West Alabama Tuesday Briefing
It is Tuesday February 13, 2024. It is Fat Tuesday, the last day of Mardi Gras and the day before Ash Wednesday in Mobile and New Orleans. It is the day of one big last blowout before the Easter Lenten season of sacrifice.
Six parades will roll through the streets of Alabama's Port City today and tonight and there will be parties and parades in other cities across the coastal region once ruled by France.
Fat Tuesday is celebrated around the world in its various forms all of which harken back to roots of spring festivals and religious fasting in preparation for the Holy day of Easter.
After a stormy Sunday and Monday, the weather is clearing up for the last day of celebration with decreasing clouds through the morning.
The Forecast:
Fat Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 57. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 33. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Valentine's Day: Sunny, with a high near 63. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. South wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47.
Friday: A 20 percent chance of showers after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 65.
Friday Night: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 41. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
The Weekend: Small chance of showers before noon Saturday before becoming mostly cloudy. and then sunny on Sunday. Highs in the mid 50s to mid 60s. Lows from the low 30s to mid 40s.
Topping the News:
Tuscaloosa Police continue to investigate a fatality in East Tuscaloosa this morning. A pedestrian was struck on University Blvd. east at Juanita Drive this morning. Circumstances of the incident are expected to be released later today or tomorrow.
Six public high schools including four in West Alabama, Choctaw, Greene, Marengo, and Sumter counties, will split a $1.2 million check provided by Democrat West Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell. The money will go to improve security, training, and knowledge across the campuses.
44-year-old James Stafford has been arrested and charged with the theft of a Jefferson County School bus. Stafford is charged with first degree theft of property and is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on a $20,000 bond.
The bus was found on Free Will Road in Walker County. Investigators were able to follow footprints and use a K9 to locate Stafford.
As expected, Alabama’s two Republican U-S Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville both voted against the U-S Senate’s $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan this morning.
Tuberville told Fox Business News that it is a waste of taxpayer dollars to help another country under attack from an American enemy. 29 no votes were Republican.
The aid package now goes to the U-S House where the GOP majority is expected to attempt to kill it.
Gas prices are up in Alabama by 4¢ over last week’s prices. The Alabama average is $2.93 a gallon, up from $2.91 a week ago and 12¢ a gallon more than a month ago.
Tuscaloosa County gas averages $2.89 while the highest price is $3.13 a gallon in Perry County. An even steeper increase is expected toward the end of this week according to Triple-A.
Experts advise problems at several of the major refineries, along with an increase in the price of crude oil, are behind the most recent bump.
Eric Robert Rudolph, the man who fatally bombed the 1996 Olympics and an abortion clinic in Birmingham has been denied a chance for a resentencing by a federal appeals court.
“Bo Bikes Bama” the annual bicycle ride to raise money for the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund will return on the 13th anniversary of the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak that devastated Tuscaloosa and other communities across the state.
The first ride came through Tuscaloosa, subsequent ones have trekked 60-miles across East Alabama.
Bo Jackson said he knew he had to help, so he called then Gov. Robert Bentley, during the Super Bowl to discuss it. The annual ride has now raised more than 2 1/5 million dollars.
The second week of the new legislative session gets underway today with a move by some to further reduce or do away with the state’s grocery tax which helps fund education.
Last session, lawmakers passed legislation to gradually cut the state’s 4% grocery tax by half. It dropped to 3% last year. The goal was to get it to 2% this year, but that is not happening.
Allison King of the Alabama education Association is cautioning that further cuts could damage the State Education Trust Fund unless replacement funds can be found.
Alabama is one of 13 states that taxes groceries, including Mississippi.
River Flood Warnings continue in effect for the Tombigbee River at Bevill, Demopolis and Gainesville Lock and Dams affecting Greene, Marengo, Pickens, Sumter and Hale Counties…There is also a Flood Warning for the Black Warrior River at Selden Lock and Dam affecting Greene, Marengo and Hale Counties. Rivers are expected to crest anywhere from two to four feet above flood stage later this week.
In Sports:
123 million. That is the number of people who watched Sunday’s overtime Super Bowl win by Kansas City over San Francisco. It is the largest audience to ever watch a TV program.
TV ratings experts estimate as many as 10 to 15 million in the viewing audience were "Swifties", fans of singer Taylor Swift.
Despite being embarrassed at Auburn last week, the big win at LSU Saturday helped propel the Bama Men’s Basketball Team up one spot to 15th in this week’s AP and Coaches Polls. The Tide is a projected 3 seed in March Madness.
Bama doesn’t play again until Saturday morning against Texas A&M.
Have a fabulous "Fat Tuesday" but don't forget, tomorrow is Valentines Day.
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