The United States Senate in a 78-22 vote on Tuesday confirmed Antony Blinken to serve as secretary of the Department of State. Blinken was nominated for the post by President Joe Biden. U.S. Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) voted “nay” on the confirmation.

Jessica Taylor on Tuesday officially launched “NextGen Conservatives PAC” in an effort to elect the next generation of conservative leaders to important offices across the United States. Taylor, a native of the Yellowhammer State, ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Alabama’s Second Congressional District this past cycle, narrowly missing out on making the […]

Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) on Tuesday interviewed with Talk 99.5’s “Matt & Val Show,” blasting congressional Democrats’ current effort to convict former President Donald Trump in a Senate impeachment trial as unconstitutional. The House of Representatives, on a largely party-line vote, voted to impeach Trump when he was still in office following the January 6 […]

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (AL-02) on Tuesday confirmed he has been appointed to the House Agriculture Committee and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Moore began serving his first term in Congress on January 3 upon the start of the 117th Congress. The Republican from Enterprise is himself a veteran, and agriculture in Alabama’s Second Congressional […]

From the Wiregrass to the White House, Cliff Sims has seen a lot over the past five years. The Enterprise native served as a key adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump’s ultimately successful 2016 campaign before being appointed as director of White House message strategy and special assistant to the president when Trump took office in January […]

U.S. Reps. Barry Moore (AL-02) and Mo Brooks (AL-05) have signed on as original cosponsors of the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2021, authored by Rep. Gregory Steube (R-FL). The bill would codify that for purposes of determining compliance with Title IX related to athletics, sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive […]

Janet Yellen on Monday evening was confirmed as the secretary of the Department of the Treasury in an 84-15 vote by the United States Senate. Yellen becomes the first female Treasury secretary in American history. U.S. Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) each voted “nay” on the confirmation. Shelby has vocally criticized Yellen in […]

ProgressPAC, the state political action committee of the Business Council of Alabama (BCA), on Monday announced the organization’s 2021 board of directors, including a new chairman and vice chairman. Per a release, Angus Cooper III has been elected to serve as chairman of the ProgressPAC board. He succeeds PowerSouth’s Gary Smith, who recently became chairman […]

HPM on Monday announced construction has been completed at the new Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater (SMPA) in Albertville. This transformative project is expected to spur a wave of economic development and entertainment opportunities in and around Marshall County. According to a release, the 135-acre sports, leisure, wellness and entertainment venue is projected to create […]

Congressman Jerry Carl (AL-01) on Monday announced that he has been nominated to serve on the powerful House Armed Services Committee (HASC). The freshman representative from Mobile will continue the streak of Alabama’s First Congressional district congressman being on Armed Services, as former Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-01) was also a member of the committee. Carl […]

The University of Alabama men’s basketball team has now vaulted into the Top 10 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls, which were released on Monday. The Crimson Tide checked in at No. 9 in the AP Poll and No. 8 in the Coaches Poll, marking the program’s highest ranking in 14 […]

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson on Monday announced that he will seek reelection to a third term. The popular mayor made the announcement in a video posted to social media. “Just over seven years ago, we began the process of fulfilling the bold vision of becoming ‘One Mobile’ — a safer, more business- and family-friendly city. […]

NASA and Boeing on Monday announced they are are targeting March 25 for the launch of Starliner’s second uncrewed flight test as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) is a critical developmental milestone on the company’s path to fly crew missions for NASA. This will be Boeing’s second try […]

Two leaders of the Gangster Disciples, a notorious national gang, were sentenced on Friday in federal court for a racketeering conspiracy involving murder. Shauntay Craig, aka “Shake,” of Birmingham, was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The 42-year-old Craig previously pleaded guilty in August 2019 to racketeering conspiracy involving murder and drug trafficking. He was […]

The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday awarded a major MH-60T contract to Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky facility in Troy, Alabama. The initial order stemming from the award is valued at more than $206 million and will procure 25 new hulls for the Coast Guard’s MH-60T helicopter, allowing the lifesaving aircrafts to be flown for a minimum […]

In a statement on Friday, Congressman Jerry Carl (AL-01) decried the sweeping executive orders by President Joe Biden since he became president at noon on Wednesday. Carl noted that he began Biden’s presidency by extending an olive branch and offering to work bipartisanly with the new administration on key issues through the congressional process. However, […]

Count Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth (R-AL) as an opponent of an executive order newly signed by President Joe Biden that would allow biological males, in some cases, to compete with biological females in public school athletics. The order begins, “Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without […]

Native Alabamian Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron, widely regarded as one of history’s best ever baseball players, passed away on Friday at the age of 86. Born and raised in Mobile, Aaron spent most of his childhood in Toulminville. Growing up in a poor family in the segregated South, his family could not afford baseball equipment, so […]

U.S. Army General Lloyd J. Austin (Ret.) on Friday was confirmed in a bipartisan 93-2 vote by the United States Senate as the next secretary of the Department of Defense. Austin, who is a native of Mobile and currently serves on the Auburn University board of trustees, becomes the first black defense secretary in American history. […]

The Alabama Department of Labor on Friday announced that the state’s preliminary, seasonally adjusted December unemployment rate was 3.9%, the lowest mark since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The latest figure came in the final full month of President Donald J. Trump’s administration and was down from November’s rate of 4.4%. December’s rate represented 87,534 unemployed Alabamians, […]

University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban on Thursday evening announced the hire of Bill O’Brien as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. O’Brien arrives in Tuscaloosa after six-plus years as the head coach of the NFL’s Houston Texans, where he compiled a 52-48 record that included four AFC South titles, four […]

U.S. Army General Lloyd J. Austin (Ret.) on Thursday was granted a waiver through votes by both chambers of Congress, allowing him to be confirmed as the next secretary of the Department of Defense. The waiver for Austin, who retired from active duty in 2016, was required because federal law mandates that the Secretary of […]

Manufacture Alabama, the trade association dedicated exclusively to the needs of Yellowhammer State manufacturers, on Thursday unveiled Diversify — an initiative to foster diversity and inclusion. According to a release from the association, Diversify is committed to addressing multiple dimensions of human diversity, especially those that are linked to conditions resulting from prejudice and discrimination. The […]

The Business Council of Alabama (BCA) on Wednesday announced the promotion of three employees: Helena Duncan has been named senior vice president of operations and investor relations; Susan Carothers will serve as the vice president of investor relations; and Drew Harrell has been promoted to vice president of governmental affairs. The moves follow the departure […]