Copyright AL.com
I hope a lot of y’all were able to see the Northern Lights last night. It was showing off pretty good in some places by Alabama standards. Workplace tragedy An industrial accident resulted in the death of a man who apparently wasn’t supposed to be on the work site, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson. Authorities weren’t releasing many details yesterday. But the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office said Carson Chambliss of Birmingham suffered blunt-force trauma in an incident at CMC Steel on 50th Street South. Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates also said Chambliss wasn’t an employee of the steel fabricator and that he was not authorized to be on the property. A crossfire of praise Republican U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama reportedly was a major player in negotiating enough votes to move the Senate beyond the impasse that shut down the federal government, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason. On Monday night, the Senate voted to end the shutdown with 60 votes, exactly the number needed to break the filibuster. Politico reported that Britt, along with fellow Republican Susan Collins of Maine and Democrat Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, was part of the “core group of negotiators.” Republican Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota called Britt a rock star. Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia told Punchbowl News that it was Britt who persuaded the White House to compromise on Kaine’s demand that the resolution rehire workers laid off during the shutdown and prevent future layoffs. Litigation option for Tuberville Also in that agreement to end the shutdown was a provision regarding former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2020 riots at the U.S. Capitol over the presidential election. The New York Times reported that the provision allows seven Republican senators whose phone records were accessed as part of that investigation to sue the government because the senators had not been notified that their information was being seized. One of those senators is Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville. Tuberville has not announced whether he would sue, but the Times report said the measure allows the senators -- seven total -- to sue for $500,000 on each claim. Tuberville has been said that former President Joe Biden tapped his phone, but the data collected by the investigation included the date and time of calls made on the phones. Ivey Correctional Complex Update If a big government project isn’t coming in late and over budget, is it really coming in at all? Probably not. The Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex, with a current estimated price tag of $1.25 billion, apparently won’t be completed by May, and that delay is going to cost the builders, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason. The delay was first reported by Alabama Daily News. That report said the completion date has now been moved back to October of ’26. State Sen. Greg Albritton, an Atmore Republican, chairs the General Fund committee. He said the change is part of an agreement between the state and the builders. Albritton said the builder will also pay a penalty of around $9 million. The construction of another new prison in Escambia County will be next up. Both facilities will be 4,000-bed men’s prisons. They are part of the state’s response to calls for improvement to the state of Alabama prisons. Those calls included a lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department that claimed the prisons are so violent that they violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Gov. Ivey and others backing the prison-building plan say they will be safer for inmates and correctional officers and be more conducive to providing health services. Quoting “(Nick Saban is) somebody that really, they should get involved in college sports in terms of making sure that, you know, it all works out. Because what’s happening is it looks like it’s not working out too well for colleges, for most of the people, and a lot of the lesser sports are being totally terminated. ... Nick knows this stuff better than anybody. ... He’s really active in it. I think they ought to let Nick Saban take a good, strong look at it. And we all, I can tell you from my standpoint, I’d listen to what he has to say.” President Trump, on a call with ESPN’s Pat McAfee Show, suggesting former Alabama coach Nick Saban take a role in making changes to college sports. More Alabama News Tarrant’s new leader looking hard at finances and a broken reputation Shomari Figures introduces bill to rename post office in honor of Tuskegee Airmen Here’s where prices are rising and falling in south Alabama Some Alabamians going without food, falling behind on bills Man charged with making terrorist threats towards Deshler High School Born on This Date In 1919, microbiologist Welton Taylor of Birmingham. In 1973, dancer (and former wife of Prince) Mayte Garcia, originally of Fort Rucker. The podcast
