News

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama said Friday he will not support any U.S. Supreme Court nominee before the outcome of the presidential election. 

Jones said the nomination to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should be made by the winner of the November presidential election.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court says judges in two rural counties were wrong to dismiss lawsuits filed by the state seeking to have three casinos declared public nuisances. 

The decision means the state can resume cases challenging operations at VictoryLand in Macon County and White Hall Entertainment and Southern Star Entertainment in Lowndes County.

HAMILTON, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama inmate could be eligible for release in the future after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in a fatal robbery case. 

Christopher Dewayne Revis pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and was resentenced to life with the possibility of parole in the February 2004 death of Jerry Stidham. Revis had been on death row since 2006.

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has pushed back against a report that said she was considering leaving the task force. 

The Alabama State Fair is tightening security measures after a fight broke out over the weekend. Birmingham Police confirmed that one person was taken into custody regarding the incident and one security guard suffered a minor injury on Saturday. Local law enforcement also verified that a deadly Sunday shooting in the Elyton Village Neighborhood of Birmingham was related to the earlier altercation at the fairgrounds. One person died in the Sunday shooting. 

GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's largest beach towns are delaying the reopening of their beaches because the cleanup from Hurricane Sally is taking longer than expected. 

Officials in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach say the beaches won't reopen until Oct. 2 rather than this Saturday as originally planned.

DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — The capital murder trial of a trucker charged with killing two Alabama teens in 1999 has been delayed until next year. 

A judge pushed back the trial of Coley McCraney until 2021 but didn't immediately set a new date. McCraney was set to go on trial Nov. 16 in the slayings of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, who were both 17 and from Dothan when they disappeared. But the defense requested a postponement citing the pandemic.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama company has a contract worth nearly $40 million for mine-resistant, laser-equipped vehicles to disarm unexploded bombs and mines at a distance on airfields. The vehicles also have extendable arms to move debris. 

The Pentagon’s list of contracts signed Wednesday includes one for Parsons Government Services Inc. of Huntsville to build 13 fully operational vehicles and three systems of spares by September 2023.

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn University is asking fans to avoid rolling its replanted oak trees with toilet paper as football games begin on campus. 

A statement from the school says two oaks that were planted in 2017 and 10 descendant trees all had a good growing season this year. But a specialist says the trees still need special care, and a ban on rolling will allow time for them to become acclimated to their environment.

OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) — Prosecutors say former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard doesn’t deserve any reduction of his four-year prison sentence for ethics violations.

The state attorney general's office argues in court documents that Hubbard hasn’t shown remorse and was convicted of serious crimes that undermined public trust. They asked a judge to reject Hubbard's request to lessen his four-year prison sentence.

Records show Hubbard is currently in the Lee County Jail in Opelika.

GUIN, Ala. (AP) — City officials in Alabama have dropped a lawsuit filed against chemical giant 3M that alleged chemicals from the company’s facility had made its way into a creek supplying drinking water to the city. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A panel will consider what to do with Alabama's existing prisons as the state moves forward with plans for three new, privately built lockups. 

Gov. Kay Ivey's office announced Tuesday she's forming a 15-member commission to evaluate the state's prisons. It will make recommendations about whether to renovate them or even use the buildings for something else.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A feared increase in Alabama's coronavirus caseload after Labor Day get-togethers has yet to materialize two weeks after the holiday. 

That's got health officials cautiously optimistic about the state's progress in the pandemic.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A woman accused of fatally poisoning her husband with insulin stolen from the Alabama hospital where she worked as a nurse is being sued by his estate for wrongful death.

News outlets report that the estate of James Cappello filed suit Monday against Marjorie Nicole Cappello and the hospital.

Investigators said she gave her husband a fatal dose of insulin in September 2018. The lawsuit alleges she stole the insulin from the hospital, which it accuses of negligence.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The only white minister to support the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott has died. The Rev. Robert Graetz was 92.

A family spokesman says Graetz died Sunday of complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Montgomery surrounded by his wife, family and friends.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Auburn man was sentenced to 57 months for making false statements to the FBI during a terrorism investigation. 

Federal prosecutors said Nayef Amjad Qashou, 26, was given the sentence last week. Prosecutors said the FBI interviewed Qashou in 2018 after they received tips concerning behavior that indicated he might have an interest in joining ISIS. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has declared a major disaster in three Alabama counties battered by Hurricane Sally. 

Storm surge and torrential rains swamped Mobile, Baldwin and Escambia Counties when slow-moving Sally made landfall Wednesday on Alabama's Gulf Coast. Two deaths in Alabama were linked to the storm — one drowning and another that occurred during the cleanup.

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to force the city of Decatur to follow the results of a 2010 referendum and adopt a city manager form of government.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon means that, for now at least, the north Alabama city can keep a full-time mayor. However, the plaintiff is considering an appeal and citizens are free to petition for another referendum.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Leaders in Alabama are confronting the legacy of what might be the grandest Confederate memorial of all: the state's Department of Archives and History.

Founded in 1901, the agency became a vast repository of Confederate records and artifacts. 

During the current national reckoning over race, its current leaders acknowledged the department once played a role in systemic racism by promoting “lost cause” narrative of Civil War history that was favored by some whites and all but excluding Blacks.

LOXLEY, Ala. (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people are still without power along the Alabama coast and the Florida Panhandle in the aftermath of Hurricane Sally.

The power outages continued Friday as officials assessed millions of dollars in damage that included a broken bridge in Pensacola and ships thrown onto dry land. Two people were reported killed in Alabama.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (AP) — Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into an Oscar winning 1994 movie that became an enduring cultural phenomenon, has died. 

His death was confirmed Thursday night by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the mayor of Fairhope, Alabama, where Groom lived.

Hurricane Sally came ashore at Gulf Shores at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Ivan made landfall in the same city. Sally’s 105 mile an hour winds weren’t quite as powerful as Ivan, but the 2020 storm’s slow speed caused major damage and flooding as it took hours to move across the area. On Wednesday, no home or business in Gulf Shores had power. Grant Brown is Gulf Shores city spokesman. He said the main highway to the beach is impassible within a mile of the Gulf and only residents are being allowed bring allowed back in town.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A company that specializes in aluminum roll covers for pickup trucks is building its first U.S. plant in Alabama. 

Al.com reports Mountain Top Industries, based in Denmark, said it plans to bring a $13.3 million, 73,000 square-foot manufacturing facility to Montgomery and create about 90 jobs.

The company said it will start production at the end of 2020 or in early 2021 and will supply North American markets.

"Hurricane Sally wasn't supposed to be this bad."

Meteorologists said the winds and eyewall for slow-moving Sally had weakened. The forecast was plenty of rain and tropical storm wind. Most residents of the Gulf Coast saw no reason to evacuate and Sally even provided a spectacular sunset on Monday night. But by Tuesday afternoon, the forecast changed. Sally strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane, eventually shutting down power for an estimated 95 percent of Baldwin County residents. Sally howled and whipped all night before daylight revealed her damage.

Alabama Gulf Coast residents were accessing the damage Wednesday morning after Hurricane Sally slammed into the area. The slow-moving Category 2 storm caused severe flooding in some areas and subjected many areas to hurricane force winds for hours. On Dauphin Island in Mobile County, Mayor Jeff Collier says  the beachfront community was hit hard.

“We’ve got a mess. Trees down all over the place, power lines," said the Mayor.