alabamareflector.com - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Via @alander.bsky.social: The rally in Birmingham drew at least 500 people, who marched chanting “Say it loud and say it clear, immigrants are welcomed here.”

submitted 9 hours ago • 6 comments

My column from Monday. In their endless quest to hurt transgender Alabamians, Gov. Kay Ivey and the Alabama Legislature have given local governments and schools sweeping powers to separate men and women in the name of “safety” and “fairness.” That’s certain to hurt Alabama women.

submitted 19 hours ago • 6 comments

Via @mattvas.bsky.social and @stateline.org: The Trump administration has begun dismantling the nation’s defenses against foreign interference in voting, a sweeping retreat that has alarmed state and local election officials.

submitted 20 hours ago • 12 comments

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social and @alander.bsky.social: Our weekly round-up of all the bills that passed the Alabama Legislature this week.

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Via @jennifershutt.bsky.social: U.S. senators voted early Friday to approve a budget resolution that Republicans hoped would get them one step closer to passing core elements of their agenda, including boosted immigration enforcement.

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Via @dennispillion.bsky.social and @insideclimatenews.org: About 2,000 low-income households in Alabama are poised to lose federal assistance to help them pay high energy bills, under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

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Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: A bill in the Alabama Legislature to extend police immunity is expected to change. How it will change is not clear.

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Via @ashleymurray.bsky.social: Patel is also the author of a children’s series that depicts a cartoon Donald Trump as a king confronting opposition, including battling a fictional stolen election, even though kings are not elected.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

Via @arianalfigueroa.bsky.social: One of the plaintiffs, a woman from Ecuador, has already been deported, the Department of Justice confirmed in a Thursday emergency hearing.

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Via @acvollers.bsky.social and @stateline.org: Alabama joined 16 other Republican AGs over the Biden administration’s addition of a gender identity-related disorder to the disabilities protected under a section of a 1973 federal law. But a backlash has erupted.

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Via @alander.bsky.social: The bill, sponsored by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, would provide presumptive Medicaid coverage for up to 60 days to pregnant people before their application for the program is formally approved. A similar bill passed the Alabama House last week.

submitted 2 days ago • 3 comments

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: HB 35, sponsored by Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, would allow survivors of volunteer firefighters who die of work-related cancer to claim a death benefit award.

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Via @alander.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would allow Medicaid to sue some parents who don’t enroll their children in employer-provided health insurance when available.

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Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: Lawmakers Wednesday halted a bill that could have made parents and guardians who don’t secure their firearms criminally liable if their children bring those guns to school.

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Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: HB 235, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, bans children 16 and younger from owning a social media account. HB 276, sponsored by Rep. Ben Robbins, R-Sylacauga, would expand limitations and parental controls to 18-year-olds.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Via @arianalfigueroa.bsky.social: The Trump administration Wednesday appealed an injunction in a suit brought by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to redefine the right to birthright citizenship in the U.S. Constitution.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Via @jennifershutt.bsky.social: Republicans have been eyeing the health care program for lower-income Americans as a way to pay for increases in spending on border security and defense, as well as a massive tax cuts package aimed at business.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would allow state and local law enforcement to enforce the nation’s immigration laws amid concerns from civil rights groups that the legislation will lead to racial profiling.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Via @alander.bsky.social: House Health Committee Chair Paul Lee, R-Dothan, said he wanted to review “some insurance issues” but did not otherwise give a reason for the delay.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill creating a conflict resolution course for middle schoolers.

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Via @alander.bsky.social: Alabama originally budgeted $1.3 billion for the construction of two new men's prisons in 2021, but costs have soared far beyond initial estimates.

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

Via @alander.bsky.social: The bill, which would effectively turn the State Board of Veterans Affairs into an advisory committee, passed despite criticism from senators from both parties about a late change to the legislation.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama House of Representatives Tuesday approved a bill that would allow dependents and spouses of Alabama law enforcement to claim a $3,000 scholarship for post-secondary education.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Via @ashleymurray.bsky.social: U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote that the AGs did not adequately show they will “suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order,” but noted later that the plaintiffs “raise a colorable Appointments Clause claim with serious implications.”

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: Allen, currently serving his first term as Alabama Secretary of State, pulled Alabama out of a multistate election alliance to share information about voters in 2023 and created a state version that observers said duplicated the functions of the original.

submitted 4 days ago • 3 comments

Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: Alabama Power plans to discontinue a fee on third-party power projects that critics said would discourage the development of renewable power.

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Via @ashleymurray.bsky.social: Two Democratic senators are demanding the Internal Revenue Service answer questions on whether, and to what extent, billionaire Elon Musk’s personnel can access tax information, particularly during filing season.

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Via @jennifershutt.bsky.social: Most of the federal government’s 2.3 million employees aren’t based in and around Washington, D.C. They are spread throughout the country, often making up core parts of the economy in rural areas and sections of the nation that swing between Democrats and Republicans.

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

Via @leehedgepeth.bsky.social and @insideclimatenews.org: Across Alabama, around 800,000 people — about 20% of the state’s population — rely on private water supplies, like wells, for drinking water, according to state estimates. That reality often has socioeconomic and racial implications, too.

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The Dear Colleague letter sent to schools offers a sweeping interpretation of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2023, which struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

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Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: The bill is scheduled to appear in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Many farmers are awaiting payments on their contracts and have not been told when or if they can expect to receive expected funding. Billions of dollars are at stake.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The report said Alabama moved up national rankings of children's wellness due to education and juvenile justice initiatives but also because other states regressed.

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Via @stateline.org: “I would analogize it to many states launching their own DOGE commissions, to sort of signal affinity with what’s happening in Washington,” said Peter Morrissey, senior director of talent and strategy at the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit that supports public sector workers.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Editor @brianlyman.bsky.social writes that the "What Is Woman Act" includes a provision giving local governments and schools in Alabama wide berth to create single-sex spaces when "biology, privacy, safety or fairness" come into play. The bill neither defines nor qualifies those terms.

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Parents of children who need adult-sized changing tables spoke at an Alabama Senate committee meeting last week about the difficulties in finding those services in public.

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Via @alander.bsky.social: An Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) official said Friday that a state program providing services to people with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges could suffer from possible federal cuts.

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Via @jennifershutt.bsky.social: Here’s a breakdown of how reconciliation works, how it differs from passing yearly spending bills that fund government operations and what obstacles Republicans are likely to run into along their journey.

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

A few days after this column ran, the Alabama Senate dropped the language echoing the Fugitive Slave Act from one of the bills in its anti-immigrant package. Good to scale a low bar, I guess. But still: Lots of ugly crap — including high fees on international remittances — remains before lawmakers.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Via @kffhealthnews.org: In nearly a dozen states with total or near-total abortion bans, government officials claimed that zero or very few abortions occurred in 2023. Medical professionals say such accounts are not only untrue but also fundamentally dishonest.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Via @iowacapitaldispatch.com: Alabama is one of of 20 states joining a brief in support of President Donald Trump’s administration and Elon Musk amid lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force.

submitted 8 days ago • 5 comments

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social, @rchapoco.bsky.social and @alander.bsky.social: Here's our weekly roundup of bills that passed the Alabama Legislature. Uh, Happy Valentine's Day.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

President Donald Trump said he wants the wealthy donor and former World Wrestling Entertainment executive “to put herself out of a job.”

submitted 8 days ago • 2 comments

Via @alander.bsky.social: The bill includes devices that can turn semiautomatic firearms into automatic weapons in its definition of machine gun.

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: HB 89, sponsored by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, establishes “presumptive Medicaid eligibility” for women who are pregnant. That would allow them to receive health care coverage for up to 60 days before their formal application for the program is approved.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Via @alander.bsky.social: An Alabama legislative committee Thursday approved a report recommending the state adopt a hybrid model of funding the state’s public schools but leaving the door open to other approaches.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Via @rchapoco.bsky.social: The Alabama House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill aimed at improving Alabama high school students’ access to college courses they can take for credit.

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Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: “And now those of us who are actually affected by it will have to find a way to live under the discrimination it legalizes, because we certainly aren’t going anywhere,” said Allison Montgomery, a volunteer with the Alabama Transgender Rights Action Coalition.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Via @arianalfigueroa.bsky.social: A federal judge appeared skeptical that the religious groups had the standing for a nationwide injunction. But he also expressed doubts about the DOJ’s argument that the DHS policy didn’t create a burden on the religious groups’ rights to practice and worship.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Via @alander.bsky.social: The Senate removed language from one bill that echoed the Fugitive Slave Act. But an immigration advocate said the proposals could still lead to harassment of immigrants and those who work with them.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment