The Frequency

Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee for governor, published an op-ed Sept. 1 outlining new limits on data centers — a reversal from July, when he dismissed environmental concerns as “bullcrap” and said opposition was “influenced by China.”

The new proposal would let communities reject data center projects outright, tax them at Alabama’s highest property rate (30 percent of fair market value, versus 10 percent for homes), and require the companies to cover the full cost of substations, transmission lines, and water systems they need. “If you want to use our resources, you pay full taxes, cover the total cost of your energy, and replace what you take,” Tuberville wrote. “Keep your hands out of our pockets.”

Democratic nominee Doug Jones used the same news cycle to call for a stock-trading ban and full financial disclosure for Alabama officeholders, and to accuse Tuberville of holding a personal stake in the industry he’s courting. Jones cited 14 trades in Alibaba Cloud during Tuberville’s first five years in the Senate, about 130 trades Jones says went undisclosed in 2021, and between $188,000 and $471,000 in mutual fund stock income Tuberville reported in 2025. “If he wants to be the governor of Alabama, he cannot be a shareholder in the industry he is asking Alabama to bet its future on,” Jones said.

This newsletter has followed the state’s scrutiny of data center power contracts since Issue #20’s story on the Public Service Commission’s review. Tuberville’s proposal doesn’t address that review directly, but it puts data centers squarely in the governor’s race.

Three plaintiffs — Jarrod Wayne Shulte, Amanda Beth Shulte, and Valtoria Jackson — filed suit in Montgomery County Circuit Court Sept. 1 seeking to remove Republican Lieutenant Governor nominee John Wahl from November’s ballot over his residency.

Alabama law requires Lieutenant Governor candidates to have lived in the state for seven years before the election, meaning Wahl needed to establish residency by Nov. 3, 2019. The lawsuit points to a Tennessee driver’s license Wahl obtained in December 2020 under the name “Nehemiah Ezekiel Wahl,” a Tennessee license he presented during an April 2023 traffic stop, and Tennessee voter registration the suit says lasted until July 28, 2025. Wahl did not respond to WSFA’s request for comment.

The plaintiffs are asking Secretary of State Wes Allen to strike Wahl from the ballot. It’s a near-mirror of the residency fight this newsletter has followed against Tuberville at the top of the same ticket, though the two cases were filed separately and rest on different evidence.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office dismissed a deputy last week after an internal audit found the deputy used Flock license-plate-reader data outside the office’s own policy. “The deputy’s dismissal is an example of our commitment and previously stated public position to hold personnel accountable for violations of policies in place to protect the public,” Sheriff Jay Jones said. The office set its Flock usage guidelines several years ago; neither the deputy’s name nor the specific misuse was disclosed.

A police officer in LaGrange, Georgia, just across the state line, is under a separate investigation for possible Flock misuse around the same time.

Alabama lawmakers are now expected to take up Flock camera legislation early in the 2027 session. The debate splits along familiar lines: Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor defended the tool, saying, “I certainly don’t think that you do away with a tool as valuable as that on public roads because somebody misused it,” and pointed to his office’s monthly internal audits. Columbus State University’s Dr. Patrice Kerner argued the problem isn’t the cameras themselves but the data they generate: “Where we start moving into ethical violations is how we store the information and the building of a database of information.”

U.S. News and World Report’s 2026 public high school rankings placed Auburn High School 14th among Alabama’s public schools — the only school from Chambers County, Lee County, Opelika, Valley, or Lanett to appear anywhere on the list of the state’s top 25.

The rankings weigh AP and International Baccalaureate performance for a full 40 percent of a school’s score; schools that don’t offer those programs score a zero on that measure. Nationally, only half of rural school districts offer AP courses at all, compared with 76 percent of urban districts and 85 percent of suburban ones. Small, rural schools often can’t staff advanced courses after covering the basics first.

It’s not a measure of teaching quality — Alabama’s own state report card found 15 high schools with strong in-state scores that still ranked low or not at all nationally for lack of AP offerings. For Chambers and Lee County students outside Auburn’s district lines, that’s the more direct number: whether AP courses are even on the schedule.

The Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan board is requesting a $222 million increase in state funding for fiscal year 2028, bringing its total ask to roughly $1.53 billion. Staff say that’s what it costs to keep the current plan running without cutting benefits — about $1,226 per active member per month, up from $1,048 this year.

It follows a rough round for PEEHIP: lawmakers approved only $180 million of the $380 million the board requested for the current fiscal year, forcing the board to pull up to $200 million from its retiree health care trust fund to close the gap. Board members warned that “continued reliance on the trust fund is not a long-term solution,” citing rising health care costs, a growing retiree population, and an uncertain Education Trust Fund.

Retirees are already feeling it. Non-Medicare retirees saw premium increases of $45 to $180 a month show up in their September checks, based on age and years of service — one 62-year-old with 10 years of service saw a $179.78 jump.

PEEHIP is the health plan covering Chambers County and Lanett City school district employees. Whether the Legislature funds this request in February is the difference between a stable premium next fall and another trust-fund withdrawal buying time until the next shortfall.