From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

We start this week's coverage in Washington, where North Alabama political and business leaders flew in to advocate for their priorities on Capitol Hill.

Their trip coincided with major announcements for the new Space Command headquarters.

Alex Engle report from Capitol Hill on that fly in and what else Congress was up to this week.

Hundreds of Alabamians flocked to the U.S.

Capitol this week to tout the Huntsville area's needs each year.

Like the region, the trip has grown.

Probably the best trip we've ever had.

We had wonderful speakers, a combination of the NASA administrator, the commander of space, Commander Whiting during their visit, Whiting revealed the rendering of the proposed facility that will house the new Space Command headquarters.

The House Appropriations Committee, including a couple Alabama lawmakers, also approved more than half $1 billion for the construction and design of that building on Tuesday.

Mike Ward, with the chamber, says the Flyin keeps the federal agencies based in north Alabama.

Top of mind for lawmakers.

I think the fact that we ha 200 people sign up for this trip to come here, you know, the community in Huntsvill and Madison County understands the importance of showing up, the importance of having that relationship and that dialog with the members of Congress.

So, it's is a good thing.

Also, this week the Senate took its first step towards funding immigratio enforcement and Border Patrol.

Early Thursday morning, Senate Republicans adopted a plan to fund those two agencies for three years.

That measure now heads to the House, but it won't have a glide path in the lower chamber.

Some conservatives, like Congressman Barry More, want more priorities in the measure, such as parts of the GOP led voter ID bill.

They want secure elections.

They want U.S.

citizens voting in U.S.

elections, electing U.S.

leaders.

And so, you know, I'd like to see us get some provisions in there.

We'll see how it goes.

Adding more priorities to the measure could drag out the Departmen of Homeland Security shut down.

That's something leadership wants to avoid.

But Moore says voter ID and DHS funding are both critical.

Like I said, like secure borders.

But they also want secure.

Like the House also still needs to approve a bill to fund the rest of DHS.

The Senate has already passed that measure.

Reporting on Capitol Hill, Alex Angle, Capitol Journal.

Thank you.

Alex.

Back here to the state Capitol.

Attorney General Steve Marshall this week announced a $12.2 million settlement with th online gaming platform Roblox.

It's aimed at strengthening child safety protections on the platform.

Marshall said the agreement comes after concerns about adults contacting minors through the platform's chat feature, including a case here in Alabama.

The settlement adds new safet requirements for younger users and will also help fund more school resource officers across the state through Alabama's Safe Schools initiatives.

Marshall says those protections start with the platform, but also require parents to stay involved.

We spoke with him and school safety leaders about what this means going forward.

Number one, this settlement is going to enhanc the opportunity for the platform to create a vehicle for kids to be safer.

And so they're doing that on the front end.

But we still need parent to be engaged and understanding what their children are doing online, and particularly with the safety features that are given to parents based on age verification, to take advantage of those protections of what we're doing.

And so it takes two it takes the platform to be responsible, but it also takes parents to be engaged.

You know, what their kids are doing online.

Well, if you've watched around the country, there's other states that are providing, funding for SROs.

And so this just gives us that next level.

Here in Alabama, you're doing so many good things.

And like I said before, we have people who care.

Chiefs, sheriffs, superintendents, AGS office that want good people in the schools to help our young people.

A new law, now in effect along Alabama's Gulf Coast is designed to alert beachgoers when a shark attack happens nearby.

Lulu's law is name after Lulu Griffin, a mountain Brook teenager who was seriously injured i a 2024 shark attack in Florida.

She lost he left hand and part of her leg.

Now, the state has created an emergency alert system to notify the public of confirmed attacks along the coast.

We spoke with local emergency management officials about how the new alert system will pinpoint beachgoers.

And we've already geofence that area.

In order to make the alert go out faster.

We've gone ahead and selected the entire region south of the intercoastal, all the way from Fort Morga to the Albemarle, Florida line.

Yeah that's quite a bit of distance.

But at the same time, under these kind of circumstances, you know, that's that's not too unreasonable.

More importantly, we don't have to draw a new parallelogram to figure out where we want this geofence to be.

It's already done.

So that speeds up the alert.

Shark attacks are very, very rare.

But should one ever happen?

People on the beach would probably like to know that they have had one happen nearby, so they can make more informed decisions.

It's a dangerous world out there, and the future of warfar may be taking shape right now, right here in the capital city at Maxwell Air Force Base.

Military leaders, academics and tech experts are coming togethe for a major Air Force exercise focused on the next generation of conflict.

Capita Journal's Jeff Sanders has more.

The U.S.

Air Force is looking ahead to the year 2035.

It's part of what's know as the Air Force Doctrine 2035 wargame, a weeklong effort to test how emerging technology could shape the future of conflict.

We conduct war games in an effort to simulate what conflict would look like.

We do that for educational purposes.

We do that to support combat commanders and their operational staffs, and we do that to help plan for the future.

Major General Parker Wright is the deputy commander at Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base and leads doctrine development for the Air Force.

He says this yearlong project brings together military leaders, private industry and academic experts to explore how those technologies could actually be used in real world scenarios.

We intentionally look to industry to see where the technology landscape would be in 2035, and then we're putting those technologies in a battlespace and a conflict set in 2035 to see how they'll play.

Those conversations also move off base to downtown Montgomery, where authors and expert gathered for a public symposium on the future of warfare and airpower.

It's the first time we've done it.

So to me every time you do a first time, there's a bit of a beta like, will this work?

So, you know, for me personally, I was I was a little concerned.

But I have to say that, it went off very, very well.

I think our visitors are very happy.

The military has been very, very happy.

And the lessons that we learned from combining those three different pieces, the academics, industr and the military is fascinating.

Doctor Bill DeMarco, a professor at Ur university, moderated that discussion, which included authors focused on military strategy and emerging technology.

For local leaders, the even also highlights Alabama's role in national defense.

Anna Buckalew is the president of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.

Montgomery is a huge military town, and I think that does get, lost somewhere in the translation because we're a capital city.

But we are national defense city.

We were named one of America's greatest defense communities.

We're really proud of that.

We have probably more diverse military missions here in Montgomery than many states altogether, certainly in Alabama, as the Air Forc Doctrine 2035 wargame wraps up.

Officials say the lessons learned could influence Air Force strategy well into the future.

Reporting from Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Thank you Jeff.

The capital city played host to another national group this week.

The National Association of Black Journalists met here in Montgomery.

They spoke about ongoing issues within the industry as well as some legislative topics.

Voting rights proposals were a hot topic for visiting professional journalists from around the country.

Capital Journal's Randy Scott has that story.

The heart of downtown Montgomery is hosting one of the largest journalism organizations for a three day conference.

The National Association of Black Journalists are in the capital city, bringing hundreds of professional journalists and college students to tow to talk about national issues.

It's coming off the heels of the 2026 regular session.

Some items before NABJ members are proposals state lawmakers have debated since January.

Things such as health care, the economy, education and voting rights.

A panel targetin voting rights issues is hearing from a variety of people about this topic.

The first speaker took part in the Selma to Montgomery march known as Bloody Sunday.

Her name is Cheyenne Webb Kreisberg.

She says the idea is to improve voting laws.

There is a definitive need for more training and education as it relates to state, city wide regional and national votes.

And that's something that we must continue to place much emphasis on.

And I and I truly think that the more we get engaged with the voting process, the more we are inspired and motivated to not only take ourselves sales there, but to get other people there as well.

The guest on this panel cover political, social and lega aspects for this event in 2022.

We were successful in the Supreme Court in a case that we brought called Allen versus Milligan, a case that resulte in the creation of the district, the threshold issu that we're sitting in right now.

And that case resulted also.

It has resulted also in other courts reaffirming the importance of section two of the Voting Rights Act, saying, section two, the Voting Rights Act, which requires jurisdictions to create plans that afforded equal opportunity for African-Americans to elect candidates of choice.

They've affirmed it over and over again.

We oftentimes talk so much about what young people aren't doing, but young people really are doing things.

Alabama has a surprisingly 97% of of the community are registered to vote.

So it's not that they aren' educated about how to register the problem is we're not connecting it to the issues that are important to them.

And we have to shift the narrative identification, I think, is a principl that a lot of people say, hey, you know, we want to make sure nobody's disenfranchized because folks who are eligible to vote are actually the ones that are voting.

How we do that matters.

And we should hav an honest discussion about that versus saying, well, identification is inherently shutting down people at the polls.

I don't think that that's a fair take, but we're in such a politically polarized moment that it's very hard to have those conversations.

Conversations for all to hear.

We still have a long way to go.

The struggle is not over, and there's much more work to be done.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capital Journal.

Thank you.

Randy.

The state of Alabama's modernization efforts of its state park system continues with a popular destination in West Alabama.

Lake Lurleen State Park near Tuscaloosa has officially reopened after a top to bottom renovation.

It's a revitalized destination for families, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts.

State leaders say that projec is part of a broader investment of millions of dollars into parks across Alabama aimed at upgrading facilities expanding access and preserving the natural beaut that draws visitors to Alabama.

Year round.

Visitors say it is now a more welcoming experience, with modernized campsites, improved lake access, enhanced trails and new amenities throughout the park.

I can't imagine being any better.

The staff here are excellent.

They keep control of everything so that everybody's having a good time.

And then the facilities, I mean, I don't I don't know what more you could ask for.

You're very close to Tuscaloosa, but then when you get out there, you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere.

But it is, that beautiful lake.

All those trees out there.

We've got great biking and hiking trails.

Yeah, you can have a boat and you've got a boat launch ther that you can fish on the lake.

Great fishing on the lake.

That was some of the people that were the most upset when we were doing the park renovations, was that they couldn't come out there and fish.

And so I think they've bee so excited to be back out here.

So pleas come out and enjoy the park and, and this is a great place to camp, but it's also just a great place to come for the day.

Governor Kay Ivey marked Arbor Day at the state Capitol this week, joining students to plant a Japanese maple and recognize Alabama's forestry industry.

The governor proclaimed Friday as Arbor Day, emphasizing the economic impact of the state's forests and their role in shaping the future.

From the Appalachian Mountains in the north to the rolling hills of central Alabama to the flatlands along the Gulf Coast.

A seemingly endless variety of trees and doing a landscape.

We are truly blessed with some of the most beautiful and extensive forest lands in the country, and our forests provid much more than natural beauty.

There are key driver to, economy, supporting thousands of jobs.

Hundreds of millions in investments and many small businesses across the state.

And thanks to worl class land management practices and responsible natural resource stewardship, I'm confident Alabama will remain the beautiful for generations to come.

And the governor's office ha some special visitors this week.

It was bring your Child to Work day in the capital.

Kids accompanied their staff or parents around the Capitol and into meetings, including with Ivey herself.

We got a visit from the governor's legislative staf and their cute kids right here in our studio.

Here's a little video and.

This is Millie and this is birdie.

And it's take your Child to Work day.

Here's the big, big sign.

She's still taller than us, right?

I'm in front of the Capitol.

This could be a very bad business.

We're going to see what my dad does for work.

If you do, yo like working for the governor?

Yes.

I love working for the governor.

Thank you for working there.

Taking care of business every day.

Thank you.

Mayor.

This is the best.

Oh, you.

This morning?

It was that morning.

Thank you.

Cool.

Oh, I can go.

Parents in there.

You kids should play this show.

I mean, yeah.

Don't you like it?

Go along with it.

If it was cheaper, say it.

What would you tell me today?

What would you tell her today?

Be nice.

Okay.

Get out of there.

Right.

This must.

What is your day job with the set up?

Representative.

On.

Our time today is like the to go.

You think you'd like to be working for Governor Romney?

Yes.

Look at this.

This is just, We actually hosted, multiple school groups in our studio this week.

This is the time of year when fourth graders come to Montgomery for their Capitol tour.

They visit the Capitol complex.

We even had some of them right here in studio, including Vestavia Hills Elementary East.

Those are students from there, including my niece Hattie and my nephew Maddox, right there in front.

So we get a picture and gave them some a special tour of the state House studio, including all the bells and whistles.

So we really appreciate that.

And, you know, we love giving tours of our studio.

If you ever are in the studio or in the statehouse around the are and would like to come see us, just give us a ring.

Of course we're going to be i the new statehouse.

Soon enough.

Uncle achievement unlocked.

We'll be right back with this week's guests.

Alabama Public Television is your place for quality educational services.

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Learn something new every da with Alabama Public Television.

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The Cahaba Lily, name for the Cahaba River, is an aquatic plant native to the major river systems of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina and Alabama.

Its best known natural habitat is the shoals of the Cahaba River.

Lily is known for the striking beauty of its three inch wide white flowers.

Each flower, six petals, surround a thin corona which connects the lower portions and the stamens.

Lily.

Scientific name Nicholas corn area, translated as beautiful crown like membrane, accurately depicts these characteristics.

The lily requires a very specialized habitat of swift flowing wate over rocks and an open canopy.

The plants, bulbs and seeds spend the winter buried in the rocky riverbed.

Leaves began to emerge above the water line in mid-April.

Flowering commences in mid-May, reaching its peak in late May and early June.

The showy flower attract a variety of pollinators as well as large numbers of canoers and kayakers during the spring blooming period.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Liz Fillmore, chief of staff to Governor Kay Ivey.

Liz thanks for coming on the show.

Todd, thank you for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Of course.

Well, people don't know this.

I've actually been trying to get you on for years.

Well, I'm glad glad we finally made it happen.

More during like, state of the state, you know.

Sure.

And, you know, kind of trying to get a behind the scenes look at it and everything.

But of course, that's an incredibly busy day, you know, for you.

That's exactly right.

So how do we make it work today to make it work?

Well, let me just start ou by asking, how is the governor?

Obviously she had surgery recently with, her, you know, fluid near her long and everything.

How is she doing?

Yeah, she's doing well.

She has been in the office, and working har since that situation happened.

So she's.

She's busy at work and will be in the office.

She's been i the office this week and will be in the remainder of the time but, she'll be on the road soon.

Obviously, it's important that we finish strong.

That's something that we have certainly, had the the mantra from her first education, initiative.

Strong start, strong finish.

And that's certainly something that we have talked about this year.

How we finish strong.

And that' certainly top of mind for her.

Yeah.

Well, I hope you send her our best.

And we look forward to havin her back on the show real soon.

Well, you know, y'all did just celebrate a milestone nine years the other day because you all sent out the picture way.

There were lots of pictures that were sent from the old Senate chamber.

Her taking the oath.

I mean, what a tops turvy time in Alabama that was.

It's it was kind of craz to look back and think about it and how, I mean obviously her mantra has been, steadying the ship of state.

Sure.

I think that's fair.

Take us back, though, because you were there.

You worked for her when she was lieutenant governor.

So what's it like to look back at that transfer of power that that really changed Alabama history?

It's really hard to imagine that it's been nine years.

Tom obviously flies when you're having fun.

And it's really amazing to look back over all of her accomplishment and the state's accomplishments.

Truly, over the past nine years, the advances that we've had and really every single part of state government, and certainly just her stability in allowing the state to grow and flourish.

And for her, it's not really about her, it's about how well the state is doing.

And you really see how she acts and responds to things and what that means.

And you have seen, obviously, the legislature flourish.

I would be as bold to say that this past quadrennial has been the most productive in the state's history, just for the focus, the focus that she gives to the state, that she empowers others to do their work and gives grace to to that situation.

So it was really amazing to celebrate that during the last week of this legislative session, to put just finalit to her leadership in that way.

Well, let's talk about the session, because it was different.

There was no overarching theme.

So like I go back to like Rebuild Alabama or working for Alabama, you know, that was the workforce development thing, the, safe Alabama, the public safety thing, the game plan, economic development.

So leading up to session, there's oftentimes there's like this overarching theme y'all have worked behind the scenes with legislative leadership.

And there's I mean, there's graphics.

And you know, it sure wasn't that way this session.

And so what were you looking back a the session that just completed?

Even though there wasn't an overarching theme, what were yours, what we all must focus on and what we all behind the scenes pushing?

It was very important to Governor Ivey that we didn't seek anything in this legislative session we could not fully implement.

So it's important when we think about what was accomplished in this session.

That was an overarching theme, is to make sure that everything we pass in this session, we can fully implement, and we not to leave it up to the next person, right?

We spend a lot of time between sessions fully implementing policies and programs, and that was important.

We also spent a lot of time talking to members ahead of last session of this past session, and there was an overarching theme from them that they did not.

They just wanted to focus on budgets and make sure that elections were in focus and make and mak that the focus of the session.

But you also could feel from the obviously passing the Tyus act and the obvious, the, consolidation of the Department of Workforce and the incentives and the redistricting.

I mean, the Covid dollars you gave out, obviously, gave out a lot of tax credits and in tax relief to to Alabamians in a wa lawmakers felt in the governor felt that we had accomplished a lot and there had been a lo of production behind the scenes and the focus about the safe Alabama.

Obviously, that was something that was carried into this pas session, but that was important.

If we have a safe Alabama, then, education thrives, economic development thrives.

The state thrives if safety is key.

Let me ask about health care.

You all have created this rural Alabama, a, transforming rural health care transformation task force or commission or whatever.

We've talked about it a little bit on this show.

Anthony Daniels is part of it.

What's going on there?

Because I know there was some legislation.

We're getting money.

I think it's a little mor than $200 million to start with.

What does that going to look like?

Because what what I when I talke to, Leader Daniels, he was like, yeah, it's great to have $200 million, maybe 500 total.

But when you think about how big the state is and how great the need is really going to last.

So how are y'all thinking abou using those dollars to benefit?

Well, obviously, when Congress passed the one big beautiful bill and this was a part of it, we had a very quick timeline to put this into action.

And so it's allowin a lot of different stakeholders to come forward and put together thoughts of how the state could be successful.

The reason that Governor Ivey put togethe the legislative group to oversee this program is just for what it means, the transition that will happen in this next year, to make sure these dollars are truly going into, communities across the state.

The legislation that passed this session, obviously, the treat in place so that if an ambulance is called out to somebody's home and they have a situation that can be treated at their home, that it can be treated, it doesn't have to be reimbursed at a hospital, for that ambulance to be paid.

Also, the antitrust bill to break down the barriers to allow these rural hospital and communities across the state to work together, that is ke to this money actually working, because if we come out of this five years from now and haven't transformed this state in a way that is sustainable moving forward, then we haven't done our job.

And that is what CMS i really focused on with states, is trying to find stable programs that actually move the needle and help health outcomes across the state.

Yeah, that' definitely something to watch.

I hope you'll keep us updated because again, y'all are going to leave office in less than a year and it's going to this this task force is going to continue.

That's right.

And obviously the issue remains.

Let me switch gears to education.

You mentioned the Choose act.

Obviously a ton of demand there.

There's more funding for it this year.

And of course, there was also the bill to make sure they could pla athletics and things like that.

But just in education in general, I noticed that the legislature has made it a priority.

And y'all, y'all proposed the budget.

People need to understand that the way the budget works is y'all make the proposal, they make some changes, and then it comes back and sure.

But there were really strong investments in the Literacy Act, the Numeracy Act, these these key education reforms passed years ago that we finally start to see, you know, move the needle as you heard.

So talk about that, talk about when you send over a budget saying, no, we've got to fund these priorities.

Because I remember in the past when we stopped funding the the reading initiative that's when we saw our scores.

So talk about the importance of those priorities.

I want to take you back a little further.

So the when the governor was making a decision, if she'd run for another full term, she truly at the heart of that decision, said she wanted to make progress in education.

That is hard to achieve.

But when you see where we are at today, the largest education trust fund budget passed the legislature and has been signed into law.

You also have the Choice Act, which has 49,000 applicants this year.

Record numbers.

But to duly see those forward while also funding the Literacy Act, the Numeracy Act, teams, the Turnaround Schools initiative, all of these different initiatives and you see national headlines talking about how Alabama is moving the needle.

We're truly on at the beginnin of seeing the fruit of all that labor and intentionality of what education, what promise there can be for education in this state?

Yeah.

And it's like don't take the foot off the gas.

Right.

We should not take the foo off the gas, because we're only at the beginning of having bu in from those local educators on how much how important literacy and numeracy act in.

You also hear from students.

Obviously, we've interviewed a lot of students and brought students to, stay the state addresses to give them that experience.

But to hear from them, how important it is to hear from their governor that the focus of them doing well thereby in is what we really need and to truly move the needle there.

Well yeah.

It was fun broadcasting live the state of the state.

And it was a little sad.

You know that was our last on little bit sweet and everything.

Let me ask you about that because look I'm not trying to run the clock out but like yeah you mentioned you know, you all are leaving office and in January there's a transition that happens.

I worked in the governor's office years ago, and it was very important to make sure we transfer.

And you don't know who it's going to be.

We think we know for sure.

So how does that work?

How do you prepar not just the governor's office, but an entire executive branch for a transition?

Because it's like you were just saying about things that are working, progress in education, progress on this front, that front.

You obviously want to make sure that is, you know, is maintained and all that.

So what goes into preparing those documents, those briefing books and things like that to make sure whoeve it is, the next administration, continues that progress that you care about so much.

Well, obviously, being in office nine years brings a lot of institutional knowledge, but we've spent this past year having conversations with cabinet officials having conversations with staff, preparing documents.

That was something that the administratio did not receive nine years ago.

There was no paperwork that was given.

It was a series of whac-a-mol to figure out what was happening and how do we address it and accomplish it.

So the governor has stated to me many times she wants to leave the office better than she found it.

And we're doing that in a very intentional way.

Is preparing those documents, preparing for the next team, preparing for succes and making sure they understand exactly what we've accomplished so that in some ways there's not it's not eroded just because they didn' have knowledge of what it was.

Sure.

Yeah, I totally get that.

And, look, every new administration, every governor we want to run saying, I want to change this, change that.

But there's a lot going on right now.

Sure.

That, you know, is, you know, progress is positiv and you don't want to lose that.

Well, look, thanks so much for your time.

I know we went over a little bit, but I really appreciate it.

And again, send Governor Ivey our best.

Thank you.

Todd.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Kathryn Robertson, Republican candidat for Alabama's attorney general.

Katherine thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

Glad to be with you.

It's been a while.

I think the last time you were on, you weren't a candidate.

And you were, in your, you know, job.

And we're talking about opioids, so it's been a little bit.

Now you're a candidate running for the very office that you've been working i for several years.

That's true.

So let me ask you the question to ask all candidates.

And that is why are you running?

And maybe more specifically why do you want to be Alabama's attorney general?

Yeah, it's really just kind o what you said is the experience I've had over the last decade helping lead that office, learning that office from the inside out, building their relationships that I think are beneficial for our state.

And I just think that when you look at kind of the fact that we're about to have a whole lot of turnover in our state, leadership, new leadership will be coming in at the halfway point of the Trump administration.

And I just think it's the right time to elect an attorney general who already knows that office and can get straight to work on the first day.

We'll talk about that background a little bit, because you've been chief counsel, right?

That' that's the says the number two.

That's right.

To Steve Marshall talk about that job.

What does that job entail?

Not just in the legal world, but I guess the day to day management of the office.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, the attorney general's office is a fascinating place.

I think most people don't realize that.

It's almost like 15 different miniature law firms existing under one roof.

We have lawyers that do totally different type of law appellate work, criminal work, plaintiff work in the Consumer Protection space AG's opinions, you name it.

And so there's a just a handful of us at the executive level that try to make all that work at the same time, try to figure out how to solve problems for Alabamians, how to be responsive to what they need us to do, and figure out how to do it sometimes with, you know, pretty limited resources.

So I've been, you know, Steve' advisor over the last ten years.

I've been his legislative person.

I've been working with the other Republican attorneys general.

So I wear a lot of different hats.

And honestly it has just made me fall in love about that office.

And that's why I'm passionate about who's going to be leading it.

Okay.

Well, what issues do you really want to address on the campaign?

And I'll back up by saying we see the ads, right?

Sure.

The ads are really rhetorical and sometimes don't always go down to like the specific issues.

But if you, you know, could name a couple of issues that are really important, not just on the campaign trail, but you want to tackle in that office.

Yeah.

Well, come coming off the end of the legislative session, I was a little disappointed that the Montgomery policing bill did not pass.

So your viewers, you know, aren't aware.

Montgomery, doesn't have as man police officers as they used to.

And so Senator Barfoot for Montgomery brought forth a proposal that would provide for a way for the state to sort of, fill that gap.

On the city's dime, I will add.

And so, I'm from Selma, from right down the road.

I've worked in Montgomery for the last ten years.

Lots of people that I love live here, and I want to help continue to do that.

We've had some success with the Mac's program, the metro area Crime Suppression Unit.

We passed a lot of good bills to give local prosecutors the tools they need, but more work to be done.

So that certainly top of mind coming off the legislative session.

But two, I have always had a passion for reclaiming Alabama's sovereignty.

It's something I've been talking about for a long time, even dating back to my days at the Policy Institute.

And what I see from the chair that I sit in is that Alabama is still, you know, sort of a victim of a great deal of federal overreach.

We've seen that in our congressional maps.

We are under, you know, a huge federal lawsuit with our prison system.

We've seen fights on title nine at the public school level, and we've still got public school systems that are under desegregation order.

So there's still, even with a friendly president in place, all that doesn't go away.

And so somethin I want to keep chipping away at.

And then I think a lot about interesting.

Let's talk about how this race has gone, you and, you know, there's three candidates we've already interviewed, Pamela Casey, we're looking forward to interviewing, Jay Mitchell whenever we can, make it, a lot of a lot of heated rhetoric out there.

Endorsements.

You've gotten a lot of endorsements.

Your opponents have gotten just kind of a race for for that.

But I wanted to ask you about this because Mitchell specifically has attacked you repeatedly, accusing you of accepting what he calls dark money and essentially money from out of state.

This Leonard Leo legal group that, you know, conservative can you respond to that when what is dark money an is it an issue in this campaign?

Well, you could have stopped that.

Jay Mitchell has attacked me repeatedly, period, because that has been the case, throughout this campaign.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

But, you know, Leonard Leo is known as the godfather of the conservative legal movement.

He is a warrior for the pro-life calls, and he has followed my career for a long time through my involvement with the Federalist Society.

And so if that's the criticism, me, I will take that all day.

I was so proud to get his support, and I think I've, you know, hono the things that he has stood for throughout the cours of my career in this campaign.

But should we be able to track, like, who's donating to that group so it's more transparent?

Is there a dark, nature to it?

Well, look, I mean, you've you've heard a lot of talk lately about PAC money, and you can't see where that's going.

So really, I don't understand what the big difference is.

You know, when you get money, when you get a big check from a PAC, a lot of different people are pouring into that.

And that's just the way it is.

It's obviously legal.

If the legislature wants to change the way that we do business with campaign finance I'd be perfectly fine with that.

But obviously we know where the money came from.

It came from Leonar Leo that they were discussing.

So not a big mystery.

Okay.

Let's talk about the role of attorney general.

It strikes me.

And I've talked to, Mr.

Marshall about this for years.

It's evolved over time.

Yeah.

Used to be, I'd say 30 years ago, a lot more in-state focus, almost exclusively in-state.

Mayb there would be some cases here and there prosecuting crime.

The state's top cop.

Right.

Over the years, it's evolved a lot to litigation.

Yeah.

Like a litigator role.

Obviously there's alway going to be here in the state.

You mentioned some of those offices, but a lot more at the federal level.

I mean, how many cases has it been between Steve Marshall?

Luther Strange, going back to Troy?

I mean, but it's just increase.

So talk about that, because it seems to me that it's really increased.

And does that add more of a role for the attorney general to play some kind of federal.

Yeah, the litigation role.

You know, I really think when that role change was during the Obamacare fight at the United States Supreme Court, that was really when the attorneys general the Republicans, had coalesced and kind of became known as the last line of defense.

That was a huge question of federal overreach and state sovereignty.

And, ultimately, the court ruled in favor of the state, but that, you know, spun up this whole new perspective on what is required, particularly of a Republican attorney general.

And so it's not that the role has changed.

It's not that you abando the public safety side at all.

My goodness we've done a lot on that front.

But your duties and responsibilities have certainly expanded.

And so, you know, it's a balance.

You've got to make sure you'r taking care of things at home.

But you'r the only constitutional officer that can file a lawsuit o behalf of the state of Alabama.

And so when there are federal questions, you're it.

And so you cannot abandon that role.

You know, on the criminal justice side, we have DA's and sheriffs and the judicial system to help us on that.

You know, it's just the attorney general.

And so, you have to pick your battles wisely.

You have to make sure you're choosing the fights that are going to serve the people well.

But I think General Marshall's done a pretty good jo balancing both of those roles.

I want to as you about the issue of gambling.

This is we just took on a perpetual perennial issue.

Absolutely.

They didn't touch it in the legislature this year.

And I'm not really talking about legislation, because if they want to pass something next time around, that's that's that.

Yeah.

I'm really talking about enforcement because it seems to me that whoever serves as attorney genera is a really key player in that.

We've seen that over the years.

Some some have chosen to kind of ignore the issue and some some have not.

The different levels of enforcement.

The boss has been pretty actively and had a clever strategy for how to go about.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, talk about that.

Enforcing the law in Alabama, there's pretty clear laws against it.

But mainly the prosecutorial sid has been uneven over the years.

What do you see as your rol if you become attorney general in trying to enforce Alabama's gambling laws?

Yeah.

Well what's interesting about that is I do think people associate the attorney general with that figh that really that only came about because local law enforcement wasn't handling business.

And that goes back way back that it's not specifically the attorney general's role.

The attorney general just historically has had to step in when local folks would not.

So I would say, first and foremost, the ideal way for it to wor is the enforcement of any crime, which is, you know, police officers, sheriffs deputies and the district attorney.

We have tried to step in in those counties where, you know, perhaps they hadn't been policing it as strongly.

But at the end of the day, the criminal penalty is a misdemeanor.

So you're correct that Steve has, Attorney General Marshall has gotten, clever or tried to be creative, at least with, using public nuisance laws and civil penalties and, you know, some of that was some success, some of it without.

But, I really think a the heart of it is not the will of the attorney general, but the resources.

And I know government agencies like to make that excuse, and I'm not going to make one, because our folks are constantly work in these cases.

But when we leave a town, if the local law enforcement isn't going to continue to have it shut down, they're going to pop back up.

And so, if it's going to be the attorney general's role, really, to police this all over the state, we will require more resources.

We are very under-resourced when it comes to agents and investigators, and you're going to have to have more of them if that's what the state is expecting of us.

And obviously, it'd be great if we had a felony provision as well.

Well, it's interesting because I thin when we're talking about this, we're kind of thinking about casinos, right?

Because if you go back to these casino raids and things like that.

Yeah, but these days it's it's a lot more online.

Right?

I mean, online, these prop bet sites, I mean, maybe it' technically not gambling.

Sure.

Seems like that's a so what about that?

I mean, that's a whole new world of, again and again.

This this stuff isn't legal.

No, it's not, and it's I mean, online gambling is not legal in Alabama either.

We recently sent out a flurry of cease and desist letters to a lot of companies, and we were working through whether or not they were goin to react to that appropriately.

Not going to get into name and names on that one.

But, look, it's a constant battle.

It is a constant battle.

And, when you think about all the things that the AG's office is called upon to do, sometimes it feels like a losing fight.

And so, I do think that if if we are going to continue to have gambling be illegal in Alabama, which is perfectly great with me, we do need to have the tools to address it, if that's what people want us to do.

Interesting.

Well, few more weeks on th campaign trail, which you luck.

I want to give you an opportunity.

We also ask all candidates, how do we find out?

How do viewers find out more?

You got a website?

Yeah.

Catherine for adcom, but, a better follow is probabl Facebook or Instagram or K.G.. Rob 27 on ex.

Get those hot takes on Twitter.

That's right.

Well agai good luck on the campaign trail and we'll see you there.

Glad to be with you, Todd.

We'll be right back.

Birmingham's Ric Whitfield is the nation's oldest operating ballpark and served as the home field of the Birmingham Barons, Birmingham Ace and the Birmingham Black Barons for decades.

The Birmingham Barons inaugurated the new field on August 18th, 1910, by defeating the Montgomery Climbers.

The Black Barons played there between 1924 and 1950.

Rick Wood hoste Birmingham's minor league teams for several season through 1987, from 1967 to 1975.

The Barons were owned by Ensley native Charlie O. Finle and were part of the Kansas City and later Oakland A's organization.

More than 100 members of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame have played at the field, including Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays.

Today, the historic field is managed by Friends of Record and hos local amateur and college teams.

The Birmingha Barons still play a ceremonial throwback game at the ballpark every year.

The Rick Wood Classic, which celebrates Barons teams of the past and this historic field.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me nex are the two leaders of Alabama Shakespeare Festival executive director Todd Schmidt and artistic director Gwen Gresham.

Gentlemen welcome back to Capital Journal.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

It's great to be here.

Absolutely.

I want to get to why you're here.

And that's reconstruction, the show that just opened this week.

Really excited about that.

But I want to also say congratulations, because what a fantastic run.

Murder on the Orient Express was a real delight.

Frozen.

That was really cool.

I mean, kind of magical.

But Lehman Trilogy really enjoyed that.

That was fascinating also.

Much ado about nothing.

I've heard nothing but great things.

So congratulations.

Talk about this pretty incredible run of plays recently.

It has been a fantastic season thus far.

It's been, exciting to see audiences engag with the work that we're doing.

The enthusiasm has been palpable, and we're looking forward to continuing that into the run of Robert Jenkins reconstruction.

Let's talk about this.

What do we need to know?

I mean, the name alone tells u the time period and everything.

And there was a pretty interesting description.

What do we need to know going into this show?

Well, I thin one of the most important things to know is how much you maybe don't know.

This has been a really fascinating process.

The play itself is a thrilling edge of your seat political drama.

But within it, our historical facts that I frankly wasn't taught, about the period between emancipation and the arrival of the disenfranchisement of the Jim Crow laws.

It it is really, really fascinating how the play focuses on a gentleman named John Lynch, who was the first black elected speaker of the House in Mississippi.

He then went on to serve, in Congress in DC.

And while there, in this very brief moment, where black legislators were, representing the South, and by the way, it was another 70 years before that happened again.

The United States got very close to, a lot of things that didn't happen until much later.

And, as, as far as I knew, that period didn't even exist.

So it is very informative, but I don't want the, the idea of the educational merit to scare people off.

It really is an exciting, play to see.

It's good when it's both.

Exactly.

Well, to talk about this, because this is not.

You know, this is the world premiere.

This has never been seen anywhere else.

It is premiering on ASF stage.

Talk about the proces that led up to this, production.

Well, not only is this the world premiere, this is a play that we commissioned.

Right?

And by commissioning, it means we hire this playwright to write a play.

And it ended up being this play reconstruction, about John Lynch and that time period back during Covid.

When we were shut down for a couple of years, we were looking for ways to enhance our new play and the new work we're doing.

So we reached out and started a new southern canon.

We're calling it through the Southern Writers Project, which has existed since the 80s, and it's a way to foster, new voices, new plays, new ideas.

And so we reached out to four fairly well-known playwrights, Robert Schenc and being one of them, probably up with Lauren Gunderson, who's one of the other commissions, probably one of the most well known playwrights.

He's a Pulitzer Prize winner, a Tony Award winner.

And so, we invested money in four different writers.

We've done one of those.

This is the second more to come.

But it's an exciting project and an exciting, endeavor we're anxious to do and happy to do to increase southern voices in American drama.

Sure.

And Shenk and wrote, all the way the LBJ, one one, one man play, I think it was.

And then it got turned into HBO and all that.

That was a really cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That starred Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the middle.

And, it was a it was a big hit.

It started at a smaller regional theater like ours and then moved to Broadway.

So we have hopes, you know, knock on wood, that this play will have a bright future as well.

And how excitin for Montgomery audiences to have that level of work right here in their backyard.

Absolutely.

A worl premiere of a Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright is, a rare thing anywhere.

And we're awfully proud to have it right here in Montgomery.

And he's been in town right the entire process.

That's that's really neat.

Well, Todd, I wanted to ask yo about just the broader purpose.

You know, of course, the the theater is based here in Montgomery but that is the state's theater.

Alabama Shakespeare Festival is the state's theate with a large, focus statewide, including on the areas of education.

Talk about that mission and the dinner.

That broader impact of being the state's theater.

Well, I think that is really, as you said, Todd, that's at the heart of what we do, our education programs, which are supported by the state of Alabama through the Department of Education, are ways that we could reach out and cover the whole state.

We have a big school fest program a student matinee series, and, over three quarters of the counties in Alabama send school staff and their students to come see our show.

Some will get to see reconstruction.

Lots.

Got to see Much Ado About Nothing.

As you can imagine, Shakespeare's popular among high school students.

But all of our shows that are appropriate, we have student matinees for at 10 a.m.. It's a very reduced price, in some cases free for the students, and it's an important way t introduce them to live theater, to introduce the to Shakespeare, to great works, to, you know, new work like Robert Schenck.

And so we're we're very happy about that.

And it's core to what we d at Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Sure.

And like, okay, everybody has to study Shakespeare.

I don't know what grade that is, whether you know the English literature, but what a way to be introduced to it.

Then that productio of Much Ado, that was exciting.

That was just, I mean, you know, had a different kind of perspective on it.

That's the way to really, because reading in a book is tough when you're that age, but seeing it on stage, that's a whole other thing entirely.

Well, in fact they weren't meant to be read.

They were meant to be seen and experienced.

And, I'm so happy that we're able to offer that opportunity for those young people.

And those student matinee audience are some of our best, the best, because they get it.

You know, the language is not a barrier when you see it live, performed and you understand the subtext and the meaning and what's going on on stage, you see the actors and, you know, the kids go crazy when you know if people kiss, if there's a sword fight, if somebody dies, they're doing an I sing.

I mean, it's it's it's a really different experience and so fun.

I bet French Stewart got some laughs.

Yeah he did.

He was pretty good.

Well, speaking of the education component, I know you've got summer camps coming up.

It's almost summer.

I mean these things are amazing.

I've, have friends that I've had kids, they go through it.

It's a real great opportunity.

How did folks out there who may want to send their kids to summer camp?

So, learn about that?

I will say that enrollment is not fully, at capacity, but the capacity.

But it's close.

So, so I do encourage people to visit our website at ASF Dot net to learn more about the variety of offerings that we have.

There are classes for jus about any interest or age level.

Okay.

Very cool.

And they when you go to ASF not net there's als some scholarship opportunities.

So if you if price is a barrier or we don't want price to get in the way of having, you know, kids deserving kids part of our program.

Absolutely.

And we'll throw that website up ASF dot net.

Look the season's not over.

You've got some really interesting things coming up.

I think everybody I know is excited about beautiful.

That is the Carole King musical.

What else you got coming up right before we get to beautiful, we have a hilarious comedy called Chicken and Biscuits.

It centers around a family returning to their home to mourn the passing of the family patriarch, a preacher in a black church.

And like any good funeral, everyone arrives with all kinds of baggage, and the entire thing explodes in a comedic way.

It's really, a terrifically funny and heartfelt play.

And then, as you mentioned, beautiful the Carole King Musical is a full scale Broadway musical.

It's sometimes sounds like it's just going to be a woman at a piano, and that does happen.

But also, Carole King wrote music for The Drifters, the Shirelles, she did not write for them, but the Righteous Brothers also appear at some point.

There's lots of great music, wall to wall in the show.

And also two, it's a fantastic underdog story.

This kid from Brooklyn who just marches into a recording office and says, I wrote this song, let's see what we can do.

And she blossoms into, one of the biggest, most important songwriters in the history of the United States.

That's right.

Well, congratulations agai on a successful season so far.

Best wishes.

A break a leg on the next, shows.

But, thank you.

Thank yo for sharing with our audience.

What y'all do is so enriching to the state.

From the from the kids, from the students, all the way through, adults and everything else.

So it's terrific.

An thanks for coming on the show.

Always a pleasure.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

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That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back next week at the same time with more Capitol Journal right here on Alabama Public Television for our Capitol Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.