Alabama top stories in brief
- The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission is scheduled to meet with Alabama Always and other companies that are suing them to negotiate this week. The companies will privately meet today.
- In a commentary published in Alabama Daily News, Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter addressed Alabama’s labor shortage. In his commentary, Ledbetter acknowledged that Alabama has one of the lowest rates of labor force participation in the nation. Ledbetter also said that Alabama has around 140,000 job openings but less than 50,000 unemployed laborers. Ledbetter concluded the commentary by saying that he intended to lead the legislature in searching for solutions to bring more Alabamians into the labor force. Ledbetter is not the first Alabama politician to write about the labor shortage. Earlier this year, Gov. Kay Ivey wrote a commentary urging more Alabamians to participate in the labor force.
- Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has continued to keep his hold on military promotions, which he enacted in response to the Defense department’s policy which pays for travel for service members that go out of state for an abortion. Tuberville’s hold means that in order for promotions to go forward, they would have to all be approved individually by the senate, when promotions are usually confirmed in groups by voice vote. The secretaries for the Navy, Air Force and Army wrote an op-ed in the Washington post calling Tuberville’s actions harmful to service members and their families as well as dangerous to national security. According to the op-ed, almost 300 service members have been affected by Tuberville’s hold, and currently, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps lack a Senate-confirmed service chief.
- Federal judges said last week that a new congressional district map will be drawn for Alabama by a court appointed special master where Black voters compose a majority. The three judge panel wrote that they were deeply troubled by Alabama lawmakers not creating a second majority-Black district as instructed. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office released a statement arguing that the map complied with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. “We intend to promptly seek review from the Supreme Court to ensure that the State can use its lawful congressional districts in 2024 and beyond,” said Marshall’s office.
- Walmart is now offering $5 gift cards, in addition to refunds, to those who were accidentally charged extra after Alabama’s 1% tax cut went into effect on Sept. 1. Sam Club members who were overcharged will have $5 in Sam’s Cash automatically added to their account.
Arguments heat up across the state regarding LGBTQ books in libraries.
Recently, there has been a surge in groups attempting to remove books with LGBTQ+ content from Alabama public libraries. Primarily, this focus is on removing books from Children and Young Adult sections. In some cases, the discussion focuses around removing the books entirely, while others focus on having the books moved into different sections of the library.
Libraries in both Prattville and Ozark have recently had groups attempting to restrict the types of books available in their collections.
In Ozark over 100 people attended a Dale County Library board meeting after a call from the mayor to remove books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes from the public library.
According to the Alabama Reflector, the meeting saw individuals from both sides of the debate cut off from speaking after they violated the rules of order established by the Board of Trustees.
One person opposed to removing the books, Adam Kamerer, made a freedom of information act request to gain access to text messages sent between the mayor and board members. Kamerer read the messages out loud during the meeting. According to the Reflector, the reading caused an uproar amongst those in attendance, and the board left early for lunch. Kamerer was not allowed his full three minutes to read the messages.
Kamerer has posted the FOIA messages from the board and mayor publicly on his Facebook page.
The messages includes a text from Ozark Mayor Mark Blankenship where he implies that he might push to cut library funding if the books are not removed, and another, where he says he is planning to replace the library board after they chose not to remove books featuring LGBTQ+ content.
Support for keeping the books came from both sides of the political aisle. Alden Rocha, an adult library volunteer who identified herself as a conservative Christian spoke in favor of keeping the books.
“This government must represent all of the people of Ozark, not just the majority,” said Rocha. “People in the LGBTQ community are taxpayers too, and they should have access to the books that they and their kids request.”
In Prattville, a newly formed organization called Clean Up Alabama pushed for Prattville to adopt a new contract which, according to Alabama Political Reporter, would have greatly restricted the content in the library.
The contract failed to pass last week in a vote of 4-3 by the Prattville City Council. Dozens of people attended the event, and the vast majority of the speakers spoke against the contract.
While Clean Up Alabama started as a local Prattville organization, they have expanded their efforts state wide.
According to meeting minutes obtained by Alabama Political Reporter,the group is now pushing to amend the Anti-Obscenity law so that public libraries would no longer be exempted from showing harmful material to children. The group is also pushing for more restrictions regarding LGBTQ+ material in libraries.
If the amendment they are pushing for was passed, it would mean that librarians could face jail time for the books in their collection.
In addition to efforts by groups such as Clean Up Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey wrote a letter on Sept. 1 to Nancy Pack, the director of the Alabama Public Library Service.
Ivey has asked Pack to answer the question of whether reform was needed in the Alabama Library System before the next Alabama Public Library System board meeting on Sept. 13. Additionally, Ivey specifically listed several of the books that had been brought up by groups in Prattville and Ozark.
Pack issued a statement last week thanking Ivey for her “thoughtful and considerate concern regarding the environment in Alabama’s public libraries, particularly with regard to the materials available to families and children.”
Pack said that public libraries will always value parents’ rights to be involved in what their children can borrow and pointed out that many libraries already have policies in place that require parental supervision when a child checks out an item.
Our articles you might have missed
- Are you confused about the situation regarding Medical Cannabis in Alabama? Well, in last week’s Roundup we broke down what has happened since the formation of the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission.
- In the latest installation of The Breathing Room, “How to be a better friend,” Editor Hannah Irvin discusses the importance of building solid friendships, and gives advice to help be a better friend to those you love.
Announcements
- We’ve officially launched our new, easy-to-use event calendar for local Alabama events! You can view the calendar on our website. Anyone is welcome to submit events, from music festivals to garage sales, we want to build community across the state by connecting people to events.
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