John Rogers’ sentence

A federal judge has sentenced veteran Alabama lawmaker John Rogers to 13 months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme, reports AL.com’s Hannah Denham and Joseph D. Bryant.

Rogers, a Birmingham Democrat and former state representative, is 83 years old. He has to turn himself in by Sept. 3.

After months of denials, Rogers pled guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The court found that Rogers moved about $400,000 of public funds to a youth baseball league run by fellow state lawmaker Fred Plump and that Plump sent half the money to Rogers’ assistant/companion Varrie Johnson Kindall.

Late last week Plump was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Johnson was sentenced to three years for this case plus an unrelated theft case.

The racetrack road in East Birmingham was named John Rogers Drive because of his work in creating the Birmingham Racing Commission, which led to the Birmingham Turf Club’s construction along the roadway.

Cleaning the creek

Warrior Met Coal has agreed to repair a dam that’s been leaking coal slurry into Tuscaloosa County waterways, reports AL.com’s Sarah Whites-Koditschek.

Coal slurry is a toxic byproduct of coal-mining. The nonprofit Black Warrior Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit a couple years ago over the pollution. The repair plan, which still has to be approved by the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration, is the result of an agreement reached in that lawsuit.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Nelson Brooke said local residents alerted him to the pollution from the mine. It’s leaking into Texas Creek, then into Davis Creek and on to the Black Warrior River at Holt Lake.

Warrior Met Coal has also agreed to pay $250,000 to the Freshwater Land Trust to deal with damage from the pollution and $28,000 to Black Warrior Riverkeeper to pay for lawyers.

Lulu’s Law

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt introduced a bill this week that would send shark-attack notices through wireless emergency alerts, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

It’s called Lulu’s Law to honor Lulu Gribbin, the Mountain Brook 15 year-old who lost a hand and most of a leg in a June shark attack on Seacrest Beach in the Florida Panhandle. Lulu’s friend, 16-year-old McCray Faust, was also bitten during the attack.

That all happened an hour and a half after another shark bite a few miles away. The idea here is that if an alert goes out in such a situation, it’ll let many folks on the beach consider that conditions may be conducive to sharks feeding along the beach.

Britt, a Republican from Enterprise, said the alert would go out like other local alerts we get on our cellphones such as extreme weather and amber alerts.

Lulu was moved to a hospital that specializes in amputees. She’s been going through physical therapy and learning to use a prosthetic hand.

Future infant screenings

The state will begin screening newborns for a pair of genetic disorders that are rare but treatable, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason. This is the result of a new law that came out of this year’s Alabama Legislative session.

Infants with either condition seem healthy, so without screening you wouldn’t think anything was wrong. But both involve under-functioning enzymes that lead to toxic buildup in the body. The two conditions added to the screening list are Pompe disease and mucopolysaccharidosis Type I.

Call that last one MPS1 or Hurler syndrome.

The law requires these screenings to be in practice withing three years.

On the Calendar

Aug. 29

Fans of the Wawa will be beside themselves with anticipation because that’s the date the convenience-store chain will open locations on Cottage Hill Road in Mobile and Highway 59 in Robertsdale are opening at 8 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 29.

The first Alabama Wawa opened in Fairhope in April.

(I know the Wawa convenience store fan demographic can be a hard-partying bunch, but y’all try to keep it peaceful. And enjoy the clean restrooms.)

Quoting

“Government cannot be everywhere. We can’t be in every vehicle. That’s not a realistic expectation.”

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, pleading with parents after a 15-year-old teenager was killed when his 14-year-old friend accidentally shot and killed him while unloading a pistol in a minivan just before 7 a.m.

By the Numbers

84,300

That’s how many acres of Alabama land a timber company has bought to add to its stake in the state, reports AL.com’s William Thornton.

Weyerhaeuser Co. of Seattle paid $244 million for the timberland. The company didn’t specify the location of its latest land purchase, but it said it has mature planted pine.

The company now owns 695,000 acres, two mills, a Timberlands office and a seed orchard in Alabama. That’s a sliver of its total portfolio, which includes ownership or control of 10.5 million acres in the U.S. and 14 million leased acres in Canada.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1916, baseball player and manager, president of the Southern League and Auburn grad Billy Hitchcock of Inverness.

In 1956, actor Michael Biehn of Anniston. (He played Johnny Ringo in “Tombstone.”)

In 1982, former NFL linebacker and Troy University defensive player DeMarcus Ware of Auburn.

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