Governor Kay Ivey gave her final State of the State address last night. The Republican lawmaker’s time in office reportedly includes over sixty nine billion dollars in Capital investment, close to one hundred thousand new jobs, and the lowest unemployment rate in state history. During her talk, Ivey pointed to how the state lobbied to bring Space Command to Alabama..
“We immediately got to work and promoting Huntsville to become its home. Now finally, y'all, it's official. Space Command Headquarters is coming to Sweet Home, Alabama,” Ivey proclaimed.
Colorado officials filed a lawsuit claiming the relocation of U.S. Space Command to Alabama was illegally motivated by President Donald Trump’s desire to punish Colorado for its mail-in voting system. The litigation announced by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser asks a federal judge to block the move as unconstitutional. Trump chose Huntsville, Alabama, to house Space Command during the closing days of his first term. But in 2023, then-President Joe Biden announced the command would be permanently located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which had been serving as its temporary headquarters.
Another issue Ivey touched on during her address was Alabama’s access to the Internet. The group BroadBandNow once ranked the state forty seventh in the nation for internet coverage in 2019.Ivey says that’s changed.
“Today, we are 24th and with our state plan, 100% of Alabama will soon have access through an Internet service provider,” Ivey said.
However, the state still reportedly faces major roadblocks toward gaining access to the World Wide Web. Less than half of Alabamians have fiber access and affordabiity remains a concern particularly in the impoverished Black Belt region that runs across the lower third of the state.
Among the other issues facing State lawmakers in this legislative session is the so called West Alabama Corridor Project One. That’s proposed widening of U.S. forty three and State Route Sixty to a four lane highway between Tuscaloosa and Mobile
