Feb 26, 2025

I'll be out the rest of the week, but you'll be taken care of right here each morning.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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Last time we checked in on Damien Laron McDaniel III's legal problems, he had been charged in 11 murders over just a few months in the Birmingham area.

Now, as AL.com's Carol Robinson reports, the 22-year-old is up to 14 cases in which he is charged with murder.

The charges started coming down after police arrested him in the September mass shooting that killed four and injured 17 outside a Birmingham night spot. A sixth suspect, by the way, has been arrested in that case. Police have also tied McDaniel to another shooting that resulted in four dead.

The new charges also come in high-profile murder cases.

McDaniel has been charged in the 2023 shooting death of firefighter Jordan Melton at Station 9. He's been charged in the January 2024 killing of 21-year-old Mia Nickson outside her home. And he's been charged in the ambush shooting death of UPS worker Anthony Lamar Love Jr.

McDaniel currently resides at Kilby Correctional Facility after his probation in a 2019 shooting case was revoked.

The build-to-rent home market is booming, and Alabama is right up there among the leaders, thanks mostly to Huntsville.

AL.com's Ramsey Archibald reports that a recent analysis found there are nearly 2,400 rental homes somewhere in the process of being built in the Rocket City -- and 3,200 in the state.

The analysis was done by Point2Homes using data from YardiMatrix. It defined "build-to-rent" as "single-family homes for rent that are located in build-to-rent communities containing at least 50 single-family rental units."

Or the kind of communities that in the past you might find near growing urban business centers. That can be seen as applying to the Huntsville area, but the analysis overall showed these neighborhoods being planned and built in the South, and notably in Texas. It likely also is another result of more people doing more remote work; a modern professional might want a little more room at home and, in order to afford it, look toward farther-flung metro-area neighborhoods.

Whatever the reasons, Alabama ranks eighth in the nation for total build-to-rent homes on the way. And the Huntsville metro ranked 10th nationally -- with those 2,400 homes enough to rank 12th among states.

Even those of us who lean more toward fish camps than apartment buildings will do a double-take at the cool factor in this listing.

AL.com's William Thornton reports that the City Federal Building penthouse is up for sale. The listing is for $1.9 million.

The City Federal Building is 27 stories high and was built in 1913 as the Jefferson County Savings and Loan Building. It's definitely one of the most iconic towers in Birmingham with its neo-classical architecture and inset penthouse with the balcony that goes all the way around.

The listing says it has 3,945 square feet, four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, nine-foot ceilings, hardwood and tile floors, walk-in closets, a garden tub and a double shower.

It also has quite the view from up there, as you can imagine.

If you're interested, the broker is Ben Hedden of Bham Realty. Tell 'em Ike from the fish camp sent you.

Some victories aren't the kind that come with fist pumps.

It was a busy and a destructive 2024 hurricane season for the U.S. We had five hurricanes make landfall, including two major hurricanes.

This spring the National Hurricane Center will release its storm verification report, which will hold forecasts to account. This week it released a preview of that report, reports AL.com's Leigh Morgan, and said its forecasted hurricane tracks were the best in its history.

That's the kind of work that might save lives even if we never realize it.

There was no shortage of tracks to forecast. There were 18 Atlantic named storms, 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes. The NHC issued 347 forecasts during the year, a little above the 33-year average.

“Many high-level politicians follow this page, both Democrats and Republicans. I would encourage them and all of you to support my colleagues at the National Weather Service during this time. Their service is absolutely invaluable.”

Meteorologist James Spann, on his Facebook page, regarding news that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (which includes the NWS) has been told by DOGE to make deep cuts.

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