When it comes to ringing in the new year, Alabama may not have a giant ball drop or thousands of people crowding into Times Square, but we certainly know how to celebrate. With parties and events happening across the state, from the Magic City to the Rocket City, the shores of the Gulf and beyond, […]

Over the last few years, there has been a skyrocketing increase in drug overdose deaths in America. Prior to COVID, there was a major push to combat this issue across the country. Sadly, many people have forgotten that this is a problem that affects every family in America, in some way, shape or form. Adam […]

Ed Farm, a Birmingham-based education tech nonprofit, this week launched Ed Farm Learn, a new digital tool that supports professional development growth for educators and heightens the learning experiences they provide to students. Learn was designed to enhance Ed Farm’s Teacher Fellows program by giving educators the ability to showcase high-quality lesson designs with their peers, display […]

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 […]

Ask Southern food lovers to name an Alabama-made smoked sausage, and most will mention the Conecuh brand. It’s sold in most major groceries in Alabama and is regularly name-checked by chefs and home cooks alike on menus and in published recipes. Conecuh Sausage even has a Facebook fan club. But a few other meat houses in […]

Doug Taylor saw the pain in his brother’s eyes when he had no gifts to give family members at Christmas. In July 2018, Taylor’s brother, Buford, returned home after 24 years of incarceration. At Christmas, he was still struggling to get back on his feet. “He had no funds to buy gifts for anybody and […]

It’s been some time coming, but Cassandra Jones is in her home for Christmas. This week Jones cut the ribbon on her new Habitat for Humanity home in Tuscaloosa, built with support from the Alabama Power Foundation and the Holle Family Foundation. The brick home with its bright red door is in Tuscaloosa’s West End. Jones, a child […]

Lake Guntersville State Park will host its popular Eagle Awareness Weekends starting in January 2022 and going through February 2022. The events will feature live bird demonstrations, programs delivered by notable speakers, and guided field trips to view eagles in their natural habitat. The Eagle Awareness Weekends began in 1985 to coincide with a bald […]

Federal and state agencies continue to restore the Gulf of Mexico after the largest oil spill in U.S. history 11 years ago. More than $2.4 billion in settlement funds were committed to habitat and resource restoration through 2020 and settlement payments will continue through 2031. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Deepwater Horizon federal and […]

Melanie Bridgeforth said her leadership journey has led her to the chance of a lifetime. As a newly selected Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, she is joining hands with other change-makers across the nation who are focused on taking action to improve the lives of families and communities in the United States. Bridgeforth, president and CEO of […]

Vicki Ford Jackson was recently named Shelby County Schools High School Teacher of the Year, adding that to her honor this year as Oak Mountain High School’s Teacher of the Year and her 2016-17 Oak Mountain Middle School Teacher of the Year award. But the current algebra and geometry teacher almost had her career ended before it ever began. An […]

Alabama’s state seal is the only one among 50 that touts its waterways on a map of the state. A handful of other states feature bodies of water in their artwork, but no other state showcases its river systems in its seal. “If you look at our state seal, what’s the first thing that stands […]

Thanks to members of the Magic City Chapter of the Alabama Power Service Organization (APSO), many patients at Birmingham VA Medical Center will have happier holidays. On Dec. 13, Magic City APSO President Shenita Baker arrived early at the downtown Birmingham medical facility to deliver new and gently used clothing and handmade Christmas cards for patients. VA Hospital representatives Charmel Taylor and Barry Austin received […]

The Alabama Black Belt Adventures Association is urging hunters to donate to Hunters Helping the Hungry during the current deer season. A program coordinated by the Alabama Conservation and Natural Resources Foundation, the Hunters Helping the Hungry program began in 1999 and has donated about half a million pounds of venison to food banks across […]

Last week’s Shop with a Cop events at three Academy Sports + Outdoors locations in Alabama got off to a somewhat tentative start, but it wasn’t because of a lack of funds or availability of products. Each youth from three Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches was provided a $200 gift card to use at the Academy […]

Many people struggle with faith because they see the perversion of God’s word. They get let down by man, and they think God must be a myth. What does the historical evidence show? What do historians say? Can we prove the things of the Bible took place? Are we living in the end times? The […]

Individuals and entities across the Yellowhammer State have committed time and efforts to assist those impacted by the recent tornado outbreak that devastated communities throughout the South and Midwest last week. Birmingham-based Regions Bank on Wednesday announced an array of financial services that it is offering to assist individuals and businesses in the impacted areas. […]

Roasted ham is a holiday crowd-pleaser. Coated with a glaze of sticky dark-brown sugar and studded with whole cloves that perfume the pink meat, ham dresses up Christmas feasts or provides a delicious morsel for Yuletide parties. We’re not talking in this case about old-school country ham, the salt-cured cousin to Italian prosciutto and Spanish jamon […]

Officials with the Hangout Music Festival have unveiled the lineup for the 2022 event, which will hit the beaches of Gulf Shores the weekend of May 20-22. Pre-sale registration is now open for the popular festival, which is back after being canceled in 2020 and 2021. The musical feast, which had grown to become an unofficial kickoff […]

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 […]

In September 2020, Steve Young noticed a weird feeling in his stomach over the course of a few days. He wasn’t alarmed because he had been healthy all his life, never missing a day of work in 17 of his 20 years at the Honda plant in Lincoln. But the stomach pain worsened. Young attributed it to […]

Condé Nast Traveler has released its annual list of best places to travel in the upcoming year, and Birmingham tops the list of 22 destinations. Included in the food travel category, Birmingham sits alongside Serbia and Trøndelag County, Norway. Some of the other destinations on the list—broken into categories of Arts & Culture, History, Transportation, […]

Buying local has taken on a new urgency this holiday season, and Alabama’s artisans, manufacturers and other homegrown businesses offer plenty of options to help check off your shopping list. Whether your loved one is a fashionista, budding gardener, avid sportsman or someone with a serious sweet tooth, there’s something for everyone in the 2021 […]

Three winners of the “Design an Alexander Shunnarah Billboard” contest have been announced, beating out 275 creative designs that were submitted to Birmingham-based Alexander Shunnarah Trial Attorneys between Oct. 1 – 30 from all over the nation. First place winner was Madison Wilson, 16, from Auburn. She received a $1,000 VISA gift card and her […]