Doug Jones visits Birmingham school to celebrate ‘Read Across America Day’
U.S. Senator Doug Jones kept his promise to Henry J. Oliver Elementary School students in Birmingham, Ala. by celebrating Read Across America Day with them on Friday. Earlier in February, the STAIR program released this video on twitter, inviting Jones to come and read with them: We need your help! Our students would LOVE to meet @SenDougJones to show him what they’ve learned this year at STAIR. Please RT to help get the message to him! #Birmingham #ChildhoodLiteracy pic.twitter.com/AS2N37ChgJ — STAIR of Birmingham (@stairbirmingham) February 8, 2018 And Jones responded with his own video: 👋🏻 pic.twitter.com/CazzNhBKtv — Doug Jones (@SenDougJones) February 9, 2018 Jones read with 16 second-grade students who attend the Start the Adventure in Reading (STAIR) program at the elementary school; Read Across America Day is held annually on Dr. Seuss’ birthday, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. “I have been looking forward to meeting with these talented students for some weeks and I was so grateful to receive their very thoughtful invitation. For nearly twenty years, STAIR has been a model program in the Birmingham community and has provided thousands of underserved second-graders with the tools they need to improve their reading skills,” said Jones. Just finished spending time with students @stairbirmingham! After seeing the incredible work they are doing firsthand, I encourage folks Birmingham to volunteer with this outstanding program: https://t.co/18b2VFVJ09 pic.twitter.com/M1PjM6kLBh — Doug Jones (@SenDougJones) March 2, 2018 STAIR of Birmingham will provide 200 students from 13 different Birmingham City Schools with two hours of one-on-one tutoring in reading each week this year. Each week, students work with the same two trained volunteers who provide support for the entire school year. Generally, STAIR students improve their reading scores by an average of 90 percent upon completing the program.
DNC lied about how much it spent to defeat Roy Moore
Following Democrat Doug Jones‘ victory in December, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) claimed they aided his campaign tremendously; declaring they spent $1 million dollars of their own money towards defeating Republican Roy Moore. Last year’s heated senate race between now Senator Jones and his opponent, former Alabama Chief Justice, Moore had everyone in Alabama on edge. The race garnered national media attention and even the attention, and endorsement, of President Donald Trump. What a great opportunity for the DNC to show it’s power and wealth. Well, maybe not. Although the committee did contribute aides, organized voter-outreach plans, and campaigned via text, calls, and volunteers, the committee only spent $250,000 of their own money towards the campaign. The cash was used to fund more than two dozen staffers in Alabama who organized outreach to African-American voters. The rest of the $1 million that the DNC claimed actually came from voters and donations that the DNC solicited for Jones campaign. “For the first time in its history, the DNC used its email list for split fundraising to directly raise money for and invest in campaigns across the country in 2017,” Michael Tyler, DNC spokesman told McClatchy. “While the RNC cut blank checks for an accused child molester, we’re proud that tens of thousands of Americans contributed $5 and $10 at a time to fund the Doug Jones campaign’s organizing efforts.” The DNC has filed reports with the Federal Election Commission showing $87,000 and claims they will be able to show another $163,000 when records of their spending are received. The remaining $679,000 they raised through e-mail fundraising will not have to be reported with the FEC since the money never actually passed through the committee. Jones is already working on paying the committee back, at the end of December he sent an e-mail to former Vice-President Joe Biden‘s PAC, American Possibilities asking for donations for democratic candidates in 2018.
