A new study of tornado destruction in Tuscaloosa found that relatively minor changes in construction — including better shingles, more anchors and thicker vinyl siding — could have prevented much of the damage to houses on the fringes of the …
The swarm of tornadoes that killed more than 230 people across Alabama last month destroyed or heavily damaged more than 13,000 homes statewide and will smash the record set by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 to become the state’s costliest disaster …
Relatives of two teachers shot and killed during a faculty meeting last year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville have filed lawsuits claiming school administrators’ failure to follow safety rules contributed to the mass slaying. The lawsuits, filed in …
At Orange Beach in Alabama, what’s typically a beautiful, quiet stretch of beach in the fall now resembles a construction site. Bulldozers and yellow dump trucks shake the ground; a giant sifting machine spits clean sand out one end, tar …
God only knows what will happen to churches and other nonprofit organizations that say they are struggling for survival because of the Gulf oil spill crisis. Months after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and its well started gushing oil, the …
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 lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against 18 …
Going to work may never be the same again: the Great Recession has reshaped the American workplace and work force in ways that will last years, if not longer. The work force is graying as college graduates can’t find jobs, …
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 highways lost in a sea of sand. …
The calls have all been similar pranks: A frantic man urges hotel desk workers or guests to set off a fire sprinkler, sound an alarm or bust windows. It’s always the same: Do it now! And, authorities said, they did. …
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood wrongly conspired with prominent trial attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs to skirt a court order in a case involving Hurricane Katrina insurance claims, a federal judge ruled. Referring to Hood as a “so-called law enforcement officer,” …
