BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An adventurous kangaroo named Sheila turned heads and halted traffic after escaping onto Interstate 85 in Macon County on Tuesday, causing a two-vehicle crash and prompting a temporary shutdown of the busy Alabama highway. The marsupial, owned by Patrick Starr of Lee County, reportedly slipped out of her enclosure late Tuesday morning…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of Alabama at Birmingham has discontinued a scholarship program for Black medical students after the Trump administration launched a discrimination investigation. The Herschell Lee Hamilton, M.D., Endowed Scholarship in Medicine, established in 2013, was designed to provide tuition support for Black medical students who maintained a 3.0 GPA and demonstrated…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama lawmakers have approved a bill that would ban classroom instruction and discussion related to gender identity and sexual orientation for all public school students from prekindergarten through twelfth grade, expanding the state’s existing restrictions to cover every grade level. House Bill 244, sponsored by Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, also prohibits…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – An Alabama Senate committee has deadlocked on a bill that would have required state and local agencies to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” effectively halting the legislation for the 2025 session. House Bill 247, which passed the House 73-25 on April 17, called for all official…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama’s arts and humanities organizations are facing a potential financial crisis as federal officials move to slash funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), threatening to strip up to $1 million annually from state grant programs. The Alabama State Council on the Arts,…

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A California man was arrested April 18 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport after authorities said they found 24 pounds of marijuana in his suitcase. Christian Machado, 22, of Fresno, Calif., was charged with trafficking marijuana and booked into the Jefferson County Jail on a $500,000 bond. The marijuana, seized from Machado’s luggage, has…