Alabama tourism honored for civil rights promotion
Alabama’s state tourism agency is being honored for its work promoting civil rights travel in 14 U.S. states. The office was presented with an award recognizing its marketing campaign for the U.S. Civil Rights Trail during an industry trade show in London on Tuesday. The trail promotes museums, churches and other African American landmarks across the South. Promotional materials include video interviews with civil rights participants from the 1960s and photos of landmarks. Alabama oversaw the project in partnership with the Atlanta-based TravelSouth USA and the National Park Service. The trail includes sites from Kansas to Delaware, including all of the Deep South. The state won an award for best regional destination. A news release says other finalists included areas in Spain, India, the Canary Islands and the Netherlands. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump nominates Judge Andrew Brasher to 11th Circuit Appeals Court
President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated U.S. District Judge Andrew Brasher of Alabama to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The nomination comes just six months after Brasher was seated on the federal bench in Alabama. The White House announced the nomination in a news release. Senators in May voted 52-47 to confirm Brasher as a federal district judge. Brasher was Alabama’s solicitor general’s office in the Alabama attorney general’s office before joining the bench. The position put him in charge of appellate cases and other notable litigation, including defending Alabama’s legislative redistricting plan and an attempt to require abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. Some of that work was cited by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and other groups earlier this year in opposing his nomination as a district judge. Brasher is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk to Judge Bill Pryor of the 11th U.S. Circuit. Pryor is a former Alabama attorney general. “Judge Brasher distinguished himself as a legal scholar during his lengthy tenure as solicitor general of the State of Alabama, arguing and winning cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and the Alabama Supreme Court,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Jeff Sessions to announce Alabama Senate bid
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce that he is entering the race for his old U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, two Republicans with direct knowledge of his plans said Wednesday. Sessions, 72, will be making a return to the political stage a year after stepping down as President Donald Trump’s first attorney general when their relationship soured over his recusal from the Russia investigation. The two Republicans confirmed to The Associated Press that Sessions is expected to announce his candidacy Thursday. They were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. They said Sessions has not spoken to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about it, nor has he informed Trump of his decision. The longtime senator’s candidacy upends the 2020 Republican primary, which has a crowded field competing to challenge Democratic Sen. Doug Jones for the once reliably red seat. Some GOP primary rivals wasted no time going on the offensive. Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville said Sessions has been “out of the swamp for less than two years, and now he’s itching to go back.” “He’s another career politician that the voters of Alabama will reject. As Attorney General, he failed the President at his point of greatest need,” Tuberville said in a statement. U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, the first Republican to announce a run for the Senate seat, played up his loyalty to Trump when asked about Sessions’ plans to enter the race. “Alabama deserves a Senator who will stand with the President and won’t run away and hide from the fight,” Byrne said in a Wednesday statement. Sessions was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s 2016 campaign, and the two supported similar policies on immigration and law enforcement. But Sessions’ recusal from the Russia inquiry prompted blistering public criticism from Trump, who eventually asked him to resign. Despite enduring repeated public mocking, Sessions has remained a Trump loyalist who continues to back the president’s policies. In a speech last month at a Republican Party fundraiser in Huntsville, Sessions reiterated his support for the president even as he joked about life after being “fired” from a job. Sessions praised Trump’s effort on trade, immigration and foreign policy. “That’s why I supported him and why I still do support him,” Sessions told the crowd of about 500. “He is relentlessly and actually honoring the promises he made to the American people.” Sessions, for years a popular figure among state Republicans, represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate from 1997 to 2017. He will enter the race as a presumed front-runner, but the effect of Trump’s online and verbal lashings has yet to be seen in Alabama, where the president remains popular. In June, Trump called his selection of Sessions as attorney general his “biggest mistake.” “I would say if I had one do-over, it would be, I would not have appointed Jeff Sessions to be attorney general,” Trump said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” One of the Republicans who spoke anonymously to the AP sees no indication that Trump has changed his feelings about Sessions and thinks he’ll eventually fall back because of the president’s attacks. But David Hughes, a political scientist at Auburn University at Montgomery, said there is no reason to think Sessions wouldn’t immediately be a front-runner. “He has a baked-in constituency. He has a huge donor network. … He’s got name recognition and the people of Alabama still largely like him,” Hughes said. In Alabama, midterm voters gave mixed assessments of their former senator. About as many said they had a favorable opinion of Sessions as unfavorable, 45 percent to 42 percent, according to AP VoteCast, a midterm survey of more than 750 voters in Alabama. Democratic voters were overwhelming negative, with 75 percent saying they view Sessions unfavorably. Even among Republican voters, about a quarter said they had a negative impressions; about two-thirds rated Sessions favorably. The Republican primary also includes Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill; former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who lost to Jones in a special election two years ago; state Rep. Arnold Mooney; and businessman Stanley Adair. By Brian Slodsko and Kim Chandler. Chandler reported from Montgomery, Ala. Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Washington. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Rauf Bolden: Should Orange Beach ban open & concealed carry at all city facilities
Shootings happen every day in America. I argue for a common-sense approach at municipal facilities, respecting our After-School Programs like Camp Sunshine and Expect Excellence. Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland are still fresh in our minds, banning open and concealed carry at city facilities makes sense, lowering the level of fear for adults and children inside. The Second Amendment gives American citizens the right to bear arms. “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,” according to a report on The Cornell Law School web site. I agree with the Second Amendment, but I must ask in today’s world is a lone shooter a “well-regulated Militia”? Of course, he or she is not, especially in government buildings. “Generally, federal law prohibits a person from knowingly possessing or attempting to possess a firearm in a federal facility,” according to a report on Gifford’s Law Center web site. Several years ago, a man committed suicide outside of Community Development. He ended his life with a pistol in the front seat of his car, parked in the first space next to the front door. Could he have come into the office and opened fire on the city employees who refused his permit? Yes, he could have. In response to this threat management authorized construction of a bullet-proof podium in the Council Chambers at City Hall, giving the elected officials a place to duck down in the event a shooter opens fire during a council meeting. Yet, the front-desk personnel at Community Development are still unprotected. Open carry has strong support in Orange Beach. “In my opinion Orange Beach should not ban concealed or open carry weapons in city buildings or facilities,” said Tim Blackwell, former Planning Commissioner and current resident of Orange Beach in an email. “I am a supporter of our 2nd amendment rights personally. I support the right to bear arms to protect my family and country,” said four-term Orange Beach Council Member Jeff Silvers in an email. The city has no appetite for physically protecting facilities with TSA style security, arguing it costs too much, presenting an aura of suspicion when constituents pay sewer bills or apply for a business license. This is understandable. An ordinance costs nothing, putting a sign at the entrance to each building, providing legal notice of the policy. It’s simple, leave your guns locked in the car. The consequences of not taking action can lead to public hysteria at events held on city property. On Saturday morning, September 7, 2019, people at a Farmers Market in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia feared for their lives as open-carry protesters (five men), brandishing fully-loaded assault rifles and pistols, walked through the market spreading fear by their presence, according to a report in Blue Virginia. Families ran not wanting to be the next headline on Fox News. To better prepare our community the Orange Beach Fire Department holds Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) classes, said Assistant Chief for Training Kevin Lanford in an email. An Ordinance banning firearms at city facilities is not without its obstacles. “The ‘Dillon Rule’ from 1868 prohibits local jurisdictions from adopting laws that are not specifically permitted in the state. This has prevented communities like Falls Church (Virginia) from preventing people from walking the streets or entering businesses with loaded guns,” according to a report in Blue Virginia. Open and concealed carry are not synonymous with municipal life in a vacation town espousing family values like Orange Beach. This city is branded on every street corner and brochure as family friendly, catering to tourists from around the world. Allowing citizens to carry open or concealed weapons into city facilities like the Event Center, the Art Center, or the Recreation Center is reckless. The city was able to ban short term rentals, citing Mayor Tony Kennon’s desire to know who his neighbors are. Perhaps banning open and concealed carry at city facilities is easy, pro-actively creating a: Guns-Free Zone, protecting the same neighbors from harm. Rauf Bolden is retired IT Director at the City of Orange Beach, presently pursuing his dream as a Web Technologies Consultant on the Beach Road. He can be reached by email: publisher@velvetillusion.com.
State Department worried about defending ambassador
The State Department’s third-ranking official is expected to tell House impeachment investigators Wednesday that political considerations were behind the agency’s refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. People familiar with the matter say the highest-ranking career diplomat in the foreign service, David Hale, plans to say that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior officials determined that defending Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch would hurt the effort to free up U.S. military assistance to Ukraine. Hale, who arrived Wednesday morning to testify behind closed doors, will also say that the State Department worried about the reaction from President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, also one of the strongest advocates for removing the ambassador. Meanwhile, State Department Counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, who was subpoenaed to appear before the impeachment panel, was on the plane with Pompeo, who departed early Wednesday morning for Germany. Two other witnesses who were scheduled for Wednesday — Russ Vought, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Rick Perry, the Energy secretary — are not expected to show up. Yovanovitch, who was removed from her posting in May, has already appeared before investigators in the impeachment inquiry into Trump. She detailed efforts by Giuliani and other Trump allies to push her out of Ukraine, testifying that a senior Ukrainian official told her that “I really needed to watch my back.” Hale is expected to shed more light on why the State Department did not step up to defend its top envoy in Kyiv. According to the people familiar with the matter, he will say he tried to distance himself and the department from the matter by removing himself from email chains about Yovanovitch. Hale, for example, never responded to an email sent by former top Pompeo adviser Michael McKinley urging Pompeo to speak out in defense of Yovanovitch after the White House released a partial transcript of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the officials said. One official said Hale had “tried to take himself out of the loop on Ukraine.” But another official said Hale would defend Pompeo’s actions as “politically smart” for the State Department and its employees in the long run. The people familiar with the matter were not authorized to discuss Hale’s appearance publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Hale, a fluent Arabic speaker who joined the foreign service in 1984, has served as ambassador to Lebanon, Pakistan and Jordan and in posts in Tunisia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. By Matthew Lee AP Diplomatic Writer. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Montgomery City Council backs off jail time for helping panhandlers
The city council in Montgomery, Alabama, has rejected a proposal to punish people who give cash to panhandlers with jail time. The Montgomery Advertiser reports their vote was unanimous after protesters packed a city council meeting Tuesday night. Many wore stickers declaring “poverty is not a crime.” One man held a sign saying “Jesus was a panhandler.” The amendment would’ve criminalized passing money or objects through car windows to someone on a public road. It was tacked onto an ordinance that requires panhandlers be jailed for at least two days. That ordinance still stands. It was unanimously passed in July but has yet to be enforced or signed by Mayor Todd Strange, who’s in the final days of his term. Mayor-elect Steven Reed takes over the office on Nov. 12. Information from: Montgomery Advertiser, http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
