Speaker’s Press Clips
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
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Al.com: Flu outbreak affecting more than half of Alabama's 67 counties; state still among
tops nationwide
Al.com: Gov. Robert Bentley's inauguration party to include free barbecue, Alabama and
Auburn football trophies
Al.com: Federal judge rules stay remains in place on execution of Alabama death row
inmate Tommy Arthur
Al.com: Calhoun Community College gets interim president until new president arrives
AP: Alabama's coastal waters closed to oyster harvesting
Washington Post: As gay marriages begin in Florida, Supreme Court is set to meet on
issue
New York Times: Oil’s Fall Continues Into 2015, and Stock Markets Shudder
FULL TEXT
Flu outbreak affecting more than half of Alabama's 67 counties; state still among tops
nationwide
Al.com
January 5, 2015
Paul Gattis
The flu virus is widespread in more than half of Alabama's 67 counties and includes most major
cities, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.
The state is also among 29 nationally dealing with the highest level of flu outbreak as of Dec. 27,
the Center for Disease Control announced Monday. That's an increase from 22 states earlier in
December, the CDC said, and "influenza activity continued to increase in the United States."
Counties in the widespread flu level, according to the ADPH, include the cities of Birmingham,
Mobile, Huntsville and Montgomery.
The CDC said 21 children have died nationwide as a result of flu-associated illness during the
2014-15 flu season. None of the deaths have taken place in Alabama. Tennessee, Texas and
Minnesota have had the most fatalities with three each, according to the CDC.
10 tips from the Alabama Department of Public Health on fighting the flu
The CDC said it has characterized 334 flu viruses collected by U.S. laboratories since Oct. 1,
2014. From Dec. 21-27, 30 percent of the 24,001 specimens tested were positive for flu.
The ADPH also said that a positive flu test is not necessary when determining the number of
patients with influenza-like illness. ILI is defined as a fever that is greater than 100 degrees and
cough or sore throat.
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Gov. Robert Bentley's inauguration party to include free barbecue, Alabama and Auburn
football trophies
Al.com
January 5, 2014
Mike Cason
MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- Gov. Robert Bentley's inaugural committee today released more
details about the Jan. 19 events, including the "Thank You Alabama" party at the Cramton Bowl
Multiplex.
The party begins at noon at the conclusion of the inaugural parade. It will be free and open to the
public and will include a free barbecue lunch and soft drinks.
People can have their photos made with crystal National Championship football trophies from
the University of Alabama and Auburn University.
The Cramton Bowl event will feature appearances by several NASA astronauts at Marshall
Space Flight Center displays, the Etowah County 60-piece Youth Orchestra, The House Band, a
bluegrass/Americana band made up of legislators, and She Bang, a clogging group from Pike
County.
Bentley and other constitutional officers will be sworn in beginning at 9 a.m. on the State Capitol
steps facing Dexter Avenue. The Booker T. Washington High School Choir and the Alabama
National Guard Band will perform.
The inaugural parade, featuring a number of high school and college bands, will begin at 11 a.m.
at the Court Square Fountain and move up Dexter Avenue to the Capitol. The parade will turn
left on Bainbridge Street and then right onto Monroe Street, ending at the Cramton Bowl
Multiplex.
An inaugural celebration will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Convention Center at the
Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa. Tickets are required for that event and can be
purchased at the inaugural committee's website.
Inauguration day activities are supported through donations. No taxpayer dollars are being used
to pay for the events, according to a news release from the inaugural committee.
+++
Federal judge rules stay remains in place on execution of Alabama death row inmate
Tommy Arthur
Al.com
January 5, 2014
Mike Cason
MONTGOMERY, Alabama --- A federal judge ruled today that a stay on the execution of
Alabama death row inmate Tommy Arthur remains in place.
The Alabama Supreme Court last month had set a Feb. 19 execution date for Arthur.
Chief U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins of the Middle District of Alabama Northern
Division ruled today that a stay issued by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in March 2012
remains in effect.
That stay came after Arthur in 2011 challenged Alabama's lethal injection method as cruel and
unusual punishment and a violation of his due process rights.
Alabama has since changed its mix of drugs used in lethal injection after it could no longer
obtain one of the drugs.
Today's ruling allows Arthur to file an amended complaint challenging the new combination of
drugs the state plans to use.
Alabama has not carried out an execution since putting Andrew Lackey to death in 2013.
The 2012 stay was the fifth time Arthur's execution was postponed.
The Alabama attorney general's office declined comment on today's ruling by Watkins.
Watkins' order came in response to a request from Arthur's lawyer, Suhana Han.
After the Supreme Court set the execution date for next month, Han asked the federal court to
confirm that the 2012 stay was still in place.
"We are pleased and relieved that a stay of execution remains in place, given the fundamental
importance of ensuring that the cocktail of drugs the state of Alabama proposes to use to execute
Mr. Arthur be subject to judicial review," Han said in a statement.
Arthur was convicted in the 1982 murder-for-hire of Muscle Shoals businessman Troy Wicker.
He has been on death row since 1983.
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Calhoun Community College gets interim president until new president arrives
Al.com
January 5, 2015
Paul Gattis
MONTGOMERY, Alabama - Until new president James Klauber arrives Feb. 1, Calhoun
Community College will have an interim president overlooking the school's campuses in Decatur
and Huntsville.
Mark Heinrich, chancellor of the Alabama Community College System, appointed Bryan Helms
to serve as interim president. Helms is vice president for financial and administrative services at
Calhoun.
"I am extremely appreciative of Mr. Helms' willingness to serve as the college transitions
between Dr. Marilyn Beck's retirement and Dr. Klauber taking over as president," Heinrich said
in the announcement.
Helms has worked at Calhoun since May 2013. He earned his undergraduate degree from Troy
University and his master's from Auburn University-Montgomery.
Klauber was hired at Calhoun last month.
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Alabama's coastal waters closed to oyster harvesting
The Associated Press
January 5, 2014
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's coastal waters have been closed to oyster harvesting.
State Health Officer Don Williamson announced Monday that he had ordered all shellfish
growing waters closed due to heavy rains that could cause possible bacteriological
contamination.
Greg Dunn of the Alabama Department of Public Health says it's impossible to say how long
oyster harvesting will be stopped. The department says it will monitor the water and will allow
harvesting to resume when the water meets acceptable bacteriological criteria.
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As gay marriages begin in Florida, Supreme Court is set to meet on issue
Washington Post
January 5, 2015
Robert Barnes
Gay couples began marrying in Miami on Monday, kicking off a pivotal week when the Supreme
Court will have a chance to consider whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to
marry or whether states may limit marriage to a man and a woman.
A Miami-Dade County judge gave couples there a head start before marriages begin elsewhere
Tuesday in the nation’s third-most-populous state. With the addition of Florida, more than 70
percent of Americans now live in the 36 states and the District of Columbia where same-sex
marriages are allowed, according to estimates by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of
Law.
On Friday, Supreme Court justices will meet in private to consider whether to act on cases that
could provide a nationwide answer on whether same-sex marriages must be allowed. On the
same day, a federal appeals court will consider bans in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
“It’s an incredible confluence of events,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National
Center for Lesbian Rights. “It’s the culmination of many years of work.”
The marriages in Florida and the potential for a constitutional decision by the Supreme Court this
year reflect the rapid advance of the same-sex-marriage movement and a remarkable change in
public opinion. When the court heard oral arguments about California’s Proposition 8 and the
federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 2013, only nine states and the District allowed such
unions.
The justices this week will be considering petitions from five states where lower-court judges,
bucking a nationwide trend, upheld laws banning same-sex marriage and barring the recognition
of such unions performed in states where they are legal.
In all but one case, even the winning side has asked the Supreme Court to accept the cases and
settle the issue during its current term, which will conclude at the end of June.
Without explanation, the justices in October passed up that chance. But that was before a panel
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati ruled that there was no
constitutional right to marriage that must be extended to gay couples and that states were free to
define marriage as they wished.
Because four other regional appeals courts have ruled the other way, “the court is more likely to
decide the issue now than when it denied review last October,” Kyle Duncan, a Washington
lawyer defending Louisiana’s bans, said in an e-mail.
The Supreme Court does not have to announce its decision on the petitions Friday. But generally
the justices must accept a case by the end of January in order to hold oral arguments and rule by
June.
If they do not, same-sex marriages will probably remain legal in the majority of states through
2015 and banned in the rest.
The growth in the availability of same-sex marriage is a result of a nearly unanimous string of
federal court decisions following the twin gay rights victories the Supreme Court delivered in
2013.
Since then, the court has repeatedly rebuffed states asking that they not be forced to follow the
lower-court rulings and offer marriage licenses until the constitutional question is settled.
In Florida’s case, for instance, the justices refused — over the objections of Justices Antonin
Scalia and Clarence Thomas — to extend a stay, even though the issue was on appeal. A federal
judge’s order ruling the state’s ban unconstitutional has not yet been reviewed by the next court
up the ladder, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
To some court-watchers, that refusal was evidence that the five-justice majority that struck down
part of DOMA — a section that withheld federal recognition of same-sex marriages performed
where they are legal — is prepared to take the next step.
The justices are no doubt aware that thousands of marriages have resulted from their actions.
There is some dispute about what would become of those unions should the Supreme Court rule
against same-sex-marriage proponents.
But Evan Wolfson, president of the group Freedom to Marry, says none of the marriages would
be in jeopardy.
“Couples who get legally married will remain legally married — as married as any couples on
the planet — even in the unlikely event that the Supreme Court were to later rule there is no
constitutional right going forward,” Wolfson said in a statement.
Duncan said it is impossible to predict how the court will rule on same-sex marriage based on its
record in considering stays. Early on, for instance, the court granted Utah’s request for a stay and
stopped the marriages that were being performed there.
But ultimately, the court decided not to review lower courts’ decisions, and same-sex marriages
resumed in Utah.
“All we can say concretely is that the Supreme Court has not yet rendered a single substantive
decision on state marriage laws,” Duncan said.
The growth in the number of states offering same-sex marriage since 2013 has been almost
entirely a result of legal challenges. Most — but not all — states vigorously defended their laws
and voters’ decisions to limit marriage to its traditional definition.
Former Florida governor and likely presidential candidate Jeb Bush noted that in a recent
interview with the Miami Herald.
“It ought to be a local decision. I mean, a state decision,” Bush said. “The state decided. The
people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess.”
On Monday, as the marriages began, Bush offered a more conciliatory take. He asked for
“respect for the good people on all sides of the gay and lesbian marriage issue — including
couples making lifetime commitments to each other who are seeking greater legal protections
and those of us who believe marriage is a sacrament and want to safeguard religious liberty.”
In Florida, various plaintiffs filed several lawsuits in state and federal courts, and they were
victorious in each. Most significant was a decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of
Tallahassee, who ruled the ban unconstitutional.
But there was confusion about whether Hinkle’s decision affected all 67 Florida counties or just
the one where the case was brought. Hinkle issued an unusual clarification on New Year’s Day
saying all county clerks should prepare to issue marriage licenses.
“History records no shortage of instances when state officials defied federal court orders on
issues of federal constitutional law,” Hinkle wrote. “Happily, there are many more instances
when responsible officials followed the law, like it or not.”
Hinkle had stayed his order at the time of his original decision but said it would expire at
midnight Monday. It is that stay that the 11th Circuit and then the Supreme Court refused to
extend.
Proponents of same-sex marriage went to state court Monday and convinced Circuit Judge Sarah
Zabel to lift the stay immediately.
“In the big picture, does it really matter whether or not I lift the stay or leave it until tomorrow?”
Zabel said from the bench, according to the Miami Herald. “I’m lifting the stay.”
Zabel then performed marriage ceremonies for two of the couples who had been plaintiffs in the
case.
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Oil’s Fall Continues Into 2015, and Stock Markets Shudder
New York Times
January 5, 2015
Clifford Kraus and Peter Eavis
HOUSTON — Oil prices tumbled below $50 a barrel on Monday, spooking global financial
markets and signaling that the remarkable 50 percent price drop since June was continuing this
year and even quickening.
The new drop in American and global benchmarks of more than 5 percent was accompanied by
reports of increased Middle Eastern oil exports, continuing increases in American production and
renewed worries about the declining economic fortunes of Europe.
The plunge once again sent fear through global markets. The Dow Jones industrial average fell
331.34 points, or 1.86 percent, to 17,501.65. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader
benchmark, fell 37.62 points, or 1.83 percent, to 2,020.58. And the Vix, a measure of market
volatility that is known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, leaped about 12 percent.
In response, investors sought safety in government bonds around the world. As bond prices rose,
the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.03 percent on Monday.
The decline in oil was not the only source of concern in the markets.
Worries about Greece’s ability to stay in the eurozone have reasserted themselves in recent days,
for instance. The dollar continued its surge against the euro on Monday.
Still, as the oil price decline has continued, investors have increasingly seen it as a bad omen for
the global economy. The drop may point to lower demand for oil and lower economic activity.
And the decline suggests that policy makers have not managed to deal with the threat of
deflation, or falling prices.
“There is certainly a deflationary mind-set in the market,” said Jim Vogel, a debt markets
strategist for FTN Financial, “and as we enter 2015, it’s beginning to nag some people that there
could be a deflationary component to the economy.”
Leading the way is oil.
“It is a very shaky start for the oil market,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for
Oil Price Information Service. “The norm is a lot of money comes into commodity index funds
at the beginning of the year, and that can create a market rally. Today, instead of new money
coming into oil, you got some more old money going out of oil.”
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West Texas Intermediate crude, for example, dipped below $50 a barrel for the first time in more
than five years, and Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell more than 6 percent, to under $53 a
barrel.
The drop in prices has led to a rising tide of oil company announcements in recent days of
investment cuts for the coming months. Ensign Energy Services, a Canadian drilling contractor,
reported that it would be laying off 700 workers, or roughly 10 percent of its work force, in
California fields. Several Texas-based companies that have borrowed heavily in recent years to
produce in new Texas and North Dakota shale fields are expected to announce steep investment
and job cuts in the coming days.
Consumers continued to benefit from the oil price collapse, with the AAA auto club reporting on
Monday that the average national price for regular gasoline had fallen to $2.20 a gallon, 8 cents
lower than a week ago, 51 cents lower than a month ago, and $1.11 below a year ago. Energy
experts say American families are likely to have as much as $115 billion more in disposable
income in 2015 than last year because of lower gasoline prices alone. Additional benefits should
come from drops in heating oil and diesel prices.
Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story
The last time oil and gasoline prices fell this low was in the wake of the 2008-9 financial
collapse, when crude oil fell from well over $100 to below $40 a barrel in a matter of months.
Energy analysts say the current price slump is of an entirely different nature, based primarily on
a glut of oil being produced in the United States, along with increased production in Canada, Iraq
and a handful of other countries.
While in the past the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has sometimes agreed
to cut back production to shore up prices, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf producers have
decided to protect their global market share by cutting prices in the United States and Asian
markets while increasing production somewhat.
In a recent interview with Middle East Petroleum and Economic Publications, based in Cyprus,
the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, indicated his country would remain steadfast rather than cut
production anytime soon. “If I reduce, what happens to my market share?” Mr. Naimi said. “The
price will go up and the Russians, the Brazilians, U.S. shale oil producers will take my share.”
Adding further pressure to prices is the weakening demand for oil and petroleum products in
Europe and developing nations. That weakness is compounded as increasingly efficient vehicles
come onto the market and China seeks to reduce the oil dependence of its economy.
There is little reason to believe any of those trends will change until midyear at the earliest,
energy experts say. According to Simmons & Company, based in Houston, the 93 million-barrela-day global market will continue to be oversupplied by at least one million barrels a day during
the first half of 2015.
“It might be the dead of winter, but it looks as though markets will confront considerably more
downside risk in the months ahead,” according to a Citi Research report released Sunday night,
“and it will likely take well into the year before prices will bottom, let alone achieve a new
equilibrium.”
Citi says it is most probable that the oil market will stabilize by the end of 2015, with the Brent
price averaging $63 a barrel for the year — several dollars above the current price. But its more
bearish forecast, with a 30 percent probability, is for Brent to average $55 for the year, roughly
the current price.
Signs suggest that oil and oil product supplies will soon be increasing. The ramping up of several
refineries in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is likely to increase exports of products
like gasoline and diesel by 500,000 barrels a day in the coming months. Even without the
Keystone XL pipeline, other Canadian pipelines coming online will bring as much as 350,000
more barrels onto the market.
Citi has projected that global investments in oil exploration and production will decline up to 15
percent this year, but American companies continue to produce more efficiently. Rystad Energy,
a Norwegian global consulting firm, issued a report on Monday saying that the average breakeven price for the principal shale fields in the United States had dropped to $58 a barrel, with the
core areas of some fields remaining economical to produce at $50.
Oil-producing states are expected to suffer economically from the oil price drop, although the top
oil-producing state, Texas, has worked hard to diversify its economy after the price bust of the
1980s. With a projected $3.5 billion budget deficit, Alaska has already announced a delay in six
important infrastructure projects, including a gas pipeline from the North Slope.