From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

Leading the news tonight is Governor Kay Ivey pushing Alabama to become a national leade in computer science education.

At today's statewide Computer Science Summit luncheon here in Montgomery, Ivey touted the state's rapid growth in high school computer science programs.

She credited a years lon initiative launched back in 2017 and shared how just how far the state has come.

Alabama now rank fifth in the nation for meeting key computer science education benchmarks.

The governor says the state is on track to exceed its original goals and fully close the remaining gaps, projected to create a statewide program to expand computer science education in Alabama.

It's taking all of like a Huntsville space rocket.

In 2017, Alabama had little more than a few dozen public school based computer science instruction programs in operation.

Fast forward eight years to the day we are again setting national records.

Thanks to efforts to prioritize computer science instruction in all schools, Alabama is meeting the harsh benchmarks for compliance.

Alabama achieve significant progress in the 2024 National State of Computer Science Education report.

We ranked fifth overall in the country in meeting ten benchmark computer science education objectives.

We only lack full compliance in one area, and we're well on our way to tackling that one.

To folks.

Thanks again for your hard work and dedication.

Alabama is on track trajector to fully achieving any ceiling.

Our strong start goal said eight years ago.

State Superintendent Eric Mackey was there at the luncheon.

And he's reacting to the Senate's passage of the Raise act, a major step towards overhauling how the state funds K through 12 public schools.

The measure passed unanimously in the Senate and now heads to the House for debate.

If approved, the Raise ac would introduce weighted funding to better support students with greater academic needs.

The legislation uses a hybrid model, keeping the current base funding formula intact while adding new weighted funding for students in categories like poverty, special educatio and English language learners.

McGhee expressed optimism at the bill's movement in the legislature.

They found the right exact, piece because what we're doing is keeping the foundation program, which is an excellent base in place, without any real changes to the foundation program within the legislature, and has said what we want to do is in the future, we want to build on the foundation program and include weights for different categories of students.

The current, the formula includes four different categories of students, which which cover a wide range of young people across the state.

I think it's very exciting.

It's going to be a good thing for Alabama.

Also, on the education front, there has been greater than expected demand from familie for education savings accounts under the Choose act.

You'll remember that this is the landmark school choice legislation passed last session that would allow qualifying families up to $7,000 in tax credits to help pay for their child to attend a private school or a different public school.

Homeschooling families could ge as much as $2,000 per student.

As our own Trish Crai has reported, more than 37,000 applications have been turned in to the Department of Revenue.

That's more than what state officials estimated leading legislative budget leaders.

To add more funding to account for that demand, State Senator Arthur Orr and State Representative Danny Garrett have put placeholders in the education budget for an additional $35 million, so the state can handle the demand from the Choose act.

The leaders say the money is available and that it is good news parents are wanting t take advantage of this program.

The education budget has passed the Senate and is expected to start moving in the House this week.

Looking toward this legislative week, one issue expected to be debated in the Senate is the sale of consumable cannabinoids.

House Bill 445 from State Representative Andy Whitt would set stiffer regulations for the sale of items like CBD drinks and hemp gummies.

After passing the bill through the house, he's making the case as it moves upstairs to the Senate.

So the bill, as you know, goes to the Senate next.

I've had some great conversations with, our upper chamber.

They're ready to take on the issue.

They feel as much as I do about the product, that it needs guardrails, and we need to get it unde control in the state of Alabama.

Take it out of the convenience stores again.

Understand?

You know, as I began looking into this process, you can buy this product on tap.

And when I say on tap, that is in local bars, restaurants, things of that nature and that I find that just extremely dangerous because you don't know how that affects the medicine medication that you may be taking.

Or when does that bartender know that you've had too much?

Is five milligrams too much for you?

Is ten milligrams too much for you?

So it's just wide open and and what people don't understand, too, is that if you take a drug tes while you're drinking this and, you know, weeks to follow, you'll fail a drug test.

If you take the gummies, you will fail a drug test if given to you by your employer.

So I'm looking forward to getting in in the Senate.

Having my hearing up there and let's getting a, quick floor vote on it.

And, of course we expect to see the Alpha Farm Bureau health plan bill moving soon in the Senate as well.

The bill passed overwhelmingly in the House on Thursday, but not before significant debate.

Some of that floor debate, particularly from Democrats, could be a preview of what we see when the bill reaches committee.

And then the Senate floor.

What is created through this bill that requires us to be involved?

Well, because if it's a large group of people who organize a quote unquote health plan to, you know, to do whatever I guess the plan is designed to do that.

Why are we why is there a, wh do we need to pass a law for it?

Well, it's it is this, in order not to be health insurance?

We have to pas this just like the other states to allow, Alpha to do this.

That's been my understanding from the from the get go is I looked at the laws of the ten other states that have done this, and they all had to put this in their laws.

I don't think our state's any different.

So I think that's what I'm, I guess.

So if, if, if Alpha wanted to offer thi as a service that they provide.

Right.

And it is it is completely, 100% private thing.

What lol.

Why do we need to create a law to regulate something that there?

I mean, it's completely separate, completely private.

It's their own own thing.

They're offering to their own members, people who paid to be a part of it.

Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out why and and and again that's fine cause in it because because what happens is I'll tell you, I think the answer is because it's not when you have employer, employer employees, you know, this.

And frankly, it never reall come up in all the work on this.

But when you get into employer and employees, but since you are offering this to people that are not employees I think that's what takes this to the the question that answers your question.

Turning briefly to Washington, where a senior member of Alabama' delegation has scored a big win.

The Senate has passed House Joint Resolutio 20 from Congressman Gary Palmer.

It reverses a Biden era Department of Energy rule that set certain efficiency standards for natural gas water heaters, which becam pretty unpopular with consumers.

That's final passage for Palmer's bill, and it now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump.

And finally, a squeal of a story that shows promising research and helping people in need of organ transplants, particularly kidneys.

Tawana Looney of Gadsden is at home recovering after doctors removed a pig kidney she had been living with for 130 days.

That's a record for any experimental xeno transplants of gene edited pig kidneys.

Looney is fine and back on dialysis, and researchers say this new record is promising news for the science, especially considering the severe lack of viable organs available.

We'll be right back with Jeff Newton, the new commissioner of Veterans Affairs.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Jeff Newton, commissioner of the Alabam Department of Veterans Affairs.

Commissioner, welcome to Capital Journal.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

It's great to be here.

Thank you for having me.

Sure, sure I wa I've been eager to have you on, since you become, you know, the cabinet level, you know, commissioner and everything, but really appreciated you coming to the breakfast.

The other day.

We had our legislative issues.

Breakfast.

The focus was mental health and veterans affairs.

You, your colleague at mental health and also the chief justice, which was a really interesting thing.

Thanks again.

You're welcome.

Glad to do it again in the future.

Yeah, I hope, I hope so.

I had some really good feedbac and can't hurt to go too deep, you know, into some of these issues.

And I want to get to some of th issues facing your department.

But first you are the newest cabinet secretary, newest commissioner.

So I wanted to give you an opportunity to maybe just share with our viewers some of your background.

What led you to this role?

Yeah.

So I got my start with the military right out of high school in 1980.

My dad was a big influence on my life.

He was Air Force during the Korean War and then later and through high school, my my algebra teacher, who was, a major in the Air Force at the time, he was a Vietnam War hero.

He he was shot down over Vietnam in a nest and is therefore bailed out and was rescued.

And, I guess he saw something in me.

And he said, Jeff, you know, you need to go down and see, Air Force recruiter and, sure did.

I went down in, 41 years and six days later, I'm here.

So here we go.

Yeah.

Great career.

My last assignment, worked a the state military department.

I was the senior advisor, full tim advisor to the adjutant general.

And then I retired in February of 2021.

And the very next day I got hired on with the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Not much of a retirement.

No, it was one one day of transition.

It was good though.

Well, talk about ho that military career, different roles, different places informs your work.

Now you've been in this job.

How many months now?

Yeah.

No current job?

Just three weeks.

Yeah.

Well, okay.

The elevation.

Right.

And we'll get to that.

But talk about how your career and all the different roles you played informs your work.

Now understanding it's it's still pretty new.

And, you know, one of the things I learned throughout my career, you know, I was nine years enlisted and I was able to get a commission later in my career.

And, one thing I focused on more than anything was taking care of the airmen and the troops that were under my command or under my leadership and that, you know, throughout my military career, I've had so many experience in dealing with the, veterans, especially the enlisted troops and, you know, it carried on into my current career.

I can't think of a better job to transition into, because it's a way for me to give back, and it's just a way for me to continue to take care of our veterans that I learne throughout my military career.

Absolutely.

We'll talk about the department in general terms, so our viewers can kind of be reminded of its role in the state, because one of the things you brought u the other day at the breakfast was there's often confusion between the federal VA and what the state does.

So it's probably important to remind folks.

Sure.

And that' that's important to point out.

Many of the phone calls we get at the front desk or veterans thinkin we're the federal United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

And we have to remind and we're not, but we're we do everything possible to get them in pointing in the right direction.

But, our job, we've we've got, our primary core missio that's been around since 1945.

So we're coming up on 80 years, is to ensure our veterans get their benefits from the federal government.

We help them with our veteran servic officers across the state in 61 different counties.

Help.

You know, all the veterans throughout the state to get their benefits.

And then on top of that, we have, of course, you heard of our G dependents scholarship program.

We have about 16,000 students enrolled in that program, right now.

We have our beautiful and most affordable veterans homes in the state.

Our veterans, the most they ever pay is $24 a day.

And a lot of people don't understand that.

But we receive a nice federal program to help offset the cost as well as our state per annum to offset some of those cost, including that brand new in down in Coffee County.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's that's our our ski lodge with out the snow is what I like to call it.

It's just beautiful.

And the veterans love it down there.

We are.

We've got about 81 residents so far, veteran residents, and we've still got about, 80 more to go or so, but, yeah.

And then we got our beautiful cemetery down in Spanis Fort, Alabama that we just had a $5 million expansion on, added 5 million, 5000 burial, sites to that cemetery down there.

And one of the things we do that's better than any other state is take care of our National Guard and Reserve members who are not otherwise eligible for burial at a national cemetery.

So they may have worked or served here in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

They were prepared to deploy but never deployed, and they didn't complete their 20 years.

So we're looking at maybe someone with 2 to 10 years of service, for example, we will take care of those National Guard and, reserve members at our state cemetery at no cost, including their spouse and a lot of a lot of our veterans not aware of that.

Oh, it's a I mean, I'm glad to hear you say that.

And I do every time I pass by that Spanish fort, play the cemetery.

It is just breathtaking.

Yes.

And the amount of care that y'all took to make it attractive to make it, I don't know, moving, is, is, something else.

Yeah.

We follow the same guideline that the federal government uses on the national cemeteries, and they come in every two years and inspect us to make sure everything is perfect.

Well, let's talk about, the department, because it's, you know, a lot is changing right now.

You had that law that is, you know, reorganizing kind of the governance structure changes of the board, sort of, involvement there elevates you to the cabinet level.

And I thought that was interesting because, you know, here you are, we're talking about this sort of theoretically or notionally, and there you are on stag interacting with your colleague, interactin with the chief justice.

Right.

So talk about how that's, going into effect, because it's one thing to pass a law.

You've got to implement it.

So has that been good?

That's right.

It's it's been going well so far.

You know, when I took over as interim, one of my primary goals was get out into establish and strengthen partnerships with other cabinet members and other legislators and other agencies.

And, that's been a challenge.

Getting things, as far as steadying the ship during the last five months, the continuity of operations and that that's been my priority ove the last five months is making sure we stick to the core principles that we have as far as taking care of veterans and, you know, moving on.

You know, it's just great to have a seat at the at the governor's cabinet.

Now it's just, you know, we're bringing the veterans issues to the forefront.

And I look forward t to doing that with the governor.

And she's all about it, taking care of the veterans.

She's ready to go.

The state Board of Veterans Affairs is, you know, they're going through the nomination process right now.

They've got approximately no 30 days or so to get their names in to the governor's staff.

So they can start making those appointments to the new state Board of Veterans Affairs.

And one of the things that, it does change, it changes our board from a governing board to a advisory and an oversight board.

And I don't want people to get hung up on that, because in the end, you know, when our when our veterans servic organizations come to the table, we're going to take our hats off.

And we are they represent you know, about 50,000 veterans in the state.

We've got another 350,000 veteran we got to take care of as well.

So we need to take off our veterans service organization, Caps come together as one team and figure out what we're going to do, what's bes for the veterans in the state.

Yeah, but it did seem to make sense in terms of the transition in fact, I was talking with Representative Oliver, last week, and we're getting into all this course.

He's right in the middle of it and legislatively.

And he told me somethin I didn't know that this proposal has been around for a while.

He's been kind of talking, you know, going at the edge of this for a while fa before anything controversial.

And that's important to remind people.

This idea was not just croppe up in the middle of the session and actually the idea or the vote to, to, put the commissione special position on the cabinet came up to the previous four last April, and they all approved and voted for it.

So interesting.

Yeah.

Well, I know you've got many things you want to accomplish, lots to do in the short term.

You're talking about all that was kind of drawn out a little bit though.

And talk you know, further down the line.

What are some of the things that you, as commissioner, with the advice and oversight of the board, want to accomplish for the department?

So you're very aware of the new law that passed it, develops the Alabama Veterans Resource Center.

Sure.

And that's going to be a big project.

And I look forwar to working with Secretary Reed, with workforce development and Commissioner Boswell, and moving forward with that program.

Mr..

I understand that the the central hub will be somewhere here in Montgomery.

I don't think that's etched in stone yet, but that's what I'm hearing.

Also, you know, and to me that that project is, you know, I've always said that the key to better veterans mental health and mental and veterans well-being is, is getting that transition correct from the military service to the civilian service.

And if we get this transitio correct, like with finding them a job, helping them with their VA claims, helping them, just get their feet on the ground.

If they have any mental healt issues, we'll have a counselor there ready to take take that on.

And so if we can get that done correctly, perhaps we can, reduce the number of veteran suicides in the state.

Now, this will be the hub in the center of Montgomery here in Montgomery, central Alabama.

And then we'll have regiona sites, hopefully in the future all throughout Alabama.

So that's that's the intende life as far as the legislation.

Yeah.

And you mentioned something the other day that I found interesting.

And that was okay.

If someone has been serving, let's say ten years, eight, ten years, something like that.

Well that amount of time, you know, if, if they've especially if they've been overseas, they've not been integrate into just the everyday mundane things that we, you know, take for granted here.

And so it's really not fair t expect them to throw them right into the deep, into the pool, so to speak, and say what you you know you've been gone for ten years.

And so that transition that speaks to the transition you're talking about.

And then, you know, the, when service member get ready to leave the service, they go through a five day transition assistance program and they fire hos and with a lot of information, then they send them out the door, have a good life.

And this this album, a veteran resource center as I see it is is takes it to the next step, gets them that foundation they need as they move into the civilian world.

And it starts things off in a positive way.

But we're also looking at, in the future, a second state memorial cemetery somewhere in south, north Alabama.

Okay.

So, there's a void up there.

The National Cemeter Administration has told us that, hey, we've got an opportunity up there now.

Unfortunately they tell us there's no federal dollar for new cemetery construction.

So we've got the dollars in the state in our agency to for this new project.

Now, all we need is about 100, 110 acres to, have someone, donate to us.

And I've been out speaking to legislators just from an awareness standpoint to let them know what we're doing.

And, but if we can get 11 acres, we're we're good to go up north Alabama, the Morgan County Limestone County area is what we're primarily looking at.

But we'll also look at Marshall County, too.

That's a great opportunity.

As you know, Redstone Arsenal is up ther and a lot of veterans out there that's underserved as far as burial equity.

Absolutely.

Well, if anybody's listening that what a wha a absolute, opportunity that is.

And a great use of, of resources.

Well, Commissioner, you told me something earlier that I have to remember to share because you're not going to, touch your own horn, if you will.

But I understand that you are a bugler.

I'm a live bugler.

Okay?

An official bugler that started back when I was, I was a Boy scout, and, that, was a big.

I was a play the trumpet in hig school up in Jefferson County.

And then as soon as I joined the military, they found out I played the trumpet.

And next thing I know, I'm on the bass.

Honor guard team playing taps at military funerals.

And, you know that's something that continued throughout my military career for about 33 years.

And, now I'm back into it.

So, I have, volunteered to help when I'm available to play at military funerals.

I'm also have been invited to go up to, the Gettysburg battlefield the last couple of years.

And I've invited me this year to come back up and and play taps up there at the National Cemetery.

Yeah.

And of course, there's taps.

But is it reveille?

That's the.

Oh, I get to go on.

Okay.

I do all of them.

Yeah.

I go to the colors.

Reveille, taps, all of those.

All right, well, this is a this is a made for TV opportunity.

We had to figure out how to get this on camera at some point.

Commissioner, congratulations on your appointment.

Good luck.

I know it's, important.

Serious work.

And thank you for keeping us updated.

Thank yo to the Department of Veterans.

I look forward to doing this again.

Sure.

We'll be right back.

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James Withers started the Sloss Furnace Company in 1880 to take advantage of the mineral wealth of the Jones Valley.

He built Sloss his first blast furnace, the following year.

A second furnace soon followed, and Sloss Furnaces produced 24,000 tons of iro in its first year of operation.

Sloss furnaces was an industr leader in innovation and design.

Its superintendent of construction, James Pickering Davout, led Sloss through a period of modernization in the 1920s that resulted in Sloss becoming the second largest producer of pig iron in the Birmingham district.

A slump in the iro market took shape in the 1950s.

Business began to decline and pig iron was basically obsolete by the 1960s.

Higher pollution standards finally closed the furnaces in 1970.

In 1981, Sloss Furnaces was designated a National Historic Landmark and today hosts events, concerts, and a metal arts program.

The site continues to stand as a testament to Birmingham's industrial past.

That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

We'll be back tomorrow night at the same time, with more coverage of the Alabama Legislature right here on a beat for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.