Category Archives: Alabama

Alabama priest leaves clergy after woman alleges ‘private companionship’ beginning when she was 17

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Robert Sullivan’s self-imposed removal comes after accusations he provided financial support in exchange for arrangement which included sex

A longtime Roman Catholic priest in Alabama has voluntarily left the clergy after a woman alleged to his superiors that he provided her financial support in exchange for “private companionship” including sex beginning when she was 17.

Robert Sullivan’s self-imposed removal from the priesthood – known as laicization – was announced Wednesday, the day before the US holiday of Thanksgiving, in a public statement from Birmingham, Alabama, by Bishop Steven Raica.

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UAB football player faces attempted murder charge after allegedly stabbing teammates

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  • Incident happened hours before Saturday’s game

  • Two players in stable condition in local hospital

A University of Alabama at Birmingham football player allegedly stabbed two teammates on Saturday morning, hours before the team’s game against the University of South Florida, the university said in a statement.

“UAB’s top priority remains the safety and well-being of all of our students,” the statement said. “Given patient privacy and the ongoing investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

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Man deported to Laos despite US court order blocking his removal, attorneys say

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District judge told Ice to keep Alabama man in US while he showed what judge called ‘substantial claim’ to citizenship

Immigration officials have deported a father living in Alabama to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the US on the grounds he has a claim to citizenship, the man’s attorneys said on Tuesday.

US district judge Shelly Dick last week ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, in the United States while he presented what the judge called his “substantial claim of US citizenship”, court records show. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but was granted lawful permanent residence in the US before his first birthday, according to court filings.

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US citizen sues after twice being detained by immigration agents

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US-born Leo Garcia Venegas says ‘I just want to work in peace’ after agents in Alabama said his ID card was fake

An Alabama construction worker and US citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.

The class-action lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Leo Garcia Venegas, a concrete worker, demands an end to what the firm calls “unconstitutional and illegal immigration enforcement tactics”.

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Alabama child dies after being left in hot car while in state custody

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Police investigate death of Ke’Torrius Starkes Jr, three, who was left inside car by contractor for state human resources

An investigation has been triggered after a three-year-old boy died after being left in a hot car by a contractor for the state human resources department in Alabama.

Ke’Torrius Starkes Jr, who was in foster care, had been picked up in the late morning on Tuesday by the worker after a supervised visit with his father, the New York Times reported. He was supposed to be transported to a daycare program by a worker for the department, which oversees child protection other social services.

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Runaway kangaroo on the loose named Sheila shuts down Alabama interstate

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Marsupial spotted hopping along side of interstate before police surrounded area and owner used dart to tranquilize it

A runaway kangaroo named Sheila shut down a stretch of interstate in Alabama on Tuesday before state troopers and the animal’s owner wrangled the wayward marsupial.

The Alabama law enforcement agency said the kangaroo was spotted on Tuesday hopping along the side of Interstate 85 in Macon county, which is between Montgomery and Auburn.

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Trump administration kills landmark pollution settlement in majority-Black county

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Decision will affect mostly low-income Alabama residents as DoJ dismisses agreement over untreated sewage as DEI

The Trump administration has killed a landmark civil rights settlement requiring Alabama to address raw sewage pollution in majority-Black, residential areas south-west of Montgomery, dismissing it as an “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agreement.

The decision could condemn low-income people in Lowndes county, about 40 miles south-west of Montgomery, to indefinitely continue living with no or failing sanitation infrastructure.

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Days of severe storms leave 18 dead as rising rivers threaten US south and midwest

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Power and gas shut off in regions as flooding worsens, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities

After days of intense rain and wind killed at least 18 people in the US south and midwest, rivers rose and flooding worsened on Sunday in those regions, threatening waterlogged and badly damaged communities.

Utility companies scrambled to shut off power and gas from Texas to Ohio while cities closed roads and deployed sandbags to protect homes and businesses.

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US immigration officials detain doctoral student at University of Alabama

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Justification for arrest not clear as Trump administration increasingly targets students for arrest and deportation

US immigration authorities have detained a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, campus officials confirmed on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the state’s flagship university said in a brief statement that a student was arrested “off campus” by federal immigration officials, but declined to comment further, citing privacy laws.

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Monster storm system in US south kills at least 35 people

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Several people killed in Kansas dust storm while scattered tornadoes cause fatalities in Missouri

Violent tornadoes ripped through parts of the US, wiping out schools and toppling semitractor-trailers in several states, part of a monster storm that killed at least 35 people as more severe weather was expected.

In western Kansas, a dust storm was reported to have killed eight people as high winds produced blowing dust over the interstate, causing collisions of more than 71 vehicles on the I-70.

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Key court hearing as Alabama threatens prosecutions over abortion support

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Experts say victory for state could give green light for other states to attack those who help women travel for procedure

A bellwether test of states’ ability to prosecute people over abortions that take place across state lines will hold a critical hearing on Wednesday, when Alabama abortion rights supporters will square off against the state attorney general over his threats to prosecute groups that help women travel for the procedure.

In the months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, clearing the way for Alabama to ban virtually all abortions, Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall repeatedly suggested that abortion rights activists who help people go out of state for abortions could be charged as participants in an illegal conspiracy. The Yellowhammer Fund, an abortion fund that helped people pay for the procedure, and the West Alabama Women’s Center, a former abortion clinic that pivoted to providing services like miscarriage management, joined with other abortion rights advocates to sue Marshall over his comments.

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Alabama governor commutes death sentence of man convicted for 1991 murder

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Kay Ivey says Robin ‘Rocky’ Myers, who maintains he was innocent, will serve life in prison without parole

The Alabama governor, Kay Ivey, on Friday commuted the death sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in prison after noting questions about his case.

Ivey said Myers, who was facing execution this spring, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. She noted that was the sentence jurors at his 1994 trial had recommended. A judge overruled that recommendation and imposed a death sentence, a maneuver that has since been outlawed in Alabama, according to the human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International.

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Baby Driver actor Hudson Meek, 16, dies after fall from moving vehicle

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Family plans to livestream memorial service for teenage actor who died two days after getting hurt in Vestavia Hills, Alabama

The teenage actor Hudson Meek has died after he fell out of a moving vehicle in Alabama, authorities said.

Meek, 16, was hurt on December 19 while on a street in Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham. He died two days later, according to the Jefferson county coroner’s office.

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Alabama executes third man this year with controversial nitrogen gas

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Carey Dale Grayson was killed on Thursday for 1994 murder by technique that previously caused visible signs of distress

Alabama carried out its third execution this year using the controversial new method of nitrogen gas, a technique that in previous state killings caused visible signs of distress.

Carey Dale Grayson was put to death on Thursday evening for the 1994 murder of a hitchhiker. The prisoner had a mask strapped to his face through which nitrogen was pumped, causing fatal oxygen deprivation.

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One person killed and 16 injured at Alabama university homecoming event

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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