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Editor's note: The following is an opinion article written by Brewton physician Dr. Marsha Raulerson. Three hundred thousand adults in Alabama are without access to health care except thru emergency rooms - which is expensive, inadequate, and costly to hospitals due to uncompensated care. Thirty-eight states have now expanded Medicaid to adults, with 90% of the funding by the Federal Government and 10 percent by states. No state has reversed its decision to do so. Ten years of research now...
To say voter turnout Tuesday in Atmore, Brewton and Flomaton was pathetic is an understatement. Atmore and Flomaton came in at about 34 percent and Brewton dipped to around 26 percent with a whopping 14.4 percent turning out in Brewton's council District 5 that showed incumbent Cheryl Barton defeating Richard Royce 81-30. I scratch my head after every election wondering why people don't vote. I scratch my head more when people don't vote in municipal elections. These are the people who decide...
Since March we've been hearing about getting back to some sort of normalcy in wake of COVID-19. We didn't say get back to normal, because we don't think we'll ever get back to our pre-coronavirus days. Even with a vaccine and/or antibiotic to kill the virus, we will have people continuing to wear masks and we will have people shying away from large gatherings. Football has been a topic of discussion for months – will we play, when will be play. Well we are playing high school football. Some s...
“We will never accept political gridlock as our fate.” 2020 Democratic Party Platform Last Saturday the House of Representatives met to pass a bill blocking the reform of our troubled Postal Service, reform which is desperately needed for a failing agency hemorrhaging billions of dollars each year. It was just a political show as the Democrats knew it was going nowhere, although I don’t know who in America wasted their Saturday afternoon to bother watching another display of blathering hypocrisy. Mark Meadows, President Trump’s Chief of Staf...
The most enduring legacy a president will have is an appointment to the United States Supreme Court. A lifetime appointment to the high tribunal is the ultimate power. The nine Justices of the Supreme Court have omnipotent everlasting power over most major decisions affecting issues and public policy in our nation. President Trump has had two SCOTUS appointments and confirmations. This is monumental. These appointments may be his lasting legacy. The only Alabamian to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court was Hugo Black. It may come as a surprise...
The Democrat National Convention mercilessly passed into history with barely a whimper. The first virtual national convention was hopelessly flat and uninspiring. There was ample hatred for Trump; in fact, that was essentially the entire Democrat message – they will oust Trump. But even that was tepid compared to the last four years of howling accusations. Beyond “orange man bad,” Democrats almost dystopian description of the country offered Americans nothing to vote for. Are they hoping they can simply stoke enough Trump Derangement Syndr...
Benny Barnes. Love him or hate him, but the one thing you can say about him is that he loved the city of Century and did what ever he could to move the town forward. Barnes died early Tuesday morning at the age of 86. The last time I saw him was last year at the Sawmill Festival in Century right down the street from his house. Barnes rubbed some people the wrong way. He rubbed me the wrong way on many occasions. We yelled at each other a few times, but deep down he knew he had a job to do and...
Escambia County (Ala.) School Superintendent John Knott said he and the school board knew it was going to happen. They knew when school started, COVID-19 would appear within the walls of the schools in the system. Three employees at Flomaton High School tested positive and the school acted quickly. They got the students out of the old middle school wing, moved them to the auditorium on a Thursday and told them not to come back until Monday. Thursday afternoon and Friday the building was cleaned...
Apparently, I and the rest of the House of Representatives are being called back to Washington for a series of votes this Saturday. Has Speaker Pelosi finally reached an agreement with President Trump and Senator McConnell on the next phase of coronavirus legislation? No, her intransigence killed those negotiations and President Trump was left having to take unilateral action in executive orders issued last week. Has she reached an agreement on funding the government for the next fiscal year which starts in six weeks? No, there are no talks...
Some of you may wonder how many past governors we have in Alabama who are still living and how they are doing. We have six living past governors. Governor John Patterson is our oldest living chief executive. Patterson is 99 years old and living on his ancestral family farm in rural Tallapoosa County in an obscure area named Goldville. Patterson is a legend in Alabama politics. He was Governor from 1958-1962 and was at the forefront of the beginning of the Civil Rights issue. He has the distinction of being the only person to beat George...
Does anyone seriously believe the polls? Supposedly Joe Biden is beating President Trump in polls across the country and often by double digits, so perhaps that’s why he is comfortable hiding in his basement and avoiding actually campaigning. According to pollsters and the press, Sleepy Joe pretty much has the presidential election in the bag. The Democrat media complex has worked overtime to fabricate the narrative that America has hit the skids. The economy is collapsing, the world hates us, schools can’t reopen, sports can’t be played, most...
I understand that people are innocent until proven guilty but if Josephine Dailey Gaines is convicted of basically leaving her mentally retarded sister to starve to death in Atmore while she cashed and spent her sister's Social Security disability checks, prison is too light a sentence – she should have a special place in Hell. Back in March when Atmore police officers found the badly decomposed body of Vandoren Dailey inside a home at 71 Jones St., I remember talking with Atmore Police Chief C...
The test of whether or not we will get back to some sort of normalcy began last week when the Escambia County (Ala.) School System opened its doors for students. A lot of churches and other organizations have decided to see things go in schools for a few weeks before they decide to open their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A little normalcy did take place with football players back on the field and bands rehearsing their halftime shows. But what is our definition of normal? We personally do...
On August 18, the U.S. will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to our Constitution which guaranteed women’s right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement in our country began in the 1840s as women abolitionists saw the parallels between the effort to free enslaved Americans and their own desire to vote. A convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 which produced an organized group led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, among others. The two movements worked together until wom...
It has been a month since our mid-July GOP runoffs for the U.S. Senate and two open Congressional seats. Since then, numerous publications as well as many of you have asked me to analyze and assess the outcomes. In the Senate runoff between Tommy Tuberville and Jeff Sessions the outcome can be explained in one word, “Trump.” It is that simple. Coach Tuberville read the playbook, perfectly and stayed on script. Alabama is Trump Country. President Trump may very well replicate or exceed his 63% 2016 landslide vote in the Heart of Dixie come fal...
The country has been roiled by riots for over two months, but Portland in particular has had devastatingly violent riots every night for over 70 nights! Portland and major cities across the land have suffered untold millions of dollars in damage and lost business; the price tag in Minneapolis may be over half a Billion dollars. Incredibly riots continue around the nation, but Portland has been the focal point. ANTIFA and assorted anarchists in Portland have persisted in attacking not just police but any citizens that won’t comply with their d...
To be honest, I don't think I'd ever heard about 'Black Lives Matter' until George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis and a white police officer named Derek Chauvin was arrested after numerous videos showed the officer kneeling on Floyd's neck while Floyd screamed he could not breathe. But I did learn that the Black Lives Matter movement first began in 2013 after George Zimmerman shot an unarmed 17-year old black teenager named Travon Martin in February, 2012. But I do wonder what Black Lives...
Although we weren't sold on face masks in the beginning we've learned to accept them. To not only protect ourselves but to protect others. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mandatory face mask order for people in public. We see some with masks, we see others without. We know some stores won't let you in the door without a mask and others that don't care. School bells for the Escambia County (Ala.) School System are still set to ring next Friday, they say we're playing high school and college football and everybody seems to think things are back...
Last week I had a virtual conference with the leaders of the local school systems in our district. Starting a new school year is a difficult task in the best of times. Doing so in the middle of a pandemic with the disease spreading as it is now makes this normally difficult job truly daunting. I greatly appreciate what these leaders and their staffs are going through. Over $500 million of the CARES Act money Congress sent to Alabama will be used to help schools deal with COVID-19, and the purpose of our call was to bring them up to speed on...
The presidential race is onward. It will be incumbent Republican Donald Trump vs. former Vice President and 36-year veteran Democrat, Delaware U.S. Senator Joe Biden in the November 3rd General Election. Both men have clinched their parties’ nomination. Therefore, the Democratic convention, July 31-August 2 and the Republican convention set for August 25-28 will be anticlimactic. It is doubtful that either convention will break any television rating records. However, there will be one record shattered in this year’s presidential contest. Tru...
In 2016 when Fox’s Chris Wallace asked Candidate Trump if he would accept the election results and he simply said he would have to consider the circumstances at that time, Hillary Clinton howled that’s “horrifying.” Then she, Obama, and every other wannabe Democrat pundit lectured Trump about the Constitution and boasted how loyal they have been to our electoral process. They breathlessly warned Americans that Trump was a renegade that would not abide by the Constitution nor accept the will of the people. The irony is incredible and comical...
The day I was sworn into Congress, a man I had never met before but had heard a lot about and admired approached me to introduce himself and welcome me to the House. His name was John Lewis. He told me he was born and raised in Troy, Alabama, and though he lived and represented a district in Georgia, he still felt a strong connection to our state. He offered to help me if he could. He was a big help to me because he was a moral inspiration, a priceless gift in this day and time. If you have never heard of John Lewis, look him up. His story is...
The field is set for the November General Election and more than likely the races were decided on July 14. We had some good races including the race for our junior U.S. Senate seat as well as two open Congressional seats. Tommy Tuberville won an impressive 60-40 victory over Jeff Sessions in the GOP primary runoff for U.S. Senate. The tea leaves portend that Tuberville the Republican will defeat the Democrat Doug Jones by that same 60-40 margin. He will win for one reason. He is a solid Republican in a solidly Republican state. Winning the GOP...
Merriam-Webster defines racism as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.” The racist bromides that blacks are lazy or stupid, Hispanics will steal, or Asians are smarter are blatant examples of attributing traits or propensities to an entire race solely based on skin color. Obviously repulsive, such base overt racism is rejected by the overwhelming majority of Americans, but equally repulsive and perhaps more sinister is the...
A U.S. census official said if if the 2020 census was over today, Alabama would likely lose two congressional seats and about $13 billion in federal dollars and that Florida wouldn't be far behind. In the latest figures released by the census bureau July 15, Flomaton, Century and Jay are in a dead heat to finish last in the number of people who have self reported to the 2020 census. The latest figures showed 61.1 percent of people in the United States had filled out a census report. In Florida,...
