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A former Alabama police officer charged with murder for shooting an armed Black man in the man's front yard during a dispute with a tow-truck driver shouldn't be granted immunity before going to trial, the state's attorney general says. In a court brief filed late Tuesday, Attorney General Steve Marshall said a lower court was correct in ruling that former Decatur police officer Mac Marquette, 25, failed to show "a clear legal right to prosecutorial immunity” when he fatally shit Stephen Perkins on Sept. 29, 2023.
News & Commentaries From APR
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Alabama Public Radio presents local writers reading their own works! The Alabama Writers Wednesday Night Showcase puts a spotlight on emerging voices in Alabama’s literary world. The first episode features a story about sin, damaged people and redemption found in a kudzu patch at the edge of a small town. Hear John Nielsen read Angels of Fire in the Kudzu Realm. -
Alabama's utility regulators can continue to hold closed-door meetings to determine price hikes, in an apparent departure from common practices in neighboring states, a circuit court judge ruled. The decision rejected a lawsuit filed by Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of Energy Alabama, a nonprofit that advocates for renewable energy sources. -
The Alabama Public Radio news team is known for its major journalism investigations. We've been doing them for over a decade. Our most recent national award winning effort was an eight month investigation into Alabama's new U.S. House seat in the rural Black Belt region of the state. The new voting map was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court so Alabama would be more fair to black residents. Now, anybody who follows the news might reasonably be thinking— okay? The same high court that overturned Roe versus Wade and ended affirmative action in the nation's universities told Alabama that they needed to treat black voters better. Even the plaintiffs in the legal case of Allen versus Milligan told APR news they were gobsmacked they won. The goal after that legal victory was to make sure the new minority congressional district works. The point there was to keep conservative opponents from having the excuse to try to flip the voting map back to the GOP. And that's a moving target that could change at any moment, even as we speak. The job of managing all of these issues now falls to Congressman Shomari Figures. -
The fourth of July Holiday has come and gone. And, that means Alabama is into the second half of the lucrative summer tourism season. The Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area points to new rental units to judge how much the visitor economy is growing. -
Sports Minded host Brittany Young speaks with guest Karisma Chapman. Karisma - who's a former UAB women's basketball player and currently the Director of Operations for the MLK Women's Basketball League in Birmingham, Alabama - talks about hooping in the alley with her siblings as a kid in Chicago, playing professionally in Iceland and Israel, coaching AAU and girls high school basketball and lacing up her shoes for the women's league before moving into operations. Chapman also discusses some goals she has for the league in the coming seasons. -
Lawyers representing the family of a Black teenager shot and killed by police in an Alabama suburb said the state's refusal to release body-camera video during an investigation is fueling mistrust over the shooting. -
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey appointed a corrections deputy as head of the state parole board, replacing the outgoing chair who led the board during a period of few releases. Ivey appointed Hal Nash, the chief corrections deputy of the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, as the new chairman of the three-person Board of Pardons and Paroles. He replaces Leigh Gwathney, whose term expired. Nash's appointment is effective immediately. -
In this edition of StoryCorps, Nancy Ziccardi tells us about how she discovered that a friend of hers was involved in the murder of a pastor during the civil rights movement. -
First, it was Gehrig Deiter of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022. Then, Don’t’a Hightower left the New England Patriots with his three Super Bowl rings in March of 2023. Mark Ingram traded the NFL for the job of a television commentator in July of that year. Then, this year Julio Jones announced his retirement, following by C.J. Mosley who became the latest in an incomplete list of former Nick Saban players at Alabama who have retired from pro football. -
Rescue and recovery efforts continue following deadly flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas. A Mountain Brook girl is confirmed among the fatalities. Now, two reports indicate that a Mobile couple may missing. The Facebook page of the Corpus Christi Chronica and Mobile’s Lagniappe Newspaper reports that Eddie Santana-Negron and his wife Ileana Santana had traveled to Texas to spend the holiday with their eldest son. -
This week, Don reviews The Education of Asa Paxton by Gary S. Minder. -
Birmingham radio icon Shelly “The Playboy” Stewart is among the inductees for the national Radio Hall of Fame. The Alabama broadcaster’s contributions to the civil rights movement in the 1960’s were chronicled by Alabama Public Radio in its international award winning documentary “Civil Rights Radio.” Stewart is credited with using his radio program to signal the start of the so called “children’s march” where teenagers marched to protest unfair employment treatment of their parents.
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Alabama is known for football and white barbecue sauce. But we’re also making our mark in science, literature and the arts—and we helped put astronauts on the moon! Join APR news director Pat Duggins as he takes up topics like this with interviews on APR Notebook.
Dr. Don Noble, specializing in Southern and American literature, gives his weekly review on the work of Alabama’s finest authors.
Host Cam Marston brings fun weekly commentaries on generational and demographic trends to provide new ways to interpret the changing world around us.
Speaking of Pets with host Mindy Norton is a commentary for people who care about pets and want to celebrate that special relationship between humans and animal companions.
Sports Minded podcast with host Brittany Young features interviews with coaches, athletes and sports personnel. Insight, commentary and analysis on professional, collegiate and high school sports can be heard here.
Quick-Fire Quips is centered around people who stand out in Alabama. Host Baillee Majors presents guests with a questionnaire of playful personal questions and questions about the Yellowhammer State.
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As the floodwaters began to recede from Camp Mystic, a torrent of grief remained as the identities of some of the campers who died in the flash floods began to emerge on Saturday. Texas officials are reportedly under scrutiny for the heavy casualty toll, as well as the Trump White House, over key staff positions at the National Weather Service that remain unfilled. -
When you hear the term “hot spot”, you may think it’s a popular place to eat; but in the pet world, a hot spot is a painful skin condition in dogs. -
On today's Keepin' It Real, Cam wishes us a happy independence day and reminds us that on July 4th, 1776, nearly thirty percent of the population didn't want it. -
Alabama has scheduled a September execution by nitrogen gas for a man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a 1997 robbery. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey set a Sept. 25 execution date for Geoffrey Todd West. West, now 49, is on the death row for killing Margaret Parrish Berry. Prosecutors said West drove to Harold's Chevron in Attalla with plans to rob the store where he once worked. Berry, 33, was shot in the back of the head while lying on the floor behind the counter, prosecutors said. -
The Alabama Triple-A is expecting a busy travel day today. More than seventy million Americans are expected to hit the road for the Fourth of July holiday. That’s considered an all-time high. Gas prices may be working in favor of families looking for a holiday getaway this year. -
Last year, Americans spent an estimated total of $13.3 billion on food and beverages for the Fourth of July. As we come together to celebrate Independence Day, food and drinks will be a highlight for many. Several of these dishes echo the same one that the Founding Fathers and American colonists ate in 1776, and others are completely different. One similarity appears to be the barbecue. -
The latest film adaptation of a Stephen King story isn’t quite what you might expect. The Life of Chuck isn’t about monsters or haunted hotels—it’s about memory, love, and the beauty of ordinary moments. The film stars Mark Hamill and Tom Hiddleson, but for executive producer Scott Lumpkin, who grew up in Fairhope, this project hit close to home—literally. The movie was shot in Mobile and Baldwin counties. It tells a surreal story about the worlds inside each of us. -
Maigen Sullivan is an Alabama native and the co-founder and co-executive director of the nonprofit Invisible Histories. She talks with Quick-Fire Quips host Baillee Majors about her childhood obsession with Rouge from X-Men (spoiler alert: it's still going strong!) and embracing the mysteries of the universe. Plus, her love for the Yellowhammer State's mountains and the resilience of Alabamians. -
The Trump administration is withholding more than $6 billion in federal grants for after-school and summer programs, English language instruction, adult literacy and more. Officials in Gadsden City Schools say they'll have no choice but to shutter their after-school program serving more than a thousand low-income students if federal funds aren't released. -
A federal appeals court ruled Alabama prosecutors violated the constitutional rights of a man sentenced to death in 1990, saying Blacks were rejected from the jury during his trial. The Monday ruling from a three judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals means Michael Sockwell, 62, is eligible for a retrial. -
Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trump's big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage on the narrowest of votes, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to push it over the top. The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the president's signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval, or collapse. -
Major Edward Madison Jr. has lived a life of service to others. He served his community as a deacon at his local church, he served his country in the United States Air Force, and he currently serves the people of Selma, Alabama as their city attorney. This week on StoryCorps, Major Madison explores how he discovered his passion for public service.
After the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, hundreds of children from the affected areas dealt with multiple health issues caused by radiation from the nuclear meltdown. A few years later, families from all across Alabama housed many of those same children for a summer to give them access to better healthcare and a reprieve from the radiation.