Alabama News

No. 8 Iga Swiatek plays against No. 19 Liudmila Samsonova in the Wimbledon quarterfinals today. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. CT on ESPN 2. Fans can watch this Wimbledon match for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.

Swiatek enters this matchup with a 4-0 record at Wimbledon, and she is coming off an impressive victory against No. 23 Clara Tauson in the Round of 16. Swiatek won the match in two sets, and she only conceded one game in the final set.

If Swiatek continues to play at a high level this morning, then she could reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in her career.

Samsonova also has a 4-0 record at Wimbledon this year, and she has not lost a set. Samsonova is coming off her most competitive match, as she defeated Jessica Bouzas in the Round of 16. During the victory, Samsonova won both sets 7-5.

If Samsonova continues her great play today, then she could pull off the upset.

Fans can watch the Wimbledon quarterfinals for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.

The search is on for a new executive to lead Alabama’s largest water utility.

Three members of Birmingham’s regional water board will lead the process of searching for and hiring the utility’s first CEO.

That CEO will not replace the general manager, a position that is already under contract through 2030 and pays $446,000 a year.

“That is a new position not to displace any current position,” Tommy Hudson, chairman of the Central Alabama Water board, told AL.com.

Hudson this week named himself along with board members Phillip Wiedmeyer and state Rep. David Standridge to the search committee.

At the board meeting on Monday evening Hudson said the state law that recently reorganized the board also mandates that the agency hire a CEO.

The former water board in February rehired its former longtime general manager Mac Underwood to handle day-to-operations.

Underwood has a contract that pays him $446,118 a year. Underwood’s contract is valid till Dec. 31, 2030.

No timeline has yet been set to hire a CEO.

The makeup of the search committee created additional controversy among the board, which includes two Birmingham members and five others from suburban areas.

Sheila Tyson, Jefferson County Commissioner and board member from Birmingham, panned the committee as inherently unfair because it does not include anyone who represents Birmingham.

While the water works services a five-county area, 92 percent of the customers live in Jefferson County and 44 percent of them live within the Birmingham city limits.

“Why didn’t you ask if we even wanted to sit on that committee,” Tyson asked Hudson at the meeting. “I see clearly what you are doing. We’re just going to get shut out. We might as well not come to the meetings.”

Hudson said appointing committee members was his purview as chairman and that no member was notified before being named Monday evening.

Tyson noted that since the new board took over in May, contentious items have often been passed on a 5-2 vote, with the support of Republican suburban members over the objections of the two Democrats from Birmingham.

Following that pattern, the plan to hire an executive director passed despite the objections of Tyson and Jarvis Patton, the other member representing Birmingham.

The city of Birmingham has also filed a federal lawsuit against the new law that created the current board and put Birmingham in the minority.

In other business, the board elected permanent officers, with Hudson as chairman and Phillip Wiedmeyer as vice chairman. Hudson had served as interim chairman while Patton served as vice chairman.

The new leadership was approved on a 4-2 vote with Patton and Tyson voting no. Shelby County member Jeffrey Brumlow, who initially nominated Hudson for leadership, was absent.

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl would carry advantages in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate and at least one big hurdle, analysts say.

Pearl has not said he is running for Alabama’s open seat for the Senate but has not publicly denied it during weeks of media speculation.

That speculation has been fueled, in part, by Pearl’s public statements and social media posts, especially his support for Israel and for President Donald Trump.

Pearl has 174,000 followers on X and his account has more posts and reposts about politics than basketball.

AL.com has reached out to Pearl to ask whether he is considering a Senate run but has not received a response.

On the podcast “One Jewish State” on Tuesday, Pearl was asked by former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman if he was considering running.

“Mr. Ambassador, there is no news to be made,” Pearl replied. “You know I love my country and this is the greatest country in the world.”

But Pearl did not seem to fully close the door on running for office saying there were many grave issues facing the nation, including immigration and antisemitism.

“I care about these issues but I love Auburn and I love being Auburn’s basketball coach.”

Outsiders have an advantage

Lori Owens, a political science professor at Jacksonville State University, said Pearl would have some important factors on his side.

“The truth of the matter is this business is about name identification,” Owens said.

“If you’ve already got name ID, you already have an edge, if you will, if you’re running for office.”

Owens said Pearl, who has built Auburn men’s basketball into a national power during 11 years as coach, is probably better known by Alabama voters than Attorney General Steve Marshall, the likely frontrunner among Republican candidates.

“If you’re an outsider, the voters seem to have a taste right now for people that they view that are political outsiders because they think the career politicians are part of the problem,” said Owens, who holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Alabama.

“It’s easy to run as a newcomer if you don’t have a record. Because nobody has anything that they can use against you. You get a chance to be fresh and new and no record one time, if you win.”

Contributions to Democrats could haunt Pearl

The race is for the seat that Sen. Tommy Tuberville is leaving to run for governor.

Tuberville rode his name recognition built by a decade as Auburn’s football coach, plus an alliance with President Trump, to win the seat during his first run for public office in 2020.

Tuberville has said he would discourage Pearl from a Senate run.

“I wouldn’t let him do it because he did such a good job at Auburn,” he told Semafor. “We need him there.”

Marshall, who has won two statewide elections for attorney general, announced his run for the Senate in May.

Jared Hudson, a former Navy Seal who ran for Jefferson County sheriff in 2022, announced his candidacy the day before Marshall.

Democrats who are running include Kyle Sweetser, a business owner and lifelong Alabama Republican who spoke at last summer’s Democratic National Convention, Dakarai Larriett, a business owner, Birmingham native, and University of Alabama graduate, and Mark Wheeler of Heflin, a Jacksonville State University graduate and chemist who works for a wire manufacturing company.

For Pearl, one major hurdle is an Alabama Republican Party prohibition on political donations to candidates from opposing parties.

In 2024, Pearl gave $1,000 to Shomari Figures, the Democratic nominee and eventual winner in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, a contribution earmarked by the American Israeli Public Affairs political action committee.

Pearl also gave $1,000 to U.S. Rep. Don Davis, a Democrat from North Carolina who has spoken out in support of Israel.

Federal Election Commission records show that Pearl gave even more to Republican causes last year — $25,000 to the Republican Jewish Victory Coalition (RJC) fund, and $500 to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of Saks, a Republican who represents Alabama’s 3rd District.

But the state Republican Party bylaws say that any person who supports or donates to an opposing party candidate will be denied access to the state GOP ballot for six years.

It takes a vote by three-fourths of the state Republican Party’s Steering Committee or Candidate Committee to waive the prohibition.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl has not responded to questions about how the party would respond if Pearl sought to qualify as a Republican, the most logical path to victory in a GOP-dominated state.

But Wahl, while not specifically mentioning Pearl, emphasized the importance of the bylaws in an interview on the Jeff Poor radio show in June.

Wahl said the rule is intended to make sure that only Republicans run in the Republican primary.

“Every candidate in the bylaws that has made one of these actions (support or donation to a Democrat) in the last six years is automatically denied ballot access,” Wahl said.

“They cannot even qualify as a Republican unless they get a waiver from either the county party or the state party with a three quarters vote.”

Steve Flowers, an author, political commentator, and former state lawmaker, doubts that the Republican Party would let Pearl on the ballot.

“They have sent him a message, a pretty adamant message, that his contribution to Shomari Figures and the other Democratic candidate that he gave to, although he gave it through a PAC, they’ve sent him a message that they’ve got that hard core rule and he would have a hard time getting around that,” Flowers said.

“So I don’t think that he can run.”

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor from Athens State University and longtime observer of state elections, said the Republican Party could risk isolating rank-and-file voters if it used the bylaws to keep Pearl off the ballot.

“The voters, they don’t buy into this thing of party voters demanding party loyalty,” Brown said. “That’s all this stuff that people get caught up in at these party meetings.

“But when you get out to Bubba and Bubbette at the barbecue, they don’t really cotton to that stuff. Their view is if you want to run for public office, go down and pay the qualifying fee and put your name on the ballot.

“They just don’t like party bosses who write rules to keep people off the ballot.”

In 1986, the Democratic Party, which then dominated the state, denied Charlie Graddick its nomination for governor after he won a close runoff, a decision that came in a dispute over cross-over votes by Republicans.

A three-judge federal court panel ruled that Graddick, then state attorney general, had violated the Voting Rights Act by trying to stop enforcement of the Democrats’ rule against Republicans voting in their primary.

They nominated Bill Baxley, who finished second.

The decision angered voters, who elected Republican longshot Guy Hunt over Baxley in the general election. Hunt was Alabama’s first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

“I just think they better tread lightly dealing with Coach Pearl if he decides to run for this job,” Brown said.

Brown, like Owens, said Tuberville would enter the race with the upper hand.

“Like Tuberville, he brings instant name ID in a way that no other candidate in the race – in fact I think I can safely say that not even Steve Marshall will have as much name ID right now as Bruce Pearl would,“ Brown said.

“While basketball is not football in Alabama – we’re not talking Kansas or North Carolina here – basketball is not football in our culture, his success, particularly in recent years has been so much that he’s definitely raised his profile in a state where I think it’s safe to say basketball is the second most popular sport among those who practice sports by watching TV.”

Brent Buchanan, founder and CEO of the polling and public relations firm Cygnal, said he has not seen any polling on Pearl.

“His donations to Democrats just last year could be problematic if money is spent informing GOP primary voters about it,” Buchanan said.

“However, he’s incredibly dynamic and could be a strong fundraiser.”

Flowers questions whether Pearl would give up his coaching job at Auburn, where he has established a consistent winner and earns more than $6 million a year.

“I don’t know him personally, but I can’t see him doing that,” Flowers said.

“The other thing, if he were to overcome the party hurdle, and run, I don’t see him as being as viable a candidate as some people do.”

Flowers believes that Pearl, who is outspoken about his faith and his Jewish heritage, would receive a lot of financial support from Jewish interest groups.

Flowers said he does not believes Pearl’s faith would be a detriment, but questions whether he would have appeal as a candidate identified mainly for his pro-Israel stance.

“He would be designated and it would become illuminated that he is a one-issue candidate because he would have a lot of out of state Jewish money in his campaign,” Flowers said. “I think that’s who is encouraging him to run.”

“I think he’s got some obstacles if he got over the hurdle of being able to run by the Republican Party. Which I don’t think he’s going to be able to do,” Flowers said.

No. 1 Jannik Sinner plays against No. 10 Ben Shelton in the Wimbledon quarterfinals today. The match is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. CT on ESPN. Fans can watch this game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.

Sinner has a 4-0 record at Wimbledon this year, so he will look to remain undefeated today. Notably, he advanced in the tournament due to a walkover during his Round of 16 match.

In his most recent match, Sinner trailed 2-0 in sets. With this in mind, Sinner will need to improve his play at the beginning of the quarterfinal round.

Shelton also has a 4-0 record at Wimbledon this year, and he has played at a high level throughout the tournament. In his first three matches, Shelton did not lose a single set.

After losing the first set in his last match, Shelton won three consecutive sets to reach the quarterfinal round. If he continues to perform well this morning, then Shelton could pull off the upset.

Fans can watch the Wimbledon quarterfinals for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Alternatively, Sling offers a first-month discount to new users.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I prepared some hand-dipped chocolate goodies and delivered them to a couple of ladies in my neighborhood. A few days later, one of the ladies called me to tell me she was diabetic and couldn’t eat them.

I was sad that “the thought that counts” must not come into play anymore. I felt her phone call was rude and unnecessary.

Am I being petty, or was she being rude? It will make me think twice next time I try to be thoughtful. This friend certainly won’t see goodies from me again.

GENTLE READER: Then you will not want to hear that this lady spent the intervening time fuming over the thoughtlessness displayed in putting her health at risk — as if, instead of trying to brighten her day, you had attempted to force-feed her.

Miss Manners recommends saying, “I’m sorry to hear that. Thanks for letting me know” — and then tossing the conversation in the memory dustbin and, as was your plan, not repeating the gesture. This is also an approximation of what Miss Manners would have counseled the lady with diabetes, had she been asked.

Please send your questions to Miss Manners at missmanners.com, by email to [email protected], or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

DEAR ABBY: I live five hours away from my hometown. My mom is 98 and in assisted living there. In recent years, my younger sister has become cruel to our mom and is trying to take advantage of her.

Instead of helping Mom, she does things to deliberately upset her and raise her blood pressure. Two examples: putting dog poop on my recently deceased brother’s grave and stealing a gun from Mom’s home.

She also threatened to remove Mom’s recliner from her while she was sitting in it. My sister has caused major issues at the assisted living facility, which greatly upsets my poor mother, since she loves the care she gets there.

My older brother and I have met with an attorney to get an order of no-trespass, no-contact at Mom’s facility. It’s still in the process. My sister puts on a totally different mask at her church and has everyone believing she’s a victim. What do you suggest we do in the future with this out-of-control, full of hate sibling? — ASHAMED SIS IN ONTARIO, CANADA

DEAR SIS: The term for what your sister has been doing is elder abuse. Stealing and threatening to do something that would cause great bodily harm qualifies. Continue working with the attorney on the no-contact order and let the process play out.

Your mother’s doctors should be told what has been going on. What the worshippers in her church think about her should be of no consequence.

Read more Dear Abby and other advice columns.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Auburn men’s basketball is one of the latest programs to add a general manager to its staff, but the Tigers took a slightly different approach in selecting their GM.

The program hired Matt Gatens, who spent the last three seasons as the associate head coach at Iowa and was an assistant under Bruce Pearl at Auburn from 2016-2018. Gatens doesn’t have an NBA or personnel background like some other college basketball GMs, but he’ll still take over many of the typical GM tasks.

“What we’ll kind of do with Matt is bring him along in some of the things that we were doing in the NIL space, in the revenue sharing space, from a donor relations perspective, and just kind of help bring him in to kind of help us in those areas,” associate head coach Steven Pearl told reporters Tuesday.

Pearl added that he and former assistant coach Chad Prewett handled most of those duties before, with Gatens taking some of that load off the coaching staff.

In the press release from Auburn announcing the hire of Gatens, the school said that he will be responsible for roster management and evaluation, agent and donor relations, scouting, recruiting and game planning as Auburn’s general manager.

According to his bio on the Iowa men’s basketball website, Gatens assisted “in all aspects of the program, including recruiting, opponent scouting, practices, player development and game preparation” while with the Hawkeyes.

His role at Auburn will be a new one for him, but one that is increasingly necessary in the modern age of college basketball.

“He’s not your typical GM that you’re going to see from other schools bringing in from like NBA clubs and stuff like that,” Pearl said. “But we have a ton of support in Auburn and other areas where he, plus our administration, can figure out the best avenues forward in this space.”

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m

EDITOR’S NOTE: Every day until Aug. 29, Creg Stephenson is counting down significant numbers in Alabama football history, both in the lead-up to the 2025 football season and in commemoration of the Crimson Tide’s first national championship 100 years ago. The number could be attached to a year, a uniform number or even a football-specific statistic. We hope you enjoy.

“Dual-threat” quarterbacks have been all the rage in recent college football, but one of the greatest in Alabama history played nearly 80 years ago.

Harry Gilmer, who wore No. 52, ran and passed his way into Crimson Tide immortality during the years immediately following World War II. Prior to the Nick Saban era, he was the only Alabama player who twice finished in the Top 5 in the Heisman Trophy balloting and the only one who was selected No. 1 overall in the NFL draft. (He remains the only player in Crimson Tide history to earn first-team All-SEC honors four times and to lead the team in passing yards four straight years.)

Gilmer was responsible for 52 touchdowns in his career — 29 passing, 19 rushing, two on punt returns and one each on a kickoff return and an interception return. That mark is now eighth in Crimson Tide history, but was first until first being surpassed by John Parker Wilson in 2008.

A Birmingham native who led Woodlawn High School to an undefeated record in 1943, Gilmer took advantage of temporarily relaxed NCAA rules during the war that allowed him to play on the varsity as a freshman at Alabama. Though technically the starting left halfback in the Crimson Tide’s Notre Dame box offense, he was the team’s primary passer and thus the equivalent of a modern quarterback.

At Alabama, Gilmer became famous for his “jump pass,” a skill he had developed in high school. His arm was purportedly so strong he could throw the ball 70 yards in the air.

“I never tried a pass in a regular game until my senior year at Woodlawn,” Gilmer told The Tuscaloosa News in 1978. “Of course, I used to pass the ball around in practice and in sandlot games, but until I shifted to left halfback, I never practiced seriously. I don’t know why I started to jump or leap nearly every time I passed. We had some halfbacks at Woodlawn who did it on a play designed by our coach, Malcolm Laney, so I guess I started jumping without realizing it.”

Alabama did not field a football team in 1943 due to war-time manpower shortages, but returned to the gridiron the following year. The 6-foot, 155-pound Gilmer was one of coach Frank Thomas’ “War Babies,” a group that also included fullback Lowell Tew and center Vaughan Mancha, a 23-year-old Merchant Marine veteran who had lost vision in one eye during a childhood accident.

Alabama went 5-2-2 in an abbreviated schedule in 1944, losing to Duke 29-26 in the Sugar Bowl. Gilmer went 8-for-8 for 142 yards with a touchdown pass in that game, causing famed sportswriter Grantland Rice to exclaim he was “the greatest college passer I ever saw.”

The 1945 season was a glorious one for Alabama, which finished 10-0 and outscored its opponents 430-80. The Crimson Tide rang up scores such as 55-0 over South Carolina, 60-19 over Kentucky and 71-0 over Vanderbilt, then finished things off with a 34-14 rout of Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl (a game in which Gilmer was named Most Valuable Player).

Alabama finished No. 3 in the polls that year, with fellow unbeaten Army — who, it must be said, had its pick of the best draft-eligible football players in the country in those days — claiming the national championship (Navy, whose only loss was to Army, ended up No. 2). Gilmer accounted for 21 touchdowns and nearly 1,500 yards combined rushing and passing, winning SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors and finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

It was during the Nov. 3, 1945, blowout of Kentucky that Gilmer enjoyed arguably his greatest individual day — and one of the greatest in Alabama football history. He carried the ball for a whopping 215 yards on just six carries, including touchdown runs of 95 and 59 yards, plus an 8-yard touchdown pass to Rebel Steiner.

Alabama slipped back to 7-4 in 1946, as Thomas began to suffer from the heart and lung ailments that would cause him to step down following the season (and led to his eventual death in 1954 at age 55). Gilmer was still productive as a junior, leading the country in both interceptions (8) and punt return average (11.8 yards).

Coached by Harold “Red” Drew in 1947, the Crimson Tide shook off early-season losses to SEC rivals Tulane and Vanderbilt to win seven straight games before falling to Texas in the Sugar Bowl. Gilmer accounted for just seven touchdowns rushing and passing that season (though he did add a school-record 92-yard punt return for a touchdown vs. LSU), and was a second-team All-American and again finished fifth in the Heisman voting.

The No. 1 overall pick by the NFL’s Washington Redskins in 1946 (Alabama’s only one until Bryce Young in 2023), Gilmer played nine seasons in the league with Washington and Detroit and was a two-time Pro Bowler. He later served as Lions head coach for two seasons in the mid-1960s.

Gilmer was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1973 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993. A frequent visitor to Tuscaloosa during his later years (he’d settled in St. Louis during a lengthy stint as quarterback coach for the NFL’s Cardinals), he died in 2016 at age 90.

Coming Friday: Our countdown to kickoff continues with No. 51, a special teams stalwart who survived tragedy during his Alabama career.

Dear Eric: At a recent family gathering pictures were made and then posted on social media. I had not seen them, but I did participate at the time. I don’t want my pictures posted for personal reasons and it causes mental distress seeing them. I don’t feel that I can ask for them to be removed without causing a rift in the family. I did post a brief comment that people should ask before posting and I would do the same. It was seen by the person, so I hope they removed them. I feel it may have been done for the wrong reasons as this person posted only flattering ones of themselves. Now a wonderful memory of the occasion will be ruined in my memories. Should people think before using others’ photos on social media?

– Social Dilemma

Dear Social: Short answer – yes. There are plenty of reasons that people may not want their photos posted – maybe it’s not an angle you like, maybe you want to preserve your privacy, maybe you don’t want just anybody knowing what you get up to in your spare time. It is always a good practice to ask before posting.

And it’s not rude or unseemly to ask that a photo be removed or to be edited out of a photo. Many social media platforms make it quite easy to crop a photo or even add a little emoji over the face of someone who’d rather not be in the photo. Plenty of people do that when posting family photos with kids in them, for instance.

It’s easy to think of social media as akin to a personal photo album – indeed, many social media companies want you to feel that way. But a photo album generally sits on the shelf and is only shown to a limited audience. Social media, even with privacy settings in place, is much more public. You can and should ask for what you need in this case.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

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 sister and brother-in-law live a couple of hours away. My wife and I get along with them but are not close, and we try to make an effort to see them when we are nearby (a couple times a year). We have a pre-school-age child, while they do not have kids. They are kind and generous to our child when they see him and bring him gifts from their travels when they do see him.

Our son has no cousins or family members that are close in age to him, so we try to encourage strong relationships with the adults around him. Recently, we didn’t answer our door when our family members dropped by, unannounced. We were in the backyard. They deposited some nice gifts by the front door and left, sending a text message of regret.

On its face, this gesture is considerate and appropriate. But we were truly disappointed. We don’t want our son to receive random gifts and material objects, we want him to know his aunt and uncle, have a bond with them, and associate any material gifts with them and their love. Our relatives have done this more than twice, so it’s a pattern.

It’s hard to know how to tell them that their kind gesture fell very short with us. Had they given us 15 minutes advance notice (or even called while on the doorstep), we could have seen them. Every response I imagine sounds ungrateful for their gifts. Is it too much to ask them to spend a little time with their nephew?

– Time Is Better Than Gifts

Dear Time: You’ve got a situation that’s almost worthy of an O. Henry story. But all is not lost. They have good intentions, as do you. And everyone is trying to be generous. That’s a great place from which to start.

Thinking generously about their actions, maybe they don’t want to bother you or presume that parents of young kids don’t have time to entertain. Working from that premise, you can start to proactively encourage them to behave differently when they visit.

Try saying something like, “we really hate to miss you; next time you’re coming by, just give us a call when you’re on your way. We’ll be happy to make a visit work. Seriously.” You can make it plain that you want them to build a relationship with your son and invite them to spend quality time with him. “It’s so important that our son knows you; can we set a date for a proper visit?”

Keep the focus on the future, as much as you can, rather than talking about the last fly-by visit. Sometimes people need explicit invitations. But it seems their hearts are in the right place so, with a little guidance, their actions will follow.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

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.