Beloved philanthropist Joann Bashinsky passes away
Alabama philanthropist Joann Bashinsky passed away Monday. The heiress to the Golden Flake fortune was 89 years old. Bashinsky, known to many as “Mama B”, was a beloved giver to the community, and even just recently established a new scholarship fund at Miles College. According to the Birmingham Times, the $168,000 scholarship will provide three four-year scholarships to students who don’t have the financial means to attend college. She’s also been a supporter of causes such as Big Oak Ranch. However, Mrs. Bashinsky has been in headlines recently for a legal battle against the Jefferson County probate system. The probate court took control of her assets and affairs after probate court judge Alan King decided she needed a court-appointed guardian for her estate. The Alabama Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Bashinsky, freeing her from the court-ordered contested conservatorship. Landon Ash, Bashinsky’s grandson released a statement about his grandmother’s passing. “It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my grandmother, Joann Bashinsky yesterday, January 3, 2021. She was best known as Mama B or Mrs. B, a nickname she was given as her legend grew for her generosity through her philanthropic work throughout the state of Alabama,” he stated. “My grandmother was a champion for those in need for decades and her passing will be felt by countless people whose lives were touched by her kindness and incredible compassion for humanity. Most of all, this loss will be felt by my family and me. Nonny was my champion as well, and I loved her dearly for the guidance and direction she gave me throughout my life. While Mrs. B was in excellent health, both physically and mentally, for someone 89 years old, she was brought to the hospital Saturday and passed away there yesterday from complications of a heart attack.” In regards to the recent court battle, Ash commented, “Mrs. B found herself under unfortunate circumstances as she spent the past 18 months battling a court-appointed guardianship that continued up until the moment of her passing. She said she was going to ‘fight them till the bitter end’ and that is exactly what she did. Her compassion for those who find themselves in similar circumstances will be felt long after her passing and her work as an advocate for them is far from over.” “Words can’t describe my sorrow for my grandmother’s passing, though I take comfort in knowing she was one of Alabama’s finest women to ever live and that she is now with the rest of her family in heaven, he concluded. “I feel blessed to have the solemn duty to carry on her legacy and continued service to others as she taught me to do so well.” Miles College President Bobbie Knight stated, “The Miles College community is deeply saddened and mourns the loss of Mrs. Joann Bashinsky. Mrs. Bashinsky and I grew close over the past few months after she established an endowed scholarship fund at Miles College. It was during this time I learned she believed that finances should not be a barrier to any student seeking higher education. Mrs. Bashinsky exemplified a passion for improving young people’s lives in our community, and her legacy will live here through the students she has touched.” The family asks that contributions be made out to Big Oak Ranch and Miles College in lieu of flowers.
Republicans condemn ‘scheme’ to undo election for Donald Trump
The unprecedented Republican effort to overturn the presidential election has been condemned by an outpouring of current and former GOP officials warning the effort to sow doubt in Joe Biden’s win and keep President Donald Trump in office is undermining Americans’ faith in democracy. Trump has enlisted support from a dozen Republican senators and up to 100 House Republicans to challenge the Electoral College vote when Congress convenes in a joint session to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 win. With Biden set to be inaugurated Jan. 20, Trump is intensifying efforts to prevent the traditional transfer of power, ripping the party apart. Despite Trump’s claims of voter fraud, state officials have insisted the elections ran smoothly and there was no evidence of fraud or other problems that would change the outcome. The states have certified their results as fair and valid. Of the more than 50 lawsuits the president and his allies have filed challenging election results, nearly all have been dismissed or dropped. He’s also lost twice at the U.S. Supreme Court. On a call disclosed Sunday, Trump can be heard pressuring Georgia officials to “find” him more votes. But some senior lawmakers, including prominent Republicans, are pushing back. “The 2020 election is over,” said a statement Sunday from a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney of Utah. The senators wrote that further attempts to cast doubt on the election are “contrary to the clearly expressed will of the American people and only serve to undermine Americans’ confidence in the already determined election results.” Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said, “The scheme by members of Congress to reject the certification of the presidential election makes a mockery of our system and who we are as Americans.” Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said in a statement that “Biden’s victory is entirely legitimate” and that efforts to sow doubt about the election “strike at the foundation of our republic.” Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking House Republican, warned in a memo to colleagues that objections to the Electoral College results “set an exceptionally dangerous precedent.” One of the more outspoken conservatives in Congress, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, said he will not oppose the counting of certified electoral votes on Jan. 6. “I’m grateful for what the president accomplished over the past four years, which is why I campaigned vigorously for his reelection. But objecting to certified electoral votes won’t give him a second term—it will only embolden those Democrats who want to erode further our system of constitutional government.” Cotton said he favors further investigation of any election problems, separate from the counting of the certified Electoral College results. Other prominent former officials also criticized the ongoing attack on election results. In a brief op-ed in The Washington Post, the 10 living former defense secretaries — half who served Republican presidents — said “the time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.” The unusual challenge to the presidential election, on a scale unseen since the aftermath of the Civil War, clouded the opening of the new Congress and is set to consume its first days. The House and Senate will meet Wednesday in a joint session to accept the Electoral College vote, a typically routine process that’s now expected to be a prolonged fight. Trump is refusing to concede, and pressure is mounting on Vice President Mike Pence to ensure victory while presiding in what is typically a ceremonial role over the congressional session. Trump is whipping up crowds for a rally in Washington. The president tweeted Sunday against the election tallies and Republicans not on his side. Biden’s transition spokesman, Mike Gwin, dismissed the senators’ effort as a “stunt” that won’t change the fact that Biden will be sworn in Jan. 20. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues that while there is “no doubt” of Biden’s victory, their job now “is to convince more of the American people to trust in our democratic system.” The effort in the Senate was being led by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Hawley defended his actions in a lengthy email to colleagues, explaining that his Missouri constituents have been “loud and clear” with their belief that Biden’s defeat of Trump was unfair. “It is my responsibility as a senator to raise their concerns,” Hawley wrote late Saturday. Hawley plans to object to the state tally from Pennsylvania. But that state’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, criticized the attack on Pennsylvania’s election system and said the results that named Biden the winner are valid. Cruz’s coalition of 11 Republican senators vows to reject the Electoral College tallies unless Congress launches a commission to immediately conduct an audit of the election results. They are zeroing in on the states where Trump has raised unfounded claims of voter fraud. Congress is unlikely to agree to their demand. The group, which presented no new evidence of election problems, includes Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Mike Braun of Indiana. New senators in the group are Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. The convening of the joint session to count the Electoral College votes has faced objections before. In 2017, several House Democrats challenged Trump’s win but Biden, who presided at the time as the vice president, swiftly dismissed them to assert Trump’s victory. Rarely have the protests approached this level of intensity. The moment is a defining one for the Republican Party in a post-Trump era. Both Hawley and Cruz are potential 2024 presidential contenders, cementing their alignment with Trump’s base of supporters. Others are trying to forge a different path for the GOP. Pence will be carefully watched as he presides over what is expected
Donald Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to ‘find’ him votes
President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation. The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.” Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.” Audio snippets of the conversation were first posted online by The Washington Post. The Associated Press obtained the full audio of Trump’s conversation with Georgia officials from a person on the call. The AP has a policy of not amplifying disinformation and unproven allegations. The AP will be posting the full audio as it annotates a transcript with fact check material. Trump’s renewed intervention and the persistent and unfounded claims of fraud come nearly two weeks before he leaves office and two days before twin runoff elections in Georgia that will determine political control of the U.S. Senate. The president used the hour-long conversation to tick through a list of claims about the election in Georgia, including that hundreds of thousands of ballots mysteriously appeared in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta. Officials have said there is no evidence of that happening. The Georgia officials on the call are heard repeatedly pushing back against the president’s assertions, telling him that he’s relying on debunked theories and, in one case, selectively edited video. At another point in the conversation, Trump appeared to threaten Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s legal counsel, by suggesting both could be criminally liable if they failed to find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County had been illegally destroyed. There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim. “That’s a criminal offense,” Trump says. “And you can’t let that happen.” Others on the call included Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and attorneys assisting Trump, including Washington lawyer Cleta Mitchell. Democrats and a few Republicans condemned Trump’s actions, while at least one Democrat urged a criminal investigation. Legal experts said Trump’s behavior raised questions about possible election law violations. Biden senior adviser Bob Bauer called the recording “irrefutable proof” of Trump pressuring and threatening an official in his own party to “rescind a state’s lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place.” “It captures the whole, disgraceful story about Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy,” Bauer said. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in that chamber, said Trump’s conduct “merits nothing less than a criminal investigation.” Trump confirmed in a tweet Sunday that he had spoken with Raffensperger. The White House referred questions to Trump’s reelection campaign, which did not respond Sunday to an emailed request for comment. Raffensperger’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Trump has repeatedly attacked how Raffensperger conducted Georgia’s elections, claiming without evidence that the state’s 16 electoral votes were wrongly given to Biden. “He has no clue!” Trump tweeted of Raffensperger, saying the state official “was unwilling, or unable” to answer questions. Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.” Various election officials across the country and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud in the election. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, have also vouched for the integrity of their state elections. Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies have been dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices. In Georgia, the ballots were counted three times, including a mandatory hand count and a Trump-requested recount. Still, Trump has publicly disparaged the election, worrying Republicans that may discourage GOP voters from participating in Tuesday’s runoffs pitting Sen. Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff. Rebecca Green, who helps direct the election law program at William and Mary Law School, said that while it is appropriate for a candidate to question the outcome of an election, the processes for doing so for the presidential election have run their course. States have certified their votes. Green said Trump had raised “lots of questions” about whether he violated any election laws. Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said Trump is guilty of “reprehensible and, possibly illegal, conduct.” Trump noted on the call that he intended to repeat his claims about fraud at a Monday night rally in Dalton, a heavily Republican area in north Georgia. “The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry,” he says on the recording. Biden is also due to campaign in Georgia on Monday, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris stumped in Garden City, Georgia, on Sunday, slamming Trump for the call. “It was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States,” she said. Loeffler and Perdue have largely backed Trump in his attempts to overturn election results. But on Sunday, Loeffler said she hadn’t decided whether to join Republican colleagues in challenging the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over Trump when Congress meets Wednesday to affirm Biden’s 306-232 vote win in the Electoral College. Perdue, who was quarantining after being exposed
Extraordinary warning to Donald Trump by 10 former Pentagon chiefs
In an extraordinary rebuke of President Donald Trump, all 10 living former secretaries of defense cautioned Sunday against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, arguing that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.” The 10 men, both Democrats and Republicans, signed on to an opinion article published in The Washington Post that implicitly questioned Trump’s willingness to follow his Constitutional duty to peacefully relinquish power on Jan. 20. Following the Nov. 3 election and subsequent recounts in some states, as well as unsuccessful court challenges, the outcome is clear, they wrote, while not specifying Trump in the article. “The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived,” they wrote. The former Pentagon chiefs warned against use of the military in any effort to change the outcome. “Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,” they wrote. “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.” A number of senior military officers, including Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have said publicly in recent weeks that the military has no role in determining the outcome of U.S. elections and that their loyalty is to the Constitution, not to an individual leader or a political party. The 10 former Pentagon leaders also warned in their Post article of the dangers of impeding a full and smooth transition at Defense Department prior to Inauguration Day as part of a transfer to power to President-elect Joe Biden. Biden has complained of efforts by Trump-appointed Pentagon officials to obstruct the transition. Without mentioning a specific example, the former defense secretaries wrote that transfers of power “often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture,” adding, “They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation.” Tensions with Iran represent just such a moment. Sunday marked one year since the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, the top Iranian general; Iran has vowed to avenge the killing, and U.S. officials said in recent days that they are on heightened alert for potential Iranian attack on U.S. forces or interests in the Middle East. In a further sign of U.S.-Iranian tension, the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, announced Sunday evening that he has changed his mind about sending the Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, home from the Middle East and instead will keep the vessel on duty. Just last week, Miller announced that he was sending the Nimitz home, a decision that had been opposed by senior military officers. In reversing himself, Miller cited “recent threats issued by Iranian leaders against President Trump and other U.S. government officials.” He did not elaborate, and the Pentagon did not respond to questions. The opinion article in the Post was signed by Dick Cheney, William Perry, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Robert Gates, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Ash Carter, James Mattis, and Mark Esper. Mattis was Trump’s first defense secretary; he resigned in 2018 and was succeeded by Esper, who was fired just days after the Nov. 3 election. The Post reported that the idea for writing the opinion piece began with a conversation between Cheney and Eric Edelman, a retired ambassador and former senior Pentagon official, about how Trump might seek to use the military in coming days. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
“Mask Up” video contest to show importance of wearing mask
State medical groups are sponsoring a video contest to explain why it’s important to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Alabama Department of Public Health, the Alabama Hospital Association and the Medical Association of the State of Alabama are sponsoring the “Mask Up Alabama” video contest. A Health Department news release says the contest is for Alabamians of all ages to share why they feel it is important to wear a mask. The videos should be 30-second or less and need to highlight basic information related to mask-wearing and COVID-19. The deadline for submissions is noon on Jan. 11. There is no fee to enter the contest and the full rules can be found on the Health Department website. A statewide panel of judges will pick the top 10 and then the five winners will be chosen through a public online voting process. The first-place winner will receive $600, and the second and third place winners will receive $400 and $200 respectively. Two other honorable mention videos will be posted online along with the winners’ videos for use by media outlets and on social media. The state of New York held a similar competition. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Veteran Alabama lawman dies after COVID-19 battle
A veteran Alabama lawman who led the state’s department of public safety and Birmingham Police Department has died from complications linked to COVID-19. Chief William Michael “Mike” Coppage had been fighting the coronavirus for several weeks before succumbing on Friday, AL.com reported. He was 71. Coppage formerly served as chief of the Birmingham Police Department, director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, director of Public Safety and Emergency Management at Samford University, and as an Irondale city councilman. “Mike was not just a great leader but was an amazing public servant. During my tenure as chief, he was extremely supportive and was quick to offer a word of encouragement,” said former Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper. “He understood the mantle of leadership and his legacy will live on throughout the metropolitan area.” Coppage spent most of his adult life in public service, beginning with a stint in the U.S. Army where he was a military police officer and criminal investigator from 1970 to 1974. Under Coppage’s leadership, Birmingham experienced double-digit reductions in the city’s overall crime during his first two years in office and five years of consecutive declines including a 15-year low in overall crime rates in 2001. In 2003, Coppage was named as the colonel of the Alabama Department of Public Safety. He resigned from his state post in 2006 and returned to Irondale. In 2007, he was appointed to the Irondale City Council to fill a vacancy but did not seek reelection for the seat. In 2009, Coppage was named director of Public Safety and Emergency Management at Samford University. He remained in that position until his retirement in February 2012. “He was a mentor and a great leader,’′ said Fultondale Police Chief D.P. Smith, who worked with Coppage for more than 20 years and shared a friendship beyond policing. “You could always go to him when you had problems. He had great direction and ideas on how to serve the public.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
