Alabama Family Rights Association gives OK to split-custody bill
The Alabama Family Rights Association released a rundown Friday on a bill it is backing that would make split custody the starting point in child custody cases. SB 186, sponsored by Sen. Larry Stutts, would put mothers and fathers who split up on equal footing by making a 50/50 divide the starting point in child custody cases. The release notes the testimony from Julie A. Palmer, a former elected judge who despite signing up to testify as an opponent of the bill, ended up praising it for provisions that would create a presumption that both parents are fit to make parenting decisions, and the reordering of factors judges consider when assigning custody, among other things. AFRA also highlighted the testimony of 17-year-old Tamar Watts, who spoke from the heart about her experience with week-on-week-off custody with her parents. “I believe this schedule has given me an opportunity to have a healthy relationship with each parent that I would not have gotten seeing one parent only every other weekend,” she said. “While there is no easy way for a family to deal with divorce, SB 186 is the only way to handle it,” she continued. The future Auburn University student went on to say that the every-other-weekend model is outdated, citing that the current 20 percent minimum for parents sharing custody is “not enough time.” The testimony happened during a Wednesday meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee, though the committee did not vote on the bill during the meeting. AFRA said a vote is expected next week, possibly when the committee meets March 7.
Martha Roby: Renewed optimism after presidential address
This week millions of Americans tuned in to watch President Donald Trump address a joint session of Congress. It was a seminal moment for a new President and a new Congress, and one I think our country really needed. In this bitterly divided political environment, I believe Americans needed to see President Trump address Congress and understand that their government is working together. I also believe we needed to hear the president speak directly, without the filter of the news cycle, and lay out his plan for working with Congress to move the country ahead. Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. President Trump delivered what many are calling his best speech to date, offering a message of unity and confidence. A CNN/Opinion Research poll showed that nearly 70 percent of Americans who watched the speech came away more optimistic about the direction of our country. Of course, many will continue to disagree with our unified Republican government on conservative policy issues, but I think Americans of all political stripes could find at least some common ground with the President’s message, especially on economic growth and looking out for working class Americans. I was particularly encouraged by President Trump’s calls to properly fund our military, improve veterans’ health care, and secure our border. These are important issues in Alabama’s Second District, and I look forward to working with the Trump Administration and my colleagues in Congress to deliver results. On the military funding front, we are pressing forward right away. This week the House is set to consider the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill. This legislation contains $516.1 billion in base discretionary funding and $61.8 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations funding for the Global War on Terrorism. Our bill rejects the Obama Administration’s proposed troop level reductions and instead provides funding for an additional 1,000 active duty Army soldiers, 1,000 Army National Guard soldiers, 1,000 Army Reserve soldiers, and 1,000 active-duty Marines. The bill also fully funds a much-deserved 2.1 percent pay raise for military personnel. There are a number of specific bill features that are of note to Alabama and our significant military footprint. It contains $8.2 billion for the procurement of 74 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The Montgomery-based 187th Fighter Wing is on the short list for being assigned this next-generation fighter jet, and our Alabama congressional delegation is working together to make the case to the Air Force. The bill also contains a strong budget for Army Aviation, including $187 million for 28 Lakota helicopters, which are the primary aircraft used for training at the Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker. Funding our nation’s military is one of Congress’ most fundamental responsibilities. As a Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I take our responsibility to craft sound military spending plans very seriously. I am pleased the House is moving the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill this week, and I will keep you updated on our progress. You can keep up with developments in real time by following me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. ••• Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband Riley and their two children.
Ala. House passes bill allowing warrantless arrests at schools
Tuscaloosa-Republican state Rep. Bill Poole is hoping to make Alabama schools safer for teachers and students. In order to help achieve that goal, Poole introduced HB71 for the third year in a row, which would allow law enforcement officers to make warrantless arrests of individuals trespassing on school property. On Thursday, the Alabama House of Representatives showed their support of Poole’s bill by passing it 92-0, with 11 members absent. “This bill gives law enforcement officers another common sense and valuable tool they can use to secure school property and ensure the lives of students and teachers are protected,” Poole said when he first introduced the bill. Under current law, police officers may arrest individuals without a warrant under certain, specific conditions such as when a felony or public offense is being committed. HB71 adds when the officer has reasonable cause to believe that a person has committed a trespass on premises “of an educational institution” to the list of acceptable and allowable reasons for a warrantless arrest. The bill further defines an “educational institution” to include public or private four-year colleges and universities, graduate schools, professional schools, junior colleges, trade schools, elementary schools, and high school schools. Institutions that teach the blind, deaf and developmentally disabled are included as well. Poole’s legislation is now awaiting action in the state Senate committee.
Alabama theater refuses to show ‘Beauty and the Beast’ over gay character — ‘We need to take a stand’
Disney’s live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast will feature the company’s first ever openly gay character, and not everyone is excited by the prospect according to The Hollywood Reporter. After learning about the sexual orientation of LeFou, the sidekick to villain Gaston who is played by Josh Gad, the Henagar Drive-In Theatre in Henagar, Alabama, announced on Facebook it would not screen the film. “It is with great sorrow that I have to tell our customers that we will not be showing Beauty and the Beast at the Henagar Drive-In when it comes out,” the post reads. “When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand. We all make choices and I am making mine.” The business cited an announcement from film director Bill Condon which pointed to LeFou as Disney’s first homosexual character and also said there would be a “surprise for same-sex couples” at the end of the movie. “I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine. We are first and foremost Christians,” the business said. “We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches. We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language.” The theatre opened in 1999 and has consistently screened family-friendly movies at the venue. The current line-up at the theatre includes: The Eagle Huntress, rated G, and A Dog’s Purpose, rated PG. Beauty and the Beast is set to hit theaters March 17 and has been rated PG. In its review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter said of Gad’s character that “rabid red-state homophobes may be incandescent with fury to see how things end up for him in the finale.”
Alabama Supreme Court allows lawsuit against Austal to proceed
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday said employees of Austal shipyard in Mobile, Ala. may proceed with their lawsuit against their employer. Last month, Austal employees filed a lawsuit against their employer claiming the company intentionally endangered them by forcing them to use the cutting tool nicknamed the “widow maker” that managers knew to be dangerous. Austal responded by appealing to the state’s Supreme Court to stop the suit. The suit claims Austal “made the conscious and deliberate decision to intentionally injure its workmen” saying the company didn’t want to go to the trouble or expense of finding a safer tool. In their opinion, the justices said this was hard to believe, but that they could not rule out the possibility of it being true. “That allegation — that a company would deliberately injure multiple specific employees — is so shocking that it invites skepticism,” read the opinion.”Nevertheless, our standard of review does not permit this Court to consider the plausibility of the allegations… The plaintiffs are entitled to at least limited discovery on the issue whether their claims are subject to the exclusivity provision of the LHWCA. Thus, Austal has not shown a clear legal right to a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal.” At least 53 Austal workers have been injured by the “widow maker,” losing fingers and suffering deep gashes on their faces, necks and arms, according to injury logs dated between January 2011 – March 2015, which were obtained by The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Donald Trump to visit private school to promote school choice
President Donald Trump will be visiting a private, religious school in Florida on Friday, signaling that his education agenda will focus on school choice. The president will tour St. Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, where he is expected to drop in on classrooms, and meet with parents, teachers and administrators, the White House said. This will be Trump’s first visit to a school since becoming president and it gives a strong indication of where his priorities lie. Teachers unions were quick to criticize the plan, saying it shows Trump’s hostility toward public schools and his intention to turn education into a profit-making industry. During a speech to Congress this week, Trump called education “the civil rights issue of our time” and asked legislators to pass a bill that would fund school choice for disadvantaged youth, including minority children. He did not offer any details. Among his guests at the speech was Denisha Merriweather, who used Florida’s school voucher program to attend a private high school that she credits with turning her life around. Many of St. Andrew’s students attend the school using the same voucher program as Merriweather, said White House spokesman Ninio Fetalvo. Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who was traveling with the president, has a long history of promoting charter schools and vouchers. Teachers unions strongly opposed her nomination, fearing that she intends to defund public schools. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said earlier this week that education is “a top priority” for the president. “He has said many times before that education has the ability to level the playing field for the next generation,” Spicer said, adding that Trump “is determined to provide choice for every parent and opportunities for every child, regardless of their zip code.” St. Andrew Catholic School is a private institution that teaches 350 children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. The school defines its mission as “developing the students’ spirituality and creativity in order to be disciples of Christ in the 21st century.” A photo on the school’s website shows a smiling boy in school uniform holding a sign that reads “My goals: College. Heaven.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said that by visiting a private, Catholic school Trump was continuing his “ideological crusade” and advancing his plan of “criticizing, undermining and proposing the defunding of public schools and instead trumpeting private alternatives.” Weingarten said that in many cases voucher programs — publicly funded scholarships given to low-income families to help them cover private school tuition — have not improved children’s academic outcomes. She added that voucher programs are often not transparent in how they spend public dollars and in what the kids are taught. “To borrow a word from President Trump — it’s so ‘sad’ that the president and his secretary of education have demonstrated such an antipathy toward public schools,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Trump is in Florida to push choice and a backdoor voucher proposal as a way to turn education into a commodity.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
NAACP sounds alarm on ‘decline’ in civil rights commitment
The head of the NAACP says he met with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over concerns that recent policy changes “signal a threatening decline” in the Justice Department’s commitment to civil rights. The Friday meeting came after Sessions suggested the agency would pursue fewer federal investigations of troubled police departments. The Justice Department this week also abandoned an Obama-era challenge to a key aspect of Texas’ voter ID law that is among the toughest in the nation. NAACP President Cornell William Brooks says those changes are troubling. He says they “imply a disturbing departure” from the Justice Department’s enforcement of civil rights laws. Sessions said this week that too much federal scrutiny on police departments could cause officers to be less effective in crime-fighting. The Justice Department did not immediately comment on the meeting. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Uber announces support for ‘unified framework’ for Alabama ride-sharing
Uber announced Thursday it is supporting a bill moving through the Alabama Legislature that would create a statewide framework for ride-sharing. “Every day in Alabama, thousands of people depend on Uber for affordable transportation options and flexible work opportunities,” said Uber Alabama General Manager Luke Marklin. “With a statewide framework, even more Alabamians will benefit from a convenient ride at the tap of a button — and current riders and drivers will count on an even more reliable experience.” HB 283, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, would require ride-sharing company drivers to go through a thorough background check before they can start working and would legislate some consumer protection provisions, such as requiring estimated fares to be disclosed before a ride and requiring detailed receipts be sent electronically, two practices Uber already employs. The bill would also allow Alabama municipalities to opt out of having ride-sharing companies operate within their jurisdiction. “It’s time for Alabama to bring certainty to consumers with a statewide ride-sharing framework,” Faulkner said. “Access to new technologies and affordable rides should not be limited to those who live in the biggest cities, and this bill will give all of our residents the transportation options they deserve. The current patchwork of inconsistent regulations is unsustainable, which is why Alabama should not go another year without passing uniform ride-sharing laws.” The bill also has the support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, with the group’s Chief Government Affairs Officer J.T. Griffin telling Alabama Lawmakers in a letter that services such as Uber have “the ability to help provide new alternatives to take drunk drivers off the road and help protect our communities.” HB 283 was filed by the Jefferson County Republican Feb. 21 and has been referred to the House Committee on Commerce and Small Business.
Mischief in the U.S. Capitol as GOP rebels stir up trouble
The Capitol is suddenly awash with troublemakers and rebels — and that’s just the Republicans. Whatever GOP unity was produced by Donald Trump‘s victory in November has all but disappeared, and Republican leaders are confronting open rebellion in their ranks as they try to finalize health care legislation. Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress this week was well-received, but did little to repair divisions. In the Senate, a trio of conservatives that’s been a thorn in the side of leadership is back at it again. And in the House, recalcitrant conservatives are banding together and threatening to foil House Speaker Paul Ryan‘s plans for swift passage of the legislation to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s health law. “Currently there are not enough votes to pass it in the House,” Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, head of an influential group of conservatives, declared in an interview Friday. Meadows said leaders appeared to believe they could jam the bill through by twisting arms and getting Trump to make calls, but insisted such tactics wouldn’t work on him without substantial change to the bill. His opposition is such that his wife sent out an email urging opposition to the bill, as reported by Politico this week. “It will end up being Ryancare and the disaster will be wrapped around Republican’s necks,” Debbie Meadows wrote. Rep. Meadows said Friday that his wife sent the email to a small group of friends and relatives in an effort to support him. “She was trying to help her husband, she is distraught that this is a distraction and she probably is more distraught because she really respects and admires Paul Ryan,” Meadows said. Another GOP rebel, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said that at a presentation Thursday, leaders played clips of Trump’s joint session speech, with the goal of convincing lawmakers that they are aligned with the president on the pending bill. But Massie dismissed the effort as “very unconvincing.” The lawmakers are criticizing the developing legislation as “Obamacare lite.” They object in particular to a system of refundable tax credits that form the centerpiece of the legislation, and which they say would amount to a costly new entitlement. Instead they’re demanding a vote on a straightforward repeal-only bill. Ryan and other GOP leaders, who are aiming to pass the legislation through the House and Senate by early April, have tried to keep a game face despite the turmoil. “I am perfectly confident that when it’s all said and done, we’re going to unify, because we all, every Republican, ran on repealing and replacing, and we’re going to keep our promises,” Ryan told reporters Thursday. Maybe so, but first there will be some drama. And this week, there was plenty. After mostly lying low and playing nice for the last several months, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas are now uniting against the health legislation, and like their conservative counterparts in the House, they command the votes to frustrate leadership efforts if they don’t back down. On Thursday, Paul infuriated GOP leaders on both ends of the Capitol by marching over to the House with a crowd of reporters and his own copy machine to demand to see the draft health bill, and criticize leadership for keeping it under wraps. He held an impromptu press conference outside a ground-floor room in the Capitol he dubbed “the secret office for the secret bill,” which angry House leadership aides insisted was no such thing. The Kentucky senator’s chaotic gaggle was followed by a bizarre and apparently spontaneous scavenger hunt by House Democrats who made a futile search. Paul kept up his campaign over Twitter on Friday, posting a picture of himself pointing quizzically at a closed door with the message, “We are continuing our search for the Obamacare Lite bill! Do you know where the secret location might be? Has anyone seen the bill?” Paul’s stunt provoked thinly concealed irritation from GOP colleagues, including Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the health committee, of which Paul is a member. Alexander, a senior leadership ally, has been part of a group working on the replacement health care bill. “Well, Sen. Paul is a valuable member of the committee and I think I’ll give him a call and see if he’d like to have more information,” Alexander said. Many Republicans say it’s time, urgently, for the party to pull together and get behind a repeal-and-replace bill, after spending fully seven years promising exactly that to voters. “We do have some problems with two or three people on our side that make it so if this becomes a partisan vote we won’t have the votes,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, another senior lawmaker. “It’s a problem, it’s a big problem.” Democrats who lived through their own share of drama before finally passing the Affordable Care Act can only stand back and jeer. “Who would have thought, one month into the fight over the ACA, it’s the Republicans, not the Democrats, who are in disarray and pointing at one another like an Abbott and Costello show,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct state business
Vice President Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct public business as Indiana’s governor, according to public records obtained by the Indianapolis Star. The newspaper reported Thursday that emails provided through a public records request show that Pence communicated with advisers through his personal AOL account on homeland security matters and security at the governor’s residence during his four years as governor. The governor also faced email security issues. Pence’s AOL account was subjected to a phishing scheme last spring, before he was chosen by Donald Trump to join the GOP presidential ticket. Pence’s contacts were sent an email falsely claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money. The governor moved to a different AOL account with additional security measures, Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said, but has since stopped using the new personal account since he was sworn-in as vice president. Lotter said Pence “maintained a state email account and a personal email account” like previous governors in the state. At the end of his term Pence directed outside counsel to review all of his communications to ensure that state-related emails were transferred and properly archived by the state, the spokesman said. As Trump’s running mate, Pence frequently criticized rival Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email server as President Barack Obama‘s secretary of state, accusing her of purposely keeping her emails out of public reach and shielding her from scrutiny. Lotter said “the comparison is absurd” because Clinton had set up a private server in her home at the start of her tenure at the State Department and, unlike Clinton, Pence did not handle any classified material as Indiana’s governor. The newspaper reported that the office of Pence’s successor, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, released more than 30 pages from Pence’s AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of emails because they were considered confidential. Public officials are not barred from using personal email accounts under Indiana law, but the law is interpreted to mean that any official business conducted on private email must be retained to comply with public record laws. The state requires all records pertaining to state business to be retained and available for public information requests. Emails involving state email accounts are captured on the state’s servers, but any emails that Pence may have sent from his AOL account to another private account would need to be retained. At the end of his term, Pence hired the Indianapolis law firm of Barnes & Thornburg to conduct a review of all of his communications and that review is still ongoing, Lotter said. Any correspondence between Pence’s AOL account and any aides using a state email account would have been automatically archived, he said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
