Today we’re trying something new. Near the bottom of this post there’s an option to take a very short quiz on Alabama news trivia. The material is gleaned from recent publications of this newsletter, so surely — surely — everyone here will do really well on it.

Methodists push for change

Since last year, 330 churches have left the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. That’s just a little more than half its congregations.

This past Friday, reports AL.com’s Greg Garrison, the Conference voted to push the deonomination to open the church to blessing same-sex marriages and the ordination of openly gay clergy. This is the looming issue that caused churches to disaffiliate.

The resolution appeals to the UMC’s General Conference, which meets next spring in Charlotte and could vote on changes to the denomination’s Book of Discipline.

Child-sex crackdown

Late last week in Central Alabama, law enforcement arrested 11 people on charges of electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

Fultondale Police and Covenant Rescue Group led the operation with assists from police in Leeds, Warrior, Homewood and Irondale. Those arrested were mostly from the Birmingham area up to Jasper and Cullman, with one from Bartow, Georgia.

Bringing the heat

If you’ve found any of 2023 a little warmer than you like, you might want to buckle up this week.

Weather reporter Leigh Morgan reports that parts of the state could get into triple digits before we reach the weekend — and we’ll have humidity on top of that.

The heat that folks in Texas and Louisiana have been experiencing is going to shift eastward and into Alabama this week. We’re looking at Thursday, Friday and Saturday temperatures up to a hundred degrees and heat indexes soaring higher — perhaps topping 110 in southwest Alabama.

Quoting

“We have never seen this type of emergency – a large, underground fire emitting smoke affecting possibly thousands of residents and businesses – in this state before, and we simply were not equipped to deal with it.”

— State Sen. Lance Bell, after a state investigation looked at the Moody landfill fire that started in November and is still not completely out.

More Alabama news

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How well do you know Alabama, Alabamians and Alabama news? We have a quick quiz to see, pulled from some of the items that have appeared in our newsletter recently.

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