Today should be nice and warm for National Weatherpersons Day.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

State of the State

Gov. Kay Ivey told the Alabama state legislature that public safety is her top priority for the new session, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason.

Ivey laid out her agenda in her eighth State of the State address Tuesday at the Capitol in Montgomery.

One piece of that will be an attempt to expand a Montgomery crime-fighting program called MACS, or the Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit.

With MACS, law-enforcement officers from numerous agencies — ALEA, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, the Montgomery Police Department, the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — collaborate to target violent crime and coordinate investigations.

In other words, we could see MACS Units show up in cities such as Birmingham.

The governor also wants to add legal protections for police. Alabama Law Enforcement Secretary Hal Taylor said the threat of civil and criminal actions against officers makes it difficult to recruit officers.

Ivey said she would support a state ban on Glock switches, a bill that would allow electronic monitoring of high-risk juvenile offenders, and a “Second Chance” act for some criminal offenders.

Also on the first day of the session, as expected, state Sen. Garlan Gudger, a Cullman Republican, won the vote to become the Senate’s president pro tem.

Of this current legislative session, Gudger said priorities include protecting families and values, promoting government efficiency and transparency, and supporting the feds in fighting illegal immigration.

He also left a door slightly cracked open on lottery and other gambling. Cracked open just enough so that I could mention it here on this show for the 8,714th time in eight years. Gudger voiced concern over all the money Alabamians spend on other states’ lotteries.

Don’t cash out your 401K to invest in your lotto-retirement plan yet, though. Last year’s annual gambling-package fail seems to have killed the energy behind the effort, and other legislative leaders have said a lottery package is not a priority this time around.

More Space Command competition?

Elected officials in Alabama aren’t the only ones clamoring for another U.S. Space Command headquarters redirect.

Remember: The Air Force selected Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal as the permanent headquarters, then former President Biden nixed that in favor of keeping HQ at its interim site in Colorado Springs. Both Alabama’s U.S. senators and North Alabama Congressman Dale Strong have introduced a resolution calling on President Trump to reverse that reversal.

After Alabama and Colorado officials have spent years in that rasslin’ match, a fresh batch of Ohio lawmakers are now charging into the ring.

AL.com’s John R. Roby reports that Ohio’s state legislature passed a joint resolution pitching Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, as the future home of Space Command HQ. The U.S. Senate armed services committee received their petition on Monday.

There are currently two reviews of the Air Force’s selection process taking place.

Hospital woes

Financially troubled Jackson Hospital in Montgomery has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports AL.com’s Savannah Tryens-Fernandes.

Hospital officials say it’s staying open and that the filing won’t affect patient care. The hospital recently asked the Montgomery City Council to guarantee a $20.5 million loan. It did not.

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said he still wants to find ways to support the hospital, and state lawmakers issued a statement acknowledging that the hospital’s value is felt well beyond Montgomery.

A report from the Alabama Hospital Association last year found that hospital margins were down dramatically since the pandemic and that about half of the state’s hospitals were losing money.

It’s good to be mayor

You ever work a job where there was just never enough money in the budget for the raise they wanted to give you — but when you finally left the job they hired your replacement at a much more competitive salary?

At first, you have to wonder whether Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson feels a little like that.

But if he is he’s not letting on. Stimpson is praising the Mobile City Council’s vote to raise the pay of the next mayor.

AL.com’s John Sharp reports that the next mayor will make $70,000 more in salary. That’ll take the annual haul to $195,000, as of now the highest for a mayor in Alabama.

Tuscaloosa’s Mayor Walt Maddox makes around $177,000 to currently lead the state. Last year Bessemer approved a pay package for its next mayor that’ll top $180,000.

Stimpson won’t be running for re-election in this August’s election. He said he knows people who would qualify to be mayor but would’ve had to take a pay cut. He said the new pay level might persuade more people to run.

On the other side of that coin, Councilman William Carroll said he was worried people would run for a high-paying job more than to serve the city.

By the Numbers

82

That’s how many dogs were seized from a Florence home, according to authorities, during an animal-cruelty bust.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1934, baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron of Mobile.

In 1944, guitarist J.R. Cobb of Birmingham.

In 1950, Auburn and NFL wide receiver Terry Beasley of Montgomery.

In 1973, NFL defensive end Israel Raybon of Huntsville.

The podcast