Latest Alabama Headlines

All the headlines from our Alabama Topic Page, ordered by recency.

U.S. Seeks Reimbursements from $300 Million PCB Settlement in Alabama

Mar 3 2010 // The federal government is seeking Medicare reimbursements from lawyers, manufacturers and insurers that were involved in a $300 million settlement over widespread PCB contamination in the east Alabama city of Anniston. A...

Contractor Settles with Alabama School System for $9M

Feb 22 2010 // Volkert & Associates Inc. has agreed to give the Mobile County Public School System $9 million to settle a 6-year-old lawsuit involving some schools where Volkert oversaw construction. School officials sued Volkert,...

Alabama Motel Owner Sued Over Fire Deaths

Jan 27 2010 // A wrongful death lawsuit contends a Hoover motel owner and maintenance man are to blame for the deaths of four Mississippi college students in a fire earlier this month. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court...

Alabama House Passes Ban on Driver Texting

Jan 15 2010 // The Alabama Legislature has taken the first step toward banning drivers from sending or writing a text message while operating a vehicle on a public road. The House Public Safety Committee approved a bill this week that...

Alabama Lawmakers Favor Ban on Driver Texting: Poll

Jan 8 2010 // State Rep. Ken Guin says Alabama needs to ban people from text messaging while driving a motor vehicle, and a recent experience with a driver swerving “all over the road” is a reason why. “I started to...

Alabama Sees Decline in Highway Deaths

Dec 29 2009 // Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is crediting state efforts for driving down the number of highway deaths in Alabama. Officials are anticipating a 35 percent decrease since 2006 in the number of state trooper-investigated highway...

Special Reuters Report: America’s Route to Recovery

Dec 29 2009 // When Bob Hagan was a boy in Youngstown, Ohio, people equated the coke dust they swept off their doorsteps each day with opportunity, for it came from the steel mills that built this city. After graduating from high school...

Alabama Jury Finds CSX Not Liable for Fatal Train Crash

Dec 16 2009 // An Alabama jury has sided with a railroad in a series of lawsuits filed by the relatives of four men killed in a train crash almost three years ago. Chilton County jurors ruled in favor of CSX Transportation, deciding the...

TAPCO Underwriters Expands Into Alabama and Louisiana

Dec 3 2009 // Insurance agents in Alabama and Louisiana may now access the services provided by TAPCO Underwriters Inc. (TAPCO), a Burlington, N.C.-based MGA that specializes in high-volume, middle-market excess and surplus insurance...

‘Mild’ Tropical Storm Ida Caused Millions in Alabama Beach Damage

Nov 30 2009 // Tropical Storm Ida was a mild storm along coastal Alabama, but it still caused millions in damage to the beaches. Gulf Shores and Orange Beach officials told the Press-Register that Ida stripped several hundred thousand...

Minor Quake Shakes North Alabama

Nov 18 2009 // Some north Alabama residents awoke to a shaky start of the new week. A small earthquake rattled the northern part of the state Monday morning. The 1.4 magnitude quake centered around the Fort Payne area. It hit around 4...

Ida Damages New $16M Fishing Pier on Alabama Coast

Nov 12 2009 // Alabama’s new state fishing pier, near Gulf Shores, which cost $16 million and is less than four months old, has been closed indefinitely because of damage from the first tropical storm to hit since it opened. The...

Tropical Storm Ida Pounds Gulf States with High Winds, Heavy Rains

Nov 10 2009 // A weakening Tropical Storm Ida lashed the U.S. Gulf Coast with drenching rain and high surf Tuesday as it moved ashore after shutting down almost 30 percent of Gulf of Mexico energy production. Ida, once a Category 2...

Alabama Attorney’s Suit Against Scruggs Assigned to Judge in Texas

Oct 28 2009 // A federal judge in Texas has been assigned to preside over an Alabama attorney’s lawsuit that alleges imprisoned attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs and several others conspired to defraud him of millions...

Alabama Supreme Court Throws Out $274M in Verdicts Against Drug Makers

Oct 19 2009 // The Alabama Supreme Court last Friday threw out jury decisions awarding the state more than $274 million from three pharmaceutical companies, ruling they did not defraud the state in pricing Medicaid prescription...

Economic Outlook for Coastal Mississippi, Alabama Brightens

Oct 8 2009 // The economic outlook should brighten in 2010-2011 for the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, but that’s not the case for the New Orleans area, an economist said this week at a regional economic forum. Lack of business...

It Was No Katrina But Some in Coastal America Remember Ivan’s Terror

Sep 17 2009 // People who lived through Hurricane Ivan can’t forget the haunting images left by one of the strongest storms ever recorded: condo towers collapsed in roiling surf, splintered homes or flat slabs, fragments of...

Homeowners Insurance Rates Going Up in Alabama

Sep 14 2009 // Insurance rates are going up for many Alabama homeowners. Officials with three of the four companies that insure the most homes in Alabama say that they are raising rates. The company that sells the most homeowners...

Alabama Uncertain If Small Business Tax Break Is Boosting Health Insurance

Sep 8 2009 // Craig Bacheler is able to offer the employees at his small Alabama IT firm health benefits because of a new state law, but some who helped push for the law say it is too early to measure its benefits. Small companies,...

Declarations

Sep 7 2009 // Coastal Caution “This is not a simple issue. It’s an issue that you’ve got to address with great caution.” —Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney telling an Alabama House of...