• Homeowners and Environmental groups in Alabama have filed a federal lawsuit against the state regulators for approving Alabama’s Solar Power fees on customers who have on-site or rooftop solar
• Alabama Power argues that the fees are needed to maintain the infrastructure that provides backup power to customers who don’t have sufficient power from  their solar panels

Texas Republicans demand that Democrat legislators return to Austin for new voting restrictions

• Democrats from the Texas legislature who have left to Washington, D.C. in order to block new election laws have been demanded by the Texas GOP  to return to the Capitol
• The governor of Texas, Greg Abbot has authorized law enforcement to bring more than 50 legislators “under warrant of arrest if necessary”

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• Alabama lawmakers ended their legislative session without a vote on one of the most controversial bills before them: a measure to outlaw gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors
• The Senate-passed bill died on the final night of the legislative session after it was placed at the end of a debate agenda that lawmakers did not have time to finish before the session adjourned around midnight on Monday

Lawmakers: Delay High-Stakes Reading Test for 3rd Graders

• After COVID-19 disrupted two school years, Alabama lawmakers on Monday voted to delay an upcoming state requirement for third-graders to pass a reading test before moving up to the fourth grade
• The House of Representatives voted 68-27 for the bill by Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, that would delay the promotion requirement, now set to take effect next year, by two years
• The high-stakes promotion requirement is set to take effect at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, but supporters argued it would be unfair to force the requirement on students who were out of the traditional classroom for long stretches during the pandemic

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• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed medical marijuana legislation Monday as Republican opposition to the issue faded after decades of debate
• The program will allow people with a qualifying medical condition to purchase medical marijuana with the recommendation of a doctor
• More than a dozen conditions, including cancer, a terminal illness, depression, epilepsy, panic disorder and chronic pain would allow a person to qualify

• President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks as domestic demand for shots drops and global disparities in distribution have grown more evident
• The doses will come from existing production of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks, marking the first time that U.S.-controlled doses of vaccines authorized for use in the country will be shared overseas

• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called on state lawmakers Monday to convene for a special session this week to consider bills involving allocating federal coronavirus relief funds and a prohibition on mask requirements in schools
• Lawmakers will focus on allocating the more than $1.5 billion Utah is receiving from the American Rescue Plan, as well as updating or fixing errors made in bills that passed the general session this past spring
• They will also weigh a resolution condemning acts of anti-Asian hate and an extension of the state drought emergency

• A legislative session that began amid a surge in coronavirus cases ended Friday with Missouri lawmakers passing a legal shield against pandemic-related liability lawsuits as their final action
• The legislation would prohibit COVID-19 liability lawsuits against businesses and health care providers unless plaintiffs can prove they were exposed and sickened by the coronavirus and that the entity engaged in “reckless or willful misconduct”

• Sunday tailgaters could buy beers earlier in the morning and a pandemic allowance for carryout cocktails could become permanent under a bill passed by the Missouri Legislature
• The bill expanding the availability of alcohol won final approval Friday in the House while some lawmakers touted it as a benefit for small businesses and the tourism industry
• When restaurants had their indoor capacities limited during the coronavirus pandemic, the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control temporarily relaxed rules so they could sell mixed drinks to go

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