Ethics and monkey business

The Alabama state House Ethics and Finance Committee has been meeting on how lawmakers might update the state ethics law.

The Alabama Reflector reports that the committee’s third meeting was held on Thursday and members took a look at related legislation that has passed the Legislature over the past decade or so, as well as some more recent measures that didn’t make it to the governor’s desk.

Topics in the meeting included disclosure of personal financial information. After these meetings the committee is expected to draft updates to ethics state law that can be considered during the 2024 legislative session.

This is an important topic as it affects how much trust we’re able to put in our elected officials. At the same time, we couldn’t help but be distracted by the report that, during the ethics discussions, someone in a gorilla outfit walked in and sat down.

Committee chair Matt Simpson, a Daphne Republican, said he did not assess the situation as threatening.

No word on where the gorilla guy came from, but this is the sort of thing you might’ve expected a few years back after all those people started moving here from California.

Military promotions

Former U.S. Senate leaders Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, and Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, were in Mobile Thursday to talk about bipartisanship in the extremely partisan times we’re in, and AL.com’s John Sharp reports that they both went on the record opposing Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions.

Tuberville has been using the blockade as a way to pressure the U.S. State Department about its abortion policies. Democrats in the Senate are able to get around the blocks by holding a roll-call vote on each one. Now there reportedly more than 350 openings to be filled, so catching up one at a time would take some time.

Lott said, “I’m from Pascagoula and I feel strongly about the military. It’s not a good idea to hold up these nominations, quite frankly.”

Batty, in a good way

We have good news on an endangered species in Alabama. The northern long-eared bat lives in caves in North Alabama, and it’s one of the kinds of bats that have been decimated by white-nose syndrome.

But AL.com’s Dennis Pillion reports that the northern long-eared bat has been found in Coastal Alabama. White-nose syndrome spreads among cave-dwelling bats, and these bats in Coastal Alabama mostly live in the woods rather than caves. They also don’t hibernate like the ones in the northern part of the state.

This started back in May when researchers captured three of the bats — one male and two pregnant females (who if they had sight might’ve been casting sideways glances at the one male).

Since then, researchers have interacted with more bats, some that were lactating, so they were able to establish that there is a breeding population in the Perdido Wildlife Management Area in Baldwin County.

Quoting

“I used to drink. When we had kids and my kids were growing up, I decided I didn’t want to set that kind of example for them. So I just quit drinking, and it’s probably the best thing I ever did.”

Alabama football coach Nick Saban, on ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show

More Alabama news

On this date

• In 1917, jazz trumpet player Bama Warwick of Birmingham was born. He played with Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich and many others.
• In 1973, the University of Alabama football team set a collegiate record with 833 total offensive yards in a 77-6 win over Virginia Tech. That’s still a school record, as is the 748 rushing yards for the Tide that day.

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