Free Republic

A Mobile police officer has died after being shot Tuesday night. The officer has been identified as Justin Billa. The incident stemmed from an incident earlier Tuesday evening, when police found a woman named Fonda Poellnitz dead. Investigators quickly identified her ex-husband, Robert Hollie, as a person of interest in her killing and went to his Toulminville home.When officers arrived, Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste said they told Hollie to come out. Instead, Hollie began shooting and struck Billa. At least one officer fired shots back at Hollie.Billa was rushed to the University of South Alabama Medical Center, where he...

An Alabama representative, Lynn Greer (R), has filed a bill to clarify Alabama law to include churches with dwellings that have protection under the law to use deadly force to protect the people inside from attack.  On 15 February, 2018, the bill was passed with overwhelming support, 40 to 16, in the House.  39 Republicans and 1 Democrat voted for the bill, 2 Republicans and 14 Democrats voted against it. From montgomeryadvertiser.com: The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, would add houses of worship to the state’s 2006 law, allowing a person to use physical force against anyone...

"I am just begging them to forgive us, because we sold them. Our forefathers sold their brothers and sisters. I am not the person to talk to them. No! May their souls rest in peace, perfect peace. They should forgive us. They should," Posset said, wiping tears from his cheeks. "Qualified people will come and talk to them in due time. I feel so sad."

Alabama beats California — and no, I’m not talking about college football. Many Californians would bristle at the notion of being bested by Alabama. But employers aren’t so picky: Toyota and Mazda announced recently they’ll invest north of $1.6 billion dollars to build a new factory and create over 4,000 good-paying jobs in Limestone County, Alabama. This only increases the state’s vehicle production: In 2016, Alabama assembled over one million vehicles employing over 40,000 employees. Fifteen states were competing for the Toyota-Mazda joint venture; California was not even on the bench. Perhaps Toyota remembers its experience with GM at New...

A 15-year-old Dothan High School student was arrested and jailed Friday after other students told school officials he threatened to "shoot up the school," according to Dothan police.

Courts in 14 Alabama counties awarded $2.2 million to law enforcement agencies through civil asset forfeiture actions filed in 2015 – a practice some Alabama lawmakers is hoping to end. Civil asset forfeiture essentially allows law enforcement take and keep property even if its owner isn’t convicted of a crime. On Wednesday, the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill to change the civil asset forfeiture process in hopes of protecting the property and due process rights of Alabamians. Under current state law, law enforcement agencies can seize property on the mere suspicion that it was either involved in a...

By Brian McVeigh, Calhoun County District Attorney and president of the Alabama District Attorneys Association; and Dave Sutton, Sheriff of Coffee County and president of the Alabama Sheriffs AssociationThe Alabama Legislature is considering legislation that would change the way civil asset forfeitures are handled in Alabama. While well-meaning, some of the proposed changes would essentially gut what is an effective crime-fighting tool while making it easier for drug dealers and other criminals to hang on to their ill-gotten gains. The result would be more crime. Unfortunately, several special interest groups have pushed a narrative that law enforcement - police, sheriffs...

The Post exclusively reported Sunday how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grappled with what he called his “lust demons” and kept a scorecard of more than two dozen conquests in a secret diary. Below are more sensational details from the journal, in which RFK Jr., a member of the political elite, bashes everyone from then-brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo to the Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. [SNIP] The Revs. Jackson and Sharpton “give me the creeps,” Kennedy writes in a July 5 entry. “Al Sharpton has done more damage to the black cause than [segregationist Alabama Gov.] George Wallace. He has suffocated...

House conservatives on Wednesday revolted against a massive bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and bust spending caps, complaining that the GOP could no longer lay claim to being the party of fiscal responsibility. “I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’ ” quipped Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), one of many members of the Tea Party-aligned Freedom Caucus who left a closed-door meeting of Republicans saying they would vote against the deal. It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” lamented one of the Freedom Caucus leaders, Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). “This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the...

Three transgender people sued an Alabama state agency on Tuesday, alleging its policy requiring proof of gender surgery to change the gender indicator on driver’s licenses was discriminatory. The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union said the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s policy denied transgender people access to identification, and applicants were forced to release medical information to get driver’s licenses.

A federal judge has stayed the lethal injection of an Alabama inmate in order to have an independent medical expert review his claims that he is too sick to be executed. [Snip] A lawyer for Doyle Lee Hamm has argued that lethal injection would be unconstitutionally cruel because lymphoma and hepatitis C have compromised Hamm's veins. His lawyer also argued it would be inhumane to execute someone battling cancer. [Snip] Hamm was scheduled to be executed Feb. 22 for the 1987 murder of motel clerk Patrick Cunningham.

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - The FBI and local enforcement agencies across the country have issued warnings about a disturbing video circulating on Facebook and other social media networks. The bottom line: sharing the video, and even viewing, is a crime. The video, according to law enforcement officials, shows an adult male sexually abusing a young child. Facebook users have encouraged others to share the video to try to help catch the people involved in exploiting the child, but law enforcement agencies, including the Polk County Sheriff's Office, say sharing the video is actually a felony. "PLEASE DO NOT SHARE...

The CEO of the Democratic National Committee is leaving after less than a year on the job, NBC News has learned. Veteran Democrat operative Jess O’Connell took the helm of the DNC last May with a mandate to help newly installed Chairman Tom Perez turn around a troubled party organization that was struggling after years of neglect and a brutal 2016 that included accusations of favoritism in the primary between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the hacking of internal emails, and the loss to President Donald Trump. O’Connell will leave the party stabilized, if not yet fully recovered, after wins...

Failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is raising money to pay legal bills stemming from a lawsuit by a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. The Moore campaign sent a fundraising email to supporters Wednesday asking for donations to pay his legal expenses related to a suit filed earlier this month by Leigh Corfman.

Constitutional Carry is on the move in Alabama. Senate Bill 3 would eliminate the need for a carry permit for law-abiding adults.From dothanfirst.com: Senate bill 3, sponsored by senator Gerald Allen, would repeal the permit requirement for the carrying of firearms.It would allow any law-abiding adult who can legally possess a firearm to carry a handgun for self-defense in Alabama without having to first obtain a permit to do so. The NRA-ILA confirms the essence of the bill. It does not eliminate the shall issue permit system that is now in place. Alabamians would still be able to obtain permits...

A federal judge in Alabama has thrown out a lawsuit against the state’s voter ID law, finding that the law doesn’t prevent anyone from voting because “nearly the entire population of registered voters in Alabama already possess a photo ID that can be used for voting.” For those who don’t, obtaining a qualifying ID can be done “with little to no effort and no cost.” In 2011, the Alabama legislature passed a photo ID requirement for both in-person and absentee voting. The law was enacted in an effort to strengthen voter confidence and to reduce the potential for voter fraud...

Ambrosia Starling, drag queen who prompted Judge Roy Moore's removal from Alabama Supreme Court. This story is a part of Ask Alabama, where you ask the questions, you vote to decide which questions we answer, and then we investigate. This week we're answering a question submitted by a reader who asked: Alabama has the lowest the percentage of citizens of any state who support same sex marriage. Why are so many Alabamans opposed? Same-sex marriage, and homosexual behavior, has seemingly always been frowned upon by much of the great state of Alabama. This is, after all, the center of the...

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's requirement to show photo identification at the polls. U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler on Wednesday ruled the provision does not violate the Voting Rights Act. Alabama in 2014 began requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification at the polls. Greater Birmingham Ministries and the NAACP filed the lawsuit in December, challenging the law as an infringement on voting rights. The lawsuit contends Alabama politicians knew that black and Latino voters "disproportionately lack the required photo ID." Part of Coogler's court order declared that a "person who does not have a...

Good news: Toyota and Mazda announce giant new Huntsville, Alabama, plant which will produce over 300,000 cars and SUV’s a year and employ 4000 people. Companies are coming back to the U.S. in a very big way. Congratulations Alabama! 11:29 PM - 10 Jan 2018

(Reuters) - Alabama will be the site of a new $1.6 billion Toyota Motor Corp and Mazda Motor Corp auto plant, a victory for President Donald Trump who had prodded manufacturers to build new U.S. facilities and threatened tariffs on foreign production, sources said on Tuesday.