Cannabis licenses might be issued in coming weeks
There is currently a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC) issuing medical cannabis licenses. However, that could change in the coming days for some license categories. On Wednesday, Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson heard arguments from attorneys for both the AMCC and the plaintiffs suing the Commission over cannabis license awards made in August. The state is issuing six categories of medical marijuana licenses: grower or cultivator (the term is used synonymously by parties involved), processor, transporter, laboratory, dispensary, and integrated facility. An integrator can grow, process, transport, and dispense cannabis. Applicants who were denied permits for processor, dispensary, and integrator have all filed suit against the AMCC, arguing, for various reasons, that their application was wrongfully denied and the Commission violated the state open meetings law in its August awards meeting. Those lawsuits have all been consolidated into one case challenging those award results. Anderson placed a temporary restraining order on the AMCC issuing any licenses in August and a stay on further AMCC action while the court considers the plaintiffs’ arguments. Under the AMCC’s current proposal before the court, the Commission will rescind the license awards for integrator, dispensary, and processor at its October 26 meeting. Meanwhile, the Commission would be free to issue the August awards for growers, transporters, and laboratories. Alabama Today asked AMCC Executive Director John McMillan if there was a possibility that some of those growers could build their facility, plant their marijuana crop, harvest that first crop, and then have nowhere to legally process it and no market for it to sell it as a grower’s license does not allow the grower to sell it to the public. “Hypothetically,” McMillan answered. Alabama Always, the original plaintiff in this case, was denied an integrator permit in the June and August awards meetings. Their attorney argued that the most important criteria for the award should have been how fast the applicant could get up and running with their first crop. Alabama Always began building a $7 million building a year ago, before the applications were even turned in. “I know since that some people have said that nobody told Alabama Always to build a structure, but they did,” the attorney stated. “In the fall of 2022, my client already began construction.” Alabama Always claims they began construction early to meet the AMCC requirement that an applicant must be able to start operating within 60 days of being issued a license. “They don’t give you a single point (in the scoring) for being able to commence growing within 60 days,” the plaintiffs’ attorney argued. “Some of these plaintiffs’ attorneys don’t know what they’re talking about,” McMillan told Alabama Today. “Getting started within 60 days is not that difficult. You could start a crop in here,” referring to the courtroom, by bringing in grow lights, irrigation, drainage, growing medium, and other greenhouse materials. McMillan said if the court allows, the Commission could issue the grower, transporter, and laboratory licenses as early as November. McMillan cautioned, “The Commission could do whatever it wants to do.” On the advice of counsel, McMillan said he expects the Commission to rescind the awards for integrator, processor, and dispensary at its October 26 meeting. Judge Anderson gave the applicants who were denied the grower, transporter, or laboratory licenses until October 26 to file a motion asking to extend the TRO on those three licenses beyond that date. Anderson said, “If they want to file something before the 26th, we will deal with it. “ The most desired license is the integrated facility license, but the statute limits the number to a maximum of five licenses statewide. Approximately thirty business entities applied for that license, and it seems like most of the two dozen that were denied have hired an attorney and joined the consolidated case. Attorney Bill Espy announced that he had a client joining the case on Wednesday. Anderson said the problem is the legislature did not allow enough licenses in the original statute. “The legislature could fix this,” Anderson said. “They don’t want us legislating from the bench.” The statute allowed the AMCC to award as many as twelve grower licenses. Only twelve applied, and of those, only seven were granted licenses. Alabama Today spoke with Antoine Mordican at Native Black Cultivation, who was denied a grower permit. Mordican said that, at this time, he is not interested in filing litigation. Mordican said that he is working to address the issues in his application that the AMCC said were deficient and that he hopes to be awarded a license when the AMC makes a second round of grower awards. “They are not following the statute,” Mordican, who is Black, said. “The statute requires that 25% of the licenses be awarded to minorities. Of the seven, only one is minority owned.” One of the roughly 20 plaintiffs’ attorneys objected to the growers being issued licenses, arguing that it was unfair to the five integrators because they could potentially lose market share. Several plaintiffs’ attorneys asked the court to bar the Commission from considering the scoring prepared by the University of South Alabama when considering the applications for integrator, processor, and dispensary. “We have been waiting for four months to do something about the scores,” said the attorney for Alabama Always. “The grading of the scores is inconsistent with the statute. If they are allowed to consider the scores, we are going to be back here again. You can avoid that.” “Unless the use of the scores is prohibited, we think that there will be a lot of tendency on the part of the commissioners to rely on the scores,” he added. Michael Jackson is an attorney for the AMCC. “They are not going to be happy with the scores unless they get an award,” Jackson said. “The Commission has absolute discretion on what they consider.” “If there is a problem with the scoring, it doesn’t matter,” Jackson continued. “If the scoring is wrong, it doesn’t matter. If the scoring is bad, it doesn’t matter.” “They are not articulating
County commission chair Albert Turner Jr. indicted on voter fraud charge
The son of Alabama civil rights activists has been indicted on charges of voter fraud, but he called the accusations nothing more than “political theatre.” Perry County Commission Chairman Albert Turner Jr. has been charged with voting more than once and violating Alabama’s law that prohibits the fraudulent collection and filling of other people’s absentee ballots. The charges were announced Wednesday by Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and District Attorney Michael Jackson. Jackson said Turner is accused of running multiple ballots through a voting machine during the May 2022 Democratic primary election. He is also accused of breaking state law as regards using absentee ballots, Jackson said. Turner was seen with a “stack” of absentee ballot material at the post office, he said. “He was stuffing the machine with the ballots that he had already filled out for the folks he was supporting. He did that for a good little while, and he had some folks distracting the poll watchers,” Jackson said. Turner told the Associated Press that he did know about the charges, but that he did nothing wrong. “I am not concerned about any charge he has announced, and I will not waste any energy on political theatre. It is mighty funny that Little Mike waited until he was leaving office to make his charge because he knows he can’t prove his case,” Turner wrote in a text message. Turner’s cousin, Robert H. Turner Jr., defeated Jackson, in the Democratic primary. He takes office later this month. Jackson said the case is being handled by the attorney general’s office to avoid a conflict. Turner is the son of civil rights activists Albert Turner Sr. and Evelyn H. Turner. Albert Turner Sr. was Alabama field secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1965 when he helped lead the aborted Selma-to-Montgomery march that became known as “Bloody Sunday” when marchers were beaten by state troopers. He led the mule wagon that carried the body of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at his funeral. The elder Turner died in 2000. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Death of Alabama student at school likely linked to fentanyl
One student who died at an Alabama high school and four others who were taken to a hospital probably were sickened by something that had been laced with fentanyl, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said investigators were awaiting results from an autopsy and toxicology tests before making a final determination, but the powerful painkiller likely was to blame. “It doesn’t take much to kill you,” he said. Authorities were called to Selma High School around noon Tuesday after the students began showing signs of health problems, authorities said. One student, identified only as a 16-year-old male sophomore, died, and four others taken to a hospital for evaluation are expected to recover, Jackson said. School Superintendent Zickeyous Byrd said students who decided not to attend classes on Wednesday wouldn’t be counted as absent. “When an event of this magnitude touches one family, it affects us all,” Byrd said in a statement. In a statement, Mayor James Perkins Jr. cautioned against jumping to conclusions about what had occurred and said he knew the victim well. “Because the deceased is a juvenile, I will not mention him by name. Just know that his death is very close to me,” Perkins said. “I considered him a son.” Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are driving the nation’s deadliest overdose crisis ever. Overdoses from all drugs claimed more than 100,000 lives for the first time in 2021, and the deaths this year have remained at almost the same level, which is more than gun and auto deaths combined. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Voter turnout sagging in troubled voting rights hub of Selma
Fewer and fewer people are voting in Selma, Alabama. And to many, that is particularly heartbreaking. They lament that almost six decades after Black demonstrators on the city’s Edmond Pettus Bridge risked their lives for the right to cast ballots, voting in predominantly Black Selma and surrounding Dallas County has steadily declined. Turnout in 2020 was under 57%, among the worst in the state. “It should not be that way. We should have a large voter turnout in all elections,” said Michael Jackson, a Black district attorney elected with support from voters of all races. Thousands will gather on March 6 for this year’s re-enactment of the bridge crossing to honor the foot soldiers of that “Bloody Sunday” in 1965. Downtown will resemble a huge street festival during the event, known as the Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, with thousands of visitors, blaring music, and vendors selling food and T-shirts. Another Selma event, less celebratory and more activist, was held last year by Black Voters Matter. The aim was to boost Black power at the ballot box. But the issues in Selma — a onetime Confederate arsenal, located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of Montgomery in Alabama’s old plantation region — defy simple solutions. Some cite a hangover from decades of white supremacist voter suppression, others a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that gutted key provisions of federal voting law to allow current GOP efforts to tighten voting rules. Some Black voters, who tend to vote Democratic, simply don’t see the point in voting in a state where every statewide office is held by white Republicans who also control the Legislature. Then there is what some describe as infighting between local leaders, and low morale in a crime-ridden town with too many pothole-covered streets, too many abandoned homes, and too many vacant businesses. All are considered factors that helped lead to a 13% decline in population over the last decade in a town where more than one-third live in poverty. Despite visits from presidents, congressional leaders, and celebrity luminaries like Oprah Winfrey — and even the success of the 2014 historical film drama “Selma” by Ava DuVernay — Selma never seems to get any better. Resident Tyrone Clarke said he votes when work and travel allow, but not always. Many others don’t because of disqualifying felony convictions or disillusionment with the shrinking town of roughly 18,000 people, he said.ADVERTISEMENT “You have a whole lot of people who look at the conditions and don’t see what good it’s going to do for them,” Clarke said. “You know, ‘How is this guy or that guy being in office going to affect me in this little, rotten town here?’” But something else seems to be going on in Selma and Dallas County. Other poor, mostly Black areas have not seen the same drastic decline in turnout. Only one of Alabama’s majority Black counties, Macon, the home of historically Black Tuskegee University, had a lower voter turnout than Dallas in 2020. Selma is hardly the only place where big Black majorities don’t always translate to big voter turnout. The U.S. Census Bureau found that a racial gap persisted nationwide in voting in 2020, with about 71% of white voters casting ballots compared to 63% of eligible Black people. A majority of Dallas County’s voters are Black, and Black people made up the largest share of the county’s vote in 2020, about 68%, state statistics show. But white voters had a disproportionally larger share of the county electorate compared to Black voters, records showed. Jimmy L. Nunn, a former Selma city attorney who became Dallas County’s first Black probate judge in 2019, said the community is weighed down by its own history. “We have been programmed that our votes do not count, that we have no vote,” said Nunn, who works in the same county courthouse where white, Jim Crow officeholders refused to register Black voters, helping inspire the protests of 1965. “It is that mindset we have to change.” Selma entered voting rights legend because of what happened at the foot of the Edmond Pettus Bridge, which is named for a onetime Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader, on March 7, 1965. After months of demonstrations and failed attempts to register Black people to vote in the white-controlled city, a long line of marchers led by John Lewis, then a young activist, crossed the span over the Alabama River headed toward the state capital of Montgomery to present demands to Gov. George C. Wallace, a segregationist. State troopers and sheriff’s posse members on horseback stopped them. A trooper bashed Lewis’ head during the ensuing melee and dozens more were hurt. Images of the violence reinforced the evil and depth of Southern white supremacy, helping build support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In the following decades, Selma became a worldwide touchstone for voting rights, with then-President Barack Obama speaking at the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2015. “If Selma taught us anything, it’s that our work is never done,” he said. “The American experiment in self-government gives work and purpose to each generation.” But in Selma, voting already was on the decline. After more than 66% of Dallas County’s voters went to the polls in 2008, when Obama become the nation’s first Black president, turnout fell in each presidential election afterward. Shamika Mendenhall, a mother of two young children with a third on the way, was among registered voters who did not cast a ballot in 2020. She often goes to the annual jubilee that marks the anniversary of Bloody Sunday and has relatives who participated in voting rights protests of the 1960s, and she’s still a little sheepish about missing the election. “To choose our president we ought to vote,” said Mendenhall, 25. A Black member of the county’s Democratic Party executive committee, Collins Pettaway III spends a lot of time pondering how to get young voters like Mendenhall more engaged. Older residents who remember Bloody Sunday and the subsequent Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march vote, he said,
Alabama pushes rebel monument case after Louisiana dismissal
An Alabama prosecutor said Wednesday that he had no plans to dismiss an indictment in an unusual ransom plot involving a stolen Confederate monument, despite a decision by prosecutors in Louisiana to drop related charges there. District Attorney Michael Jackson said he was moving ahead with the case against Jason Warnick, who was charged earlier this year with the theft of a chair-shaped memorial that was taken from a cemetery in Selma. Records show an additional charge of receiving stolen property was added against Warnick in August. Louisiana prosecutors dropped a charge of possession of stolen property against Warnick, 32, and two others, girlfriend Kathryn Diionno, 24, and Stanley Pate, 35. Court records do not give a reason for the decision. Michael Kennedy, a lawyer for Warnick, said his client is innocent and the Alabama case should be dismissed, too. “As we have contended from the outset, our clients were in no way involved in any theft and certainly were not aware if they were in possession of any stolen item,” he said in an email. Placed in the cemetery about 130 years ago by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the monument honors Confederate President Jefferson Davis. It vanished last spring, and news outlets then began receiving emails with an unusual ransom demand. A message claiming to be from a group called White Lies Matter took responsibility and said the chair would be returned only if the United Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to display a banner at its Virginia headquarters bearing a quote from a Black Liberation Army activist. The email also included images of a fake chair with a hole cut in the seat like a toilet and a man dressed in Confederate garb. But New Orleans police said they found the real chair undamaged in early April and arrested Warnick and Diionno, who have a tattoo shop. Pate was arrested days later. The chair has since been returned to Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, where it was secured to its base with thick adhesive. Jackson, the Alabama prosecutor, said he planned to speak with Louisiana authorities about their decision to drop charges there. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
John Merrill creates new bipartisan Voter Fraud Reform Task Force
Secretary of State John Merrill announced yesterday the formation of a Voter Fraud Reform Task Force. The task force will consist of 15 members, including the Secretary of State as the Chairman. The group will meet on September 30, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Alabama State House in Room 123 on 11 South Union Street in Montgomery. The meeting will be open to the general public. Secretary Merrill stated, “We believe it is necessary to examine how we define voter fraud in our state and the penalties we assess for voter fraud violations. It is important to note that we assembled a team of respected Alabamians from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions. “If or when instances of voter fraud are identified, we want to investigate each reported case, and if it is warranted, seek an indictment and then ensure that all guilty parties are convicted after a successful prosecution. However, we believe that it is important to ensure that any individual convicted of voter fraud is punished in an appropriate way and in accordance with the Constitution, as well as state and federal laws.” Earlier this week, Sec. Merrill met with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Lindell, who is currently being sued by Dominion Voting Systems, has been traveling the country in an effort to prove the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by computer manipulation, Al.com reported. In a video posted online, Lindell said while Alabama is a “role model as to how elections should go,” its voting system was “hacked…just like every other state,” possibly by accessing machines remotely through Bluetooth technology. Lindell claims 100,000 votes were changed in Alabama, although he did not offer any evidence of his claims. Merrill said Lindell is expected to return to Alabama to examine the equipment and talk to probate judges. Lindell bought a copy of Alabama’s voting rolls for $30,000. For the 2020 election in Alabama, roughly 2.3 million votes were cast for Donald Trump (1,441,170) and Joe Biden (849,624). Merrill said that’s not possible, telling Al.com, “All our (voting) machines are custom-built. There’s no modem component. You can’t influence them through a cell phone or a landline. There’s no way they can be probed or numbers manipulated.” Merrill said Lindell is expected to return to Alabama to examine the equipment and talk to probate judges. Merrill posted on Twitter, “Last night I was excited to talk to Josh Marcus of The @Independent, which is a media outlet in the United Kingdom! I was happy to talk to him about our successful administration of the 2020 general election and how we continue to make it #EasyToVoteAndHardToCheat in Alabama!” Originally tweeted by John Merrill (@JohnHMerrill) on September 23, 2021. The members of the task force are Secretary of State John H. Merrill, Senator Sam Givhan (R), Senator Bobby Singleton (D), Representative Matt Simpson (R), Representative Merika Coleman (D), Bullock County Probate Judge James Tatum, Houston County Circuit Clerk Carla Woodall, Montgomery County Sheriff Derek Cunningham, District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Michael Jackson, Reid Harris of the Attorney General’s Office, retired Circuit Judge John England, Matt Clark of the Alabama Policy Institute, Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, Lu Rivera of Eagle Forum, and Dillon Nettles of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Arrest warrant issued for man in Confederate monument theft
Police in Alabama have issued an arrest warrant for a man in connection with the bizarre theft of a Confederate monument that was taken from an Alabama cemetery and found in Louisiana. Selma police charged Jason Warnick with theft in connection with the mysterious disappearance of the chair-shaped monument, Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said Monday. Warnick was already facing charges of possession of stolen property after police said the monument ended up in his New Orleans tattoo shop. An attorney for Warnick said he denied being involved with the theft, which sparked national news stories before the monument was recovered. “This knowledge is very new, but we are in contact with the Selma Police Department and will be making plans over the next few days,” attorney Michael Kennedy wrote in an email. “That being said, Mr. Warnick categorically denies any involvement with the theft of this memorial art installation and intends to defend himself and his reputation vigorously.” Warnick and two other people were previously charged with possession of the chair after it went missing. The strange saga began March 20 when a representative of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reported to police that the “Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair” had gone missing from Live Oak Cemetery, located in a riverside city known worldwide for its links to the civil rights movement. The chair has no direct connection to Davis, the president of the Confederacy, but it was a monument to him located near other rebel monuments in a private section of the city-owned cemetery. Someone sent an email signed “White Lies Matter” to news outlets claiming responsibility and saying the chair would be returned only if the United Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to display a banner at their Virginia headquarters bearing a quote from a Black Liberation Army activist. A later email included photos of someone wearing Union soldier garb posing on a chair that looked like the missing one but with a hole cut out of the seat. A final email said those photos were fake, and the real chair was being returned unscathed. The chair-shaped monument, which the United Daughters of the Confederacy valued at $500,000, was recovered in New Orleans. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Stolen Jefferson Davis monument being held for ransom
A Confederate monument was stolen from the Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma last month. The monument is a stone chair dedicated to Jefferson Davis. A group calling themselves “White Lies Matter” is responsible for the theft and holding the stone chair for ransom. According to the Montgomery Advisor, Selma police chief Kenta Fulford confirmed the chair had been stolen. It is valued at $500,000. This morning, a group that claims to have taken the monument sent emails to AL.com saying they will give the chair to the United Daughters of the Confederacy if that organization agrees to hang a banner outside its Richmond, Va. headquarters. They must hang a banner at 1 pm on Friday and leave it there for 24 hours. Friday is the anniversary of the Confederacy’s surrender in the Civil War. The banner has a quote from Assata Shakur and says, “The rulers of the country have always considered their property more important than our lives.” Shakur is a former member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA), who was convicted in the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster during a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973. She escaped prison in 1979 and remails at large. She was granted political asylum in Cuba and is wanted by the FBI. The banner has already been delivered to the headquarters. If the banner isn’t hung, the email states, “Failure to do so will result in the monument, an ornate stone chair, immediately being turned into a toilet. If they do display the banner, not only will we return the chair intact, but we will clean it to boot.” District Attorney Michael Jackson stated, “This incident is sending Selma back into ‘The Twilight Zone.’ There’s never a dull moment in Selma.” The email comments, “We took their toy, and we don’t feel guilty about it. They never play with it anyway. They just want it there to remind us what they’ve done, what they are still willing to do. But the south won’t rise again. Not as the Confederacy. Because that coalition left out a large portion of its population. All that’s left of that nightmare is an obscenely heavy chair that’s a throne for a ghost whose greatest accomplishment was treason.” “Many in this country seem more concerned with violence against things than violence against people, as long as they can continue to convince themselves that those people are just ‘things,’” the email states. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that there is a $5,000 reward leading to information about the disappearance of the chair.
Renaming Alabama bridge for John Lewis opposed in Selma
Some say renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge for John Lewis, who died Friday, would dishonor local activists who spent years advocating for civil rights before Lewis arrived in town in the 1960s.
