• An interesting divide has occurred between states attorneys general for how the U.S. should settle the lawsuit concerning the opioid crisis and the manufacturer and distributors of the drug.
• The nation’s Republican state attorneys general have, for the most part, lined up in support of a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, while their Democratic counterparts have mostly come out against it, decrying it as inadequate.
• Exactly why this is so is unclear, and some of those involved suggested it can’t necessarily be explained by partisan politics.
• Some of the attention has focused on the role played by former Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, who has been working for members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma.
• Purdue has been generous in recent years to RAGA, contributing more than $680,000 to its campaign operation from 2014 through 2018. The company also gave about $210,000 to the organization’s Democratic counterpart, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, over the same five-year period.
• Read the full report from Steve Karnowski and Geoff Mulvihill HERE.

• Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has vetoed raises for himself and members of the city council.
• Battle said that he had a “philosophical difference” with council members on how they should be compensated, saying they should strive to be involved in their communities as citizens and not as employees of the city.
• Battle also has previously said he is satisfied with his current salary.
• According to the mayor’s office, Battle’s salary would have increased from $136,000 to $176,000, the council president’s salary would increase from $39,000 to $49,000 and the city council members’ salaries would rise from $33,000 to $44,000 each.
• The raises, approved on a 4-1 vote Thursday, would have taken effect Nov. 2, 2020.
• Read the full report HERE.

• Presidential candidate Joe Biden is in Alabama on Sunday to speak at the Birmingham church where an act of white supremacist terrorism marked a key turn in the civil rights movement.
• Biden is using the 56th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls to warn that racism still threatens the nation and is rising under President Donald Trump.
• It’s a core message of Biden’s 2020 campaign.
• Biden leads national primary polls in part on the strength of his support among older black voters like those he’ll address Sunday.
• But some younger black leaders criticize aspects of Biden’s record on race. That scrutiny intensified after Democrats’ third presidential primary debate when the 76-year-old Biden gave a meandering answer about how to handle the legacy of slavery.
• Read the full report HERE.

• People in rural Alabama are raising concerns about the use of “chicken sludge” as fertilizer on farm fields as the state considers new rules on how such products can be used.
• The sludge from a poultry processing plant left an overpowering stench when it was applied to a neighbor’s farm fields, Julie Lay said. Flies also invaded her property in Marshall County, Al.com reported.
• Lay was among several residents who spoke out recently at an Alabama Department of Environmental Management public hearing.
• The agency is considering new rules on how biosolids can be used as a fertilizer. Biosolids is the umbrella term used to describe solid material left over from both wastewater treatment operations that deal with sewage; and chicken processing plants.
• Alabama is the second-leading state in poultry production behind Georgia, processing 21 million chickens per week, according to the Alabama Farmers Federation.
• Read the full report HERE.

• State and federal authorities say an Alabama chemical plant has been emitting sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid mist into the atmosphere.
• A complaint filed in federal court accuses Nouryon Functional Chemicals of polluting the air from its sulfuric acid plant in the Axis community, north of Mobile.
• The EPA said in a statement that the company did a major modification of its sulfuric acid unit without obtaining the proper permits or installing required technology, among other things.
• The EPA and the state are proposing a settlement with the company. The EPA says the proposed consent decree would substantially reduce chemical emissions and improve the air quality in communities near the plant.
• The company did not immediately respond to calls and emails requesting comment.
• Read the full report HERE.

• A woman accused of trying to help al-Qaeda has pleaded guilty in Alabama to a charge of concealing terrorism financing.
• Federal prosecutors say Alaa Mohd Abusaad entered the plea Friday during a hearing in federal court in Tuscaloosa.
• Authorities arrested the one-time University of Alabama student last year. Court documents show Abusaad communicated over messaging programs with a person she didn’t know was an undercover FBI employee.
• A statement from prosecutors shows she gave instructions on how to send money to the mujahedeen and included the comment: “You can’t have war without weapons.” Authorities say she also put the FBI in touch with someone who could get money to al-Qaeda.
• A criminal information against the woman was filed Wednesday, the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
• Read the full report HERE.

• A play about the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four girls was performed in Washington D.C. by Montgomery public school students over the weekend.
• Rep. Terri Sewell hosted the performance of “Four Little Girls: Birmingham 1963” on Friday.
• The play was originally produce by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival here in Montgomery and features a cast of public school students.
• The performance was held in conjunction with the 2019 Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference.
• The production centers on the lives of bombing victims, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia D. Morris Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins. Today marks the 56^th anniversary of their deaths to white supremacists.
• Sewell says the play encourages the audience to grapple with America's painful past and consider what the lives of the girls might have been like if not cut short by those filled with hate and terror.
• Read the full report HERE.