Britt to Israel

An eight-member U.S. Senate delegation en route to visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt reportedly includes Alabama Republican Katie Britt, writes AL.com’s Paul Gattis.

Britt has been an outspoken defender of Israel in the days since the Palestinian group Hamas launched attacks in Israel and carried out terrorist acts such as murdering and kidnapping civilians, including children.

Britt has called the acts “pure evil” and has called for economic pressure to be put on Hamas and its allies.

Excessive force?

Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine said the U.S. Justice Department and FBI are currently investigating two violent incidents over excessive-force concerns, reports AL.com’s John Sharp.

Both of the run-ins were captured on cell-phone videos in recent days.

One took place Tuesday when an officer was seen on video body-slamming a 16-year-old girl outside a charter school.

The other was taken Oct. 12 and showed an officer punching a handcuffed, face-down man. Others have said what you can’t see in the video is the man grabbing the officer in an very personal way and not letting go, so that he causes an injury.

A deadly fall

A young woman died last weekend in a rock-climbing accident at Cherokee Rock Village on Lookout Mountain near Leesburg, reports AL.com’s William Thornton.

Faye Zhang was a University of Georgia student from Minnesota. She had become involved with a rock-climbing group in Athens, Georgia, and was a regular at the gym. She was on her second outside climb around noon Saturday when she fell.

If you’re familiar with Cherokee Rock Village, she fell from the “Misty” climbing route.

What was that name again?

It’s always great to see a community and its police force benefiting from a reciprocal relationship. The police might help a man with car trouble, and the man might lead police to a suspect wanted for, say, attempted murder.

It happened this week in Brighton. The unexpected part of the story, however, is that the man who called police was himself the suspect.

AL.com’s Carol Robinson reports that Larry Darnell Pinkard called the Brighton PD for help jumping off his car at 3 a.m. Thursday. The police ran a check on Pinkard to make sure he owned the vehicle and, of course, the arrest warrants popped up for attempted murder and leaving the scene of an accident with injuries.

He was booked into jail at 3:54 a.m.

More Alabama news

Born on this date

In 1914, Fayard Nicholas of Mobile. He and his brother, Harold, formed the dancing duo Nicholas Brothers. They performed in film, starred at the Cotton Club in Harlem and danced for the King of England in their long careers.

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