Jun 04, 2024

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The BJCC and Live Nation held a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday for what they’re now calling simply The Birmingham Amphitheater.

It will take 12 months of construction to make the 9,000-seat Birmingham Amphitheater ready to open for concerts in the summer of 2025, with the first concert possible as early as June 2025.

The footprint of the Birmingham Amphitheater is now clear, after grading and site preparation work that has been going on since April.

The groundbreaking took place at the corner of 15th Avenue North and 24th Street North. That will be the back of the stage for the amphitheater.

The stage and the south end of the amphitheater will back up to 15th Avenue North between 23rd Street North and 24th Street North.

It’s adjacent to the former Carraway Methodist Medical Center, which is still in the process of being demolished. The four former Carraway parking decks will remain and will be renovated for use with the new amphitheater.

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled against 44 congregations in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle that filed a lawsuit against United Methodist Bishop David Graves and the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church because they were not allowed to disaffiliate from the denomination.

The appeal was filed Nov. 13, after Montgomery Circuit Judge Brooke E. Reid dismissed the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, saying it was an internal church matter and the court did not have jurisdiction.

The state Supreme Court, in a ruling released May 31, agreed with Reid and said the churches must pursue the matter through the denomination’s own judicial system.

The churches argued that it was a matter of property issues and that a civil court could intervene.

Summer is here. The regular school year has ended. But Alabama’s public schools are cranking back up for elementary summer reading and math camps.

These camps are designed for elementary school students who have been identified as having a deficiency in one or both subject areas. They’re especially important for the roughly 5,000 third graders who are not reading on grade level.

And for the first time, Alabama students may be asked to do math camp.

New state laws require schools to offer these camps. And the incentive for parents is that if their child lags behind in math or reading, eventually the student may be at risk of retention.

While school districts are required to provide camps, students don’t have to attend. Last year, about half of the students who were invited to camps actually attended, according to state officials.

19 cats and dogs

That is the amount of pets left $2 million for their care by the estate of an Alabama woman.

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