From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

Today was the 17th day of the Alabama Legislature's 2026 regular session.

That means we have 13 more legislative days remaining between now and early April.

We start our coverage tonight in the Alabama Senate, where a bill aime at improving the early detection of breast cancer passed unanimously today.

House Bill 300 from State Representative Francis Hawk Jones of Foley and carried in the Senate by State Senator Linda Coleman Madison of Birmingham, would require stat regulated health insurance plans to cover diagnosti and supplemental breast imaging, including follow up tests after an abnormal mammogram with no out-of-pocket costs to the patient.

Supporters say the change will help more women get timely screenings.

Coleman Madison was joined by State Senato Steve Livingston of Scottsboro in highlighting the bipartisan effort behind the bill.

But if there is something that they foun in your breasts, women outnumber women with this breadth and they have to have additional screenings, that is not covered.

And I have had a number o my friends that received letters that say, you know, you need to go for a supplemental screening or additional screenings.

We found something.

It doesn't look normal.

And I've had friends say, well you know, I've gone every year and nothing is coming, you know, and they don't go, well, that screening that they need to get is the difference between life and death.

And it's important that we take care of this.

I've lost a wife to cancer.

I've lost my sister.

Cancer.

My friend has lost her tw brothers for cancer this year.

Anything we can do to prevent that and get early detection is very important.

And it'll make a difference in Alabama's lives.

And it's in a nonpartisan.

It's bipartisan.

It's about keeping Alabamians healthy.

That bill no heads to Governor Kay Ivey desk.

The Senate also passed a bill aimed at limiting routin vessel stops by law enforcement.

House Bill 254 is sponsored in the House by State Representative Shane Stringer of Citronella, and carried in the Senate by State Senator Chris Elliott of Josephine.

It would prohibit marine patrol officers from stopping or boarding boats on Alabama waters solely for safety or or safety checks or marine sanitation inspections.

Officer must have an underlying reason before making a stop under the bill.

While the measure passed unanimously.

Democrats attempted to link the previous authority, allowing officers to stop any boat for safety checks to concerns about possible profiling.

Stop somebody.

Okay.

Just because just you're just a chick just messing with how I was.

I have a lot o respect for our law enforcement.

I have a lot of respect for our marine police, that do this.

I see them on a regular basis.

They see you, they know you, they know your boat.

They do.

They do indeed.

But at the end of the day, they ought to have some underlying reason to come aboard to, to to do an inspection so bad you making this exist carrier which is what I'm talking about here, in my opinion.

I'm not saying that's your intent now and I will put that on you, but I'm just saying that's that's my intent for feeling good about it.

Because I know that if you do have to stop me in about an hour, I've done something that would justify versus just because of how I look.

That Bill now als heads to Governor Ivey's desk.

The House today passed legislation that would offer scholarships for families of law enforcement officers.

House Bill 98 is sponsored by State Representative Alan Treadaway of Birmingham, himself a career law enforcement officer.

He said the funding mechanism i already there and it will help police departments recruit officers.

We passed out of here unanimously, unanimously last year, got up to the Senate and was the last bill and then did not get voted on.

But this is part of the public safety package of the governo and the speaker from last year.

And as the tuition for law enforcement spouses and, family members, I spent 21 years, as you know, when law enforcement went, I know what struggles the la enforcement officers have to do, especially on salaries that, most make and, know.

Most of us had to wor multiple jobs to do that career.

And, this is important.

It's important for those families and law enforcement.

And thank you for bringing it and I support it.

What about the number of children?

So if you are an office and have ten kids or five kids, could each one of those children still be reimbursement?

Yes, they would be eligible.

Okay, I okay, I just could remember, last year somebody had called me on it, and I don't know why I thought it passed.

Yeah, well, actually, the money has actually been moved over, so the money sitting there, we just need to get this bill passed so we can start.

And how much is.

I believe there's around $8 million that's already sitting there in higher ed.

The rule have already been promulgated.

So the rules are there.

Everything's in place.

We just got to get this bill passed.

We're trying to address a retention recruitment issue with law enforcement.

We're critically short in the state of Alabama, just a matter of Allen County alone.

Where you live, those fine officers, you'r tall, live in Jefferson County.

You know, I do, I do, but those nine officers you're talking about.

Yeah, this is going to give them a benefit.

But I mean, and continue to do the job.

But I'm asking about the firemen and other public servants also.

I mean, if you two haven't found it, then maybe there's a situatio where we need to do the research and sort of help them too, because, with our firemen you don't have an overabundance.

People volunteer, and they and they do their very best.

I also love my firemen.

Yeah.

Me too, you know, so I was just wondering that Bill now heads to the Senate.

The House took a moment today to honor Montgomery Sheriff Derek Cunningham, who was recently named National Sheriff of the year by the National Sheriffs Association members, presented hi with a resolution in his honor and recognized him on the House floor.

With great pride and special pleasure, we highly honor Montgomer County Sheriff Derek Cunningham for being named the 2026 Farris E Lucas Sheriff of the year by the National Sheriffs Association.

And Whereas Dere Cunningham was born in Tacoma, Washingto and moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama with his family when he was 12 years old.

Prior to graduating from Tuscaloosa County High School, he joined the Alabama National Guard in 1984, proudly serving until he retired with 24 years of service, and Whereas he graduate from the police Academy in 1989, within ten years he had worked his way up to the Detective Division investigating homicides.

He later became a member of the International Homicide Investigators Association in 1999 Montgomery County Sheriff Steve Marshall appointed him as chief deputy, and he served in that capacity for 15 years.

And Whereas in 2015, he was sworn in as Montgomery County' first African-American sheriff.

Not a person of that.

That does a lot of talking, but, thank you all.

This means a lot, and I wouldn't be able to do anything if it weren't for these two.

I mean, you see the head all the time, but you don't see the body, and that body is what really carries me.

And it helps our citizens in this.

And his great city and his great county.

And, I mean thank you all for recognizing.

And I really do appreciate Montgomery.

Montgomery really, recognized us and put us where we're at today.

And, thank you.

We've been anticipating legislation this year on career and technical education.

And today, a three bill package was introduced through House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbette to strengthen Alabama's career tech offerings through funding and improved programing.

A joint resolution calls for $150 million of additional funding for Career Tech this year.

The other bills provide a ta credit to incentivize industry to hire locally trained workers and streamline the teacher certification process for experienced career tech instructor who are relocating to Alabama.

Speake Ledbetter says the legislation is among his top priorities this session.

This session, we've been working on the career tech facilities and that initiative for probably a year.

And I we will we started last year.

If you remember, we put $100 million to expand and build new career tech 70.

So we got a package of bills that'll be coming out.

It'll be about career tax and trying to expand those, trying to help buil some new ones and get more kids.

That's not going to college, ge an opportunity to find trades.

So we worked on that quite a bit.

We've had two different meetings with industry across the state.

The first meeting, I think we had over 40 industries from every corner of the state yesterday we met with that group again and the conversation been very productive.

It was kind of interesting to know that, we're trying to train kids to go into the fields that they have, but we've never sat down and talked to until there's this package of bills.

So, it's changed the dialog a little bit, rightfully so, because I know what they need and we can't keep doing the same thing.

We've always done.

We got to try to change the pattern we're in, and I think we're in one process of doing that.

We reported yesterday that the bill to make the Alabama Public Service Commission and appointed, rather than an elected body, will not get a vote this legislative session.

Senate President Pro Tem Garland governor sai that the bill reforming the PSC moved to fast and without enough input from the public.

Today, US Senator Tommy Tuberville weighed in on the issue.

He's obviously runnin to be the state's next governor and had previousl come out in support of the plan.

He told reporters that he supports judge's decision, but wants to dig deeper on th issue of energy affordability.

And it is important, it's important that we all look at this.

It's, it's a bill that we we have to make sure we understand the direction of where it's going.

Okay.

I'm all for Senato Roger on on pulling this bill up and giving us the opportunity to to relook at this.

At the end of the day, we want to make sure that that whoever's elected t the PSC board is being elected by the constituent in this state and not dark money coming from other states, because it's happening.

It happened in in Georgia.

So we're all recognizing that now we have to be very protective.

I want to make sure we do this the right way.

I said this before, you know, the, the the biggest thin for manufacturing in this state is, and recruitin is to make sure we have power.

We have water, and we have trans, transportation.

So, Alabama shouldn't be paying high power bills because all these companies are coming in.

But the thing we need to do is we need to make sure we look at a possibility of having somebody oversee all the things in our state that has to do with energy.

And I, I'm, I'm looking very seriously at, when and if possibly winning the governor's race of having a Department of Energy that can help the people of the state.

We do not need higher power bills, but we need somebod overlooking TVA, Alabama power, the gas companies, everybody that has to do with power in our state, we have to make sure that we have good leadership there.

So looking at that, keep an eye out for all the green money out is so important, but also helping the people of the great state of Alabama with somebody that is truly understanding what's going on in our state when it comes to energy.

Congressman Mike Roger was in the capital city today, speaking to the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce as the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Rogers is a key player in writing the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

He offered an update on defense funding today, saying the United States needs to spend more on national defense to deter aggression from China.

We have allowed our defense industry to shrink and atrophy to a unacceptable level when we can't keep the Ukrainians in bullets, that's problem.

So we have really had a wakeup call that while we're still not in a conflict with anybody, while nobody's attacking us, we got to get to getting what we showed the president was, if you'll stay in the 4 to 5% of defense spending, we're healthy and bad things don't happen.

People don't mess with you when they know it's going to turn out bad.

When Reagan was president, he took us to over 6% of GDP, spending for defense.

And guess what?

It broke the back of the Soviet Union.

Those people that are my age or close to it will remember Gorbachev just had to tap out.

They couldn't keep up.

And in fact, they had spent so much tryin to stay in the Cold War with us that the whole Soviet Union just collapsed because they were broke.

What I want us to do, though, is out build them now so we don't get into a war.

It's all about the peace through strength strategy.

If we can get ourselves in a healthier position, we will not get into a serious conflict.

There may be little things that we got to deal with from time to time, but not something serious tha we really have to worry about.

Existential, and I can't overstate.

That's where China's going.

China wants to be not only the dominant economic power on the planet, they want to be the dominant military power on a planet.

We'll take a shor break and be back with tonight's guest, Alabama High School Athletic Associatio executive director Heath Harmon.

Stay with us.

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

aptv.. org.

Click on the online video tab on the main page.

You can also connect with Capital Journal and link to past episodes o Capital Journal's Facebook page.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Heath Harmon, executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

Mr.

Harmon thanks for coming on the show.

Now, thanks for having me.

Busy time right now.

Basketball tournamen about to start and everything.

So I know y'all are pretty busy.

Yeah, we have a lot going on.

Just wrapped up our four regional basketball tournaments, which feeds into our state finals tournament which, it's fixing to kick off.

So we're we're excited.

Yeah.

The Elite eight becomes the final four, so I'm excited about that, too.

We'll get to that here in a minute.

But some more newsy topics.

Y'all are in the news a lot these days.

I wanted to ask you about this reclassification thing.

It came out recentl where public schools will have one championship track, and high school athletics.

Private schools will hav a different championship track.

I want to ask you how the the athletic association.

I guess your board came to that decision.

Yeah.

So, reclassification occurs every two years.

The central board, is in charge of, of classification of, of schools.

And of course, they give me direction on, kind of what, what plans to produce and to look at the schools and the numbers and all of those things.

And we have a classification, meeting typically it happens in, in December, but we had ours in January this year and, and, looked at, several issues that schools were bringing to us.

We have a classification committee which is made up of representatives of a lot of different schools across the state.

And, we they're an advisory committee.

And so, issues that, that schools might have with classification, you know, when you look at the classification of public and private schools.

One of the things that happened several years ago was the multiplier.

So you would take private schools.

And when you look at their enrollment, you would multiply 1.35, to get their enrollment.

Several years after that, it was competitive balance put in place whereby team, according to your success, if you were a private school, you may play up above even that classification.

So, there was, some concerns voiced, you know, about the multiplier, about, you know, competitive balance and things like that.

And, you know, from the standpoint of, some advantages that, that public schools feel like private schools had, there was reasons that, that people like those being in place.

So, this gives us an opportunity.

I think it's a very exciting opportunity to, remove, the multiplier, competitive balance.

There's, there's great benefits to membership and nobody's doing anything according t membership of the association.

It's just once we get to the playoffs, there's two distinct pathways to travel through to the championship.

So, I think it's something that, you know, will will, liv through for the next two years.

And we have, a classification committee that will continue to look at it.

Also coming out of that board meeting, we established another advisory committee will be made up of just, members from private schools.

So our eight districts, when they have their district meetings in the spring, they select members from all of our committees, our sports committees.

We have a superintendents committee, different thing like that.

Principals committee.

And so they're going to select a private school member, to be on our independen and private schools committee.

So we'll get lots of great input from them.

Our district meeting started, about a couple of weeks ago and they'll wrap up, late April.

And so we'll be able to have our first meeting with our private Independent Schools committee in June at some point.

So we're excited about that.

And, I think this is, you know, provides us with, with some exciting opportunities.

You've had a lot of criticism about this, including in this buildin and mostly from private schools, you know, and parents from private schools, things like that, saying, man, we really like it the way it was.

We like competing with the public schools.

A lot of them throughout the state have had a lot of success.

You've got some dynasties out there that have competed.

So how do you respond to that criticism?

Hey, it was working just fine.

And, you know, separating the two, you know, kind of leaves ou the private school, community.

Well, I think that first of all, with classification, there's always criticism after classification.

Now, this is probably, you know, more well known, people understanding this, this classification.

Our website crashed the day that we released classification because we had so many people trying to figure it out because it's a big deal.

And we're glad that it's a big deal.

But I think like anything else, when you change, there's there's going to be some criticism.

But I think th the way our association is set up, you know, we're over 100 years old.

And the reason that our association has, has been able to last is because of our legislative process, our proces of getting input from schools.

So I think as we go through these next two years, we will, have some thing happen that people really like.

We'll have some things that people feel like we need to work on as far as our member schools, and they'll follow their process to, suggest those changes.

And, we just always try to try to get better every every reclassification period.

Can you explain that proces of rulemaking and classification or whatever it is, because there have been some things.

First, it was the Tuesday thing that came down.

Now it was reclassification ation.

And so we see these headlines come out, we see press releases or whatnot.

But I think our viewers have benefit from knowing how these things even get started.

How does the Athletic Associatio go through a rulemaking process.

Yeah.

Great question.

So I think that's the strength of our association.

So basically what happens is every year, in January we open up the opportunity for all member schools to, make proposals for anything they want to change according to our constitution or bylaws.

So if we have a rule that they don't like that they want to change, they make that proposal.

And so that happens the month of January, on January 31st, that window closes, takes, me and my staff, a week or so to review all those proposals to see and make sure that they are related to, a bylaw or constitution, because like, for example, if it's about a sports rule, we follow the nationa federation rules for our sport.

So it's a if it's about changing a football rule, we have to pull that out because we're only looking for proposals that would change our constitution or bylaws.

So once we have those, we put those out, to our schools, from February 16th to March 20th, for them to vote on.

So all of the schools, the, the coaches and people at the school will talk to their principal, the principals, the person who cast the vote, principals will go in and cast their vote.

All of those votes are tallied.

And then on April 15th at our Legislative Council meeting, we have our eight district boards that come together and review all of those proposals.

And, a two thirds vote woul ratify that to be a rule change.

If it's not ratified, then no change is made.

If it's ratified that it goes into effect for the next, next year.

So our schools literally make the rules.

Our office is charge with enforcing them as written.

But, that's the process of ho our, our schools make our rules.

Okay.

It's a lot more comprehensive and complicated than that.

I knew, and I would imagine a lot of folks out there.

But but it's good to know because, I mean, it's like with college sports, I mean, there's always kind of controversy and everything, and a little peek behind the curtain can can go a long way.

All right, let's talk basketball.

You're through the elite eight about to have the Final Four.

What do we need to know when wonder things start.

Because obviously we're airing it here on Alabama public television.

Yeah.

And I can't tell you enough how much I appreciate that partnership.

The opportunit for people to view these games.

There's there's, you know, you you all playoffs or some form of bracket, you know, but it's just something about a basketball bracket and getting to that, Elite eight and then making it to the Final Four.

And I just think the way th regional tournaments are set up, and that's what I would also, encourage people, you know, I hope that people understand, you know, in high school athletics, it's based on region.

We want everybody from that region to the state, those teams, to have an opportunity to make it into the playoffs and into advance.

So you have your four regional sites, that those teams, if they make it out of there, they advance to, to Birmingham for our Final four.

Then we had one over here at Alabama State.

I'm will I live over by Alabama State and that's, so all the busses and cheerleaders and teams and everything.

So that's pretty cool.

And it's good because the regional sites provide them an opportunity for more fans to show up.

There's lots of support, great energy and environment.

So it's just a really special opportunity for the school and the and the and the teams.

And so the when you make it to Birmingham, I said up to where it is, the final four.

So there are you know, the first game, if you win it, then you make it to the championship.

And so, we'll Saturday morning, we'll bring all the coaches and we'll have a brunch.

We'll just, celebrate you know, their accomplishment.

Give them all the, main detail they need to know for the week.

And then it starts Monday morning at 9:00 and goe all the way through to Saturday.

So lots of basketbal if you can tune in or if you can if you can show up, it's, it's going to be very entertaining, exciting.

Education based athletics at its best.

Absolutely.

We encourage everybody to tune in and we love hosting it here on Alabama Public Television.

Sometimes it means Capital Journal's a little later.

That's okay, because we get brand new viewers, to to tune in to what's happening in the legislature.

Well, Mr.

Hartman thanks for coming on the show.

I would I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, I know y'all are losing Caleb Ross, director of football, for the association Going back to coaching, right?

Yeah.

And so good shout out to Caleb Ross.

Good Prattville guy.

But and he's being replaced.

Yeah.

So, first of all, yeah.

Very thankful for, Caleb in the job that he did and wish him best.

And his next, next deal.

But, yeah, we, just hired, Brant bed.

So, many people know Brant.

He has great connections throughout the state.

He'll be our director of football and baseball, among among other duties.

And we're also going to post a job, where we're going to we're going to hire an assistant director, among other duties.

That person will also, directly overse our private school championship.

So, we have a lot of things concerning private schools where we want to make sure that they have a voice with the addition of the committee and then with a staff member that, among other things, there'll be other jobs that they'll do, but also really keep an eye on our private school championships and making sure that they have a great experience.

And they have, you know, their voices is heard.

And, like I said earlier, we just want to be the best we can be.

Good enough.

Mr.

Harmon thanks for your time.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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That's our show for tonight.

Thanks for watching.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night for our Week in Review episode.

That's 730 here on Alabama Public Television.

For our Capital Journal team, I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.