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— A man who killed an Alabama convenience store clerk more than two decades ago was put to death Thursday night, an execution that required two consciousness tests as the inmate heaved and coughed 13 minutes into the lethal injection. Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m., about 30 minutes after the procedure began at the state prison in southwest Alabama. Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. A jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode that...

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A condemned Alabama inmate has survived the seventh attempt to execute him by lethal injection thanks to a last-minute stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. In a split decision, five justices voted late Thursday to stay the execution of Tommy Arthur as the high court considers whether to take up his challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure. The reprieve came shortly before 11 p.m. as Arthur, 74, was waiting in a holding cell outside the execution chamber at a south Alabama prison. His death warrant expired an hour later, and Arthur was returned to death...

What started out as a awkward conversation between 13-year-old Drew Breton and his mother about him being suspended from school for fighting, has turned into a viral video on social media giving millions a front row seat to bullying. His mother, 42-year-old Kimberly Breton said that until the video surfaced she was skeptical about what exactly happened. "He told me what happened the day before but then the next day he came home off the bus and said he was suspended," said Breton. Breton said the bullying incident initially took place on November 4th at Semmes Middle School in Mobile...

December 3, 2016 7:57 PM Associated Press ATLANTA — Alabama showed off all its weapons in the Southeastern Conference championship game. Now, the Crimson Tide can expect a return trip to Atlanta for the College Football Playoff. The nation's No. 1 team scored off a blocked punt and an interception return Saturday before wearing down No. 15 Florida in the second half with a dominant running game. The result was a 54-16 rout that positioned Alabama to go for its second straight national title and its fifth crown in the last nine years under coach Nick Saban. Next up: a...

Earlier today the Kersten Institute for Governance and Public Policy highlighted an updated pension study, released by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, which revealed some fairly startling realities about California's public pension underfunding levels. After averaging $77,700 per household in 2014, the amount of public pension underfunding for the state of California jumped to a staggering $92,748 per household in 2015. But don't worry, we're sure pension managers can grow their way out of the problem...hedge fund returns have been stellar recently, right? Stanford University’s pension tracker database pegs the market value of California’s total pension debt at...

Earmarks again are a topic in Congress, and people in this part of Pennsylvania shouldn’t condemn them. Back in the 1970s, when highway construction was booming around the biggest population centers of the Keystone State, places like Altoona, Johnstown, Ebensburg and Bedford were told that once those projects were completed, work would begin on their roadway needs.But as the large-scale projects around Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Erie were completed, the promises that had been made to Blair County and other smaller-population areas, didn’t materialize because of alleged money shortages.The message seemed to be: “We’ll get to you sometime, but for...

An Alabama inmate on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his upcoming execution to consider whether a judge should have been able to give him a death sentence when the jury recommended life imprisonment. Ronald Bert Smith is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection next Thursday for the 1994 slaying of Huntsville convenience store clerk Casey Wilson. A jury recommended life imprisonment without parole by a 7-5 vote, but a judge sentenced Smith to death.

Culture Why People Lost Their Minds When A Brooklyn Store Played ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ Upscale progressives have gotten used to tuning out the voice of the Trump voter. But there's an America out there that they can no longer ignore. By David Marcus By David MarcusNovember 23, 2016 Three days after the election, my wife and I were shopping at the Fairway Market in Red Hook, Brooklyn. For those unfamiliar with it, Fairway is a less corporate, more co-op version of Whole Foods, offering pretty produce and exotic cheeses that don’t come cheap. The mood in the store was...

Ivan MaiselNovember 26, 2016 TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- On the same Saturday that Ohio State and Michigan played perhaps the most heart-stopping of their 113 games, No. 1 Alabama closed out the only undefeated regular season among the Power 5 conferences with all the drama we've come to expect from the Crimson Tide this season. That is to say, none. Alabama is powerful. Alabama is dominant. Alabama is much better than its archrival, a game but beat-up No. 13 Auburn, and the 30-12 final score failed to reflect the one-sided nature of the 81st Iron Bowl. Top-ranked Alabama completed its first...

Three days after the election, my wife and I were shopping at the Fairway Market in Red Hook, Brooklyn. For those unfamiliar with it, Fairway is a less corporate, more co-op version of Whole Foods, offering pretty produce and exotic cheeses that don’t come cheap. The mood in the store was glum. As in most of Brooklyn, people stared ahead, moving slowly, still in shock from the political earthquake of Tuesday night. After getting our Brazilian Arabica ground for drip (I know, I should really use a French Press), Libby and I walked towards the organic maple syrup. That’s when...

HOOVER, Ala.—Public Enemy No. 1 of Venezuela’s revolutionary government is Gustavo Díaz, a Home Depot Inc. employee in central Alabama. On his lunch breaks from the hardware section, Mr. Díaz, 60 years old, does more than anyone else to set the price of everything from rice to aspirin to cars in his native Venezuela, influencing the inflation rate and swaying millions of dollars of daily currency transactions. How? He is president of one of Venezuela’s most popular and insurgent websites, DolarToday.com, which provides a benchmark exchange rate used by his compatriots to buy and sell black-market dollars. That allows them...

A teen neighbor of an elderly Korean War veteran found burned to death in the back yard of his North Birmingham home is now charged in the brutal slaying.

Donald Trump’s choice of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III for U.S. Attorney General is deeply disturbing. Our nation does not need an Attorney General with a history of hostility toward civil rights law, as well as disdain for voting rights activists overseeing civil rights and voting rights enforcement. Sessions was considered too racist to be a federal judge in the 1980’s. At that time, he was the second nominee in fifty years to be rejected by a U.S. Senate committee. At a critical time in our history when voting rights are in jeopardy and voter suppression has become a principal electoral...

Now that Jeff Sessions is Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, you're going to hear a lot of people dig up old accusations that Sessions is a racist. In fact, CNN did so last night. However, between the nature of the accusations and Sessions's actual record of desegregating schools and taking on the Klan in Alabama, it strains credulity to believe that he is a racist. These accusations all center around the bruising judicial nomination process Sessions went through in 1986. Ronald Reagan had tapped Sessions to serve on the federal bench and the Senate judiciary committee ultimately rejected him...

Jeff Sessions, the first US senator to endorse Donald Trump, has been one of the President-elect's top supporters so it's no surprise that he is being considered as a potential Cabinet member. But with the new attention on Sessions -- who has emerged as the top candidate to be the next attorney general, according to a transition official, setting up a potential Senate confirmation hearing -- old allegations of racism against the Alabama Republican are sure to haunt him.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is about to face a wave of intense scrutiny as he seeks confirmation to become attorney general and head the Justice Department in President-elect Donald Trump's upcoming administration. Trump said Friday that it was an "honor to nominate" a "world-class legal mind" to the position. Sessions said, should he be confirmed, that he will give "all my strength to advance" its "highest ideals" and will be dedicated to "fairness and impartiality." But Sessions is likely to face heavy examination over his overall record, as well as decades-old allegations of racism that are now certain to...

Should Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Al. (C, 78%) be appointed attorney general in president-elect Donald Trump’s administration, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) will need to appoint a short-term replacement to serve in the U.S. Senate and set a date for a statewide special election to fill the seat.

"...If Sessions heads to the Trump administration, he would leave behind a coveted seat in the United States Senate. Governor Bentley would appoint Sessions's replacement in the short-term and set a date for a statewide election to fill the seat. Given the importance of the seat, we certainly shouldn't rush this. Bentley ought to appoint someone with an eye toward an election being held during the 2018 midterms. Special elections are expensive and often feature low turnout. With most of us experiencing campaign exhaustion, it's prudent to set the election during a normal cycle. So whom might Bentley appoint if...

Montgomery Alabama television station WSFA is reporting that President – elect Trump has offered the position of United States Attorney General to Senator Jeff Sessions. This would be an awesome pick. Senator Sessions previously has saved as a U.S. Attorney, as Attorney General for the StTe of Alabama, and as a Senator for Alabama for multiple terms.

President-elect Donald Trump will tap Sen. Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General, according to Bloomberg News and the New York Times. Sessions, the first U.S. Senator to endorse Trump, was rumored for a number of positions in Trump’s cabinet, including Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense but it appears that the former Attorney General of Alabama has been selected for the highest law and order position in the administration. Sen. Ted Cruz was also rumored for the position after he was spotted at Trump Tower, meeting with the president elect. The official announcement from Trump’s transition team...