Three more legislative days (please, I pray).

Via Anna Barrett: The Alabama Senate on Thursday passed a $10.5 billion education budget with pay raises for educators and one-time bonuses for retirees, though not the full health insurance funding a state board said was needed to avoid premium increases. https://ow.ly/Epm950YCB4R

Via Anna Barrett: The Alabama Senate Thursday approved a rule change that further reduces the powers of the lieutenant governor and allows the Senate President Pro Tem to preside over the chamber if the lieutenant governor is five minutes late to a session.

Via Anna Barrett and Andrea Tinker: ICYMI: The Alabama Legislature Wednesday approved a bill changing the composition of the state's utility regulator despite the sponsor's objections to the Senate removing provisions requiring hearings on Alabama's high electricity rates.

Via Anna Barrett and Andrea Tinker: In a highly unusual move, the Alabama Legislature Wednesday sent a bill changing the composition of the Public Service Commission to Gov. Kay Ivey over the sponsor's objections to the Senate removing provisions requiring hearings into Alabama's high power rates.

Via Anna Barrett: An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a $10.5 billion Education Trust Fund budget for fiscal year 2027 that largely reflects Gov. Kay Ivey’s proposed budget from earlier this year.

Via Anna Barrett: The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill requiring Class 3 municipal law enforcement agencies to meet minimum staffing requirements before the state intervenes. https://ow.ly/bZlz50YBz9r

Via Anna Barrett: The Alabama Senate on Tuesday night passed a bill requiring Alabama governments and agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” https://ow.ly/9Ha150YBzYa

And goodnight, state house. Goodnight, moon. See you in 10 hours.

We’ve officially reached hour 12 in the state house today… my dear friends are leaving me since the House adjourned, but the Senate is still going strong. Might sleep here tonight. Please send pixie dust for my brain.

Via Anna Barrett: SB 99, sponsored by Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, would require schools to display a poster of the religious document in fifth through 12th-grade classes and within common areas, such as cafeterias and school libraries, in every school within the district.

Via Anna Barrett: While insurance covers routine cancer screenings, follow-up screenings to investigate abnormalities can be costly. Two new Alabama laws require insurers to cover secondary screenings. https://ow.ly/TyT450YAn9C

Thousands of Alabamians Saturday joined nearly two dozen "No Kings" demonstrations around the state in protest of the Trump administration's policies. Here are dispatches from four of the protests (one more to come).

Reports from: @annabjournalist.bsky.social in Auburn Solomon Crenshaw Jr. in Birmingham Anna Kate Freeland in Jacksonville @rchapoco.bsky.social in Montgomery And soon: @andreadotweb.bsky.social in Tuscaloosa

Via Anna Kate Freeland: A protestor holds a sign saying “We Have A Constitution Not A King” at a No Kings protest in Jacksonville, Alabama on March 28, 2026. The demonstration in the city in northeast Alabama drew about 250 people.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Bob Sesek of Auburn, Alabama holds a sign saying “Clean Up On Aisle 47” at the No Kings protest in Auburn, Alabama on March 28,2026. The protest drew at least 700 people.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: At least 700 protesters gathered at Toomer’s Corner in Auburn, Alabama near Auburn University for the third round of nationwide No Kings protests. Campus security limited the protesters to the half the sidewalk and the shoulder of College and Magnolia streets.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Debra Deil of Auburn, Alabama holds a sign that reads “It’s OK to change your mind” on Toomer’s Corner in Auburn, Alabama, on March 28, 2026 during a No Kings Protest. The Auburn rally had drawn about 600 people as of 10:30 a.m.

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Via Anna Barrett: An Alabama House committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would require health insurers to pay ambulance providers for treat-in-place services. https://ow.ly/8G0p50YvCYI

Via Anna Barrett: An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would make it a crime to not provide a dog with adequate shelter, food and water. https://ow.ly/5Izo50Yw61g

Via Anna Barrett: An Alabama lawmaker who won election to the House in 2024 campaigning on reproductive rights is planning to file a late-session bill to protect access to contraceptives and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). https://ow.ly/7VeS50Yw54v

Via Anna Barrett: A Senate vote on a bill that would have required Alabama governments and agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” was delayed Thursday amid a Democratic filibuster.

“We must make it clear that no American, or Alabamian, is our ‘enemy,’” Jones said. “We’re all in this together. And what we should be doing is standing up to anyone who seeks to divide us and put us against each other along racial or religious lines.”

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee Tuesday approved a bill that would close state primaries and require voters to register with one party or the other to cast a ballot.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The legislation would expand the state's utility regulator from three members to seven, but it would also make the commission an appointed body through 2028 and not address how it sets Alabama's electricity rates, among the highest in the South.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee on Wednesday discussed but did not vote on a bill that would close the state primaries and require voters to register with one party or the other to cast a primary ballot. buff.ly/cFkXrh7

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a $3.7 billion General Fund budget for 2027, a $8.1 million (0.2%) increase over the current year’s budget. ow.ly/gyrv50YsFBZ

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would require the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) to create an anaphylactic response policy and train all licensed day care centers on its implementation.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama Senate committee Tuesday approved a $3.7 billion General Fund budget with pay raises for state employees and funding for their insurance program while level-funding or cutting other state programs. buff.ly/LGGBjIs

BREAKING via @rchapoco.bsky.social: Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Charles “Sonny” Burton to life imprisonment. Burton was scheduled to be executed on Thursday for the 1991 murder of Doug Battle, in which he was not the triggerman.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: A Democratic lawmaker’s newly-filed bill to eliminate straight-ticket voting led a powerful figure in the state Democratic Party to threaten to “excommunicate” supporters if the bill passes. buff.ly/lRQobfH

Wonderful coverage from @andreadotweb.bsky.social and phenomenal photos from Estela. Check it out if you haven't already.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Nearly five years after the Alabama Legislature approved it — and after litigation and thwarted licensing attempts — the first medical cannabis dispensaries could open in the state in the next few months. buff.ly/JzqMQJe

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: Rep. Scott Stadthagen of Hartselle won election as Alabama Republican Party chair Saturday, defeating former secretary of state John Merrill and acting chair Joan Reynolds.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social and @andreadotweb.bsky.social: Here's our weekly round-up of the bills that passed the Alabama Legislature.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama lawmaker filed a bill Thursday aimed at resolving a months-long battle over the state’s Internet sales tax that pitted the state's cities against Alabama counties and some legislators. buff.ly/KRlIiGf

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Senate on Thursday passed a bill allowing certain state retirees to go back to work without losing their retirement benefits.

When Valkyrie Brodt became pregnant for the first time last year, she did an online search to find a clinic that would take someone without insurance. She found what she thought was a pregnancy-focused clinic a couple of blocks from the hospital in Huntsville. But something felt off. buff.ly/4LmnYGj

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The bill prohibits foreign nationals from donating “directly or indirectly” to state or local political parties, political action committees, election advertisements or promising to donate to campaigns.

@statesnewsroom.com conducted a 50-state investigation examining state and federal budgets, as well as the tax records of crisis pregnancy organizations, finding that while the magnitude of public funding for them is growing, oversight is not. buff.ly/TVF8Y8U

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill that would make it second and subsequent convictions for stalking a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: An Alabama House committee Wednesday delayed consideration of a bill to regulate the Public Service Commission after the sponsor introduced a substitute requiring the PSC to hold formal rate hearings, something it has not done since 1981. buff.ly/ZUAFDZy

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would require schools to regularly perform the national anthem. A proposed amendment to make the sponsor sing the anthem every day the Senate is in session did not pass. buff.ly/fiMPxfp

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The Alabama Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would prohibit food assistance recipients from using their benefits to purchase certain sodas and sugary processed foods. buff.ly/O7JGWsS

Via @annabjournalist.bsky.social: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Alabama’s appeal of a lower court ruling prohibiting state law enforcement from arresting people experiencing homelessness for panhandling. buff.ly/FzL03DU

A bill to limit screen time for children under five in publicly funded early childhood settings was approved by the Alabama Senate on Thursday. It goes to Ivey to be signed into law.

A busy week in the Legislature. Catch up on all the bills that passed in our weekly bill roundup from @andreadotweb.bsky.social and I. We were warned by the Pro Tem that pace will pick up and it will get "spicy" in the second half of session. Hold on, everybody. @alabamareflector.com

Yesterday: "That bill that is in the Legislature is dead."