Alabama Cannabis Industry Association announces formation of advisory board
On Thursday, the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association (ACIA) announced that it has formed an advisory board. Chey Garrigan is the founder and Chief Executive Director of the Alabama Cannabis Industry Association. Garrigan said in a statement that she is “thrilled to introduce” the Advisory Board, which is comprised of industry leaders committed to shaping the future of cannabis consumption and advocating for responsible use. “The Advisory Board brings together experts from various fields, including government affairs, scientific research, manufacturing, brands, and communications, forming a diverse and influential group that will effectively represent the interests of Alabama’s rapidly growing cannabis industry,” Garrigan stated. The inaugural board members include: Akele Parnell began his career as a business attorney focusing on healthcare matters, but his interest in the highly regulated cannabis industry led him to explore opportunities within the sector. Parnell has a master’s degree in public health and a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Antoine Mordican is a master engineer and hemp cultivation expert. Antoine has developed a signature method for growing premium cannabis using hydroponics. Mordican is the founder of Native Black Farm, a certified hemp-growing farm in Birmingham, Alabama. Mordican has a degree in engineering. Andrew Farrior is the Managing Partner at Digital Venture Partners (DVP). He brings over a decade of expertise in marketing, communications, and project management to the Advisory Board. DVP is one of the few minority-owned portfolio companies in the United States and is focused on bridging mainstream culture with the evolving cannabis industry. Through strategic collaborations with prominent brands and platforms, DVP develops exceptional cannabis content and branding to enhance cannabis awareness among diverse mainstream audiences. “We are honored to have such distinguished professionals on board,” said Garrigan. “Their expertise and commitment will be instrumental in driving positive change and shaping the future of the cannabis industry in Alabama. Together, we are dedicated to advocating for decriminalizing medical cannabis, promoting economic development, and ensuring equitable opportunities for all. The ACIA looks forward to working closely with its Advisory Board members to develop strategic initiatives that promote responsible cannabis consumption, elevate industry standards, and foster education and awareness.” The ACIA was created in 2020 to advocate for the Alabama hemp industry. The ACIA was instrumental in the passage of the bill to legalize medical cannabis in 2021. That bipartisan legislation created the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC), which is tasked with regulating and licensing medical cannabis within the state of Alabama. The awarding of medical cannabis licenses to a limited number of businesses is currently on hold through October, pending an independent review of the licensing after some scoring discrepancies were uncovered, The ACIA announced recently that their annual conference had been postponed to October due to the recent events with the licensing being delayed. Possession of marijuana plants or raw marijuana plant material remains illegal in Alabama and will remain so, with businesses licensed to grow and process medical marijuana. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Robert McCollum running for Probate Judge of Tallapoosa County
Businessman Robert McCollum on Monday announced his candidacy for Judge of Probate in Tallapoosa County. “I am Robert McCollum. I am formally announcing my candidacy for the Republican nomination for Probate Judge of Tallapoosa County,” McCollum said in a statement. “I was born and raised in Tallapoosa County.” “I have grown to love and care about my community,” McCollum said. “As your Probate Judge, I will strive to serve my fellow citizens as a fair and just judge in the cases of estate settlements, adoptions, guardianships, etc. I will represent my fellow citizens in a way that will make them proud.” McCollum promised, “As your probate judge, I will maintain election integrity by ensuring as well as providing proof of paper ballot and no machines are connected to the internet. I will also strive to protect the county from any cyber-attacks, and we will not even consider paying any ransom to those behind it.” McCollum expressed his concern that the people of Alabama and Tallapoosa County are too heavily taxed. “Lastly, I will work with the county commission to lower the tax on vehicles and put money back in the citizens of this county’s pocket to help them during times of rising cost of living,” McCollum said. “I will be a watchman against wasteful spending of your tax dollars in Tallapoosa County.” Robert McCollum was previously a candidate for Public Service Commission in 2022. He lost in the Republican primary runoff to popular incumbent Commissioner Chip Beeker. McCollum is a Horseshoe Bend High School graduate and a small business owner. “I was in everything from construction to truck rental and vending machines,” McCollum said. “I enjoyed every minute of it.” McCollum will be challenging incumbent Talmadge East in the Republican primary. East has served as a probate judge since 2018. He previously worked as the political director for Steve Marshall for Attorney General. He was a businessman and previously worked for the West Virginia Legislature. The Republican primary will be on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. The Alabama Republican Party says that the Executive Committee has not yet voted on when candidate qualifying with the party will formally begin. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Sen. Katie Britt and colleagues urge CMS to adjust proposed payment update in final rule
U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) recently joined a bipartisan coalition of 33 Senators in a letter led by Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) and Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) requesting that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, use the agency’s special exceptions and adjustments authority to update the proposed payment update in the final inpatient prospective payment system rule. “I’m glad to join this bipartisan letter urging CMS to adjust its Medicare fee-for-service payment rate to more accurately reflect costs incurred by hospitals in our current inflationary economy,” said Sen. Britt. “It is vital to our hospitals and healthcare system that the most up-to-date information is used to support the important care they provide to Medicare patients. I’ll continue to fight to ensure that every American and Alabamian has the opportunity to receive quality health care, regardless of their zip code.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville also joined the letter. “We write today to express our concern regarding the proposed payment updates included in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule for fiscal year (FY) 2024,” wrote the senators to Administrator Brooks-LaSure. “We are concerned that the proposed payment updates do not fully account for the current cost of care and will result in an overall payment reduction for hospitals in FY2024.” The senators highlighted their view that during the FY2024 proposed rule, CMS relies on historical data that does not predict the impact of the current elevated cost of providing care and the increased growth in expenses due to labor and supply chain costs. They also pointed out that the productivity update included in the proposed rule assumes hospitals can replicate the general economy’s productivity gains when in fact, hospitals and health systems continue to face productivity declines. “Conditions like the ones currently facing hospitals require a heightened review of payment policy. We respectfully request that CMS consider using its special exceptions and adjustments authority to make a retrospective adjustment to account for the difference between the market basket update that was implemented for FY 2022 and what the market basket actually is for FY 2022,” added the senators. “These important changes will ensure Medicare payments for acute care services more accurately reflect the cost of providing hospital care today and for the coming year. On behalf of our hospitals and health systems nationwide, we appreciate your attention to these concerns.” This effort is supported by the American Hospital Association and the Alabama Hospital Association. “The American Hospital Association (AHA) thanks Senators Menendez and Cramer for leading this important bipartisan effort urging CMS to ensure hospitals and health systems have the resources they need to continue delivering high-quality care to their patients and communities,” said Lisa Kidder Hrobsky, AHA Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Political Affairs. “This support is more needed than ever as the hospital field continues to confront rising inflation, workforce shortages, and surging costs for supplies and drugs.” Katie Britt was elected to her first term in the Senate in 2022. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Tommy Tuberville amendment would require that the CDC Director be confirmed by the Senate
During a U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) meeting, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) offered an amendment to the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Act (PAHPARA) that would make the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) subject to Senate confirmation immediately. Tuberville and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have already successfully passed legislation that would require future CDC Directors to be confirmed by the Senate, but that legislation was altered in the final version of the package so that it does not go into effect until 2025. Tuberville’s amendment continues his broader efforts to hold the CDC accountable to the American people by making the CDC Director subject to Senate confirmation. “Last year, this Committee considered the PREVENT Pandemics legislation,” Tuberville said. “As part of that legislation, I worked with Committee leadership to ensure a specific provision was included. That provision would make the CDC Director a Senate-confirmed position.” “My amendment today would be in keeping with the intent of what this Committee voted to pass last year and make the CDC Director subject to Senate confirmation now. We deemed this decision important enough to pass it out of this Committee on a widely bipartisan basis back then, and I believe we should do the same today.” Sen. Tuberville has been critical of the CDC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Americans have truly lost so much faith in the CDC as an institution, and one of the best things we can do to set us up to defeat a future pandemic is to give Americans a voice when it comes to leadership at such an important agency.” Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo has been one of the most outspoken critics of the CDC’s covid response. “In Florida, we saw a 400% increase in the number of vaccines administered during the pandemic, but a 1700% increase in the number of adverse events reported and over a 4000% increase in the number of serious adverse events,” Dr. Ladapo said. “Is it possible that the increase in reporting is totally due to just people being more aware? I mean, it’s possible. Does it make any sense in the world to put every egg in that basket? Of course, it doesn’t make any sense in the world, particularly when there’s a plethora of different types of adverse events that have been reported in the literature.” “So the FDA and CDC’s preference is to ignore, which is again what happened all throughout the pandemic when doctors or Ph.D. scientists would say, “Hey, I don’t think this is a good policy to forcibly mask children or to close the schools,” Ladapo continued. Senator Tommy Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020. He is the senior senator representing Alabama. He is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and HELP Committees. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Legislature passes Republican congressional redistricting plan
The Alabama Legislature passed a Republican congressional redistricting plan on Friday, setting up a battle in federal court that could either result in a federal court drawing Alabama’s congressional districts map or the most serious court challenge to the controversial Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in decades. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the redistricting plan passed by the Legislature in 2021 likely violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A three-judge panel in Atlanta ordered the state to draw a map with two majority Black congressional districts “or something close to it.” The Legislature entered Friday with two Republican maps. One map increased Alabama’s Second Congressional District from 30% Black to over 42% Black. That plan was sponsored by State Representative Chris Pringle (D-Mobile). The other plan was sponsored by State Senator Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro). The Livingston plan only increased the number of Black voters in CD2 from 30% to 38%. The House passed the Pringle plan while the Senate debated the Livingston plan. After the Senate voted to nonconcur with the Pringle plan, six legislators went into a six-member conference committee, and the four Republicans on the committee submitted a third plan. This map had previously been unseen by the press, the public, Democratic legislators, and presumably most Republican legislators. Both Houses of the Legislature then voted to adopt the conference committee plan. The conference committee map leaves the Seventh Congressional District as the state’s only majority Black congressional district. It did increase the percentage of Black voters in CD2 from 30% to 39.9%. CD2 is currently represented by Freedom Caucus Republican Barry Moore (R-Enterprise). Moore staffers were in the Statehouse on Frida meeting with legislators. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have vowed to reject the Republican plan and adopt one of the Democratic plans that create two majority-minority districts or appoint a special master to draw Alabama’s congressional maps. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey released a statement saluting the Legislature for their hard work and bold stance. “Following the U.S. Supreme Court order, I called the Alabama Legislature into a special session to readdress our congressional map,” said Gov. Ivey. “The Legislature knows our state, our people, and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused, and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline.” The Alabama House Democratic Caucus (AHDC) was not pleased with the plan that passed without Democratic support. “Once again, the Republican majority in Alabama is putting political ambition ahead of what is right and just,” the AHDC wrote. “And again, unfortunately, partisan politics is coming before Democratic rights, despite a decision upheld by the highest court in the land.” “The court ruled that our Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district,” the AHDC continued. “And yet, the majority pushed through a map that blatantly fails to meet that standard.” “The House Democratic Caucus endorsed a map, supported by the plaintiffs, that satisfies that court’s ruling,” the AHDC added. “That majority has repeatedly ignored that option in an attempt to sidestep their duty to draw maps that represent all Alabama voters fairly and equitably.” Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL07) released a statement expressing disappointment with the Legislature’s work. “Today, the State of Alabama has shamelessly chosen to ignore the Supreme Court,” Rep. Sewell said. “The map advanced by the state legislature includes only one majority-minority district and a second district where Black voters make up only 39.9 percent of the voting age population.” “This map does not comply with the Supreme Court’s order and is an insult to Black voters across our state,” Sewell added. “I fully expect that it will be rejected by the courts.” The Legislature has met the July 21 deadline set by the federal court in Atlanta. A hearing on Alabama’s congressional redistricting is scheduled for August. There is wide speculation that whatever happens in Atlanta with this redistricting, the loser will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. There is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will accept the case. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com
Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi
President Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured, and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, and his mother, a White House official said Saturday. Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans. Tuesday is the anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth in 1941. The monument will protect places that are central to the story of Till’s life and death at age 14, the acquittal of his white killers, and his mother’s activism. Till’s mother’s insistence on an open casket to show the world how her son had been brutalized, and Jet’s magazine’s decision to publish photos of his mutilated body helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. Biden’s decision also comes at a fraught time in the United States over matters concerning race. Conservative leaders are pushing back against the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools, as well as the incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs from college classrooms to corporate boardrooms. On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized a revised Black history curriculum in Florida that includes teaching that enslaved people benefited from the skills they learned at the hands of the people who denied them freedom. The Florida Board of Education approved the curriculum to satisfy legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who has accused public schools of liberal indoctrination. “How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris asked in a speech delivered from Jacksonville, Florida. DeSantis said he had no role in devising his state’s new education standards but defended the components on how enslaved people benefited. “All of that is rooted in whatever is factual,” he said in response. The monument to Till and his mother will include three sites in the two states. The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Thousands of people gathered at the church to mourn Emmett Till in September 1955. The Mississippi locations are Graball Landing, believed to be where Till’s mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s killers were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury. Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham said the 14-year-old Till whistled and made sexual advances at her while she worked in a store in the small community of Money. Till was later abducted, and his body was eventually pulled from the Tallahatchie River, where he had been tossed after he was shot and weighted down with a cotton gin fan. Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed to killing Till in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955. She died earlier this year. The monument will be the fourth Biden has created since taking office in 2021, and just his latest tribute to the younger Till. For Black History Month this year, Biden hosted a screening of the movie “Till,” a drama about his lynching. In March 2022, Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law. Congress had first considered such legislation more than 120 years ago. The Justice Department announced in December 2021 that it was closing its investigation into Till’s killing. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Joe Biden picks female admiral to lead Navy. She’d be first woman on Joint Chiefs of Staff
President Joe Biden has chosen Adm. Lisa Franchetti to lead the Navy, an unprecedented choice that, if she is confirmed, will make her the first woman to be a Pentagon service chief and the first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Biden’s decision goes against the recommendation of his Pentagon chief. But Franchetti, the current vice chief of operations for the Navy, has broad command and executive experience and was considered by insiders to be the top choice for the job. In a statement Friday, Biden noted the historical significance of her selection and said, “Throughout her career, Admiral Franchetti has demonstrated extensive expertise in both the operational and policy arenas.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended that Biden select Adm. Samuel Paparo, the current commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, several U.S. officials said last month. But instead, Biden is nominating Paparo to lead U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. A senior administration official said Biden chose Franchetti based on the broad scope of her experience at sea and ashore, including a number of high-level policy and administrative jobs that give her deep knowledge in budgeting and running the department. At the same time, the official acknowledged that Biden understands the historical nature of the nomination and believes that Franchetti will be an inspiration to sailors, both men and women. The official spoke earlier on condition of anonymity because the nomination had not been made public. Franchetti’s nomination will join the list of hundreds of military moves that are being held up by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. He is blocking confirmation of military officers in protest of a Defense Department policy that pays for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. Biden, in his statement, blasted Tuberville for prioritizing his domestic political agenda over military readiness. “What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said. “He is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.” Franchetti is slated to serve as the acting Navy chief beginning next month when Adm. Michael Gilday, the current top naval officer, retires as planned. Several women have served as military service secretaries as political appointees, but never as their top uniformed officer. A woman, Adm. Linda L. Fagan, is currently the commandant of the Coast Guard. She, however, is not a member of the Joint Staff. The Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Pentagon. The news last month that the defense chief had recommended Papara stunned many in the Pentagon because it was long believed that Franchetti was in line for the top Navy job. In a statement Friday, Austin praised the nomination, saying, “I’m very proud that Admiral Franchetti has been nominated to be the first woman Chief of Naval Operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where she will continue to inspire all of us.” A surface warfare officer, she has commanded at all levels, heading U.S. 6th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander. Paparo, who, if confirmed, will replace Adm. John Aquilino, is a naval aviator and a TOPGUN graduate with more than 6,000 flight hours in Navy fighter jets and 1,100 landings on aircraft carriers. A Pennsylvania native, he graduated from Villanova University and was commissioned into the Navy in 1987. Prior to his Pacific tour, he was commander of naval forces in the Middle East, based in Bahrain, and also previously served as director of operations at U.S. Central Command in Florida. Biden also said he will nominate Vice Adm. James Kilby to be the vice chief of the Navy and tap Vice Adm. Stephen Koehler to head the Pacific Fleet. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Muscogee Nation renews lawsuit over Alabama casino they say desecrated a sacred site
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation has asked a federal appellate court to reinstate its lawsuit against the Poarch Creek Band of Indians and Auburn University for improperly removing graves from a sacred site in Alabama to build a casino. The Oklahoma-based tribal nation alleges that Wind Creek Casino and Resort in Wetumpka, Alabama, was built at Hickory Ground, a sacred site and capital when federal troops forced the Muscogee out of Alabama nearly 200 years ago. Workers removed 57 sets of human remains and the artifacts buried with them, storing some of them in containers without proper ventilation or temperature control, according to the lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2012. A federal judge threw out the suit in 2021, but on Friday, the tribal nation asked the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta to reinstate it, al.com reported. A letter sent last month to the Alabama-based Poarch Creek tribe by David Hill, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s principal chief, says the tribe failed to meet its obligation to Muscogee ancestors, the news site reported. “You made a promise to protect these lands and the MCN ancestors who remain there,” Hill wrote. “A promise that was broken when you removed our ancestors, stored them in boxes and sent them off to a university to be studied by non-Indian archeologists. Some, still today, sit in a storage facility on site. You have yet to do right by them.” Alabama is the ancestral home of the Muscogee Nation, and Hickory Ground was the tribe’s last capital before removal on the Trail of Tears — a brutal, 800-mile (1,287 kilometers) march to Oklahoma that claimed countless lives. The mekko, or chief, of Hickory Ground, relocated the settlement to Oklahoma, the appeal said. “Although violently and forcibly removed from the sacred ground where they held ceremony since time immemorial, the modern-day members of Hickory Ground have kept the traditions, culture, and ceremonies of their Muscogee ancestors alive at the present-day Hickory Ground on the Muscogee Reservation in Oklahoma,” the appeal said. The dispute between the Muscogee Nation and Poarch Creek has been ongoing for years. When the Alabama tribe first built a bingo hall on the site in 2001, it unearthed remains and artifacts. Archaeologists from Auburn University helped store and remove some of what was found, the complaint said. A spokesperson from Auburn University said the university had no comment on the appeal, which contends it violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires federally funded museums and universities to return ancestors and items buried with them to their descendants. The appeal seeks to stop further development of the land that is part of Hickory Ground and to have the Wind Creek Casino torn down. It also seeks to have ancestral remains returned. Hickory Ground was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Poarch Creek Band acquired the land the same year, in part with federal preservation grant funds, according to the appeal. In 1999, Poarch Creek asked the National Park Service to delegate its preservation duties to the tribe and began planning to build a bingo hall that later expanded into the casino. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama in 2021 dismissed the 2012 lawsuit, which had been renewed in 2019. Because the Poarch Creeks are a federally recognized tribe, they have qualified immunity and cannot be sued for developing their land, according to his opinion. Poarch leaders could not be immediately reached for comment about the appeal. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
