Nov 28, 2023

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says senators can expect “long days and nights, and potentially weekends” in the coming month as they tackle several issues, including a way around Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s continuing blockade of military promotions.

Schumer, in a letter to his Democratic colleagues, outlined his agenda for the senate in December. One issue is the ongoing blockage of more than 350 military promotions, begun back in February by Tuberville in protest to the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy.

In his letter, Schumer called the blockade “brazen and reckless,” and “another area where extreme and unprecedented obstruction by a single Republican Senator has eroded centuries of Senate norms and injected extreme partisanship into what has long been a bipartisan process.”

Schumer, in his letter, said he will bring the resolution to the floor in coming weeks “so we can swiftly confirm the hundreds of highly qualified and dedicated military leaders being held up by Senator Tuberville before the end of the year.”

The measure requires 60 votes to pass, meaning at least nine Republicans would have to support it on the Senate floor, according to Politico.

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission voted Monday to disregard scores from third-party evaluators that had been used to rank applicants for business licenses.

The scores, compiled by graders hired by the University of South Alabama, have been one of the most contentious parts of the licensing process, which has been stalled since June, delaying when products could be available to patients awaiting the startup of the new industry.

Some companies that ranked poorly on the scores said the scoring system failed to adequately consider key factors in qualifying for a license, including a requirement to begin cultivating marijuana within 60 days of receiving a license.

The decision to disregard the scores means the AMCC is essentially starting over in the awarding of business licenses. The commission approved new rules and a timeline in October.

The plan includes allowing license applicants to make presentations to the commission for the first time. The presentations began on Monday and will continue through next week.

The timeline calls for awarding licenses in December, followed by a due diligence period, then issuing the licenses in late December and early January. If the timeline holds and the process is not stopped again by litigation, that would mean products would be available next year.

Baxter Healthcare Corp. accepted about $3.3 million in state and local government incentives tied to the expansion of its Alabama plant. In exchange, the company agreed to hire and keep at least 200 employees through last year.

This month, with the decade-long deal done, the company is closing the facility in Opelika and laying off 459 employees. So was this a good deal for Alabama? For Opelika?

The small city paid Baxter $1.3 million in cash incentives over the last eight years, in addition to providing other tax breaks, according to city records obtained by AL.com.

The medical device manufacturer also received $2 million from the state, said Stefania Jones, spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Commerce.

Baxter was eligible for more than $5 million in total cash incentives through its decade-long agreement with Alabama, Opelika and Opelika Industrial Authority, per a copy of the original 2014 agreement. In exchange, Baxter invested $270 million into expanding the facility that’s operated since the early 2000s, doubled the existing space to 400,000 square feet and doubled its workforce to 350 employees.

As of Nov. 30, Baxter is laying off hundreds more employees than it was incentivized to hire. That’s per a WARN notice reported Sept. 27, which major employers are legally required to file to notify the state that it plans to cut a lot of jobs. The company reported to Opelika that it employed 564 full-time workers at the Alabama plant, as of June 2022.

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