The Frequency

Alabama is one of eight states that still taxes groceries at the state level, and the rate has been falling: 4 percent in 2023, stepped down to 2 percent by 2025. Full repeal would cost the state roughly $270 million a year against about $230 million currently collected. What’s new is who’s asking for it. Gubernatorial nominee Tommy Tuberville, lieutenant governor nominee John Wahl, Rep. Danny Garrett, and Sen. Andrew Jones have all endorsed eliminating what’s left of it, standing next to Democratic nominees Doug Jones and Phillip Ensler, who say the party has “been advocating for eliminating the grocery tax for well over 20 years.”

Garrett says a bill is already drafted for the coming legislative session. For Chambers County shoppers, full state repeal wouldn’t be the whole story: local sales taxes stack on top of the state rate and stay in place regardless, pushing the combined rate as high as 10 percent in some Alabama communities.

Cam Hunt, who beat incumbent Sheriff Jay Jones in the May 2026 Republican primary, filed a complaint with the Alabama Ethics Commission on June 4 alleging the Sheriff’s Office used its Verizon Fleet GPS system to create a “geofence” around his private residence during the campaign, tracking when department vehicles passed by. Hunt says deputies feared retaliation for supporting him and that their personal social media activity may have been monitored. “This is bigger than one election or one piece of technology,” he said. “It is about the government’s ability to track people.”

Jones disputes the characterization. He says the fleet-tracking system has been in use for years to protect deputies and allocate patrol units efficiently, and that “the Sheriff’s Office has not and would not allow the use of this system for any purpose not involved in the interest of public safety.” He’s committed to cooperating fully if the Ethics Commission opens an inquiry. Hunt takes office in January 2027.

At its Sept. 8 meeting, the Lanett City Council gave first reading to a 12-page franchise ordinance with Opelika-based Point Broadband Fiber Holdings, granting a non-exclusive right to run fiber-optic line through city rights-of-way. A second reading, and possible approval, is set for Sept. 21. The same meeting, the council voted to apply to the FAA for matching funds on a $150,000 fencing project at Lanett Regional Airport that would secure the terminal area with two new gates; the FAA would cover 90 percent, capping the city’s share at $8,500, with work slated for 2027 if approved.

Council member Brad Lynn said the airport sold more than 1,100 gallons of prop fuel and 500 gallons of jet fuel in August alone, with over 3,300 operations recorded, enough some weeks to put Lanett Regional in the top 10 nationally among airports its size. The council also acted on two nuisance properties in West Shawmut, where overgrown lots and a collapsing porch have drawn neighbor complaints; cleanup on one could cost the city $4,500 if the owner doesn’t act first.

Integrea Community Mental Health System is one of eight Alabama providers splitting more than $8 million in rural health grants announced Sept. 7, part of Gov. Kay Ivey’s $144 million Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program, federally backed through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Integrea’s $867,545 share is earmarked for its transition to the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model in Chambers and Tallapoosa counties: expanded mobile crisis teams, a patient portal tied into Alabama’s One Health Record system, and telehealth capacity built for rural residents who face real transportation barriers to in-person care.

Integrea CEO Jimmie Dickey said resources aimed at rural counties “free up other resources to improve services in Opelika or Phenix City” across the four-county area the organization serves — Chambers, Russell, Lee, and Tallapoosa. Roughly 40 percent of Integrea’s patients are uninsured; the organization says it turns no one away.

The Chattahoochee Humane Society in Valley is housing 71 dogs in a shelter built for 58 kennels. As a no-kill shelter, the Humane Society is obligated to prepare every dog that comes through the door for adoption. “We’re a no kill shelter,” the shelter’s director said. “So, the dogs that come in we have an obligation. We have to get them ready to be adopted.” More than 200 animals have been transferred to shelters up north since June 2025 to relieve the pressure, and the shelter is asking the community to adopt, volunteer, or sponsor an adoption fee for someone else.

The strain shows up in real time: last Thursday, staff found abandoned puppies on a dirt road but had no space to take them in. They’re now vaccinated and in foster care instead.