Below is the podcast player followed by the newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each day here.

Alabama 2: The nominees

The GOP’s hopes to continue representing Alabama’s Second Congressional District lie with a first-time candidate against a Democrat who worked in the Obama administration and U.S. Justice Department, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason.

The district was redrawn to favor the Democrats. And while more people voted in the Republican primary than the Democratic primary last month, more people voted in the Democratic runoff.

Attorney Caroleene Dobson defeated former state senator and Montgomery auto dealer Dick Brewbaker. Dobson grew up in Monroe County and practiced law in Texas until moving to Montgomery about five years ago. Her win was boosted by the 69 percent she carried in Mobile County.

She’ll face Shomari Figures, the son of state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures and the late former state senator Michael Figures. Shomari Figures was the chief of staff for Attorney General Merrick Garland before moving back to Mobile to run for office. He defeated current Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels in the Democratic runoff.

School money

Speaking of state legislators, a $9.3 billion state education budget has been passed by the Alabama House of Representatives, reports AL.com’s Trisha Powell Crain and Rebecca Griesbach.

It would be a 6.25% increase over the current budget. That’s the biggest increase state law will allow. Add to supplemental appropriations of around $1.7 billion from the Advancement and Technology Fund and unexpected tax revenue.

It would mean a 2% raise for most education employees, on top of our undying appreciation that you really can’t put a price tag on.

It would raise starting teacher’s pay to $47,600.

And it includes a new health sciences high school in Demopolis and more money for principals and assistant principals.

The package now moves to the Senate.

The Ex-Governors Club

It seems like it is increasingly rare to see a Democrat and a Republican team up for a cause.

I don’t think it’s that they’re on the opposite side of everything as much as they just don’t want to admit they see eye to eye. You’re risking political capital if people find out you think the guys on the other side are human.

The secret might be to find those who don’t have much political capital left to lose.

Two former Alabama governors — one who resigned under the threat of impeachment and one who spent time in prison — have thrown their support behind a bill that would retroactively ban judges from overriding a jury’s decision at death-penalty trials, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.

The governors supporting the bill are Republican Robert Bentley and Democrat Don Siegelman.

The bill is an effort specifically to reverse instances in which juries handed down life sentences in capital-murder cases but then had judges change the sentences to death.

That’s known as judicial override, and it was banned in Alabama in 2017. But the current law wasn’t written to cover those who are already on Death Row as a result of a judicial override.

The bill to make the law retroactive, which will be debated in committee today, is sponsored in the House of Representatives by Chris England, a Tuscaloosa Democrat.

On yesterday’s Amber alert

You may have received an Amber alert text message yesterday afternoon that said a 5-year-old boy had reportedly been abducted out of Montgomery by his 13-year-old sister. They had not been seen since the previous evening.

The Amber alert was canceled late last night.

AL.com’s Carol Robinson reports Montgomery police confirmed to her that both children were found unharmed in Selma.

A music festival’s name

Huntsville’s new big music festival has a name, reports AL.com’s Matt Wake.

The South Star Music Festival now has a website and social-media presence, but it hasn’t yet released an artist lineup or ticket prices.

It’ll be held on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 28-29.

It’s bold, as any wedding planner will tell you, to plan a weekend event during football season in Alabama. That Saturday will be Alabama-Georgia and Auburn-Oklahoma, both home games.

On the website, organizers do make mention of a “giant sports bar.”

By the Numbers

That’s how many scholarship Alabama men’s basketball players are reported to have decided to enter the transfer portal since the Crimson Tide’s first-ever Final Four appearance.

More Alabama news

Born on This Date

In 1973, former NBA player Theo Ratliff of Demopolis.

The podcast