Alabama News

Ashley Cooke’s career has been on the rise, but the country music star has dealt with a serious health issue in the process.

In a TikTok video, she explains she has recently been diagnosed with a heart condition, in addition to her family health struggles.

“It’s a genetic thing called Brugada syndrome,” Cooke told Taste of Country. “A lot of my family members have passed away unexpectedly, very healthy and very young, from it. So it’s very scary.”

Cooke also shared both of her grandmothers died within the past year. Her father battled cancer for the fifth time. Her mother suffered a heart attack.

AS far as Cooke’s health, the singer is working with a cardiologist.

According to the Mayo Clinic, Brugada syndrome is a rare condition that can be life-threatening and there is “an increased risk of irregular heart rhythms beginning in the lower chambers of the heart.”

The condition can cause fainting, as well as sudden cardiac arrest.

“The crazy part is, it doesn’t really impact anything about my daily life,” she explained. “That’s the scary part of Brugada syndrome. It just feels like a ghost around you. Because there’s no warning signs, no symptoms. It’s just one of those things where all of a sudden one day, this certain thing in your heart can just stop, and you’re just gone.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

On Tuesday at 5:09 a.m. a dense fog advisory was issued by the National Weather Service in effect until 9 a.m. for Marshall, Jackson and DeKalb counties.

The weather service adds to be ready for, “Visibility down to a quarter of a mile or less in dense fog.”

“Low visibility could make driving conditions hazardous,” says the weather service. “If driving, slow down, use your headlights, and leave plenty of distance ahead of you.”

Navigating fog: Safety tips by the weather service

When a dense fog advisory is issued for your area, it means that widespread dense fog has developed and visibility can plummet to a quarter-mile or less. These conditions pose challenges for travel, so exercise extra caution on the road or consider postponing your trip if possible.

If you must venture out in foggy conditions, keep these safety tips from the weather service in mind:

Reduce speed:

Slow down and allocate extra travel time to reach your destination safely.

Visibility matters:

Ensure your vehicle is visible to others by using low-beam headlights, which also activate your taillights. If you have fog lights, use them.

Avoid high-beams:

Refrain from using high-beam headlights, as they create glare that impairs your visibility on the road.

Keep your distance:

Keep a considerable following distance to account for sudden stops or shifts in traffic patterns.

Stay in your lane:

Use the road’s lane markings as a guide to staying in the correct lane.

Visibility near zero:

In extremely dense fog where visibility is near zero, the best course of action is to first turn on your hazard lights, then simply pull into a safe location such as a parking lot of a local business, and stop.

No parking options:

If there is no parking lot or driveway to pull into, pull your vehicle off to the side of the road as far as possible. Once you come to a stop, turn off all lights except your hazard flashing lights, set the emergency brake, and take your foot off of the brake pedal to be sure the tail lights are not illuminated so that other drivers don’t mistakenly run into you.

By adhering to these recommendations from the weather service, you can navigate foggy conditions more safely, reducing the risk of accidents and ensuring your well-being.

Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I was visiting a dear friend’s home a few days after her husband died. While I was there, her adult daughter arrived from out of town. I had not met her before. We were introduced, and then I said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

She immediately said, “I hate it when people say that,” and continued to complain about people always saying that.

What was I supposed to say in response? I was speechless.

GENTLE READER: Good. Because you wouldn’t have wanted to upset your friend by offering double condolences — for losing her husband, and also for having a rude daughter.

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.

Auburn football will enter fall camp with a mostly clean bill of health.

Head coach Hugh Freeze was asked about the team’s health at an Auburn AMBUSH event in Atlanta Monday night. Other than a few minor soft tissue injuries, Freeze said the team is set to enter camp without any major injuries.

“They’re kinda limited in some of the workouts but not anything that I think will prohibit them being ready to go for camp,” Freeze said.

The one exception is freshman corner Devin Williams, who tore his ACL during the spring. Williams’ injury creates a similar situation to last season, where another corner, Tyler Scott, tore his ACL during the summer, causing him to miss the 2024 season.

Freeze also announced when Auburn will begin fall camp, setting a July 29 start date. That means the Tigers will begin camp exactly one month before opening the season against Baylor on Aug. 29.

With fall camp now just two weeks away, Freeze said the team has one more week of hard workouts before some rest and preparation for camp.

“We’ll go pretty hard this week with Coach Dom [Studzinski] and our strength staff in our indoor workouts and player-led 7-on-7,” Freeze said. “We’ll go through next Thursday and then let them have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday off. And then team meeting Monday night where I kinda set our theme and talk about, ‘Here we go and here’s our theme for fall camp,’ and remind them of the standards.”

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

This is an opinion column.

_____________________

There are blood-lusting winners in the SEC, and then there are losers soon to be sucked dry and without jobs. There are no saints.

There are no Boy Scouts.

There are no values other than money.

There are no morals when it comes to chasing a championship in this league of leagues. It’s a business, and the business, according to commissioner Greg Sankey’s sword-swinging remarks on Monday, is pretty good.

And dripping with the blood of the innocent.

I’m here at SEC Media Days 2025 in Atlanta, and it seems like some of these coaches need a refresher course on the unspoken, unscrupulous rules of engagement.

Oblige, I will.

Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss gets it. So does Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee.

LSU’s Brian Kelly?

Auburn’s Hugh Freeze?

They’re either preening and posturing about the evolution of cheating in the SEC, or they’re positioning themselves this summer to join Nick Saban in retirement.

Auburn coach Freeze interrupts his summertime golf schedule on Tuesday for a visit with reporters at Media Days. Freeze wants everyone to know that he and Auburn are suddenly playing by the rules and are holier than they’re rivals.

On Monday, LSU’s Kelly turned the stage inside Atlanta’s College Football Hall of Fame into a pulpit after being asked about the latest attempt at governance for our beautiful Southern sport of legalized corruption.

“If we start with transparency, and start with the clear communication necessary, and consistency, and approach … look, I know this might not be what you were asking, but it’s got to start with coaches.

“It’s got to start with us.

“I mean, we have to be the stewards of this. There has to be a moral high ground — ethics in this. It starts with us. It starts with coaches.

“I was at a speaking engagement a few weeks back, and every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it, trying to find a way to bring in revenue in some other way. Sooner or later, we have to take the stand that transparency, consistency, ethics, and morality are at the core of this.”

Spoken like a man who sounds like he wants to be replaced before the start of fall camp. Would Saban consider making his comeback at LSU?

Saban is the coaching GOAT of college football, but he got out because he didn’t want to play this new game of paying players every season. Kelly is the active wins leader (313) among college coaches, but he sounds like the game is passing him by.

Last time we checked, there’s no such thing as moral high ground down in the bayou. In fact, LSU’s football stadium, the highest point above sea level in Baton Rouge, was built thanks to public corruption.

Former LSU governor and U.S. senator Huey P. Long was a man of the people, loved LSU football and found creative ways to funnel money into the program. Long, and all the Kingfisher’s men, would have loved this new SEC, too, and they would have considered it a personal challenge that Tennessee’s state government is playing the game better than anyone.

Earlier this summer, Tennessee governor Lee signed into law legislation that gives the Volunteers and Vanderbilt Commodores a license to operate beyond the latest attempt at rules for college football.

Legalized cheating, in other words.

Under the law, college athletes in the state of Tennessee have no limits on the amount of money they can earn through NIL payments until the federal government says otherwise. Is the new College Football Commission already a joke? We’ll see.

The new commission was set up to govern college football, but I’m guessing that the CFC swung and missed by hiring a former Ivy League-educated baseball executive to run enforcement. Should they have hired someone like Sankey instead?

Sankey isn’t very good at controlling the coaches in the SEC, but at least the SEC’s commissioner understands the game. On Monday, he described the sport as “messy,” said it was backsliding into the “early 1900s” and all but called out Vanderbilt for bringing back quarterback Diego Pavia after successfully suing the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility.

“Literally,” Sankey said, “if you go to the first quarter century, and look at some of the practices around college sports, you start to see the same things that we are seeing today — an older group of college athletes, constant movement without a lot of oversight and questions about whether there are real academic standards that apply.

“As the world changes throughout college sports, we have to hold on to some values that are at the center of what we do on our academic campuses.”

Back at the turn of the 1800s, when college football was an unregulated portrait of the American Dream, football players would go from school to school for the highest dollar. Some of the players were given jobs as teachers. Some of the players were 28 and 30 years old, and everyone called them “scabs.”

There were no rules, which means there was no concept of phony, manufactured morality.

It was football without pretense. It was a juicy, bloody, rare steak of possibility just waiting to be consumed by the masses. Here we are again. The American Dream is alive and well in this new age of college football, and I only have one question.

Why didn’t Auburn pay for Pavia to transfer?

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I just moved into a new home, and I wanted to keep that information private at the place where I am temporarily working. I’m not particularly close to anyone there. Several people are nice to me, but not to the point of being friends.

Well, word got out about my house, and now several people have invited themselves over or hinted as much. None of these people have ever socialized with me, so I find it odd and awkward that they would suddenly invite themselves.

I don’t entertain anyway, but I know telling them that will not work. I’m just really bothered that they say, “You’ll have to invite us over.” What would you do? I need a list of excuses!

GENTLE READER: No, you need only one: “I’m not planning anything.” Or fewer than one, if that is possible: a strained smile and silence.

Miss Manners understands that people who have trouble saying no might be sorry to disappoint those who importune them. Or they may be cowed by the authority with which some people state their demands.

But to give a specific excuse is to admit that the matter is open for discussion.

You say you are busy? “Well, when will you be free?” they will ask.

You say that the house is not ready for visitors? “That’s all right; we don’t expect it to be in perfect shape.”

You say you have guests coming? “We’d love to meet them.”

And so on. If you don’t supply material, they can’t argue.

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.

Release the footage

Homewood Mayor Alex Wyatt continues to call on the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to allow the family of Jabari Peoples to view body camera footage from the June 23 fatal shooting.

Peoples, 19, was a 2024 graduate of Aliceville High School where he was standout track athlete and football player.

He was shot to death that Monday night in June at Homewood Soccer Park.

Wyatt said the city legally doesn’t have the authority to release the footage because ALEA has taken over the investigation. Under the law, it controls access to evidence because it is the custodian of the footage.

The Homewood Police Department turned the investigation over to ALEA, which is standard policy for many officer-involved shootings.

ALEA denied the family’s request to see the footage, saying the release of the video would jeopardize the ongoing investigation.

Though Alabama provides a way for families to view body camera and dash cam videos, the same law also allows law enforcement to withhold the footage for investigative purposes.

Peoples had just finished his freshman year at Alabama A & M where he was studying computer information and criminal justice with hopes of becoming a law enforcement officer, specifically a detective. His funeral was held Saturday at Aliceville City Hall.

Help is on the way

Alabama has sent rescue teams from six more cities to help find people still missing from the July 4th floods in Texas.

Emergency responders from fire departments in Mountain Brook, Hoover, Guntersville, Vestavia Hills, Decatur and Fort Payne left for Texas on Saturday. They include two swift water teams specially trained and equipped to operate in large-scale flood zones.

The July 4th flooding along the Guadalupe River in the Texas Hill Country has claimed at least 132 lives, including members of at least two families in Alabama.

Key endorsement

Jay Mitchell, who resigned from the Alabama Supreme Court to run for attorney general, got a boost to his campaign on Monday.

Progress PAC, the political action committee of the Business Council of Alabama, endorsed Mitchell.

He faces Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey and Katherine Robertson, chief counsel for Attorney General Steve Marshall, in the Republican primary.

The race is to succeed Attorney General Steve Marshall, who has held the office since 2017. Marshall is running for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor.

Return of the GOAT?

SEC Media Days is underway in Atlanta, and major headlines are already making the rounds.

Former Crimson Tide quarterback and ESPN media personality Greg McElroy swirled speculation Monday morning, sparking a fuse that ignited into the story of the day.

During his show Monday, the former Alabama quarterback hinted that Nick Saban could return to coaching. Unsurprisingly, word spread quickly and much of the morning was spent by media and even some fellow coaches discussing the possibility of a Saban return.

As the story grew legs, McElroy was asked about it on the SEC Network later Monday morning. He tried to explain he didn’t think Saban would return to coaching but was simply relaying the fact that somebody important told him this.

It was dismissed by almost everyone who discussed it — even by the former QB who launched it — but it still dominated the day.

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We evaluate the subject in two ways: content and form. Someone might mean well but express themselves awkwardly, poorly or without skill, so their message gets lost or misunderstood. Reconsider them. It’s better than someone who says all the right things in a smooth, beautiful, strategic way, but without heart, which is a red flag of selfish intent.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). Big personalities, bold branding, flashy results — these get attention, but it doesn’t have to come from you. Pause before you buy into the hype. Is what you’re witnessing actually admirable or just familiar, expensive or loud?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). There is no benefit to giving too much, especially if you’re giving it to the wrong people. Give to those who need the offering. Give the amount they need. That’s how your energy uplifts. The exchange leaves everyone stronger.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You’ve hit the edge of the map, the place where comfort turns into a loop. This is a tricky place. This is where reflections warp. It is a risk to go beyond the map, but you need to in order to get a healthy and realistic perspective on things. Step out.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). You inspire trust without forcing it, spark motivation without theatrics. You’re a master of collaboration because you exude kindness and openness, which becomes its own atmosphere where people naturally offer their best. Whether or not you’re in charge, you’re leading.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Admiration will feel electric. It’s a mirror, really, because you’re drawn to someone’s qualities out of recognition. The boldness, sensitivity, brilliance and humor are inside you. Even if undeveloped, dormant or hidden under fear, there’s something in you that wants to rise.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You’ll shine in different versions of yourself depending on who you’re with. What once felt false now feels generous — adapting to others is often the kindest move. Your ease in setting ego aside is a quiet mark of your emotional sophistication.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). The whole purpose of a project is to have fun — at least it was. You can get back to that. Remember the origin of the journey. Refuse to let anything get in the way of that spark. The joy wants you to chase it, but it will also let you catch it.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’re so tender and clear today — threading through the work, stresses, sweetness, insight and a bit of longing, with the kind of presence that’s realer than real. You’re up, you’re working, you’re loving, you’re here.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You’ll be part of a conversation that alters your course. Someone who once challenged your sense of self will now affirm your growth. Eventually, you’ll turn this personal win into a success that affects many others.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). The very thought of a certain person — the one who is a playmate of the soul — will animate your imagination with sweetness. Yes, it comes in an odd form. You can deal with dynamics that are a little lopsided, incomplete or strange. It could be even better this way.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). The one who preaches from a mountaintop will get agreement during the sermon, but will have very little effect on daily life and all the behavior that goes into it. The one who’s connecting eye to eye has far more influence over actual events.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Fixating on a specific form of success can create unnecessary suffering. Open your mind to opportunities that don’t match your mental image but have the potential to become a source of belonging, stability and joy.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (July 15). A year of doing things the easy way, with excellent timing and uncanny luck, soon to reach a goal that once felt way out of your league. People will take their cues from your energy — levity and brevity are the magic pairing for optimal fun. More highlights: Friends are the gift that keeps giving. You’ll help someone in a way that changes your life, too. You’ll earn trust and rise in your field. Aquarius and Capricorn adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 12, 10, 50, 33 and 19.

CELEBRITY PROFILES: Arianna Huffington channels the nurturing, visionary essence of Cancer into bold leadership and cultural transformation. As the founder of The Huffington Post and Thrive Global, she turned personal burnout into a mission to heal the world — classic Cancerian alchemy. Protective of human potential, she advocates for rest, mindfulness and emotional well-being with maternal fervor. Cancers are homemakers in every sense, and Huffington has built platforms that feel like refuge in a chaotic digital age.

Holiday Mathis’ debut novel, “How To Fail Epically in Hollywood,” is out now! This fast-paced romp about achieving Hollywood stardom is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit creatorspublishing.com for more information. Write Holiday Mathis at HolidayMathis.com.

Auburn star point guard Tahaad Pettiford was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence (alcohol) early Saturday morning, an incident that elicited statements from head coach Bruce Pearl and Pettiford himself.

Pettiford posted a long statement to his Instagram story late Saturday night, apologizing for the arrest and taking ownership of the situation.

While speaking to reporters at an AMBUSH event in Atlanta on Monday, athletic director John Cohen praised Pettiford for his statement and said that he spoke with Pettiford early Monday morning.

“I had a great conversation with Tahaad at 6:45 a.m. this morning, and I think he’s a wonderful kid,” Cohen said. “Not going to pretend to be a lawyer, and I’m not going to pretend to know everything that happened, but I do know this: Tahaad Pettiford is a great young man who comes from a great family, and if indeed he made mistakes, I think everybody in this room at one point was 19 years old.

“I‘m not 100% sure what the mistakes he made or he didn’t make. We’re going to find more out, but I looked into his eyes and said, ‘You have a great future ahead of you, because you’re going to do the right things always from this point on and Auburn loves you, don’t forget that Auburn loves you.’”

Pettiford announced his return to Auburn in late May after initially declaring for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility. Pearl didn’t specify if there’d be specific consequences for Pettiford, saying Auburn will “handle internally with Tahaad and his family.”

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

Auburn’s roster building and NIL strategies since the House Settlement was passed have been under a microscope this summer.

The Tigers’ 2026 recruiting class has plummeted in the national rankings since June, a drop highlighted by four players decommitting. Head coach Hugh Freeze and athletic director John Cohen both attributed the recent struggles to Auburn’s adjustment to the new revenue sharing era and the program’s strategy for preserving the current roster and staying under the cap.

Both Freeze and Cohen have emphasized that they don’t believe other schools are operating by the same rules as Auburn, something they think could change on Aug. 1, when offers can start going into writing.

Each athletic department operates under the rev-share cap of $20.5 million, but third-party NIL deals don’t count against the cap. The Deloitte NIL GO clearinghouse was introduced to vet NIL deals, in theory eliminating the large pay-for-play deals often handed out by booster collectives.

Those deals aren’t necessarily illegal now, but money that comes from the University or an affiliate — deals that aren’t third-party — would count against the cap. The clearinghouse is still in the early stages, but Freeze and Cohen gave some insight on how it has affected Auburn so far.

“Truthfully, we haven’t had that many in the football building yet that we’ve gotten the word back on,” Freeze said at an AMBUSH event in Atlanta on Monday.

With things still being in the early stages, Freeze avoided giving an extensive comment on Auburn’s deals through NIL GO, deferring to Cohen. However, he did use it as an example of why he thinks Auburn’s rev-share and NIL strategies are the right ones.

Freeze made the point that if players who have already been in college and proven themselves have had trouble getting deals approved or agreeing on a value through the clearinghouse, he doesn’t want to promise large numbers to high school recruits.

Cohen elaborated more on Auburn’s experience with NIL GO so far, saying that it’s “a little hit or miss right now.”

“You’re convinced that something that a businessperson in the business community put through is gonna go through and sail through, and it doesn’t,” Cohen said. “And then you’re convinced that something that something everybody else puts in probably isn’t going to go through, and it does. But I think we’re all going to go through this learning experience.”

Cohen said that if information from the SEC and Deloitte suggests that Auburn is taking the wrong approach, the program will adjust, emphasizing the time still left between now and the early signing period in December.

He was asked specifically if Auburn had the funding and support from its boosters to adjust and strike quickly if the landscape changes, to which Cohen said Auburn will “do what it takes.”

Despite Auburn’s low position in the recruiting rankings, Cohen is still confident in how the 2026 class will finish, praising Freeze’s ability as a recruiter.

“You can’t confuse patience with inactivity. This man, who was just sitting right here, is as active a recruiter as any coach I’ve ever seen in any sport,” Cohen said. “I just spent two hours in a car with him, and he was called by seven different recruits. They called him. That’s the kind of relationship he has with recruits…

“There are staffs out there in which the head coach really isn’t part of that process, that there’s a separate group. Not Hugh Freeze, he’s personally in the middle of it, and it takes a lot of time, but no matter what he’s doing at that moment, he stops everything in his life to talk to those recruits and to talk to their families.”

Time will ultimately tell whether or not Auburn’s approach will work, but for now, neither Cohen or Freeze is backing away from their strategy yet.

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