Police in Alabama have identified man whose body was found in a pickup truck that plunged into a river after driving off a bridge. Authorities say 56-year-old Bobby Lee Benefield of the Ball Play community in Etowah County was identified after the truck was removed from the Coosa River at Gadsden on Monday.

“The American people understand that when it comes to the Department of Justice, when it comes to the FBI, that we have thousands of men and women who each and every day are dedicated to enforcing the laws and protecting our families and protecting our country,” Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News Monday evening. […]

What’s the balance between justice and mercy? Yellowhammer News last week asked Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall for his thoughts on justice and mercy in light of two current events: — Convicted murderer Judith Ann Neelley is scheduled for a parole hearing Wednesday. Neelley has served more than 30 years of a life sentence for […]

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is opposing parole for a woman convicted of killing a Georgia teenager more than 35 years ago. Ivey is urging the state’s parole board to reject an early release for Judith Ann Neelley. Members are scheduled to consider her case on Wednesday. Neelley was convicted with her husband of killing 13-year-old […]

Alabama’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, challenging the longstanding practice of including immigrants living in the country illegally in U.S. Census counts that are used to determine congressional districts. In the lawsuit filed Monday, Attorney General Steve Marshall argues that the predicted 2020 census numbers will cause Alabama to lose […]

A southeast Alabama school system says it can’t punish students who are seen chanting a racial epithet and cursing the NAACP in a video on social media. Phenix City Schools superintendent Randy Wilkes told a news conference Monday the video showing five young men is “terribly offensive.” But he says it doesn’t have any apparent […]

Alabama authorities are investigating a Facebook video posted by a prison inmate, showing two prisoners forcing a third at knifepoint to bend over for a spanking. AL.com reports the video posted Monday shows a 26-year-old St. Clair County Correctional Facility inmate holding a paddle and hitting an older inmate, while another inmate holds a large knife. […]

Authorities say a man’s body has been recovered from the truck that drove off a bridge and plunged into a river in Alabama. Gadsden Police Sgt. John Hallman told AL.com the adult white male’s body was found inside the burgundy truck pulled from the Coosa River on Monday, a day after it rammed through a […]

A coalition of more than 100 conservatives sent a letter to House Freedom Caucus (HFC) co-founder Jim Jordan Monday urging him to throw his name in to replace outgoing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. “There must be a real race for Speaker of the House. Now. No backroom deals. A real race, starting this […]

State Sen. Bill Hightower is stressing his background as a businessman as he runs for governor on a sweeping platform of government overhauls that includes term limits for legislators and replacing the state income tax code with a flat tax. The Mobile Republican says he believes long-serving politicians have become the “enemy of improvement” in […]

A New Jersey high school principal apologized Friday for a “Party Like It’s 1776” theme at prom. Dr. Dennis Perry, principal of Cherry Hill High School, posted on his Twitter feed an apology for the theme printed on prom tickets, calling the decision “insensitive and irresponsible,” reported Fox News. “I especially apologize to our African […]

A 5-year-old Alabama boy died after getting caught up in rough surf on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The News Herald reports Christian Doyle of Dothan, Alabama, was one of three swimmers pulled from the water off Panama City Beach on Saturday evening. Officials say single red surf warning signs were flying at the time, notifying beachgoers […]

President Donald Trump’s Hire American plan includes helping former inmates find gainful employment, he said Friday at the White House Prison Reform Summit. “When we talk about our national program to hire American, this must include helping millions of former inmates get back into the workforce as gainfully employed citizens,” the president said. “At the […]

Authorities say a 61-year-old old inmate has escaped from Alabama’s prison for elderly and sick prisoners. A statement from the Department of Corrections say Davis Curtis Wood was wearing only white boxer shorts when he fled the Hamilton Aged and Infirmed Center on Monday morning.

Storms that moved across the Deep South left damage scattered across three states. The Storm Prediction Center says high winds toppled trees and power lines in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia on Sunday. No serious injuries are being reported, but a storm ripped the roof off a business in the north Alabama town of Hazel Green […]

A search is resuming Monday for a truck that drove off a bridge and plunged into a river in Alabama. Gadsden Fire Chief Steve Carroll tells news outlets that witnesses reported the truck plowed through a guardrail on the Meighan Bridge on Sunday afternoon and went into the Coosa River.

Miguel Angel Jimenez finally got to light up a victory cigar after winning a senior major championship. Jimenez won the Regions Tradition on Sunday for his first PGA Tour Champions major title, closing with a 2-under 70 for a three-stroke victory. He celebrated with a big embrace from fellow Spaniard and two-time Masters winner Jose […]

A recent broadcast of National Public Radio’s “On the Media” took an in-depth look at Africatown, a community three miles north of downtown Mobile that was built by a group of West African slaves brought illegally to the United States on The Clotilda in 1860. The episode of “On the Media” hosted by Brooke Gladstone […]

Alabama Attorney General Republican nomination candidate Chess Bedsole recently responded to the 2018 Alabama Policy Institute and Yellowhammer News Attorney General Candidate Questionnaire. His responses are below. ACTING PHILOSOPHY Interpreting the Law Question: Attorneys general are in the business of interpreting and enforcing the law.  If elected, would you see your role as Attorney General […]

Yellowing court records from the arrests of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and others at the dawn of the modern civil rights era are being preserved and digitized after being discovered, folded and wrapped in rubber bands, in a courthouse box. Archivists at historically black Alabama State University are cataloguing and flattening dozens of […]

Although Iraq is a constitutional parliamentary republic today, thanks largely to the U.S. forces that overthrew Saddam Hussein and implemented the new government, the country is still dealing with civil strife and terrorism and, as the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on Iraq documents, the situation for women in Iraq is dismal. For instance, […]

A GOP candidate running for Congress in California confronted a biological male who identifies as a female when he tried to use the restroom at a Los Angeles restaurant, and things got spicy. Jazmina Saavedra entered the women’s restroom at a Denny’s restaurant and found a man using the bathroom, first reported by news outlets […]

 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Donald Trump’s policies have had a profound effect on the conservative movement and expects his influence to continue to grow. “I think the Trump effect has been remarkable,” Gingrich said Thursday on Fox Business’ “Varney & Co.” “The combination of conservative judges, deregulation, tax cuts, innovation, the right policies favoring […]

Democrat candidate for attorney general Chris Christie recently responded to the questionnaire prepared by the Alabama Policy Institute and Yellowhammer News. His answers are below. ACTING PHILOSOPHY Interpreting the Law Attorneys general are in the business of interpreting and enforcing the law.  If elected, would you see your role as Attorney General (AG) as that […]