A small Alabama newspaper is advocating for the resurgence of America's most feared white supremacist terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan.

An editorial published last week by The Democrat-Reporter of Linden, Alabama, begins with the line: "Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again."

The editorial says Democrats and "Democrats in the Republican Party" are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama, so the Klan should raid the "gated communities" where they live.

A German firm is opening its new North American headquarters in west Alabama.

The Tuscaloosa News reports SWJ Technology will build its new 5,000-square-foot facility in the Alberta neighborhood of Tuscaloosa, a part of town that was devastated by a tornado in April 2011.

The company has more than 85 employees in the southeastern United States. It started in 2003 in Frankfurt, Germany. It provides services to companies like Mercedes-Benz U.S. International and the suppliers that service it.

For nearly 40 years, state Sen. Hank Sanders of Selma was a fixture of the Alabama Statehouse.

Sanders, 76, did not seek re-election last year after nine terms in office. When lawmakers convene next month, Senate District 23 will be represented by another member of the Sanders family. His daughter, Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, won election to her father's longtime Senate seat last November.

The long-serving Democrat said he has no regrets about leaving state politics, because he says he is leaving the district in good hands.

Birmingham's airport is experiencing strong growth in passenger traffic, according to new numbers.

Al.com reports more than 2.9 million passengers passed through the airport in 2018. That's a 10 percent increase compared to the 2.7 million passengers who used the airport in 2017.

Last month, the airport also set a record: It served 224,012 passengers, a record total and a nearly 16 percent increase in passengers over January of the previous year.

An Alabama law that prohibits cities from removing Confederate monuments will remain in effect while the state appeals a judge's ruling that declared the statute constitutional, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday.  

Justices granted the request of Attorney General Steve Marshall to stay a judge's order striking down the law, Marshall's office announced.

"The Supreme Court's stay allows the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act to remain in effect until the Supreme Court resolves this appeal over the act's constitutionality," Marshall said in a statement.

President Donald Trump says he will nominate a former Alabama official to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  

Jeffrey Byard held several positions with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency before he joined FEMA in 2017 during the agency's response to Hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Irma in Florida. Byard is currently the associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery.

Former state Senator Myron Penn said Friday that he is running for chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party in new leadership elections ordered by national party officials.   

Penn said in a telephone interview that he hopes to help unify and rebuild a fractured party.

"I'm tired of sides. We shouldn't have sides within our family," Penn said.

Tolls will help finance a new, $2 billion bridge that will cross the Mobile River and Mobile Bay on Alabama's coast. News outlets quote officials with the bridge project as saying a toll of up six dollars will be needed to pay for the bridge. Construction is supposed to start next year, and the tolls won't start until work is done around 2025. The project will increase the capacity of Interstate 10, which crosses the Mobile River and Mobile Bay at downtown Mobile. Construction will occur over a 10-mile-long area from downtown Mobile to Daphne in Baldwin County.

Alabama is losing another rural hospital.    Georgiana Medical Center in Butler County is closing at the end of the next month.  

 Ivy Creek health care company, which owns the hospital, made the announcement Tuesday.