From ou statehouse studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capital Journal.

It was a busy week in the nation's capital for Alabama's congressional delegation.

The House passed the annua National Defense Authorization Act, led by Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers, and the Senate debated the issue of health care with the Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

Our own Alex Engle report on the latest from Capitol Hill.

The Senate rejected dueling Partizan health care bills this week as Congres remains deadlocked on the issue.

Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville all voted for the Republican measur to boost health savings accounts and oppose the Democratic bill to extend the subsidies.

The Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies will expire next year.

Congress is scrambling before the end of the year to prevent that.

But Republican and Democratic proposals have yet to garner enough support.

Every American is getting screwed over by this horrible health care system.

And I hope my fellow senators will grow a backbone and do what is right by the American people.

Though Tuberville and Barrett didn't support an extension of the credits this week, they both say they're open to it with changes across the Capitol.

The House is expected to vote on a health care bill next week, but the framework has yet to be released.

While working on a major overhaul.

Congressman Robert Aderholt would prefer a 3 to 6 month ACA extension with higher protections.

Most Republicans.

We cannot agree to something that does not have pro-life protections and any subsidy that extends health care.

While Congressman Shamari figures says Republicans should join Democrats in extending the credits for three years, we need a few to to step up to the plate, to show that they understand and they know that supporting life doesn't end at birth.

Also this week, all of Alabama's House members have voted for the National Defense Authorization Act, authorizing $900 billion for the Pentagon.

The bill authorizes nearly $200 million for Alabama's military bases.

It will build the really capable, lethal fighting force we need to deter China and our adversaries.

House Armed Services Chairma Mike Rogers led the legislation.

It gives troops a 3.8% pay raise.

It will continue historic improvements in the quality of life of our service members and their families.

Other bill provision will help ease the bottlenecks at Redstone Arsenals gates and speed up Space Command headquarters construction.

Reporting on Capitol Hill, Alex Engle, Capital Journal.

Thank you Alex.

Here in Alabama, health care continues to be a very real issue, especially in rural parts of the state where hospitals have been closing.

Randy Scott takes us back to one such hospital that is trying to find a way to come back online and offer nearby residents access to care.

This ambulance is on an emergency run in Lowndes County, Alabama, near the Black Belt region.

Whatever the emergency is, it would take a road trip to get there.

Mainly due to a shortage of hospitals and medical facilities in this are equipped to handle emergencies.

Some, such as the Thomasville Regional Medical Center, are closed.

Every time I pass this facility.

And so what a waste.

State Representative Thomas Jefferson represents Thomasville.

He and others living here were pleased to get their new hospital until it had to close a short time after opening its doors.

Jackson and many others in this area are again without close health care.

It's scary.

It's not.

Something happened to me.

If I get an accident where I go.

We do have ambulance service now.

We didn't have any service at the time, but sometimes it takes them 2 minutes to get to where you are.

The representativ has had to travel 20 to 25 miles for medical care and furthe if the situation needs surgery.

While this discussion continues at least facilities like the Thomasville Medical Center in limbo, I wish that people will sto playing politics and financials will flow in from from the national level, state level and local level where we can get partnership with what a financial unit, a facility that would bring this hospital back to life.

Sometimes barriers to health care aren't walls at all.

Their roads.

With the closing of hospital around Alabama, so many people have to find themselve traveling to get the health care they need and that too, causing hospitals.

You can see why many say this is a growing emergency for the state.

Still, Da Day is the mayor of Thomasville and says getting this hospital reopened is a top priority.

The latest move to do that is getting people talking about ideas to make that happen.

We didn't just plan to build up knock in the box emergency care center.

We wanted it to be a facility that we could attract surgery and so specialty surgery.

Mayor de says a frequent issue in those talks deal with finances and reimbursements for hospital visits and services to help keep its doors open.

Why not extend the credit, at least for a year or more, with some minor changes?

If they want to make some minor changes, so that we can begin opening up the real conversation that needs to be had.

He adds those talks have generated optimism.

There has been some effort over the last couple of years.

Republican and Democrat, I would say bipartisan, looking at that very heavily about what we can do.

And not only does thi facility help heal people, it's an economic engine for this area, providing people with jobs and helping to attract other businesse to this region to operate here.

The wage rate reimbursement rate for Medicaid, CMS center for Medicaid Services is the lowest.

Now, I do know that they're working on a fix for that.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capital Journal.

Thank you.

Randy and Alabama's congressional delegation this week took action to try to address the financial issues facing rural hospitals.

All nine of Alabama's representatives and senators signed on to a letter le by Congressman Robert Aderholt, requesting that the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reclassify rura hospitals under the wage index, which would allow them to receive greater reimbursements whe treating patients on Medicare.

Alabama has the lowest wage index in the continenta United States, at roughly 0.64.

That means for every $100 in service rendered to a Medicare patient, hospitals in the state are reimbursed at $64 by the federal government.

While a more urban state lik California has a rate of 1.23, which allows hospitals to be reimbursed at $123 for $100 worth of services.

Alabama's delegation is asking CMS Administrator Doctor Mehmet Oz to allow low wage index providers that are within 50 miles of a higher wage index area to reclassify to that area, thus receiving a higher reimbursement.

The letter says the change could quite simply save rural health care.

And U.S.

Senator Tommy Tubervill announced this week that Fannie Mae, the federal National Mortgag Association, will relocate its headquarters from San Francisco to Birmingham.

Tuberville said he has bee discussing the move with Fannie Mae officials and the Trump administration.

Know I've been working with President Trump and Federal Housing Authority Director Bill Ponti to move the offices of Fannie Mae from what Californi to the great state of Alabama?

These are great jobs coming to the state that will help reestablis Birmingham as one of the leading financial hubs of the South.

We'll have more announcements soon, but know that my priorities now and in the coming years will be creating more opportunitie to keep our kids in the state, raising the standard of living, all whil keeping the cost of living down.

Alabama is a great place to live and work, and we're going to keep selling our state to the world.

A major economic development announcement this week for North Alabama.

Eli Lilly, one of the nation's largest drug manufacturers, will be building a new factory in Huntsville.

Governor Kay Ivey and compan officials made the announcement on Monday, saying the new $6 billion facility will bring 450 direct jobs to the Huntsville area.

The company said Huntsville was selected from more than 300 cities vying for the plant.

Governo Ivey said the state's commitment to innovation was a decisive factor.

This week here in the state House, the Alabama medical Cannabis Commission met and approved the license for three dispensary companies.

A fourth license will be considered in the in the coming weeks.

It's a key step toward finally making medical marijuana products available after legal battles have delayed the implementation for years.

It's pivotal day for us, is no doubt.

You know, we've been waiting for this day for a long time.

Kind of an emotional day for some of our people.

Our guest here today who watched us move this far down the road.

We've been waiting for almost four years now to get to this point to have something actually break in our favor, because the litigation has hamstrung us every day for a long time.

So we're we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

And I believe that today' motion of getting dispensaries license will get us out the gate within just a month or two.

So we've got product being staged right now, jus waiting to go to the processor and then to the dispensary.

Pretty muc we could not move a dispensary because we could not license them up till today.

So this will open the door for licenses to be issued for dispensary.

So we do have three of them that indeed will have a license pretty quick within 28 days.

And then we have the, Yellowhammer license.

That will be probably contested for a little while, but we'll take that up in the next meeting or two and see if we can lift the stay off of them, because they were the one applicant that the administrative law judge recommended.

We re-insert as a dispensary.

A big development this week for a major highway project in West Alabama.

The state on Thursday sold $730 million in bonds to finance the completion of the West Alabama Corridor.

The Alabama Highway Authority issued the bonds, which will be repaid over 20 years using revenue from the 2019 Rebuild Alabama gas tax increase.

Crews will widen highway 43 to 2 lanes from two lanes to four lanes, eventually offering a 200 mile, four lane highway from Mobile to Tuscaloosa.

The project is a top priority of Governor Kay Ive and lawmakers from West Alabama, who say that that part of the state has lacked updated infrastructure and the economic opportunities that those bring.

The project has also has its critics, including Lieutenant Governor Wil Ainsworth, who lambasted the project on social media and says it will take fundin away from other needed projects.

On Wednesday the Montgomery Regional Chamber used its annual meetin to spotlight a major milestone for Alabama's economy.

20 years since Hyundai Motor Manufacturing in Alabama opened as one of the state's largest auto plants.

The anniversary brought together leaders from across the state to reflect on the company's impact and the momentum it continues to create.

When telling the story of Hyundai in Alabama.

It's not just a Montgomery success, it's one of the most significant economic turning points for the entire state.

Its success was front and center at the Montgomery Regional Chamber as 153rd Annual meeting.

Alabama Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair was one of the key figures who helped recruit Hyundai to Alabama two decades ago.

Reflected on the partnership that changed the state's automotive landscape.

And when you think about, you know, the 20 years of operation, they have expanded 16 times.

And that that is amazing.

Almost every year, a major expansion that moment 20 years ago set off a ripple effec that is still being felt today.

Hyundai Montgomery plant has generate billions in capital investment.

Thousands of jobs and a strengthened supplier networ that stretches across Alabama.

This week's event paired McNair with Hyundai Motor North America CEO Claudia marquis, about both the past and the future of the company's presence in the state.

We started with 2000 and then we jumped over today, 4200.

And then with our suppliers, being able to create over 40,000 jobs, of course.

This is amazing.

I need to share as well on the investment in these 20 years, a little bit higher than $3 billion producing million, over 6 million of car.

McNair also stressed how the Hyundai agreement set a blueprint for Alabama's modern approach to economic development, showing the value of cooperation between state, regional and local partners.

They raised their hand and they, put together a package that was unprecedented not only in the community, but it was unexpected it in the state to put a package together that was that aggressive.

But look what that did for this community.

The, the multiplier on that was it was supposed to be ten years to get payback.

It was half of that.

Now, beyond Hyundai, Alabama's automotive manufacturing sector includes Mercedes, Honda and a joint venture by Toyota and Mazda.

Reporting from the Statehouse in Montgomery.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capitol Journal.

Some controversy involving religious school in Birmingham.

The Islamic Academy of Alabama.

This week notified Hoover city officials that it will no longer pursue plans to relocate thei school in an effort to expand.

The decision come after dozens of Hoover residents spoke out against the school's relocation efforts.

And US Senator Tommy Tuberville repeatedly blasting the school in interviews and on social media.

School official say they're dropping the plans because they don't expect to get a fair hearing from city officials.

Tuberville applauded that development and doubled down on his criticisms of the school.

I'm extremely proud of the hundreds of Alabamians who showed up at a Hoover City Council meeting to oppose the expansion of the Islamic Academy of Alabama.

Soon afterwards, the academy withdrew its proposal.

This is great news not just for the greater Birmingham region but our entire state of Alabama.

The people of Alabama said enough's enough and stood up against the spread of radical Islamic supremacy.

That's what it's going to take to stop the spread of this poisonous ideology across our state.

And joining m next to talk about that is apt senior education reporter Trish Crain.

Trish,, thanks for making the time.

Thanks for having me.

So let's really going on with this Islamic academy there in Hoover.

Well, it started with the school officials looking for a bigger building.

They've been in the same building for about 30 years.

And, you know, the Chew's Act has come along and has given them an opportunity to grow their enrollment.

Right.

So there are participating school and they have a good number of kids using Choose Act vouchers right now.

So they found this building in a meadowbrook office park, which at the tim when they signed the contract, they didn't realize they would need a conditional use zoning board.

Right, right.

To to to make the office park into a school.

It's a beautiful campus.

There's a lake.

You know, you could see where it could be used as a school.

And they had to go in front of Hoover, Planning and Zoning Board and get, you know, the Hoover Planning and Zoning Board is an advisory board, so they wouldn't, like outright reject an application.

They would just sort of vet i and then make a recommendation to the council, who woul then have ultimate authority.

So they filed their official application in September.

The school did And then there were questions.

You know, the traffic studies, right?

I mean, this is off of highway 280.

There's a lot of traffic there.

So people genuinely had traffic concerns.

So the Islamic Academy officials paid for traffic studies.

Answered those questions.

The city came back with more questions.

The school answered more questions, and the city came back with more questions.

And the city couched it as the the, city officials said, you know, they just felt like it wa the story was sort of changing.

And they said that in the open meeting, to which, of course, school officials say, no, that's not really the case.

They just didn't ask those questions.

So there was a pretty contentious meeting, on, of the Planning and Zoning Board.

And ultimately, you know, people showed up with signs, anti-Muslim signs, and there was this undercurrent, right?

I mean, people had genuin concerns, again, about traffic.

They took public comment.

But at the end, the planning and Zoning Board voted to to send a denial.

Did not recommend it.

And the audience didn't clapped very loudly.

To and then school officials had to make the decision.

Are they going to go forward with the application?

But as we know, i got a little political, right.

So after, some comments, the school officials said they genuinel got concerned for their safety.

So they have hired security to stay on campus.

They have a mosque in Hoover.

Also, and they've got police presence at the mosque as well.

So but at the end of the day, the school decided to not move forward.

Well, I mean, just looking at it just from a reality perspective, a realistic perspective.

When Senator Tuberville, I mean, he's a United States senator.

That's a big deal.

Also, he's running for governor.

There's a decent chance he' going to be the next governor.

So when he speaks out like this, it really carries a lot of weight.

That's got to be a factor here.

Oh absolutely.

I mean I think, that Senator Tuberville comments carry a lot of weight.

And, I think, you know, I thin there's some miscommunication.

You know, the school officials say they are not teaching the thing that Senator Tuberville claims that they are teaching, that they're really teaching math and reading law and.

Right, right.

So, you know, they're reall just teaching math and reading.

I have not been to the campus, so I can't say that, but I have talked with school officials who say, you know, it's, it's they haven't said this, but I guess, me paraphrasing, you know, it's kind of easy to pick on them, right?

There's been a lot of, rhetoric, a lot of heat up on the Muslim issue of late, partially what's going on in Europe.

They're having a lot of, you know, problems over there in Europe.

And so this flares up every now and again.

It's almost it's almost like if this was going on at a different time.

Right.

You wonde if the same kind of controversy, you know, go back ten years or so or, you know, whatever.

I want to switch gears because you've also done some reporting on fast for this is the application that every, every, high school student fills ou to see if they can qualify for student aid.

Really?

The the, school officials really push this because you never know.

But there are some updates to this.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, under the Trump administration, Secretary Linda McMahon, they've made some changes.

They want they want colleges to be more accountable, for what happens to kids when they get out of college.

You know there's been a lot of questions.

Is a college degree worth it?

So one of the things that they unveiled is they are now going to include after you complete the Fafsa and it comes back and tells you, you know, after you choose a school, it will tell you if it it it will give an indicator called the lower earnings, indicator.

And what that means is that the graduates are earning that school.

It's a lot of detail.

But the graduates, you know, it's a specific measure.

The graduates of that school, if they're earning less than high schoo graduates, would, are earning, then they're going to get a lower earnings indicator.

And we did have some of those schools in Alabama.

We had 13 colleges, all private colleges where the earnings again, it's a it's a specific measure, you know, for years after completion.

And you have to have had student aid to even have your W-2 pulled for the calculation.

But generally speaking, Alabama's public school do really well, public colleges.

But yes, it's important to if you're a high school student or a parent of a high school student, it would be nice information to know, as you're getting ready to apply for college, like, okay, what's going to be the return, that you get?

We'll look.

We're out of time.

Thanks so much for your reporting on this and your insight.

We value your education reporting, as always.

Thank you.

Todd, and we'll be right back with this week's guests.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

You're watching Alabama Public Television celebrating 70 years of service to Alabama.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Terry Metz, CEO of the Alabama Fiber Network.

Terry thanks for coming on the show.

Glad to be here.

Well, we've got a lot to talk about, but first, I wanted you to please remind our audience about the the Alabama fiber networ and its role here in the state.

Sure.

Governor Ivey had a dream and became an initiative which finally became an act.

And in 2022, 23, the, the state awarded $260 million of various grants for Alabama fiber nets owners, which are the electric cooperatives and powe generation company Power South, to build a statewide middle mile network to connect every county in the state with the high speed, redundant fiber backbone.

And we're nearing completion of that project right now ahead of schedule and, under budget.

Yeah.

And that' I know I saw that announcement.

I guess it was over in Camden.

Yes.

Where it's literally bridging the divide, which I thought was a apt metaphor to talk about that.

I mean, that's quite an accomplishment.

You know, the the whole net worth when completed.

In the middle of this coming summer will be about 6600 miles of network.

And it's partially provided with Alabama Power fiber and, electric co-ops.

It is such as Central Alabam Electric Cooperative, Tombigbee and all of those that got together there are in this fiber business.

And, we have connected all of their fibers and built an additional 3000 miles of network to combine all of those into a robust network that is diverse in all 67 counties of Alabama.

So this week, the University of Alabama came out with this report talking about, you know, how you know, an update basically on how this broadband effort is going, saying essentially made a lot of progress, $2.5 billion spen between the state and federal, most of that federal.

But that we still have a lon way to go specifically with that middle mile.

Explain to us what that middle.

We hear that term a lot, but explain what is that middle amount and what's what's it going to take to complete the mission, if you will?

Sure, sure.

The middle mile, as everybody knows, back in the late 80s, early 90s, everybody started building fiber optics across the country, but they were mainly focused on the NFL cities, as we called it at that time, the largest hundred cities in this in the US.

And then folks started building okay, well, I'm going to build a small little fiber network here in my town.

Well, there was a disjoint between those big city fiber networks that were connected and the rural small, mom and pops and small utilities that built fiber.

There was no connectivity between those.

And the rural areas were pretty much left out.

And so the middle mile and the middle mile jargon is, okay, how do I get from those NFL cities into these small little substation type pops, as we call them, which is a point of presence into every county so that the local folks have that same robust internet access and business access that you have in the larger towns.

Right.

And, you know, we talk a lot about, well, it's it's be great to have broadband internet.

Right.

Everybody personally would like to have that.

And I understand the providers really take that take what you have from it and take it into neighborhoods and things like that.

But it's more than just personal, you know, convenience or whatever.

When a town is connected, when when a county becomes connected.

It's the hospitals, it's the schools, it's economic development opportunities.

Talk about the intangibles that come along with, communities and counties being connected to high speed broadband internet.

Well, I think it goes to the point of where you're even talking public safety, not just convenience.

Today you sit on your phone and 11:00 at night, you may get an Amber alert o you may get a tornado warning.

So having that robust Wi-Fi in your home or coming in to the local area over a cellular provider, or having your local electri cooperative provide that to you through their Wi-F service, is absolutely necessary in today's age for your own survival at times, and you can call 911 out over it.

You can do everything you need on applications that are provided a Deca, and they're planning with the governor's office.

Absolutely saw that need, alon with getting to the hospitals, getting to the schools and providing 21st century broadban capabilities across the state.

Now you also hear a lot about in this day and age about like Elon Musk has his satellite internet and everything like that where you could just put a little dish on to of your house and unconnected.

Kind of seems like, I mean, I don't know, kind of above my head, in technology wise.

So why not just do that?

You know, if we had to connect everybody via broadband.

Oh, I, I I, I've, I have tha people ask me that all the time.

It's a great question.

And frankly satellite has its applications.

But no one technolog fits everything in the country just doesn't when it comes to broadband.

I can tell you this broadband fiber is infrastructure application resistant to future needs.

It will never have the inability to say I'm not fast enough.

So if you have the fiber in the ground, you're betting on the future.

Now satellite today, great little solution.

But those satellites wear out just like everything else does a lot quicker than fiber will.

And they only have so much bandwidth because spectrum coming down from the space and the low earth Alabama satellites are still going to only have so many they can put up there.

So I assure you, after being in this business for 4 years, satellite has its place.

But nothing beats fiber in the long run.

We also have quite a quite a bit of trees.

And you.

Well, yeah.

And believe it or not the frequency for pine needles, believe it or not, is the absolutely worst for blending in an interrupting satellite at times.

We got plenty of pine needles earlier.

Alabama you mentioned befor all these different companies, electric cooperatives, power company, telephone company.

And it's interesting because when I think when I think about that.

All right.

Yeah.

When you look at a power line or something, we call them power lines.

Well, it's gets all.

So I got telephone.

It's got a lot of different.

A lot of different entities have, involvement here.

And I would imagine that traditionally over, over the years, there could be some kind of territorial ism in terms of who's, who's got right of way and all that talk abou the importance of partnerships and accomplishing this mission, because I would imagin it takes a lot of cooperation, from all these different entities, to actually accomplis something like this.

Absolutely.

I can tell you, once again, and being in this business, long as I have no state in the union, has a partnership like Alabama Fiber Network, we have Alabama power.

Jeff Peoples and his folks are dedicated to this infrastructure.

Build out partnering with electric cooperatives and Tom Stackhouse, Gary Smith, Tim Culpeper the whole board at Alabama Fiber from the electric cooperatives, saw the vision, saw the need.

You have telephone companies seeing fiber built by electric cooperatives that are partnerin with us to expand this dedicated middle mile network s everybody can benefit from it.

It's unheard of.

It really is unheard of.

You have farmers telephone, pond, bell mill, all of those smaller companies are all bought in to what this vision is that the governor had.

And everybody's working together to have this interstate highway of fiber broadband built so everybody can utilize it.

Absolutely.

Well, look, I really appreciate you coming on and explaining this.

It's a is a complicated subject.

And I needed as much a anybody else these explanations.

But I hope you'll keep us updated as we go forward, because, as this report said, a lot of progress, but a lot of work to do.

So I hope you'll keep us updated on that progress.

As you all move forward.

I'm sure we will.

We're 85% construction complete.

On the last bits of it we're serving every county now.

So our middle mile projects winding down in completed, and we're just doing the paperwork now, as you can imagine, has to be done with the final inspections.

But our middle mile building into those hospital and school is rapidly underway, and we're be complete with most of that by the spring.

So we're we're winding up and going to be done by the middle of summer.

We'll look forward to that announcement.

Thank you very much Thanks for coming on the show.

Looking forward to giving yo that report and looking forward to getting back to doing what we do best.

And that's serving the state of Alabama, right.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Sally Pitts, the newly named news directo at WSFA TV here in Montgomery.

Sally, thanks for coming on the show and congratulations.

What a wonderful opportunity.

Thank you so much.

It is a wonderful opportunity.

But as you know, with any great opportunity comes great responsibility.

But it is it's an honor to lead this great station.

Absolutely love to talk about I'm excited for you.

But to share with our audience some of your background because you've been at of a in a lot of different roles for a long time.

Yes.

But my entire television caree at AWS of 812 news, I got hired in 2002, 23 years ago, as a part time production assistant.

I graduated Auburn in May and began trying to find jobs.

I called all over the country, offered to take out tras at stations, and got rejected.

And then finally, I saw this opening for a part time production assistant.

To be honest I had no idea what that meant.

Yeah, what does that even mean?

So a man named Roger Thomas called and said, come in for an interview.

And he hired me.

And that was my start at SFA.

So I ranked cameras in around the teleprompter, the words that the anchors would read.

He eventually promoted me t a full time graphics operator.

Back then, my schedule was 2 to 11, so I would come i at 930 in the morning many days and work in the newsroo so that I could learn everything about the operation, go out with reporters.

We had a little bit of turnover within the first year and a half or so.

So I'd go up in the newsroo and help them fill in thinking, surely they are going to hire me for these open positions.

And they hired 5 or 6 people, and I gave myself a deadline and said, if you have not been hired by September 22nd, you're gone.

That's that was my birthday, September 20s my birthday.

So I've been ther over two years.

By that point.

I said, if you don't get something on air by your birthday, let's go back and finish that accounting degree, because I had been an accounting major before.

I've moved into this field.

So birthday comes 630 at night.

I'm leaving.

Walked out of the newsroom about Dex at the door, and the new director says, hey, come back.

And she hands me a letter and offered me a reporter job on my birthday on that deadline.

So I always thought that that was incredible.

Up at the right ther at the deadline and at the time.

We work in TV at the deadline.

Right.

Oh, yeah.

And so then eventually I became a weekend anchor, started a new newscast calle Today in Alabama Sunday morning.

Today in Alabama, we started that and I would anchor and produce that newscast.

Then became the news at Noon anchor.

And then we launched first at four.

And that happened right before I got marrie and had started having a family.

And that gave me a like 9 to 6 schedule.

Monday through Friday.

So it was all just incredible timing.

So I've been in that rol for several years and love it.

And never thought about being news director.

And then this opportunity came up and it's just it's the honor of my career.

Oh, and when I saw it come through, I just said of course, you know, perfect.

And I'm sure all those different roles probably prepared you because, you know, down to the teleprompter operator, what, you know, what happens in the newsroom and that's, that's going to be helpful to you.

Yeah, I have experience i every corner of that newsroom.

So when someone comes to me with a question, I understand what they are talking about.

And even when I transition from operating a camera to being an anchor, that experience made me a better anchor because I knew what camera to look at, where I needed to turn, when I needed to turn.

Of course, we're still terribly saddene by the loss of Desmond Winger.

I mean he's his longtime friend.

Not to make you tear up.

I mean, it's talk abou his legacy there at the station.

I just, I mean, the funeral, everybody, had so many incredible things to say, but talk about his legacy there in the newsroom as a newsman.

Desmond was 19 when he started working.

Wow.

At a I was 21 when I started working at AWS of AA.

So we really grew up together.

He was one of my first friends at AWS.

He was more than my coworker.

He was my friend, and we would spend a lot of time.

We would get off work, we would go bowling.

He and I would go to football games together.

We went to Disney World together.

So he was more than just my coworker and then my boss.

He was someon I really loved and cared about.

And he was the ultimate journalist.

Desmond has a great story similar to mine.

He grew up watching all of this is all he wanted to do since he was a little boy, and he got hired part time while he was still in college at Troy and worked his way up, becoming a producer, then the assistant news director, and eventually the news director.

But we all we have these plans that our general manager made for us, and it says, what would Desmond do?

Yeah, what would Desmond do?

And we ask ourselves that every day because we want to live up to the standard that he said.

He had so much compassion.

He loved all of his employees.

He cared about all of his employees deeply.

But he also had high expectations for us.

And so every day we strive to live u to those high expectations while also remembering somethin Desmond always said give grace, give grace.

In the da before the announcement came out that I would be the new news director.

I'm getting off the interstate in Auburn and the car stopped in front of me.

Their license plate said, give grace.

And I said, okay, Desmond, I hear you talking to me.

So I still feel we still feel his presence every day.

Yeah.

Wow.

Well said.

What a man of integrity.

You know, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you about this, was because WSF here at Montgomery is kind of synonymous.

I grew up around here, and I grew up watching WSF.

And it's kind of synonymous with capital coverage, Alabama political coverage.

I'm thinking about Bob Ingram, Bob Howell.

I'm thinking of the live reports from Eileen Jones and Max Reese.

You know, some of these name that, that, that some of these great political reporter now you've got, Jessica Umbro, who is the new, government politics reporter doing a great job.

So talk about the importance of capital coverage being the capital city, flagship, station.

Yeah.

And I want to say Jessica is doing a phenomenal job.

She's with us here for a few months now and I know she's getting excited about the upcoming session, and she's doing a great job.

Survey 12 news is the statio in the capital city of Alabama.

Our coverage doesn't jus impact our city and our station.

The coverage that we do, i goes out to all of our stations within great media across the state of Alabama, some into Georgia.

So you're talking Huntsville, Birmingham, mobile Dothan, even Columbus, Georgia.

So we are responsible for making sure we have Alabama politic covered here in the capital city for the entire state of Alabama.

But even looking back years upon years of the coverage, we are celebrating 70 years of SFA.

We went on air in 1954.

So this is our 70th year we are completing, and we've been highlighting some of the stories of SFA.

And one of those we've been talking to civil rights leaders, and they talk about the bus boycott and that SFA 12 news coverage made sure that it got out to national media.

It got worldwide attention.

And I sat there and listene to those pivotal players who say if it weren't for SFA, the bus boycott would not have been as successful as it was.

So that's the powe of this television station here in the capital city of Alabam really puts that in perspective.

Well, okay.

We talk about the evolution of the news.

You mentioned gray and it is interesting because, you know, it it does connect.

You connect all these different news stations and gives you that kind of larger voice.

But talk about the evolution of the news since you've been around, because even in the last what you say, 22 or 23 years, it's evolved quite a bit.

It has changed so much.

I remember when I got hired and we would edit out in the field, we added, did what we called tape to tape and then we, you know, we transitioned an everything's digital these days.

And even back then if we if we shot something out in the field, we would have to push play on that.

Somebody back at the station would have to roll on it.

Now it's like sending an email, you know, it's real.

It's real simple.

It's real easy.

So the way we edit changed our cameras in the studio.

We used to have an entire crew in the studio.

I was one of those running the camera, running the teleprompter.

We now run our own teleprompter.

So if it doesn't roll and something messes up, that's that's on me.

You know, that's on me.

And I'll say often the teleprompter operator, she's terrible.

She's not very good.

So you're back to be in the teleprompter?

Exactly.

I'm back to my roots now, but the cameras are operated.

We used to have what we called directors, and they would tell the editor to roll the video.

Now, it it's all programed in there.

They have a code that they put in every line in every story.

And they push, they push a spacebar.

So there's so much more they do on the front end I would say less.

They're multitasking.

So I don't even want to say less.

But you know, they're pushing that spacebar to make sure things, things are going on.

So it's all different.

Yeah.

The way we do things these days though, sometimes come over and do interviews about things ove in the new studio in the tower.

And I was amazed the first time I saw the new studio of just the technology.

And I mean, just an amazing upgrades.

It was the same thing i Birmingham at RC of just like, wow, okay, this is high tech, it's a spaceship.

But what amazes me is with the changes in th technology, our technology team, most of them have remained the same.

Moore's Paul like he's our chief engineer.

And then we have Steve Cohn who works in that department with them.

And together they have over eight decades of experience.

And they've seen all those changes throughout their careers.

And they're on top of it, man.

I don't know how they keep up with it.

I'm so thankful for them.

I know they say you can't teac an old dog new tricks, but hey, hey, you can.

They are the best in the business and we're very fortunate to have them.

That's right.

Well, tell everybody over at the station, I said hello.

A lot of great friends over there.

Congratulations again.

Good.

Good luck to you.

And yeah, I hope you won't be a stranger over here at the state House.

We like seeing you again.

Congratulations.

Best of luck to you.

Really happy for you.

Than you.

I appreciate it.

All right, we'll be right back.

Since 1997, Alabam Public Television has provided programs, services, and resources to childcare professionals, teachers and parents.

Visit AP tv.org/education to learn more.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Jerry Latham author of the bestselling book.

You will be Peter.

Jerry thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks, Todd.

Appreciate it.

Well, congratulations on the bestselling book.

I want to get to all that.

But first, you know, people, you're well known in Alabama political circles for your work in politics.

You work in historic preservation, award winning in that you'll have some senior care centers, but now you have a new title, bestselling author.

So I just have to ask you what led you to write this book?

Well, thanks for having me on.

And, I love talking about the book and talking about this topic.

The this it begins when I wa involved in the movie industry in New Orleans and what I was really interested in, what makes a good movie, what makes people interested.

And ultimately, it's the story.

It's really got to be the right story.

Combine that with my lifelon fascination and attraction to, Simon Peter.

So I thought, well, maybe he would make a good subject.

And I began to look for the right book and try to find the right book.

And it's a kind of a source material for a film.

You know, most 95% of movies are not direct screenplay written for the screen.

They're they're adaptations of books.

So overwhelming majority of, of, film comes from good books.

And, you know, it's a good book because people buy i and read it.

That's first test.

So, I couldn't find the book that I wanted.

I bought and read every book on Simon Peter.

I could find dozens and dozens of them.

And, finally, one of my screenwriter guys said, you should probably just write this book.

Apparently, there's a story you have in your mind you want to tell.

You should just tell it your way.

So I did, that's out of character.

Is that might be I just took it on as a challenge and felt, led to do it and and enjoyed it.

It took 12 years, ten years of research and two years of writing.

But here we are.

Well, well, again, congratulations.

And look, you're right about the the the character, if you will, of Simon Peter.

It's fascinating.

I mean, so many of us can maybe relate to someone.

Peter.

Absolutely.

As the fisherma who was Simon who becomes Peter.

And this is the the title of the book.

Is that right?

Right.

You will be Peter is kind of his transformation.

Talk about how you we know the familiar story in the Gospels, but the Gospels can only say so much.

So how do you take that and build it into, a novel?

What really begins with that, that title, you know, that's the first thing Jesus ever says to him.

It's a very odd introduction if you think about it.

You are Simon.

You will be Peter.

That's the first thing he ever tells him.

So, you will be Peter is also important.

We emphasize on the cover the the word will.

You will be Peter, not poof, you're Peter, which is sort of the arc of a life of a Christian.

You'r not instantly who you should be, but you're on the path.

You'r you're beginning to get there.

And, you know, you allude to Simon's, well known faults and well-known shortcoming and and that you relate to him.

Lots of people relate to him.

Yeah, that's the point, that that's exactly what Jesus was aiming for.

He knew all the fancy people and the rich people and the, you know, the powerful and the attractive and whatever else you might think of.

And he very deliberately chose the most common person he could find.

And the writers of the Gospels carefully preserved and made sure we understood the amount of interchange that happened between he and he' the only Peter is the only one who argues with Jesus, and Jesus rebukes him, and he's frequently getting it wrong.

And as you hear his thoughts in the in the book, he's he's thinking all the time about how he's going to ha a very heavy political overtone.

He he doesn't like having hi homeland occupied by the Romans.

He wants them gone.

He believes this Messiah that they've been waiting for is going to do that.

So he envisions confronting the Romans an driving them out of the country.

And he thinks that was Jesus is going to do, obviously that was not what he was talking about the whole time.

But their conversations and the amount of time that that Jesus spends talking t Simon is carefully documented.

It's he's he's his name i interestingly, about 30 times.

He calls him Simon and about 30 times he calls him Peter.

And when he's Simon, he's always his human, not what he wants him to be, and he's Peter when he's getting it right.

So when you hear him say, when you hear Jesus, say to him, Simon, you can hear it with some scolding you like when your mother says your full name.

Yeah, you got to say no.

Yeah.

Todd.

Christian.

Yeah, yeah.

That's it.

Yeah.

So.

So it's, Peter, if you believe you can come to me.

And Jesus gestures to him standing on the water, and Peter stands up and gets out o the boat and walks on the water.

Then when he starts to sink, any doubts it's Simon.

Simon, Simon, why did you doubt?

So it's ver interesting that the other guy's all right about Simon to this this the central that's the central theme of Christianity is that that your flaws and your shortcomings are a part of being human.

And Jesus knows all about it.

But to be a Christian is to be on a journey to become who he wants you to be.

Simon will become Peter.

He does become Peter.

Well, it is the Christmas season and, you know, part of the Christmas season.

I always get more time to read books and everything.

Also give books to all of my family members.

Even those that don't know don't may not read them as Christmas presents.

So I think this might be in some stockings this year.

You mentioned the research that fascinates me.

You talk about going to Israel.

Talk about the process of of all that research that goes int and why it matters to this book.

What matters because I wanted the story accurate.

It's chronologically synced u and which the Gospels are not.

And there's reasons wh the Gospels are written at time.

Each of the four writer had a different point to make.

It was writing from a different perspective.

And so for the storytelling purposes, though, this is a, you know, these events begin and they take three take part over three years.

And that journey is important.

It helps with the context for the research.

It was really important to go to Israel because I wanted to walk from these places.

That's one of the things I think that reveal reveals itself to people is how far it is and how long it took them to get there, you know, from from the moment they made on the side of the Jordan until the, the Wedding in Cana, it's a two and a half to three day walk.

You go by Nazareth.

So on the way.

Jesus.

You know, presumably would have gone to see his mother, but his mother was already gone to the wedding.

So these distances and this storytelling kind of makes it come alive is the.

You've heard sermons, you've heard Sunday school lessons, you've been in Bible study, but they're always taken in liturgical bite where you're taught something.

Right.

You know, this is what happens.

What does it mean?

We don't do that?

Well, there's not any there' not any parables in the story.

There's this is mostly the thoughts of Simon and his comrades, his friends.

As they experience the life with Jesus.

So going to Israel was very important, getting the description right.

So you feel like you're there.

You can smell the flowers.

You know what?

Spring.

You know the difference in the fall in the in the in the spring festivals when he goes to, Jerusalem.

So there's the harvest festival there's the Passover festival.

And those are the times when Jesus would go there.

But it takes a week to walk from Capernaum to, Jerusalem.

That's a long way.

A lot of talk about on the way to a lot to talk about.

And so one of my favorit passages is the one where, he's first said, this thing you are Simon, you will be Peter.

Well, he's got his brother and two of his best friends there alongside him as they walk for two and a half days.

Can you imagine the conversation like, hey, what?

What was that about you know, what is he calling me this name now?

And John is always kind of the wiser one, not wiser.

But he's a calmer fellow and he always ends up telling his rest.

Well, you know, I guess we'll see.

This is the Messiah we're going to.

We're going to.

He'll tell you when he wants you to know.

Yeah.

And Jesus doesn't tell him.

Actually, for almost two years, the the passage everyone knows you.

You are the rock on which I will build my church.

That happens at Saint I mean, at, Caesarea Philippi, which is in the very far north on the along the Lebanese border.

Unusual place.

And they only went there once.

So they walk for three days to somewher they've never been for Jesus to pose in front of this settin the mouth of the Jordan River, not the mouth of the spring where it begins.

And to ask them, who do men say that I am?

And of course, being Simon, h jumps in there and blurts out, you are the Christ the Messiah, the living son of the son of the living God.

And he says, yes, and you are Simon, the Rock on which I will build my church.

You are Peter, the Rock on which he hadn't said that up until then.

He just calls him the nickname without telling him why.

Well, so many fascinating stories.

And look, you mentioned being in the film industry.

I have, really enjoyed The Chosen.

I guess it's on Netflix or wherever it is.

That follows the, the ministry of Jesus.

Might we see this on the big screen or on a Netflix type, streaming service or something one day?

Absolutely.

That's that is exactly the plan.

That's why I wrote the book.

I wrote the book to create the material for the screenplay.

I am in talks now.

There' I've had meetings in Nashville recently, just a month ago with a number of producers and production companies.

And, and I plan to go out to Los Angeles and, meet with my former partner, in the, in the stage busines where we were in this business in New Orleans and present it to some major studios.

And, so, yes, it's it will happen.

It's coming, both streaming, a series.

The book is written episodically, meaning every every chapter is meant to be the end of an episode.

If it was a, you know, a Netflix series complete with cliffhanger.

That's that' why you call it a page turner.

You you got to you got to keep reading to see what happens.

Absolutely.

Well, well, again, congratulations.

You will be peter.com is where people can can buy the book.

It's number one on Amazon' biblical fiction of understand that correct.

It came out at number one.

And it's been in and out of the top ten and currently well today actuall Amazon's out of stock right now.

I just talked to my publisher about getting them restocked.

So they're really selling well for Christmas.

And that is a great idea for that person that you're not sure what to get a great novel that tells a good story that you already know.

But, but, but to experience it that way is what we've heard so much.

You ask abou the research a moment ago, too.

That was one of the things I was very, very aware of.

The reason it took so long is because I was very careful to make sur that I had the facts straight.

There's nothing that's I mean you can imagine the conversation that had to happen.

I just alluded to it.

That's no that's not adding to the Bible.

That's just imagining the stories and imagining the so in a form, it's like art.

It's it's helping people picture what happened.

And by hearing the story, just like great paintings and great sculpture, I was someone asked me once did you make something up?

So.

Absolutely not.

And I sent this to major theological, studio, I mean, a major seminaries and I put it in front of biblical experts, and we ran it through a whole beta test of of, biblical scholar to make sure there was nothing.

And we heard over and over, well, I didn't think this happened, but, you know, I went and looked and you're right.

So it.

Well, because it can be telling, it can be touchy.

And anytime you dive into something like that, I totally understand.

And then, you know, and it's bit of a respite from politics.

It is a little bit.

Although the political overtone of what was going on is always there.

It never leaves us.

It's just part of life.

Well, Jerry, we're out of time.

Congratulations again.

And, keep us, keep us posted on the movie.

Thank you.

You'll be the first to know.

All right, we'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

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That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

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

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.