Republicans advance bill for claiming vaccine exemptions
Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation aimed at protecting employees who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by setting out an easy process to claim a religious or medical exemption. The legislation comes as Republican leaders in many states have expressed opposition to the federal vaccine mandate, calling it an infringement on personal decisions. But opposed lawmakers said Republicans were authorizing people to “lie” to avoid getting vaccinated and thereby risk the lives of others. The Alabama Senate voted 26-5 for the bill by Republican Sen. Chris Elliott of Fairhope would mandate businesses requiring COVID-19 vaccinations to distribute a form where employees could claim a religious or medical exemption by checking a box. An employee submitting the form could not be fired over not getting the vaccination unless the business appealed and got permission from the Alabama Department of Labor. State senators also voted 26-4 for a separate bill that gives the state attorney general authority to enforce an existing state law that prohibits businesses from refusing service to unvaccinated customers. It also requires parental consent for a child to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Both bills now move to the Alabama House of Representatives. Elliott said the federal government already allows exemptions for religious and medical reasons, and they are trying to “make it as easy as possible on the employee to claim those exemptions so that they can keep their job.” “I’ve got constituents in my district that are losing their jobs right now at various different employers that have a vaccine mandate right now. I think we need to do everything we can to protect those jobs and protect those folks that are just trying to provide for their family,” Elliott said. Democratic Sen. Bobby Singleton of Greensboro said Republicans were giving people the ability to “tell a big lie” to avoid getting vaccinated. He said the Labor Department would have limited or no ability to investigate the sincerity of the employee’s claim of a religious or medical reason for declining the vaccine. “We as a Legislature are about to manufacture an excuse for people not to take the vaccine,” Singleton said, predicting that “everybody will claim some sort of illness” or religious reason. Democratic Sen. Vivian Davis Figures of Mobile said Republicans supporting the bill were putting the lives of others at risk and interfering with the ability of a business to make decisions about its workplace. “All of the thousands and thousands and thousands of people who have died of COVID since early 2020, and you have the audacity to introduce a bill like this to sanction the death of so many others,” Figures said. Alabama has seen at least 15,629 COVID-19 related deaths and has the second-highest per capita death rate from COVID-19 among states, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins University One of the state’s largest business groups opposed the bill, saying it interferes with private business decisions and puts federal contractors in a difficult situation that could cost jobs. “This legislation would prevent Alabama employers from making personnel decisions and place that authority in the hands of state government,” the Business Council of Alabama said in a statement. The group said court action was the best way to challenge the mandate. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed said lawmakers are trying to do what they can, within their authority, to address the federal vaccine mandate. “The Biden administration’s vaccine mandates are a reckless federal government overreach that infringe on Alabamians’ liberty and freedom of personal choice and could cause significant economic harm to Alabama and Americans across the country,” Reed said in a statement. Republican-led states have turned to a mix of lawsuits, executive orders, and legislation to try to resist President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Nineteen states, including Alabama, have filed lawsuits against Biden’s requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Job creation for September falls far short of expectations
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the monthly jobs report Friday, showing the economy created far fewer jobs in the month of September than experts expected. Total nonfarm employment increased 194,000 in September, well below the Dow Jones estimated 500,000 jobs for the month. “Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing,” BLS said. “Employment in public education declined over the month.” In August, the economy created 235,000 jobs, only a third of the predicted 720,000. This month, even after experts dropped their predictions by nearly a third, job creation failed to meet their expectations with even fewer jobs than the previous month. “In September, the number of persons employed part-time for economic reasons, at 4.5 million, was essentially unchanged for the second month in a row,” BLS said. “There were 4.4 million persons in this category in February 2020.” The report showed a drop in unemployment from 5.2% to 4.8%. “The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 4.8 percent in September,” BLS said. “The number of unemployed persons fell by 710,000 to 7.7 million. Both measures are down considerably from their highs at the end of the February-April 2020 recession. However, they remain above their levels prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (3.5 percent and 5.7 million, respectively, in February 2020). Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.7 percent), adult women (4.2 percent), Whites (4.2 percent), and Blacks (7.9 percent) declined in September. The jobless rates for teenagers (11.5 percent), Asians (4.2 percent), and Hispanics (6.3 percent) showed little change over the month.” That data comes after the Department of Labor released unemployment figures for the week ending October 2 that showed first-time unemployment claims decreased to 326,000, a drop of 38,000 from the previous week. Those numbers reversed a several-week trend of rising unemployment. “The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending September 18 were in Puerto Rico (4.5), Illinois (4.2), California (3.1), Hawaii (3.0), New Jersey (2.9), Nevada (2.8), Alaska (2.7), Oregon (2.7), Louisiana (2.5), and New York (2.5),” DOL said. By Casey Harper | The Center Square
Jail releases some non-violent offenders because of COVID-19
A south Alabama jail has started releasing some non-violent offenders because of a rise in COVID-19 cases at the facility. WKRG-TV reports that Mobile County Metro Jail began Tuesday allowing some non-violent offenders to be released, similar to what is done when a hurricane threatens the facility or there is a desperate need for space in the jail. Inmates facing only city, non-violent charges are allowed to sign their own bond or be released on recognizance. There are a number of exceptions, including that the charges can’t be related to driving under the influence or domestic violence. “This past week and increasingly over the weekend we had an outburst of COVID infections in the jail and it was spreading really rapidly and so to really reduce the population as quickly as we could and also limit the number of people coming in and out of the jail,” Sheriff Sam Cochran said of the decision. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Eric Mackey: Up to half of students will do virtual classes
Alabama Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey on Friday estimated that up to half of the state’s public school students will be attending classes remotely in the fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mackey said more than a quarter of students are in systems that are only doing remote classes for the first part of the year. He said as many as 15% to 30% of students will be choosing to do remote learning in school systems that have that as an option, in addition to in-person classes. “My request for everybody is for patience. I know people are frustrated. I know people are in many cases scared. … But I promise you, there are thousands of educators who have the best interest of your children at heart. And it will be a struggle and we will get through it,” Mackey said. Mackey spoke Friday in a press conference with U.S. Sen. Doug Jones that was broadcast on Facebook. Jones said his office has heard from teachers concerned about safety. “They are obviously scared. They’ve either got young children themselves or they are in a vulnerable bracket and they are concerned about this virus,” Jones said. Mackey said the precautions taken by local school systems “will protect them as much as we can” but acknowledged there is risk, just like when someone goes to the grocery store during the pandemic. “I can’t say that there is 100% certainty that everybody is going to be safe, but we think we can make it safer by imposing as much physical distancing as possible, by asking everyone to wear face coverings,” he said adding that there will be additional cleanings at school. He said a statewide mask mandate, if it is extended past July 31, will apply to schools. Mackey said about 15 school systems have announced that they will do online classes only for the first nine weeks. The superintendent said for education quality he believes there is nothing that replaces a highly qualified teacher in the classroom with students, but said “we have to do the best we can” in a difficult situation. He said the state is trying to address a digital divide by installing more Wi-Fi spots in libraries or on top of school buses. “Children who have access to high-speed internet obviously have a leg up on children who don’t have any access. One of the things we’ve tried to do is create remote access points,” Mackey said. Since the pandemic began, more than 74,000 Alabamians have tested positive for COVID-19 — about 1.5% of the state’s population. Nearly a third of the cases have been reported in the last two weeks. More than 1,300 Alabamians have died after testing positive for the illness. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Bradley Byrne: Embrace precaution, not panic, for coronavirus safety
Bradley Byrne gives an update on the latest developments in the federal government’s attempts to reduce the effects of coronavirus on our health and the economy.
