Free Republic

Four people were killed and at least 21 others injured when “multiple shots” erupted in a popular entertainment district of Birmingham, Alabama Saturday night as police assured they will “hunt down” those responsible. Birmingham Police said it was responding to the scene where “multiple people were shot with possibly multiple casualties just after 11 p.m. near 20th Street and Magnolia Ave. in Five Points South, a popular nightlife section of the city. The Five Points South area has numerous entertainment venues, restaurants and bars and often attracts large crowds on Saturday nights.

A Jefferson County man with a lengthy criminal history has been convicted of soliciting the murder of federal prosecutor in Birmingham. The federal jury on Thursday found Michael Roman Black, 32, guilty of threatening to murder and soliciting the murder of a federal prosecutor, and for making false statements to a federal agent, according to a Friday announced by Acting Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Kevin P. Davidson. 0:12 / 0:30 Middle District prosecutors tried the case since the threat was against a prosecutor in Birmingham. Black, who has had addresses in Bessemer and Hueytown, was previously convicted in...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is plowing ahead with his plan to avert a government shutdown despite GOP opposition that is large enough to tank the effort, setting the stage for a potentially embarrassing vote on the House floor that will foil the Speaker’s funding strategy. At least six Republicans, including hard-line conservatives and defense hawks, have said they will vote against Johnson’s government funding gambit, which pairs a six-month continuing resolution (CR) with a Trump-backed bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Republicans can only afford to lose four of their members if all Democrats vote “no” and there is...

The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested an illegal immigrant from Guatemala for impersonating Americans and voting in federal elections. 42-year-old Angelica Maria Francisco was taken into custody after it was revealed she had been illegally voting in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. She was charged with “false claims of citizenship in connection with voting, false statements in application for a United States passport, use of a United States passport obtained by false statements, and aggravated identity theft.” Francisco agreed to plead guilty to all charges. According to court documents, the illegal immigrant, who has been residing in...

The Sylacauga city (Alabama) council meeting ended abruptly Thursday night after council president Tiffany Nix shut down public comment after citizens voiced concern with a recent influx of Haitian migrants.

A 64-year-old retired U.S. Army colonel was shot three times during the purchase of a dump trailer brokered on Facebook Marketplace. The shooting happened late Sunday afternoon in Cullman County, and the 21-year-old suspect entered the country illegally roughly two years ago, said Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry. “I’m pissed off today,’’ Gentry said during a Wednesday press conference. “I’m pissed off that we’re even having to have this conversation.” The suspect was identified as Abel Medardo Sacrab-Chen of Guatemala. Sacrab-Chen was shot by the victim during the incident. Sacrab-Chen is charged with first-degree robbery and certain persons forbidden to...

It’s every tomophobians’ worst nightmare. According to multiple reports, an alleged interstate case of a medical procedure going horrifically wrong has the family of the deceased accusing the doctor of gross malpractice. William Bryan, a resident of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.. reportedly died after a Florida surgeon removed the wrong organ during an operation. ... Bryan was taken to Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital in Walton County, Florida, on Aug. 18. What happened next was, as the Bryan family’s attorney, Joe Zarzaur, put it, “one of the most egregious cases of medical malpractice that I’ve ever been involved with.” .......

An Opelika woman is charged with domestic violence and assault following a Lee County shooting that left a man injured. 38-year-old Heather Manning allegedly shot her husband at 169 Bar and Grill. She was arrested and faces the following charges: According to Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones, deputies arrived at the restaurant around 1:30 a.m. CST on Sept. 1 and found a 45-year-old male who had been shot in the abdomen in the parking lot. Jones said Manning was with the victim and identified as the shooter. The victim’s name has not been released. The victim was transported to the...

A federal appeals court rejected an appeal by pro-transgender advocates, allowing Alabama to keep protecting children and youths from transgender advocates. The good news was matched by other events in Texas, Virginia, and Missouri where judges and university officials rejected demands from transgender advocates seeking to minimize the public’s recognition of the two male and female sexes. The United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals released a divided 173-page decision in which ten out of 11 judges took part, according to the Alabama Reflector. In the decision from the court, there were five dissenting opinions and a concurrence written by...

Guest Post by Miriam Judith It doesn’t even have to be a swing state… State officials have discovered over 3,000 illegal voters registered on Alabama’s state voter rolls. This report comes following Secretary of State Wes Allen ordering the removal of all non-citizens from the election database. During the officials’ review, the state found a whopping 3,251 individuals with ‘alien registration numbers’ who were registered to vote – despite it being a federal offense. The U.S. Constitution and federal laws unequivocally stipulate that only U.S. citizens are entitled to vote in federal elections. Secretary Allen’s decisive action to remove these...

The Republican National Committee’s director of security said that the explanation of the purported January 6 pipe bomb plot, and the response by authorities, “make no sense whatsoever.” Kenneth Capolino, a former Capitol Police officer who went on to work as the RNC’s director of security, was the man who personally alerted Capitol Police to the bomb near the RNC and managed the emergency response. Capolino told The Daily Wire, in his first public remarks on the incident, that it looked like a stereotypical IED, or improvised explosive device, that is used by law enforcement in training sessions. “Any of...

Terry Andrew Heflin, 45, the Democratic candidate for District 5 of the Clay County Commission, has been charged with seven counts of voter fraud with unlawful use of absentee ballots, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced Wednesday. The indictment against Heflin alleges he falsified applications to vote absentee for multiple people and used their names to vote for himself by the ballot.

Vice President Nick Saban?The long and winding road to the presidential election took another twist on Sunday, when President Joe Biden announced that he would not accept the Democratic Nomination for President, choosing instead to focus on the remainder of his term in office. President Biden immediately endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination, ahead of the party’s convention in August. The move led to immediate speculation over whether Vice President Harris would indeed be the party’s nominee and if so, who her running mate would be. The early focus has been on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator...

Their vending machines are locked and loaded. Two grocery stores in Alabama are selling gun ammunition in artificial intelligence-powered “retail kiosks” that scan buyers’ identification cards and faces before spitting out bullets. The refrigerator-sized machines, located at Fresh Value stores in Tuscaloosa and Pell City, use 360-degree facial recognition to verify a customer’s age and ID in order to make it easier for folks to get firearm ammo, AL.com reported. “One of the ways we’re changing the landscape of ammunition sales is to make it more available,” a rep for American Rounds, which operates the machines, said in a promo...

The ruling requires the administration to keep processing new applications to export LNG as the Texas-led lawsuit proceeds. Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction in his lawsuit against the Biden administration over their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Joined by 15 other state attorneys general, Paxton secured the win Monday after a federal district court judge in Western Louisiana ruled that the new administrative plan should be paused as the case proceeds. “This ruling means [President Joe] Biden’s illegal ban does not prevent Texas natural gas from reaching market while the lawsuit continues,” stated Paxton in...

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade, states have been allowed to pass their own abortion laws. As certain states began to pass stronger protections for preborn human beings, other states began to eliminate protections — and ‘abortion travel’ became a hot-button issue. Some companies began funding abortion travel as a “benefit” to employees, and abortion funds began to pay for airfare, hotels, and the like in order to assist women living in pro-life states to obtain abortions in states where abortion was more available. Since that time, the Guttmacher Institute...

The Population Council, the eugenics organization credited with bringing the abortion pill (RU-486) to the United States, turns 65 this month — but it is nothing to celebrate. In 1952, John D. Rockefeller III founded the Population Council and served as the organization’s first president. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Population Council, Inc., was incorporated following Rockefeller’s Conference on Population Problems, “…to stimulate, encourage, promote, conduct and support significant activities in the broad field of population.” Like its founder, the Population Council’s other members were concerned about population issues — and, like other population organizations such as Planned Parenthood,...

Three Alabama sisters are accused of trying to hire a woman to inject one of their sons-in-law with a lethal dose of heroin but did not care if he was stabbed or shot as long as the job was done. Mitzy Gaye Smith, 54, Judy Owen, 61, and Sandra Grimes, 57, face federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, conspiracy to transfer a firearm to be used in a violent crime and use of interstate commerce facilities to commit murder for hire, according to court documents. The plot came to light this month when a woman came forward...

She’s beauty, and she’s grace — that’s what judges thought about an Atmore woman who they crowned Miss Alabama in the National American Miss pageant. Sara Milliken, now known as Miss Alabama, is a 23-year-old who competed for the crown for the third time over Memorial Day weekend.

The United Auto Workers union is challenging the results of last week’s organizing vote of Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama, in which workers voted against union representation, and is asking federal officials to order a new election. ... Union organizing failed at the Alabama plant with 56% of the vote, or 2,642 workers, casting ballots against the UAW, according to the NLRB, which oversaw the election. More than 90% of the 5,075 eligible Mercedes-Benz workers voted in the election.