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A funny thing happened on the way to Alabama's football game yesterday. I met a man who moved to Alabama three months ago. We sat at a communal table sharing food, as crowds do before games while tailgating. We cautiously approached one another in conversation, careful – in this political climate – not to hit any hot-button issues. I could tell he was trying to fit me into a box. What did I do? Where was I from? I could have saved him the trouble. I, no more than anyone, can be put into a box, but I'll try. I...

It has always been a challenge to separate Arie Kouandjio's personal backstory from his football life. So, it seemed fitting that both intersected again early this week in such a tidy way. Less than 24 hours after Kouandjio's second NFL season with the Washington Redskins began, he will walk into the U.S. Department of Labor headquarters in the nation's capital Tuesday to officially become an American citizen. A special naturalization service for the former Alabama offensive guard and 44 other immigrants has been arranged, marking the end of a long process that began when Kouandjio's family relocated to the United...

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Birmingham police are looking for the suspect who beat a pizza delivery man to death at the District at the Summit apartment complex on Sunday night. Police say a Domino's delivery worker was beaten in the head with an object and died from blunt force trauma. His body was discovered in a breezeway in the 900 block of Summit Place around 6:45 p.m. Sunday. Police are investigating his death as a homicide. The Jefferson County coroner's office identified the victim as Najeh Sulieman Masaid, 63. Birmingham police say Masaid is from another country. Officials believe the...

Cordova student hospitalized, claims he was victim of 'knock out game' Posted: Dec 16, 2014 10:29 PM CST Updated: Dec 17, 2014 5:31 PM CST By Sherea Harris CORDOVA, AL (WBRC) - A 15-year-old has been charged with assault after an incident at Cordova High School where a teenager claims he was a victim of the "knockout game." The victim - Matthew Cooper - is home from the hospital after suffering a broken jaw and concussion. The victim, Matthew Cooper, said he believes he was a set up by his own friend. Cooper thinks his friend thought the punch in...

SELMA, Alabama -- A sixth grade teacher at a Selma elementary was placed on administrative leave after having students reenact the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown that took place Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. WSFA reported the school system is conducting an investigation into the alleged incident that took place Tuesday at Brantley Elementary School. The unrest in Ferguson is ongoing with people continuing to protest the death of the black teenager shot by a white police officer. Dallas County Schools Interim Superintendent Don Willingham didn't immediately return a message left by AL.com today. Jessica Baughn, the parent who reported...

CAMDEN, Ala. – A group of Alabama hunters is celebrating the catch of a lifetime: A 15-foot-long alligator weighing more than 1,000 pounds. Al.com reports the monster gator was pulled from the water in south Alabama early Saturday during the state's alligator hunting season. Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries biologists were able to measure the gator at 15 feet, but weighing it posed a challenge.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Friends of a 21-year-old man fatally shot by a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy one week ago have recorded a video lashing out at police, and some law enforcement officers countywide are on a heightened alert. The three-minute video produced by BLACK DISTRICT is a tribute to Devante Kyshon "Red Man" Hinds, who died May 9 near Walmart and Milo's on Parkway East. Authorities said Hinds tried to run a deputy over with a car and then was shot to death by lawmen. Authorities said Hinds was involved with a heroin deal when he was shot. He was...

University of Alabama officials confirmed the death of John Servanti, a member of the school’s swimming and diving team, Tuesday morning. Servati, 21, was killed Monday night during the violent storms and tornadoes that swept through the Tuscaloosa area. He died at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa after being injured in the basement of a house near campus, according to the team’s statement. “I understand that he was in a house off-campus and was hit by a retaining wall,” school spokesman Shane Dorrill said (via ESPN). “I don’t know how it happened. I do know he was with his...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The University of Alabama at Birmingham is suspending high school field trip tours of its human anatomy lab in the wake of an incident this week in which a student was caught taking a "selfie" with a cadaver. The photo was posted on Instagram after the Monday outing before outrage led to it being deleted. Despite strict guidelines against taking photos or even having phones in the area, a Clements High School senior removed a sheet and took the photo of herself grinning next to the dead body, officials said. "At this point the tours have been...

Dr. Zenko Hrynkiw was at Brookwood Medical Center Tuesday morning when he was needed for emergency brain surgery miles away at Trinity Medical Center. The problem was the sudden snowstorm had locked down traffic, and the neurosurgeon didn’t get farther than a few blocks by vehicle. “The cell service was bad so we were fading in and out,” said Steve Davis, charge nurse in the neuro intensive care unit at Trinity. “At one point, I heard him say, ‘I’m walking.’” Davis had alerted authorities, and they were looking for him. There were supposed sightings, but no one could find him....

Prancing Elites' Parade Controversy Parade controversy: Support for Prancing Elites on social media SEMMES, Alabama -- Minutes before they made the now-controversial strut down the parade route on Wulff Road on Saturday, the Prancing Elites, an all-male dance team from Mobile, stretched and lined up with the other parading groups before they marched. As the parade began, Kentrell Collins, the group's leader, recalls an older man who was directing the procession offer what seemed to be last-minute encouragement: " 'If anybody says anything to you, don't stop moving, keep going,' " Collins said, recalling the event afterward. The Prancing Elites...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The largest synagogue in Birmingham has thrown a penalty flag on any talk of football during Yom Kippur, the last day of the Jewish High Holy Days on Sept. 14. Temple Emanu-El posted a stern announcement in a hand-out bulletin distributed at Rosh Hashanah services Wednesday night and Thursday morning, saying that football should not be discussed at the synagogue on the solemn Day of Atonement.

By Leada Gore | lgore@al.com August 05, 2013 MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Attorneys representing a U.S. Air Force officer trainee are threatening to sue if he's required to recite an oath that contains the phrase "so help me God" during his graduation ceremony tomorrow at Maxwell Air Force Base.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, criticized President Barack Obama for a jobs speech today in which Obama touted Airbus' plans to build an aircraft assembly plant in Mobile. Obama mentioned the Airbus project during a major economic address delivered today at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. “Add it all up, and over the past 40 months, our businesses have created 7.2 million new jobs. This year, we are off to our strongest private-sector job growth since 1999," Obama said during the hour-long speech. "And because we bet on this country, foreign companies are, too. Right now, more of Honda’s cars...

The false argument about defending our freedom By John Silveira Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 I'm tired of hearing how we should honor our veterans because they're defending our freedoms. They're not. No one in any of the Islamic countries is trying to take away our freedoms. No one in Russia, China, or North Korea gives a damn about them, either. In reality, the only people taking away our freedoms are in Washington, DC, our statehouses, and our city halls. It is our own politicians, our own bureaucrats, and special interest groups from the Sierra Club to Monsanto, all of...

GUNTERSVILLE, Alabama - A liquid believed to have made two Guntersville postal workers ill Tuesday was determined to be K-Y Intense Arousal Gel that leaked from packages addressed to someone in the entertainment industry, an inspector said. The liquid, which authorities said after initial tests Tuesday was likely non-hazardous methanol, has ingredients to "intensify sensation," including propylene glycol. The post office was evacuated at about 9 a.m. and two workers were taken to the hospital after coming into contact with the liquid that spilled from a package.

EWTN CEO calls final HHS contraception mandate rule 'senseless' Michael Warsaw, president of Irondale, Ala.-based EWTN Global Catholic Network, has been an outspoken critic of the HHS mandate. (Birmingham News photo) IRONDALE, Alabama - EWTN Global Catholic Network has issued a statement critical of the final rule released today by the federal government regarding the Obamacare mandate that employers provide free contraception for employees. “The final rule issued today is inadequate because it appears to have changed nothing,” EWTN President and Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw said. “EWTN remains committed to fighting this senseless mandate.” The Department of Health...

DAPHNE, Alabama -- A 21-year-old has been arrested after police say he put medication into a plastic Easter egg which mingled with 1,500 others and made its way into the hands of a 6-year-old Sunday. Jarret Anthony Helm was arrested and charged with one count of disorderly conduct, according to the Daphne Police Department. He is being held in Daphne City Jail. Officials say Helm was volunteering at Christ the King Catholic Church Sunday when he "inadvertently and accidentally," mixed a plastic Easter egg holding his ADHD medication with 1,500 bound for the March 24 Easter Family Fun Day egg...

Why not open the floodgates on marriage? January 03, 2013|Dennis Byrne Just where the balance is between the rights of individuals and the good of society often is difficult to determine. The argument that same sex couples should have an equal right to marry is not to be taken lightly. It appeals to Americans' ingrained sense that everyone should be treated fairly. It is memorialized in the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees to each person equality under the law. The equality argument has been so persuasive that the Illinois Legislature may well approve same sex marriage in this lame-duck session....

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A Catholic priest who was brutally beaten Wednesday and remained in critical condition at UAB Hospital on Friday had been warned to discontinue an improper relationship with a woman who may have been the wife of his attacker, Bishop Robert J. Baker said. The Rev. Emmanuel Isi, 57, associate pastor of St. Paul's Cathedral in Birmingham since June of last year, was involved in a car wreck Wednesday about 1 p.m. in the 5600 block of Avenue H in Ensley, a few blocks from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Fairfield.