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Bentley Refuses Syrian Refugees, Uber Vote in Birmingham

Governor Bentley
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley

Governor Robert Bentley has announced he won’t allow any Syrian refugees to relocate to Alabama.

Bentley released a statement Sunday saying, "After full consideration of this weekend's attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way."

The release also says the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is working with the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and federal intelligence partners to monitor any possible threats. To date, there hasn’t been any credible intelligence of terror threats in Alabama.

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris killed 129 people and wounded hundreds more.

Birmingham is coming closer to allowing car for hire companies like Uber and Lyft to operate in the city.

These businesses haven’t been allowed up to now because of issues like insurance and background checks. The City of Tuscaloosa has had similar concerns in the past.

Johnathan Austin is the president of Birmingham's City Council. He says the issue to this point is all about ensuring the safety for people in Birmingham.

“Our ultimate goal is for those individuals to be safely transported, and we know there is a history of problems with TNCs, in other cities, and so we want to work with those TNCs in our city to do our very best to ensure their safety and for the liability not come back on the city of Birmingham.”

Austin believes those issues can be overcome with dialogue between the TNCs, or transport network companies, and the city of Birmingham. The Birmingham City Council will vote on the issue at their meeting tomorrow.

#2 Alabama might have defeated #17 Mississippi State 31 to 6, but it came at a price. APR’s MacKenzie Bates has more on the Crimson Tide’s victory…

Alabama will be without senior running back Kenyan Drake after he broke his arm on a special teams play in Saturday’s win over the Bulldogs.

Drake had surgery on the arm Sunday. Coach Nick Saban says in certain positions, like on a kickoff, you need fast guys and Drake fit that bill. But he will miss about three weeks.

“We had the same guy who had the same injury that he did, Alex Watkins, a few years ago, and he played in a week. It’s going to be something that they have to repair. Playing defensive end is a little different than running the ball. So I think we’ll just have to see how it goes. Hopefully in a couple or three weeks, we’ll know a lot more.”

Junior Derrick Henry continues to make his case for the Heisman trophy with 204 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 22 carries against Mississippi State. Up next is Charleston Southern for Senior Day at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network.

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