Pat Duggins

Alabama’s embattled Chief Justice Roy Moore will be back in court today-- as a defendant. Moore is facing judicial ethics charges that could result in his removal from the Alabama Supreme Court. State prosecutors say in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, Moore issued an administrative order telling the state’s probate judges that Alabama’s ban on gay marriage remained in effect. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the ethics complaints against Moore.

A three year old legal challenge over a Tuscaloosa City School Board Race appears to be over. Circuit judge Jim Roberts dismissed Kelly Horwitz’ case over her failed bid for re-election in August 2013. Horwitz claimed her opponent Cason Kirby won the vote with ballots that were cast illegally. The judge ruled there wasn’t enough testimony from the one hundred and fifty nine voters in question to change the results of the race.

Join Alabama Public Radio for "live" coverage of each of the Presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Click below for selections of APR's award-winning coverage of the campaign here in Alabama.

Alabama leads the nation in prescription opioid painkiller use, and politics may be one reason. Manufacturers and their allies have hired an average of eighteen lobbyists in Alabama each year since 2006. A joint investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity found that the organizations spent $880 million and hired an annual average of 1,350 lobbyists in state capitals around the country from 2006 through 2015. The organizations' lobbying in Alabama ranked 33rd in the country when drug makers' lobbying hires are compared to all lobbying activity.

Colonial Pipeline says it will construct a temporary pipeline that will bypass a leaking section of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County. The company gave no timetable on when the project will be completed or what path the temporary bypass will take. Colonial admits the leak from its primary line leaked up to three sixty thousand gallons of gasoline near the town of Helena. The Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental officials had no initial comment on the possible impact of the spill on this rural region of Alabama.

Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn says an inmate serving twenty years for robbery will be prosecuted in connection with the stabbing at Holman Prison in Atmore. Authorities say corrections officer Kenneth Bettis died Friday after being stabbed on September first. The attack occurred at Holman prison, which has been the site of multiple outbreaks of sporadic violence. Critics blame acts of violence on Alabama’s prison jail overcrowding problem.

Fuel truck drivers may be working extra hours in the coming days. The governors of Alabama and Georgia have lifted restrictions on the number of hours these drivers can work. Robert Bentley and Nathan Deal hope to prevent gasoline shortages after the shutdown of a leaking pipeline in rural Alabama. Bentley's order remains in place for thirty days unless he cancels it. Governor Deal issued seven day order. Governors can suspend federal regulations during emergencies. Colonial Pipeline has said most of the leaked gasoline is contained in a retention pond near the city of Helena.

An Alabama prison inmate is dead following an attack at the Elmore Correctional Facility. The prison is on lockdown after an inmate was stabbed to death. The Department of Corrections says twenty four year-old Davieon Cotez Williams was stabbed multiple times during fight yesterday afternoon. Prison officials say another inmate is a suspect. Critics of Alabama’s prison system blame overcrowding for violence like this. APR’s MacKenzie Bates will look into these complaints tomorrow as part of APR on-going series on prison reform and justice reform.

Can a member of the Alabama Public Service Commission make money off a solar power deal? That’s the question going back to a state ethics panel. PSC Commissioner Chip Beeker wants to lease land to a solar energy company that in turn would sell electricity back to a power company regulated by the PSC. Beeker is the one asking the ethics board to take up the issue again. The Alabama Ethics Commission deadlocked on the matter this month. The ethics panel listed the opinion on today’s agenda. However, a lawyer representing Beeker says the panel may reconsider.

There will be no public vote on an Alabama lottery. APR’s Pat Duggins reports time is also running out for lawmakers to make up for a miscarriage of justice when they resume a special session next week.

State Senator Paul Bussman submitted a bill on the case of Anthony Ray Hinton. He spent thirty years in prison after being falsely convicted in a double murder in 1985.

Bussman wants to compensate Hinton through Alabama’s Wrongful Incarceration Act. The measure states that prison exonerees can get fifty thousand dollars for each year of wrongful imprisonment.

Alabama voters won’t be casting ballots on a state lottery this November. But, there will be a proposed constitutional amendment to keep an estimated six hundred local laws from being declared null and void. A lawsuit is challenging House procedures which could make lawmakers' “yes” votes to allow voters to decide on a list of local ballot measures unconstitutional. If the legal challenge is successful, these local laws might be ruled invalid even if voters approved them. Senator Cam Ward says the measures possibly at risk include one in Florence allowing Sunday alcohol sales.

APR airs the first part of our ongoing series on prison and justice reform tomorrow. I'll report on how Alabama is the only U.S. state that allows judges to overrule a jury's recommendation of life in prison, and go for the death penalty. Click here for Birmingham attorney Richard Jaffe. He represented Randall Padgett, whose judge overrode the jury. Padgett was later exonerated. Pat D.

http://goo.gl/EPdxzg

Alabama doctors will be paid less for handling certain cases for the state’s Medicaid agency. As of August 1st, Alabama will no longer compensate doctors for what are known as “enhanced payments” for specific primary care visits and services. The higher than usual fees were paid for by the Federal Affordable Care Act in 2013 and 2014. Alabama chose to continue the higher payments in 2015, but elected to cancel them. The state’s Medicaid Agency is in the midst of what Governor Robert Bentley is calling a budget crisis.

TVA is closing and capping 10 coal ash ponds at power plants in Tennessee and Alabama, against the urging of environmentalists who want the ash dug up and removed. TVA issued its decision on Friday, affirming plans to keep the coal ash at six fossil plants where the ash was dumped over the past half century. TVA says the best, fastest and cheapest method of cleaning up the ponds is to close them and put a cap on the wastes to prevent leakage.

A judge dismissed Alabama's lawsuit against the federal government over refugee placement. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Ott rejected Alabama's claim that federal officials are not consulting with states on refugee placement. The dismissal comes a month after a judge threw out a similar Texas lawsuit, ruling that states had no authority over resettlements that are handled by the federal government. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley filed the lawsuit in January. The state asked the judge to block any refugee settlement unless the state was given security and medical information on each refugee.

A suspect in the killing of three Baton Rouge police officers was reportedly a student at the University of Alabama. Lawmen shot Gavin Long to death following an ambush.  Multiple news reports are quoting the University of Alabama’s website that Long was on the Dean’s list at the Tuscaloosa campus. The suspect was reportedly enrolled at the Tuscaloosa campus for one semester in 2012. Three others police officers were wounded in the attack, one critically. The Associated Press reports two other "persons of interest" are being questioned.

Tuscaloosa WBC Boxing Champion Deontay Wilder retained his title with a technical knockout in the eighth round against Chris Arreola. The hometown boxer fought at least half of last night's bout with a broken right hand and a torn right bicep, and still won the match by TKO . Arreloa's corner stopped the fight after the challenger's left eye appeared swollen shut, and he had been knocked down in the fourth round. Wilder visibly winced in pain as trainer Jay Deas removed his right glove during a post-fight interview and applied an ice bag to the boxer's right bicep.