Paul DeMarco: U.S. Census results give a glimpse of changes coming to Alabama
This past week’s official release of the 2020 census data has folks talking about some of what was revealed. Most newsworthy is that Huntsville has overtaken Birmingham as the largest city in the state of Alabama. It was not only the growth of Huntsville that moved them up, but Birmingham continues to shrink in population. Actually, the city of Montgomery is close to also overtaking Birmingham as well. That was expected as the Huntsville community has grown tremendously over the past ten years. Of course, the population and GDP of the Birmingham-Hoover metro area are significantly larger than the Huntsville region. Yet, it is the residents in the rural areas that continue to shrink in the state that is really the headline. The census showed more decline of population outside of the larger cities in the state. Specifically, a majority of the counties in Alabama considered rural lost population.Farmland covers almost a third of the state and one out of almost five employees in the state work in the agriculture industry. Alabama has always been a state with agriculture as the backbone of its economy and culture. Thus, the question will be what effect will the flight from rural Alabama to the cities and suburbs have on the future of the state. For now, Agriculture is still vital to this state and that is good for Alabama. Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives
Katie Britt: Leaving people behind in afghanistan is un-american
The Biden Administration has created a hotbed of national security and humanitarian disasters. I’m sure, like me, you’ve seen the horrific photos, videos, and reports from Afghanistan. The helicopter on the roof of our retreating embassy. Those desperately seeking refuge clinging onto a plane for dear life… and then falling from the sky. These tragic images are a direct result of the Biden Administration’s lack of a plan and a president who has demonstrated weakness to our enemy, the Taliban. It’s a sad day for the country we know and love. I’m embarrassed. I’m angry. And I’m hurting thinking about America’s military families, like the ones I grew up with near Fort Rucker, who are now questioning whether their sacrifice was in vain. I cannot emphasize this enough: the sacrifice and service of our brave men and women in uniform mattered. It saved lives. It helped keep us safe and free. And we will never forget it. Today, my heart is with our Gold Star families and our service members who came back from Afghanistan wounded, whether visible or invisible. I think of the old saying, “Wars begin where they may, but they do not end as you please.” I pray that there is peace and healing brought to every single soul that left a piece of who they were in foreign lands, surrendering their youth for the greater good. The failure here is one of career politicians and bureaucrats, not of our incredible military. According to Obama’s own Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of seemingly every memorable foreign policy decision for the past half-century. And what we’re seeing now is no different. Why? Simply because he is a weak president, and we know strength deters war, and weakness invites it. We all wanted our servicemen and women to come home. But this was not the way to go about it. Make no mistake: the Biden Administration has created a hotbed of national security and humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. The American flag has been evacuated from Kabul, while the Taliban’s flag will fly high on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Our weapons, vehicles, and military technology have now fallen into the hands of our enemy. This was entirely avoidable and foreseeable. At the end of the day, Joe Biden’s feckless foreign policy has put the lives of Americans still trapped in Afghanistan at great risk and the safety and security of every American in danger in the place where the plot to kill thousands of Americans on 9/11 was hatched. The Trump administration had embarked on a strategic, conditions-based withdrawal and made clear to the Taliban that if they attacked, they would pay a heavy price. Biden’s precipitous exit is not what the previous administration had planned or set in motion. Now, the people of Afghanistan have gone from the hope of freedom back to the oppression of the Taliban in the blink of an eye. Before we ran them out of power last time, the Taliban routinely stoned and executed women in the streets. And for what? Because these women wanted freedom. The Taliban doesn’t allow women to get a meaningful education, work, drive, or vote. Likewise, thousands of Christians in Afghanistan are now faced with the very real possibility of death at the hands of the Taliban simply because of their faith. The Biden Administration has failed them, just as they’ve failed all of the civilians left behind in Afghanistan who aided our military in the country. From interpreters to vendors to missionaries spreading the gospel, there are thousands of our allies and their families abandoned on the battlefield right now. Leaving people behind is the most un-American thing we could do, and it’s a stain on everything we stand for as a nation. We must end Biden’s weakness before it causes great harm to many more Americans. Please join me in continuing to pray for the Americans remaining in Afghanistan; for the people of Afghanistan, especially those who aided our fight against terror; and for our incredible veterans and military families. God Bless them, and God Bless the United States of America. Veterans in crisis can call 1-800-273-TALK, (1-800-273-8255) press option #1, and be linked to the Veterans Crisis Line and a crisis intervention professional. Veterans can also send a text message to 838255 to receive confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from the Veterans Crisis Li Katie Britt is a Republican candidate to serve as the next U.S. Senator for Alabama. An Enterprise native, Katie resides in Montgomery with her husband, Wesley, and their two children, Bennett and Ridgeway.
Democrats unveil plan to update landmark voting law
House Democrats on Tuesday put forward a new proposal to update the landmark Voting Rights Act, seeking against long odds to revive the civil rights-era legislation that once served as a barrier against discriminatory voting laws. The bill, introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama, seeks to restore a key provision of the federal law that compelled states with a history of discrimination to undergo a federal review of changes to voting and elections. The Supreme Court set aside the formula that decided which jurisdictions were subject to the requirement in a 2013 decision and weakened the law further in a ruling this summer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pledged to move quickly and said Democrats plan to pass the bill when the House returns next week. “With the attack on the franchise escalating and states beginning the process of redistricting, we must act,” Pelosi said in a statement. The push comes at a time when a number of Republican-led states have passed laws tightening rules around voting, particularly mail ballots. Democrats have sounded the alarm about the new hurdles to voting, comparing the impact on minorities to the disenfranchisement of Jim Crow laws, but they have struggled to unite behind a strategy to overcome near-unanimous Republican opposition in the Senate. The new House bill, known as H.R. 4, is named after Georgia congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who died last year. Sewell announced the introduction of the bill in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where Lewis was beaten during a civil rights march in 1965. The Voting Rights Act was signed into law a few months later. “We’re not looking to punish or penalize anyone. This is about restoring equal access to the ballot box. It’s about ensuring that Americans know their vote counts and their vote will count at the ballot box,” Sewell said. The Lewis bill outlines a new, expanded formula that the Department of Justice can use to identify discriminatory voting patterns in states and local jurisdictions. Those entities would then need to get DOJ approval before making further changes to elections. The bill also includes a provision designed to counter the summer’s Supreme Court ruling that made it harder to challenge potentially discriminatory voting changes. A companion bill pushed by Democrats, known as the For the People Act, has stalled in the Senate amid Republican opposition and disagreement among Democrats about whether to change procedural rules in the evenly divided Senate to get it passed. Democrats have argued both bills are needed to safeguard access to the ballot. They emphasize that the update to the Voting Rights Act would not apply to many voting changes already made by the states. The For the People Act, on the other hand, would create minimum voting standards in the U.S., such as same-day and automatic voter registration, early voting, and no-excuse absentee voting. The bill would also change various campaign finance and ethics laws. Senate Democrats have pledged to take up that more expansive bill when they return next month as the first order of business, though it is unclear how they can maneuver around GOP opposition. Republicans signaled they’ll try to stop the John Lewis Act much as they have the For the People Act. “This bill is a federal power grab and a gift to partisan, frivolous litigators who will use it to manipulate state laws and throw all federal elections into chaos, further undermining voter confidence in fair and accurate elections,” said Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, a conservative advocacy group. Voting rights groups have been putting pressure on Democrats to eliminate or change the filibuster rules in the Senate, which requires 60 votes to proceed with most legislation, to get around the broad GOP opposition to the bills. That partisan opposition leaves Democrats well short of the needed support to advance them in the 50-50 Senate. At least two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have said they oppose eliminating the filibuster though discussions are ongoing about potential changes to the rules. Groups that back the voting measures are planning marches in several cities on Aug. 28 to call on the Senate to remove the filibuster rule. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, legislators react
Alabama legislators are reacting to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. After nearly two decades of presence in Afghanistan, the images of the withdrawal shocked the world. Although President Joe Biden isn’t the president that started this war, he announced in April that he would be the one to end it, deciding he would stick with the deal that former President Donald Trump had made in February 2020. It was Trump who negotiated the deal with the Taliban for U.S. troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021, saying at the time, “It’s time after all these years to bring our people back home.” Biden said he had to choose between sticking the previously negotiated agreement to withdraw U.S. troops or sending thousands more service members back into Afghanistan to fight a “third decade” of war. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden stated. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces.” Rep. Mike Rogers, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement. “It is gut-wrenching to watch what has happened in Afghanistan over the past few days. What we are witnessing today is a catastrophic and historic failure of leadership by the Biden-Harris administration. The administration has been warned for months what would happen but President Biden and Vice President Harris ignored experts and a plan was never crafted to avoid the very situation that is currently unfolding,” Rogers said. Ranking Member @RepMikeRogersAL: "The Biden-Harris administration needs to be held accountable for the utter failure that has unfolded in Afghanistan. Mr. President: Why wasn’t there a plan?"https://t.co/2EKfysy0jb pic.twitter.com/HDMHhXWOx1 — Armed Services GOP (@HASCRepublicans) August 15, 2021 Rep. Robert Aderholt commented on Twitter, “President Biden says the “buck stops with him” on the situation in Afghanistan, but in the same remarks blamed President Trump for what is happening. You’ve been the Commander in Chief since January 20th. No one is to blame for this colossal lack of planning other than you sir.” President Biden says the "buck stops with him" on the situation in Afghanistan, but in the same remarks blamed President Trump for what his happening. You've been the Commander in Chief since January 20th. No one is to blame for this colossal lack of planning other than you sir — Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) August 16, 2021 Rep Jerry Carl stated on Twitter, “President Biden’s speech on #Afghanistan was a horrible disappointment and demonstrates his inability to lead. The men and women who risked their lives serving our nation in Afghanistan deserve better than this.” President Biden’s speech on #Aghanistan was a horrible disappointment and demonstrates his inability to lead. The men and women who risked their lives serving our nation in Afghanistan deserve better than this. — Rep. Jerry Carl (@RepJerryCarl) August 16, 2021 In a press release, Rep. Barry Moore stated, “The Biden administration’s botched retreat that has triggered the shocking and total collapse of the Afghanistan government is a painful betrayal of our Afghan allies, an unforgivable insult to the thousands of Americans who spilled their blood on Afghan soil, and an inconceivable abandonment of the many Americans who at this moment await rescue from the escalating warzone. I join my fellow freshman Republican Congressmen in demanding President Biden provide a briefing to Congress on his plan to salvage the situation on the ground before our nation suffers even more irreversible damage to our global reputation among allies and foes alike.” The U.S. will continue to process visas for Afghans and their families who aided U.S. troops. Roughly 100 U.S. embassy staffers remain at the airport, reported CBS News.
UAB Health mandates shots as events canceled, masks ordered
A major state employer, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System, said Tuesday it would require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as communities large and small canceled events and more schools ordered face masks to confront the worsening surge of the coronavirus. UAB Health announced that both employees and others working in its hospitals and clinics must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 12. The requirement affects 16,000 employees and could help boost the state’s last-in-the-nation ranking for the shots. Employees of UAB Health are already required to be vaccinated against other health threats, including the flu, the system said, and COVID-19 is threatening its ability to provide care. “If more people don’t get vaccinated, and hospitalizations continue to increase, we will not be able to care for patients who need us; we’ve already decreased important services,” said Dr. Sarah Nafziger, vice president of clinical support services. Nearly 100 doctors, nurses, and other workers have contracted COVID-19 at UAB Hospital, a report showed. It wasn’t clear exactly how many people would have to be vaccinated. The city of Montgomery announced Monday that band shows and other events connected with back-to-back football games planned in the city next month between historically Black colleges were being called off because of the pandemic. The games themselves would be held between Alabama State University and Miles College on Sept. 4 and Tuskegee University and Fort Valley State on Sept. 5. The biggest annual event in the 4,500-person town of Winfield, Mule Day, also was called off for the second year straight because of rising cases of COVID-19 in northwest Alabama. The gathering wasn’t scheduled until Sept. 24, but health officials say the state’s health system could still be in crisis then. In Cullman, where the Rock the South country music festival held last week drew thousands, health officials were concerned about a rise in COVID-19 cases linked to the gathering. Judy Smith, area administrator of the state health department, said 41% of recent COVID-19 cases were in people between the ages of 21 and 49. “That’s probably the majority of what went to Rock the South,” she told the Decatur Daily. “Sadly enough, we’re pulling our teams together right now to do additional testing because we know it’s going to happen. It’s not going to be just Cullman County. Those folks, if they gave it to each other … took it back to their counties.” Other large events are pushing ahead. The National Shrimp Festival, which can attract as many as 250,000 people to Gulf Shores, remains scheduled for October, said city spokesperson Grant Brown. It will be held in Baldwin County, which is already among the worst in the state for new cases. With classes resuming across much of the state this month, Geneva County schools said more than 400 students already were at home as close contacts of someone with COVID-19, so all students, teachers, and staff were required to wear face masks for at least two weeks beginning Wednesday. Larger systems, including Birmingham and Opelika, already had ordered mask-wearing. With about 11,800 dead of COVID-19 in the state, Alabama has the 16th worse death rate in the nation, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by 1,176, a jump of about 48%. More than 2,720 people were hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, and critical care beds were all but full. The vast majority of the seriously ill haven’t been vaccinated, officials say. With less than 35% of its population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Alabama is last in the nation for inoculations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Steve Flowers: Summer political happenings
This long, hot, and wet summer is coming to a close, and Labor Day is on the horizon. Labor Day weekend will not only mark the beginning of college football season but also the traditional start of the 2022 political season. Most of the horses are in the chute for the May 24, 2022, primary election. So let the fun begin. Let me share some political happenings that transpired over the summer. Jim Ziegler, our colorful State Auditor, is edging closer to challenging Kay Ivey in the governor’s race. Ole Ziegler is an astute politician and campaigner, although not a very prolific fundraiser. He will be a viable candidate, but it is unlikely he can beat a healthy Kay Ivey. Tim James, who has run two worthy races for governor, may give it a third try. He, too, can make a good race but probably cannot beat Ivey. However, if both James and Ziegler get into the race, they could and probably would force Ivey into a runoff which would be very stressful for her. Both James and Ziegler are viable candidates, and it will make the race interesting – especially if Ziegler gets in. He is fun to watch. However, Kay Ivey is preparing for another term by securing a treasured asset in State Representative Bill Poole as her state finance director. She now has a dynamic duo by her side to rely and depend on with Poole as her Finance Director and Jo Bonner as her Chief of Staff. She also has a bevy of young lieutenants led by the wife and husband team of Liz and Bill Filmore. Bill Poole is considered the most popular and promising young politico on the Alabama political scene. He will be a tremendous asset for Governor Ivey as the manager of the state finances. Bill Poole was elected as a state representative from Tuscaloosa in 2010. In his 11 years in the House, he made a meteoric rise into the leadership within the state House of Representatives. In all my years watching the Alabama Legislature and Alabama politics, I have never seen anyone as universally respected and liked as Poole. He became Chairman of the Ways and Means Education Budget Committee in 2013 after only two years in the House. He has essentially written the State Education Budget for the last eight years. The Education Budget amounts to over three-fourths of all state dollars. He has become a guru and expert on the state’s revenues and budgeting. Kay Ivey could not have scripted anyone better than Poole to administer the state finances. In addition, his relationship with the legislature will expedite the passage of Ivey’s budget recommendations within the legislature. The race for the open Senate Seat of our Senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby has been percolating all summer, and it is beginning to look like it will be a two-person race between Congressman Mo Brooks and Business Council of Alabama Chairman Katie Britt. It will be a classic battle of the two wings of the Republican Party. Brooks represents the right-wing, reactionary, firebrand, bombastic, Trump wing of the party. In fact, former President Donald Trump has enthusiastically endorsed Brooks and will probably rousingly promote Brooks at a rally in Cullman County this Saturday. Katie Boyd Britt will carry the banner of the moderate, pro-business, conservative, yet more sophisticated wing of the party. She would be a senator for Alabama who would protect our immensely valuable military defense meccas in the state, like the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Maxwell-Gunter Air Base in Montgomery, and Ft. Rucker in her native Wiregrass. During the summer, Britt has raised a record-breaking amount of campaign money that will be essential as she and Brooks head towards a May 24, 2022, runoff duel. However, Britt also has been beating the bushes in rural Alabama. She has made almost every Farmer’s Federation County meeting in the state. You have to earn the Farmer’s Federation endorsement by the grassroots approach. The Alfa endorsement does not come from an ivory tower in Montgomery. Their endorsement is garnered by votes from each county federation. Therefore, you have to work for it and believe you me, that endorsement is important in a statewide Republican race in Alabama. The Farmer’s Federation will not endorse Mo Brooks. He is the only Republican Congressman from Alabama who has consistently voted against Alabama farmers. Look for Katie Britt to get the coveted Alfa endorsement. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
