“Georgia develops linebackers,” Toodle told me Wednesday during an appearance on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5. “I felt like it was the best decision for me.”
Toodle, who committed to Auburn last July, flipped on Sunday. He still has a soft spot in his heart for the Tigers.
“It was the relationships with the coaches and the staff,” Toodle said of Auburn. “How they included me in different things, and how they wanted me to recruit other guys.
“I just felt like that wasn’t going to get me to the NFL in the long run. I felt like the development at Georgia was better.”
He added Freeze reached out, via text, to wish him well.
As you would expect, he heard from fans on both sides of the recruiting battle, and the comments were about what you would think.
“I received a lot of hate comments from Auburn, but it’s still love to Auburn and the fan base,” Toodle explained. “I just got a lot of love from Georgia, welcoming me into their home.”
Toodle pointed to the relationship with Georgia players, as well as being developed as a player for reasons for the flip. He re-iterated he’s a Bulldog.
“I feel like I took all the visits,” he said. “I’m locked in with Georgia. I’m ready to start recruiting other guys to Georgia.”
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.
State Rep. Matt Woods, a Republican from Walker County, is moving up to the Senate after winning a special election on Tuesday.
Woods defeated Democrat Ryan Cagle in a special election in Senate District 5, which includes Walker, Lamar, and Fayette counties, and parts of Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties.
State Rep. Barbara Drummond’s campaign for Mobile mayor is about to get a major boost with key endorsements.
Former Mobile City Councilman Jermaine Burrell and former Mobile Police Chief and Public Safety Director Lawrence Battiste, both of whom exited the mayoral race just before the qualifying deadline, are set to endorse Drummond at a news conference scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at Government Plaza.
Drummond is now the only Black candidate on the ballot. This gives her a chance to consolidate a key voting bloc in a city where 47.5% of the voting age population is Black, compared to 46.1% white, following a 2023 redistricting.
Burrell and Battiste were the only other Black candidates to enter the race before stepping aside on the final day of qualifying, which was Tuesday.
The final list of qualified candidates, posted by the Mobile City Clerk, includes Drummond, former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis, Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson, and former Police Chief Paul Prine.
Cheriogotis, endorsed by outgoing Mayor Sandy Stimpson, has built a formidable financial lead, raising more than $845,000 since January. That’s nearly half of the $1.86 million raised collectively by all candidates through the end of May. Hudson also launched her campaign early and has remained competitive in the fundraising race.
Alabama’s municipal elections are set for Aug. 26. A runoff, if no candidate captures more than 50% of the vote, is scheduled for Sept. 23.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., has joined a War Powers Resolution to order the removal of U.S. Armed Forces hostilities against Iran absent congressional authorization.
“Our War Powers Resolution orders the removal of our Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran, while allowing our troops to defend our nation and our allies from imminent attack,” Sewell wrote in a recent release.
This comes in response to the President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a classified briefing for members of Congress on its unilateral military action in Iran, according to the release.
“First, President Trump blatantly ignored the Constitution by taking offensive military action without congressional approval.,” Sewell wrote.
“Now, his administration is refusing to come before Congress and provide answers.”
The resolution was introduced Monday by Reps. Jim Himes, Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Adam Smith, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“The American people deserve to know—at the very least—what his strategy is, how he plans to keep our service members safe, and what steps are being taken to de-escalate this conflict,” Sewell wrote.
“For President Trump to withhold that information is unthinkable and suggests that he has no coherent plan.”
In perhaps the loneliest of all sports – running – The Huntsville Times Male Athlete of the Year Eric Moore excelled the most when he was helping his team.
Huntsville High School cross country coach Blake Borden said the “biggest driving force behind Eric’s success is that he’s motivated by team success.”
Moore, who will run for the University of Virginia next fall, leaves the Crimson Panthers as a three-time first-team All-State selection, the 2024 Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 7A cross country state champion, the 2024-25 Gatorade Alabama Boys Cross Country Player of the Year and his school’s record-holder in the 5K, the 2-mile run, the mile run and the 800-meter run.
His 14:52.81 finish in the ’24 cross country state championships led his team to its ninth title and fifth of the past seven. In the 2025 outdoor track 7A state meet, Moore anchored Huntsville to a championship in the 4×800-meter relay.
“Whenever the team is relying on him, that’s him at his best,” Borden said. “The four best races of his career were all cross country races where the team was relying on him to be the No. 1 guy. In indoor or outdoor track, it’s been the relay races.
“There’s a lot to unpack when you’re talking about Eric. Obviously, his accolades speak for his talent. A lot of coaches use it as a cliché, but really and truly he is the most humble kid I’ve ever coached at his level,” said the coach, who is entering his 10th year at Huntsville with five titles and three runner-up finishes in cross country. “There are probably four or five guys in the same ballpark talent-wise, although he’s probably a little above the others, but he is super humble. He’s always been very coachable and a team-first guy.”
The 5-foot-8, 120-pound Moore was also named the High School Boys Athlete of the Year in the Rocket City Awards. He earned a 4.04 weighted grade point average, was a member of the National Honor Society and volunteered at the First Baptist Church and with the Huntsville Track Club.
Moore’s cross country title win was the fourth-fastest finish in AHSAA state championships history. He also had the best time for an Alabama runner in the Great American XC Festival to finish sixth and seventh in the NXN Southeast Regional.
“Eric is the epitome of what our program is,” Borden said. “You can see a little more out of an individual in cross country than you can in indoor or outdoor track. The question comes up a lot from coaches around the state, ‘How are you getting them to do that well in cross country and not quite as well in track?’ I just kind of boil it down to when team success is on the line, they give a bit more.”
Borden said Moore and three teammates have competed in the New Balance Nationals for the past three years. In the medley distance relay – where the first leg is a 1,200-meter run, followed by 400-meter leg, an 800-meter run and then a mile run final leg – Moore ran the anchor position.
“According to my research,” he said, “in the spring of 2024, they had the fastest DMR time in state history for high schools. Maybe there was a team in the 1970s or ’80s that I can’t find, but since the ’90s there hadn’t been a faster DMR time.
“This year, Vestavia Hills ran a second faster than that, right before my guys went to New Balance in Boston and ran 10 seconds faster. Eric anchored with a 4:07 mile outdoors, the fastest he’s ever run. They were third in the nationals, a second behind winning the national championship. That’s what a relay can bring out. Eric was in 11th place when he got the baton and he got them up to third.”
Borden said he expects Moore to continue to excel at UVA. “Eric’s going to a great program led by a legend in the sport in coach Vin Lananna. He has a history of national championships at Stanford (five) and Oregon (six). Obviously, it’s an incredible academic school.
“For the first time since he was probably 14 years old, Eric’s not going to be the best guy on his team,” Borden said. “That will be really, really interesting and what he needs. At end of his career here, he was without a teammate who could push him in practice. To see that kind of improvement where in a lot of workouts he’s flying solo was incredible. He’s just that phenomenal of a runner.
“If he gets in the right situation with the right teammates where he’s really challenged, he could do some special things.”
The 2025 WNBA season continues this week with another slate of solid games. A heavyweight battle is set to take place on Friday, with the Minnesota Lynx heading to Atlanta to take on the Dream.
It’s no surprise that the Lynx remain among the league’s best teams. Coming out of the weekend, they’re 12-1 and hold the best record in the WNBA. MVP frontrunner Napheesa Collier has been on an absolute tear, averaging just under 25 points and nine rebounds per game.
The Dream have been surprisingly good thanks to the help of a few key veterans. Atlanta boasts a solid core of Allisha Gray (20 ppg), Rhyne Howard (17 ppg) and Brionna Jones (13 ppg). Rookie guard Te-Hina Pao Pao is also giving them solid minutes off the bench.
Fans looking to tune into the Lynx vs Dream game can do so on Fubo, who’s offering a free trial to new subscribers.
Here’s everything you need to know before the Lynx and Dream tipoff:
When: Friday, June 27, 2025
Where: Gateway Center Arena at College Park, Atlanta, GA
Time: 7:30 p.m. E.T.
Fans looking to tune into the Lynx vs Dream game can do so on Fubo, who’s offering a free trial to new subscribers.
U.S. President Donald Trump disputed an intelligence report that found the airstrikes he ordered on Iran had only a limited impact on its nuclear program, even though the assessment came from the Pentagon.
“The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed,” Trump said on Truth Social. He said CNN and the New York Times, which first reported the intelligence findings on Tuesday, “have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history.”
Later, speaking to reporters at a NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday, he said the report was “very inconclusive” but that he still believed the sites were demolished.
“The intelligence says we don’t know,” he said. “It could have been very severe. That’s what the intelligence says. So I guess that’s correct, but I think we can take that we don’t know. It was very severe. It was obliteration.”
He also suggested Israel would soon be able to give a firm assessment because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “going to have people involved in that whole situation.”
The assessment from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency said the bombing on June 22 likely didn’t cripple the core components of Iran’s program below ground, including its centrifuges, according to people familiar with its contents. The findings are in line with open-source satellite imagery that shows new craters, possible collapsed tunnel entrances and holes on top of a mountain ridge but no conclusive evidence the attack breached the most heavily protected underground facilities.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has backed Trump’s viewpoint on the success of the strikes in Iran. He said the Pentagon’s report was “preliminary” and “low confidence,” adding that the leak would be investigated.
Trump had said the strikes — on atomic sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan — “totally obliterated” their targets, and dismissed reports casting doubt on the claim. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X Tuesday that the intelligence finding of limited impact was “flat-out wrong.”
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, appeared on Fox News Tuesday night and described the reports as “completely preposterous.”
The head of Israel’s military, Eyal Zamir, late on Tuesday said the assaults on Iran had set back its nuclear and missile projects by years. Still, the Pentagon assessment was backed up to some extent by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Its chief, Rafael Grossi, told Fox News that while Iran’s atomic program “has been set back significantly,” it’s hard to specify whether that means months or years.
Trump brokered a ceasefire to end the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran that appeared to be holding on Wednesday. The president had lashed out at both countries Tuesday, and particularly Israel, over what he said were early violations of the truce. Both nations have said they’ll honor the ceasefire provided their enemy does the same.
The de-escalation triggered a slump in oil prices — erasing almost all of its increase since the conflict broke out.
Still, the ceasefire remains fragile as the focus shifts back to nuclear diplomacy. A stated goal of the American and Israeli strikes was to destroy Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon, adding urgency to assessments of how much damage was done.
Witkoff, who told Fox it would be almost impossible for Iran to resurrect its nuclear program, said he was already speaking with the country’s officials about restarting formal negotiations. The talks so far have been promising, he said.
The IAEA’s Grossi said inspections by the United Nations atomic watchdog should resume “as soon as possible” to determine what’s happened to Iran’s stocks of uranium enriched to 60% levels, not far short of the 90% required to build a bomb. The IAEA says it last verified those inventories a few days before Israel’s attacks on Iran started on June 13, and their whereabouts is now unknown.
The DIA’s report found considerable damage on the surface at the nuclear sites, with the U.S. strikes likely to have set Iran’s program back by several months to as much as a year, according to a person briefed on the report’s contents. The assessment has been shared with House and Senate leadership.
Before the strikes, Trump had said Iran was “weeks away” from having a nuclear bomb, though some experts and U.S. intelligence estimates said it could take months or years for the nation to develop a weapon.
The U.S. strikes involved dropping more than a dozen 30,000-pound so-called bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear sites, their first use in combat, according to the Pentagon. Tomahawk missiles were also fired from a U.S. Ohio-class submarine in the Arabian Sea.
Before Israel’s attack on Iran, the U.S. had held five rounds of negotiations with the Islamic Republic, seeking a diplomatic solution to concerns over its nuclear program — effectively a replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal that Trump abandoned during his first term. An agreement hadn’t been reached, though a sixth round was scheduled before the Israeli missiles led to Iran canceling it.
Tehran has insisted on its rights under international law to enrich uranium for civilian purposes such as fueling nuclear power plants. In calls with regional counterparts reported by state media on Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian appeared to reiterate that stance. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is solely pursuing its legitimate rights and has no ambitions beyond that,” he told UAE officials.
In Iran, 606 people were killed by Israeli strikes, according to the government. Israeli emergency services said 28 people were killed by Iranian missiles, including four on Tuesday morning just as the truce was about to start.
Israeli authorities said Tuesday that wartime safety directives had been lifted. Netanyahu told the nation that immediate threats from Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles had been eliminated — though his military chief, Zamir, cautioned that “the campaign against Iran is not over.”
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—With assistance from Akayla Gardner, Maeve Sheehey, Erik Wasson, Courtney McBride, Rosalind Mathieson and Stephanie Lai.
One “yes” changed Dante’ Pride’s life. Nine months or so ago, a clip of gospel music legend Lisa Page Brooks singing the phrase “the Devil is a liar” went viral. Pride, a Christian hip-hop artist from Alabama, kept seeing the video on social media.
Pride normally focuses on songwriting and rapping, but one night last October while sitting on the couch, he got inspired to do some music production. He went into his home studio and added drums, rapping and other elements to the “Devil is a liar” vid.
“After I posted a snippet on social media, within 24 hours it went crazy,” Pride tells me during a recent video call. “People were creating TikToks, Instagram reels to them, Facebook videos. People were literally like begging, like, can we get a full song?”
Pride connected with Brooks’ daughter on Instagram. He messaged her about the interest in his snippet and asked if it would be OK to release a full version.
She messaged back that she’d check with her mom and see what they could work out. Brooks released an original version and gave permission for Pride to drop his hip-hop version as a follow-up.
“When I released it, that song went everywhere,” Pride says. “And so that song right now, we have like 3.9 million streams,” across all streaming services.
In November, “Overflow,” a track on the gospel group Transformation Worship’s album “Undefeated” featuring Pride and fellow Christian rappers Caleb Gordan, dropped. That album topped Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart.
More than a decade into his music career, Pride was now getting interest from major labels. He had his heart set on Capitol Records, home of legends like Frank Sinatra, Beach Boys and the Beatles and current stars Ice Spice and Katy Perry. “It’s a super dope house, man,” Pride says. “They get down to the business, but it definitely seems family-oriented.”
Capitol told him they loved what he was doing. Alas, the label also said they weren’t looking to sign another Christian hip-hop artist at the moment, Pride says.
But a little later, a vice-president at Capitol reached out to Pride and said he’d had an epiphany while at the beach that he needed to sign him, Pride says. Capitol, via their Motown Records/Tamla Records arm, signed Pride at their Nashville offices.
“And so literally, that’s how it happened,” he says. “It’s just been surreal, man, being able to sign with Capitol along with Tamla because of how much of a historical weight Tamla has.”
Back in the 1960s and early ‘70s, artists like the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Steve Wonder and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles had hit singles on Tamla.
Pride’s first Capitol/Tamla single was “My Praise.” His lyrics on the track reflect gratitude to his God. He says, “I’ve been a starving artist before, jumping from job to job and things of that nature. And during that time when I wrote ‘My Praise,’ I was in a situation where things were starting to turn around.
“Because one thing that I’ve noticed is, like, whether it was times that I was down, broke, didn’t have much money or anything, God is good, or where things are turning around and I’m on the mountaintop, he’s still good.”
He’s slotted as a Christian rapper. But more accurately, Pride’s a gospel rapper. That gospel root gives his music an organic feel, innocence and joy, in my opinion, lacking in a lot of current mainstream hip-hop and modern popular music in general.
It’s never overstuffed or synthetic sounding or careerist-calculating, either. To paraphrase the great blues and rock singer/guitarist Eric Clapton, it’s not just what you play, it’s what you don’t play. Pride gets that.
Finger wagging or brow-beating aren’t part of Pride’s faith-based hip-hop. For example, his lyrics on bouncy cut “Test Him Out.” Pride says, “I’m just telling you how what I’ve experienced. So it’s like, yo, like, just test Him out for yourself. He’s brought me out of anxiety, brought me out of depression, so that was just a fun song just to encourage people.”
That’s another thing about Pride’s music that defies contemporary Christian cliches. It doesn’t sound apologetic or submissive. It sounds fun.
Alabama-born Christian rapper Dante’ Pride. (Courtesy Isaiah Young)Isaiah Young
Pride was born in Decatur, Alabama and grew up a preacher’s son. His dad was pastor at a Baptist church in Courtland, where Pride’s uncle played drums and his aunt played keyboards in the church band. Pride sang in the children’s choir.
When his dad moved to a church in Hartselle, Pride played drums in that church’s band. “That’s where my love for music really developed within was in the church,” he says.
Pride thought his fate would be playing traditional gospel music. Then, when he was in second grade, his uncle turned him on to the music of Christian rapper Canton Jones, while they were on a car ride.
“I was the back seat and listening to the beat,” Pride recalls. “I was like, this can’t be Christian music, but he’s saying ‘Jesus.’ And ever since then it changed my perspective. I had a paradigm shift after that.”
Soon after, he was writing down Christian-inspired rap lyrics in a composition notebook.
He draws from secular rappers too, especially Kendrick Lamar. “I like Kendrick Lamar,” Pride says, “because when you can hear a record and you can just feel the expression. It’s not just a track. I listen to that, and I feel what he’s saying — you’re taking me through a journey.”
“Wooten has been just a mentor in my life,” Pride says. “Not only just the music, but also as a man of faith, man, as a man of God.”
Pride says it was important to him to make a mark in music while still in Alabama.
He says, “For the past three years, I had always said, God if I ever was to do something big in music, let it be in Alabama. Because so many people feel like they got to leave the great state of Alabama in order to do something monumental in music. I want people to know that they don’t have to go anywhere in order to be successful.”
Christian rapper Dante’ Pride with wife Loreal Pride at Capitol Records’ Nashville office. (Courtesy Kent Ballard)Kent Ballard
The day he signed with Capitol in Nashville, Pride got an offer to become the youth pastor at a church in Atlanta. He says, “God was like, hey, Dante, I honored your request. You wanted to sign while you were here in Alabama, and now I’m moving you on to the next thing.”
Pride and his wife, Loreal Pride, now reside in Atlanta. He checks in for this interview from his office at his church there. He still makes regular visits to North Alabama though. His fave haunts there include Huntsville chicken hotpot Bo’s Best Wings and Madison brunch/coffee jam Lux BRū Café.
Besides faith, family and music, Pride’s interests include Los Angeles Lakers basketball and Dallas Cowboys football. He also loves playing videogames like “Fortnite.”
On July 12, Pride’s returning to Huntsville for “We Outside,” a free concert at Dream Theatre, the third time he’s put on “We Outside.” He’s got a sinuous new single too. Released June 20, “No Problem” boasts a hot guest spot from female rapper Porsha Love.
Even if you’re an atheist or rockist, the soul and musicality in Pride’s gospel rap is undeniable. After listening to it, you feel better than you did before.
“If it’s going to be Christian hip hop,” Pride says, “I believe that people should feel something when they hear it. A lot of times people feel like because you’re doing it for God, anything will just work. And I feel like because of the fact that you’re doing it for God, it should be even more excellent.”
Tropical Storm Andrea has dissipated after holding its title less than 24 hours, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Forecasters said Andrea, which on Tuesday became the first named storm of 2025 in the Atlantic, degenerated to a remnant low late Tuesday night.
At its peak Andrea was a weak tropical storm with top sustained winds of 40 mph.
It developed deep in the central Atlantic and never threatened land.
Andrea was statistically a bit late for the first named storm of the season, which typically forms around June 20.
However June and most of July are usually quiet in the Atlantic Basin, which includes the Gulf and Caribbean.
The hurricane center as of Wednesday morning said no other tropical storms were expected to develop in the next seven days.
NOAA forecasters are expecting the season to eventually be an active one, however. Forecasters expect an above-average number of storms to develop before the season ends on Nov. 30.
Here’s the outlook for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which began on June 1.NOAA
A teen accused of fatally stabbing another student at a Texas track meet earlier this year has been indicted on a murder charge, Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis confirmed.
Willis said a grand jury handed up the indictment Tuesday against Karmelo Anthony, 17. Police say Anthony killed Austin Metcalf, also 17, on April 2 at the District 11-5A track meet at David Kuykendall Stadium. Anthony has said he acted in self-defense.
In a news release, Willis said the indictment will allow the case to move “formally into the court system,” adding a trial schedule has not yet been set.
“We know this case has struck a deep nerve — here in Collin County and beyond,“ he said. ”That’s understandable. When something like this happens at a school event, it shakes people to the core.
“But the justice system works best when it moves with steadiness and with principle. That’s what we’re committed to. And that’s exactly what this case deserves.”
In a video statement sent to The Dallas Morning News, Anthony’s attorney, Mike Howard, called the indictment “an expected and routine step in the legal process.”
“Please remember that there are real human beings — kids — on both sides of this case,” Howard said. “We ask that everyone do as the law requires and withhold judgement until all the evidence can be heard in court.”
He continued: “We are confident that when all of the facts are presented and the full story is heard, the jury will reach the right conclusion and justice will be done.”
According to an arrest-warrant affidavit, Anthony was waiting out a weather delay under a tent designated for Frisco Memorial High School students — where Metcalf attended school — when Metcalf told him to move.
Anthony, who was a student at Frisco Centennial High School, allegedly reached inside his bag and said “Touch me and see what happens,” the affidavit said. Metcalf then touched him, to which Anthony replied, “Punch me and see what happens.”
According to the report, Metcalf grabbed Anthony and again told him to move when Anthony pulled out a knife, stabbed Metcalf once in the chest and ran.
Anthony later told responding officers at the scene “He put his hands on me, I told him not to,” according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said Anthony also asked if Metcalf was going to be OK. Metcalf was pronounced dead at a hospital less than an hour after the stabbing.
Anthony has been on house arrest with an ankle monitor since late April, when his bond was significantly reduced from $1 million to $250,000, allowing for his release from jail.
The case, which drew national attention on social media, has caused security concerns for both families. The homes of Metcalf’s parents have been swatted repeatedly, while Anthony’s family said they had to move for their safety.
Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, previously told The News he feels for the family of the alleged assailant, because “his life is over, his family will be devastated also.”
Jeff described his son to be not only an all-district linebacker and the Memorial football team’s MVP, but a member of the National Honor Society with a 4.0 GPA. He dreamed of playing college ball.
