This weekend the Iron Bowl comes to Tuscaloosa. The top ranked Alabama Crimson Tide is hosting their cross-state rival Auburn Tigers on Saturday. The 22nd-ranked Tigers come into the game at five and two after defeating Tennessee last weekend. Alabama is coming off a lop-sided victory over the Kentucky Wildcats. Alabama head coach Nick Saban says this is an important game and his players will need to be ready.

It looks like concern over COVID-19 is impacting holiday travel. The forecast from Triple-A says the number of Americans driving over Thanksgiving will drop by ten percent compared to last year. Healthcare providers also continue warning those who hit the road for the holiday to exercise caution. Dr. Thomas Weide practices at University Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. He says wearing a mask, social distancing, and eating outdoors are good ways to avoid giving the coronavirus to your family.

News outlets are quoting an Associated Press investigation that may point to fake answers on U.S. Census forms in Alabama. The AP obtained text messages from U.S. Census Bureau supervisor in Alabama telling workers how to falsify answers from households answer the once-in-a-decade head count. The text messages are from last month. They reportedly stem from the Bureau’s effort to finish the census count households where it couldn’t be established who lived there after two visits.

A new proposed bridge across Mobile Bay may get a second look from local and state planning officials. The plan was declared dead over a year ago due to tolls needed to pay for the project. A proposal to charge up to $6 to cross Mobile Bay on I-10 killed the plan late last year. Now, officials are discussing the proposal again, but some say local residents will have to have an alternative way to cross the bay without a toll.

Jack Burrell is the chairman of the Eastern Shore Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO.

The once longest-serving member of the Alabama House of Representatives has died at the age of 81. 

Former Alabama state Rep. Alvin Holmes was one of the first African Americans elected to the state legislature after the civil rights era and helped to remove Jim Crow laws from the state Constitution. He also got the Confederate flag removed from the state capitol.

Holmes served in the legislature from 1974 through 2018. 

The acceleration of coronavirus cases is causing an existential crisis for America’s retailers and spooking their customers just as the critically important holiday shopping season nears. It’s also raising the risk that the economy could slide into a “double-dip” recession this winter as states and cities re-impose restrictions on businesses and consumers stay at home to avoid contracting the disease.

The possibility of a toll bridge in Mobile is once again a reality.

A planning group has asked the state transportation agenecy for an update on the plans for an Interstate 10 bridge to span 10 miles over the Mobile River and Mobile Bay. 

The project was stopped last year when local opposition complained about the toll.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is challenging the removal of a Confederate statue from the Madison County courthouse. 

The lawsuit, issued Friday, argues that the decision to move the statue honoring Confederate soldiers to a Huntsville cemetary violated the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, passed in 2017. The law was made to protect Confederate monuments. 

Retail sales could increase in Alabama during the holiday season.

The Alabama Retail Association expects holiday sales to hold steady or even improve from last year's numbers. Tax reports from the Alabama Revenue Department showed Alabama shoppers spent almost 8 percent more in September 2020 than in 2019.

Holiday shopping could help businesses that have been hurt by disruptions caused by the coronavirus.