Jan 13, 2025

Welcome back and happy Monday.

If you don't live where snow fell Friday -- or if for any reason you haven't seen enough of the white stuff -- you can view photos of this past Friday's snowfall in the photo gallery inside this story.

Today's report follows. Thanks for reading,

Ike

Snow covers a street in Madison on Friday morning.  (Photo by John R. Roby/AL.com)

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The Birmingham Crime Commission released its first report last week regarding the city's record homicide totals. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin took to Instagram and other platforms for a live talk on the report, reports AL.com's Nick Patterson.

The overarching theme of the report and Woodfin's takeaways is that battling the rise in gun violence will require effort from not only law enforcement but also citizens, schools, the Public Housing Authority and employers.

The report and the mayor made their case that crime is a result of poverty, Black boys not being in school, and young Black men not having jobs.

Woodfin said he'd like to break down that formula by perhaps giving kids an alternative to regular K-12 school and to find ways to employ young Black men.

The mayor said the city would match an $11-an-hour salary for young unemployed Black men to make $22-an-hour jobs.

More work is coming to Huntsville with Raytheon's most recent contract with the Defense Department, reports AL.com's John R. Roby.

Part of the work of the Standard Missile-6 will take place in the Rocket City, along with Raytheon sites in Arizona, New Mexico and Massachusetts. The job will make Raytheon more than $333 million.

The SM-6 is carried aboard Navy vessels and can be used to knock down drones, crewed aircraft and cruise missiles.

The Defense Department also awarded Raytheon a $400 million contract last month to produce 131 Tomahawk missiles for the U.S. and its allies. And last summer the company landed a nearly $2 billion deal for work on the Standard Missile-3 system.

Part of the work on all of the above will take place in Huntsville.

Raytheon's facility at Redstone Arsenal is the final integration point for a number of missile programs. The company began expanding that facility last April.

Riley Green, a country singer from Jacksonville, Alabama, recently announced he wound up in an emergency room after stepping on a nail while he was hunting.

He seems to be doing just fine. He was laughing about it and showed a quick video that showed he was barefoot in the hospital, and there was no obvious serious injury.

But I mention this because the deer hunters in the audience especially might appreciate this part. He said he got to the ER, the medical personnel took his boot off ... and wondered why a bunch of corn was coming out of his boot.

That's what he means by "we do things a little different 'round here."

We think he needs better aim when he's filling up his feeder.

Here are the answers and audience results for Friday's Alabama News Quiz.

(Note: For about 10 minutes Friday morning the quiz was giving an incorrect response for the final question below. A few people who took it right after it went live -- including frequent guest reporter Leigh Morgan, who alerted us so we could quickly fix the mistake.)

A $2,500 reward was posted (and is now up to $15,000) over the shooting death of this animal:

Bald eagle (CORRECT) 91.5%

Manatee 4.2%

Horse 2.4%

Sea turtle 1.8%

Birmingham businessman Jesse Lewis passed this milestone early in the year:

Turned 100 years old (CORRECT) 56.8%

Celebrated the 5,000th edition of the Birmingham Times, the newspaper he founded 23.0%

Acquired the 50th business he's owned during his lifetime 12.4%

Was inducted into his 50th local or state hall of fame 7.9%

How many Miss Alabamas have won the Miss America contest?

4 (CORRECT) 45.0%

3 41.4%

5 12.4%

6 1.2%

What popular southern food product recently underwent a change?

Glazed doughnuts at Krispy Kreme 5.7%

Waffle fries at Chick-fil-A (CORRECT) 81.0%

Hash-brown casserole at Cracker Barrel 9.1%

Pounded steak at Morelli's 4.2%

Which of these steps did NOT happen late this week in anticipation of winter weather?

Sand Mountain Sam the possum was drug out of his whiskey barrel a month early to predict an early spring. (CORRECT) 58.9%

The lighting of the Mardi Gras tree in Mobile was postponed. 30.2%

The Alabama National Guard was activated to aid local emergency workers. 9.1%

Many school systems in the northern half of the state closed. 1.8%

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