Louisiana

Tropical Storm Bertha made landfall in Louisiana and was southwest of New Orleans while moving west toward Texas early Thursday morning, after closing beaches on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Mississippi.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami reported the development of a tropical depression. The system appeared just west of Florida’s Tampa Bay. The current forecast has the depression becoming a Tropical Storm by Monday and moving west across the Gulf of Mexico. The system may brush by Mobile Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday before making landfall on Texas by the end of the week. Even as a rainmaker, the system could complicate things for Uvalde, Texas where heavy rains have already prompted flooding near Camp Mystic where an Alabama girl drowned in 2025.

At night, silence fell over the Louisiana immigration detention facility where 85-year-old Marie-Thérèse Ross was held. Then the wailing began. Her story began in Alabama.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to gut a key tool of the Voting Rights Act that has helped root out racial discrimination in voting for more than a half century, a change that would boost Republican electoral prospects, particularly across the South. Just two years ago, A earlier ruling created Alabama's new minority majority U.S. House seat in District 2, now occupied by Democrat Shomari Figures.

The Supreme Court on Friday put off ruling on a second Black majority congressional district in Louisiana, instead ordering new arguments in the fall. The case is being closely watched because at arguments in March several of the court's conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.

A federal judge has halted Louisiana's first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was scheduled to take place next week. Alabama has carried out four death sentences using this method, called unconstitutional by critics.

One credit union based in Mississippi, and one based in Louisiana, have announced plans for a merger. Jefferson Financial Federal Credit Union would be merged into Keesler Federal Credit Union. The organization would have assets of just under $5 billion, with more than 900 employees in 55 locations, including in Alabama.

Francine is weakening after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane as it heads far inland from the Gulf Coast. Power outages and damages are being reported across Central Alabama, including in Jefferson County, Tuscaloosa County and Hale County.

Francine has weakened to a tropical storm after slamming into Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane. The system is causing widespread power outages and sending a dangerous storm surge rushing into coastal communities, including in Alabama.