Low work participation, ‘God’ in a motto: Down in Alabama

References you’ll find throughout today’s newsletters: Out-of-state lotteries, Christmas cards (or a lack of), a country song in reverse (they’re getting back together), and even the guy who handled the cape for the Godfather of Soul.

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Execution coming

The Alabama Supreme Court has authorized what would be the state’s next execution, reports AL.com’s Ivana Hrynkiw. The governor will set the timeframe for the execution to be carried out.

The victims of the murder that took place were Floyd and Vera Hills of Guin. They were 87 and 72 years old, respectively. In June 2004, Jamie Ray Mills and his wife, JoAnn Mills, carried out a plan to rob the couple of cash, and Jamie Mills used a machete, tire tool and hammer to kill them. JoAnn Mills is serving life in prison. Jamie Mills will get lethal injection.

Finding workers

We know that Alabama’s unemployment rate is quite low, and except for that pandemic-lockdown blip it’s been quite low for several years now. Lately it’s been hanging out between 2.5 and 3 percent.

Economists usually consider that “full employment,” figuring it’s within the natural churn of folks moving out of and back into work.

But there’s another statistic called the labor force participation rate. That’s the folks who are 16 and older who are either employed or looking for work. So when that rate is low, a larger percentage of the potential workforce is staying out of the game altogether.

Reasons could be they retired (and we know some folks called it a career in 2020) or they are choosing to be full-time parents, or they won the Florida or Tennessee or Georgia or Mississippi lottery, or they’ve simply given up trying. So a low labor force participation rate can make the unemployment rate deceivingly lower, and it also leaves some economy-driving productivity on the table.

The U.S. averages a rate of about 63 percent. Alabama, meanwhile, is well beneath that at 57 percent. And we know that business owners the past few years have blamed many of their woes on the difficulty of hiring workers.

So, AL.com’s Mike Cason reports that Gov. Kay Ivey and a bipartisan group of Alabama’s legislative leadership announced a big legislative package to target the labor force participation rate. They’re calling it “Work for Alabama.”

The efforts in the legislation include tax credits to working families for child care and housing; creating “innovation districts” to lure business into places where labor is available but jobs are few; creating a diploma for students choosing to become skilled workers rather than going to college; and creating a cabinet-level secretary of workforce development.

‘God’ in a motto

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is complaining about another expression of faith in a high school, reports AL.com’s Greg Garrison.

Oak Grove High School’s football team reportedly adopted the motto “God, Team, Me.”

If you’re not familiar with that phrasing, it implies a listing of priorities. Similarly, you may have heard “God, family, country” or, if you prefer, “Me, myself, television, video games, drinking bourbon and chasing women, job.”

Well, the Freedom From Religion people really don’t prefer the “God, Team, Me” priority list for high school football players at a public school. They sent a letter of complaint about the motto appearing on playoff hoodies, shirts and in the team’s locker room.

They sent the letter to Jefferson County Superintendent Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr. It’s not the first correspondence that Gonsoulin has received from the group, although presumably the exchange hasn’t included Christmas cards.

Gonsoulin: “The Jefferson County Board of Education is on record as fully supporting the right of its students and all members of the education community to pray and engage in voluntary religious expression in school settings.”

Quoting

“I’m calling this ‘Marriage 2.0.’”

Country singer Sara Evans in an interview with Billboard, explaining that she’s reconciled with her husband, former Alabama quarterback Jay Barker. The two and their blended family lived together in the Birmingham area until separating in 2020.

By the numbers

360 years

That’s the total prison time a Blount County judge handed down to a man for sexually abusing two children over several years. Breaking it down, he faces five 20-year sentences, eight 10-year sentences, two 40-year sentences, one 50-year sentence, one 18-year sentence, two 15-year sentences and two one-year sentences.

More Alabama news

Born on this date

On this date in 1935, the late Danny Ray of Birmingham. He was, among other things, the “cape man” for singer James Brown.

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