Oct 24, 2024

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Parole Board Chair Leigh Gwathney took heat from lawmakers from both parties at a Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting Wednesday, reports AL.com's Ivana Hrynkiw.

Alabama's parole board guidelines suggest that 80% or more of the state's inmates should qualify for parole. But release rates have been much lower. At the meeting 20% was the common figure used, and AL.com previously reported that the board's 2023 data show only 8% were released. Gwathney is the nearly automatic "no" vote on the three-person board.

The lawmakers were frustrated by an hours' worth of questioning Gwathney. State Sen. Clyde Chambliss, a Prattville Republican and Committee chair, wanted better answers to why the board wasn't keeping to its own guidelines and demanded clear and specific answers by the end of November. 

State Rep. Chris England, a Tuscaloosa Democrat, was blunt after the meeting: “Either the process is broken or her decision-making process is terrible. I’ll let y’all make that assessment.”

We have a whole series on this on the site. For more, check out al.com/denied.

At that same Joint Prison Oversight Committee meeting, Corrections Commissioner John Hamm gave an update on that really big, really expensive prison coming to Elmore County, reports AL.com's Mike Cason.

Really big, really expensive in this case is 4,000 beds and $1.25 billion.

Because of the 700-bed medical and mental-health space, it'll be called the Elmore Specialized Men's Facility. Hamm told the Committee the prison is about 40% finished and is expected to be completed in 2026.

A manufacturing plant will reportedly bring 300 jobs to Phenix City over the next two years, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

California-based Sierra Pacific has already opened its $60 million southeastern hub. Gov. Kay Ivey was at Tuesday's ribbon cutting.

The company makes high-end windows and doors.

Pardon my understatement, but Vanderbilt's upset win over top-ranked Alabama early this month was a bit of a moment in Nashville.

In a peculiar little piece of American-football-culture tradition, Vandy fans at FirstBank Stadium tore down the goal posts, toted them down Broadway and tossed them into the Cumberland River.

The school had the yellow uprights retrieved, however, cut them into 8-inch pieces and sold the pieces at auction for more than $4,000 a pop. And they sold out by the Monday following the game.

A university representative told The Tennessean newspaper that proceeds for items auctioned off as souvenirs would NOT be used to fund the $100,000 fine that the school has to pay to Alabama for rushing the field, per SEC rules.

AL.com's Mark Heim reports that country music singer Garth Brooks got in on the souvenir frenzy. Brooks has said he bought the padding from the base of the goalpost so he can display it in his Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk.

A Tide loss can leave a permanent impression on a city. Or at least a honky tonk.

Brooks, by the way, went to school at Oklahoma State. Perhaps Chris Gaines is a Vandy fan.

I know folks get worked up about elections, and sometimes for good reason. But months and years of spending all your time reinforcing your own belief in your opponents' unethical, criminal and evil nature isn't healthy for anybody.

Political anxiety combined with the illusion of online anonymity has gotten so many people in all levels of trouble.

AL.com's Howard Koplowitz reports that a 60-year-old man from Cullman has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and three years' supervised release for threatening to kill election workers in Arizona.

"You are so dead," read one Instagram message he sent to Maricopa County Elections in August 2022 after a primary election. Another message was a photo of Woody from "Toy Story" face-down with a projectile in his back.

Which feels like a crime against all of us.

Huntsville city officials said they've broken ground on a 60,000-plus-square-foot rec center at John Hunt Park, reports AL.com's John R. Roby, that will feature four gyms, a fitness room and more -- including 25 covered pickleball courts.

Twenty five more spots for Alabamians to play pickleball.

You won't get a conspiracy theory from this place often, but at this rate I'm pretty sure that by the end of the decade American schoolkids will be pledging allegiance to pickleball.

“It’s going to be larger than a lot of county seats.”

State Rep. Chris England, on the state prison being built in Elmore County (see above).

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That's how many live callers were put on air during Wednesday's "Hey Coach" call-in radio show with Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer. Alabama (5-2) was coming off a loss to Tennessee.

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