Feb 24, 2025

Over on the podcast we have a chat with Miss America Abbie Stockard. The rest of the report follows below.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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The United States Supreme Court has ruled that Alabama can't deny citizens the ability to sue the state's Department of Labor over delays and mistakes in processing unemployment claims beginning with the pandemic year of 2020, reports AL.com's Sarah-Whites Koditschek.

The Court was split 5-4, with Justices Brent Kavanaugh and John Roberts joining the three more liberal justices for a majority.

The ruling pointed to the paradox in which those who filed unemployment claims can't sue to expedite the administrative process until that administrative process was complete.

The Alabama Labor Department didn't respond right away, but the State Attorney General's Office made a statement: “We are disappointed by the Court’s 5-4 decision, which ruled for plaintiffs based on a narrow argument the Alabama Supreme Court never had occasion to consider.”

The original lawsuit in the case was filed in 2022 and targeted an Alabama unemployment system that's been taking a couple of years to process appeals, has the highest rejection rate in the U.S., has asked some claimants to pay money back, and was called "outrageous" by Gov. Kay Ivey's office.

A circuit-court judge dismissed the case, ruling that the plaintiffs needed to finish the unemployment-appeals process before they could sue over the delay in that process. The Alabama Supreme Court agreed, but the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Now it's back to the state Supreme Court, where the Alabama justices will decide whether to send the class-action case to the lower court to be heard.

Whether it's the public service, the challenge, the power or the sweet new salary, several folks have announced they'll be running to follow Sandy Stimpson as Mobile's mayor.

The latest to join the field is State Rep. Barbara Drummond, who announced Sunday, reports AL.com's Lawrence Specker. Four others who've already joined the race are former Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Battiste, former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis, longtime Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson and former county commissioner and city councilor Steve Nodine.

Nodine would likely have to receive pardons for his federal and state felony convictions in order to serve should he win the election.

Also, former Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine, who has filed a civil suit over his firing last April, expects to announce his intentions whether to run on March 14.

Pickleball continues its takeover of the American landscape, with a big pickleball expansion carved into a batch of University of Alabama facility improvements that were approved this month.

AL.com's Williesha Morris reports that up to 10 new pickleball courts will be added to the Parker-Haun Tennis facility for $1.6 million.

But the biggest investment the board of trustees approved for the Tuscaloosa campus is a "student well-being hub" at just under $60 million. According to Building Bama, the student-well-being hub will include "offices for multiple divisions of Student Life including the Counseling Center, Collegiate Recovery and Intervention Services, Health Promotion and Wellness, and the Women and Gender Resource Center."

“I’ve got a secret to tell y’all. I’ve got a confession. I’m not Batman.”

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, while announcing his re-election campaign and telling a crowd that he can't stop Birmingham's murder epidemic alone.

Here are the answers and how we did on Friday's quiz, which 24.1% of readers aced:

24.1% answered 5 out of 5 correctly

41.2% answered 4 out of 5 correctly

24.1% answered 3 out of 5 correctly

7.6% answered 2 out of 5 correctly

2.1% answered 1 out of 5 correctly

Northrop Grumman Corp. recently announced a $900 million contract for its air and missile defense system in this country:

Taiwan 26.2%

Ukraine 18.6%

Poland 37.8%

Canada 17.4%

William R. Lucas, who recently passed away at 102, once led this institution in Alabama:

Marshall Space Flight Center 79.0%

Retirement Systems of Alabama 10.4%

Alabama Education Association 8.8%

Weight Watchers of Alabama 1.8%

What was Alabama's top export product (in dollars) last year?

Metals 9.8%

Automobiles 68.9%

Aerospace products 13.4%

Alabama white sauce 7.9%

A grand jury recently called for a police department to be abolished because of alleged corruption in this city:

Tuscumbia 2.7%

Hanceville 94.2%

Hazel Green 2.1%

Zip City 0.9%

The recently passed "Parker's Law" would excuse the following from jury duty:

Nursing mothers 94.8%

Long-COVID victims 0.3%

Mental-health patients 4.6%

Traveling circus clowns 0.3%

Houston County

Houston County is the latest in our series of name origins. It's also our newest county, having been carved out of surrounding counties in 1903. Dothan was growing into a significant city at the time, and area representatives at the 1901 Alabama constitutional convention were able to change a law regarding county sizes so that a new county would be legal.

The county was named for former Congressman, U.S. Senator and Governor George S. Houston.

Houston, who lived in North Alabama, was governor from 1874 to 1878. He was a Unionist but resigned from Congress and stayed home during the Civil War. He was a lawyer, cotton farmer and slaveholder. And his term as governor started a streak of Democrats holding that office for more than 100 years.

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Last week during a birthday announcement I called North Alabama native Mitch McConnell a Tennessee U.S. senator. Of course, we all know McConnell represents Kentucky, not Tennessee.

I'm sorry for blowing that one.

Miss America Abbie Stockard talks about returning to Alabama and more with AL.com's Mary Colurso.

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