Weeks of dry, hot weather have plunged the Deep South further into a drought that’s affecting more than 11 million people and threatening crops across the region, a new assessment showed Thursday. The latest report from U.S. Drought Monitor showed arid conditions worsening across a five-state area from Louisiana to South Carolina.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has declared fishing disasters for seven states on three coasts. “Fishing is the cornerstone of countless coastal economies and has been a way of life for generations of Americans,” he said in a brief news release Wednesday. “This determination acknowledges the critical role fisheries play in our communities, and the […]

A new project is highlighting some of the places in Alabama that played a role in the civil rights movement. An online, oral history presentation called “Voices of Alabama” features photos of historic sites and interviews with some of the people who worked with the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has a three-pronged mission to promote energy, economic development and the environment. Now add to that rebuilding public trust.

The Alabama Democratic Party faces an October deadline to hold new leadership elections and update bylaws as some members push to get the state organization back into compliance with the national party. The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee on Friday approved proposed bylaws submitted by several members of the state party’s executive committee, […]

Nearly $700,000 in federal grant money will go to a nonprofit group that works with Hispanic immigrants in central Alabama. An announcement from the governor’s office says the Birmingham-based Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama is receiving the money to work with immigrants who become victims of crimes in Blount, Chilton, Jefferson and Shelby counties.

A federal judge says a liberal advocacy group has a First Amendment right to call a Christian ministry a hate group for its opposition to homosexuality. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson threw out a lawsuit filed by the Florida-based Coral Ridge Ministries Media Inc. against the Southern Poverty Law Center of Montgomery, Alabama.

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A wildfire has burned about 500 acres of land in rural eastern Alabama, and there’s a statewide threat of additional blazes. The Alabama Forestry Commission has spent two days fighting a large wildfire around Alpine in Talladega County.

A man faces capital murder charges in the death of an Alabama police officer. Police said Tuesday that 20-year-old Luther Bernard Watkins is charged with capital murder in connection with the death of 40-year-old Tuscaloosa police officer Dornell Cousette.

The chair of Alabama’s Board of Pardons and Paroles is resigning from her governor-appointed station effective Oct. 1 after less than a year in the role. News outlets report Lyn Head said she made the decision after fervent prayer.

The sheriff of an Alabama county dealing with several grim cases has organized a prayer vigil. AL.com reports Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon released a statement Friday about the upset in the “normally quiet and peaceful county.”

An Alabama chemical plant has been emitting sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid mist into the atmosphere, state and federal authorities say in court documents. A complaint recently filed in federal court accuses Nouryon Functional Chemicals of polluting the air from its sulfuric acid plant in the Axis community, north of Mobile.

Two Florida Supreme Court Justices have been tapped for seats on a federal appeals court. President Donald Trump announced the appointments Thursday of Justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The chair of Alabama’s Democratic Party accused the party’s national chairman on Tuesday of trying to beat “Alabama into submission” by portraying the state party as in shambles, just the latest twist in an ongoing dispute between state and national party officials. In a written statement, Alabama Democratic Party Chair Nancy Worley said there has […]

A federal judge on Monday allowed a coalition of 15 states and several major cities to oppose Alabama’s fight to count only citizens and legal residents in U.S. Census numbers used for apportioning congressional seats. U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor granted the coalition’s motions to intervene as defendants in the lawsuit filed by Alabama […]

The new director of Alabama’s Bureau of Pardons and Paroles said Monday that it will take weeks to resume parole hearings canceled last week. Director Charlie Graddick said in a news release that the agency must ensure compliance with a new law signed by Gov. Kay Ivey.

The Alabama Department of Public Health says it’s investigating five reports of potentially severe lung disease associated with electronic cigarettes or vaping. The department told news outlets that it’s evaluating the reports and will release information as it becomes available.

Officials are trying to encourage more tourism in the Alabama city of Tuskegee and surrounding Macon County. The east Alabama town of 8,500 is home to Tuskegee University and Moton Field, where the nation’s first black military pilots trained during World War II.

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An Alabama school district is ramping up security at future sporting events in response to a shooting at a high school football game. News outlets report spectators at Mobile County high school games will encounter new security protocols on Friday, including metal detectors and a requirement that any bags be made of clear plastic.

The new director of the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles has placed his predecessor and two others on leave, citing job performance. The Parole Board said Thursday that Director Charlie Graddick placed three members of the agency’s previous leadership on leave pending disciplinary hearings regarding job performance.

Jimmy Johnson, a founder of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and guitarist with the famed studio musicians “The Swampers,” has died. He was 76. His family announced in a Facebook post that he died Thursday.

Ten states and nearly two dozen members of Congress are joining the National Rifle Association in supporting gun-maker Remington Arms as it fights a Connecticut court ruling involving liability for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Officials in the 10 conservative states, 22 House Republicans and the NRA are among groups that filed briefs with […]