The No. 2 Boston Celtics play against the No. 7 Orlando Magic in game 1 of their NBA playoff series today. The matchup will begin at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC. Fans can watch this game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
The Celtics ended the regular season with a 61-21 record, and they have won five of their last six games.
In order to win game 1 today, the Celtics will need to rely on their star forward Jayson Tatum. He averages nearly 27 points per game and leads the team in assists this season. With this in mind, Tatum will look to continue his offensive success tonight.
The Magic ended the regular season with a 41-41 record, and they defeated Atlanta 120-95 in their NBA play-in game on Tuesday.
In order to win the series opener, Orlando will need a great performance from their star forward Paolo Banchero. He averages nearly 26 points per game this season.
Fans can watch game 1 of this NBA playoff series for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV Stream and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.
Regardless of our political differences, with Easter and the crucifixion of Jesus remembered today, I hope we can agree on the sanctitBly of life, the rule of law and that our justice system should be fair, constitutional, lawful and not based on race.
Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening.
Alabama has 167 people on death row, 30 sentenced by a process called “judicial override”, where a judge overrode a jury’s decision of life in prison without parole and ordered the person executed.
Secondly, Alabama has 115 people sentenced to death by “non-unanimous juries.” A third method of ordering death is by a unanimous jury recommendation.
In Ramos v. Louisiana, 140 S. Ct. 1390 (2020), the Supreme Court ruled that it takes a unanimous verdict to convict someone of a capital crime warranting death. The Court highlighted the racist underpinnings of non-unanimous verdicts, linking it to a Jim Crow practice dating from the 1870’s. White folks back then apparently didn’t have a problem with unanimous jury verdicts until freed slaves were made citizens and a single Black juror could prevent them from sentencing a Black man to death.
Even though the 2020 Supreme Court ruling didn’t explicitly extend to the sentencing phase, all states ended the practice.
Except for one. Alabama.
Alabama has 115 people, 54 of whom are Black, all sentenced to death by this legal relic of Jim Crow.
On January 25th, 2024, Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith who was sentenced to death not by a jury but by a judge who overrode his jury. His jury had voted 11 to 1 for life in prison.
On March 23rd of 2025, Governor Ivey acted courageously, showed mercy, and commuted the death sentence of Rocky Myers. His jury had voted 9 to 3 for life. He was on death row because his trial judge overrode the jury and ordered Rocky executed.Having been Alabama’s Governor from 1999-2003, and having not granted commutation to those subsequently executed, I praise Governor Ivey for her courage, and wisdom. She stood on solid legal footing.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court in Hurst v. Florida, 136 S. Ct. 616, ruled against judicial overrides. The Court in Hurst said a jury, not a judge, must find each fact necessary to impose death.
After Hurst, all states abandoned judicial overrides. Alabama was the last state to outlaw the practice.
In 2017, Governor Ivey signed legislation banning judicial overrides in Alabama.Alabama’s Attorney General in response to Governor Ivey’s commutation of Rocky Myers (a Black man) stated he was “astonished…and his teams deeply saddened…”
However, Governor Ivey was supported not only by the law but also by the facts.
Rocky Myers wasn’t physically connected to the murder scene, was convicted based on the testimony of a witness who recanted his testimony and, perhaps more importantly, our Constitution gives us all the right to trial by jury. Rocky’s jury had voted 9 to 1 for life not death.But while Alabama has banned future death sentences by judicial overrides, 30 people remain on death row based on this outlawed and unconstitutional practice.
Judicial overrides ordering death are indefensible, not only because they are unconstitutional and unlawful, but also because, as applied, Blacks are disproportionately impacted.
Of the 30 people on Alabama’s death row sentenced by judicial overrides, 19 or 63.33% are Black—twice the rate of whites and nearly four times their presence in Alabama’s population.
Even more disturbing, Alabama’s Equal Justice Initiative found that “while judicial overrides accounted for 7 percent of death sentences in one nonelection year, in the following year, when Alabama judges ran for election, judicial overrides rose to 30 percent.”
Of the 19 Blacks currently on death row due to judicial override, all judges were either running for reelection or did run in the next election. All but one was a white judge.
Moreover, other statistics raise serious questions as to how death penalty laws are applied.
For example, national statistics implicate racism in prosecutorial discretion as to who is charged for capital murder. A report by the Death Penalty Information Center (“DPIC”), shows that since 1976, nationwide, one person on death row has been exonerated for every 8.3 executed. That’s an error rate of about 12%. The facts are more alarming. Exonerations, the DPIC found, are “overwhelmingly the product of police or prosecutorial misconduct or the presentation of knowingly false testimony.”
More astonishing is that of those exonerated for government misconduct 87% are Black.
Regardless of one’s view on the death penalty, whether you are for it or not, we should all agree, the process should be moral and constitutional and not be based on racist relics like non-unanimous juries and judicial overrides.
That’s not the case in Alabama.
Don Siegelman served as Governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003, as Lt. Governor from 1995 to 1999, as Attorney General from 1987 to 1991, and Secretary of State from 1979 to 1987.
In a handwritten letter, Robin Alford begged for help.
Her son, Clinton Willard Bridges, died last year at one of Alabama’s maximum-security prisons. “When my son died so sudden, a part of me died with him. I will never be ok,” she wrote.
Bridges was locked up at St. Clair Correctional Facility for property crimes, his mother said. They talked regularly during his 14 years in prison, but in early September, the calls stopped coming in.
And they didn’t start again.
Eventually, Alford learned her son was in the infirmary. She checked in daily, and officials told her each time that Bridges was doing well.
But then, on Sept. 16, she was abruptly told that her son was dead.
“(A worker) said he (had) seen his body in the infirmary curled up on the floor with injuries to his head,” wrote Alford. “I could not believe what I was hearing.”
Alford’s plea for help was addressed to her local representatives and the members of Alabama’s Joint Prison Oversight Committee. She detailed the difficulty of trying to find out how her son died, why his body was covered in bruises and stab wounds.
The prison system still hasn’t given her any answers.
Her letter is one of several addressed to the committee and obtained by AL.com. All share stories of loved ones dying in Alabama’s prison system, and all come from families demanding help and change.
“I don’t think it’s possible to say that anyone disputes that there’s a crisis,” said Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative.
Alabama’s prison system has been in the federal crosshairs for years, and as the latest lawsuit from the Department of Justice moves towards trial next spring, many are wondering why not much has changed and why Alabama hasn’t adopted the easy fixes.
“I think that what the DOJ has done has gotten the attention of every leader in the state. We got the legislature’s attention,” said Morrison. That means there is some money available. “We now have the resources to be able to do something..Now what we need is the leadership to implement, to understand and implement the remedies.”
“It is possible, it is doable today to do that.”
What can be done?
The state prisons are overcrowded and understaffed, while some of the buildings are falling apart. Too many inmates are raped and killed, drugs are readily available, and life expectancy falls at the entrance. And the federal government, under multiple presidents, said all of this makes Alabama prisons unconstitutional in their cruelty.
So what can be done? What’s affordable and doable and possible right now?
The Department of Justice, in its 2019 and 2020 investigation documents, laid out possible solutions. Among those were:
Stop blaming victims. Change how the prisons handle complaints about violence, drugs and threats to avoid subjecting victims to disciplinary actions
Figure out why people are dying. Develop a centralized system to house autopsies of all who die in ADOC custody
Install metal detectors
Investigate and document every allegation of sexual abuse
Fix broken locks
Provide running water and ensure at least 80% of toilets, sinks, and shower heads work
That was just some of what the federal government recommended. But, according to the lawsuit filed at the end of 2020, the government said the state hadn’t taken their solutions seriously and that Alabama “has not made this easy fix” despite acknowledging the “decrepit conditions” for years.
In court records, the state disagreed that all of these represent problems or need fixing.
The state also denied many of the allegations. The state’s attorney wrote that Alabama “lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth” to some of the allegations, or “lacks knowledge or information sufficient to admit or deny” others.
New leadership
About a decade ago, after a separate federal investigation into Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women when too many women were getting pregnant in the lockup, the federal government opened another investigation into the system and offered yet more solutions.
That time, the state listened and made some easy fixes, like stopping guards from doing headcounts while the inmates were showering or adding doors to the bathroom stalls.
That started when EJI, the nonprofit based in Montgomery, investigated widespread claims of sexual abuse at Tutwiler, and in 2012 filed a complaint with the Justice Department. The next year, the federal government launched their own investigation. The feds found that “Tutwiler has a history of unabated staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse and harassment,” and spelled out changes the state could make to avoid a lawsuit.
In 2015, the state and the DOJ reached an agreement on reforms to be monitored by the judge. And late last year, both parties asked the court to end most of those provisions. Reports from court-appointed monitors show the prison has complied with almost all of the requirements at Tutwiler over the last six years.
Morrison at EJI didn’t talk about the specifics of the Tutwiler case. But she recalled how after the consent decree, the corrections department brought on a new deputy commissioner whose job was solely to focus on that one prison.
Women who come to Tutwiler Prison pregnant can only spend 24 hours with their babies after they’re born. They cherish the few photos they have with their babies, usually taken by a doula from the Alabama Prison Birth Project.
She’d like to see a similar change in leadership for the men’s prisons.
“We can bring on additional supervisors to be on the ground at the facilities to help staff understand, ‘How do you manage this crisis?‘… It does require bringing in independent supervision and leadership.”
And that’s what Alabama prison officials say is happening.
While the positions aren’t called deputy commissioners, like at Tutwiler, the department launched a nationwide search for administrators to oversee operations at the prisons. Each regional director will each manage three major facilities, and several have already been hired.
Currently, there are only two people handling that job for 21 facilities.
The department has also recently hired a Constituent Services Coordinator. That person will manage a team of liaisons stationed at each of the major prisons to work with families.
Both moves come after a bill passed last year creating the positions.
“The ADOC is committed to providing timely and accurate information to the public,” read a press release from the prison spokesperson announcing the new hires. “The goal is to be transparent and helpful to victims and their families, offender families, legislative offices, community partners, and others.”
As for leadership, Alison Mollman, legal director of the ACLU of Alabama, said the state’s merit system of promoting wardens within the system means that people with varied skillsets and backgrounds don’t get a chance to change the system. She said prisons outside of Alabama have installed wardens with social work or mental health experience.
“One of the problems that Alabama historically has had over the years, leadership has had to rise through the ranks… but you really limit the backgrounds of people who can come in and lead these institutions,” she said.
What won’t solve it? Mega-prisons
New facilities alone won’t fix the state’s corrections problem, federal investigators said.
Yet construction is ongoing for a mega-prison for men in Elmore County that’s going to cost more than $1 billion. That new prison is slated to have just 4,000 beds, along with additional room for medical care, mental health care, and educational opportunities.
The new lockups won’t add beds to the state’s total number when they open — they’re set to simply replace beds in the dilapidated facilities that will shut their doors. There’s plans for a second mega-prison in Escambia County, but the state is still looking for a way to pay for it and construction hasn’t started.
The federal investigators said the expensive new buildings won’t solve Alabama’s issue, and the state might just wind up back in the same position it’s in now.
“While new facilities might cure some of these physical plant issues, it is important to note that new facilities alone will not resolve the contributing factors to the overall unconstitutional condition of ADOC prisons, such as understaffing, culture, management deficiencies, corruption, policies, training, non-existent investigations, violence, illicit drugs, and sexual abuse,” said the DOJ report. “And new facilities would quickly fall into a state of disrepair if prisoners are unsupervised and largely left to their own devices, as is currently the case.”
And Morrison, too, doesn’t think the new prisons are a cure.
“What we know is there’s a cancer in the system that hasn’t been treated, and then it’s going to be moved into this new system. I think it’s a real disservice to the officers to leave them without supervision, to give them these orders that (they) know (they) don’t have the staff to be able to implement.”
Get families involved
Morrison said Alabama needs to work to involve families.
“Families should be brought in the moment a loved one enters the prison so that they can understand what’s expected of their loved one, what opportunities they’ll have for rehabilitation and reform, what programming is available, how the best thing they can do for their loved one,” Morrison said.
Families often do not know which programs or classes are offered. A shared set of information about what’s offered, and what the processes are, means families could help their loved one find something productive to do with their time.
She mentioned other prisons across the country where lockups have family movie nights or worship sessions as incentives for good behavior, and said Alabama’s “hostile” reaction to family concerns is leading in the opposite direction of public safety.
“That’s the mindset that is going to cost Alabama taxpayers so much money if we keep doing that,” Morrison told AL.com. “That is how we got into the mess at Tutwiler. Either no one believed the women there or they thought they deserved it.”
She said involving families could reduce violence and disciplinary issues. “And I think that would go a long way to increasing adherence to rules, to reducing misconduct.”
“This treating families as if they’re part of the problem is really jeopardizing the mission of the Department of Corrections to ensure public safety by decreasing the chances of recidivism.”
Alford, the mother who wrote to lawmakers for help, asked for an investigation into St. Clair and help finding out why her son died. “They treated my son, and by extension myself, as worthless. I cannot accept this… please help me understand what happened to my son.”
More cameras
In its 2019 investigation, the federal government said the prisons needed to put up a camera system within six months. The prisons, the government said, should keep all videos for at least 90 days and the wardens should review them monthly.
The installation of video cameras at Tutwiler was one thing advocates say improved the situation there, too. After the federal investigation into sexual abuse, the former commissioner of the prison system and then-Gov. Robert Bentley advocated for millions of dollars to cover the cost of camera equipment and installation.
“I don’t understand why we don’t have live monitoring of video feeds at the prisons,” Morrison said. “If you don’t have staff to put in a unit, contract with a live monitor and watch it, make sure those cameras are always functioning.”
Prison officials said there are some cameras at the mens’ facilities, but they’re working to get more and to put each of the current ones they have onto a shared network for live viewing. And, they are working to get more employees to monitor a live feed.
The department has asked for over $1 million to spend on cameras.
Give prisoners training
Currently, the Alabama Department of Corrections offers career and technical programs from Ingram State Technical College at 10 facilities, or roughly half of the system.
Morrison said programming should be seen as a priority and not a privilege. Increasing the programming in a prison is one way to keep inmates occupied, and Morrison said it’s a “huge part of security in a prison.”
“An idle population is a corrections nightmare,” she added.
She said volunteer groups have traditionally welcomed opportunities to come into the facilities and teach, and family programming can be “low-cost and high-yield in terms of security outcomes.”
Current programs include automotive mechanics, cabinetmaking, carpentry, cosmetology, electrical technology, plumbing, utility tree trimming and more.
Mollman, legal director of the ACLU of Alabama, mentioned churches and groups who could come into the prisons at no cost to the department. Engagement like that has helped lockups across the country, she said, citing the infamous Angola prison in Louisiana and its improvements.
“When incarcerated people have more positive ways to spend their time, you see that filter down in terms of disciplinaries and overall culture at the facility,” said Mollman. “There’s a direct relationship to programming and other rehabilitative programs … and the violence in the facilities.”
Mollman also said the prison, like other facilities across the country, could teach a few, trusted inmates to then lead their own courses.
In 2017, a federal judge said the mental health care for Alabama inmates was “horrendously inadequate” and said the shortage of mental health staff and correctional staff was an overarching factor. He ordered the state to hire an additional 2,000 correctional officers.
Data from the prisons show hiring is happening, and Morrison said staffing shortages do take time to resolve. But other states have used social workers and other criminal justice professionals as supervisors or wardens, and not just certified law enforcement officers.
“Any suggestions you might have, we’re all ears,” Hamm said. “I think one of our court orders says we will hire X number of security staff. I don’t know how we’re going to make them come to work.”
Drug treatment
The state effectively sends people with drug addictions to prison, Morrison said. While there are addiction programs in prison, she added, the number of spots in the classes “is minuscule compared to the problem.”
And when those people get out of prison, Morrison said, there is “virtually no re-entry support for people coming out having been raped, still having an ongoing addiction, dealing with this trauma… Men are coming out broken by abuse and violence, by addiction, with nothing.”
She said the department is putting the burden of re-entry on families.
“We’re putting it on poor families that have already spent thousands, every last penny they had, trying to keep their loved one alive in prison. And then they come home more injured, more broken than they ever have been.”
Mollman praised the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles’ PREP Center, which is a 90-day residential center that offers job training, substance abuse help, education programs and re-entry services to some men before they are released on parole. The prison system could do something similar on a larger-scale, she said. But instead of looking at positive levels for reform, Mollman said over the phone, the Alabama Department of Corrections “has chosen expensive litigation.”
Inmates in a dormitory at Staton Correctional Facility Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, in Elmore, Ala.AL.COM
A starting point
But, Morrison remains hopeful.
“I think we turned Tutwiler from the most notorious women’s prison in the U.S. to a model within just a very short time. And I think we could do that. We could start with one prison… I think we could do it system-wide, but why not even just start with one of the prisons?”
The families who have flooded Montgomery with letters and calls for help for their incarcerated loved ones are trying to hang on to hope, too.
One woman, who found out that her cousin was slain behind bars, wrote: “In this upcoming legislative session, please use the power you have to make Alabama prisons safer and ensure that family members of prisoners are treated like human beings, especially when they are in a crisis. We are counting on you.”
And another – a mother who believes her son was stabbed to death at a north Alabama prison – asked for help in confirming how her son died and holding the prison system accountable.
“What do you say about the kid who stole a 4-wheeler who’s being put in there?” she asked. The person with a dozen marijuana plants, or the man who forged checks, or the woman who had a pocket full of pills?
“It is that indifference to a single human life that then expands to the indifference to thousands… That’s the price. That is not a safe Alabama.”
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis emerged from his convalescence on Easter Sunday to bless the thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square and treat them to a surprise popemobile romp through the piazza, drawing wild cheers and applause as he continues his recovery from a near-fatal bout of double pneumonia.
“Viva il Papa!” (Long live the pope), “Bravo!” the crowd shouted as Francis looped through the square in his open-topped popemobile and then up and down the main avenue leading to it. He stopped occasionally to bless babies brought up to him, a scene that was common in the past but unthinkable just a few weeks ago as the 88-year-old Francis fought for his life.
“Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!” Francis said, his voice sounding stronger than it has since his hospitalization.
Francis didn’t celebrate the Easter Mass in the piazza, delegating it to Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the retired archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. But after the Mass ended, Francis appeared on the loggia balcony over the basilica entrance for more than 20 minutes and imparted the apostolic blessing in Latin. The thousands of people below erupted in cheers as a military band kicked off rounds of the Holy See and Italian anthems.
Francis waved from the balcony as a Vatican archbishop read aloud his speech, a global appeal for peace in the world’s hotspots that is the hallmark of the Vatican’s Easter celebrations.
In all, he was outside on a sunny spring day for around 50 minutes, with temperatures at 21 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) in a piazza awash in daffodils, tulips and other flowers donated by the Netherlands for Easter.
On his way to the basilica, Francis met briefly in his hotel with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who was spending Easter in Rome with his family. The Vatican said the encounter lasted just a few minutes and was designed to allow for an exchange of Easter greetings.
Francis has only appeared in public a handful of times since returning to the Vatican on March 23 after a 38-day hospital stay. He skipped the solemn services of Good Friday and Holy Saturday leading up to Easter, but he had been expected to make an appearance on Sunday.
Easter is the most joyful moment on the Christian liturgical calendar, when the faithful celebrate the resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion. This year, Easter is being celebrated on the same day by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and has been marked by Russia’s announced temporary Easter truce in its war in Ukraine.
Easter at the Vatican traditionally involves a Mass and the pope’s Urbi et Orbi blessing (Latin for “to the city and the world”), a papal speech delivered from the loggia which is usually a roundup of global hotspots and human suffering.
In the speech, read by Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of liturgical ceremonies, Francis appealed for peace in Gaza and Ukraine, as well as Congo and Myanmar and in other hotspots.
“May the risen Christ grant Ukraine, devastated by war, his Easter gift of peace, and encourage all parties involved to pursue efforts aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace,” the message said. “In this Jubilee year, may Easter also be a fitting occasion for the liberation of prisoners of war and political prisoners!”
Francis has sharply cut back his workload as he follows doctors’ orders of two months of convalescence and respiratory therapy to improve his lung function. He still seems to require great effort to project his voice, and his breathing remains labored. But it sounded stronger than it has to date in the few words he uttered from the loggia.
Before Sunday, his biggest outing had been a visit to Rome’s downtown prison to spend Holy Thursday with inmates. The visit made clear his priorities as he slowly recovers: to spend time with the people most on the margins.
Ward Webb is on the move. The Mountain Brook, Alabama, resident was born over 28 years ago, and from the start, his motor was stuck in fourth gear. From the age of 1 when he learned to walk, to the age of 4 when he learned to walk again, Ward Webb hasn’t had time to slow down.
“Ever since that day 24 years ago, I decided there was only one way to go, and that was forward,” Ward told me.
“He is so active,” said Ward’s girlfriend Taylor Graham.
Ward Webb’s zest for the outdoors is what attracted Taylor to him about nine years ago when they were students at the University of Alabama. “Ward loves the outdoors — he’s taught me how to turkey hunt and fish,” she said. “When I met Ward, I thought he was very handsome and humble — he’s just a really good guy. His drive for life is inspiring.”
Ward Webb with his girlfriend, Taylor Graham, after she caught her first fish on a fly rod, a snook, in Key West, Florida, in August 2024.Courtesy Ward Webb
While today Ward Webb’s drive for life is inspiring, he inspired the world with his drive to live on Aug. 16, 2001.
Ward and his friend Zachary were walking in a partially dried creek bed behind their Mountain Brook homes. “I don’t remember too much about that day, but I do remember Zachary holding a stick while I held a blue box of rubber snakes.
“I have no recollection of the significance of holding that box,” added Ward.
Boys were being boys.
Even before his accident, Ward Webb loved outdoor pursuits such as fishing.Courtesy Ward Webb
It wasn’t long before doctors took Ward’s feet just above the ankles.
“I remember waking up in the hospital and telling my mother (Marion) that I had a splinter in my toe,” said Ward. “I soon found out that I didn’t have feet.”
Mountain Brook mourned in the summer of 2001. One precious boy was sent to Children’s, while the other precious boy was sent to Heaven. Good neighbors in the hamlet just south of Birmingham stood by one another as the families did their best to cope.
He fought them at first. Ward Webb’s new prosthetics brought pain and defiance. He was home from the hospital, but it seemed that every other day he was headed back. Ward had more than 30 surgeries as doctors — including Dr. John Grant — performed skin grafts to his head, back and legs. Doctors later closed a hole in Ward’s head, and as the days and months wore on, Ward Webb tried his best to live his new normal.
“There was a lot of pain,” Ward told me. “There were a lot of hurdles. I broke my prosthetics several times, and because I was growing, I had to be re-fitted for new prosthetic feet every couple of years. But I had a great support system, and I decided if I wanted it bad enough, I had to go get it.”
Ward Webb, his father, his sister and their dog, Lima, show off the bounty of a duck hunting trip in Idaho.Courtesy Ward Webb
Go get it he did. Despite the horrific accident, Ward was not going to be kept from the outdoors he loved. His father, Bill, was and is a fine outdoorsman, and young Ward Webb grabbed the fishing poles and rifles by the horns and proved to the world what a kid without two feet could accomplish.
He hunted and he fished. He skied, and he played soccer and basketball. And less than five years after he was injured, 9-year-old Ward Webb dove into the sport of football.
It was quite a sight to see. Ward moved up to middle school, and he became one of the toughest players on his team. “Opposing players would see my prosthetic feet and tell me they were hesitant to hit me,” said Ward. “Then I would lay a lick on them, and they would tell me they weren’t going to back down ever again,” Ward chuckled.
Middle school football was one thing, but varsity football? Ward’s motor kicked into high gear again, and before he knew it, he was playing linebacker for the Mountain Brook Spartans varsity football team. “I must have broken 15 pairs of legs,” said Ward. “Finally, the folks at Biotech Limb and Brace made special prosthetics for me, and I didn’t break another.”
The Mountain Brook linebacker was turning heads, his dedication and resolve admired. “Ward came to me and told me he wanted to soak up life,” Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager told me. Ward Webb was 17 years old and he found himself doing more than soaking up life — he was soaking up big moments on the football field, one of which Coach Yeager can remember to this day.
Ward Webb during his high school football playing days at Mountain Brook. Webb, who lost both his feet after an accident when he was 4 years old, used prosthetics designed to allow him to play sports and pursue adventures outdoors.Courtesy Ward Webb
“We were playing a really good Minor High School team featuring Christion Jones, who would go on to star for the Crimson Tide,” Coach Yeager told me. “It was near the end of the game, and Minor was trying to pull out the win. Jones caught a screen pass, and as he was zig-zagging down the field, a Minor player hit Ward so hard that he knocked off Ward’s feet. The Minor players on the sideline thought that Ward’s feet really came off. You should have seen the looks on their faces. Meanwhile, Ward continued to chase down Christion Jones while on the stubs of his legs. He reached out and tripped Christion up.
“We won the football game.”
Yes, Ward Webb had a motor, alright — and as he headed to the University of Alabama, he would continue to seek the outdoors. After graduation, he headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he soaked it all in as a fishing guide. Years later, he moved back to Alabama. He’s been working as a site contractor, and his love of nature continues to carry him outside often.
Ward Webb and his best friend, John Eagan, during a stag hunting expedition in New Zealand.Courtesy Ward Webb
“Ward is a go-getter,” Ward’s good friend John Eagan told me. “When we hunt, I do everything I can do to keep up with him. When he decides to do something, he just does it. He’s been working out and dieting — he’s a beast.”
Said Franklin Brown, another good friend, “Ward is by far the greatest outdoorsman I have ever seen. People who go hunting and fishing with him have no idea he is handicapped. He’s just rock solid.”
Ward Webb tuna fishing with family friends. Webb, who lost both his feet after an accident when he was 4 years old, uses prosthetics designed to allow him to pursue the outdoor activities he loves.Courtesy Ward Webb
And now, about Ward Webb’s decision on what comes next: “I’ll be moving to Idaho next month to work as a fly fishing guide at The Lodge at Palisades Creek,” said Ward. I’ll be located at the South Fork of the Snake River,” Ward added, sounding like he was ready to hop in his truck and head west.
Twenty-four years after a terrible accident, 28-year-old Ward Webb is ready to push the limits even more. “Taylor and I have some big things ahead,” said Ward, making me wonder if Ward might soon be popping the question.
“Ward inspires me every day,” said Taylor, her voice sounding light and in love.
Ward Webb in his hometown of Mpountain Brook, Alabama, in 2025. Webb, who lost both his feet after an accident when he was 4 years old, has not let that loss stop him from meeting life on his own terms, including enjoying the outdoor activities that he loves.Courtesy Rick Karle
He’s the young man with a motor that won’t quit.
“If you want something bad enough, just go ahead and take it,” said Ward, as I asked him what message he wants to bring the world.
I thanked Ward for his time, while Ward thanked me back before he hung up the phone.
Ward Webb was on the move again.
*Rick Karle, who writes a weekly ‘Good News’ story, is a 25-time Emmy winner and a 43-year veteran of broadcast news who has lived and worked in Alabama for 35 years. You can find his work on Facebook at Rick Karle Good News. Send your story suggestions to: [email protected]
Christians today celebrate their holiest day, Easter Sunday, which commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Easter has long been a mix of the secular and the sacred, of candy, flowers and bunnies, symbols of spring and of church and family tradition.
Across Alabama, Easter celebrates family, renewal and redemption. Many will share baskets of seasonal candy, then attend church.
For devout Christians, there is a message to proclaim that supersedes Easter eggs.
Christians across Alabama and all over the world on Sunday will proclaim, “He is risen!” and celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.
The Christian celebration of Easter itself supplanted a history of pagan celebrations. The name Easter comes from the Nordic goddess of spring, Ostara.
Attendance will run much higher today in Easter worship services than on other Sundays during the year. People who rarely go to church will help fill the pews.
There are about 2.38 billion Christians, making Christianity the largest religion in the world, out of about 8 billion people.
Christianity’s humble beginnings trace to a moment when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem, then part of the Roman Empire, about 33 A.D.
Those who followed the itinerant preacher believed he rose from the dead and appeared to them, proving he was the Son of God.
The Resurrection startled even Jesus’ own followers, according to the Gospels. The disciples were skeptical, as is evident in Matthew 28:16-17. That the most ardent followers couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the risen Jesus gives an indication how difficult the central doctrine of the Christian faith can be for modern believers.
Early in Christian history, the Gnostics argued that the resurrection was purely spiritual, not physical. Shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus argued with his own critics about the reality of resurrection. In Luke Chapter 20, Jesus discusses bodily resurrection of the dead with the Sadducees, who did not believe in it. The Sadducees were the rationalists of the Hellenistic world – they didn’t believe in angels, devils or resurrection. Jesus tells the Sadducees that those who are worthy of resurrection from the dead are equal to angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
The New Testament promise of resurrection for Christians is not just the immortality of the soul but a glorified bodily resurrection like that experienced by Christ. Immortality of the soul is an ancient Greek idea, but the expectation of bodily resurrection comes directly from the New Testament.
‘‘If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain,‘’ the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15.
One argument made for the reality of the Resurrection is the astonishing growth of Christianity from a few followers who scattered, frightened, when Jesus was crucified. At the time the Apostle Paul wrote his letters, about 54 A.D., he said that more than 500 witnesses who had seen Jesus resurrected were still alive.
Though Christianity started with a small community of believers, it multiplied quickly, and within 100 years after Jesus’ death there were a million Christians. By the time Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire about 300 years after the death of Jesus, there were about 30 million Christians, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia.
For Christians, the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus explain that rapid growth.
Dear Eric: Our family will be celebrating our mother’s 100th birthday this fall. We were planning on having an open house to include my mom’s only living sister, family and community neighbors to honor a 100-year legacy that doesn’t happen for everyone.
My niece’s son proposed to his girlfriend in February and decided to set a wedding date the same weekend as our mom’s birthday. We are all very upset that they picked that particular weekend. We feel when the calendar came out to pick a date my niece (his mom) should have taken that weekend off the table and told them it was reserved.
My niece suggests that we have the 100th birthday party on Sunday, the day after the wedding. We think that is overkill for one weekend and would overshadow each event that should have their own special time.
I, as well as some others, live out of state. I’m 10 hours away. So, plan B would be to have mom’s celebration the weekend before, which means traveling 40 hours if I want to be there both weekends for my mother’s actual birthday.
I called my niece to see if there could be another weekend for them and she said she didn’t want to interfere. We feel that mom and our plans (that she knew about) have been disrespected. How can we navigate this whole situation? I feel it’s going to be a tense and unhappy event for everyone.
– Disrespected
Dear Disrespected: Your mileage may vary (quite literally) but making a 10-hour trip for the party and then, say, a few weeks later, making the same 10-hour trip for the wedding, had it been rescheduled, sounds much more inconvenient than the plan to have one event on Saturday and the other on Sunday while everyone is in town.
As you start to travel down the branches of a family tree, calendaring gets complicated. Frankly, it can be hard to settle on a compatible date with the people in one’s own house. To plan his wedding, your niece’s son is negotiating with the needs of his immediate family, the extended family and his fiancée’s family. Not to mention venue availability and, that smallest of things: what the actual couple wants. Let’s give them a break.
The wedding isn’t going to steal the thunder of your mother’s remarkable milestone. These events have slightly overlapped guest lists and different purposes, both wonderful. I don’t see disrespect here; I see pragmatism. By embracing the weekend as a double celebration of your family’s past and future, you’ll create more meaningful memories than if you approach it with resentment.
Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.
Dear Eric: My husband and I are in our 70s. He works full time, watches a lot of sports, is on his computer a lot and runs around doing errands. I work part time, clean house, cook, do laundry and yard work.
I know my husband loves me, but he doesn’t seem to have any regard for my feelings.
I love my kitchen, but my husband thought it needed a lot of major changes. I said I liked it just the way it was. He started these projects months ago. The kitchen is now a mess and he’s always too tired to work on it. There are other projects, large and small, that never get done.
I’m either going to lose it or run away from home.
– Perplexed About Projects
Dear Perplexed: You’re both doing so much, even the thought of a hard conversation about this kitchen mess is surely exhausting. Just the thought of a half-remodeled kitchen is enough to send me straight to bed. You have my sympathy.
Running away may not be necessary but see if you can figure out a break for yourself. Are there friends or family you can visit? Taking some time away from the construction site – and telling your husband why – will help you breathe easier.
Though your husband might have had the best intentions, intention doesn’t equal impact. And it’ll help both of you if you are kind but clear with him about how this is impacting you. Is it possible for him to get someone in to help him set the kitchen right? Ask him to do so and to give you a realistic timetable for when that’s going to happen. He may see the kitchen as just another item on the to-do list, but this affects your life every day. Share that with him and ask him if he understands. This doesn’t have to be a heated talk, but it should be a goal-oriented one.
If the goal of repairing the kitchen isn’t something that he can make a clear plan for, then you can introduce option B: a discussion about how the family budget can be restructured to allow for takeout every day
Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.
Kenneth Cox, a deacon, public servant and nationally recognized coach, recently announced his candidacy to serve on the Hoover city council.
The city of Hoover is not split into districts, so the city council is elected at large, which means all seven council members represent the entirety of the city. Cox has not yet announced which place he is seeking. The municipal election for Hoover city council is on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.
“I’m running for Hoover city council to build a stronger, more connected community where every voice is heard,” Cox said in a statement. “Hoover deserves leadership that prioritizes opportunity, safety, and growth for all its residents.”
Cox has spent more than 20 years working as a coach, administrator and mentor.
He was the associate athletic director and head cross country and track and field coach at Birmingham-Southern College, where he led teams to seven NCAA Division III national titles and earned induction into the BSC Sports Hall of Fame in 2024.
Cox was also the former president of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, where he shaped policies to advance the sport.
He is the vice chair of Leadership Hoover, resource development chair for the Boys & Girls Club of Central Alabama and a board member of the Hoover Parks & Recreation Foundation and Downtown Redevelopment Authority.
He also serves as senior games manager for the 2025 World Police & Fire Games.
Cox has an MBA from Faulkner University, a bachelor of arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an honorary doctorate in philosophy from Trinity International University of Ambassadors.
He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and the 100 Black Men of America Metro Birmingham Chapter.
A native of North Carolina, Cox resides in Hoover with his wife, Leesha Ellis-Cox, and their three children, Bailey, Khloe, and Evan. They are members of The Worship Center Christian Church where Cox serves as a deacon.
“I’ve spent my life bringing people together and delivering results; now, I’m ready to serve our city with that same dedication and vision,” Cox said in a statement.
