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Violence in the Magic City

Friday was a rough one in Birmingham, with six more names added to the city’s list of homicide victims, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

Around 2:45 p.m. in the Smithfield neighborhood, at least 39 shots were fired in what police believe was a targeted drive-by shooting that killed four friends in their 30s.

A little over an hour later, two bodies were found in an alley in the Ensley neighborhood. The victims were later found to be a couple that had been missing since Valentine’s Day, and it’s believed they were on their way to a movie date. They were both 20 years old, the woman was pregnant, according to family, and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said one of them was his cousin.

The six homicides gave Birmingham a total of 15 for the year. One of those has been ruled justifiable.

Embryos and the law

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that three couples can sue over the destruction of their frozen embryos, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.

According to the lawsuit, a patient at Mobile Infirmary Medical Center was able to access the cryogenic storage area, remove the embryos in their extremely cold containers, and then drop them.

A lower court had ruled to dismiss the case, arguing that Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act doesn’t cover embryos outside the womb.

The state’s high court reversed that decision. Wrote Justice Jay Mitchell: “[T]he Wrongful Death of a Minor Act is sweeping and unqualified. It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the People of this State have adopted a Constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding ‘unborn life’ from legal protection.”

Idol youth

An Alabamian is on his way to Hollywood to compete in American Idol, reports AL.com’s Lawrence Specker.

There’s nothing new about that. Alabama’s been well-represented with contestants, finalists and champions on the popular TV talent show. But this one is young even by American Idol standards.

Triston Harper is a 15-year-old from McIntosh in Washington County and is affiliated with the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. He punched his ticket to Hollywood after singing Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up” and receiving unanimous “yes” votes from judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan.

How young is 15? Well, Alabama’s last Idol champion, Taylor Hicks, won his title a couple years before Harper was born.

Quoting

“President Carter continues to be at home with his family. The family is pleased that his decision last year to enter hospice care has sparked so many family discussions across the country on an important subject.”

Family of Jimmy Carter, in a press release acknowledging the one-year anniversary of the former president going on hospice care.

More Alabama news

On this Date

In 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested near the Tombigbee River in what is now Alabama (at the time it was part of the Mississippi Territory). He was charged with treason and was later acquitted.

In 1967, actress Cynthia Bailey of Decatur and Tuscumbia was born.

On the Calendar

It’s President’s Day — officially “Washington’s Birthday” at the federal level. Today’s state holiday is “George Washington & Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday.”

Any of those acknowledgements would likely horrify George Washington, who eschewed the power and pageantry that so many heads of state crave. Still, we remember him fondly by taking advantage of the widespread President’s Day sales.

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