In the Weeds with Alabama Daily News

We were invited to host the show from the League of Credit Union’s Alabama Advocacy Day, which featured a gathering of credit union leaders from around the state. Todd and Alexander talk about the issues facing the Legislature and take questions from the audience on everything from gambling, the state of the news media and education.

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

A new episode of “In the Weeds” is out today.

I’m talking with ADN Washington Correspondent Alex Angle about her first month reporting on Capitol Hill and what it has been like covering the Alabama delegation in this crazy first few weeks of the Trump Administration.

After that, Mary Sell and I get into legislative session prep, talking through what the next 13 weeks are going to look like in Montgomery.

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

While Montgomery prepares for the upcoming legislative session, all eyes are on Washington, D.C. this week as the U.S. Senate is in the heat of the confirmation process for President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.

Stephen Boyd comes “In the Weeds” this week to talk about that process, which he is familiar with as both someone who himself went through Senate confirmation and who prepared senators for the questioning of nominees.

The “In the Weeds w/ Alabama Daily News ” podcast is back for its sixth season and we’ll be with you just as soon as we figure out what day of the week it is. Or what year, honestly.

Mary and I revisit the stories from 2024 that will bleed into 2025, including the Veterans Affairs saga, school choice, overtime income tax cuts and more.

We’ve actually recorded multiple podcasts that were never published due to audio problems, but those are now resolved so you can listen to our pontificating on a more regular basis as we get into the busy season.

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

This week marked the arrival of Trisha Powell Crain at Alabama Daily News as our Senior Education Reporter. That has us all excited, but especially Mary who can’t help but gush about all the fun possibilities this brings.

In this episode of In the Weeds, we talk to Trish about her journey to becoming Alabama’s premiere education reporter and then get into her latest education stories: exploring a new funding model, the CHOOSE Act, charter schools and how the Literacy Act implementation is going.

It’s springtime for education wonks at Alabama Daily News!

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

For this latest episode of “In the Weeds,” Mary and I are on location at the recent Alabama Retired State Employees conference in Birmingham, where they interview House General Fund Budget Chairman Rex Reynolds.

We discuss a number of topics, from how budgets are going to look to the crime issue and what might happen on gambling.

It’s a good discussion with a fun ending that brought down the house.

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the latest In the Weeds podcast, Todd and Mary get into more details on Alabama Veterans Department Commission Kent Davis’ forced resignation following the messy, and later dismissed, ethics complaint he filed fellow state agency leader Kim Boswell of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. When Davis initially said he wouldn’t resign, Gov. Kay Ivey’s office released information about concerns raised about the department’s proposed spending of American Rescue Plan Act money.

They also run down the statuses of the state’s current General Fund and Education Trust Fund and outline some issues and big asks looming in the 2026 legislative session.

Todd and Mary discuss their recent story about the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs filing an ethics complaint against the head of the Department of Mental Health over an opioid funding dispute. Messy!

Also their trip to the Business Council of Alabama conference and the latest with prisons and ADN’s plans to hire a reporter based in DC.

Mary and Todd discuss the crazy last 30 days it has been in American politics, including how national events will impact Alabama. Specifically, they get into how the switcharoo at the top of the Democratic ticket might impact the big race in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.

Following through on his commitment from a few weeks ago, Todd submits himself to a round of “Ask Me Anything,” fielding questions from In the Weeds listeners. Topics range from the origins of Alabama Daily News, go-to political stories and, of course, Toby the dog.

Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, was in the minority in the Alabama House this spring when he twice voted against the gambling proposal that would have allowed Alabamians to vote on a statewide lottery and expanded casino-style gambling opportunities in the state. 

In a wide-ranging conversation on Alabama Daily News’ podcast, In the Weeds, Kiel said his opposition to gambling started before he became a lawmaker in 2018 and is multifaceted.

“It’s a long-held belief of mine that we’re growing government again by expanding legalized gambling and I think there are societal ills that come with casinos and that type of gambling that I am philosophically against,” Kiel said.

The proposal ultimately failed in the Senate by one vote.

Though he opposed the legislation, Kiel said Thursday there is one aspect of it he liked. Proponents of the bill said it would allow law enforcement more effective ways for addressing illegal gambling operations in the state.

“The part that I did agree with though is that we do have an illegal gambling problem in Alabama,” Kiel said on Alabama Daily News’ In the Weeds podcast. “…I do agree we have to do something to address that; I don’t know exactly what it looks like.”

Kiel, vice-chair of the House education budget committee also discussed his concerns about a proposal to raise the state’s sales tax on online purchases. That proposal will come back in 2025.

Kiel also discussed Senate Bill 1, which he carried in the House, the GOP-led effort to criminalize monetary benefits for helping people fill out absentee ballot applications. Several groups have said they’re stopping some get-out-the-vote efforts in the wake of the new law, Alabama Daily News reported this week. 

https://aldailynews.com/some-groups-halt-voter-outreach-efforts-in-wake-of-alabamas-new-ballot-harvesting-law/

“It’s a very short law,” Kiel said. “It simply keeps people from getting paid or pay to assist with applications.”

Senate Bill 1 makes it a Class B felony to provide a payment or gift for assistance with an absentee ballot application, punishable with up to 20 years in prison. It also makes it a Class C felony to receive payment or gift for assisting another person with their absentee ballot application, and further prohibits anyone from pre-filling an absentee ballot application on behalf of another voter.

Kiel said he’d like to see 100% voter participation.

“What I don’t want is for outside groups to influence our election in some way,” he said. 

Kiel said he’ll bring back next year two pieces of legislation that advanced this year but fell short of final passage. 

One would require law enforcement to notify parents if their minor child receives a traffic citation.

The bill is named for Tyler Jeffery “T.J.” Morgan, a 21-year-old Tuscumbia resident who died of blunt force trauma in a wreck in 2022. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt. His mother, April Vafeas, later found three seat belt citations he’dreceived as a teenager while he was driving a vehicle registered to her.

https://aldailynews.com/legislative-briefs-for-april-11-2/

The second bill, known as the Pregnancy Resource Act, would allow up to $10 million a year in tax credits to be awarded to Alabamians who make donations to pregnancy centers. 

Pregnancy centers are nonprofit organizations that offer medical services to pregnant women such as testing and sonograms. The centers also provide women with information on alternatives to abortion, including adoption. 

Kiel said his bill was modeled after a law in Mississippi. It passed in the House but died in the Senate.

“These are mothers, these are babies and we need to do everything we can to make sure they get a great start in life,” he said. 

https://aldailynews.com/bill-allowing-tax-credits-for-donations-to-pregnancy-centers-up-in-house-tuesday/