Pat Duggins

Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, kicked off his campaign for governor Friday, saying voters deserve a choice and a leader who will put aside divisions to address the state's pressing needs.

Huntsville, Dothan, Birmingham, and Garden City in Cullman County spread the word early about the brutal overnight cold. The low temperatures along the Tennessee Valley, over the weekend and into Monday morning, are forecast to be as low as the mid teens. Even the Wiregrass region toward the south was predicted to be in the mid-twenties.

The Alabama Public Radio spent eleven months investigating three critical anniversaries in the state’s civil rights history in 2025. Our documentary is titled "...a death, a bridge, and a seat on the bus."This year marked sixty years since civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot twice by an Alabama State Trooper on February 18, 1965. His death sparked voting rights marchers to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where police on horseback attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas. The incident became known as “bloody Sunday.” Rosa Parks, who sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, is a familiar name. Our series includes her story, beyond refusing to surrender her seat on a municipal bus. We also hear remembrances from two people on the “front lines” of the boycott that made Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior international figures.These events not only impacted public opinion in the U.S. but also in Europe. APR formed a focus group of college students majoring in American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark. Their reaction shows Alabama and the U.S. still has a long way to go.

The Senate on Thursday rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. The Kaiser Family Foundation says close to a half million Alabamians depend on the ACA for health coverage.

The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday approved licenses for dispensaries, a key step to making medical marijuana available in the state after years of delay. Commission Chairman Rex Vaughn estimated the products will be available in the spring of 2026. The state’s medical marijuana program has been delayed by false starts and litigation over who should hold the licenses to sell and grow cannabis

Eli Lilly, known for medications including Prozac, the weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, and the mass producing insulin and the polio vaccine, is coming to Huntsville. The Company plans to build a $6 billion dollar manufacturing facility in north Alabama.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in a case that could make it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. The justices are taking up an appeal from Alabama, which wants to put to death a man who lower federal courts found is intellectually disabled and shielded from execution.

The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from an agreement with the city of Houston to curb illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods, part of the Trump administration’s broad dismantling of environmental justice initiatives. This follows a similar move in Alabama.

Memphis has hired former Alabama associate head coach Charles Huff as football coach after his one season at Southern Miss. Athletic director Ed Scott announced the hiring with Huff replacing Ryan Silverfield, who left for Arkansas at the end of November.

Arizona took over the top spot in the AP Top 25 men's college basketball poll, a reward for a perfect start to the season that includes a quartet of wins against ranked foes, including a lopsided victory over Auburn last weekend. Alabama remained at No. 12.