Birmingham water board

A federal judge in Birmingham is being asked to block recent actions taken by the newly-created Central Alabama Water authority .A lawsuit filed by former board members William Muhammad and Brenda Lewis, seeks a temporary restraining order against CAW and CEO Jeffrey Thompson, after 135 employees were laid off last week.

Birmingham officials are fighting to keep control of the state's largest water board, alleging in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that a new bill shifting power to Alabama's Republican leadership and majority-white suburbs "constitutes blatant racial discrimination."

A former chairwoman of Birmingham's water board won't have to go to prison for her public corruption conviction. A judge sentenced Sherry Lewis on…