Tag Archives: Alabama

The Birmingham News reports: Two clinic owners in Alabama and the ACLU filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to prevent prosecutions of people who provide information or assistance to women who want to travel out of state to get abortions. Alabama law prohibits doctors and others from performing abortions. The two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Dr. Yashica Robinson and Robin Marty, …

Reuters reports: Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature on Friday passed a new congressional map that increased the number of Black voters in one of the state’s districts, but Democrats said the plan defied a U.S. Supreme Court ruling intended to protect minority voters’ rights. Civil rights groups have already vowed to challenge the new map in court, a month after the Supreme …

The Birmingham News reports: Alabama has executed James Barber for the 2001 beating death of a 75-year-old Madison County woman. The execution early Friday morning at Holman Correctional Facility near Atmore came after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Barber, 64, to stop the lethal injection execution because he claimed the previous two attempts on other inmates in …

The Birmingham News reports: A government relations employee with the Alabama Department of Education has been charged with sexual abuse of a child less than 12, according to court records. Cole Wagner, 32, of Montgomery, was arrested Wednesday on the charge. He was arrested by the Montgomery County sheriff’s department, according to the warrant. His bond was set at $60,000. …

The Washington Post reports: The Republican-led House in Alabama approved a new congressional map Wednesday that would increase the percentage of Black voters in its 2nd District — but not by enough, Democrats argued, to comply with a federal court order. The legislature is in special session this week following a Supreme Court opinion in June that found lawmakers previously …

The Birmingham Herald reports: Gov. Kay Ivey has called a special session of the Legislature to redraw Alabama’s congressional district map. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 8 that the current map, with one majority Black district out of seven, likely violates the Voting Rights Act. A three-judge federal court has given the state until July 21 to draw …

The Guardian reports: Alabama discriminated against Black voters when it drew its seven congressional districts last year, the Supreme Court has ruled, a decision that is a major victory for the Voting Rights Act. The decision in the case, Allen v Milligan, means that Alabama will have to draw its congressional map to include a second majority-Black district. Black voters …

The Birmingham News reports: Multiple motorists traveling on Interstate 65 on Monday near Clanton reported Alabama Department of Transportation signs displaying messages for a group identified as a white supremacist organization. Images on social media showed large digital traffic signs displaying the words “Patriot Front” and “reclaim America.” The SPLC identifies Patriot Front, based in Texas, as a “white nationalist …

The Birmingham News reports: Ted Nugent’s concert in Birmingham has been canceled amid a wave of controversy on social media. Nugent, 74, a hard rock veteran and political provocateur, was set to play on July 18 at Avondale Brewing Co. His appearance here, which was announced on Monday by promoter Red Mountain Entertainment, inspired intense reactions this week among concertgoers, …

The Associated Press reports: Alabama has joined states trying to limit drag shows after legislation was filed Thursday that would prohibit the performances in public places where children are present. The bill by Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney would add a provision to the state’s anti-obscenity laws to prohibit “male or female impersonators, commonly known as drag queens or drag kings” …

The Alabama Political Reporter reports: Dr. Barbara Cooper, secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education, has resigned under pressure from Gov. Kay Ivey [photo] for the inclusion of a “woke” pre-K educator resource book in the state’s curriculum. Ivey’s office said it was brought to Ivey’s attention last week that the book included content “that is simply not …

The Montgomery Advertiser reports: Former state Rep. William “Will” N. Dismukes III has been convicted of one count of theft of property and could face “significant” prison time, Montgomery District Attorney Daryl Bailey said. Dismukes, a Republican, represented Prattville and portions of Autauga and Elmore counties in the Statehouse for one term but lost his bid for re-election last year. …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing out religious pamphlets and preaching from a sidewalk adjacent to its campus. The justices turned away an appeal by preacher Rodney Keister of a lower court’s ruling rejecting his claim that the …

Mobile’s NBC affiliate reports: According to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, a local teacher has been arrested and charged for engaging in a sexual relationship with a student. Jonathan Sauers, a teacher and soccer coach at Faith Academy, has been charged with “School employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19 years.” According to …

Axios reports: The murder rates in Trump-voting states from 2020 have exceeded those in Biden-voting states every year since 2000, according to a new analysis by ThirdWay. Republicans have built their party on being the crime-fighting candidates, even as murder rates in red states have outpaced blue states by an average of 23% over the past two decades. Four reliably-red …

The Birmingham News reports: A Pelham middle school teacher and wrestling coach who also doubled as the youth director of a McCalla church was arrested and jailed Wednesday on child porn charges. Adam Jeremy Lewis, an eighth grade teacher at Pelham Park Middle School and an assistant coach for the school’s wrestling team, was charged with possessing child pornography. He …

Axios reports: Alabama and Mississippi celebrate MLK and Robert E. Lee, the losing Confederate general and slaveholder, on the same day. Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all have at least one day commemorating the Confederacy on other days of the year, the Axios analysis found. Mississippi and Alabama each celebrate a total of three …

The Birmingham News reports: One week after the federal government made it easier to get abortion pills, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Tuesday that women in Alabama who use those pills to end pregnancies could be prosecuted. That’s despite wording in Alabama’s new Human Life Protection Act that criminalizes abortion providers and prevents its use against the people receiving …

The Associated Press reports: Alabama on Jan. 1 will become the latest state to allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a state permit that requires a background check. The new state law ends the requirement for a person to get a permit to legally carry a concealed handgun in public. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, …

The Daily Mail reports: A former children’s minister was arrested in Alabama on 215 counts of possession of child-pornography after police were given a tip. Steve Robert Wukmer, 66, was taken into custody on Monday at his job in Fort Payne, Alabama near the Alabama-Georgia border. Before moving to Alabama, Wukmer lived in Ohio and worked as a children’s minister. According …