Oct 31, 2024

Welcome back. Happy Halloween. If you come across any peanut butter kisses (with the heavy molasses taste in the orange or black wrapper), save me one. They're hard to find these days -- and they're great.

We have five days until Election Day.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen is touting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows a Virginia voter-roll purge that's similar to Allen's program that was blocked  by a lower federal court until after next week's election, reports AL.com's Mike Cason.

You remember the Alabama program: It identified registered voters in Alabama who had been issued non-citizen identification numbers. Allen said more than 3,000 names came up, and he told boards of registrars to start removing them from voting rolls.

Two possible issues cropped up. More than 2,000 of those 3,000-plus voters have already been found to actually be eligible to vote -- perhaps because they earned their U.S. citizenship after they held non-citizen ID numbers. And, argued plaintiffs in a civil suit, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 doesn't allow changes to voting rules within 90 days of an election.

That's what persuaded a Trump-appointed federal judge to order Allen to have any removed voters be returned to the voters rolls and pause the program until after the election.

The Supreme Court's recent action granted Virginia's request of a stay on a similar order it received. Allen said the high court "restored common sense" to the issue.

It's against the law for a non-citizen to vote or register to vote in Alabama.

As this early-fall drought continues, the Alabama Forestry Commission has put all of Alabama's counties under a Fire Danger Advisory, reports AL.com's Heather Gann.

Over the past 30 days, Alabama has had 246 wildfires burn nearly 3,000 acres.

Alabama has experienced a couple months of mostly dry weather and we're seeing above-average temperatures. And there's a lot of dead trees out there courtesy of last year's drought and this year's pine-beetle outbreak.

A Fire Danger Advisory isn't a no-burn order, but the Forestry Commission urges everybody to put off burning until conditions improve -- meaning after it rains.

According to weather reporter Leigh Morgan, some of that rain could come to the western and northern part of the state between tonight and Friday afternoon. And the first few days of November give us a little higher chance of rain than we've seen so far this fall. Check AL.com/weather for more weather stories and forecasts.

In the latest on the United Methodist Church split, the denomination's high court has blocked a potential route for more churches to disaffiliate, reports AL.com's Greg Garrison.

The UMC split was over the issues of gay marriage and gay clergy, with the conservative congregations wanting to leave the denomination over looming changes. There was a temporary disaffiliation period, and more than half of Alabama's congregations left. During that period the congregations could negotiate for their property, which generally was owned by the UMC. The deadline was the end of 2023.

Since then, more churches are trying to leave. Some have cited a provision from the UMC's Book of Discipline to request that their conference shut down their churches, then sell the property to them.

The UMC court said no. Although a few churches have been granted such an out, the court said that's not how the provision is intended to be used.

At least one pastor is predicting that lawsuits are going to start piling up in civil court.

“President Obama ... I told him I can’t golf right now. By contract, I can’t golf. But his day will come.”

Former Alabama and current Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, on trash-talking with the former president during a golf outing.

$1.64 billion

That's how much the University of Alabama's The Rising Tide 2.0 fundraising campaign has brought in over nine years. The 10-year goal is $1.8 billion.

In 1951, ESPN college football analyst and former Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

In 1961, track athlete and 1984 gold medalist in the 400 meters and the 4X400-meter relay Alonzo Babers of Montgomery.

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We have a report on the debate surrounding the way many law-enforcement agencies determine whether or not you are too stoned to drive.

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