One person killed and 16 injured at Alabama university homecoming event

Shooting at Tuskegee University is fourth reported at homecoming events in US within the last three weeks

One person was killed and 16 others were injured when gunfire erupted at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Sunday, the fourth reported shooting at homecoming events across the US within the last three weeks.

The Tuskegee shooting occurred in the early hours of Sunday morning. The person who was killed was not affiliated with the university, and their parents have been notified, according to the university.

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Some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, report says

Mississippi’s firearm-related violence rate nearly double that of Haiti, which is plagued by political and gang strife

A new report by the Commonwealth Fund finds some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, and even states with the fewest firearms deaths are far higher than peer developed democracies.

For instance, Mississippi’s rate of firearm-related violence (28.5 per 100,000 people) was nearly double that of Haiti (15.1 per 100,000) in 2021, when mercenaries assassinated the country’s president, unleashing a fresh round of gang warfare which pushed the country into a state of civil war.

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US judge bars Alabama from purging thousands of voters before election

Republican state official tried to remove more than 3,200 people from voter rolls on suspicion they were non-citizens

Alabama cannot remove thousands of people from its voter rolls on the eve of the presidential election, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The US district judge Anna Manasco, an appointee of Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction halting an effort by Alabama’s top election official to try to remove more than 3,200 people from the voter rolls who it suspected of being non-citizens until at least after the presidential election.

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Lilly Ledbetter, equal pay champion who inspired Fair Pay Act, dies aged 86

Ledbetter sued employer Goodyear in 1998 after finding out she was paid $6,500 less than lowest-paid male supervisor

Lilly Ledbetter, an equal pay advocate whose lawsuit against her employer inspired the Fair Pay Act of 2009, died Saturday in Alabama at age 86.

Ledbetter died of respiratory failure, according to a statement from her family provided to the Alabama news organization Al.com.

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Alabama executes death-row prisoner with nitrogen gas

Alan Miller, 59, second person in US to be executed via controversial technique, shook and trembled on gurney

Alabama has carried out the second execution in the US using the controversial method of nitrogen gas, an experimental technique for humans that veterinarians have deemed unacceptable in the US and Europe for the euthanasia of most animals.

Alan Eugene Miller, 59, was pronounced dead at 6.38pm local time at a south Alabama prison.

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Alabama police search for suspect in Birmingham shooting that killed four

Seventeen people injured in shooting outside nightclub after being caught in crossfire, police say

A manhunt in Alabama for a suspect in the shooting outside a nightclub that killed four people and wounded 17 on Saturday night entered its second full day on Monday.

The shooting in Birmingham was at least the 24th mass murder in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass murder as one in which four victims are killed or wounded.

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Manhunt under way after four killed and 17 injured in Alabama shooting

Police say multiple victims were caught in crossfire in nightlife area of Five Points South in Birmingham

A major manhunt is under way in Birmingham, Alabama, for those responsible for a shooting at a nightclub late on Saturday night in which four people have died and 17 were wounded.

The violence is just the latest shocking incident that highlights the epidemic of gun violence and killings that continues to plague the US and yet prompts little to no political action.

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US man died because doctor removed wrong organ in procedure, family says

Family of William Bryan alleges Dr Thomas Shaknovsky removed liver instead of spleen during surgical procedure

The family of a 70-year-old man from Alabama who died last month say that his death was a result of a doctor removing the wrong organ during a surgical procedure in Florida.

William Bryan, 70, and his wife Beverly were visiting their rental property in Okaloosa county this summer when Bryan suddenly began experiencing left-sided flank pain, according to law firm representing his wife, Beverly. Bryan then went to hospital, and was admitted for further studies pursuant to concern for an abnormality of the spleen.

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Alabama jailer pleads guilty in death of prisoner who froze to death in cell

Joshua Jones reportedly admits that ‘collectively we did it. We killed him’ after Tony Mitchell died of hypothermia

A former corrections officer at an Alabama jail has pleaded guilty in the case of a mentally ill man who died of hypothermia after being held naked in a concrete cell for two weeks.

The officer, Joshua Conner Jones, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors over the treatment of two prisoners at the Walker county jail.

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US pays $2bn to Black and minority farmers after years of discrimination

Payouts are ‘an acknowledgement’ of US’s long history of refusing to process loans from Black farmers, USDA says

The Biden administration has doled out more than $2bn in direct payments for Black and other minority farmers discriminated against by the US Department of Agriculture, the president announced Wednesday.

More than 23,000 farmers were approved for payments ranging from $10,000 to $500,000, according to the USDA. Another 20,000 who planned to start a farm but did not receive a USDA loan received between $3,500 and $6,000.

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Black Alabama mayor reinstated after nearly four-year battle

A secret election by white town council blocked Newbern mayor Patrick Braxton from serving for four years: ‘we can put this behind us’

Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of an Alabama town that has not held elections in several decades, has spent the last four years fighting to be recognized. Finally, after an extensive legal battle, he and the town officials who refused to acknowledge him as mayor have reached a settlement, according to federal court documents.

Per the settlement agreement, Braxton will be officially be seated as the mayor of Newbern, Alabama, and be able to fully serve in this capacity for the first time in nearly four years, pending approval by by Judge Kristi K. DuBose of the Southern District of Alabama.

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Series of US mass shootings brings weekend of death and mayhem

One dead and 34 wounded as incidents in New York, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio swell 2024 mass shooting tally

A series of mass shootings rocked the US early on Sunday, leaving at least one dead and 34 others wounded in just four cases reported in New York, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio.

The shootings came amid a broader spate of recent mass shootings, including the one at an Arkansas grocery store on Friday that left four dead and nine wounded – as well as another at a nightclub in Kentucky on Saturday that killed one and injured seven.

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Cocaine worth about $450,000 washes up on Alabama shore

Police investigating after packages worth nearly 55lb (25kg) discovered on Dauphin Island, south of Mobile

Nearly 55lb (25kg) of what appears to be cocaine recently washed up on the shores of Alabama, local police said.

The police department in the community of Dauphin Island made the discovery, saying the recovered amount was worth about $450,000. Officers then contacted the Mobile county sheriff’s office, which also has jurisdiction in the area and is investigating the situation.

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Alabama poultry plant could be closed for 30 days for allegedly hiring minors

At least two children have already been killed while working in Mar-Jac Poultry plants in the US south over the last year

A poultry plant in Jasper, Alabama, has been accused of hiring minors and could be shut down for 30 days, according to a newly released US Department of Labor lawsuit.

Mar-Jac Poultry, the largest employer in Walker county, is accused of violating federal labor laws when it hired four minors as young as 16 who were allegedly discovered working overnight at the company’s slaughterhouse.

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Blow to UAW as Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against unionization

Workers in Tuscaloosa vote against bid to unionize, as UAW president Shawn Fain hails impact of campaign despite defeat

The United Auto Workers has failed in its effort to unionize workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a blow to the union’s plans to build its membership in the southern states.

The loss on Friday comes amid the UAW’s ambitious union-organizing campaign to organize 150,000 non-union auto workers around the US.

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Three people killed and 12 wounded in shooting at Alabama May Day party

About 1,000 were at party when altercation began and gunfire erupted, resulting in victims that sheriff says are mostly ‘younger’

Three people were killed and at least 12 were wounded Saturday night in a shooting at party in south Alabama.

Andre Reid with the Baldwin county sheriff’s office’s investigation division told WALA-TV that about 1,000 people were attending a May Day party near the community of Stockton when an altercation started and gunfire erupted. Reid said most of the victims were “younger people”.

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Katie Britt proposes federal database to collect data on pregnant people

Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in March

Katie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother’s Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.

The More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (Moms) act proposes to establish an online government database called “pregnancy.gov” listing resources related to pregnancy, including information about adoption agencies and pregnancy care providers, except for those that provide abortion-related services.

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Alabama chooses candidates for new Black congressional district

After a contentious redrawing of Alabama’s congressional map, two candidates will compete in November for a seat, and perhaps congressional control

Shomari Figures, an attorney and Obama White House executive from a politically-prominent civil rights family, has won the Democratic nomination to run in Alabama’s redrawn second congressional district Tuesday night, defeating state representative Anthony Daniels.

The runoff election has been closely watched because of its implications for control of Congress in November, and for the effect of supreme court orders requiring southern states to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act and eliminate racial gerrymandering.

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Man arrested in Alabama bombing outside state attorney general’s office

Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, allegedly put stickers on state buildings with antifa, anti-police and anti-Ice sentiments

An Alabama man has been charged with detonating an explosive device outside the state attorney general’s office.

In a statement on Wednesday, the justice department announced that authorities had arrested 26-year-old Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert of Irondale on charges of malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

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Democrats cheer surprise win in Alabama special election for candidate vowing to protect abortion rights and IVF – live

Marilyn Lands’s victory suggests reproductive rights are key issue for voters ahead of Biden-Trump rematch in November

Disney and allies of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, have reached an agreement to end a nearly two-year-long court battle that began after the entertainment giant spoke out against the state’s so-called “don’t say gay” law, the Associated Press reports.

DeSantis put his conservative policies at the center of his quixotic attempt to win the GOP’s presidential nomination, but ended up dropping out after getting pummeled by Donald Trump in Iowa’s January caucuses.

Allies of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday in a lawsuit over who controls Walt Disney World’s governing district.

In a meeting, the members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’s takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law.

Our communities should not have to live in a state of fear and confusion, which is exactly what SB4 was designed to do. Unfortunately, Republican leaders in Austin are more interested in fueling anti-immigrant rhetoric than actually creating real, workable solutions to address our immigration laws.

While this back-and-forth can create a sense of uncertainty for the people who live here, this ruling makes me hopeful that the Fifth Circuit will follow clear Supreme Court precedent and rule against the law when it considers the merits.

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