Joseph Brown remembers taking the call from Nick Saban. It was early in 2025, and the legendary Alabama football coach, now “retired” to life as a TV commentator, wanted to talk about Scott Cochran. The area manager of Alabama Power’s Western Division, Brown is also the current chair of the board of trustees at the University of West Alabama (UWA). […]

Five innovative startups are joining the spring 2025 class of founders selected to take part in the Bronze Valley Investment Accelerator (BVIA). Each company will receive a $100,000 investment as part of an intensive 12-week program designed to help them accelerate growth, access capital, and build relationships in Birmingham’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. Each of the founders […]

In its first four years, Birmingham’s Sloss Tech conference earned growing attention in technology, innovation and entrepreneurial circles in the Southeast and across the nation. Beginning in 2016, all four annual conferences sold out, with a collective attendance of about 3,000 people coming to Birmingham from 47 states to compare notes and hear from renowned […]

Taking full advantage of Alabama’s natural resources and recreational assets was high on the priority list as leaders with Innovate Alabama met, fittingly, this week at Oak Mountain State Park in Pelham. With the broad goal of helping nurture Alabama’s innovation economy, the Innovate Alabama board approved 13 recommendations for enhancing outdoor recreation resources throughout the state. The recommendations […]

The mission of Innovate Alabama is to build a more resilient, inclusive, and robust economy through retention, attraction, and development of talent and resources in entrepreneurship, technology and innovation. On Feb. 28, the Innovate Alabama board of directors met at Troy University to hear a report on the organization’s activities and approve plans for 2023 and beyond. “Today was very productive,” […]

Powell School has occupied the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and 24th Street North in downtown Birmingham since 1887. Unused and decaying steadily for more than 20 years, the distinctive red-brick Victorian structure faces a tightening timetable for hopes of saving it from demolition. Those hopes are being boosted by a trio of local real estate […]

The tornado that struck Selma on Jan. 13 devastated parts of the historic central Alabama town. But even amid the ongoing recovery from the storm, Alabama Power is nearing completion of a major upgrade of Selma’s power distribution infrastructure. The project is part of Alabama Power’s continued expansion of fiber to cities, towns and rural areas throughout […]

In May 1962, the executive committee of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) met in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Established in 1957 with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as its president, the SCLC was the lead organization for carrying out the campaign of direct, nonviolent action aimed at ending racial segregation in the South. Among those in attendance […]

Cooperation, collaboration and coordination were the key takeaways from the recent meeting of the Alabama Workforce Council (AWC) public-private partnership committee. Held Nov. 18 at Birmingham’s Red Mountain Theatre, the meeting was the first in-person gathering since 2019 for the committee, which focuses on building the highly skilled workforce Alabama needs to meet current and future challenges and […]

City of Birmingham leaders joined officials and employees of the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) for a ribbon-cutting launching Birmingham Xpress, Alabama’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) system. The ceremony, held at the CrossPlex Transit Center in the Five Points West neighborhood, attracted about 150 people, including representatives of the federal and community partners in the $64 million project. “We need […]

Birmingham and Alabama were focal points of America’s civil rights movement. Commemorating the roles the city and state played is the focus of the latest in a series of new additions serving travelers at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM). Officially opened with a ceremony on Aug. 24, the Civil Rights Trail Market features items celebrating the […]

Sloss Furnaces has been one of Birmingham’s most visible landmarks for generations. Situated along First Avenue North, immediately east of downtown, the towering furnaces and stacks produced pig iron from 1882 until 1971. The Sloss complex was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1981, beginning its evolution as a tourist attraction and interpretive industrial museum. […]

Birmingham-based Bronze Valley recently added two new companies to its investment portfolio of startups. The addition of Stimulus and Pruuvn brings to 17 the number of investments by Bronze Valley since its launch in 2017. “Both of these companies are geared to the present and future of business in a changing landscape,” said Neill S. Wright, president and CEO of Bronze […]

TechBirmingham will host its seventh annual CyberNow Summit on May 11-13. After two years as a virtual event due to the pandemic, the cybersecurity conference will take place both in person at the Red Mountain Theater Arts Campus and, for those who prefer to attend virtually, at cybernowsummit.com. Deon Gordon “While the virtual conferences of the last two years […]

Seventy-five years after breaking the “color barrier” as major league baseball’s first black player, Jackie Robinson remains at least passingly familiar to most Americans. In a career that lasted from 1947 through 1956 – all with the Brooklyn Dodgers – Robinson was unquestionably great. He appeared in six All-Star games, won the National League’s Rookie […]

The fifth class of the Bronze Valley Accelerator is underway with the recent announcement of the five startups selected to take part in the spring 2022 program. The companies were recruited from across the United States and represent a wide variety of industries and verticals. The Bronze Valley Accelerator was launched in 2020 as a partnership of Bronze […]

Birmingham’s Southern Research is building an $84 million facility that will enhance its research capabilities, create nearly 550 jobs and double the organization’s economic impact to $300 million per year. The new building will be at the center of efforts to improve public health outcomes across Alabama, said Dr. Josh Carpenter, president and CEO of Southern Research. […]

Six days before Christmas Day of 1870, a group of wealthy and well-connected men met in the Montgomery offices of Josiah Morris & Co., a private banking firm. In addition to Morris, the group consisted of nine others who had agreed to put up a total of $200,000 – about $4.2 million in current dollars […]

In the summer of 1882, a man on horseback rode into Jones Valley, bound for the new city of Birmingham, which had been founded just more than a decade before. He entered the valley from the northeast, through Red Gap, a natural break in the Red Mountain Formation that contained the vast stores of iron […]

Routine monitoring and inspections to protect the integrity of Alabama Power‘s 85,000 miles of power delivery infrastructure; enhanced security at the generating plants and other critical sites, and for facilities and equipment in Alabama Power’s 45,000 square-mile service area; increased effectiveness and efficiency in responding to, and recovering from, severe weather and other emergencies. These and […]

Montgomery has long embraced its place in American history, including its pivotal role as the cradle of the civil rights movement: home to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other icons of the nation’s ongoing pursuit of diversity, equality and inclusion. History is an important component of Montgomery’s efforts to encourage innovation, […]

On Aug. 30, the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce will open the doors of The Lab on Dexter, a leading-edge entrepreneurial learning and innovation facility. Located on Montgomery’s historic Dexter Avenue, The Lab will provide a collaborative learning environment for entrepreneurs, with the goal of creating a sustainable social and tech innovation ecosystem.   “Montgomery continues to cultivate […]

“This was a massive system,” James Lowery declared. “It provided an efficient, accessible, reliable means of linking the mines and quarries around Birmingham to the furnaces and the furnaces to the factories.” Lowery was speaking of the Birmingham Mineral Railroad (BMRR), by far the largest of the internal network of rail lines that transported the […]

How does an organization celebrate a century of community service? If that organization is the Junior League of Birmingham (JLB), it’s done by kicking off that 100th year with the culmination of the Community of Lights Centennial Campaign. When the five-year campaign concludes on May 6, it will have raised more than $1.25 million for the One Place Metro […]