Aug 01, 2024

Next week the Mobile City Council is expected to approve a plan that will allow Amtrak to extend its Sunset Limited line from New Orleans to Mobile.

We have a lot more on that over on the podcast (click below).

More Alabama news follows. Thanks for reading,

Ike Morgan

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Y'all may recall something about an in vitro fertilization court case that reached the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this year.

Unless you spent February, March and at least part of April living on the International Space Station without Internet service, you know that the state's high court overruled a lower court's finding that couples couldn't sue over destroyed embryos because they weren't considered children.

The Alabama Supreme Court reversal set off panic, debate and even the closing of some IVF clinics over possible civil and criminal liability facilities would face over their handling of human embryos.

The Alabama Legislature passed a law giving IVF clinics immunity in such situations. That led the three couples from the original lawsuit to request that a court find that new law unconstitutional.

Which pretty much brings us up to date. And now, AL.com's Howard Koplowitz reports that two of those three couples have dropped the case against the clinic.

Attorneys didn't give a reason for the dismissal with the filing, but the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be brought back by the former plaintiffs.

That leaves one couple with a case still pending.

The Alabama Attorney General's Special Prosecutions Division claims that a county commission candidate falsified applications for absentee ballots and then used the ballots to vote for himself in the March primary election, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

Terry Andrew Heflin, a Democratic candidate for a commission seat in Clay County, is charged with seven counts of unlawful use of absentee ballots. Each one of those counts can get you a year and a day up to 10 years in prison.

If you drive around The Shoals region in Alabama, you're going to notice a few very large, very aluminum musicians in some of the cities. Imagine the Tin Man has cousins in Alabama who can rock.

I don't have to tell you about the musical influence the region has had, from blues and country and R&B and rock and roll. Duane Allman, Lynyrd Skynyrd, FAME Studios, the Swampers, Aretha, the Rolling Stones. Percy Sledge recorded "When a Man Loves a Woman" right here in Alabama.

"Father of the Blues" W.C. Handy was born in Florence. Even the Tennessee River was called the "the singing river" by local Indians because of the sound the wind made as it blew across the water.

AL.com's Kelly Kazek reports that the statues are a project called the "Singing River Statues" to pay homage to musical heritage with a nod to the area's history of aluminum production.

So far, you can see a 20-foot electric-bass guitarist in Muscle Shoals, an 18-foot 50s-era singer in Sheffield, and the latest, an 18-foot jazz trumpet player in Florence.

There was supposed to be a Native American musician playing traditional instruments in Tuscumbia, but after it was started, local officials and the artist seemed to have disconnected over a money issue, and so they've had to regroup and look for another artist.

And the original plans included several more statues along the river. When and whether those might be commissioned is still up in the air.

7

That's how many Safe Haven Baby Box locations are now in Alabama after one was placed at Fire Station No. 1 on 18th Street East in Jasper.

Safe Haven Baby Boxes allow the anonymous surrender of an infant (no questions asked) for a parent who might otherwise abandon an infant in an unsafe place.

In 1809, commander of the Alamo William Travis. He was born in South Carolina but spent most of his youth in Conecuh County.

We have reporter John Sharp on the show to talk about Amtrak's pending return to Mobile.

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