Authorities are asking for the public’s help identifying two suspects in the shooting of a Birmingham store clerk during a holdup.

The shooting happened just before 9 p.m. Thursday at Dollar General at 2314 Warrior Road in Five Points West.

According to police communications, the male employee sustained a gunshot wound to the torso. Initially his injuries were thought to be life-threatening, but Officer De’Rell Freeman on Saturday said the victim is expected to be OK.

Investigators put down at least a dozen evidence markers.

Police blocked off the immediate area surrounding the store, and also a larger perimeter spanning several blocks.

Freeman said the two male suspects entered the store and took about $600 in cash. They fled the store after shooting the employee.

Anyone with information is asked to call robbery detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

Alabama football’s recent history of great defensive backs is unparalleled. On Saturday, the Crimson Tide might have found the next one.

Five-star safety Jireh Edwards committed to the Crimson Tide as part of the 2026 recruiting class, he told Rivals. Edwards is listed as the No. 2 safety in the class by 247Sports’ composite rankings, which have him as the No. 23 player overall in the group.

“Owns a college-ready build with some promising features and tested off the charts spring before junior year,” 247Sports director of scouting Andrew Ivins wrote in his assessment of Edwards. “Spent much of his 11th-grade campaign deployed as an oversized slot and did nothing but make plays for one of the nation’s top prep defenses. Triggers downhill in the snap of a finger and frequently arrives with violence.

“Comfortable crashing gaps, but is also effective in the alley as he uses sharp angles to get ball carriers on the ground. Instinctive in coverage and can match and mirror underneath routes with his lateral agility. Will take some chances when defending the pass, but unsuspecting length can bail him out.”

Edwards plays his high school football at St. Francis Academy in Maryland. He participated in the 2025 Under Armour All-America game.

The 6-foot-2, 194-pound safety over two other finalists, Auburn and Georgia. He became the first safety to join Alabama’s 2026 class.

The Crimson Tide’s recruiting started out the offseason slow, but has reached its typical form since midway through June. UA’s 2026 group is now among the top 10 in the nation according to major recruiting services.

Kelly Clarkson left fans disappointed Friday after postponing the opening weekend of her Las Vegas residency.

The ‘American Idol’ alum made the announcement just 90 minutes before she was set to take the stage at Caesars Palace.

Clarkson explained via Instagram that she and her team had been working “24/7” to create an unforgettable experience for fans. However, due to vocal strain she had to cancel the show.

“The prep and rehearsals have taken a toll on my voice,” Clarkson wrote. “I want the shows to be perfect for y’all and I need to protect myself from doing serious damage so I am taking this weekend and next week to rest up so that we can deliver what you all deserve.”

The 43-year-old singer thanked her fans while acknowledging their disappointment, continuing, “I am beyond grateful that you always show up for me and I am devastated to have to postpone tonight and tomorrow’s opening at Caesars.”

Clarkson reassured her fans that she plans to be back on stage after taking time to rest.

“The show is truly incredible. The musicians and singers are outstanding, and I want us all to start out strong,” said Clarkson.

Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos should have consulted former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron this offseason. McCarron has sound advice that could have helped a few weeks back.

“All I’m saying is, if you’re a guy like Thomas, keep your mouth shut, go to work,” McCarron said on his podcast the Dynasty recently, “and then let your play do the talking.”

Castellanos, however, took a different route. He let his trash talk do the talking. Castellanos and Florida State will play host to Alabama at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30 to open up the 2025 season.

“I’m excited, man,” Castellanos told On3 this summer. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played in, we always start fast. I dreamed of moments like this. I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

There’s a lot to unpack there, and McCarron did.

“Where do you even start?” McCarron said. “You’re going to a team that was 17th out of 17 teams in the ACC. You’re leaving a team and lost the starting job where you finished ninth in the ACC. I’m all for confidence, but this is stupidity.”

McCarron said Castellanos should call up Boston College coach Bill O’Brien, the former Crimson Tide offensive coordinator, to get his perspective. Even if their relationship is strained.

“Ask Bill how Alabama is,” McCarron said. “What type of players they have. How they play the game. And let OB tell you, hey Thomas, you might want to stay quiet on this one. Just go out and play. Now you just added fuel to the fire brother. Brother, I promise you, I wouldn’t want to be you the first game of the year. I don’t care how well you can run. How well you can throw it. Once you stand in that pocket and get hit a couple times, that accuracy that dipped that cost you the starting job, you better find it quick this offseason and during that game because it ain’t going to be good.”

McCarron said Castellanos’ comments sounded like someone who hasn’t played in the SEC before or faced Alabama.

“Because you have no clue what you’re talking about,” McCarron said. “You don’t know the type of team you’re about to face. The athletes you’re going to face … Speed. Size.”

Castellanos’ words will hang over the rest of the summer as Alabama prepares to Florida State.

“You’ve done ran your mouth and now you better back it up in the game or you are going to hear about it all year,” McCarron said, “and you might lose your job again and have to enter the transfer portal once again.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

Legendary singer Connie Francis has been hospitalized after she experienced “extreme pain,” she told fans on Facebook.

The 87-year-old pop star, whose hits “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” and “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” charted in the 1960s, was rushed to a Florida hospital’s intensive care unit last Wednesday.

“I am back in hospital where I have been undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing,” Francis said in a Facebook post on July 2.

She’s since been moved out of ICU to a private room, after undergoing testing, she said in another Facebook post on Thursday. On Friday, she said she was “feeling much better.”

She had to miss her July 4 show because of her hospitalization.

Francis’ 1962 hit “Pretty Little Baby” went viral on TikTok earlier this year, with more than 3 million lip synch videos, according to Billboard.

They gathered Saturday on the banks of the Mobile River to commemorate an utterly bleak moment, as their ancestors were delivered into slavery. They did not gather to mourn. They gathered to celebrate the legacy those ancestors built for them.

“We are the descendants of the 110, the greatest story never told – until now,” said Charmaine Anderson Taylor, one of the speakers at the Landing ceremony held Saturday by the Clotilda Descendants Association. “And we are here, and we are winning.”

Taylor traced her ancestry back to Uriba Riggins, one of the 110 African captives taken aboard the slave ship Clotilda in 1860. The Clotilda arrived in Mobile early in July of that year, and the captives who’d survived the horrific conditions of the voyage were split up and carried into slavery mostly across southwest and south-central Alabama. Freed after the Civil War, some of the survivors founded the Africatown community near Mobile, where they preserved African folkways and family history through the adversity of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras.

“We are here and we are winning,” said Taylor. “We are lawyers, in law enforcement, military officers, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, engineers, teachers, educators, architects. We are everything she ever hoped we would be. We are the legacy bearers. We are the promise keepers. We are the storytellers. We are here. I will never forget, you will never forget and we will never let the world forget that we are.”

Taylor was one of several descendants who spoke movingly about their ancestors during the ceremony, held in the shadow of the Africatown Bridge. Amanda Taylor, another great-great granddaughter of Riggins, read a poem written to drive home the point that Riggins “had a life, a full life, back in Africa,” before being taken captive in intra-tribal warfare and sold into bondage.

“I am a young girl. I am from Africa. I am Yoruba. I am 16 years old. I have a name, though unknown to you,” Taylor read in her great-great-grandmother’s voice. “I am forced to work in the home of Timothy Meaher and Mary. I am forced to become their maid, told that I am their property. I am a human repurposed. I am given a new name. I am now Areba. I am forced to care for the Meaher family while being denied my own family. I am forced to care for their children while being denied my own childhood. But I am African. I am Yoruba. I am strong. I am proud, resilient, courageous. I am a survivor… I am your ancestor. You are my descendants. You are my destiny, my hope, my legacy.”

“I’m just one branch of a powerful tree,” said Thomas Washington, a descendant of Africatown founders Osia and Innie Keeby. “Today the Keeby family includes union leaders, entrepreneurs, mental health professionals, first responders, NYPD, New York City Fire Department, 911 dispatchers, detectives for New York City, postal workers, educators, grant writers, doctors, military service members, school principals and even superintendents. We have served this country and our community in countless ways. All rooted in the courage of one man and one woman. One woman who dared to build a future on stolen land with stolen freedom.

“And so today we don’t just remember Osia Keeby as a name in history,” continued Washington. “We live his story in our professions, in our purpose and in our pride. So to the Keeby family and all of those who carry a legacy, let us not forget our ancestors did something. They did not just survive the unimaginable. They built something that still stands. And now it is our sacred duty to ensure that it never falls.”

The culmination of the Landing ceremony is the placement of a wreath on the waters of the river. This year the wreath was placed by Jermaine Bell, a descendant of Matilda McCrear, a Clotilda survivor who died in Selma in 1940.

Another highlight of the 2025 ceremony came as a shock to the honoree: To her evident surprise, Patricia Frazier was honored with the Clotilda Descendants Association’s Legacy Award. Tiffany Pogue described Frazier as “someone whose fingerprints are all over the foundation of this organization.”

“She’s been called many things by those who know her,” said Pogue. “Kind, gracious, committed, elegant. She is a quiet force. She is a servant, leader. She never expects anything in return. She just gives. Her cousin said she’s not just one thing, she is a kaleidoscope.”

“First of all, I don’t like recognitions, as people have suggested,” said Frazier. “And then something so public makes it increasingly difficult to accept this. But I do accept this today, in the name of my mother and grandmother, because those are the ladies that made me the woman that I am today. … And I’ll end with one final phrase that my mother commonly said: ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ And I have been given much. So thank you very much.”

The 2025 Landing ceremony was part of a larger Landing Event and Ancestor Festival (LEAF) weekend, which included a community festival and an appearance by New York Times Journalist Jamelle Bouie.

An HGTV star revealed that another network show has been canceled, making it the fifth cancellation this month, according to TV Insider.

Alison Victoria shared that the competition series “Battle on the Beach” featuring Ty Pennington and Taniya Nayak, will not be returning after four seasons. Victoria announced the news on the July 1 episode of her podcast “Pap Smear Podcast.”

The HGTV personality cited editing decisions as a potential factor in the show’s cancellation. She said that much of the humor was cut from the final product.

“I’ll just throw it out there: I did a show called Battle on the Beach. I loved that show. It was so fun and funny, and then all of a sudden, I watched the episode and I’m like, ‘Well, where did all that go?’” Victoria said on her podcast.

“I get it, right? It’s a lot of content to try to put into 42 minutes, but where is it, like, where’s the great editing?”

The “Windy City Rehab” host believes the editing choices led to the show not being renewed for a fifth season.

“I believe it was all editing. You have it, use it. Be funny, use the funny, go with us on that journey because it’s most likely going to resonate with the viewer.”

While Victoria continues to appear on HGTV’s ‘Ugliest House in America’ and ‘Scariest House in America,’ she expressed disappointment about losing what she described as her ‘adult spring break.’”

HGTV has yet to officially confirm the cancellation. The network recently ended “Bargain Block,” “Izzy Does It,” “Married to Real Estate,” and “Farmhouse Fixer,” according to TV Insider.

“Married to Real Estate” stars Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson addressed the show’s cancellation in an Instagram post on June 24. The couple learned about the cancellation after returning from vacation. Despite feeling “disheartened,” Sherrod expressed gratitude for the experience.

“There’s more to say, and we’ll share soon. But for now, know this: not all setbacks are what they seem. Some blessings show up in disguise. We’ve been here before. We’ll keep counting those blessings—and keep it moving. Stay tuned,” Sherrod wrote.

Fire swept through the Walker County Public Defender’s Officer in downtown Jasper.

Firefighters responded about 4 a.m. Saturday to the massive blaze in the 300 block of 19th Street West, according to the Daily Mountain Eagle.

The building was destroyed in the fire. No injuries were reported.

The cause of the fire has not yet been released.

Jasper City Councilman and mayoral candidate Josh Gates called the fire, “heartbreaking to witness.”

“Our thoughts are with everyone impacted this devastating event, including those at the Walker County Public Defender’s Office,” Gates posted on social media.

Gates said he is thankful for the swift and courageous response by firefighters and police. “Your dedication and professionalism in the face of crisis are what keep our community safe,” he said.

“The people of Jasper are strong, resilient and united,” Gates said. “We will face this challenge together and recover together.”

Join AL.com journalists and community storytellers for a free, interactive event, “Birmingham Dreams,” July 24.

Featured speakers include AL.com columnist John Archibald, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, gun violence prevention reporter Alaina Bookman and Birmingham Poet Laureate Salaam Green.

This event, part of AL.com’s ongoing “Beyond the Violence” project, features community storytellers from neighborhoods around Birmingham. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 24 at Woodlawn Theater, 5503 1st Avenue North Birmingham, AL 35212.

Sign up for free tickets here.

Green and AL.com senior editor Ruth Serven Smith have spent months talking to Birmingham residents in different neighborhoods about their goals for our community and their ideas for solving its most pressing problems.

Join us to hear neighborhood storytellers describe those hopes firsthand — and learn how we can make them a reality, together.

Read stories from the “Beyond the Violence” series, in partnership with The Birmingham Times.