Thursday, May 7 — The dialysis center in Tuskegee closes in TEN DAYS

TEN DAYS

This is the number that matters this week. Saturday, May 17. Approximately fifty people who depend on three-times-a-week dialysis treatment will, on Sunday, May 18, need to get to Tallassee, Auburn, or Union Springs to keep that treatment going. For an elderly or infirm patient with limited transportation, three round trips a week to another county is not a small adjustment. It is a hardship that some people will not survive.

The pattern is now visible across this district. The only kidney dialysis center in Wilcox County closed March 20 — same provider, same poverty profile, same Black Belt county. Two closures in two months in two of the poorest counties in the United States, both inside Alabama-2. This is no longer an isolated event. It is how the rural healthcare system is contracting in real time, in our district, while the people responsible for federal advocacy work the legislative calendar instead of the closure calendar.

SPECIAL SESSION, DAY 4

The Alabama Legislature is in Day 4 of its special session at the State Capitol. The Alabama House on Tuesday, May 6, approved both contingency bills on the table — HB 1 (Speaker Pro Tempore Pringle, Mobile) and SB 1 (Sen. Elliott, Josephine). The same day, Attorney General Steve Marshall asked the federal district court to lift the standing injunction blocking Alabama from redrawing its congressional map before 2030.

The bills do not, by themselves, change any district line. The lines change only if and when federal courts lift the standing injunctions on the 2023 congressional map and the 2021 state Senate map. As of this morning, those injunctions remain in place. Secretary of State Wes Allen has confirmed that Alabama's May 19 primary proceeds under the current court-drawn map. The candidates already advancing — Hampton Harris and Shomari Figures in Alabama-2, the full Republican and Democratic primary fields in every other race — remain on the ballot under the lines we have today. Anyone in this district who has been told otherwise by friends or family has been told something inaccurate.

What may change later: if the federal courts lift the congressional injunction in the coming weeks or months, the bills now under consideration would trigger a special primary in the affected districts. The current Black Voting Age Population in Alabama-2 is 48.7 percent. Under the 2023 map that Republican legislators hope to reinstate, that figure would drop to 39.9 percent. The mathematical effect on representation is not abstract. It is the question of whether this district, as currently constituted, exists six months from now.

GAS PRICES — AND WHAT CHANGED YESTERDAY

The line that moved this week is the one that has moved against us for two months. Yesterday, Brent crude closed down 7.8 percent at $101.27 a barrel after Axios reported that the United States and Iran are working on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and frame broader nuclear talks. President Trump on Truth Social paused "Project Freedom," the U.S. naval escort operation through the Strait of Hormuz, citing "great progress" in talks. He also cautioned that Iran's signature is "a big assumption" and warned of bombing "at a much higher level and intensity" if Tehran does not agree.

What that means in Selma, in Greenville, in Tuskegee, in West Mobile: nothing yet. The AAA national average gas price was $4.53 yesterday, up another five cents on the day, even as wholesale prices dropped sharply. Retail prices typically lag wholesale by a week to ten days. If the framework holds, families in this district may begin to see relief at the pump in the back half of May. If it falls through — and the President himself called signing "a big assumption" — the costs come back. The trucker hauling product in this district, the family driving 200 miles a week to and from work, and the dialysis patient who will be driving to another county after May 17 are all paying the same elevated fuel cost today they were paying last week. The framework is news; the household budget is not yet.

THE WORK THIS WEEK

Three concrete things that matter most for the next seven days.

TUSKEGEE. TEN DAYS. The closure is on the calendar. Local pressure has moved the date twice. Local pressure is what works. Phone calls, public meeting attendance, and personal contact with anyone you know who is losing their dialysis access — those are the mechanisms that have produced results so far.

THE MAY 19 PRIMARY. Twelve days away. There is no in-person early voting in Alabama. Election Day is the only day to vote. Make sure neighbors who plan to vote on May 19 know where their polling place is and have transportation if they need it.

THE SPECIAL SESSION. Day 4 today. Expected to wrap by the end of the week. The House passed both bills Tuesday. The bills do not change district lines yet, but the legislators who voted for them are creating the framework for whatever happens next. Pay attention to your representative's vote.

KEY DATES

• Tomorrow, Friday, May 8 — Congressman Figures scheduled to deliver the Trenholm State Community College Spring 2026 Commencement address in Montgomery.
• This week (through Friday) — Special session at the State Capitol; expected wrap by end of week.
• Saturday, May 17 — Fresenius Kidney Care Tuskegee dialysis center scheduled closure. T-10 from today.
• Tuesday, May 19 — Alabama statewide primary election. Election Day only — no in-person early voting in Alabama.
• Tuesday, November 3 — General Election.