The College of Cardinals in Rome elected American Robert Prevost as Pope Leo the fourteenth back in May. It was one of the Associated Press’ biggest stories of 2025. The Pope’s selection was welcomed by the catholic community in Mobile. The website Encyclopedia of Alabama says it was Pope Leo the twelfth who helped spread Catholicism in the state in 1825.
Alabama lawmakers banned a device called a Glock Switch which can turn a semi-automatic weapon into a machine gun. The legislation was prompted by a shooting in Birmingham last year that killed four people and wounded seventeen more. The state house and senate also lowered its sales tax on groceries by one percent. Alabama is still among eleven U.S. States that tax food. The Alabama sales tax on infant supplies and feminine hygiene products was eliminated. The state also imposed restrictions on cell phones in public schools.
The world lost influential people in 2025, and some of their deaths had significant impacts. The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September sparked discussions about political violence. The assassination came during “APR Notebook” with Jimmy Wales, of Huntsville who created Wikipedia.
“I think it's just really important that we have civility, that we say, Okay, right? I disagree with you, but let's have a dialog. Let's have a discussion,” said Wales. “Let's try and understand each other a little bit better. Because, you know, the alternative where we get to and we are seeing this is to violence, you know, I mean people, I mean, it's this enormous tragedy of Charlie Kirk being assassinated. And you know, what did Charlie Kirk do? He made a lot of arguments. He said things people disagreed with. But you know, if we can't have that kind of dialog and discourse where you have a debate with someone, and you put your best ideas forward, you know, well, we're really sunk, like we're going to end up in a really bad place.”
Virginia Giuffre's suicide in April brought renewed attention to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and other notable politicians also died. The entertainment industry mourned the loss of Gene Hackman, David Lynch, Roberta Flack, Hulk Hogan and other stars.
The vote in Congress to cut federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, had advocacy groups in Alabama looking at the possible economic impact. The group Feeding Alabama says reductions to the food assistance program known as SNAP could force hundreds of rural grocery stores in the state to close. These businesses reportedly get up to forty percent of their revenue from SNAP. Nicole Williams is the C-E-O of the Community Food Bank of Central Florida. She told APR back in July how SNAP food benefits aren’t limited to just young mothers and children.
“Unfortunately, in Alabama, we rank in the top 10 for food insecurity amongst seniors, and so the eligibility for a senior that age got raised. So we're definitely going to be seeing additional people in the line for food here in Alabama,” she said.
The nonprofit Alabama Arise says around eight hundred thousand state residents could lose SNAP benefits under the current budget plan. Williams said another casualty of the budget cuts could be rural grocery stores which depend on dollars from SNAP to stay open.
“We know for a fact that there will be several grocery stores in rural communities that close because they can't keep their doors open when they're not receiving, you know, 40% of their income comes from these SNAP benefits.
Another major story in 2025 was the decision by state lawmakers to lower the sales tax on groceries. That vote happened back in May of this and the one percent tax cut on food took effect on September first. APR news spoke with Robin Hyden about the decision. She’s executive director of the policy group Alabama Arise. She told APR extra money in the education budget made it possible.
“But for now, the money is there, and we say we'd much rather give a tax break to working families,” said Hyden. “People who really shouldn't be shouldering the burden of funding public goods and services, because these taxes disproportionately burden low income and working families.”
The federal budget shutdown was a big story in 2025. Eight Alabama food banks and SNAP recipients in Alabama received five million dollars in emergency funding from the state while the funding impasse dragged on. Governor Kay Ivey released two million just for relief groups. One source of fresh produce for these food banks is community gardens around the state. Leah Connell is President of Jeremiah’s Community Garden in Tuscaloosa. She spoke with APR news back in November.
"Our impact through food is often not seen by us, but sometimes, when I delivered to a table of grace, there's usually a line outside of the food pantry waiting to get in, and sometimes you can see people get excited when we bring in fresh greens and stuff like that. So that's really nice. It's a good feeling,” she said.
Also in 2025, there was also a Huntsville connection to the return of NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore back in March. The two launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner space capsule which was carried to orbit by an Alabama built Atlas five rocket. Problems with the spacecraft left the astronauts aboard the International Space Station for nine months.
