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Just saw this on the Brookston Beer Bulletin tonight though the fight is not over. The ‘trash and trinkets’ bill, which will allow more leniency in terms of what goodies breweries can provide to retailers to help promote the sale of beers, passed the Senate earlier today. The beer community is opposed because small brewers don’t have the funds to put into marketing as a brewery like A-B does. Some fear that it could begin to hurt craft beer sales as early as next year.

The bill apparently has a little ways to go before it becomes official. Percent chance that Arnold will pull a Gray Davis circa 2000?

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(Montgomery, AL) - Free the Hops, a foundation of people promoting the rise of the Alabama ABV limit from 6% to nearly 14% was able to get the House to approve the bill. The bill will now move to the Senate. Law is complicated, though, and as some of the group’s leaders note, there is no guarantee that the bill will go before the Senate by the end of the current session. If I interpreted Wikipedia correctly, there are 105 days in the session following February 5 so this could go on into late May. To put into perspective the plight of Alabamians and their affinity of craft beer, they have in-state access to only one beer of the top 100 listed on Beer Advocate. To hear some of what was said when the bill went to the floor, this is must-listen audio. As Lew Bryson from Seen Through a Glass points out, the politician who comes on at the 5:33 mark is classic…or frustrating, depending on how you look at it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEFDVc6XCcc&hl=en]

(Taunton, MA) - Not your typical beernews story but one that deserves a post nonetheless. A Taunton policitician wants to lower the legal limit for blood alcohol content level while behind the wheel from .08 to .02.

“Rep. James Fagan’s legislation would slash the current .08 blood-alcohol limit recognized nationwide as the standard for being legally drunk to .02. Federal government research indicates a 160- to 240-pound man would register .02 sipping one glass of wine over the course of an hour.”

See the rest of the article here: Bill on tap to dry up ALL drinking, driving