Bills on Prisons, the Budget, and Driver’s License Offices Move Ahead

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It was a busy week in Montgomery. The Senate passed a bill on driver’s license offices, and a prisons bill. The House debated church daycare licensing. And House representatives passed a general fund budget that level funded most agencies except one: Medicaid. It got a small increase, though there’s still concern among lawmakers, and some of it stems from the federal American Health Care Act.

In fact, the House plan sets aside $97 million to protect against uncertainty in Congress around the new federal health care bill. Medicaid would get $700 million, plus $105 million in BP oil settlement money.

Lawmakers also moved a very different prisons construction bill along, as well as a bill that would require driver’s license offices to open at least one day a week.

WBHM’s Gigi Douban spoke with Don Dailey, host of Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal. 

 

How Alabama’s first commuted death sentence this century came about

Robin "Rocky" Myers has been on Alabama’s death row for more than 30 years. Then, on February 28, he became the first Alabamian this century to have his death sentence commuted. 

Steve Reich has always been to able to hear the pulse

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There’s a lot to unpack in ‘Black Bag’ — a witty, sexy spy thriller

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Photos: Across the U.S., sky gazers marvel at the blood moon lunar eclipse

As the moon moved through the shadow of the Earth, it was also being illuminated by light from the sun — causing the moon to appear as if dipped in a deep red hue in a stunning celestial sight.

Hamas says it’s willing to release the five American hostages in Gaza

Hamas, the militant group the U.S. has labeled as terrorists, says it's willing to release the one living American hostage and bodies of four others it's held in Gaza since the 2023 attacks in Israel.

Dorothy Thompson: The journalist who warned us about Hitler

Dorothy Thompson saw the rise of Nazi Germany as a foreign correspondent in Berlin. A new series from Radio Diaries tells the story of Thompson's career as a radio broadcaster.

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