connected individuals and organizations. The WikiLeaks founder offered no evidence to support his denials in the face of U.S. government statements that American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia was behind the hacking campaigns of Democratic entities in the U.S. Those breaches have raised alarms of potential intrusions on election day. WikiLeaks’ “sources for the Podesta emails currently being published are not state parties,” Assange said in a statement. He also told the RT network that warnings from Clinton and her campaign that Russia was behind the hacking of Podesta’s Gmail account were “false.” “Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 U.S. intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our publications,” Assange told the RT network, also known as Russia Today. “That’s false – we can say that the Russian government is not the source.” Russian officials have also denied any role. “Only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in October. Clapper did not specifically name Russian President Vladimir Putin or other Russian officials, but U.S. cybersecurity experts concluded that hacking groups affiliated with Russian government and military intelligence services had roles in the breach of the Democratic National Committee. WikiLeaks began releasing nearly 20,000 emails last July hacked from the DNC’s computer system. Some of the emails disparaged Clinton’s rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, eventually prompting the resignation of then-DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. U.S. officials and private computer crime specialists blamed that leak on Russian-linked hackers. Assange was granted asylum by Ecuador and lives in its embassy in London. He fled there in 2012 after Sweden pressed a warrant for his arrest on a sexual assault allegation. Media organizations have reported on each new daily WikiLeaks release of Podesta’s emails in recent weeks. Clinton campaign officials have declined to discuss the emails, questioning whether some of the material might be doctored. Thursday’s release of hacked Podesta emails include: In a March 2015 hacked email, Hillary Clinton told her top foreign policy adviser last year that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had created “an opening that should be exploited” after Netanyahu was forced to apologize for making remarks about Israeli Arabs that were condemned as racist. Clinton made the comment to adviser Jake Sullivan, who emailed a link to a New York Times story detailing the controversy in Israel over Netanyahu’s remarks and a fight between him and the Obama administration over remarks promising that no Palestinian state would ever be established on his watch. In a hacked email from September 2015, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told Podesta that Clinton would have to make herself more available to reporters if Vice President Joe Biden entered the presidential race. “But if Biden gets in – we are going to have to make time for her to do more press,” Palmieri wrote. “He will do a ton of it. It is free and he doesn’t have to travel anywhere to do. So I am thinking about a post-Biden press outreach plan, too.” In a hacked email chain from last February, Clinton’s campaign staff discussed whether to respond on the day the nation learned Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died. “I am having a hard time imagining what she would say,” Palmieri said. “In a day or two it could be appropriate to talk about SCOTUS stakes, but seems off for tonight.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama Capitol participates in “Greenlight A Vet,” lit green in support of veterans
In support of the 376,525+ veterans across the state, Gov. Robert Bentley on Wednesday announced the Alabama State Capitol will be illuminated in green in the weeks leading up to Veterans Day in conjunction with the “Greenlight A Vet” campaign. The campaign endeavors to establish visible national support for veterans by shining a green light outside a residence, business or other establishment, like the Alabama Capitol. “In Alabama we honor our veterans and the sacrifices they make to protect our freedom and the American way of life,” Bentley said in a news release. “We are lighting the Capitol green to support our veterans and to send a message that in Alabama we will do everything we can to take care of those who have served and their families.” According to the national organization, the campaign uses the color green as a symbol of hope, renewal and well-being and because the term “greenlight” is commonly used to activate forward movement in the field. The gesture of changing one light to green creates a beacon of support and appreciation, and a visible symbol of commitment to “greenlight” veterans forward as valued members of our communities. “As a veteran of the United States Air Force,” Bentley continued, “I understand that there is more to be done to support those who have served and will make every effort to continue to push for more programs and resources that will make their lives better.” 2016 marks the second year that Alabama has participated in the campaign. Alabama Department of Revenue Commissioner Julie Magee initiated the state’s participation in the “Greenlight A Vet” campaign in 2015 in tribute to her father. “My father served our nation in the Air Force for more than 20 years, including many tours in Korea and Vietnam, so observing Veteran’s Day is very meaningful to our family,” Magee said. “We know firsthand the personal sacrifices all veterans have made and wish to honor all of them with this small token of our appreciation. I hope when people see the green lights they will take a moment to thank all those who have served.” Green lights began illuminate the State Capitol as of Wednesday, November 2, 2016 and will continue through Sunday, November 13, at the conclusion of Veterans Day weekend. Veterans Day will be recognized nationwide on Friday, November 11.
Afghanistan: The war Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have ignored
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have said next to nothing about how they would handle the war in Afghanistan. That’s remarkable, given the enormous U.S. investment in blood and treasure over the past 15 years – including two American deaths on Thursday – the resilience of the Taliban insurgency and the risk of an Afghan government collapse that would risk empowering extremists and could force the next president’s hands. In addition to the two service members killed on Thursday, four others were wounded while assisting Afghan forces in the northern city of Kunduz. President Barack Obama escalated the war shortly after he took office, but he fell short of his goal of compelling a political settlement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. The next president will face a new set of tough choices on Afghanistan early in his or her term, including whether to increase or reduce U.S. troop levels and, more broadly, whether to continue what might be called Obama’s minimalist military strategy. The difficulty of these choices may explain, at least in part, why Trump and Clinton have been largely silent on Afghanistan. They ignore it while campaigning; it came up only in passing during the first Trump-Clinton debate and was not mentioned at all during second and third debates. OBAMA’S FAILED MISSION If Obama’s eight-year struggle is a guide, his successor will not have an easy time disentangling the U.S. military from Afghanistan. Nor is there an obvious way in which a bigger U.S. military role could end the war. Neither Trump nor Clinton has offered more than broad clues about their intentions toward Afghanistan. Trump has called for an end to U.S. “nation-building” efforts. Clinton has said she would “deal with” the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan and “stem the flow of jihadists” to and from Afghanistan. Neither of the candidates’ websites, which usually go into detail on policy matters, have a mention of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan or what to do about it. Shortly after entering the White House in 2009, Obama undertook a lengthy review of U.S. policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan with the eye toward fixing what he saw as U.S. failures there. He pushed U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan to 100,000, but the surge did not force the Taliban to the negotiating table. The war dragged on. Obama ended the U.S. combat role in December 2014 and said that by January 2017 the military would be reduced to only a “normal embassy presence.” But in October 2015 he put the skids on a full withdrawal, saying 5,500 troops would stay to support Afghan forces and to continue counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida. In July, with about 10,000 U.S. troops still there, he scrapped the 5,500 target. He pledged to keep 8,400 troops through the end of his term to continue training and advising Afghan forces and to maintain a counterterrorism mission. — AFGHANISTAN ‘AT RISK’ Washington has praised Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as a more effective U.S. partner than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai. But the political dimensions of Afghanistan’s problems are in some ways as worrisome as those on the military and security side. The so-called unity government set up in 2014 is led by Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who have been bickering since they took office. The rift has threatened to send the country further into chaos. Afghans are increasingly convinced the double-headed government cannot endure. National Intelligence Director James Clapper earlier this year told Congress that Afghanistan is “at serious risk of a political breakdown in 2016.” On the other hand, Afghan officials say the country’s progress since 2001 is often overlooked or underestimated. Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan ambassador to Washington, in September ticked off several examples: More women are serving in government positions than at any time in Afghan history, anti-corruption measures have produced a 22 percent increase in national revenue and more rural families have access to electricity. — NO END IN SIGHT One measure of the intractable nature of the war is the language American officials have used to describe it. As far back as February 2009 the top American commander in Afghanistan said the U.S. and its Afghan partners were “at best, stalemated” against the Taliban. Seven years later, in September 2016, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional committee the war was “roughly a stalemate.” Just a few days after Dunford’s comments, the current commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said the government and the Taliban had “reached some sort of equilibrium” on the battlefield. “This is a positive,” Nicholson said, in the sense that the government controls nearly 70 percent of the population. One might also say it’s a negative in the sense that nearly one-third of the population is NOT under government control, even after years of fighting a Taliban group that in December 2001 was seemingly defeated. There is no consensus view on how much longer the U.S. would need to keep troops there to help Afghan forces avoid defeat. The inattention to Afghanistan during the presidential campaign is seen by Stephen Walt, professor of international affairs at Harvard university, as symptomatic of Americans’ “war amnesia.” Writing for the Foreign Policy website, Walt called Afghanistan a conflict “we seem readier to forget than to end.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Clay Scofield: Amendment 2 fact vs fiction, check the records
Visiting Alabama’s State Parks and boating on Lake Guntersville were staples of my childhood. As I’ve travelled and experienced other public lands around the country, I’ve grown to appreciate these parks more and recognize the incredible gift from God our state parks are to us. This is why, for the last few years, I’ve been doing all I can to protect these amazing resources. The state parks belong to the citizens of Alabama, and I worked this year to write a constitutional amendment that would help ensure our parks are protected for future generations. I hope you’ll join me in supporting our parks and voting yes for Amendment 2 this Tuesday. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of misinformation spread about Amendment 2 recently. The primary goal of Amendment 2 is to ensure that park guest fees stay in the system to maintain our beautiful state parks. Amendment 2 also allows all parks the option to enter into concession agreements with businesses, which many of the parks already have the ability to do and will level the playing field by allowing that option to other parks. These private business partnerships benefit our park system. At no time does the park system lose ownership of a park or park facility if they enter into these “concessionaire” agreements. It simply gives them another option if they can’t afford to run a particular park or park facility rather than being forced to shut it down. If these private business agreements were not an option, Roland Cooper State Park would still be closed to the public today, the new ziplines at Guntersville would never have been built, the cable ski system at Oak Mountain would not be available to guests and plans for other exciting new attractions at our state parks would not be in the works. Keeping our parks open and providing new adventures so our parks system is continually meeting guest expectations is the reason it is important to vote yes on Amendment 2. Contrary to some of the information being shared around the state, Amendment 2 does not privatize the parks system and does not allow for corporations to develop on park lands. I can assure the people of Alabama, if Amendment 2 did privatize the parks or put the future of the parks system in jeopardy, I would be working to defeat it. The reason myself, our state parks staff, dozens of community leaders, conservation organizations and tourism bureaus from around the state are supporting Amendment 2 is because it protects our parks system and ensures the parks are sustainable for decades to come. The misinformation about Amendment 2 is being spread by individuals whose top priority is not supporting the parks or securing stable funding for the system. A quick Google search will bring up information that shows the real intentions and special interests behind these “park supporters” advocating against Amendment 2. They have ties to the competing developers on the Gulf Coast opposing the construction of a new Lodge & Conference Center at Gulf State park. Their motives are selfish and they’re not being honest with the people of Alabama. My record of supporting the parks is clear. I’ve been an advocate of the parks long before I entered public service and have continually stood up for the parks system in the last few years. When the parks funding was being transferred to the state General Fund year after year, I was educating lawmakers about how the parks funding operates and why transferring funds hurt the parks system. During this time where were these “park supporters?” I can assure you they were not in the state house trying to stop these funding transfers. Instead, some were actually filing lawsuits against the parks and projects that would benefit the entire system. When the parks funds were depleted and out of options for additional revenue, I joined my colleagues in sponsoring a bill to create a specialty boat tag that would bring an additional $3.5 million in revenue to the parks without raising any taxes. As this legislation was being passed these “park supporters,” the ones furiously working against Amendment 2, were again absent from the state house and were not in the communities advocating for these specialty tags or speaking with the public about a solution to the funding crisis. When the parks budget had reached a dire point and parks began closing facilities and entire parks, I was fighting for these parks and the citizens that love them. When five parks closed these “park supporters” were in court because their lawsuits against the parks were being dismissed by a judge. It’s our responsibility as voters to educate ourselves on the issues. It’s also our responsibility to research sources and understand the messenger(s) background. My background and relationship to the parks is transparent. I have three state parks in my district, I represent three counties that have part of a park within their boundaries. I have six state parks in my area that are on the line here. My interest in protecting the parks and seeing them thrive for generations is obvious from my record. I hope you will spend some time looking at the facts as it relates to Amendment 2. If you can’t take my word for it, please read the many letters of support, Facebook messages and take a look at the broad coalition who support our parks that are advocating for Amendment 2. I plead with you, if Amendment 2 does not pass I fear what the Alabama State Parks System’s future will hold based on the hard lessons we have learned from the last few years. The parks can not survive if their funding is not protected. These are not scare tactics. • • • Clay Scofield is a state senator from Guntersville, Alabama. He represents the 9th district. He represents Blount, DeKalb, Madison and Marshall counties.
Questions linger about Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia
The questions have been a recurring undercurrent throughout the presidential campaign: What is Donald Trump‘s relationship with Russia? Why does he keep praising its president, Vladimir Putin? Is Russia meddling in the U.S. election? And is the FBI investigating any of this? As the race enters its final stretch, a look at the situation: — TRUMP’S WORDS Trump has raised eyebrows for repeatedly praising Putin’s leadership and advocating a closer working relationship with Russia despite its record of human rights abuses and recent military incursions in Ukraine and Syria. “At least he’s a leader,” Trump told MSNBC of Putin last December, “unlike what we have in this country.” Trump often bemoans the state of U.S.-Russia relations and argues the U.S. would be better off if the two countries put aside their differences and worked together to take on Islamic State militants. That’s despite Russia’s backing of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom the U.S. opposes. “I don’t know Putin but wouldn’t it be nice if we could get along actually with the other country?” Trump asked Sunday at a rally. “They want to get ISIS. We want to get ISIS. We’d put everything together, we knock the hell out of ISIS.” In recent days Trump has also escalated his criticism of rival Hillary Clinton for being too tough on Putin. “She speaks very badly of Putin, and I don’t think that’s smart,” Trump recently said at a rally in Ohio. “How do you speak so badly of someone?” — WHAT’S THE RELATIONSHIP? Trump has been contradictory when describing his relationship with Putin. He told ABC in July that he had “no relationship with” with the Russian leader and had no recollection of ever meeting him. But several times in prior years, he’d stated the opposite. “I do have a relationship with him,” Trump said in one 2013 interview in Moscow. The ABC interview in which Trump said he’d “never met” Putin directly contradicted a 2015 interview Trump did with talk-radio host Michael Savage. Asked point-blank by Savage whether he’d ever met Putin, Trump responded: “Yes. One time, yes. Long time ago.” — TRUMP’S HIRES Throughout the campaign, Trump has repeatedly tapped top advisers with close ties to Russia. Among them: former campaign chair Paul Manafort. Trump brought on Manafort in March. Manafort, a longtime Republican operative who’d spent recent years advising a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party before its ouster over alleged corruption, and his deputy Rick Gates took over functional control of managing the Trump campaign in June. Given the Republican Party’s generally hawkish stance on Russia, Manafort’s past work repeatedly put him in the spotlight. In August, The New York Times reported that a hand-written ledger of cash payments made by Ukraine’s ousted government listed Manafort as being paid $12.7 million. Ukrainian prosecutors said the payments detailed in the ledger were an effort to obscure bribes. A few days later, The Associated Press reported that Manafort and Gates had orchestrated a secret Ukrainian lobbying campaign in Washington. Participants said the men had sought to obscure the true backer of the work – Ukraine’s pro-Russian ruling party – by routing lobbying funds through a nonprofit front group. Manafort and Gates denied having been involved in the lobbying. But emails obtained by the AP explicitly showed Gates giving orders to the lobbyists. Manafort departed the campaign the following day. — RUSSIAN HACKING Democratic Party officials learned in late April that their systems were attacked after discovering malicious software on their computers. A cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike Inc., found traces of at least two sophisticated hacking groups on the Democrats’ network – both with ties to the Russian government. Those hackers took at least one year’s worth of detailed chats, emails and research about Trump, according to a person knowledgeable of the breach who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. CrowdStrike said one of the hacking groups, dubbed Cozy Bear, had previously infiltrated unclassified networks at the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Another group detected, called Fancy Bear, had targeted private- and public-sector networks since the mid-2000s. In addition to the Democratic Party hack, other emails were made public in recent months that detailed tens of thousands of messages from Democratic operatives. Among those were emails of Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta, which contained thousands of messages to and from Clinton campaign insiders. Clinton’s campaign has said it was notified by the U.S. government that it was investigating Russia for the Podesta hack. The Podesta emails have been publicly released daily by WikiLeaks. They have provided a steady stream of questions about Clinton’s policy positions, personnel choices and ties with her husband’s charitable network. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Homeland Security Department have formally accused Russian state-sponsored hackers of the Democratic Party cyberattacks and accused them of trying to influence the presidential election. Trump, meanwhile, has said there’s no proof of Russian involvement in any of the hacking. He’s taken a blase attitude toward a foreign power’s attempts to influence the election, at one pointing calling on Russia to find emails Clinton had deleted. His campaign later said he was joking. — THE FBI’S REACTION As the election enters its final stretch, Democrats have been pressing for action. But the FBI’s actions are unclear. Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat, accused FBI Director James Comey of a double standard by publicly discussing the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s private email server without confirming whether it had opened a probe into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. The New York Times reported that the FBI this summer had looked into links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, but had so far found nothing conclusive or criminal. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the report. — WHAT HAS RUSSIA SAID? Russia, including Putin, has denied meddling in the U.S. election. The AP learned that Russia’s government did lodge an angry complaint in September with the United Nations over a top U.N. official’s
Linda B. Reynolds: Enrich the lives of your children, vote ‘yes’ on Amendment 2
Several people have written op-ed pieces on the upcoming Amendment 2, which will allow state parks to keep the money they generate. I want to emphasize the state parks as a great big outdoor classroom, teaching all subjects and providing a great time in the process. I spent almost 20 years as the naturalist at Lake Guntersville State Park and I visited schools in 10 counties. Also, those schoolchildren came to the park on field trips. I had pre-school, elementary, junior high, high school, and university students. Then there were the professors who were studying something unique like bats, salamanders, fish, etc. One professor even came from the University of Northern Ontario to study our various crabapple trees. Almost every time I went to a school, shortly after, a child would come to my park office and announce that they were camping (for the first time). Then they would say, “You came to my school”. Lake Guntersville State Park is lucky to have old homesites clustered around a number of springs. It also has an old cemetery, so not only did we study the plants and animals, we studied history. We studied English language from the poetry on the tombstones and art history from the symbols on those grave markers. The numerous baby graves led to discussions about how important it is to be vaccinated. We used the golf course sometimes at night when planetarium personnel would do astronomy events. We went on night hikes to listen to owls and see glowworms. One time, I had just read that city children sometimes have trouble walking in the woods. A few weeks later, I had an inner-city Girl Scout troop for a hike. A few yards down the trail, they began to fall down. Then I told them what I had read and we all got the giggles. After a few mishaps, all was fine and we had a great time. I am a firm believer in exposing children to the natural world and there is no better way than taking them to a state park. At Lake Guntersville State Park, I gave kids opportunities to help our program. We did not do the Junior Ranger thing. We had Associate Naturalists. They donated exhibits to the Nature Center display, they helped care for the orphaned animals that I always seemed to acquire — especially the opossums. They helped clean the aquarium, bathed the Box turtles and chauffeured me in the golf cart when I needed to monitor the bluebird boxes. They helped with the trail work and learned something in the process. We had college students from all over the U.S. who served as interns. Now they are teachers, National Park workers, or serve in some other outdoor professions. I never tired of seeing the expression on a child’s face: a 4-year-old with a butterfly, or a child of any age when they saw their first bald eagle. Several parks have naturalists on duty, and if they don’t, they can probably round up a volunteer to guide a class of children. And, parents, hiking with your children is a fun and exciting thing to do. And it’s CHEAP! Today’s children are tomorrow’s park users and we all need to nurture their interest in what is outside. Every state park has something unique: waterfalls, CCC structures, caves, lakes, beaches — something wondrous. So come on folks, mark that ballot for Amendment 2. ••• Linda B. Reynolds, is a retired park naturalist for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Daniel Sutter: The most significant presidential election
Every presidential election appears like the most important ever, but history provides some perspective. The election of 1800, in which Thomas Jefferson defeated incumbent John Adams to become our third president, offers a case in point. Jefferson later called this the “revolution of 1800,” rivaling the American Revolution in significance. Adams and Jefferson contested the 1796 presidential election to succeed George Washington. Conflict between Adams’ Federalists and Jefferson’s Republicans escalated during the term, highlighted by an undeclared naval war with France. Perhaps even more ominous were the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts lengthened the residency required to become a naturalized citizen (immigrants tended to support the Republicans), allowed the president to imprison or deport aliens or citizens of a foreign nation during war, and allowed prosecution of newspaper editors for criticizing the government. The Acts seriously threatened the Constitution’s principles of freedom and limited government. Political turmoil brought the nation to the verge of civil war. Some Federalists wanted to raise a provisional army to suppress Republicans in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Just years after the founding, America’s experiment with freedom was coming apart. States selected the delegates to the Electoral College in 1800, and the Republicans had influence in many state governments. States selected electors at different times through the year, and the Electoral College was tied 65-65 when the last state, South Carolina, chose electors for Jefferson. President Jefferson extended an olive branch to the Federalists and the Alien and Sedition Acts were repealed. The Election of 1800 transferred power from one party to another for the first time, a historic achievement. Elections have ensured a peaceful, albeit often contentious, process for transferring power. Previously, monarchs and emperors held power, and a change in leadership required a civil war. How do elections bring peace to politics? Alternatively, why doesn’t civil war break out after every election? Because losing candidates do not try to occupy office via force; in other words, they “accept” the results. So why do losing candidates accept the results? Two factors are relevant. First, regular elections offer the opportunity to contest for office again relatively soon. A loss is not forever, and losers can win office in the future if they do not resort to violence now. Limiting the powers of government also fosters peace. We can tolerate the “wrong” people in power when government wields less power over our lives. If government can take away your property or jail you, you could lose everything before the next election. The First Amendment’s separation of church and state illustrates the value of limiting government. America’s founders separated church and state not because they thought religion unimportant, but because of its importance. People will fight and die to worship as they choose, and sadly, many wars have been fought over religion. The losing side is less likely to “accept” an election outcome if the government can ban their church. Elections must be held regularly to ensure they work. Political scientists talk about the institutionalization of democracy in a nation, which refers to people adjusting to the election outcome. The Obamas, for instance, will vacate the White House in January. When the idea of forcibly staying in office after losing an election seems crazy, elections are institutionalized. Elections both transfer power peacefully and limit the potential for extreme action by officeholders, since such action will result in defeat in the next election. The democratic peace is indispensable for prosperity. As economist Ludwig von Mises observed, “There can be no lasting economic improvement if the peaceful course of affairs is continually interrupted by internal struggles.” Modern life would be impossible without secure supplies of food, water, and electricity. Peace between nations allows international extension of commerce. We will soon elect a new president. The turmoil of the present often seems unprecedented. The election of 1800 demonstrated power could be transferred peacefully and that animosity can recede after an election. ••• Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.
Ashford councilman-elect arrested after scuffle with officer
A man scheduled to be sworn in next week as a city councilman in southeast Alabama was taken into custody after authorities say he became combative with an Ashford officer who was attempting to arrest him on outstanding warrants. The Dothan Eagle reports that 30-year-old John V. Whitehurst was booked Wednesday afternoon following a scuffle with Ashford Assistant Police Chief Clint Williams. Ashford Mayor Jonathan Grecu says Williams was trying to arrest Whitehurst at City Hall for a 2009 charge of issuing worthless checks as well as for a charge that he did not appear in court to answer to a 2009 citation for driving while his license was revoked. Grecu says Whitehurst fought with Williams, who had to call for backup. It’s unclear whether Whitehurst has an attorney. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
