Free Republic

Gov. Robert Bentley (R) stepped down after being charged with two campaign and ethics violations on the same day that state lawmakers opened impeachment hearings against him. Bentley has fought for more than a year against allegations that he used public resources to carry out and conceal an affair with his former top aide. According to the state's attorney general office, Bentley pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to covering up the alleged affair, one for failing to file a major contribution report and another for knowingly converting campaign contributions to personal use. This is a developing story. It...

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has been under fire. The Alabama Ethics Commission found reason to believe he committed four felony crimes, and he’s in serious trouble.The focus is on an improper relationship with Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his senior political advisor.Now, he will resign: It Is becoming clear that Robert Bentley will not last the week as governor.Sources in Montgomery say his lawyers have been involved in negotiations to step down from the governorship and plead to lesser charges, allowing Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey to step up as governor.Sources believe he will resign the governorship by Wednesday.Bentley has been under...

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has been on the ropes for a while now. The origins of the story all boil down to allegations of improper relations with an aide which… Okay. Let’s just say it. The guy cheated on his wife with one of his staffers before divorcing her and she was less than thrilled with his behavior. Since that doesn’t technically qualify as breaking the law, you’d normally not see him getting the boot from his job unless the voters decided to do it in the next election. But the initial deed led to some complicating factors which the...

Gov. Robert Bentley recently announced that global auto supplier Grupo Antolin plans to invest nearly $10.4 million to establish a manufacturing facility in Jefferson County that will employ 150 people by 2020. The Birmingham-area location will add to Spain-based Grupo Antonlin’s extensive worldwide operating footprint, which includes 161 production plants and 25 technical and commercial offices in 26 countries. Antolin Alabama Inc. will put its facility in an existing building at Jefferson Metropolitan Park in McCalla, with a build-out underway. Total investment is projected to be $10.35 million. The average hourly wage for Alabama workers is estimated at $19.13. “Creating...

Toledo Molding & Die is one of Fayetteville's newest manufacturers and they say they're expected to start production between mid-April and early May. "It'll bring a lot of new people here, new chances," Toledo Molding & Die Employee Mike Nadolny said. The plan manufacture's automotive products for many different car companies, and while they have 40 employees so far - they said project to have at least 175 relatively soon. "For so many years, we've seen downsizing in the communities and its nice to come into a community where you can employ more people," Toledo Molding & Die Operations Manager...

TUSKEGEE, AL COULD LAND AIRCRAFT PLANT IF GLOBAL AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE FIRM WINS T-100 CONTRACT WITH U.S. AIR FORCE Macon County, AL (WSFA) – Leonardo-DRS has submitted a bid in the U.S. Air Force competition to assemble T100 aircraft at Tuskegee, Alabama’s Moton Airfield. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley announced the bid on Thursday. He said if the global aerospace and defense firm wins, the advanced assembly center would create 750 high-wage, full-time jobs over a 10-year ramp-up period. The project would begin in 2019 and the total investment in the T-100 project’s buildings, infrastructure and equipment could reach $250 million....

Jesse Roberts (Limestone County Sheriff's Office) It's not yet clear whether the owner wants it back, but Limestone County authorities recovered a stolen gun when it fell from an inmate's body cavity during a search at the jail. Jesse O'Neal Roberts, 23, of Elkmont, was being booked into the Limestone County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication when the weapon fell from his body, said sheriff's spokesman Stephen Young.

A suspected burglar was killed early this morning when a 79-year-old man shot him during a home invasion in eastern Jefferson County. One of the burglars returned fire and struck the homeowner in the ankle, but he is expected to be OK. Authorities have not identified the dead man. The ordeal began about 1:15 a.m. at a home on Ormond Drive in Center Point. Jefferson County sheriff's Chief Deputy Randy Christian said deputies responded to a report of a burglary in progress at the home. They arrived to find the elderly homeowner sitting on the front porch of the home....

Representatives from 13 states including 12 state attorneys general and one governor filed a motion in support of President Trump’s temporary travel ban. From the Dallas Morning News: Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday led a coalition of 13 states in filing a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals defending President Donald Trump’s revised immigration order.In the brief, Paxton and representatives from 12 other states argue that the Trump administration’s new order is legal and falls under the president’s power over foreign affairs and national security. Those joining the brief included Paxton plus AG’s in the...

The wife of former Alabama GOP Chairman Bill Armistead was killed in a traffic accident Thursday morning. Armistead made the announcement on Facebook late Thursday night, saying he had lost the love of his life. He and his wife, Emily, were preparing to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary. Efforts to reach law enforcement officials for details of the accident weren't immediately successful. The West Alabama Watchman reported that the couple was crossing Highway 43 in Linden when she was struck. She was taken to Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital in Demopolis, where she was pronounced dead. According to publication, the...

Full title: The Government Of Alabama Wants To Ban Brutal Abortion Process In Which Unborn Babies Are Cut To Pieces And Dismembered. The government of Alabama wants to ban a brutal form of abortion in which the unborn child is cut to pieces and dismembered. Hopefully they can actually get this ban going as opposed to getting impeded by some pro-infanticide force. As we read in one report: Alabama, with support from other conservative states, is seeking to enforce a state law banning the most commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure. The state has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that blocked...

Alabama lawmakers are preparing for the day when Roe v. Wade is overturned. Abortion will not become illegal immediately when Roe is overturned; instead, the power to legislate abortion will return to the states. On Thursday, the Alabama House passed a bill that would protect unborn babies’ right to life in the event that Roe is overturned; legislators voted 67-14 in favor of the measure, Alabama Media Group reports. The Associated Press reports the bill would amend the state constitution to declare Alabama a “right to life” state. If the bill passes the state Senate, the amendment also would have...

SB 24, the "permitless" or Constitutional carry bill in Alabama, cleared another hurdle on the first of March, 2017. It passed the Senate Judiciary committee. From thenewstribune.com: A bill that would add Alabama to the list of states that allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a permit advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The committee voted 6-3 for the bill after a fiery public hearing with law enforcement officers largely opposing it and gun rights groups speaking in favor of it. The bill now moves to the Senate floor. There were numerous Second Amendment supporters...

Alabama and Louisiana passed laws in 2016 mandating cursive proficiency in public schoolsCursive writing is looping back into style in schools across the country after a generation of students raised on keyboarding, texting and printing out letters longhand. Alabama and Louisiana passed laws in 2016 mandating cursive proficiency in public schools, the latest of 14 states to require cursive. And last fall, the 1.1 million-student New York City school system encouraged teaching cursive to students in the third grade. Penmanship proponents contend writing words in a single line is just a faster way of taking notes. Others say students...

A DeKalb County theater will not be showing the new "Beauty and the Beast" film when it is released because it features a gay character. The Henagar Drive-In Theatre posted on its Facebook page Thursday night that it would not show the film when it is released later this month, due to it featuring Disney's first gay character. "If I can't sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it," a post on the theater's Facebook page said. The theater has since deleted its Facebook page.

A little girl who idolizes Melania Trump is paying homage to the first lady by dressing up just like her. On Monday, @WEdwarda tweeted a photo of the 8-year-old girl on Twitter, writing, “8 year-old-girl from Alabama picks Melania Trump for her schools favorite first lady project. So cute!” The girl is dressed in a pint-sized version of Trump’s powder blue inaugural outfit: a Ralph Lauren dress with matching coat, leather gloves, and stilettos. Mini Melania also wears her hair in an updo and carries a bright blue box, similar to the one from Tiffany & Co. that the first...

Happening NOW: White van plowed into the Gulf Shores High School Marching Band. At least nine transported to the Hospital, so far. Parade is canceled.

MUSCLE SHOALS -- Groups opposing the agenda of President Donald Trump are springing up all over the nation and the Shoals is no different. Members of the organization claim when the Indivisible Guide was released as a Google document file in December, it was downloaded more than 1 million times. It contained ways to keep up with what's going on in Congress, and how to influence your member of Congress through grassroots activism. Today, there are roughly 7,000 Indivisible groups across the country, including at least 25 in Alabama. Indivisible Northwest Alabama came together in late January, and a...

TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, AL (WBRC) - Thousands of automotive jobs are coming to west Alabama but to get those jobs, you will require technical skill and training. They're jobs with current and future automotive parts suppliers for companies like Mercedes Benz US International. Donny Jones, COO for the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, says training for those jobs is already underway. "What we're seeing with the power grant and the $1.5 million we'll have an adult education component in K through 12 and preparing people for the jobs coming available here in West Alabama," Jones said. The positions are coming...

Members of the Outcast Voters League and Rep. John Rogers hold a press conference about gun laws in Alabama (Photo: Ivana Hrynkiw/AL.com) Birmingham organization the Outcast Voters League and State Rep. John Rogers held a press conference yesterday to propose stricter gun laws in Alabama. AL.com reports OVL President Frank Matthews was there to push a proposed piece of legislation known as the Sheri Williams Mandatory Gun Changes Act, named for a woman who was shot and killed by a stray bullet in 2013. “We’re not against gun rights… [but] demand accountability and responsibility of gun owners,” Matthews said. Rep....