Three state lawmakers have filed a bill that would allow workers to sue their employers for any “adverse reaction” they receive from COVID-19 vaccines mandated by their job.

The bill, prefiled Sept. 1 for the 2022 legislative session beginning in January, “would provide a private right of action against an employer for any adverse reaction, injury, temporary or permanent disability, or death of an employee arising from an employer mandate that the employee receive a 13 COVID-19 vaccine,” according to text of the legislation introduced by Reps. Tommy Haynes, R-Scottsboro; Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals and Arnold Mooney, R-Birmingham.

Should the employee die from the vaccine, their family would be allowed to sue their employer, according to the bill.

According to the CDC, adverse reactions from the COVID-19 vaccine are rare.

https://www.al.com/politics/2021/09/state-bill-would-let-workers-sue-if-they-get-sick-from-employer-mandated-covid-19-vaccines.html
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Alabama Democratic Party Chair Chris England said today new prisons won’t fix the state’s overcrowded, understaffed, and violence-plagued correctional system.

England, who also represents a Tuscaloosa district in the House of Representatives, said criminal justice reforms are necessary if Alabama wants to fix prisons the Department of Justice says are riddled with violence, weapons, drugs and that hold men in dangerous conditions that violate the Constitution.

“It looks like we’re just kicking the can down the road,” England said. “Building prisons without engaging in real reform of the system is like history repeating itself in Alabama. Every time we come to this threshold, we always build prisons versus digging in and trying to figure out why we keep getting into this situation.

“For me, building prisons without dealing with your pardons and paroles system and the leadership there, building prisons without dealing with the lack of leadership in the Department of Corrections, and building prisons without sentencing reform that helps us properly identify who really deserves those long sentences, it’s just going to result in us putting old problems in new buildings.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/09/alabama-democratic-party-chair-says-prison-plan-putting-old-problems-in-new-buildings.html

MyPillow founder and Donald Trump adviser Mike Lindell plans to conduct “tests” on Alabama’s voter rolls after purchasing the list, said Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, who along with Gov. Kay Ivey met with Lindell on Friday.

Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow who is Trump’s main attack dog in the former president’s battle contending the 2020 presidential election was stolen, is going to comb through the list of Alabama voters to determine whether the state has any ineligible people on it, including deceased residents.

Merrill said he doesn’t expect Lindell to find evidence that Alabama’s voter list, which is available for purchase by anyone, is tainted.

“We know we don’t put people on the voter rolls unless they’re qualified to be on the voter rolls,” the secretary of state told AL.com.

Read more: https://www.al.com/politics/2021/09/mypillows-mike-lindell-to-run-tests-on-alabama-voter-list-after-meeting-merrill-ivey.html

Alabama troopers escort workers past striking coal miners ‘like they’re working for the company,’ union says


Members of the United Mine Workers of America are calling attention to the use of the Highway Patrol Division of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency along the picket line at Warrior Met Coal in Tuscaloosa County.

More than 1,000 members of the union have been on strike against Warrior Met Coal since April 1, picketing for higher pay and benefits.

Union members say the use of troopers to escort workers past the picket line “just looks like they’re working for the company,” UMWA spokesman Phil Smith said. “There haven’t been any reason to be concerned about the buses going back and forth. It just looks like the company doesn’t need to hire its own security guards.”

ALEA spokeswoman Robyn Bryan said Warrior Met Coal approached ALEA when the strike began “relative to safety concerns for both their employees and citizens within the area.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/09/alabama-troopers-escort-workers-past-striking-coal-miners-like-theyre-working-for-the-company-union-says.html

Alabama troopers escort workers past striking coal miners ‘like they’re working for the company,’ union says


Members of the United Mine Workers of America are calling attention to the use of the Highway Patrol Division of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency along the picket line at Warrior Met Coal in Tuscaloosa County.

More than 1,000 members of the union have been on strike against Warrior Met Coal since April 1, picketing for higher pay and benefits.

Union members say the use of troopers to escort workers past the picket line “just looks like they’re working for the company,” UMWA spokesman Phil Smith said. “There haven’t been any reason to be concerned about the buses going back and forth. It just looks like the company doesn’t need to hire its own security guards.”

ALEA spokeswoman Robyn Bryan said Warrior Met Coal approached ALEA when the strike began “relative to safety concerns for both their employees and citizens within the area.”

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/09/alabama-troopers-escort-workers-past-striking-coal-miners-like-theyre-working-for-the-company-union-says.html

The demand for monoclonal antibody treatments amid growing COVID-19 cases and the more contagious delta variant prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to stop allowing state medical providers to order the life-saving drug directly, and instead to require the Alabama Department of Public Health to divvy up the state’s supply among providers.

“During this transition, our highest priority will be to ensure that the ordering process for monoclonal antibodies is in place, so Alabama healthcare providers can be sent needed products as soon as possible,” State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said in a statement Wednesday.

The change went into effect Monday, according to a press release from ADPH, noting that the increase in COVID cases “has caused a substantial surge in the use of monoclonal antibody products.”

Monoclonal antibody treatment, manufactured by the company Regeneron, can cut the need to hospitalize a COVID patient by 70 percent, if given within 10 days of infection, according to medical experts. ADPH notes, however, that the drug is not a replacement for COVID vaccines, which have been found to be safe and effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death.

Read more: https://www.alreporter.com/2021/09/15/alabama-providers-no-longer-directly-ordering-monoclonal-antibody-treatment-due-to-surge-in-use/
(Alabama Political Reporter)

State prosecutors responded Wednesday to former Speaker of the Alabama House Mike Hubbard’s (R) request for an early release, urging the Lee County Circuit Court to reject the request because Hubbard, they said, “offers no persuasive reason why he should serve less than half the sentence this Court ordered just ten months ago.”

Hubbard is imprisoned at Limestone Correctional Facility, where he’s been held since exhausting his appeals in late August 2020. Originally convicted of 12 felony ethics charges and sentenced to four years in prison, the Alabama Supreme Court reviewed and reduced his felony counts to six, leaving a four-year sentence.

Lee County Circuit Court Judge Jacob Walker III, the judge who originally sentenced Hubbard to those four years, later reduced his sentence to two years in November 2020.

With more than half of his sentence remaining, Hubbard’s legal team filed a motion on Sept. 10 requesting an early release.

Read more: https://www.alreporter.com/2021/09/17/state-prosecutors-urge-court-to-reject-motion-for-mike-hubbards-early-release/
(Alabama Political Reporter)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 patients, Alaska’s largest hospital on Tuesday implemented crisis standards of care, prioritizing resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most.

“While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help,” Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, chief of staff at Providence Alaska Medical Center, wrote in a letter addressed to Alaskans and distributed Tuesday.

“The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care,” Walkinshaw wrote.

Alaska, like other places, has seen a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant. State health officials said Tuesday there were 691 new cases and six recent deaths, all Anchorage men ranging in age from 50s to 70s. A woman in her 60s from out-of-state also recently died in Juneau, the department said.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-health-alaska-coronavirus-pandemic-anchorage-8580523273e5b45a1f33b94a60f2f9f9