Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is asking U.S. District Judge Callie Granade to keep gay marriage in the state on hold.
Strange filed a motion yesterday asking Granade to delay any more gay marriage decisions until the U.S. Supreme Court rules later this year.
On January 23, Granade ruled Alabama's gay marriage ban unconstitutional. That ruling started a complex legal battle. Gay couples began marrying in most counties in the state, until the Alabama Supreme Court directed probate judges to stop giving licenses to same-sex couples last week. Several gay rights organizations filed a motion Friday asking Granade to order the judges to resume issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Strange says that decision would just cause more confusion, and increase tension between state and federal courts.
The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments next month on the same-sex marriage debate. They're expected to issue a national ruling in June.
While many people in Alabama reflected on the events of “Bloody Sunday” last weekend, a group in New York City organized their own march across one of the nation’s most recognizable bridges.
Organizers of the “Selma is Everywhere” group brought hundreds of New Yorkers to the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday. They marched across the bridge to help commemorate the landmark event of the civil rights movement in Selma.
The group marched arm-in-arm at the front of the procession across the famed span. Many in the racially mixed crowd carried signs displaying a photo of marchers walking in solidarity with Selma protesters on Manhattan's 125th Street in 1965.
Others had signs invoking the recent high-profile deaths of black men by white police officers in Missouri and New York.?
Voters in Baldwin County will head to the polls to decide on a tax increase to fund education, but not everyone's in favor of that tax hike.
A public meeting last night heard from opponents to the Baldwin County school tax proposal.
Voters will say yes or no to forty percent increase in local ad valorum taxes with the money going to education.
The tea party based group Common Sense Campaign is fighting the idea, and that prompted last night’s meeting at the Ryan’s Steakhouse in Foley. The campaign says they’re not totally opposed to tax dollars for classrooms. The ballot includes a renewal of a seven mill property tax, which the group favors. One mill of property tax means one dollar for every thousand dollars of assessed property value.
Voters in Tuscaloosa County recently approved renewing property taxes for schools in their community.
Birmingham's airport started the year with an increase in passenger traffic.
January traffic at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport amounted to over 185,000 passengers.
That's an increase of 3.3 percent, or about 6,000 more travelers, than in January last year.
In January 2014, passenger traffic was affected slightly by a rare closure of the airport's main runway due to a snowstorm late in the month.
Among airlines operating in Birmingham, United Express posted the largest increase over the past 12 months, with over 20 percent more passengers in January compared to January last year.