Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Beau's Law - TPR's In Focus - April 10, 2026

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Beau's Law - TPR's In Focus - April 10, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's Dothan Campus,
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  identifying and preserving historical documents and photographs for research related to the
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  Wiregrass region. More information at troy.edu slash wiregrass archives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is the News Wrap from In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson. Todd
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  Stacy, host of Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal, discusses Beau’s Law that
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  mandates minimum standards for outdoor dogs. And the wild card coming up is about a really old
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  land animal. Todd, welcome back to the News Wrap from Capitol Journal on Alabama Public Television.
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  Good to be with you. The last day of the session was really long yesterday.
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  Oh, absolutely. They've kind of all been long days when you get towards the end of the session, but
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  they did not disappoint. The House and Senate stayed in several hours. That's because you get
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  towards the end and you still have an opportunity to pass a bill, right? Even up to the last minute,
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  they're still trying. And then, of course, you get filibusters and delay tactics. So,
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  yeah, we're all a little bit sleepy ahead. So, Todd, I noticed on Alabama Daily News,
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  reading that newsletter that you put out, that Beau’s Law was a big deal with the legislators.
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  What is Beau’s Law? It's named after a precious little dog, Beau who was discovered on a snowy
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  day up in the Birmingham area, chained up outside with nothing but a little cardboard box for
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  shelter. And he was just freezing, chained to a tire. And so it began an effort to pass this law
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  that would require dog owners to, if they're going to keep a dog outside, they must provide
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  adequate food, water and shelter. And it would be a class C misdemeanor if you don't. And so
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  this bill was advocated by dog owners and dog lovers. You know, something like this isn't
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  really easy to pass because there was a lot of resistance from the agricultural community and
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  things like that. But they did pass it the second to last day. So Beau’s Law looks like it will become
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  law. Animal compassion. Another topic that I've been following is Alabama's Choose Act.
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  The applications have been climbing. How many are there? That's right. We've continued to monitor
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  this because, you know, this is the education savings account. They're sometimes called
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  vouchers, where up to $7,000, parents can get in a tax credit to send their children to a private
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  school or use that money for homeschool or even attend a different public school. This year,
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  49,000 students have applied for those education savings accounts for the upcoming school year.
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  That is very high demand. And there's not enough space for all those applications. But that just
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  shows you the demand of these scholarships, if you will, vouchers to allow students to transfer
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  schools. So the numbers keep going up. And as long as that demand is there, I think you're
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  going to see more and more funding from the legislature to back it up. Well, with all those
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  concerns, let's have a wild card. Well, we love our animal stories. And on April Fool's Day,
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  there was this report that the world's oldest living land animal is this 193-year-old tortoise
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  was dead. And it was really sad, but it was an April Fool's Day prank. I don't know why somebody
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  would do that on April Fool's Day, but it was false. Jonathan the tortoise, 193 years old,
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  is still alive. He's living on the island of St. Helena. It was just a hoax. So be assured that
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  Jonathan is still living. And just think about what 193 years is. Victoria was queen of England
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  quite an age. It's hard to really believe. A tortoise patriarch. Well, Todd,
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  who's on Capitol Journal? Well, yeah, we're going to be wrapping up the session with House Speaker
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  Nathaniel Ledbetter. So we'll be talking about the last four years he's held that leadership
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  position. We're just going to wrap up the session, what passed, what didn't, and what
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  they can expect from those new laws. So yeah, that's Capital Journal tonight, 730 on Alabama
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  Public Television. Todd, thank you so much for the news wrap. Thank you. That was Todd Stacy,
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  host of Alabama Public Television's Capital Journal, airing tonight at 730 and Sunday at noon
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  and on YouTube. More information can be found at the aptv.org website. Thanks for joining us
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  for the news wrap from In Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.