Alabama’s New Woman, All Women abortion clinic was ordered to close its doors Thursday after Birmingham Judge Joseph Boohaker ruled the facility was operating illegally. A 22-page court ruling handed down by the court stated that, according to Alabama law, the clinic has been operating as a hospital, performing operations without a valid license from […]

An aide to Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan calls Sen. Marco Rubio’s decision to attempt to defund Obamacare as “inauthentic” and “panicked” in a Huffington Post piece. Jon Ward’s story looks at the less bombastic approach Ryan has taken this year,  in sharp contrast with other 2016 contenders like Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and even Rubio, each […]

Hey Birmingham, think 280 is bad? Montgomery folks, are you tired of sitting on 65? Mobilians, are you sick of I-10? Take a look at what Beijing commuters are dealing with every day and get back to me. Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

(Above: Nate Silver discusses his FiveThirtyEight blog with Bill Simmons on The BS Report) Appearing yesterday on Bill Simmons’ weekly podcast, The BS Report, stats guru and famed election forecaster Nate Silver predicted that the 2014 election cycle will be a snoozer, but 2016 might be one for the ages. The statistical model Silver developed […]

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former presidential candidate Rick Santorum will share the spotlight and vie for headlines in Iowa this weekend. The two are scheduled to speak just hours apart at Saturday’s Ames summit of The Family Leader.  Santorum is also headlining a keynote address in Lyon County Thursday night and will swing by […]

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — In 2008, if Iowa was the state that cracked Hillary Clinton’s inevitability, South Carolina crushed it. The former First Lady was thrashed here in the Democratic primary, getting stomped by nearly 30 points — a demoralizing loss that signaled Barack Obama’s popularity was demonstrably wider and deeper than previously perceived. So […]

It seems like suburbanites across the nation are looking to return to downtown living, and Birmingham is no exception. The New York Times reports that the city has been working for three years on the $25 million Railroad Park, which is a 19 acre space located in the middle of downtown Birmingham. City officials say […]

Attorney general Luther Strange said in a statement today that 10 people were indicted Thursday, accused of theft and fraudulent claims related to the BP oil spill. Strange says his office has been investigating these cases and presented their findings to a Mobile County grand jury in May. The defendants are accused of submitting false […]

Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory gained national recognition earlier this year when he released a stirring video announcing his switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party and calling on other black elected officials and citizens to join him. He’s back again with a video decrying what he refers to as the “Democrat plantation” […]

A familiar voice is expected to return to Alabama radio airwaves Monday: Paul Finebaum. Finebaum has been off the air since January when his contract with Cumulus Media expired. He went on to sign with ESPN in May, where he has made both TV and radio appearances, and even written for ESPN magazine. Finebaum will […]

As the first independent expenditure of its “Called Up” program, GOPAC released a new direct mail ad today that touts the conservative credentials of Alabama State Representative Chad Fincher, who GOPAC has endorsed in his bid to succeed Jo Bonner as Alabama’s First District representative in Congress. “Due to his long established conservative accolades and […]

Governor Robert Bentley released the timeline on Thursday for the special elections that will take place simultaneously to fill district seats 74 and 104 in the Alabama House of Representatives. House district 74 seat was held by Jay Love, who announced early July that he would resign August 1st. Jim Barton resigned from his seat […]

A polling memo issued to Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard’s campaign and shared with Yellowhammer News states that almost 8 in 10 (79%) voters in Hubbard’s Auburn-area House District approve of the job he’s doing as their representative. The survey of House District 79 was performed by well-known national Republican polling firm McLaughlin & Associates, […]

A Clarksville, Tennessee man tragically lost his life in Texas over the weekend when the 18-wheeler he was driving crashed through an overpass guard rail and onto President George Bush Turnpike below. According to a police spokesman, the driver was James Anthony Long, 59. (H/T Star-Telegram) Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims

What do you get when you combine two of pro football’s most famous southern-born-and-bred quarterbacks, a satellite television provider, cell phones and awesomely bad rapping? A viral video success. In an effort to promote their new product which allows subscribers to watch NFL games on any cell phone or tablet device, DirectTV enlisted the help […]

On Wednesday morning, Republican congressional hopeful Wells Griffith’s campaign announced they landed the blockbuster endorsement of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., who was the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee. One of Griffith’s opponents was not impressed with the endorsement. In a release on Wednesday afternoon, Quin Hillyer took a jab at Ryan, denouncing him as “out of […]

Don’t plan on seeing Marco Rubio drop into Iowa anytime soon. Or New Hampshire.  Or South Carolina, for that matter. The freshman Florida GOP senator won’t be doing any travel to early presidential primary states in 2013, one of his top political advisers tells The RUN. “We’re not doing any early primary state travel in […]

Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, says Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, will serve as the chairman of the Ways And Means General Fund Committee after the resignation of Rep. Jim Barton, R-Mobile, was announced on Wednesday. Hubbard says it was an obvious choice because Clouse was the co-chairman of the committee during the 2013 […]

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange and Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard are taking a stand — or in this case bending a knee — in support of legislative prayer. Strange is joined by 22 other attorneys general from across the country in a brief (Town of Greece, N.Y. V. Galloway) asking the U.S. Supreme […]

According to AL.com, AL-01 congressional candidate Wells Griffith has picked up a major endorsement from Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin. “I’ve known Wells Griffith for a long time and consider him a true friend,” Ryan told AL.com’s George Talbot. “Wells is committed to moving our country and our party forward. His dedication to advancing conservative principles […]

The Auburn family may be excited for the upcoming football season with new head coach Gus Malzahn, but students have an even better reason to yell, “War Eagle” this semester: they were just named “most conservative student body” in the country by Princeton Review. The Princeton Review surveyed hundreds of thousands of student at 378 […]

  Monday night in Gulf Shores, seven congressional hopefuls looking to fill the vacancy left by former Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, convened in a candidates’ forum co-hosted by Yellowhammer News and the Baldwin County Young Republicans. Most of the perceived “top tier” candidates were there, however one was conspicuously absent. While the rest of the […]

Given their impromptu squabble over the direction of the party, it’s fitting that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul should sit next to each other at the top of the pack in the Granite State, according to a new University of New Hampshire survey. In fact, there’s a plausible case to be […]

One of the most interesting legislative races of the 2014 election cycle pits two Republicans against each other in Senate District 11, which after the 2010 redistricting comprises portions of St. Clair, Shelby and Talladega counties. Longtime Republican House member Jim McClendon is challenging GOP Senator Jerry Fielding, who switched to the Republican Party in […]