Authorities say an Alabama woman forced her way into her estranged husband’s home, shot him and pistol-whipped a woman who was present. Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry says Lee Ann Matanane shot the 59-year-old man in the chest on Saturday. AL.com reports court records show the unidentified man has thrice been arrested on domestic-violence harassment and […]

After fatal shootings in Florida and Birmingham schools, the Alabama House of Representatives voted Tuesday to reinstate a school safety task force. Rep. Terri Collins, a Republican who chaired the original task force in 2016, introduced the initiative to create an annual force with law enforcement, educators, law enforcement and mental health professionals. Democratic lawmakers questioned whether […]

Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday approved an $85 million increase for the state’s prison system as they try to comply with a federal court order to improve mental health care for inmates. The House of Representatives approved $30 million for the Department of Corrections before September and a $55 million boost in next year’s general fund budget. Nearly […]

Alabama lawmakers will hold public hearings on proposals to allow some teachers to carry concealed handguns into their schools The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee will hold a Wednesday hearing on the bill by Republican Rep. Will Ainsworth. It would allow public school teachers and administrators, after undergoing police training, to carry a pistol on […]

The director of the state Ethics Commission said a bill before Alabama lawmakers could open up a potentially wide loophole in state ethics law by carving out an exemption for people doing economic development work. “I think it’s a bad bill that weakens the ethics law considerably,” Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton said.

The Alabama Department of Education is planning top personnel cuts. Al.com reports that state interim Superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson told board of education members that reducing the number of employees, known as exempt or at-will, is necessary. During a work session this week, he said “hard decisions” will need to be made.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records show that in past two years, the company that owns the bus the crashed in Alabama has been involved in four other crashes, with one of those also involving a fatality. No one was injured or killed in the other three crashes involving First Class Tours Inc. The agency’s […]

The latest on the crash of a tour bus that was returning to Texas from Disney World (all times local): 1:50 p.m. A bus carrying Texas students whose bandmates were involved in the wreck of another bus on Interstate 10 in Alabama has returned to a Houston-area high school. The bus pulled into Channelview High […]

A bus carrying Texas high school band members home from Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn Tuesday in Alabama, killing one person and injuring many others. First responders used ropes to rappel down the 50-foot ravine in the middle of Interstate 10 to reach them, and then had to cut some of the victims free […]

The aunt of a 17-year-old killed by a fellow student at an Alabama high school last week is calling for school safety reform and action against gun violence. “We’ve all failed our children. We’ve failed to keep them safe,” Shenise Abercrombie, the aunt of victim Courtlin Arrington, told The Associated Press on Monday. “There needs to […]

A charter bus carrying high school band members home to Texas from Disney World plunged into an Alabama ravine early Tuesday, and numerous children were being carried by helicopters to emergency rooms. Al.com reported that injuries range from minor to critical, and that at least one critically injured passenger was taken to the University of South […]

An operation sending train loads of partially treated sewage material to an Alabama landfill has been halted. AL.com reported Monday that six wastewater treatment plants from New York City and one from New Jersey had been sending their solid material left over from treatment processes to the Big Sky Environmental, LLC landfill in Adamsville for more than […]

An Alabama city says its effort to trap coyotes is humane amid criticism from an animal rights group. Vestavia Hills City Manager Jeff Downes tells AL.com the three-week pilot program captured 13 coyotes by Monday morning and the traps used are not lethal. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says initiatives like the city’s are lethal […]

Four Deep South states are getting nearly $6 million to preserve sites and highlight stories related to the African-American struggle for equality in the 20th century. The Interior Department says Alabama is getting $2.3 million for nine projects, Mississippi is getting $1.3 million for four projects, and Louisiana and Georgia will each get about $1 […]

A middle school band director in the Dothan City School system faces a charge related to the alleged solicitation of a sex act with a student. The Dothan Eagle reports Phillip Burns, of Dothan, was arrested Friday on one misdemeanor count of school employee soliciting a sex act with a student under the age of 19. Dothan […]

Lawyers on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the upcoming execution of an Alabama inmate who they say was mentally ill when he moved to fire his lawyers and drop his appeals. Michael Eggers is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 2000 choking death of Bennie Francis Murray, his boss at a traveling carnival concession business. […]

The artist who turned a house where Rosa Parks once lived into an art piece says he’s working to ensure the home is displayed in Rhode Island, even after Brown University pulled its support. Ryan Mendoza says he has a First Amendment right to show the house. Parks lived in the home for a time […]

Forecasters have issued a freeze warning for north Alabama. The National Weather Service says snow flurries fell in the Tennessee Valley early Monday ahead of a day with chilly temperatures and winds gusting to 40 mph.

A Mississippi company is recalling around 35 tons (31.75 metric tons) of catfish products that might have been tainted by a compound that poses a public health concern. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday that various fresh and frozen, raw, intact Siluriformes products were produced Feb. 16 at the Heartland Catfish […]

An Alabama attorney faces additional charges of human trafficking just weeks after being arrested on similar charges. Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry says Randy Allan Hames faces new charges of first- and second-degree human trafficking. The 75-year-old Hames was arrested Saturday and released on bail.

Police in a central Alabama city have charged two 12-year-olds with making terroristic threats toward schools. Prattville Police Chief Mark Thompson says a 12-year-old boy was arrested Sunday and placed in a juvenile detention center. Price says the child made threats on social media against Prattville High School and Prattville Intermediate School, which the boy […]

The state released preliminary, seasonally adjusted numbers Monday showing the jobless rate declined one-tenth of a percent in January from the December rate of 3.8 percent. The rate represents a record low, but it could be adjusted later. The January number is still well below the January 2017 unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, however. And […]

Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery is remembering a Medal of Honor recipient on the 50th anniversary of his death during the Vietnam War. A ceremony will be held today honoring Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger of Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Etchberger died during fighting in Laos on March 11, 1968. He is the only […]

A north Alabama man is going to prison for growing marijuana in his backyard. A judge this week sentenced 40-year-old Robert Michael Musick of Athens to three years in prison and two years of probation for drug trafficking. The Athens News Courier reports Musick was arrested in 2015 after police found marijuana plants in the […]