The Frequency

Last week we told you the clock was running on Gov. Ivey’s PSC appointments. It had already stopped. The appointments were announced June 17, a week before we published. The miss is ours.

Here is what we should have told you. Ivey appointed Ron Burgess, a retired three-star general who directed the Defense Intelligence Agency and later helped run Auburn University; Fred Johnson, who spent 23 years as CEO of Farmers Telecom; Demarcus Joiner, an attorney; and Quinton Ross, president of Alabama State University. Joiner and Ross will be the first Black commissioners in PSC history. The formerly all-Republican commission will seat two Democrats. All four take office January 18, 2027.

The picks came from lists submitted by legislative leaders under House Bill 475, which expands the commission from three elected seats to seven. Sheila McNeil’s federal challenge to that law is still pending, but the appointments are the very step her complaint argued could not be undone once taken. As of publication, no injunction has been granted.

The PSC approves what Alabama Power charges. For Chambers County households, four new names now stand between the meter and the bill.

Alabama’s grocery tax holiday expired June 30. As of Wednesday, shoppers pay the state’s 2% sales tax on food again.

Act 2026-604 suspended the tax on SNAP-eligible groceries from May 1 through June 30. The Alabama Reflector puts the savings at about $40 for most families over the two months. For a household spending $800 a month on groceries, the tax’s return costs $16 a month. Local grocery taxes never paused; Chambers County shoppers paid those the whole time.

Advocates say they will keep pushing the Legislature toward making the cut permanent, and toward full elimination after that.

Two other changes arrived with July. Sports physical forms for K-12 athletes can now be signed by physician assistants, not just physicians. And starting July 2, food trucks operate under a single statewide inspection instead of certifying city by city.

From April 1 to June 30, a multi-agency operation across Chambers County produced 64 arrests on 122 charges, from unlawful possession to trafficking. Officers executed nine search warrants.

The roster stayed close to home: the Chambers County Drug Task Force, the Alabama Drug Enforcement Task Force, the county’s Multi-Jurisdictional SWAT team, the sheriff’s office, and the police departments of Valley, Lanett, and LaFayette.

The task force announced the totals Tuesday. The cases move to the courts from here.

Levi Richardson won the Republican nomination for Chambers County coroner in the June 16 runoff, 927 votes to Glenn Johnson’s 839. That is 52.49% in a race that drew fewer than 1,800 voters.

Richardson is a Lanett paramedic and has served five years as a deputy coroner for the county. He faces Democrat Maurice Ward on November 3.

That completes the ballot we previewed last week: Moore vs. Wess for Senate, Tuberville vs. Jones for governor, Rogers vs. McInnis for District 3, Nelson vs. Floyd for House District 38, and now Richardson vs. Ward for coroner.

Five races. One county. November 3.

Four congressional districts will vote again August 11 under the court-approved map: Districts 1, 2, 6, and 7. Twenty-one candidates qualified.

In District 1, former Rep. Jerry Carl leads a four-man Republican field; Clyde Jones is the lone Democrat. In District 2, Rep. Shomari Figures stands alone on the Democratic side while six Republicans compete for the nomination, including State Rep. Rhett Marques. In District 6, Rep. Gary Palmer faces Case Dixon in the Republican primary, with four Democrats on the other ballot. In District 7, Rep. Terri Sewell qualified unopposed and will skip the primary ballot entirely; two Republicans will be on it.

Chambers County sits in District 3 and does not vote August 11. But the outcomes shape four of Alabama’s seven seats in Congress, and November settles the rest.