The Frequency

A Montgomery County circuit judge dismissed a lawsuit July 9 claiming Tuberville doesn’t meet Alabama’s seven-year residency requirement for governor. The suit alleged he actually lives in a $5 million gated beach house in Florida. The judge didn’t decide whether that’s true. Instead, she ruled she lacked the authority to decide a party nominee’s eligibility before the general election.

“I’m 110% qualified to run,” Tuberville told reporters. “I wouldn’t give up the Senate seat to do this if I wasn’t.”

Four days later, he was in Opelika, in Lee County, one county over from Chambers, addressing the Alabama Sheriff’s Association’s summer conference. Roughly 55 of the state’s 67 sheriffs were there. His pitch: more money for public works, framed as a law-and-order issue. “We don’t need it to be political, we need it to be family,” he said. “We’ve got 67 counties, we’ve got 67 sheriffs, and we need to help every dang one of them.”

Tuberville compared the governor’s job to coaching college football, or running a company. “My number one job here is to grow the state, grow our base, have more money coming in, and being able to cut back on taxes,” he said. He faces Doug Jones in a November rematch of their 2020 Senate race.

Chambers County just adopted its own five-year, 170-mile road plan (story four). A governor promising more money for public works is one worth watching.

Alabama canceled its $1 billion healthcare contract with YesCare in April, citing failure to meet its obligations. YesCare filed for bankruptcy in May. In between, the company made its April 24 payroll for prison healthcare workers but missed the May 8 one. Asked what the money went to instead, YesCare’s chief restructuring officer told the Department of Corrections: “other things.”

Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, wants that investigated as fraud. “Sounds like to me that you were deceived. The state of Alabama was deceived,” he told DOC general counsel Mary-Coleman Roberts at a July 9 legislative committee meeting. Aggravated theft by deception over $100,000 is a felony in Alabama, punishable by up to 30 years and $60,000 per violation. Roberts didn’t disagree, but said DOC is still in the “investigative stages” and hasn’t made a formal referral.

The department’s fix costs money too: a new $200,000 contract with attorney Jack Crawford of Butler Snow, LLP, to help unwind YesCare’s bankruptcy case. England flagged the irony: Butler Snow attorneys were pulled from a different DOC lawsuit in 2025 after fabricated, AI-generated citations turned up in a filing. “What do we do to vet these folks?” he asked.

Former YesCare employees still haven’t gotten their last paycheck. To get it, England said, they’ll have to join the bankruptcy line behind creditors owed far more. “The likelihood that if they ever recover from this company in bankruptcy is … very little, because they’re trying to get out as much of their financial responsibilities as possible,” he said.

The Alabama Commission on Higher Education gave final sign-off July 8 to four financial aid programs passed by the Legislature this year. All four are live for fall 2026.

The National Guard Educational Assistance Program covers active Guard members pursuing anything from a certificate to a doctorate, capped at the median tuition of a public four-year school in Alabama. The Loan Assistance in Support of Educators in Alabama program, a rework of the old math-and-science-only AMSTEP, now covers teachers certified in any “acute educator shortage” subject, not just STEM. The ReEngage Alabama Grant, for adults with some college credit but no degree, lowered its minimum age from 25 to 22; eligible students get up to $3,000 a term at a four-year school or $1,500 at a community college. And the Alabama Law Enforcement Officers’ Family Scholarship pays up to $2,500 a semester to the children (under 24) or spouses of law enforcement officers who’ve lived in Alabama at least five years.

Valley has both a National Guard armory and a Southern Union State Community College campus inside the county line. Between those two and the shortage-subject teacher pipeline, that’s four separate on-ramps opening at once — not one.

The Chambers County Commission adopted a five-year transportation plan at its June 13 meeting, covering 170 miles of road work and several bridge projects through 2031. County Engineer Josh Harvill laid out four goals: cut serious injuries and fatalities 5% a year, raise the county’s paved-road condition score to 80, treat unpaved roads with a non-toxic hardening enzyme called Perma-zyme to cut long-term maintenance costs, and shrink the county’s list of posted bridges, currently 21, over time.

“The vision of the five-year plan… would be to improve the quality of life for Chambers County citizens,” Harvill said.

The commission also appointed Jake Thomas as the county’s first Safety Coordinator and approved a state contract with East Alabama Paving Co. to add paved shoulders and guardrails along County Road 83 between Cusseta and the Chambers County Public Lake. All votes were unanimous.

An earlier Valley Times-News headline, “Lanett looks to increase utility fees,” left some residents thinking their water, sewer and gas rates were about to climb. They aren’t. What the Lanett City Council actually gave first reading to on July 6 were increases to one-time tap, connection, reconnection and inspection fees: charges that hit new customers and anyone reconnecting after a nonpayment cutoff, not monthly bills.

The rates themselves stay put. Most Lanett households pay a $14.25 minimum for water under 2,000 gallons a month, plus $5.50 per additional 1,000 gallons. That’s well under what most utilities charge. Commercial customers pay $26 for the first 2,000 gallons, plus $8.25 per thousand after that. (Laundromats are the city’s biggest water users.)

The ordinance changes need a second reading to take effect. That’s scheduled for the council’s July 20 meeting, four days after this issue lands in your inbox. We’ll follow up if anything changes.