Feb 20, 2025

Welcome back, and I sure hope you're somewhere warm.

Lots to cover this morning. Thanks for reading,

Ike

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The Hanceville police chief and four police officers have been arrested, and a Cullman County grand jury has called for the department to be abolished, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

In August, Hanceville police dispatcher Christopher Michael Willingham was found dead at work. A coroner determined he died of an accidental drug overdose.

District Attorney Champ Crocker said the dispatcher and others had "unfettered access" to the evidence room and that a broom handle was being used to jimmy open the door. He also said that some of the evidence had been found in the dispatcher's office the day he was discovered dead.

Piecing that together, the grand jury believed that the dispatcher's death was due to the negligence of the police department.

An intense investigation into the department was launched by the State Bureau of Investigation, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the Alabama Ethics Commission, the Cullman Police Department and Wallace State police.

What it found persuaded the grand jury to point to “a rampant culture of corruption.”

Arrested included Chief Jason Marlin, who's been in the position since August and was charged with two counts of failure to report ethics crimes and tampering with physical evidence. The other officers are facing charges such as computer tampering, controlled-substance crimes including distribution, tampering with evidence and using their offices for personal gain.

Most of the charges are felonies.

Last week a coalition of states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Department of Government Efficiency's accessing Social Security Administration information.
Some taxpayer advocacy groups, labor unions and others have also announced legal actions.

Now, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined Republican AGs from 18 other states to file a brief in support of Elon Musk's group having that access, reports AL.com's Patrick Darrington.

They argue that Article II of the Constitution gives the president authority to give executive-branch employees access even to the sensitive information kept by the Social Security Administration.

Said Marshall: “I stand firmly with DOGE and will continue fighting to ensure this administration can expose and eliminate the fraud that has plagued our federal government for far too long.”

Both houses of the Alabama Legislature this week passed nearly identical bills that would exempt nursing mothers from jury duty, reports AL.com's Heather Gann.

The issue came up when some nursing moms complained that they were being harassed and threatened by judges in Jefferson County. The Alabama Supreme Court has already issued a ruling that a mother in this situation should be excused. Now this bill, which is being called "Parker's Law," would put it into statute.

Under the law, a nursing mom who provides a written statement certifying she is a nursing mother would be exempt for up to 24 months.

The Senate bill was amended to require only a written statement from the mother, not a healthcare provider, in order to remove a step that be cost-prohibitive for some.

An analysis by GoBankingRates.com examined what kind of income it takes to put you in the upper-middle class in whatever state you live in. Which, for most of us, of course, is Alabama.

Note that it's not the upper class or the middle class but the upper-middle class. For our purposes let's call it the Alabourgeoisie -- the rising middle class of people who eat at Waffle House ironically and have 30A stickers in their rear windshields.

Pew Research Center defines the middle class as “those with an income that is two-thirds to double the median income.” GoBankingRates took that definition and identified the "upper-middle class" as the top 20% of earning in the middle class.

Follow so far? When the math is done, it all means that you are in the "upper-middle class" if your household income is at least $103,322 but not more than $119,218.

You may have seen something on social media about Honda and Toyota laying off thousands of people nationwide -- perhaps impacting workers here in Alabama -- because of the Trump Administration's 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Check those sources.

So far, there's nothing from those automakers indicating layoffs, reports AL.com's William Thornton. Honda, which is unveiling the 2026 Honda Passport SUV at its Lincoln plant, issued a release calling the statement false.

Don't lick snow off metal gliders, kids.

In this image by Haley Laurence, snow falls in Scottsboro on Wednesday.

“The trust in law enforcement is conditioned on the ability to hold officers accountable for their actions.”

Jim Taylor, a former police officer who lives in Alabaster, during debate at the State House over the "back the blue" bill on immunity for police.

$135 million

That's the announced price tag on a Core Scientific data center planned for what's currently the AUBix Data Center in Auburn.

In 1942, Tennessee U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Sheffield.

In 1963, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley of Leeds.

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