Sep 19, 2024

Politics.

Politics politics politics.

Let's do some politics from Tuscaloosa to Bryant-Denny Stadium to Sylacauga.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is taking issue with the Federal Reserve's half-point cut of its key interest rate, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

Some background:

The Fed directly affects the rate at which banks lend money to one another. This loosens the money supply and typically causes consumer interest rates to fall. That's a demand-side stimulus from more people borrowing and spending.

Simply, the Fed might cut the rate if it's more worried about economic softness than inflation. It hasn't cut rates since 2020 because inflation was the fly in the slaw. As a matter of fact, the key rate has been sitting at a 20-year high of 5.3%.

Now prices aren't rising as quickly, focus has turned to keeping the economic engine humming. You'll often see the Fed nudge the rate up or down by a quarter-point, but yesterday it dropped the rate a robust half-point. It should be noted that everybody has known for weeks that the Fed was going to cut the rate, so market adjustments have already happened in anticipation. The bigger cut may get a little more juice out of this cut going forward.

Which brings us to the presidential election. Conventional wisdom says good economic numbers favor the incumbent party, which seems to be Tuberville's beef:

“The Fed’s drastic rate cut is shamelessly political. Our nation’s central bank has no business moving rates this close to an election and is clearly trying to tip the balance in favor of Kamala Harris.”

The Fed makes its decisions independently of the federal government. When Donald Trump was president, he tried to pressure the Fed to cut rates heading into the 2020 campaign season, but it held off until March 2020 as the COVID pandemic set in.

We have 47 days until the Nov. 5 election.

The Trump camp said the former president will indeed attend the Alabama-Georgia game on Sept. 28 in Tuscaloosa, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson and Howard Koplowitz.

An informal poll shows that nearly 100% of Tide fans who support Trump's presidential bid think it's awesome that he'll be there, and that nearly 100% of the Tide fans who oppose Trump think it's terrible he'll be there.

Trump can badmouth barbecue, football, cheese grits and the F-150 and still easily carry Alabama. But UGA's home state is being hotly contested, as Braves fans already know by all the TV campaign ads.

Yesterday we mentioned the Alabama STAR ID program, which seeks to make your driver license or state-issued ID compliant with the REAL ID Act.

Come May 7, in order to use your license or other state ID to board aircraft, you will have to make sure to upgrade it to STAR ID.

Mobile County License Commissioner Nick Matranga points out that there are several other documents that can be used that would comply with the REAL ID act.

I won't get into explaining all of them here -- there's a list on the TSA's website -- but they include things such as passports, Defense Department IDs, permanent resident cards, border crossing cards, transportation worker identification credentials and veteran health identification cards.

But if you plan to use your state-issued ID, make sure you get that yellow star on it to show it's a STAR ID. There are a list of documents you'll need on the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's website.

And, of course, if you plan to use any of the other acceptable documents, double-check ahead of time that yours are valid and will be accepted. Note that you will be dealing with government operations through all this.

Tuesday evening there was another contentious meeting of the Sylacauga City Council over the arrival of Haitian migrants.

AL.com's William Thornton reported on it, and there were a few more answers than there after the last meeting. The issue of Haitian migrants, who have looked for work in the U.S. as their home country is enveloped in gang violence, has cropped up in a few places in the country, notably Springfield, Ohio, and national politicians have weighed in during the election campaign.

Here are some details:

Lots of rumors are out there. And some citizens are frustrated either by the presence of the Haitians or that more isn't known about their situations.

Sylacauga city officials estimate there are up to 60 Haitian migrants in Sylacauga.

Sylacauga School Superintendent Michele Eller said that this fall the system added only one Haitian student. And council members said the migrants are employed by a temp service and are on temporary work visas. Several have made local acquaintances by attending church services.

For more, listen to today's Down in Alabama podcast for audio of citizens making remarks at the meeting, and then Thornton interviewing Sylacauga Council President Tiffany Nix and City Councilman Ashton Fowler after the meeting.

In 1926, former Alabama governor and first lady -- whose namesake college's original campus is located in Andalusia -- Lurleen Burns Wallace.

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We have what they were saying during and after Tuesday night's contentious council meeting regarding Haitian migrants.

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