Carlee Russell found guilty in faked Hoover abduction

A woman who faked her own abduction was found guilty on Wednesday.

The ruling came after 26-year-old Carlee Russell pleaded not guilty to charges of false reporting to law enforcement authorities and falsely reporting an incident. The Hoover municipal judge recommended one year in jail and $17,900 in restitution. Russell is appealing to the circuit court. Russell seemingly vanished Thursday, July 13, after calling 911, and a family member, to report seeing a child, about 3 or 4 years old only wearing a diaper, walking alone on I-459.

Her disappearance sparked a massive search and widespread concern and has even been made into a movie.

Moody landfill on fire again, EPA battling smoldering sinkhole north of Birmingham

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is back on the scene of the Moody landfill fire near Birmingham, where the underground smoldering blaze sparked anew after a sinkhole opened.

EPA spokesman James Pinkney said the agency was informed about the blaze Tuesday and responded with an on-scene coordinator to assess the situation in Alabama.

The plan is to cover the smoldering area with dirt, and then check the rest of the site for hotspots and potential problem areas.

The fire started in November 2022, burning mostly underground and confounding local and state officials for months until the EPA agreed to take over operations at the site in January.

The owners and operators of the former Environmental Landfill, Inc. have been fined $250,000 by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and could face financial responsibility for the costs of EPA’s response to the fire.

Former Alabama Senator Roger Bedford of Russellville dies

Former Alabama state Sen. Roger Bedford of Russellville has died.

Sharon Wheeler, a longtime friend who volunteered on Bedford’s campaigns and worked for him in the Senate, said Bedford died in DCH Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. Wheeler said Bedford had been at DCH since he was diagnosed with cancer in late September.

Bedford, a Democrat, represented a northwest Alabama district for 32 years before losing a reelection bid to Republican Larry Stutts by 70 votes in 2014.

Bedford was a lawyer and was one of the Senate’s most influential members when Democrats controlled the chamber, a period that ended in 2010.

Bedford had survived a previous bout with cancer and other physical challenges, including a broken neck. He was still practicing law when he became ill, Wheeler said.

Equal Justice Initiative’s Alabama River park will memorialize emancipated slaves

The Equal Justice Initiative announced Wednesday it is building a 17-acre park to memorialize the history of slavery in America – including a monument to the 4 million enslaved African Americans emancipated after the Civil War.

The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park will be on the Alabama River in Montgomery. The centerpiece will be a 43-foot-tall, 150-foot long National Monument to Freedom. The monument will feature more than 120,000 unique surnames of former slaves documented at the time.

The Freedom Sculpture Monument Park will open in early 2024, EJI said.

The park will become the third component in the EJI’s Legacy Sites in Montgomery, joining the Legacy Museum, which examines the history of slavery and its aftermath, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, an outdoor memorial to victims of lynching, which opened in 2018. EJI opened an expanded Legacy Museum in 2021.