West Alabama Wednesday Briefing
It is Wednesday February 14, 2024. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!
It is the day of love, and you are going to love today's weather - Sunny with a high temperature in the mid 60s. With the first day of spring just over a month away you can't beat today's forecast.
According to WalletHub Valentines Day candy, cards and dinner out will ring America's cash registers to the tune of $25.8 billion.
- Men will spend almost twice as much as women, on average.
- Jewelry will account for $6.4B of the total amount.
- A romantic a special evening out will amount to $4.9B.
- Overall, the average night out on the day of love will run up a $185.81 tab.
- 40% will send their love a Valentines Card.
- 57% of Valentines will receive candy.
- 19% of the Valentine gifts will be jewelry.
- 39% percent of Valentine celebrations will involve flowers.
- 30% of all annual flower sales nationally come on Valentines Day.
- $1.5 billion will be spent to give gifts to pets.
- 9 million marriage proposals take place on Valentines Day.
So, thanks to Cupid for keeping those cash registers ringing.
The Forecast:
Today: Sunny, with a high near 64. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 37. South wind around 5 mph.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 67. Southwest wind around 5 mph.
Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45. South wind around 5 mph.
Friday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 67. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Showers likely, mainly before midnight. Cloudy, with a low around 41. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
The Weekend: Showers Saturday and mostly sunny Sunday. Fair night. Highs low to mid 50s. Lows near 30s.
Next Week: Sunny days and partly cloudy nights to start the week with highs in the low to mid 60s and lows in the upper 30s.
Topping the News:
The CRU Hookah Lounge on 69 South no longer has a business license. After an emotional hearing last night, the Tuscaloosa City Council voted to revoke the license in the wake of a fatal beating and shooting of a patron by a lounge employed security guard last month.
Owners of the lounge claimed they cannot be held responsible for actions of a third party. Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley reacted, telling news partner ABC 3340, a company is responsible for the actions of even a contract employee.
Only four of the seven council members were present at the meeting.
The atmosphere was tense at a public meeting of the Oakman Water Works Tuesday. Customers in the Walker County town, east Fayette and in extreme north Tuscaloosa County went more than two weeks without water during the recent sub-freezing weather. Citizens wanted to know what is being done to keep the outage from happening again and complained about little communication from the water works leadership during the outage.
The board approved a credit for all customers impacted by the water issues in January.
51-year-old Bo Gary Tyner has been identified as the person killed when he was struck by a vehicle on University Blvd. at Juanita Drive early yesterday morning. Tyner was taken to the hospital where he died. He is the brother of Tuscaloosa City Council President Kip Tyner.
31-year-old Cedric Marquis Spencer Jr. is being held in the Tuscaloosa County Jail this morning of 1st Degree Human Trafficking charges. Alabama Bureau of Investigation officers were speaking to a woman at a Tuscaloosa Hotel Tuesday on an unrelated situation when they became suspicious. Further investigation discovered evidence the woman was being trafficked by Spencer.
Recent winter and rainy weather is being blamed for a blood donor shortage at the Tuscaloosa West Alabama Red Cross Chapter. In a release, Red Cross identified the biggest need is for Type O. Anyone donating this month will receive a $20.00 Amazon gift card.
We could know later today if a legislative committee will approve casino gaming and lottery bills for consideration in the full house and senate. During a Tuesday public hearing Rep. Chris Blackshear, who chaired a committee studying gaming, claimed the state will benefit.
Illegal gambling runs about $2.3 billion annually in Alabama.
The quarterly Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center Town Hall is set for tomorrow between 11am and 1pm. According to VA, vets and their families will be updated on the latest benefits plus learn how to attend a Veteran’s Claim Clinic that will educate about how to file new claims and check the status of ongoing claims. The town hall will be in the sports atrium of Building 137.
In Sports:
Stillman College baseball opened the Tigers' Homecoming week with a double header sweep of Oakwood University, 10-4 and 9-1, in its 2024 Tiger Field home opener.
Stillman (4-1) will remain home during Homecoming Week to open Southern States Athletic Conference play on Friday, Feb. 16 with a noon doubleheader against Faulkner University. Game three of the series is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. All games will be broadcast on HBCU+.
Alabama Softball freshman Lauren Johnson has been named one of two SEC Freshman of the Week. The Franklin, TN native batted .545 in Bama’s undefeated weekend of games in Atlanta.
ESPN has reshuffled it’s “Way too Early 2024 College Football Pre-season Poll”. The rare move comes after Nick Saban’s retirement at Alabama set off a round of coaching moves. Georgia remains #1 but previously 5th ranked Ohio State which named a number of Bama traitors out of the portal moves up to 2nd. Texas dropped from 2nd to 5th. Ole Miss moved up from 7th to 5th. Mizzou rose from 8th to 7th and the Crimson Tide dropped from 4th to 9th…LSU, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas A&M all moved up in the poll.
Happy Valentines Day!!
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