MONTGOMERY, Ala — Alabama’s new Child Predator Death Penalty Act may play well on the campaign trail, but its legal and practical problems show it was not thought through. The law, passed as HB 41/SB 17, makes first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy and sexual torture capital offenses when the victim is under 12, allowing prosecutors to…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The election of a new Episcopal bishop in Alabama is putting a spotlight on a quieter, more progressive strain of Christianity in a state where white evangelical and MAGA-inflected politics often define religion in the public square. The Very Rev. Richard T. Lawson III, dean of St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, Colorado,…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether to hear Alabama’s appeal of lower court rulings that struck down the state’s broad bans on panhandling as violations of the First Amendment. The justices have scheduled the case, Taylor v. Singleton, for discussion at their private conference on Feb. 20, 2026. Alabama,…

ALABASTER, Ala. — A female Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent suffered minor injuries during a traffic stop in Alabaster on Monday, in an incident that quickly drew concern from civil liberties advocates about the lack of public information and ICE’s history of secrecy and abuse. Officials said the agent pulled over a van after identifying…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama lawmakers have advanced a bill to criminalize exposing children to secondhand marijuana smoke, mainly in vehicles, even as recreational pot is legal in nearly half the U.S. states and the Yellowhammer State clings to its federal minimum wage and recreational prohibition. House Bill 72, carried by Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove,…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A new Goodwill store and donation center planned for Crestwood Boulevard is poised to tap into Birmingham’s growing community of thrift shoppers, from neighborhood families hunting bargains to younger residents who see secondhand style as part of their identity. Alabama Goodwill Industries is renovating the former Roses Express space at 7517 Crestwood…