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  • We searched for a true Christmas market – and may have found one

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    Wooden huts are glittering with golden fairylights as groups of friends gather in woolly hats, warming their hands on mugs of mulled wine.

    Signs written in German are dotted about – Glühwein (mulled wine), Bratwurst (grilled sausage), Kinderpunsch (non-alcoholic punch).

    This isn’t Germany – it’s Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market. Organisers say it’s “the largest authentic German Christmas market” outside the country and Austria.

    Christmas markets are thought to have originated in Germany in the 14th Century, and its markets have long been admired since. But how close are the ones in the UK to that supposed traditional, real thing?

    BBC News visited some to find out – and perhaps provide some inspiration for your next festive visit.

    A taste of Germany… in Birmingham?

    On a cold Thursday afternoon in Birmingham, we have just met Nina Adler and Till Rampe, 27-year-old German students studying for PhDs in the UK’s “second city”.

    As we walk around the Christmas market, which snakes through streets close to Birmingham New Street railway station, they’re reminded of home.

    They point to the wooden huts, food and drink, and the handicrafts as positive signs this is close to the traditional ideal. The chocolate-coated marshmallows at one stall impress Till, who is from a town near Frankfurt. “I could swear they are from my hometown,” he says.

    But other aspects of Birmingham’s market are further removed from the German way – like the beer. “People are just connecting Germany with beer,” Nina, from Berlin, says. “In Germany usually you drink mulled wine. This is very typical.”

    And as for the pop tunes blaring out of the speakers in Birmingham – like The Power of Love – you probably wouldn’t hear that at markets in Germany – rather it would be Christmas music and carols, she says.

    Nina Adler and Till Rampe were impressed by what they saw in Birmingham [BBC]

    Also visiting the market with us is Katharina Karcher, an academic at the University of Birmingham. Her verdict? It’s “super authentic”.

    Having been set up in 1997 and running annually since 2001, the Birmingham market is organised by Kurt Stroscher, who is also director of Frankfurt’s Christmas market.

    He uses “only wooden stalls and atmospheric white lights that don’t blink”, with the stalls built in Germany and food and drink imported from there.

    It’s mostly a thumbs-up for Birmingham’s Christmas market when it comes to authenticity, then – but how does it compare to one in Germany?

    A stall selling alcohol at a Christmas market. The wooden stall is adorned with golden fairylights, giant fake red candles, a bell, Santa decorations

    Birmingham’s market stretches through several streets [BBC]

    Our visit to a Christmas market in Berlin

    While many Christmas markets in the UK have been running for a couple of weeks now, in Germany they have only just opened, as is tradition, on 24 November.

    Most German towns and cities have a Christmas market, with Dresden, Nuremberg and Cologne among the most famous.

    These markets hold “huge symbolic meaning” to Germans, says Dr Karcher, who’s from near Frankfurt. Along with a religious undertone, “they are what get people through the dark time”, she explains.

    High angle photos of Berlin Christmas market. People stand at wooden stalls

    Berlin Christmas market: A typical Christmas market includes large tents housing restaurants or bars and stalls selling a range of handmade gifts [BBC]

    Some 800 miles away from Birmingham, the city of Berlin is home to more than 70 different, small Christmas markets. In Charlottenburg Palace in the west of the German capital, the market is bustling and filled with people of all ages when we visit on a Tuesday night.

    The smell of roasted almonds, caramelised apples, chocolate-coated fruit, mulled wine and grilled sausages fills the air, as Christmas carols are performed live on a stage and children enjoy a small, sparkling Ferris wheel.

    The 17th Century Baroque Charlottenburg Palace is illuminated in different colours, with falling snowflakes projected onto its facade and wooden stalls in front.

    So what exactly makes a traditional German Christmas market?

    A pink projection onto a historical palace building in Berlin, Germany, with wooden huts lined with fairy lights and Christmas trees in the foreground in front of the palace, as people mingle at Christmas market stalls.

    The Christmas market we visited in Berlin used projections as well as fairy lights [BBC]

    Typically, they may have (as this one in Berlin does):

    • Large tents housing entire restaurants or bars

    • Stalls selling a range of handmade gifts, including woolly hats, gloves, scarves, jewellery, handmade candles, wooden nutcrackers and other arts and crafts

    • Traditional German foods like Lebkuchen, the German version of gingerbread often seen in cookie form, many kinds of sausages including Bratwurst, cheeses, hearty dishes like Langos (a deep-fried Hungarian flatbread with different savoury or sweet toppings) or goulash, and Spätzle

    • Mulled wine for those who drink alcohol, not so much beer

    • A location in a square in the Altstadt, the old part of a town. And in cities – lots of different markets in different areas

    To Magrita, 66, who is enjoying a mulled wine with her husband Dietmar, 69, German Christmas markets are characterised by their unique atmosphere: “The colourful lights and Christmas decorations make it so special.”

    Dietmar explains how “Christmas markets are not the same as other markets labelled as ‘Winter Market’ or ‘Winter Wonderland,’ because of the fairytale-like feeling you only get at an authentic Christmas market”.

    “I visited a Christmas market in Milan a few years ago, and it wasn’t the same, it was just a collection of different stores,” he adds.

    At another table, Anna and Karolina, both 19, are catching up over some chocolate-covered strawberries. “Apart from the mulled wine and the food, the colourful lighting and the festive and cosy vibe are what make Christmas markets unique,” says Anna.

    But in Karolina’s view, “the star… is definitely the food and drink. [It’s] what really makes a Christmas market authentic”.

    Two young women sit at a wooden table in front of a wooden hut selling chocolate covered strawberries at a Christmas market in Berlin. They are both smiling.

    Anna and Karolina were enjoying the Berlin market [BBC]

    Other Christmas markets in the UK

    Back in the UK, while Birmingham can boast about its markets authenticity, what of other locations in the UK?

    Christmas markets have become a staple of many UK cities – Manchester, Leeds, Bath, Edinburgh and Newcastle among them. Smaller markets, typically in historic settings, are also proving popular on TikTok, sometimes incredibly so. Since 2023, Lincoln Christmas market has been closed because of overcrowding concerns.

    When the BBC visited the market in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, earlier this week, we saw an open mic night, including a rendition of Neil Young’s Heart of Gold, and stalls selling the likes of pasta, Greek gyros and Yorkshire pudding wraps. There were also German foods and signs, though far fewer than Birmingham.

    Crowds gather beneath treets lit up in red and green, lined with fairy lights, with wooden stalls in the background at a Christmas market in Berlin.

    The Berlin market was bustling with people of all ages [BBC]

    Visitors didn’t seem to mind though.

    “I quite like that,” says Jamie Aycliffe, who was visiting the market with his wife and baby. “We’re doing our British version of the Bratwurst.”

    But having been to Christmas markets across Europe himself, he felt the ones in the UK were “not as good” and “a bit more commercial”.

    Others were visiting the Kingston Christmas market for the aesthetic.

    “It’s fun,” drama student Amelia Shannon, 22, says. “I don’t have to go to Germany for it.”

    Overall, though, this was not as true to the traditional thing as in Birmingham, and also much smaller in size. Some people told us they’d prefer it if UK-based Christmas markets like in Kingston’s sold more small gifts from independent businesses, like German markets do.

    Four young women stand in a row smiling at the camera at a Christmas market stall in Kingston upon Thames, one of them Amelia Shannon, holding a cup of mulled wine. In the background there is a 'Yorkshire pudding wraps' stall visible.

    Amelia Shannon (second from left) came to Kingston Christmas market with her friends, all drama students [BBC]

    Anne-Teresa Markovic, an academic originally from Nuremberg, says she was struck by the range of food and drink offerings being “more prominent” there than in Germany while visiting Christmas markets in Manchester and Leeds. She recalls seeing “festive patatas bravas” on the menu, which needless to say, aren’t particularly German.

    Christmas markets in Germany are changing, though. There’s often now more international food – and Dr Karcher says depictions of the patron Saint Nikolaus are increasingly becoming more about Santa Claus.

    A woman with dark hair in a black coat stands in front of a wooden hut at a Christmas market, adorned with fake Christmas tree sprigs, fairylights, signs saying "Krakauer" and "Bratwurst"

    Katharina Karcher has noticed Santa Claus becoming more prominent at German Christmas markets [BBC]

    The warm glow exuded by Germany’s Christmas markets was dimmed during deadly car attacks on a market in Berlin in 2016 and in the city of Magdeburg last year.

    Security has been stepped up at markets since. Some markets have been cancelled because the costs of security are too high for organisers.

    The Berlin Christmas market we visit is surrounded by a fence with large, concrete blocks placed along it, while a police car patrols one of the entrances.

    Despite the heightened security measures, the atmosphere seems relaxed.

    Anna and Karolina say they have never been to a Christmas market in the UK before, but would both welcome more Christmas markets outside of Germany.

    “Christmas markets are not defined by their location,” explains Anna, “but by the festive atmosphere and the time of the year when they take place.”

    Eight other 2025 Christmas markets in the UK you might like:

    • Wells, Somerset: Taking place in the cathedral city for for one day, Saturday 6 December, featuring more than 100 stalls

    • Canterbury, Kent: With 120 stalls, including in the grounds of its 11th-century cathedral, running until Christmas Eve

    • Haddon Hall, Derbyshire: Pre-booked tickets with parking at the country house have sold out, but non-parking tickets are available on the door for £9.50

    • Chester, Cheshire: Stalls line Tudor and mock-Tudor streets, running until Monday 22 December, including a stall operated by Chester Zoo

    • Hillsborough, County Down, Northern Ireland: Taking place on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 December, set against the 17th century Hillsborough Fort

    • Aberdeen Christmas Village, Scotland: Featuring an ice rink and lots of stalls, it’s running until 31 December

    • Portmeirion, North Wales: A scenic location in Gwynedd, running from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 December with a £10 entry fee

    • Winchester, Hampshire: The Christmas market surrounds the cathedral, open until Monday 22 December

    A stall selling alcohol at a Christmas market. The wooden stall is adorned with fake Christmas tree sprigs, golden fairylights, decorations including a giant reindeer and Santa ornaments, signs saying "Almhutte", "Weissbier", "Schneemannpunsch". A group of people in warm winter coats and woolly hats stand in front of the stall, being served by staff

    Birmingham’s Christmas market seems to come close to authenticity [BBC]

    More weekend picks

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  • Two UAB football players stabbed on campus, another player in custody

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    Two University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) football players are recovering after being stabbed by another player on campus Saturday morning.It happened shortly after 10 a.m. at the Football Operations Center.Two people were stabbed, according to Birmingham Fire and Rescue, which responded to the scene. Their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.Both victims were taken to UAB Hospital for treatment.UAB issued the following statement: “We’re grateful to report that two players injured in an incident this morning at the Football Operations Building are in stable condition. Our thoughts are with them and their families as they recover. The suspect – another player – remains in custody, and an investigation is taking place. The team elected to play today’s game. UAB’s top priority remains the safety and well-being of all of our students. Given patient privacy and the ongoing investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”The team elected to play the afternoon game at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, where 29 players were being honored on Senior Day.UAB player Daniel Israel Mincey was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Saturday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder. It has not been confirmed if his arrest is connected to the stabbings.UAB Police and Public Safety are handling the investigation.This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available. ____The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —

    Two University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) football players are recovering after being stabbed by another player on campus Saturday morning.

    It happened shortly after 10 a.m. at the Football Operations Center.

    Two people were stabbed, according to Birmingham Fire and Rescue, which responded to the scene. Their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

    Both victims were taken to UAB Hospital for treatment.

    UAB issued the following statement:

    “We’re grateful to report that two players injured in an incident this morning at the Football Operations Building are in stable condition. Our thoughts are with them and their families as they recover. The suspect – another player – remains in custody, and an investigation is taking place. The team elected to play today’s game. UAB’s top priority remains the safety and well-being of all of our students. Given patient privacy and the ongoing investigation, we have no further comment at this time.”

    The team elected to play the afternoon game at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, where 29 players were being honored on Senior Day.

    UAB player Daniel Israel Mincey was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on Saturday afternoon on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder. It has not been confirmed if his arrest is connected to the stabbings.

    UAB Police and Public Safety are handling the investigation.

    This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.

    ____

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Opinion | An English City Bars Israeli Soccer Fans

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    Is Britain safe for Jews? On Thursday authorities in Birmingham, the country’s second-largest city, prohibited the fans of an Israeli soccer team from attending a match next month, even though the threats to cause trouble are coming from locals. What an alarming message from police, and it comes barely two weeks after an Islamist terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

    The match, scheduled for Nov. 6, is part of a larger tournament and will pit Birmingham’s Aston Villa team against Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Safety Advisory Group, an arm of the city government, last week barred Tel Aviv fans from attending, ruling that the event is “high risk.” West Midlands Police, which advises the committee, said the decision “is based on current intelligence and previous incidents.”

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Trump claims Chicago is ‘world’s most dangerous city’. The four most violent ones are all in red states

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    As Donald Trump threatens to deploy national guard units to Chicago and Baltimore, ostensibly to quell violence, a pattern has emerged as he describes which cities he talks about.

    Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Baltimore.

    But not Jackson, Birmingham, St Louis or Memphis.

    An analysis of crime trends over the last four years shows two things. First, violent crime rates in America’s big cities have been falling over the last two years, and at an even greater rate over the last six months. The decrease in violence in America is unprecedented.

    Second, crime in large cities in the aggregate is lower in states with Democratic leadership. But the president focuses his ire almost exclusively on large blue cities in blue states, sidestepping political conflict with red Republican governors.

    Interactive

    The four cities of populations larger than 100,000 with the highest murder rates in 2024 are in Republican states: Jackson, Mississippi (78.7 per 100,000 residents), Birmingham, Alabama (58.8), St Louis, Missouri (54.1) and Memphis, Tennessee (40.6).

    On Tuesday, Trump called Chicago “the most dangerous city in the world”, and pledged to send military troops there, as well as to Baltimore. “I have an obligation. This isn’t a political thing,” he said at a press conference. “I have an obligation when 20 people are killed over the last two and a half weeks and 75 are shot with bullets.”

    When talking about crime in Chicago, Trump regularly refers to the number of people who may have been shot and killed there. But Chicago has a population of about 2.7 million, which is larger than each of the least-populous 15 states. It is roughly the same population as Mississippi. Chicago’s homicide rate for 2024 was 17.5 murders for every 100,000 residents, only a few points higher than that of the state of Louisiana, which was 14.5 per 100,000 in 2024.

    As has become tradition, news outlets reported how many people were killed in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. At Louisiana’s rates, one would predict almost twice as many people to have been murdered there over the long weekend.

    But those numbers are harder to count. Chicago police report a single figure. One has to scour a hundred local news sites around Louisiana to aggregate the count for comparison.

    Notably, Trump discussed sending troops to New Orleans this week. “We’re making a determination now,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “Do we go to Chicago or do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad?”

    And Landry signaled his willingness to accede. “We will take President Trump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” he wrote on X, posting a clip of the exchange.

    Still, Chicago is bracing to be the next city targeted by the Trump administration. To date this year, 278 people have been killed in Chicago, 118 fewer people killed when compared with 2024. It is at pace for 412 deaths for the year, which would be a rate of about 15 per 100,000 residents. The rate is likely to be lower still than that, because homicide rates increase during summer months.

    The Windy City ranked 37th in homicide rate in 2024 for cities larger than 50,000 residents in the United States. For cities with more than 100,000 residents, it placed 14th. This year, it is likely to slide farther down the list, even as violence falls to 60-year lows.

    ***

    As reported by the FBI’s crime data unit in August, the United States had a homicide rate of about 4.6 per 100,000 residents in 2024. It is the lowest figure since 2014, and very close to the generational lows of 4 to 4.5 per 100,000 last experienced in the early 1960s. The pandemic wave of increased violence has largely receded.

    “We know that across the nation [violence is] going down,” said Dr Thaddeus Johnson, a former Tennessee police officer and senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, a policy thinktank.

    The 2024 homicide rate in the US decreased by about 15%, one of the largest drops in American history. Most of that decrease can be attributed to declines in the largest cities, Johnson said.

    Criminal justice researchers tend to place higher value on murder rates than other indicators of violent crime, because murder statistics are harder to manipulate. “It’s the most trustworthy data point,” Johnson said. But it’s not the only data point. “When you start talking about aggravated assaults and robberies, generally, we’ve seen that going down across the nation as well.”

    Both Chicago and Baltimore implemented or expanded antiviolence programs in 2022 using American Rescue Plan funding – much of which has been cut under Trump. Baltimore’s homicide rate has fallen about 40% since 2020, and in 2025 is pacing a 50-year low to date.

    Violent crime had also been falling in Washington DC by substantial margins before Trump took over the city’s policing. His announcement last month referenced DC’s 2023 crime rates, which spiked during the pandemic, while saying nothing about the precipitous fall since.

    In January, the Metropolitan police department and US attorney’s office reported that total violent crime in DC in 2024 was down 35% from the prior year, marking the lowest rate in over 30 years.

    The Guardian analyzed the murder rates for the largest 50 cities in the US and found that cities in blue states had the lowest, with just 7.8 murders per 100,000 people. The cities in red states have a much higher murder rate, of 12.9. Cities in swing states sit in the middle, with a murder rate of 10.2.

    Baltimore ranks fifth on a list of cities over 50,000 population by murder rate in 2024, as reported to the FBI statisticians. Washington DC is 15th. Between them are Wilmington, Delaware; Detroit; Cleveland; Dayton, Ohio; North Little Rock, Arkansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Shreveport, Louisiana; Camden, New Jersey, and Albany, Georgia.

    Compliance with federal rules on crime reporting is incomplete, and some agencies report incomplete data. One notable example of this is Jackson, Mississippi, which has consistently gathered crime data but only started submitting it to the FBI’s system this year. Jackson recorded 111 homicides in 2024, in a population of about 141,000: a rate of 78.7, the highest in America for any city with a population over 50,000.

    Though St Louis posted the second-highest homicide rate in 2024, violence there has been falling since 2023, and is on pace today for a 10% annual drop. Its rate will fall less sharply, however, because St Louis is losing population.

    Memphis led the country’s homicide rate in 2023. To date in 2025, murders and non-negligent homicides are down about 25%, after a 22% decrease in 2024. Like Baltimore, Memphis leaders attribute the decrease in part to an aggressive gun violence reduction initiative, Memphis Allies.

    Notably, small changes in smaller cities can have a big statistical effect.

    Birmingham, with a population of about 200,000, has cut its murder rate by more than half since the start of the year. Local officials attribute this, in part, to the arrest of a handful of people accused of violence, including Damien McDaniel, who has been charged in the murders of 18 people as a hired hitman. His arrest in October – and that of four other people who are linked to him – coincides with a 55% drop in Birmingham’s homicide rate since.

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  • LEGO Store Opens at Atlanta’s Perimeter Mall

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    The 2,153-square-foot store features interactive experiences, exclusive products, and hands-on play opportunities designed to appeal to builders of all ages. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

    Both the young and the young at heart showed up to Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody on Friday as the LEGO Group opened its newest retail location, marking the 119th LEGO store in the United States.

    Michael Stanton, the store manager who previously managed the Birmingham, Alabama, location for 16 years, said the opening represents a homecoming.

    “I grew up here and graduated from Marietta High School, way back in the day,” Stanton said. “What’s so fun about working for the LEGO Group is you come to work every day and you play. I mean, we play in the store with the little ones.  We play with the big ones, with the vending machine. It’s like not working. It’s like being paid to come play every day.”

    The 2,153-square-foot store features interactive experiences, exclusive products, and hands-on play opportunities designed to appeal to builders of all ages. A ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. kicked off the grand opening celebration.

    Monica Lewis, 41, (above) deciding which set she wanted to buy. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

    The store includes permanent fixtures such as the Pick & Build Wall, Build a Minifigure station and Play Tables. Customers can also participate in a mystery mural LEGO brick building activity and view displays from local LEGO Users Groups.

    The construction team worked for about 10 weeks to prepare the space, with store staff spending nine days setting up before the opening, according to Stanton.

    Stanton said he was particularly moved by opening day’s turnout.

    “I get welled up with pride with seeing how many happy families come in,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do, is just talk to families and people who are building with their kids.”

    Opening weekend promotions include exclusive tile giveaways and special sets for LEGO Insiders loyalty program members who make qualifying purchases. The store offers the largest range of LEGO products available, including many exclusives.

    Mike Moore, 46, (above) with a Transformer LEGO set. Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

    Adult fans comprised a significant portion of opening day customers. Mike Moore, an IT professional from Atlanta, said he became seriously interested in LEGO building only recently.

    “I probably really only got hardcore a couple years ago, but I really enjoy it,” Moore said. “I’ve got a tech background, and I find it really peaceful putting something together and seeing the end result. The Technic series, which usually have mechanisms and moving parts, I just find really relaxing.”

    Moore said he heard about the grand opening only days before and felt he “had to be there.” He purchased a Soundwave set, saying, “I’m a kid of the 80s and 90s, so going back to the transformers was a must.”

    Monica Lewis, a flight attendant who began collecting LEGO sets in April, said she enjoys the hobby’s calming effects.

    “I am an adult fan of Lego,” Lewis said. “I just started collecting and building this year in April. It’s a very peaceful hobby.”

    Lewis said she has started sharing her passion with friends through building sessions, including getting matching botanical sets with her best friend in New Jersey for what she called “Lego and liquor” nights.

    The store targets both children and adults, with sections specifically designed for adult builders. Stanton noted the company has emphasized adult fans for about six or seven years, creating “larger, more challenging builds that are more fun” while also offering sets designed for families to build together.

    The company also spotlights female builders through its “She Built That” campaign, which showcases brightly colored, intricately designed sets created to inspire girls and women.

    The LEGO Group, founded in Denmark in 1932, takes its name from the Danish phrase meaning “play well.” The company’s products are sold in more than 140 countries worldwide.

    Stanton reflected on why he chose to work for the company: 

    “When you translate the word Lego from Danish into English, it translates as play well. And what better place to work than a company whose name is play well?”

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  • 4 killed, 18 injured in mass shooting at popular Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood

    4 killed, 18 injured in mass shooting at popular Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Four people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in a shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday night.

    Police said officers responded to reports of a major shooting. “Officers are on the scene of multiple people shot with possibly multiple casualties,” the Birmingham Police Department wrote in a post to X.

    The shooting occurred in the Five Points South area of the city, the post added.

    ABC News Birmingham affiliate WBMA reported that at least four people were killed and dozens injured in the shooting. At least four of the injured have life-threatening injuries, WBMA said.

    As of 6 a.m. CST on Sunday, officials say 18 others were also hurt during the shooting. Their injuries range from non-life-threatening to life-threatening.

    WBMA said the shooting occurred around 11 p.m. Saturday night in the busy Five Points South area.

    Three of the four victims died on the scene, WBMA said. The fourth victim died at the hospital.

    Investigators said they made no arrests and believe there were multiple shooters who fired upon a large group of people who were outside in a public area in the 2000 Block of Magnolia Avenue South.

    Police are investigating whether a gun fitted with a so-called “switch” — which allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire at a faster rate — was used in the shooting, WBMA said.

    The Birmingham Police Department has requested FBI and ATF assistance with the investigation, WBMA reported. Authorities are also seeking information from witnesses as they work to determine who were the intended targets of the shooting.

    “There is no greater resource than the public,” Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said. “We will do everything we possibly can to make sure we uncover, identify and hunt down whoever is responsible for preying on our people this morning.”

    This is a developing story. This article will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.

    ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.

    Copyright © 2024 ABC News Internet Ventures.

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  • 4 killed, 18 injured in mass shooting at popular Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood

    4 killed, 18 injured in mass shooting at popular Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Four people were killed and more than a dozen were injured in a shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday night.

    Police said officers responded to reports of a major shooting. “Officers are on the scene of multiple people shot with possibly multiple casualties,” the Birmingham Police Department wrote in a post to X.

    The shooting occurred in the Five Points South area of the city, the post added.

    ABC News Birmingham affiliate WBMA reported that at least four people were killed and dozens injured in the shooting. At least four of the injured have life-threatening injuries, WBMA said.

    As of 6 a.m. CST on Sunday, officials say 18 others were also hurt during the shooting. Their injuries range from non-life-threatening to life-threatening.

    WBMA said the shooting occurred around 11 p.m. Saturday night in the busy Five Points South area.

    Three of the four victims died on the scene, WBMA said. The fourth victim died at the hospital.

    Investigators said they made no arrests and believe there were multiple shooters who fired upon a large group of people who were outside in a public area in the 2000 Block of Magnolia Avenue South.

    Police are investigating whether a gun fitted with a so-called “switch” — which allows a semi-automatic weapon to fire at a faster rate — was used in the shooting, WBMA said.

    The Birmingham Police Department has requested FBI and ATF assistance with the investigation, WBMA reported. Authorities are also seeking information from witnesses as they work to determine who were the intended targets of the shooting.

    “There is no greater resource than the public,” Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said. “We will do everything we possibly can to make sure we uncover, identify and hunt down whoever is responsible for preying on our people this morning.”

    This is a developing story. This article will continue to be updated as more information becomes available.

    ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.

    Copyright © 2024 ABC News Internet Ventures.

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  • 4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

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    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries

    BREAKING NEWS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, AND IT IS 201 ON A SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 22ND. I’M JARVIS ROBERTSON HERE WITH GLADYS BAUTISTA. WE CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THAT BREAKING NEWS A MASS SHOOTING IN SOUTH SIDE OF FIVE POINT SOUTH. AND WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR IS THAT FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD. FOUR PEOPLE ARE CRITICALLY INJURED. AND DOZENS OF OTHERS ALSO INJURED. WHEN POLICE SAY MULTIPLE SHOOTERS OPENED FIRE ON A CROWD STANDING OUTSIDE IT ALL HAPPENED ON MAGNOLIA AVENUE. NOW, POLICE SAY THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL VICTIMS IN THIS SITUATION. AS WE KNOW, DOZENS ARE INJURED. SOME HAVE LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, SOME HAVE VARIOUS INJURIES. WE DO WANT TO GET OUT TO WVTM. 13 S ZOE BLAIR. SHE IS ON THE GROUND FOR US RIGHT NOW FOLLOWING THE LATEST GLADYS. I’M SORRY ZOE. TELL US WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU NOW. THANK YOU FOR. YEAH. JARVIS GLADYS. YOU CAN SEE HERE BEHIND ME. BIRMINGHAM. POLICE ARE STILL INVESTIGATING THIS MASS SHOOTING. IT HAPPENED JUST AFTER 11:00 LAST NIGHT. I’M TOLD THAT IT HAPPENED BACK THAT WAY. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FOUNTAIN. SOMEBODY OPENED FIRE ON THE SIDEWALK. WE BIRMINGHAM. POLICE TOLD US THAT DOZENS OF PEOPLE GOT GUNSHOT INJURIES FROM THIS. EIGHT PEOPLE WERE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD. THERE ARE STILL TONS OF PEOPLE OUT HERE LOOKING FOR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS AND TRYING. SOME OF THEM ARE JUST TRYING TO GET BACK TO THEIR CARS TO GET HOME. MANY OF THEM ARE STILL LOOKING FOR ANSWERS ON WHAT HAPPENED. BIRMINGHAM POLICE SAY THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE ANYONE IN CUSTODY RIGHT NOW, BUT THEY’RE STILL WORKING TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED. BACK TO YOU GUYS. ALL RIGHT, ZOE, THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND FROM WHAT YOU CAN SEE FROM THAT SCENE, IT LOOKS LIKE THERE IS POLICE TAPE ALL OVER THE PLACE. POLICE HAVE SAID THAT DOZENS OF THE VICTIMS ARE AT VARIOUS HOSPITALS. SO RIGHT NOW, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE THIS IS A REALLY FLUID SITUATION, A VERY FLUID SITUATION. AND KEEP IN MIND, THIS HAPPENED ON A SATURDAY NIGHT WHEN THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT IN FIVE POINTS SOUTH. AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THAT CRIME SCENE TAPE THAT WE JUST SAW AROUND ZOE, POLICE ARE GOING TO BE THERE FOR SOME TIME. AGAIN, THEY SAY THAT A GROUP OF PEOPLE STARTED FIRING AT PEOPLE WHO WERE STANDING OUT IN THE OPEN, AND SOMETHING INTERESTING THAT POLICE SAID. THEY SAID THAT THEY COULD NOT SAY HOW MANY SHOTS WERE FIRED, BUT THEY DO BELIEVE THAT GLOCK SWITCHES WERE USED. AND WE KNOW THAT THAT HAS BEEN A MAJOR ISSUE FOR THE BIRMINGHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT, FOR FEDERAL PARTNERS AS WELL, DEALING WITH THE REGULATION OF THESE GLOCK SWITCHES. WE ALSO HEARD FROM POLICE CHIEFS LAST WEEK EVEN SAYING THAT THEY’RE WORKING RIGHT NOW AT THE STATE LEVEL TO MAKE THOSE GLOCK SWITCHES THEY BELIEVE WERE USED IN TONIGHT’S SHOOTING ILLEGAL AT THE STATE LEVEL, BECAUSE RIGHT NOW THEY’RE ONLY ILLEGAL AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL. AND FOR SOME TIME THAT BIRMINGHAM CITY LEADERS, THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING TO GET THESE GLOCK SWITCHES OFF THE STREET. BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM MAYOR RANDALL WOODFIN, HE HAS BEEN VERY VOCAL EVEN NOT TOO LONG AGO WITHIN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS, POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SAYING THAT WE ARE COMING AFTER THE PEOPLE WHO USE GLOCK. GLOCK SWITCHES. NOW KEEP IN MIND, ONCE HE MADE THAT POST, THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE WHO DECIDED TO THINK IT WAS A JOKE. THEY POSTED GLOCK SWITCHES, POSTED THEM SHOOTING GLOCK SWITCHES AND GUESS WHAT? HE POSTED THAT POLICE, FEDERAL PARTNERS THEY WENT AFTER THOSE PEOPLE. WE DID HAVE A CHANCE TO HEAR FROM SOME PEOPLE WHO WERE ON THE GROUND OUT THERE THAT NIGHT THAT WALKED UP SHORTLY AFTER THE INCIDENT HAPPENED. TAKE A LISTEN. VERY SCARY, VERY LIKE WHEN I ASKED, I WALKED UP WHEN IT WAS LIKE JUST ENDED BECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS SCREAMING. IT WAS PEOPLE CRYING. POLICE OFFICERS. THEY WAS TRYING TO GET INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT PEOPLE. SO THEY JUST WAS TRYING TO DO THEIR JOB. AND I GUESS GET THE AID AND INFORMATION THAT THEY NEED. YOU SAID YOU SAW SOME PEOPLE CARRIED OUT ON STRETCHERS. YES, MA’AM. IT WAS LITERALLY PROBABLY ABOUT 6 TO 7 PEOPLE, MALES AND FEMALES. THAT WAS COMING OUT ON STRETCHERS. AND IT WAS AMBULANCE COMING BACK TO BACK. SO IT WAS DEFINITELY A BAD CRIME SCENE FOR THE FIVE POINTS AREA. YOU DON’T SEE STUFF LIKE THIS JUST YOU GOING OUT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME AND YOU WALK UP ON SOMETHING LIKE THIS. SO IT’S JUST IT’S VERY RARE THAT YOU SEE SOMETHING LIKE THIS VERY CLOSE TO HOME, YOU KNOW, SO JUST KIND OF SAD FOR, YOU KNOW, THE PUBLIC AND THE FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE THAT GOT WOUNDED. YEAH. AND SO DOES THIS MAKE YOU RETHINK YOU WANTING TO GO OUT DOWN HERE OR ANYTHING? YES, MA’AM. DEFINITELY. IT’S A GUY WALKED BY AND HE SAID, THIS IS THE MAIN REASON WHY I STAY AT HOME. YOU KNOW, AND I KNOW THINGS CAN HAPPEN NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, BUT YOU JUST HAVE TO, YOU KNOW, BE MINDFUL OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND, YOU KNOW, USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT. AND LIKE I SAID, I WAS GOING TO COME OUT EARLIER, BUT I DIDN’T. I KIND OF LAGGED AROUND AND IT WAS A REASON. SO EVERYTHING HAPPENED FOR A REASON. YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW WHEN IT’S IT’S TIME TO GO OR IT’S TIME TO GO TO ANOTHER LOCATION BECAUSE THIS AREA HERE LATELY, THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKENDS, IT’S BEEN GETTING BAD. IT’S BEEN GETTING BAD. WOW. CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT THAT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE. SO HAPPY THAT THAT GENTLEMAN THAT SHE SPOKE TO IS OKAY. BUT WE KNOW THAT THAT’S NOT THE SITUATION FOR SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE. AND HE TALKED ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING CARRIED OUT ON STRETCHERS ON MY WAY IN HERE. I PASSED THROUGH THAT AREA. POLICE SAY THAT THE AREA THAT I CAME DOWN, WHICH WAS UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD, HE SAID THAT THIS AREA RIGHT NOW, WE HAD TO ESTABLISH A PERIMETER SO THAT THE MEDICAL VEHICLES, THE AMBULANCES COULD GET OUT AND HAVE A PATHWAY OUT OF THAT. THAT IS, YOU KNOW, JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW POPULATED THIS AREA WAS WHEN ALL OF THIS HAPPENED. YEAH, WE KNOW THAT AGAIN, A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE OUT ON THE WEEKENDS AND FIVE POINTS OUT IN BIRMINGHAM. YES. AGAIN, WE DO WANT TO REITERATE THAT THIS HAPPENED JUST AFTER 11:00 LAST NIGHT. BIRMINGHAM POLICE SAY THAT SEVERAL SHOOTERS OPENED FIRE ON A CROWD OF PEOPLE. WE KNOW THAT UNFORTUNATELY, FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD, FOUR PEOPLE HAVE LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, BUT DOZENS OF PEOPLE HAVE VARIOUS INJURIES. MULTIPLE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW, MULTIPLE FIRST RESPONDERS STILL BEING DISPATCHED TO THAT SCENE, TRYING TO JUST GET EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. NOW, THE MOTIVE FOR THE SHOOTING IS STILL UNCLEAR AT THIS MOMENT, AND THAT IS THE ONE THING THAT PEOPLE WILL BE LOOKING FOR, RIGHT? AND THEN WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS ENTIRE AREA THAT POLICE NOW HAVE TO SIFT THROUGH TO TRY TO FIND THEIR EVIDENCE WHEN THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT GLOCK SWITCHES, YOU’RE TALKING, YOU KNOW, WE DON’T EVEN KNOW THE NUMBER OF SHOTS THAT WERE FIRED, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT A SWITCH ON A GUN LIKE THAT FROM MULTIPLE SHOOTERS. SO POLICE HAVE A LOT. THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT TO DEAL WITH. AND WHAT’S INTERESTING, YEAH, WHAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT IT WITH THOSE GLOCK SWITCHES, ONCE THEY INSTALL THEM ON A TYPICAL HANDGUN. RIGHT. I MEAN, IT CAN FIRE RAPID SUCCESSION FOR HUNDREDS OF BULLETS. SO I MEAN, BIRMINGHAM OFFICIALS, AFTER TONIGHT, THEY’RE DEFINITELY GOING TO BE PUSHING EVEN HARDER TO GET THESE OFF THE STREETS. RIGHT. AND WE HEARD FROM POLICE, THEY SAID THAT RIGHT NOW THEY WANT TO FIND THOSE SHOOTERS AND THEY’RE GOING TO HUNT THEM DOWN AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE. AND REALLY QUICKLY. I DO WANT TO REITERATE WHAT THE GENTLEMAN SAID, THAT IT’S SAD. I MEAN, JUST LOOKING ACROSS FACEBOOK RIGHT NOW, THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE POSTING THIS IS SAD. BIRMINGHAM WE HAVE TO DO BETTER. SO THIS IS A COMMUNITY THAT IS HURTING BY GUN VIOLENCE. DEFINITELY. UNFORTUNATELY, AND RIGHT NOW WE DON’T KNOW HOW IT’S GOING TO END. AND WE DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. WE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THIS DEVELOPING STORY FOR YOU. WE HAVE CREWS ON THE GROUND THERE AT THAT SCENE. WE’RE GOING TO BE UPDATING THIS THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.

    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries

    Four people are dead and there are dozens of gunshot victims after multiple shooters fired on “people in the open” Saturday night, according to Alabama police. It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday night in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood.No one is in custody at this time, according to police. Two men and a woman were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds when police arrived, and then more gunshot victims were found. Those three victims died on the scene and another died at the hospital. At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries. The rest have “various injuries,” police said. Video below: Watch the full news conference from policeThe University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is treating 11 of the victims, a spokesperson told sister station WVTM in a statement. Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the victims were out in the open on the sidewalk and street when the shooting began. Investigators are trying to figure out if the shooters walked up to the victims or drove by in a vehicle. Police believe Glock switches were used. Those switches are machinegun conversion devices and have been the focus of a recent federal crackdown in Birmingham. Birmingham Five Points South is an entertainment district with restaurants and nightlife.Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Birmingham police have asked that businesses in the area provide any surveillance footage they might have, and requested that the public reach out to them with any relevant information.This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.

    Four people are dead and there are dozens of gunshot victims after multiple shooters fired on “people in the open” Saturday night, according to Alabama police.

    It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday night in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood.

    No one is in custody at this time, according to police.

    Two men and a woman were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds when police arrived, and then more gunshot victims were found. Those three victims died on the scene and another died at the hospital.

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries. The rest have “various injuries,” police said.

    Video below: Watch the full news conference from police

    The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is treating 11 of the victims, a spokesperson told sister station WVTM in a statement.

    Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the victims were out in the open on the sidewalk and street when the shooting began. Investigators are trying to figure out if the shooters walked up to the victims or drove by in a vehicle.

    Police believe Glock switches were used. Those switches are machinegun conversion devices and have been the focus of a recent federal crackdown in Birmingham.

    Birmingham Five Points South is an entertainment district with restaurants and nightlife.

    Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Birmingham police have asked that businesses in the area provide any surveillance footage they might have, and requested that the public reach out to them with any relevant information.

    This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.

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  • 4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    [ad_1]

    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries

    BREAKING NEWS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, AND IT IS 201 ON A SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 22ND. I’M JARVIS ROBERTSON HERE WITH GLADYS BAUTISTA. WE CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THAT BREAKING NEWS A MASS SHOOTING IN SOUTH SIDE OF FIVE POINT SOUTH. AND WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR IS THAT FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD. FOUR PEOPLE ARE CRITICALLY INJURED. AND DOZENS OF OTHERS ALSO INJURED. WHEN POLICE SAY MULTIPLE SHOOTERS OPENED FIRE ON A CROWD STANDING OUTSIDE IT ALL HAPPENED ON MAGNOLIA AVENUE. NOW, POLICE SAY THAT THERE ARE SEVERAL VICTIMS IN THIS SITUATION. AS WE KNOW, DOZENS ARE INJURED. SOME HAVE LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, SOME HAVE VARIOUS INJURIES. WE DO WANT TO GET OUT TO WVTM. 13 S ZOE BLAIR. SHE IS ON THE GROUND FOR US RIGHT NOW FOLLOWING THE LATEST GLADYS. I’M SORRY ZOE. TELL US WHAT YOU ARE SEEING AROUND YOU NOW. THANK YOU FOR. YEAH. JARVIS GLADYS. YOU CAN SEE HERE BEHIND ME. BIRMINGHAM. POLICE ARE STILL INVESTIGATING THIS MASS SHOOTING. IT HAPPENED JUST AFTER 11:00 LAST NIGHT. I’M TOLD THAT IT HAPPENED BACK THAT WAY. ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FOUNTAIN. SOMEBODY OPENED FIRE ON THE SIDEWALK. WE BIRMINGHAM. POLICE TOLD US THAT DOZENS OF PEOPLE GOT GUNSHOT INJURIES FROM THIS. EIGHT PEOPLE WERE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL. FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD. THERE ARE STILL TONS OF PEOPLE OUT HERE LOOKING FOR THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS AND TRYING. SOME OF THEM ARE JUST TRYING TO GET BACK TO THEIR CARS TO GET HOME. MANY OF THEM ARE STILL LOOKING FOR ANSWERS ON WHAT HAPPENED. BIRMINGHAM POLICE SAY THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE ANYONE IN CUSTODY RIGHT NOW, BUT THEY’RE STILL WORKING TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED. BACK TO YOU GUYS. ALL RIGHT, ZOE, THANK YOU SO MUCH. AND FROM WHAT YOU CAN SEE FROM THAT SCENE, IT LOOKS LIKE THERE IS POLICE TAPE ALL OVER THE PLACE. POLICE HAVE SAID THAT DOZENS OF THE VICTIMS ARE AT VARIOUS HOSPITALS. SO RIGHT NOW, IT JUST SEEMS LIKE THIS IS A REALLY FLUID SITUATION, A VERY FLUID SITUATION. AND KEEP IN MIND, THIS HAPPENED ON A SATURDAY NIGHT WHEN THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE OUT IN FIVE POINTS SOUTH. AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THAT CRIME SCENE TAPE THAT WE JUST SAW AROUND ZOE, POLICE ARE GOING TO BE THERE FOR SOME TIME. AGAIN, THEY SAY THAT A GROUP OF PEOPLE STARTED FIRING AT PEOPLE WHO WERE STANDING OUT IN THE OPEN, AND SOMETHING INTERESTING THAT POLICE SAID. THEY SAID THAT THEY COULD NOT SAY HOW MANY SHOTS WERE FIRED, BUT THEY DO BELIEVE THAT GLOCK SWITCHES WERE USED. AND WE KNOW THAT THAT HAS BEEN A MAJOR ISSUE FOR THE BIRMINGHAM POLICE DEPARTMENT, FOR FEDERAL PARTNERS AS WELL, DEALING WITH THE REGULATION OF THESE GLOCK SWITCHES. WE ALSO HEARD FROM POLICE CHIEFS LAST WEEK EVEN SAYING THAT THEY’RE WORKING RIGHT NOW AT THE STATE LEVEL TO MAKE THOSE GLOCK SWITCHES THEY BELIEVE WERE USED IN TONIGHT’S SHOOTING ILLEGAL AT THE STATE LEVEL, BECAUSE RIGHT NOW THEY’RE ONLY ILLEGAL AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL. AND FOR SOME TIME THAT BIRMINGHAM CITY LEADERS, THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING TO GET THESE GLOCK SWITCHES OFF THE STREET. BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM MAYOR RANDALL WOODFIN, HE HAS BEEN VERY VOCAL EVEN NOT TOO LONG AGO WITHIN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS, POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SAYING THAT WE ARE COMING AFTER THE PEOPLE WHO USE GLOCK. GLOCK SWITCHES. NOW KEEP IN MIND, ONCE HE MADE THAT POST, THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE WHO DECIDED TO THINK IT WAS A JOKE. THEY POSTED GLOCK SWITCHES, POSTED THEM SHOOTING GLOCK SWITCHES AND GUESS WHAT? HE POSTED THAT POLICE, FEDERAL PARTNERS THEY WENT AFTER THOSE PEOPLE. WE DID HAVE A CHANCE TO HEAR FROM SOME PEOPLE WHO WERE ON THE GROUND OUT THERE THAT NIGHT THAT WALKED UP SHORTLY AFTER THE INCIDENT HAPPENED. TAKE A LISTEN. VERY SCARY, VERY LIKE WHEN I ASKED, I WALKED UP WHEN IT WAS LIKE JUST ENDED BECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS SCREAMING. IT WAS PEOPLE CRYING. POLICE OFFICERS. THEY WAS TRYING TO GET INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT PEOPLE. SO THEY JUST WAS TRYING TO DO THEIR JOB. AND I GUESS GET THE AID AND INFORMATION THAT THEY NEED. YOU SAID YOU SAW SOME PEOPLE CARRIED OUT ON STRETCHERS. YES, MA’AM. IT WAS LITERALLY PROBABLY ABOUT 6 TO 7 PEOPLE, MALES AND FEMALES. THAT WAS COMING OUT ON STRETCHERS. AND IT WAS AMBULANCE COMING BACK TO BACK. SO IT WAS DEFINITELY A BAD CRIME SCENE FOR THE FIVE POINTS AREA. YOU DON’T SEE STUFF LIKE THIS JUST YOU GOING OUT TO HAVE A GOOD TIME AND YOU WALK UP ON SOMETHING LIKE THIS. SO IT’S JUST IT’S VERY RARE THAT YOU SEE SOMETHING LIKE THIS VERY CLOSE TO HOME, YOU KNOW, SO JUST KIND OF SAD FOR, YOU KNOW, THE PUBLIC AND THE FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE THAT GOT WOUNDED. YEAH. AND SO DOES THIS MAKE YOU RETHINK YOU WANTING TO GO OUT DOWN HERE OR ANYTHING? YES, MA’AM. DEFINITELY. IT’S A GUY WALKED BY AND HE SAID, THIS IS THE MAIN REASON WHY I STAY AT HOME. YOU KNOW, AND I KNOW THINGS CAN HAPPEN NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO, BUT YOU JUST HAVE TO, YOU KNOW, BE MINDFUL OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND, YOU KNOW, USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT. AND LIKE I SAID, I WAS GOING TO COME OUT EARLIER, BUT I DIDN’T. I KIND OF LAGGED AROUND AND IT WAS A REASON. SO EVERYTHING HAPPENED FOR A REASON. YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW WHEN IT’S IT’S TIME TO GO OR IT’S TIME TO GO TO ANOTHER LOCATION BECAUSE THIS AREA HERE LATELY, THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKENDS, IT’S BEEN GETTING BAD. IT’S BEEN GETTING BAD. WOW. CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT THAT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE. SO HAPPY THAT THAT GENTLEMAN THAT SHE SPOKE TO IS OKAY. BUT WE KNOW THAT THAT’S NOT THE SITUATION FOR SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE. AND HE TALKED ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING CARRIED OUT ON STRETCHERS ON MY WAY IN HERE. I PASSED THROUGH THAT AREA. POLICE SAY THAT THE AREA THAT I CAME DOWN, WHICH WAS UNIVERSITY BOULEVARD, HE SAID THAT THIS AREA RIGHT NOW, WE HAD TO ESTABLISH A PERIMETER SO THAT THE MEDICAL VEHICLES, THE AMBULANCES COULD GET OUT AND HAVE A PATHWAY OUT OF THAT. THAT IS, YOU KNOW, JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW POPULATED THIS AREA WAS WHEN ALL OF THIS HAPPENED. YEAH, WE KNOW THAT AGAIN, A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE OUT ON THE WEEKENDS AND FIVE POINTS OUT IN BIRMINGHAM. YES. AGAIN, WE DO WANT TO REITERATE THAT THIS HAPPENED JUST AFTER 11:00 LAST NIGHT. BIRMINGHAM POLICE SAY THAT SEVERAL SHOOTERS OPENED FIRE ON A CROWD OF PEOPLE. WE KNOW THAT UNFORTUNATELY, FOUR PEOPLE ARE DEAD, FOUR PEOPLE HAVE LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, BUT DOZENS OF PEOPLE HAVE VARIOUS INJURIES. MULTIPLE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW, MULTIPLE FIRST RESPONDERS STILL BEING DISPATCHED TO THAT SCENE, TRYING TO JUST GET EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL. NOW, THE MOTIVE FOR THE SHOOTING IS STILL UNCLEAR AT THIS MOMENT, AND THAT IS THE ONE THING THAT PEOPLE WILL BE LOOKING FOR, RIGHT? AND THEN WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS ENTIRE AREA THAT POLICE NOW HAVE TO SIFT THROUGH TO TRY TO FIND THEIR EVIDENCE WHEN THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT GLOCK SWITCHES, YOU’RE TALKING, YOU KNOW, WE DON’T EVEN KNOW THE NUMBER OF SHOTS THAT WERE FIRED, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT A SWITCH ON A GUN LIKE THAT FROM MULTIPLE SHOOTERS. SO POLICE HAVE A LOT. THEY’RE GOING TO HAVE A LOT TO DEAL WITH. AND WHAT’S INTERESTING, YEAH, WHAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT IT WITH THOSE GLOCK SWITCHES, ONCE THEY INSTALL THEM ON A TYPICAL HANDGUN. RIGHT. I MEAN, IT CAN FIRE RAPID SUCCESSION FOR HUNDREDS OF BULLETS. SO I MEAN, BIRMINGHAM OFFICIALS, AFTER TONIGHT, THEY’RE DEFINITELY GOING TO BE PUSHING EVEN HARDER TO GET THESE OFF THE STREETS. RIGHT. AND WE HEARD FROM POLICE, THEY SAID THAT RIGHT NOW THEY WANT TO FIND THOSE SHOOTERS AND THEY’RE GOING TO HUNT THEM DOWN AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE. AND REALLY QUICKLY. I DO WANT TO REITERATE WHAT THE GENTLEMAN SAID, THAT IT’S SAD. I MEAN, JUST LOOKING ACROSS FACEBOOK RIGHT NOW, THERE ARE A LOT OF PEOPLE POSTING THIS IS SAD. BIRMINGHAM WE HAVE TO DO BETTER. SO THIS IS A COMMUNITY THAT IS HURTING BY GUN VIOLENCE. DEFINITELY. UNFORTUNATELY, AND RIGHT NOW WE DON’T KNOW HOW IT’S GOING TO END. AND WE DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AFFECTED. WE WILL CONTINUE TO FOLLOW THIS DEVELOPING STORY FOR YOU. WE HAVE CREWS ON THE GROUND THERE AT THAT SCENE. WE’RE GOING TO BE UPDATING THIS THROUGHOUT THE NIGHT.

    4 dead, dozens injured after multiple shooters fire on ‘people in the open’ in Birmingham, Alabama

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries

    Four people are dead and there are dozens of gunshot victims after multiple shooters fired on “people in the open” Saturday night, according to Alabama police. It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday night in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood.No one is in custody at this time, according to police. Two men and a woman were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds when police arrived, and then more gunshot victims were found. Those three victims died on the scene and another died at the hospital. At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries. The rest have “various injuries,” police said. Video below: Watch the full news conference from policeThe University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is treating 11 of the victims, a spokesperson told sister station WVTM in a statement. Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the victims were out in the open on the sidewalk and street when the shooting began. Investigators are trying to figure out if the shooters walked up to the victims or drove by in a vehicle. Police believe Glock switches were used. Those switches are machinegun conversion devices and have been the focus of a recent federal crackdown in Birmingham. Birmingham Five Points South is an entertainment district with restaurants and nightlife.Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Birmingham police have asked that businesses in the area provide any surveillance footage they might have, and requested that the public reach out to them with any relevant information.This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.

    Four people are dead and there are dozens of gunshot victims after multiple shooters fired on “people in the open” Saturday night, according to Alabama police.

    It happened just after 11 p.m. Saturday night in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood.

    No one is in custody at this time, according to police.

    Two men and a woman were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds when police arrived, and then more gunshot victims were found. Those three victims died on the scene and another died at the hospital.

    At least four of the gunshot victims have life-threatening injuries. The rest have “various injuries,” police said.

    Video below: Watch the full news conference from police

    The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital is treating 11 of the victims, a spokesperson told sister station WVTM in a statement.

    Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald said the victims were out in the open on the sidewalk and street when the shooting began. Investigators are trying to figure out if the shooters walked up to the victims or drove by in a vehicle.

    Police believe Glock switches were used. Those switches are machinegun conversion devices and have been the focus of a recent federal crackdown in Birmingham.

    Birmingham Five Points South is an entertainment district with restaurants and nightlife.

    Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777. Birmingham police have asked that businesses in the area provide any surveillance footage they might have, and requested that the public reach out to them with any relevant information.

    This is a developing story and will be updated as information becomes available.

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  • Moosejaw is quietly closing its last remaining stores

    Moosejaw is quietly closing its last remaining stores

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    Dick’s Sporting Goods is getting ready to shutter its last three remaining Moosejaw stores in the U.S. and completely dissolve the brand, Metro Times has learned.

    Multiple workers confirmed the impending closures to Metro Times, though the company’s corporate office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The workers say the stores will remain open through close of business on Saturday, and what remains of the brand’s online store will fold into Dick’s Public Lands subsidiary.

    The outdoor recreation retail brand was founded in Michigan in 1992 and purchased by Dick’s Sporting Goods last year. The Pennsylvania-based company swiftly moved to close 11 brick and mortar Moosejaw stores across Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, and Missouri, slashing hundreds of jobs. The Woodward Avenue store in Birmingham is its last store in Michigan, with other stores in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Bentonville, Arkansas.

    One worker, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, says they learned about the planned closure earlier this week. The news was shocking but not exactly a surprise, they say.

    “We had an idea,” the worker says. “Like, we didn’t get any replenishment [of supplies] … And we were like, OK, something’s up, like, something’s up.”

    Longtime friends Robert Wolfe and David Jaffe opened the first Moosejaw store in Keego Harbor before moving the flagship to Birmingham. The brand was beloved for its quirky “Moosejaw Madness” sensibility, and its slogan boasted it was “the most fun outdoor retailer on the planet.”

    Upon the announcement of its acquisition in 2023, Dick’s said it planned to grow the company.

    “We admire what Moosejaw has accomplished over the past 30 years as leaders in the outdoor industry and look forward to the opportunity to share insights and learn from one another,” Dick’s president Todd Spaletto said in a statement at the time. “We believe there’s potential to grow the Moosejaw business and provide compelling experiences and an expanded product assortment to its millions of loyal customers.”

    However, our worker source says that the vibe shifted after the company was acquired by Dick’s, which implemented a dress code for workers and ended perks like offering returned items to employees.

    “It was kind of a really wholesome company,” the worker says. “When Dick’s bought us, it kind of stripped away the love of what Moosejaw was.”

    When Metro Times visited the Birmingham store on Friday, a worker would not confirm the closure. There was no markdown sale or any other signs the business was closing, though a table offered free swag like beer koozies and bumper stickers.

    “It’s, like, totally not fair to the customer, not fair to other employees,” our source says.

    The store had long stopped selling any Moosejaw-branded items, the source adds, which they believe in retrospect was a sign that the writing was on the wall.

    Throughout the first two decades of the 2000s, various private equity firms began to acquire stakes in Moosejaw. In 2017, it was acquired by Walmart for $51 million in cash. In February 2023, Walmart agreed to sell the brand to Dick’s for an undisclosed sum.

    “To see it go from this great thing that was built from the bottom up from Michiganders to literally being wiped off the face of the Earth … I have a passion for this company, and I’m just in pure disgust as to how this was handled,” our source says.

    They add, “Dick’s bought us to just chew us up and spit us out.”

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    Lee DeVito

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  • 11 Fun Facts About Birmingham, AL: How Well Do You Know Your City?

    11 Fun Facts About Birmingham, AL: How Well Do You Know Your City?

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    Birmingham, AL, may be recognized for its history and Southern hospitality, but the “Magic City” holds a treasure of distinctive characteristics beyond its renowned landmarks. From its storied past as a booming industrial hub to its present role as a cultural melting pot, there’s always something new to learn about Birmingham. Whether you’re settling into a new apartment in Birmingham, searching for homes for sale, or have been a longtime resident, uncovering these 12 fun facts about the city will deepen your appreciation for its diverse culture and dynamic spirit.

    Quick Facts about Birmingham

    Median home sale price $190,000
    Average monthly rent $950
    Walk Score 35/100
    Transit Score 25/100
    Bike Score 45/100

    1. Vulcan statue is the largest cast-iron statue in the world

    Birmingham is the home of Vulcan, the largest cast-iron statue in the world, towering over the city atop Red Mountain at 56 feet tall. This iconic symbol represents Birmingham’s industrial heritage and offers panoramic views of the cityscape.

    2. Rickwood Field is the oldest baseball park in the U.S.

    Rickwood Field in Birmingham, holds the esteemed title of the oldest baseball park in the United States since its construction in 1910. With its storied history and classic architecture, it remains a cherished landmark for baseball enthusiasts and historians alike.

    3. Oak Mountain State Park, located just south of Birmingham, is Alabama’s largest state park

    Just a stone’s throw from Birmingham lies Oak Mountain State Park, Alabama’s largest state park, spanning over 9,000 acres. Visitors can immerse themselves in nature’s beauty through hiking, fishing, camping, and exploring the park’s diverse ecosystems.

    4. Birmingham’s nickname, the “Magic City” originated from its rapid growth

    Birmingham earned its nickname, the “Magic City,” from its explosive growth during the late 19th century, fueled by the iron and steel industry’s boom. This rapid expansion transformed Birmingham into a bustling metropolis, attracting residents from all over.

    Park in Birmingham

    5. Birmingham is a national leader in green spaces

    Birmingham stands as a national leader in urban green spaces, exemplified by its extensive network of parks, gardens, and greenways. From the picturesque Railroad Park to the serene surroundings of Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve, the city is full of outdoor spaces for recreation and relaxation.  Additionally, Birmingham’s commitment to sustainability is evident in initiatives like the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System, which promotes eco-friendly transportation and preserves natural habitats.

    Fun fact from a Birmingham local: Dori DeCamillis, a local creativity blogger from Without a Net, shares, “Birmingham is in one of the most biodiverse regions in the country, and our parks and trails spread across the city, connecting us to nature and each other. We have one of the country’s most popular mountain bike trail systems, streams, and waterfalls along most trails, and fascinating rock outcroppings dotting the trails.”

    6. Birmingham has the world’s largest motorcycle museum

    Birmingham proudly hosts the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, recognized as the world’s largest motorcycle museum. With over 1,600 vintage and modern motorcycles on display, it’s a paradise for motorcycle enthusiasts and history buffs alike.

    7. Red Mountain Park is bigger than Central Park

    Red Mountain Park, sprawling across Birmingham’s landscape, surpasses the size of New York City’s Central Park. Spanning over 1,500 acres, it has an expansive playground for outdoor recreation and conservation efforts, providing residents with ample opportunities to explore nature’s wonders. Be sure to check out the park’s historic mines and tree houses.

    8. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens is one of the largest botanical gardens in the Southeast

    Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens rank among the largest in the Southeast, spanning 67.5 acres and featuring over 12,000 different plants. Visitors can wander through themed gardens, attend educational programs, and immerse themselves in the beautiful seasonal blooms throughout the changing seasons.

    9. The music scene has produced several influential artists across various genres

    Birmingham’s vibrant music scene has birthed several influential artists across various genres, each contributing to the city’s rich musical heritage and leaving an indelible mark on the world of music. Legendary jazz artists like Sun Ra and Erskine Hawkins honed their craft in Birmingham and shaped the landscape of jazz music.

    10. The country’s first Veterans Day celebration was in Birmingham

    The first Veterans Day celebration, which took place on November 11, 1947. Originally known as Armistice Day, this annual commemoration honors military veterans and their service to the nation, highlighting Birmingham’s proud history of recognizing and honoring the sacrifices of its armed forces.

    11. Hitachi, Japan is Birmingham’s sister city

    Hitachi, Japan, serves as one of Birmingham’s sister cities, fostering cultural exchange and international collaboration between the two communities. For example, the city of Hitachi has a replica of Birmingham’s Vulcan statue, while Birmingham features several Japanese lanterns in their Botanical Gardens. This partnership promotes mutual understanding and friendship through various initiatives, such as student exchanges, cultural festivals, and economic development projects.

     

    Methodology: The median home sale price and average monthly rental data is from the Redfin Data Center. The Walk Score, Transit Score and Bike Score data is from Walk Score.

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    Ana de Guzman

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  • 4 men killed in shooting at neighborhood car wash in Birmingham, Alabama

    4 men killed in shooting at neighborhood car wash in Birmingham, Alabama

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    Police are investigating a quadruple homicide in Birmingham, Alabama. On Friday afternoon, officers were dispatched to a report of multiple shots fired and found four victims lying unresponsive on the ground near an open lot, the Birmingham Police Department said in a news release. All four had apparent gunshot wounds.

    The four men were identified as Terrell Edwards, 38; Kevin McGhee, 38; Cortez Ray, 32; and Talton Tate, 36. Edwards, Ray and Tate were pronounced dead on the scene. McGhee was transported to UAB Hospital with what police described as life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead there.

    The police said they believe one or more of the victims were targeted. The four men were at a neighborhood car wash when an unknown suspect opened fire on them, police said. 

    No one was in custody, police said, but anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact the Birmingham Police Department.

    “It’s really disgusting that these things continue to happen in our city over and over again and people have got to learn other ways to resolve their conflicts or come to some kind of resolution other than resorting to gunfire,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond told CBS affiliate WIAT-TV. “It disturbs the whole entire neighborhood over here. It’s just very disturbing for us as law enforcement officers trying to provide a safer city for all the citizens of Birmingham.” 

    The shooting has increased the number of murder investigations in Birmingham to 12 so far this year, police said.

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  • Activist looks back at Birmingham church bombing 60 years later

    Activist looks back at Birmingham church bombing 60 years later

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    Activist looks back at Birmingham church bombing 60 years later – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    Friday marks 60 years since the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. CBS News correspondent Danya Bacchus spoke to a woman who was inspired into a life of activism before and after the tragic event.

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  • 1 killed, 3 injured in Alabama birthday party shooting

    1 killed, 3 injured in Alabama birthday party shooting

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    Alabama authorities said that a shooting at a birthday party in Birmingham left one person dead and three others injured. 

    In a video statement, assistant public information officer Truman Fitzgerald said that the shooting took place around 10 p.m. local time Friday night. Officers from the Birmingham Police Department’s South Precinct were dispatched to the 900 block of 47th Street North after receiving a report of multiple people being shot.

    When officers arrived on the scene, they first found an adult female injured in front of an apartment, Fitzgerald said. 

    Inside the apartment, responders “observed at least three adult males who were struck by gunfire,” again in front of an apartment. 

    Officers provided medical care until Birmingham Fire and Rescue Personnel arrived. All of the victims were transported to local hospitals, Fitzgerald said. The woman had unspecified injuries not caused by gunfire. 

    One man was pronounced deceased at the hospital, Fitzgerald said. CBS News affiliate CBS42 identified the man as 36-year-old Roshode Davidson.

    Fitzgerald said the preliminary investigation indicates that the group was “celebrating a birthday and were having a party” at the address. 

    “An unknown suspect approached them and began firing shots at the party doors,” Fitzgerald said.

    There is no one in custody. Fitzgerald asked that anyone with information about possible suspects contact the Birmingham Police Department. 

    Kerry Breen


    Kerry Breen

    Kerry Breen is a news editor and reporter for CBS News. Her reporting focuses on current events, breaking news and substance use.

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  • HBCU SpringComing Welcomes HBCU Grads Back Home for the 9th Annual Festival in New York City and Birmingham, Alabama

    HBCU SpringComing Welcomes HBCU Grads Back Home for the 9th Annual Festival in New York City and Birmingham, Alabama

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    Press Release
    –


    updated: Feb 21, 2023 10:01 EST


    ATLANTA, February 21, 2023 (Newswire.com)
    –
    HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) SpringComing returns bigger and better for its 9th installment of festivals in both Birmingham, Alabama (March 17-19) and New York, New York (April 14-16). The one-of-a-kind event created by Lauren Grove and George A. Peters II aims to celebrate the accomplishments of influential HBCU graduates from around the country.

    “As HBCU SpringComing continues to grow and evolve, we’re very proud of everything we’ve been able to accomplish within the HBCU community through innovative and intentional events. Bridging the gap between HBCU alum and allies in the New York Tri-State area and now Birmingham, a city in the south, deeply rooted in Black excellence, is just one of the many reasons why our festival is so special and unique,” said George A. Peters II, Co-founder, HBCU SpringComing. “To date, we’ve had over 25,000 attendees. This speaks to our team’s ability to create authentic culture and conversation amongst a group of Black leaders representing the best and brightest to come out of historically Black colleges and universities.”   

    This year, Indeed continues as the official sponsor with an expanded city-to-city event schedule officially kicking off in Birmingham during the NCAA Tournament for #MagicCityMadness. In step with their signature festivities, HBCU SpringComing will debut the newly added “Sips & Sounds: A Toast to the Living Gallery,” an exclusive wine and music event to recognize HBCU alums and local leaders making change in their community. The intimate evening will also feature Grammy Award-winning singer Melanie Fiona as host, wine tastings from Black-owned wineries and more. In April, the festival will make its last stop in New York City, its original home since 2015. The three-day experience in both cities will showcase mirrored events.

    “After a spectacular showing of support last year, we are excited to once again welcome the HBCU SpringComing festival to Birmingham,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin. “We want all HBCU students, alumni, supporters, and enthusiasts to feel welcome and at home here in our city. As a proud HBCU alum, I look forward to the wonderful events and programs that celebrate the love and pride for our schools and our culture. Make plans to enjoy our award-winning restaurants, elite facilities, and awe-inspiring green spaces. You’ll find that Birmingham is a place to make memories that will last a lifetime.”

    “We’re taking action to embed diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging throughout the business as integral to our mission to help all people get jobs. Our global DEIB+ team works to inspire, influence, and inform our approach by unlocking the power of our collective differences to drive innovation across teams and products,” said Misty Gaither, Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, Indeed. 

    As proud HBCU graduates, Grove (Florida A&M University) and Peters II (Morehouse College) purposefully crafted HBCU SpringComing to center giving back to help elevate generations of HBCU graduates to come. Proceeds will continue to benefit the HBCU Puissance Scholarship Fund and Birmingham Promise Foundation, founded to aid in offsetting the cost of college tuition for high school seniors bound for an HBCU. Over the last nine years, HBCU SpringComing has raised over $125,000. 

    “The most important part of HBCU SpringComing is giving back. We’re on a mission to help strengthen Black institutions of higher learning across the country and inspire the next generation of leaders within our communities,” said Lauren Grove, Co-founder, HBCU SpringComing. “Year after year, our goal remains the same. We’ve curated a weekend of events that not only celebrates the unique atmosphere that HBCU homecomings create but focuses on increasing contributions towards scholarships that support incoming students and their bright futures.”

    In addition to Indeed, other proud sponsors include the United States Tennis Association and more.

    Tickets are now available for purchase. Please visit: www.hbcuspringcoming.com to register and get the full schedule. 

    ABOUT HBCU SPRINGCOMING:

    HBCU SpringComing™ is a premiere event for HBCU graduates and allies across the country. Founded in 2015 by HBCU alums Lauren Grove (Florida A&M University) and George A. Peters II (Morehouse College) the festival focuses on the Black collegiate experience through curated events, scholarships, partnerships, panels, service activities, and more. Over the last nine years, they’ve expanded the event from New York City to include Birmingham, Alabama helping to bridge a gap between HBCU graduates in the northeast and southeast. Learn more at www.HBCUSpringComing.com and follow us at @HBCUSpringComing.

    Source: HBCU SpringComing

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  • Landfill fire near Birmingham burning for almost a month

    Landfill fire near Birmingham burning for almost a month

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An underground fire has been raging at an environmental landfill near Birmingham for almost a month, covering Alabama’s largest metro area with smoke.

    Now, state officials, local fire departments and county commissions are trying to determine the next steps and who will cover the costs associated with putting it out, al.com reported.

    The fire started about a month ago at the Environmental Landfill, Inc., facility in St. Clair County, near the Birmingham suburbs of Moody and Trussville. James Mulkey, a fire inspector with the Moody Fire Department, said the department received its first call about the fire Nov. 25 at about 7:45 a.m.

    “The fire has gotten into the pile of debris, which is very large,” Mulkey said. “The actual size of the debris pile, we’ve heard estimates from 23 to 50 acres, and it’s multiple layers. In some places, this thing is 100-150 feet deep. We’re not sure because of the way it was done. They would bring stuff in, pile dirt on top of it and then put another layer in.”

    Mulkey said the fire is now almost entirely underground.

    “There’s very little flame activity above ground,” Mulkey said. “If you see flame, it’s coming out of a crevice or a fissure from the ground and all the smoke is coming out of the ground.”

    According to an Alabama Department of Environmental Management update posted Thursday, extinguishing the fire is “critical,” but will be difficult because of its location.

    “It appears that unauthorized solid waste (i.e. non-vegetative) was removed from the site following an ADEM enforcement action prior to the fire,” the update said.

    The landfill is not regulated by ADEM because it is only supposed to accept “green waste,” things like storm debris, leaves and limbs and vegetative material. In reality, though, tires and other materials have been found at the landfill amid the fire.

    ADEM External Affairs Chief Lynn Battle said the agency is investigating potential illegal dumping at the site.

    “ADEM is aware that there is some unauthorized solid waste on this site. ADEM will determine the appropriate enforcement actions following the conclusion of its investigation and review of relevant information,” Battle told al.com via email.

    Mulkey said he’s seen tires in the disposal area, but did not want to speculate as to whether there is other unauthorized waste in the burning pile. Efforts to reach the landfill owners for comment via email and telephone were unsuccessful.

    ADEM has cautioned residents who live near the facility to consider limiting outdoor activities, installing high-efficiency filters in their heating and air conditioning systems and sealing their home with caulk or other materials where outside air may be leaking in.

    The department also said the smoke is likely to continue being a problem for some time and “those with breathing-related health conditions may consider temporarily relocating.”

    The fire is burning in unincorporated St. Clair County. The Moody Fire Department responded to the fire first because it was the closest but the area is not under their jurisdiction. It has been acting with the Alabama Forestry Commission and the St. Clair County Commission to make decisions, but the agencies are looking to take more aggressive action to extinguish the flames.

    “All options are on the table,” Mulkey said. “Letting it burn itself out was one option that we looked at, but we realized that’s a pretty in-depth (fire) and we really can’t give a timeline on it.”

    There’s also the issue of who makes the ultimate decision on a plan of action and who pays for it.

    “It’s unincorporated St. Clair County, so the county commission will have a great deal of say,” Mulkey said. “As for regulatory agencies, and who’s ultimately responsible and financially responsible for this thing, that’s still a subject of some debate.”

    ADEM is primarily investigating the fire to see if violations occurred that could be prosecuted once the fire is extinguished.

    The Jefferson County Department of Health, which regulates air pollution in the Birmingham area, said it has received odor complaints, but the problem is outside its jurisdiction.

    Michael Hansen, executive director of Birmingham-area air quality group GASP, said the response from the state has been insufficient.

    “It’s absolutely unacceptable that state agencies are not doing more to protect the people from this dangerous air pollution event,” Hansen said. “We need a multi-agency state and local response to this situation.”

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  • Alabama plant owned by W.V. governor’s family fined $925,000

    Alabama plant owned by W.V. governor’s family fined $925,000

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A company owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is paying a $925,000 fine to an Alabama health agency, after it shut down a coke plant it said was leaking polluting gases.

    Under a consent decree approved Wednesday by a state court judge, Bluestone Coke will pay the fine to the Jefferson County Health Department for air pollution violations at its coking plant north of downtown Birmingham.

    A coking plant heats coal at very high temperatures in what are supposed to be closed, oxygen-free ovens, cooking off impurities while not burning the coal. The process creates coke, which is used as fuel to fire blast furnaces for metal and cement makers.

    Coke ovens have long polluted sections of Birmingham, once a smoky center of coal mining and steelmaking and one of Alabama’s biggest cities. But increasing attention has focused on the impact of pollution in the predominantly Black neighborhoods that surround Bluestone Coke and other industrial sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated the area a Superfund site and has been excavating contaminated soil for years. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has drafted an unfunded $37 million plan to buy out nearby residents and improve the area.

    The plant, which is more than a century old, has been shut down since October 2021. At that time, the health department declined to renew its operating permit after finding that the oven doors were leaking toxic chemicals, as well as citing other maintenance failures. The agency sued for damages, calling the plant “a menace to public health.”

    “There was a lot of ash and a lot of soot that people who lived near the plant said would cover their cars and homes,” Pastor Thomas Wilder of nearby Bethel Baptist Church told WBRC-TV. He was one of a group that protested the plant’s license renewal, seeking more stringent controls.

    The settlement would allow the plant to seek a permit to reopen if Bluestone were to install two monitors to detect sulfur dioxide, have an engineer design a repair plan subject to public comment and hire an independent auditor to conduct bimonthly compliance checks for two years. Health department officials said any reopening would probably take more than a year.

    The plant’s maintenance failures were chronicled in an investigation by ProPublica. Steve Ruby, a lawyer for the Justice family, told ProPublica that it was unfair to call the fine too low, noting the company would face a substantial cost to meet anti-pollution requirements.

    “Despite investing tens of millions of dollars in long-deferred maintenance, Bluestone was unable to fully overcome those challenges, and it ultimately concluded that only a rebuild would allow the plant to operate profitably and in compliance with environmental requirements,” Ruby told ProPublica.

    Ruby told West Virginia’s Gazette-Mail that Bluestone Coke is reviewing rebuilding options to create a “state-of-the-art facility.”

    GASP, a Birmingham anti-pollution group, intervened in the case before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Patrick Ballard after it and the Southern Environmental Law Center collected ambient air samples around the plant in 2019 and 2020. It said those samples showed elevated levels of the hazardous chemicals benzene and naphthalene.

    “This consent decree makes it clear that companies like Bluestone Coke cannot continue to pollute without consequences, and that starts with standards that put people — not profits — first,” said GASP Executive Director Michael Hansen.

    Half the fine’s proceeds are to be used to benefit nearby neighborhoods, with residents encouraged to weigh in on possible projects.

    The facility has had a number of owners before it was purchased by the Justice family’s business interests in 2019. News outlets have reported that Justice’s businesses have racked up millions in back taxes and unpaid fines, and have often been sued for unpaid bills.

    Justice put his son, Jay Justice, in charge of his coal mining and farming interests when he became governor in 2016. Justice told WOWK-TV in 2021 that his son bought the plant.

    “You know, in all of that, it’s old. It’s really, really, really, really, really old. And so the plant, they tried to operate it for awhile and everything,” Justice told the TV station. “The plant was on its last legs, and the plant had to be shut down.”

    He added, “I think there was some lingering, I guess is the right word, you know, environmental issues that they’re all over. They’ve now settled those environmental issues and they’re doing whatever has to be done.”

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  • Mamie King-Chalmers, woman in civil rights photo, dies at 81

    Mamie King-Chalmers, woman in civil rights photo, dies at 81

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    DETROIT — Mamie King-Chalmers, who as a young Black woman appeared in an iconic photo about civil rights struggles in Alabama, has died at the age of 81.

    She died Tuesday in Detroit, her home since the 1970s, daughter Lasuria Allman said. A cause wasn’t disclosed.

    King-Chalmers, 21 at the time, was one of three Black people forced to brace themselves against a building while being blasted with water from a firehose in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. The photo by Charles Moore appeared in Life magazine.

    King-Chalmers years later recalled how she was attending a protest in a park when her group was confronted by police and dogs.

    “It trapped me in the doorway,” King-Chalmers said during a Detroit school visit in 2013, referring to the firehose. “The hose was so strong it damaged my hearing.”

    Another activist claimed to be the woman in the photo, but she dropped that claim in 2013 after The Detroit News investigated.

    King-Chalmers earned an associate degree in gerontology from Wayne County Community College, married twice and raised eight children, Allman said. Her husband, Walter Chalmers, died in February.

    “She should be remembered for her courage, strength and determination to make a difference,” Allman said.

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  • Woman wakes up in empty urgent care office

    Woman wakes up in empty urgent care office

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    Woman wakes up in empty urgent care office

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  • US jury convicts man in deadly Alabama kidnapping of child

    US jury convicts man in deadly Alabama kidnapping of child

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    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Alabama man was convicted Friday on two federal charges in a 2019 kidnapping that led to the death of a 3-year-old girl, whose disappearance from a Birmingham birthday party led to 10 days of frantic searches.

    Patrick Devone Stallworth, 42, was convicted on the two kidnapping counts and faces a sentence of life in prison in the abduction of Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham.

    Birmingham news outlets say Stallworth also is facing a state capital murder charge in the case.

    The child vanished from a birthday party on Oct. 12, 2019. The searches ended with the discovery of her body in a landfill 10 days later.

    Medical experts testified that the little girl died by asphyxia and that she had methamphetamine, Trazodone and Benadryl in her system.

    Prosecutors said Stallworth and his girlfriend had planned to kidnap a child on the day the girl disappeared. The girlfriend, Derick Irisha Brown, has pleaded not guilty in the case and is awaiting a November federal trial. She faces the same state and federal charges as Stallworth. No dates have been set in the state case.

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