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Dry, breezy weather makes for dangerous Alabama wildfire conditions

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Dry, breezy weather makes for dangerous Alabama wildfire conditions


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Drought conditions in Alabama are becoming more concerning. With such dry weather, and the breeze that’s sticking around, fires can start easily and spread quickly, destroying property, damaging land, and it could even get to the point of threatening lives.

Just in the last week, the Alabama Forestry Commission worked 111 wildfires that scorched more than 1,881 acres of forestland across the state.

That’s why the entire state is under a fire alert restricting permits for outdoor burning. Anyone who is caught burning a field, grassland, or woodland without a burn permit may face charges.

October is historically the driest month in Alabama, as November approaches, these drought conditions are only expected to get worse with no sign of significant rain in the forecast.

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To report a wildfire, call the Alabama Forestry Commission at 1-800-392-5679. For more information on the current wildfire situation in the state or any other forestry-related issues, contact your local AFC office or visit the agency website at www.forestry.alabama.gov/Pages/Fire/Totals.aspx.

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Alabama

Alabama's Handcrafted Huntsville brings makers together

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Alabama's Handcrafted Huntsville brings makers together


Renaissance re-enactors are busy welding battle breastplates. Upstairs, a future fashion designer sews trim on her latest creation. Volkswagen enthusiasts compare notes on repairing a 1968 Beetle. Handcrafted Huntsville is a hodgepodge of creativity and skill where members learn, collaborate and use a variety of equipment for everything from making jewelry to blacksmithing. When founder Kenny Paone



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Alabama Power Public Safety takes part in annual Rail Safety Day

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Alabama Power Public Safety takes part in annual Rail Safety Day


Alabama Power’s Public Safety Awareness team recently took part in the annual Rail Safety Day event, held at The Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. Partnered between the Heart of Dixie Railroad and Operation Lifesaver of Alabama, the event brought in nearly 1,250 people to celebrate. Attendees were able to not only learn



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Alabama NAACP decries Supreme Court granting presidents legal immunity

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Alabama NAACP decries Supreme Court granting presidents legal immunity


The NAACP Alabama State Conference issued a statement on Tuesday saying the organization was “devastated by the high court ruling in [the] Trump immunity case.”

Benard Simelton, the organization’s president, said that “the Highest Court in the land has failed to protect its citizens from the most dangerous threat to our society, and this ruling, coming from the United States Supreme Court, violates the trust put in it by its citizens.”

Released on Monday, the Supreme Court’s decision on Trump v. United States stated that presidents have “presumptive immunity” for all official acts and “absolute immunity” for all official acts covered by presidents’ “exclusive authority.”

All six justices that signed onto the majority opinion in Trump v. United States were appointed by Republican presidents, with three appointed by Trump himself. Simelton told APR the NAACP wasn’t expecting the ruling because they “thought [the Supreme Court] would put their partisan views and ideology aside and rule based on the court of law.”

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Alabama Republicans were quick to publicly support the ruling. On a Tuesday radio show, Congressman Jerry Carl said America was “really, really, really close to becoming a third-world country” before the Supreme Court gave presidents legal immunity.

However, liberal politicians and many legal experts have called the ruling both anti-democratic and potentially dangerous. Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, wrote that the ruling “is not what the Framers wanted” and “not what we should want either.”

“The NAACP does not support this decision,” Simelton said. “We think that presidents should be held accountable for their actions when they violate the law, when they’re in office and certainly when they’re out of office.”

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NAACP president Derrick Johnson called the decision “a danger to not only the African American community, but a danger to our society as a whole.”

Simelton explained to APR that he personally feels “this ruling will determine how our democracy will move forward.”

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“If we determine that the president of the United States is above the law then everything that we work for in a democracy will be undermined and essentially done away with,” he noted.

Simelton said he believes Americans need to elect both a president who respects everyone’s rights and the limits of their office and members of Congress who can keep an eye on the president and on the Supreme Court.

Pointing to the 22nd Amendment, which formalized the two term limit for the presidency, Simelton stated that America “didn’t want a person becoming an office and staying there forever” and it’s “the same thing with the Supreme Court.”

“I think it’s time to start looking at term limits for the Supreme Court,” he proffered.

Simelton is not the only person to call for more checks on the Supreme Court in the aftermath of its recent controversial rulings.

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Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, called it “disgraceful that Justices Thomas and Alito brazenly refused to recuse themselves from [Trump v. United States]” and said he’ll continue pushing for the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act.

Senators Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, were just two of the elected officials to call to expand the Supreme Court as Congress did in the 1860s and FDR threatened to in the 1930s.

If the Supreme Court is not expanded, the composition of the court will only change as justices retire or die while in office. Whichever presidential candidate is elected in November, in addition to their newfound immunity, will likely appoint one or more people to the Supreme Court to either weaken or entrench the current majority.



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