Thousands of Alabamians flocked to Birmingham last night for a rally held by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. APR’s Alex AuBuchon attended the rally and files this report.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders opened his rally saying there must have been some mistake, that he was told Alabama was a conservative state. Sanders was right to be surprised. Over seven thousand supporters came from across the Southeast to attend the rally. Fifty seven hundred filled Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium to capacity with another fourteen hundred braving sub-freezing temperatures to watch on a jumbo TV outside. While elaborating policy points, Sanders also took a few shots at Alabama’s state government.
“When the governor of this state refuses to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, he’s impacting everybody. When they deny Medicaid, the expansion of Medicaid? Impacting everybody!”
Sanders became the eleventh presidential candidate to visit Alabama during this presidential race.
The killer of a Birmingham woman is still hoping for a stay of execution. Christopher Brooks is scheduled to die by lethal injection this Thursday for the murder of Jo Deann Campbell twenty three years ago. Brooks wants the eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stop his death sentence until lawsuits over Alabama’s lethal injection drug combination are resolved. Investigators quickly linked Brooks to the 1992 slaying with DNA evidence and other forensic clues. The jury convicted him and voted eleven to one for capital punishment. ?
A lot of Alabamians have weight loss on their minds. One hundred and Fifty dieters stepped onto a truck scale to prove they’d lost over thirty four thousand pounds. That could a record. But, only after it’s confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. While that goes on, Alabamians are teaming up for the tenth annual Scale Back Alabama weight loss program. Theresa Fair is the Health and Behavior nutritionist at the Alabama department of health. She says they are hopeful that they broke a Guinness World Record.
“January 8th was our kick off and we attempted to break a Guinness World Record and we did accomplish that in terms of the number of people that were required to do that but we are still in the process of getting our paperwork to Guinness and getting that verified. The kickoff started on the 8th but the actual program starts on January 25th.”
The official weigh-in for Scale Back Alabama is next Monday. The final weigh-in is in late April.
This year’s state legislative session is just around the corner. The League of Women Voters of Greater Tuscaloosa is so-sponsoring a meet your legislators’ event tonight the Bryant conference center on the campus of the University of Alabama. Nine members of the local state house and senate delegations have been invited to speak and take questions from voters starting at 6:30. The legislature is expecting another tight budget year, with more cuts possible. Alabama’s Medicaid agency is asking for a spending increase. Lawmakers are also considering a higher gas tax and a state lottery.
