Pat Duggins

The U.S. Coast Guard in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi launched emergency preparations ahead of the arrival of subtropical Storm Alberto. The National Weather Service says the system is speeding up and is expected to hit the Florida panhandle Monday afternoon before heading north into east-central Alabama. Alberto is expected to retain tropical storm force through much of its trek up Alabama. Heavy downpours were expected to begin lashing parts of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Sunday.

Alabama health officials say they've identified an Auburn University student with a case of pulmonary tuberculosis. The state Department of Public Health says they notified the school this week of plans to investigate and ensure that students and employees will be screened quickly to see if they were infected. Last Wednesday, the state and university began identifying students enrolled in classes, as well as faculty and staff, who might have been in close contact with the student. Symptoms can include chest pain, chronic coughing, coughing with blood, chills, fever and loss of appetite.

Birmingham's Steel City Jazz Festival has been canceled this year. Organizers say the event will be back in 2019. The festival was set for June after moving from Linn Park to Legion Field. Founder Cedric Allen says the festival's fans didn't like the change. Al.com reports ticketholders can get refunds at the place of purchase or hold their tickets until next year's event. Since its inception in 2014, the Steel City Jazz Festival has presented a mix of jazz, soul, funk and R&B acts on its stage in downtown Birmingham.

Democratic gubernatorial contender Sue Bell Cobb is reviewing the case of a high level campaign worker who was arrested for a sex offender registration violation. Paul Littlejohn was arrested Thursday. He’s the director of Cobb's Jefferson County field office. He is also a registered sex offender following a 1985 rape conviction. The charges accuse Littlejohn of working too close to a school or daycare and failing to update his employment with state authorities. Littlejohn works at a church which operates a day care. Online court records do not list an attorney for him.

The U.S. Department of Justice says Connor Glass and Montrez Martin accused in a scheme involving the printing and passing of bogus one hundred dollar and twenty dollar bills. Glass is accused of printing the fake currency and Martin with spending it. The two allegedly conducted the scheme in Cullman and Jackson counties last year. The indictment also charges Glass with passing counterfeit bills at three Dollar General Stores. Martin is a convicted felon who was also charged with possession of a handgun. He was convicted of theft in Iowa in 2014 and assault in Alabama in 2017.

Alabama voters will have two constitutional amendments on the ballot in November during this election year. One would declare Alabama to be an anti-abortion state, and the other would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in state buildings like courts and schools. Both measures will appear as referendums on the general-election ballot. The anti-abortion item is considered largely symbolic, since abortion is still legal under federal law. Critics say the amendment would violate the separation of church and state and prompt federal lawsuits.

Alabama Public Radio news director Pat Duggins, and Center for Public Television student videographers Jeb Brackner and Wilson Weirich, ventured to Montgomery to interview Nelson Malden, who was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s barber. Pat produced a radio version for air on Alabama Public Radio, while Brackner and Weirich produced this short documentary in a collaborative effort between APR and CPT.

Areas of Alabama are cleaning up after what’s called significant damage from tornadoes last night. The National Weather Service in Huntsville says at least three confirmed tornadoes hit the area. Rooves were ripped off and power lines torn down, but there are no reports of injuries. Alabama Power says nearly ten thousand customers spent the night without power, with Calhoun County being the hardest hit spot. The athletic director at Jacksonville State University reports there was significant damage to the campus. The school’s Coliseum suffered damage, but it’s still standing.

The director of the state Ethics Commission says a bill before Alabama lawmakers could weaken ethics enforcement in the state. “Considerably,” chairman Tom Albritton says of the potential damage. The House of Representatives approved a bill to exempt economic developers from the definition of “lobbyist” under the state ethics law.

Supporters argue it is needed to help Alabama compete with other states for projects and factories by keeping developers' activity confidential. Critics said it opens up an exemption in the ethics law that governs interactions with government officials.

Concordia College Alabama will close its doors at the end of the spring semester. The Selma Times-Journal reports the faculty, staff and the student body were informed of the decision last week. Dr. James Lyons delivered the news. He’s the college's chief transition officer and interim president. The school was founded in 1922 and has a current student population of around four hundred. It is Selma's only four-year college accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

All sides are picking up the pieces following the postponed execution of Alabama death row inmate Doyle Lee Hamm. State officials called off the lethal injection process after the medical team unsuccessfully tried to find a usable vein to administer the three drug cocktail used in capital punishment. Technicians worked to insert the needle repeatedly in the prisoner’s legs, ankles, and groin in a process that caused Hamm severe bleeding and pain.

Two North Alabama's newspapers are cutting back on their paper editions. The Decatur Daily and the Times Daily report they are discontinuing print editions on Saturdays and Mondays beginning next month. Publisher Clint Shelton says the change is due to the rising cost of newsprint and the changing habits of its readers, who are turning more to the online edition of the newspapers. “While the frequency of the print edition is changing,” says Shelton. “The newspaper's commitment to covering news, sports, events and stories every day of the week remains a 24/7 priority."

You can add one more unusual memorial to Alabama, which is known for a list of them. The city of Eufaula is adding to the list with a monument to a fish. Officials in the lakeside town on the Georgia border have unveiled a 12-foot-tall replica of a largemouth bass to celebrate its claim as the "Big Bass Capital of the World." Bass fishing draws thousands of people to Lake Eufaula each year, and the state tourism agency awarded a grant to construct the monument. It was unveiled Tuesday.

Health officials in Alabama are investigating fifty four flu-related deaths. The list includes one child. Data from the Alabama Department of Public Health shows the bulk of the deaths have occurred in the Northern District of the state and in Jefferson County. Both areas have combined for twenty three flu-related deaths in the state. AL.com quotes the ADPH which says nine deaths tied to the flu were reported in northeastern and east central Alabama, while the west central and east regions have four each. Mobile only has one reported flu-related death to the ADPH.

Dennis Edwards, the lead singer of the Motown group The Temptations, has died at the age of seventy four.

The Fairfield, Alabama native joined the band in 1968 and went onto to record hits including “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” and “Cloud Nine.” Edwards’ family confirmed to CBS News that the singer died yesterday in Chicago. A cause of death was not revealed. Edwards would have turned seventy five years old today.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay in the case of convicted Alabama killer Vernon Madison. His legal team has argued that the inmate should be spared because he has developed dementia and can't remember killing a police officer three decades ago. Madison was sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of Mobile Police officer Julius Schulte. The lawman had responded to a report of a missing child placed by Madison's then-girlfriend. Prosecutors said Madison crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.

As the nation honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior this weekend, southern states are banding together to promote civil rights tourism. Fourteen states stretching from Kansas to Delaware, including all of the Deep South, are joining to promote the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The monument highlights about one hundred and thirty sites linked to the modern civil rights movement. The list includes the hotel in Memphis where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated to the birthplace of the confederacy. The joint effort is being unveiled as part of the MLK holiday weekend.

“We can’t react to every statement, every Tweet that the President feels necessary to put out,” says actor and activist Danny Glover following alleged racist statements by President Trump.

Democratic U.S. Senator Dick Durbin confirmed that Mr. Trump referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa as ****hole countries. The reported statement prompted outrage and demands for a Presidential apology from lawmakers and officials in the U.S., Africa and elsewhere.

The lawsuit over Alabama’s voter ID law may not be over just yet. Groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, are appealing a federal judge's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the measure. U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler tossed out the lawsuit on Wednesday, saying the state had provided free voter IDs to people who did not have them.