Jul. 01, 2025

A new pedestrian-traffic pattern is coming to Toomer's Corner in Auburn.

Don't worry: It doesn't appear complicated at all. Much simpler than the figure-8 roundabout at Highways 87 and 167 in southern Pike County. (If you know, you know.)

If you're into history's murder cases, check out today's podcast. AL.com's Kelly Kazek joins us to talk about a couple of old Alabama murders that ... weren't. Check out today's podcast episode for more.

The rest of today's report follows. Thanks for reading,

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Another swarm of Africanized honeybees has been collected and euthanized in Alabama, reports AL.com's Mike Cason.

Last year swarms were collected and euthanized in Jackson and St. Clair counties.

Beekeepers in Barbour County discovered the latest feral swarm in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries. The department is now placing traps in a five-mile radius around where they were found.

Although honeybees aren't native here, it's the European honeybee that we're most familiar with and that supplies us with the good stuff.

Africanized honeybees are a hybrid of the European and African honeybee varieties. Besides threatening their European cousins, they are famously more aggressive and can pose more danger if disturbed.

The good news is that either variety will leave you alone if you don't disturb them. But if disturbed, the Africanized breed are known to send out many more bees that chase you farther than the European breed does.

If you think you spot Africanized bees, don't watch 1978's "The Swarm." Instead, call the State Apiary Protection Unit at (334) 240-7228 or (334) 240-7172.

The Africanized honeybee (left) is more aggressive defending its hive than the European honeybee (right). (Photo by Scott Bauer/USDA Agriculture Research Service)

There is a pedestrian-traffic pattern that might be new to some people, and it's coming to one of the most famous intersections in the state.

AL.com's Jerry Humphrey III reports that the City of Auburn will be changing up the stop-and-go patterns at the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue, which you know as Toomer's Corner.

The city is putting in an "X-crossing" crosswalk pattern. In some places it's also known as a "pedestrian scramble," which sounds more exciting and perhaps terrifying than it actually is.

Traffic lights will stop all vehicle traffic at once, allowing pedestrians to cross a street or even cross the intersection diagonally before the lights turn green again.

Obviously, this keeps walkers who are catty-corner from their destination from having to cross two streets at different times. They just scramble right on across the middle.

A member of the Washington Post team that covered Roy Moore's campaign and scandal during the 2017 Senate race has been charged with possession of child pornography, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

Moore spent the latter part of that campaign fending off allegations that he had relationships with inappropriately young women and girls decades ago when he was around 30. Moore has continued to deny those accusations, and he lost that election to Doug Jones, the only Democrat to win a statewide election in nearly 20 years.

The Washington Post won a Pulitzer off the reporting of the story.

The FBI arrested searched the home of Thomas Pham LeGro, a member of the Post's video department who was on that Pulitzer-winning team, and arrested him on Thursday. Investigators say they found 11 videos on his work laptop that were child-sex-abuse material.

The New York Post reported that LeGro was placed on leave by the Washington Post.

A Montgomery County Circuit Judge denied the request by four businesses to block part of the new state law on hemp products, reports AL.com's Mike Cason.

That means that the part of the law in question goes into effect today. It bans the sale and possession of all smokable hemp products, and it bans products containing THC made from a synthetic process (gummies, drinks).

Violations are a Class C felony, meaning punishment can be up to 10 years in prison.

$92 million

That's the price tag on the six-story office building that opened Monday and will serve as the Mobile District headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It's located next to the future Mobile Civic Center Arena.

In 1961, nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, who was born in Birmingham.

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AL.com's Kelly Kazek joins us to discuss a couple of old Alabama murder cases missing a key element: a victim who's actually dead.

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