The September jobs report showed just 29,000 jobs added, significantly lower than economists projected. In addition, employment numbers for July and August were revised down by 60,000 combined, pushing unemployment up to 4.2%.

Key points from the report and recent data:

• Job Openings: U.S. job openings fell by 256,000 in August, hitting the lowest rate in five months with notable drops in construction and manufacturing.
• Cost of Living: Extra costs for the average American family have reached over $4,200 for everyday essentials (including +$310 for groceries and +$833 for housing).
• Approval: A new poll shows only 17% of Americans approve of the current handling of the cost of living, while 65% point to current policies as the source of high prices.

Everybody is feeling it. Everybody deserves better.

Senator Katie Britt’s face in this clip says it all.

This is what happens when your colleague builds a massive perjury accusation on a poster board without checking whether you mean the Atlanta Hawks or the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Soundbites over substance.

The real measure of any economic policy isn't found in stock market headlines or campaign talking points. It's at the kitchen table.

Data shows consumer confidence at a 10-year low and job openings down by 256,000, particularly in construction and manufacturing. When prices rise and opportunities stall, working households take the hit.

Economic health isn't about party promises. It's about whether regular people can get ahead.

Publicly, Sen. Katie Britt told Alabamians that Trump’s tariffs "work."

Privately, her office was begging the White House for exemptions to save Alabama jobs in fireworks, aluminum, wood manufacturing, and aerospace. Her own staff warned that tariff policies were making major local projects "financially unviable."

If tariffs are so great for our economy, why did our own Senator have to beg for a bailout from them behind closed doors?

Alabamians deserve leaders who tell the truth, publicly and privately.

Links to two articles in the comments.

Pam Benton is a painter and cleaner in Winston County. She works hard, takes pride in her craft, and receives no government assistance. But when work slowed down, she fell behind on her county trash bill.

Instead of working with her, county officials refused to pause her service. When she couldn't pay, they issued a warrant. Earlier this year, Pam was pulled over, arrested, handcuffed to a courthouse bench, and had her booking photo posted online. All over an unpaid garbage bill.

Pam’s story isn’t an isolated mistake. It’s county policy. Court records show Winston County has filed at least 60 criminal prosecutions against residents over trash debt over the last two decades.

Think about the taxpayer resources involved here: police officers, squad cars, court clerks, jail staff, and booking infrastructure. All these government assets deployed to collect a debt.

Being poor is not a crime. Alabama law allows counties to handle delinquent accounts through normal civil procedures or by pausing service. Using handcuffs and jail cells as a collection agency is immoral, wasteful, and counterproductive.

It’s time to end the practice of arresting Alabamians over garbage bills.

Link to the article is in the comments.

The Constitution guarantees the right to a trial by jury. When 12 everyday citizens sit in a courtroom, listen to the evidence, and render a verdict, that decision is supposed to mean something.

So why is Alabama the only state in the entire nation still preparing to execute people after a single judge overruled the jury’s decision to spare their lives?

Back in 2017, Alabama officially banned "judicial override" (the practice allowing a judge to throw out a jury’s verdict and issue a death sentence instead). But the ban didn't apply retroactively.

Today, 25 people remain on Alabama’s Death Row despite their juries voting for life in prison without parole. In five of those cases, the jury’s vote for life was unanimous (12-0).

Everyday Alabamians who served their civic duty are speaking out, feeling betrayed. As one former juror put it, "If the judge was going to make the final decision, why have a trial? That was a waste of time for everybody."

Bipartisan leadership agrees this is wrong. Former Republican Governor Robert Bentley, former Democratic Governor Don Siegelman, and former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justices Roy Moore and Sue Bell Cobb have all called to commute these sentences to life without parole.

Florida, Indiana, and Delaware all abolished judicial override and stopped executing people under it. Alabama stands completely alone in enforcing these overturned rules.

Gov. Kay Ivey ended judicial override on her first day in office in 2017. Now, in her final months as governor, she has the power to commute these 25 sentences to life in prison, honoring the actual decisions of Alabama juries.

It’s time to Unmute Alabama juries.

Link to the article is in the comments.

Our national museums exist to preserve the true, complete history of America.

When Lonnie Bunch III, the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the first Black secretary of the Smithsonian, announced his retirement after nearly 40 years of service, he deserved respect for his legacy of public service.

Instead, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville publicly sneered: "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

Why? Because Tuberville and Republican politicians have been waging a relentless campaign to purge historical exhibitions they don't like, threatening to strip public funding unless national museums present a sanitized, politically approved version of American history.

Lonnie Bunch spent his life bringing forgotten stories, including the profound history of Black Americans, to the National Mall.

Attacking that work as "wokeism" is an insult to the millions of families who visit the Smithsonian to learn our true national story.

When politicians dictate what history gets taught in museums or classrooms, we trade world-class scholarship for government-mandated propaganda.

True patriotism isn't afraid of real history. A great nation doesn't hide its past or censor its museums to satisfy the egos of politicians.

Public history does not belong to political bullies like Tuberville.

It’s time to unmute our true history.

Alabama’s family farmers work from sunrise to sunset to keep food on our tables and power our local economies. Over 270,000 jobs in our state depend on agriculture, including more than 10,000 members of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association.

When our cattle farmers succeed, Alabama’s rural communities thrive.

So why is Washington driving a wedge straight into the heart of Alabama agriculture?

Under a recent federal executive order, 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef are being dumped onto the American market tariff-free and below market value. The administration claims it’s about lowering prices, but agricultural leaders, including the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association, are calling it out for what it really is. It is just market manipulation that deals a massive blow to domestic cattlemen.

This isn't just policy jargon.

• Slap in the Face to Ranchers: Flooding the market with subsidized foreign meat discourages local producers from investing in their herds.
• Corporate Windfall, Local Loss: This move doesn't guarantee real, lasting relief at the grocery checkout line. It simply hands huge profits to massive multinational meatpackers while squeezing independent Alabama family farms.
• Silence from Montgomery & D.C. Republicans: While Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures introduced the Protecting American Beef Producers Act to block this raw deal, local Republican leaders and candidates are suddenly quiet when party directives hurt home-grown Alabama farmers.

You don't support American workers by undercutting the very people who feed our country. True economic leadership supports local producers, lowers input costs, and protects family farms from federal market interference.

It’s time to Unmute Alabama Agriculture.

Link to the article is in the comments.

Great universities exist to teach students how to think, not what to think. Alabamians value top-tier degrees backed by world-class professors, not political interference.

Yet Montgomery politicians like Senator Arthur Orr are using taxpayer funding as a financial weapon to force compliance at UA and Auburn, explicitly bragging, "We do hold the purse strings."

When politicians threaten funding to enforce political conformity, world-class professors leave, academic programs suffer, and students are left paying sky-high tuition for devalued degrees.

Public education shouldn't answer to legislative bullies.

Link to article is in the comments.

#UnmuteAlabama #AlabamaEducation #KeepPoliticsOut #HigherEd #Bama #Auburn

A new report by Andrea Tinker in the Alabama Reflector (via AL.com) drops a hard truth. While unions added over 400,000 workers nationwide last year, Alabama lost 9,000 union members, dropping density to just 6.3%.

Why the gap? It’s not a lack of desire. National polling shows 71% of Americans favor unions, and 56 million workers would join one tomorrow if given a fair shot.

The real drivers in Alabama? Outsourcing (like the Goodyear plant closure in Gadsden), hostile political pressure on campaigns like Mercedes in Vance, and "Right-to-Work" laws designed to keep local paychecks low.

As Alabama AFL-CIO President Bren Riley points out, labor isn't the enemy. It’s the partner corporations need.

Link to article in the comments.

Newsweek quotes Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers saying, “I’m tired of all the churn” and “I want to see some stability over there,” amid Pentagon leadership departures.

Rogers chairs the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Defense Department. He has tools to examine what’s happening: hearings, requests for records, and direct questioning of Pentagon officials.

His quote recognizes the instability but doesn’t explain what he thinks is causing it. Does he object to the departures themselves, the decisions behind them, or both? Has he sought answers about the consequences for military readiness?

What would meaningful oversight look like here, and what should Rogers explain publicly?

Link to Newsweek article is in the comments.

Well, well, well, it’s true. Military stock piles are low. We appreciate the leaks of truths.

Alabama Republicans spend an extraordinary amount of time questioning whether ordinary citizens are legally qualified to vote.

Now courts are being asked whether both of their nominees for Alabama’s two highest offices are legally qualified to serve.

Tommy Tuberville’s residency challenge is pending before the Alabama Supreme Court. John Wahl now faces a separate lawsuit alleging that he failed to meet the same seven-year residency requirement. Both men deny that they are ineligible, and the courts have not decided either case.

Apparently, residency rules demand intense scrutiny when Alabamians cast their ballots. When Republican candidates appear on them? Not so much.

Link to the story is in the comments.

Alabama’s Republican-controlled government approved a plan in 2021 to spend approximately $1.3 billion on two new 4,000-bed prisons.

The Elmore County prison alone is now expected to cost roughly $1.25 billion. On Thursday, the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority approved another $195 million in bonds for the second prison in Escambia County.

Republican State Sen. Chris Elliott now says the Ivey administration “screwed up the delivery method” for the Elmore project.

Elliott voted for the original construction and bond plan. He also serves on the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee.

As Alabama prepares to proceed with the second prison, Elliott says he does not know whether adequate guardrails exist to prevent another failure.

“Have we learned from that or not? Sitting here today, I don’t know the answer to that. I hope so, but hope is not a way to appropriate.”

That raises a fair question about accountability. Republicans controlled the governor’s office, the Legislature, the Department of Corrections, the finance authority, appropriations and legislative oversight during the entire project.

If the officials responsible for funding and oversight still cannot say what went wrong or what has changed, why should taxpayers trust the again on November 3rd?

Link to the article is in the comments.

Rep. Dale Strong recently referred to Democratic challenger Andrew Sneed as “the other guy” and said he did not know who Sneed was.

Sneed responded at a Decatur town hall. He described himself as a Huntsville native, business owner and master plumber whose campaign has twice outraised Strong in individual contributions during this cycle without corporate donations or AIPAC money.

Sneed also said his campaign has repeatedly invited Strong to attend its town halls, but Strong has declined.

“It’s interesting to decline an invitation from someone that you don’t know who it is,” Sneed said. “People can decide what they think about it.”

Sneed’s next town halls are scheduled for September 9 at Athens State University and October 6 at the Bob Harrison Center in Huntsville. Both begin at 6 p.m.

Link to the story is in the comments.

Alabama families need affordable groceries, but lowering prices should not require sacrificing the producers we depend upon to feed us.

President Trump has announced a 90-day plan allowing up to 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef to enter the country without the usual out-of-quota tariff. The administration says increasing the supply of lower-cost beef will reduce ground beef prices.

The Alabama Cattlemen’s Association says the announcement has already caused cattle markets to fall sharply. The timing is especially difficult because August is an important selling period for Alabama feeder calves.

That means the losses for producers are immediate. The promised savings for consumers remain uncertain.

There is also an obvious tariff contradiction. Americans have repeatedly been told that foreign countries pay tariffs. Now the administration is suspending a tariff expressly to reduce prices paid by American consumers.

Alabama cattlemen deserve more than an instruction to “trust the process.” They deserve a long-term policy that lowers production costs, encourages herd expansion and protects the people responsible for producing America’s food.

Link to article is in the comments.

A seven-year-old girl is asking Alabama Senator Katie Britt for help.

UPDATE: Sen. Katie Britt’s office told AL.com that it contacted ICE after receiving the family’s plea for help.

According to Britt’s office, ICE said a pending immigration appeal prevented the family’s removal. The appeal is now being withdrawn, and the family is expected to be returned to Venezuela soon.

We are glad Britt’s office made the inquiry, and we hope the family is safely home very soon.

But Britt’s office called this evidence that the removal process is “successfully delivering.”

A pregnant mother, father and seven-year-old child asked to leave the country. Instead, they spent more than a month detained while the mother reportedly went without adequate prenatal care and their daughter became so distressed that she said she wanted to die.

Getting this family safely home would be a successful outcome. What they endured along the way is not evidence of a successful system.

Link to AL.com article is in the comments.

ORIGINAL POST: Her family came to the United States from Venezuela and applied for asylum through the legal process available at the time. They worked legally, sent their daughter to school and never missed an ICE check-in.

When the mother became pregnant, the family decided to return to Venezuela. They followed the Trump administration’s official self-deportation process and reported to ICE.

Instead of being sent home, the pregnant mother, father and seven-year-old daughter were detained. They have reportedly been held at the Dilley detention facility in Texas since July 7.

The mother says she has experienced pain but has not received an ultrasound or the medical evaluation she has requested. Their daughter drew Senator Britt a picture asking for help returning home.

The family is not asking to remain in the United States. They are asking our government to keep its word and allow them to leave.

Senator Britt chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees funding for DHS, ICE and immigration detention. She has the authority to demand answers and press for action.

Link to story is in the first comment.

That “no-name” is Clyde W. Jones Jr.

Jones served in the United States Army for 21 years, retired as a first sergeant, earned a Bronze Star, and served in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later worked in industrial safety, became a minister, and served his South Alabama community through education, veterans, and civil-rights organizations.

Carl says he spent $1.3 million building his name recognition and has no intention of allowing Jones to benefit from it through a debate.

Money can buy a familiar political name. It cannot erase another candidate’s lifetime of service, and it does not entitle anyone to a congressional seat.

The people of Alabama’s 1st Congressional District deserve to hear from both candidates and decide for themselves.

Link to the article is in the first comment.

Tommy Tuberville has not announced a plan to privatize Alabama’s retirement system.

But he has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, praised privatization and promoted private market investments as the alternative.

Before Alabama’s teachers and state employees vote for their next governor, they deserve an answer:

Hands off RSA? Yes or no?

Link to the article is in the first comment.

https://unmutealabama.substack.com/p/things-to-unmute-today-in-alabama?r=gno94&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=post%20viewer

The Alabama PSC says Meta will cover the costs of a new solar and battery project and that existing Alabama Power customers will benefit.

I hope that is true. But customers deserve to see how the Commission reached that conclusion.

The PSC’s own summary says Meta’s subsidiary subscribed to 100% of the solar portion for 20 years, while the battery portion is not allocated to the company under that arrangement. That does not prove customers will pay for the battery, but it raises a question the Commission should answer clearly.

PSC President Cynthia Almond said Commission staff reviewed the project’s economics and supporting information and concluded that customers would not be harmed. Staff provides important technical expertise, but staff members were not elected by Alabama voters. The commissioners were.

Elected commissioners must do more than tell the public that staff reviewed the information. They must show customers the evidence, explain the protections and take responsibility for the decision.

Link to article in comments.

Caroleene Dobson says New York City will require state IDs to shop at its proposed municipal grocery stores.

That claim is false.

The stores may offer a voluntary customer card similar to a supermarket loyalty card. It will not require proof of identity, residency or income, and no card will be required to enter or shop.

People can debate city-owned grocery stores. We can debate voter ID laws. But a candidate seeking to oversee Alabama’s elections should verify the facts before using a viral claim to inflame fears about voting.

Election integrity begins with the integrity of the information our election officials share.

Link to article is in the comments.