• an update on the 2020 Senate race, including analysis of recent entrant State Rep. Arnold Mooney;
• talk of a possible special session on prison / criminal justice reforms;
• an update/clarification on the state's negotiations with the Department of Justice to avoid a CRIPA lawsuit;
• The DNC's deadline for AlaDems will soon pass, but Nancy Worley seems unconcerned;
• Charlotte Meadows is ahead early in HD74;
• Ivey appointed Brooke Reid to replace retiring Circuit Judge Truman Hobbs;

• Don't look now, but President Donald Trump's reelection prospects are looking better by the day. Recent polling shows his approval ratings at the highest point of his presidency - 46 percent according to Gallup and 50 percent according to Rassmusen.
• At the same point in their presidencies, Gallup had former presidents Barack Obama at 44 percent, George W. Bush at 70 percent, Bill Clinton at 50 percent, George H.W. Bush at 76 percent, and Ronald Reagan at 44 percent.
• Obviously, a lot can change. Just ask Bush 41, who polled the highest but was the only one out of that group not to win reelection. But, if the economy keeps chugging, Trump will have a pretty strong case to make.
• Read more analysis on that HERE.
• On the other side of the ticket, a clear Democratic frontrunner has emerged in former Vice President Joe Biden.
• A new Morning Consult poll out today shows Biden far outpacing the Democratic field. He bests Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 44-20 among likely Democratic voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
• Biden is widely seen as the most formidable challenger to Trump, largely because he can compete in the rust-belt states Trump depended on to win: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
• Here's more from Morning Consult.

• Accusing Beijing of "reneging" on commitments it made in earlier talks, the nation's top trade negotiator said Monday that the Trump administration will increase tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods Friday, a sharp escalation in a year-long trade dispute.
• At the same time, a Chinese trade delegation is expected to arrive in Washington to resume negotiations on Thursday, a day later than originally planned.
• At a briefing with reporters, neither U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer nor Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin offered details of China's alleged backsliding, and there was no immediate response from Beijing.
• Mnuchin said Trump officials learned over the weekend that Chinese officials "were trying to go back on some of the language" that had been negotiated in 10 earlier rounds of talks.
• The U.S. officials said that at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Friday, the administration will raise the tariffs from 10% to 25%. President Donald Trump had announced those plans via Twitter on Sunday, expressing frustration with the pace of negotiations. The hit list includes such varied products as baseball gloves, vacuum cleaners and burglar alarms.
• Full story HERE.

• Ten people from Alabama and Florida are charged as part of a ring that federal authorities say fraudulently billed companies for more than $200 million in drugs.
• The charges announced Monday mean nearly 30 people have been charged in an alleged scheme involving Northside Pharmacy, located in rural Haleyville, Alabama.
• Authorities say the company did business as Global Compounding Pharmacy. It shipped drugs from Alabama and operated a call center in Clearwater, Florida.
• A statement from federal prosecutors in Birmingham says the operation billed for medically unnecessary drugs and overcharged for prescriptions. Authorities say one plan administrator paid more than $29,000 for a single tube of wound cream.
• Eight of the people named in new indictments are from Florida, and two live in Alabama.
• Eighteen people have pleaded guilty.
• Story link.

• An Alabama man facing execution next week for his role in the 1997 slayings of four people has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay, arguing it should weigh the fact that he was 19 at the time.
• Attorneys for Michael Brandon Samra filed the request last week to stay the scheduled May 16 execution.
• The court has barred executing anyone under 18 at the time of their crimes. Samra's attorneys asked the court to weigh whether knowledge of brain development and evolving standards of decency merit extending that age to 21.
• Read more HERE.

• An Alabama woman is charged with murder in the death of her 84-year-old mother.
• Birmingham police say 52-year-old Brenda Denise Evans was arrested Monday in the slaying of mother Hattie Evans.
• Media outlets report the older woman was found dead early Sunday in her home by police checking to see if she was OK. Officers found her unresponsive on the floor of her bedroom suffering from apparent head injuries.
• Investigators believe the death is linked to domestic violence.
• Story link.