U.S. Congress

An Alabama man is among those arrested from a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday after authorities found him in possession of several weapons.

Prosecutors said that Lonnie Leroy Coffman had a truck full of components for 11 explosive devices, guns, smoke devices, machetes and a note with information about a member of Congress. A court filing states that the items found suggest that Coffman planned to distribute the weapons and attack members of Congress. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law, after swift and near-unanimous action by Congress this week. 

The package will support businesses, rush resources to overburdened health care providers and help struggling families during the deepening coronavirus epidemic.

Former Congressman Jo Bonner has been named as Gov. Kay Ivey's new chief of staff.

Ivey announced the change Tuesday, just one day after her inauguration for her first full term.

Steve Pelham, Ivey's longtime chief of staff, is leaving to take a position at Auburn University.

Ivey's office said Pelham will be the university's vice president for economic development and chief of staff to Auburn University President Steven Leath.

Tabitha Isner, the Democratic candidate in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, says Russian hackers made more than a thousand attempts to break into her campaign website last month.

Isner says there were 1,400 attempts to break into the website. Most came from accounts with Russian internet service providers.

Isner says she has no idea why her campaign was targeted. She says the hackers were attempting to log in manually to the site.

Gov. Kay Ivey says U.S. Congress' inability to fund the federal government will not have an impact on delivering state services.

Ivey joined Alabama's Congressional Republicans to criticize Senate Democrats for the government shutdown, which took effect after the Senate rejected a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating last Friday.

Agencies shut down for the first time in more than four years after senators rejected a temporary spending patch. Bipartisan efforts to find an alternative fell short as a midnight deadline came and went.

The man who ran former Chief Justice Roy Moore’s failed bid for U.S. Senate in Alabama is now running for a U.S. congressional seat himself.

Rich Hobson announced yesterday that he is running as a Republican for the 2nd District congressional seat currently held by U.S. Representative Martha Roby. That district includes most of metropolitan Montgomery and the Wiregrass region in southeast Alabama. Roby won her last bid for re-election in 2016 with less than 50 percent of the vote, after withdrawing her support of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Supporters are pushing for new historic markers to recognize two pioneering black Congressmen from north Alabama.

The TimesDaily reports the proposed markers in Florence would honor James Rapier and Oscar De Priest. Rapier was born a free man in 1837, educated in Canada, and returned to Alabama shortly after the Civil War. He served one term in U.S. Congress from Alabama as a Republican during Reconstruction.