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Special Session - TPR's In Focus - May 8, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from Troy University's Trojan Café,
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  offering handcrafted Starbucks beverages and a wide assortment of meal and snack options,
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  located on Troy University's Montgomery campus, across from the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the News Wrap, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  The legislature is grappling with election issues, and Todd Stacy, host of Alabama Public
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  Television's Capital Journal, discusses the special session that's underway.
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  And the wild card is about pets. Mechanical pets, that is.
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  Todd, welcome back to the News Wrap.
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  Good to be with you.
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  This has been one wild week with the weather. How did it affect everyone in the statehouse?
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  Well, yeah, you know, the legislature's back in Montgomery. Governor Ivey called them back for
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  a special session having to do with the congressional map and the state senate map,
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  and yeah, there was a big tornado warning on Wednesday. Well, the senate was in session,
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  and every senator had their phone go off, and it was crazy. Even though the tornado never developed,
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  flooding developed, and the statehouse has always been prone to flooding and flooded the first
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  floor, which happens to be where our studio is. We did not have water damage, but cars were
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  flooded. But it made for a very dramatic day. The statehouse was evacuated. Just as it was being
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  evacuated, just at the last minute there, the senate voted to pass their version of legislation,
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  essentially setting up a special election should the federal courts allow the state to revert back
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  to the maps that they passed back in 2024.
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  Is the legislature still tangling with this issue today, being Friday?
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  They are, and it's probably going to get final passage today. And so there's lots of states
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  around the country that are pushing redistricting. That's not what's happening here. They're not
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  actually drawing maps like other states are doing. What they're doing is setting up a special
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  election for Congress and for the local state senate district here. Those two maps that they
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  originally passed back in 2023 were thrown out by the courts. The federal court said no, these are
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  unconstitutional. And so they threw them out and the courts actually drew the map for Alabama.
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  Well, ever since the Louisiana case was decided, Calais a little more than a week ago, that struck
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  down race-based map making. And so essentially what Alabama is saying is based on that ruling,
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  the maps we passed back in 2023 should now be constitutional. So they're asking the court to
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  allow the state to revert back to those maps and these special elections would only go into effect
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  if the court actually does that. But the court has not ruled on that yet, and they may not.
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  This whole special session, if the courts don't do what the state is asking them to do,
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  then it's all for naught. That's a strong possibility.
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  We need a wild card after all of this.
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  Yeah, we do. We need to lighten up. This one comes from the Associated Press. Everybody's
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  familiar with the Roomba, you know, the vacuum cleaner that's a robot and it goes around and
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  cleans your house. Well, the same makers of that have developed a robot pet dog or cat. It's the
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  same kind of concept. You can pet it. So we love our pet. Apparently in the very near future,
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  there'll be an opportunity to have a robot pet. So I'll tell you, I'm going to stick with my Toby.
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  Toby is tops. Todd, who is on Capitol Journal?
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  Going to be talking with State Representative Chris Pringle, the sponsor of the House bill
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  that we're talking about here. State Senator Marika Coleman. She has been an outspoken
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  opponent of what's going on. Also been talking with Jay Mitchell. He's the third of the three
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  candidates that we've interviewed for Attorney General. Looking forward to having him on the
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  show as well.
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  Todd, we're looking forward to tonight's Capitol Journal, 7.30 on APT, Sunday at noon and on
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  YouTube. Thanks for the news wrap today.
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  Very in-depth tonight on Capitol Journal. So it's a good night to tune in. Thank you.
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  Joining us for the news wrap was Todd Stacey, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol
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  Journal. More information can be found at the aptv.org website. Thanks for joining us for
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  In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson,
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  and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.