Alabama News

Data centers are key to pushing Alabama’s economy forward, a state lawmaker told the city council in Bessemer on Tuesday.

Just not in this part of the state.

“While I understand the importance of economic growth and technology infrastructure, this facility would be located directly behind 14 residential properties,” said state Rep. Leigh Hulsey whose district includes parts of Bessemer and McCalla. “Families that do not live in the city limits and obviously therefore do not have a vote nor feel like they have a voice. But they are absolutely going to bear the brunt of the impact of this project.”

The plan to develop a $14 billion data center campus in the rural community southwest of Birmingham hit a snag Tuesday morning.

The Bessemer City Council postponed their vote on rezoning nearly 700 acres of mostly timber to make way for 18 data center buildings that would be developed by Logistics Land Investment, LLC.

“This will be considered at the next meeting,” said Donna Thigpen, the city council president. “It will not be voted on today.”

The decision was met with applause. Roughly 60 people attended the crowded meeting inside Bessemer City Hall, as many opponents wore red shirts and held signs that read “Vote No.” More attendees spilled out into the lobby, waiting for the fire department to allow them to enter and speak during the hearing. The meeting was not livestreamed or broadcast outside the hearing room.

The council voted 6-1 to postpone their decision after a hearing that lasted roughly an hour and a half, including comments from a slew of residents urging the council to vote against the rezoning or at least wait for more information on the development.

Jimmie Stephens, the president of the Jefferson County Commission who lives in Bessemer, was among them. He said he would vote against any tax breaks that may come before the county commission if the project is approved. He urged the city council to do the same.

“This isn’t about the environmental, you’re not going to pay any attention to that,” he told the council. “This is about the money. This is about the tax revenue that’s been laid before the city of Bessemer that you’re depending on, that you’re looking forward to.”

Representatives for the developer and residents opposing the project sparred over the facts of the project during the hearing. Posters inside the council chambers and outside in the lobby listed: “Let’s Talk Facts: Data Centers Don’t Cause Cancer” with bullet points about data center development.

“You’re going to hear a lot of things that simply are not facts,” said Brad Kaaber, a representative from Logistics Land Investment, LLC, at the start of Tuesday’s hearing.

Kaaber and Martin Evans, a Birmingham attorney representing the developer, declined to comment after the hearing.

In June, the data center project came before the city’s planning and zoning commission for a second time after their initial approval provoked a lawsuit by a few residents. That vote of approval was only a recommendation to the council, but a vote of approval from the city council would formally allow the project to move forward.

Eric Pippens, a Bessemer resident, told the city council that he’s concerned about his utility bills going up and whether rezoning the community now will attract more development in the future.

“This project may benefit an outside corporation, but it will come at the direct expense of the families who live here,” he said. “We have decades of people here that have lived in this community with no bother.”

Evans told the council that all they needed to weigh in on was whether the project would benefit Bessemer.

“This project is going to take a large piece of vacant land close to the interstate and put it to an extremely productive use, which will create jobs, be a catalyst for the local economy, and provide tremendous tax benefits to the city,” Evans said.

The proposed data center would include 18 buildings, each about 250,000 square feet, on rural land owned by a timber land property owner on Rock Mountain Lake Road, the Birmingham Business Journal reported. The developer is proposing the $14 billion project as a 4.5 million-square-foot campus, BBJ reported.

It would take roughly eight years to build in several phases, Kaaber said. He denied that the project will impact streams, wetlands or fish, citing environmental studies that the company has done.

In April, three locals sued the city, alleging officials didn’t provide the proper public notice about the rezoning. They also raised concerns about Bessemer Mayor Kenneth Gulley saying he signed a non-disclosure agreement and couldn’t discuss the project with the public. Shan Paden, an attorney for Bessemer, told AL.com at the time that the city never violated the law and provided adequate public notice.

But then the city restarted the public hearing process. There haven’t been any updates in the lawsuit since April, according to the court docket.

Data centers are a growing industry, seeking to keep up with an increase in cloud computing demands. But they’re newer to Alabama, as the industry is picking up speed here in more rural parts of the state as well as Huntsville, Montgomery and Birmingham.

Tennessee endured a tumultuous offseason at quarterback, a situation that has not resolved itself as the 2025 season approaches.

Returning starter Nico Iamaleava abruptly left the team on the eve of the spring game due a reported NIL dispute, and eventually transferred to UCLA. The former five-star recruit’s departure was one of the stories of the offseason in college football, an ugly split that appeared to be all about money.

Iamaleava skipped Tennessee’s practice on Friday, April 11, the day before the team’s Orange and White spring game. Head coach Josh Heupel announced the following day that Tennessee was “moving on from” Iamaleava, and elaborated on the situation during his appearance at SEC Media Days in Atlanta on Tuesday.

“Our football team, they cared about Nico,” Heupel said on the set of SEC Now. “Nico’s going to be a great player and he’s going to have a great career. I love Nico. It was hard for the players in that moment, but in leadership of any kind, having clear, consistent transparent communication and also timely, in that it allows your people to handle it the best that they can.

“It’s quarterback, it’s unique in some way, but you’ve got to have a ‘next man up’ mentality. It’s going to happen to every team in college football across the landscape of the season. Quarterback’s no different in that way. Our guys have handled the change, transition — whatever you want to call it, in a very positive way. Outside noise, you try not pay to much attention to it. Expectations may have changed from outside the building after that moment, bu they haven’t changed inside the locker room.”

Heupel said earlier Tuesday that his team’s quarterback competition remains a three-way battle between redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger, true freshman George McIntyre and transfer Joey Aguilar — a former starter at Appalachian State who, ironically, spent the spring at UCLA before leaving just as Iamaleava arrived. Heupel said he’s confident his team will continue to succeed behind whomever emerges at the position.

“The three guys inside that room, I’m really proud of what they’ve done,” said Heupel, who is 37-15 in four seasons at Tennessee. “Joey, since he got there in May, Merklinger and George McIntyre, what those two guys have done since they’ve been on campus … I’m really proud of the steps that they’ve taken through the summer in developing relationships, rapport with the guys around them, their ability to compete in a positive way with each other in the meeting room.

“On the field, their ability to have leadership traits and to continue to grow in that, and I’m really excited about getting on the field with those guys. We’ve found a way to win with a lot of different quarterbacks throughout my career on the offensive side of the ball, and we’re going to find a way to win with the guy that earns the starting spot as we go through training camp here in August.”

Tennessee’s two holdover quarterbacks were both four-star recruits out of high school, Merklinger in 2024 and MacIntyre this past winter. Merklinger appeared in two games while redshirting last season, completing six of nine passes for 48 yards.

His late arrival in Knoxville notwithstanding, Aguilar has by far the most experience at the college level. He was a two-year starter at Appalachian State, was Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year in 2023 and has totaled 6,760 yards and 56 touchdowns passing the last two seasons.

“We took him through our spring installs once he was there on campus; he got a chance to digest those things,” Heupel said. “You get into summer, you’re able to kind of repeat some of those things. He’s continued to grow in his understanding of what we’re doing and also the verbiage that we’re using, maybe identifying defensive structures. There’s so many nuances that go into it to having clear communication in the meeting room, on the practice field, and then ultimately on game day as well.

“So is it an accelerated process? Absolutely. But I think any time you have a guy that’s played a lot of football and sat in college meeting rooms offensively, he’s been able to be a part of different things, he’s able to draw on those experiences, correlate it to something that maybe he’s done before, and kind of expedite the growth process as well.”

Arch Manning certainly is one of the biggest attractions of Day 2 of SEC Media Days in Atlanta.

The Texas quarterback, of course, knew he would be in the limelight. The nephew of NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning got a piece of advice from his grandfather, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, ahead of his meeting with the media.

“My grandfather told to keep it short and sweet and be thoughtful,” Arch Manning. “So, here we are.”

The New Orleans native said Archie Manning makes it a habit of texting his grandchildren daily.

“Life advice,” Arch Manning said about what his grandfather texts. “He texts all the grandkids every morning a Bible verse, a motivational text. I hear a lot from him.”

At times, he said, the elder Manning with send a group text. Sometimes, he’ll get a private text.

The Manning family is similar to most in that they can only laugh at the generation gaps when it comes to technology.

“He signs off his name,” Arch Manning said of Archie. “I’m like, ‘I know it’s you.’”

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.

An Alabama state senator wants to pass a state law to tighten up what people can buy through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan, the food assistance program formerly known as food stamps.

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, has a bill intended to prohibit buying sodas and candy with SNAP.

Orr said it is harmful to use tax dollars to pay for products that contribute to Alabama’s high rate of obesity and chronic health conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

“We’re almost facilitating problems on the health side by allowing free sugar drinks and candy in the form of free EBT purchases or SNAP purchases,“ Orr said.

EBT refers to the electronics benefit transfer cards issued to SNAP recipients.

Orr’s bill would require the Alabama Department of Human Resources, which administers SNAP, to request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service to exclude sodas and candy from the list of foods eligible for SNAP.

Six states have received similar waivers, according to the USDA. – Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah. The waivers take effect next year.

“I believe strongly we need to have the issue pushed forward in the legislative process and have that debate,” Orr said.

Changes to SNAP have a big impact in Alabama.

An average of 750,000 people received SNAP benefits in Alabama last year, an average monthly benefit of about $200.

That amounted to about $1.8 billion during fiscal year 2024. Federal dollars pay 100% of SNAP benefits, while states pay part of the administrative costs.

But that will change under President Trump’s tax cut and spending bill passed by Congress, the “big, beautiful bill.”

Starting in 2028, states will have to pay part of the benefits, a potentially large expense for Alabama’s budget.

States can avoid if they keep their error rate for administering SNAP below 6%.

The error rate measures how accurately a state determined SNAP eligibility and benefit amounts for those who participate in SNAP.

Errors include both overpayments – when households receive more benefits than they are entitled to – and underpayments – when they receive less.

Orr sponsored a bill this year that he said was intended to enable DHR and the Alabama Medicaid Agency to more reliably track the eligibility of those receiving benefits.

The bill would have required DHR and Medicaid to enter data matching agreements with other state agencies to cross check eligibility status.

For example, the Department of Revenue would notify DHR when tax records indicated a SNAP recipient got a new job.

The bill did not advance, but Orr still thinks it is a good idea and that the state has the technology to make it work.

“It’s time to improve our systems as far as checking to make sure those truly eligible are the ones that are receiving the benefits and not ineligible parties,” Orr said.

“And I appreciate Congress and the president brining this issue into the crosshairs.”

SNAP can be used to buy fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, breads and cereals, snacks and non-alcoholic drinks.

It cannot be used for alcohol, tobacco, pet food, vitamins and supplements, and household goods such as paper products and cleaning supplies.

Orr’s bill to take sodas and candy off the list of SNAP-eligible foods is not a new idea. He sponsored similar legislation before the COVID pandemic, but it did not pass.

“When the taxpayers are funding free groceries and free health care, I’m not saying at all that we abolish the programs, but we need to be wise about it,” Orr said.

Next year’s legislative session starts Jan. 13.

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze is taking a unique approach to evaluating players and assessing how he wants to coach them.

The third-year Tigers coach revealed at SEC Media Days that he and the team took personality tests, which helped him and the players learn more about themselves.

“It helped me a lot understand how Jackson [Arnold] and Deuce [Knight] and Ashton [Daniels], how do they need to be coached by me,” Freeze said. “I can be that Michael Jordan side of, ‘you gotta get this right. Why didn’t you get it right?’ Instead, I probably need to be more of the Scottie Pippen sometimes.”

Freeze said the tests have helped him communicate with all the different types of players on the team. The results allowed him to group the players into different categories that would influence how Freeze coaches and communicates with them.

For a player like Arnold, Freeze found understanding his personality to be important in an effort to instill confidence in him after a shaky 2024 season at Oklahoma. So far, Freeze believes that effort is working.

“I feel really good about that right now,” Freeze said. “Ultimately, I don’t think there’s any way you’re going to really judge it until we hit the field, but he’s got the swagger right now and the respect of this football team and a great understanding of our offense.”

Not only are the tests a way for Freeze and the staff to assess the current roster and how to coach them, they’ve become a tool to evaluate potential transfers.

Arnold said he took one when he was on his visit at Auburn, adding that he liked the idea for coaching.

“He wants to see what personalities fit him and his coaching style,” Arnold said. “If that fit’s not good, then don’t grab that guy out of the portal. I completely understand him doing it.”

Freeze said he likes using the tests for players they recruit out of the portal. He described the portal recruiting process as speed dating, with a decision sometimes having to be made within 24 hours.

It’s not as important for high school recruits, Freeze said, but he still gives those players the option of taking it.

“It’s not as important because you’re going to have time when they get there,” Freeze said, “And you’ve had a window of a year or two that you kind of have an idea of knowing them.”

Auburn signed 19 transfers this offseason, meaning the reliability of those tests could be determined on the field this season. While it’s hard to tell how those personalities will work in a game until it’s time to take the field, Freeze is confident in the approach.

“My first thought today when I saw Jackson was, ‘say to him this,’” Freeze said. “That really comes from just the discussions that we’ve had with people over these profiles, which I think are going to be very helpful to us.”

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

Hugh Freeze hasn’t beaten Alabama football while head coach at Auburn. The Tigers haven’t pulled off an Iron Bowl win since 2019.

However, Freeze brought in someone experienced in taking down the Crimson Tide to play quarterback. Jackson Arnold transferred in from Oklahoma, where he and the Sooners upset Kalen DeBoer’s squad in Norman last season, effectively crushing Alabama’s College Football Playoff hopes.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday at SEC media days in Atlanta, Arnold was asked what made OU so successful against the Crimson Tide.

“I think for us the biggest success was with the run game,” Arnold said. “Whether it was me running the ball or our running backs running the ball and being effective. I thought we had a really good game plan that week and caught them off guard by running it so much. But I thought we were very aggressive that game, very efficient decision-making.”

Auburn has every chance in the Iron Bowl this season. After a 2025 drubbing in Bryant-Denny Stadium, the game is back in Jordan-Hare, a place the Tigers seem to always be in the game.

It took minor miracles for the Crimson Tide to escape with wins in 2021 and 2023, with the 4th-and-31 prayer from Jalen Milroe to Isaiah Bond securing victory most recently on the Plains. With Arnold in the quarterback spot vacated by Peyton Thorne, he spoke of the importance of winning the Alabama game.

“That’d be awesome,” Arnold said of the chance to break the Crimson Tide’s streak. “All the dudes on the team talked about, even the old fifth-year senior guys still haven’t beaten Alabama. They came close twice but they haven’t beaten them yet, so for those guys, I want to get a win.”

Arnold compared the game to the Texas-Oklahoma rivalry he was previously part of.

“OU-Texas, it’s very similar,” Arnold said. “Honestly, it’s not far off. I feel those two rivalries are probably the two best rivalries in college football. But I feel like if you mention Alabama here, somebody would look at you funny. We even have a rule in our facility, you can’t wear red in our facility at all. If you do, you lose points and you have to do up-downs.”

Alabama and Auburn will renew hostilities on Nov. 29 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

KLAMATH, Calif. (AP) — As bright-colored kayaks push through a thick wall of fog, voices and the beats of drums build as kayakers approach a crowd that has formed on the beach. Applause erupts as the boats land on the sandy spit that partially separates the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean in northern California.

Native American teenagers from tribes across the river basin push themselves up and out of the kayaks and begin to cross the sand, some breaking into a sprint. They kick playfully at the cold waves of the ocean they’ve been paddling toward over the last month — the ocean that’s seen fewer and fewer salmon return to it over the last century as four hydropower dams blocked their ideal spawning grounds upstream.

“I think our ancestors would be proud because this is what they’ve been fighting for,” said Tasia Linwood, a 15-year-old member of the Karuk Tribe, on Thursday night, ahead of the group’s final push to the end on Friday.

The Klamath River is newly navigable after a decades-long effort to remove its four hydropower dams to help restore the salmon run — an ancient source of life, food and culture for these paddlers’ tribes who have lived alongside the river for millennia. Youth primarily from the Yurok, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, Quartz Valley and Warm Springs tribes paddled 310 miles (499 kilometers) over a month from the headwaters of the Wood River, a tributary to the Klamath that some tribes consider sacred, to the Pacific Ocean.

The teens spent several years learning to navigate white water through Paddle Tribal Waters, a program set up by the nonprofit Rios to Rivers, to prepare local Native youth for the day this would be possible.

During their last days on the water, the group of several dozen swelled to more than 100, joined by some family members and Indigenous people from Bolivia, Chile and New Zealand who face similar challenges on their home rivers.

Dams built decades ago for electricity

Starting in the early 1900s, power company PacifiCorp built the dams over several decades to generate electricity. But the structures, which provided 2% of the utility’s power, halted the natural flow of a waterway that was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast.

With the dams in place, tribes lost access to a reliable source of food. The dams blocked the path to hundreds of miles of cool freshwater streams, ideal for salmon returning from the ocean to lay their eggs. Salmon numbers declined dramatically along with the water quality.

In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That galvanized decades of advocacy by tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams.

Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, the tribes showcased the environmental devastation caused by the dams, especially to salmon. From 2023 to 2024, the four dams were dynamited and removed, freeing hundreds of miles of the Klamath.

The renewable electricity lost by removing the hydropower dams was enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes, although PacifiCorp has since expanded its renewable sources through wind and solar projects.

Two dams used for irrigation and flood control remain on the upper stretch of the river. They have “ladders” that allow some fish to pass through, although their efficacy for adult salmon is questionable. On the journey, the paddlers got out of the river and carried their kayaks around the dams.

For teens, a month of paddling and making memories

The journey began June 12 with ceremonial blessings and kayaks gathered in a circle above a natural pool of springs where fresh water bubbles to the surface at the headwater of the Wood River, just upstream of the Klamath River.

The youth camped in tents as they made their way across Upper Klamath Lake and down the Klamath River, jumping in the water or doing flips in their kayaks to cool down in the summer heat. A few kayakers came down with swimmer’s ear, but overall everybody on the trip remained healthy.

Nearly everyone had a story to share of a family’s fishing cabin or a favorite swimming hole while passing through ancestral territory of the Klamath, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk and Yurok.

More than 2,200 dams were removed from rivers in the United States from 1912 through 2024, most in the last couple of decades as momentum grows to restore the natural flow of rivers and the wildlife they support, according to the conservation group American Rivers.

“I believe that it was kind of symbolic of a bigger issue,” said John Acuna, member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and a leader on the trip.

Removal of dams represents end of long fight with federal government

The federal government signed treaties with these tribes outlining their right to govern themselves, which is violated when they can’t rely on their traditional food from the river. Acuna said these violations are familiar to many tribal communities, and included when his great-grandmother was sent to boarding school as part of a national strategy to strip culture and language from Native Americans.

That history “comes with generational trauma,” he said.

Their treaty-enshrined right to fish was also blatantly disregarded by regional authorities in the 1970s but later upheld by various court decisions, said Yurok council member Phillip Williams.

Standing on a fog-shrouded boat ramp in the town of Requa awaiting the arrival of the youth, Williams recounted the time when it was illegal to fish here using the tribes’ traditional nets. As a child, his elders were arrested and even killed for daring to defy authorities and fish in broad daylight.

Fifty years later, with the hydropower dams now gone, large numbers of salmon are beginning to return and youth are paddling the length of the Klamath.

“If there’s a heaviness that I feel it’s because there’s a lot of people that lived all in these places, all these little houses here that are no longer here no more,” said Williams. “They don’t get to see what’s happening today. And that’s a heavy, heavy, feeling.”

Even as a teen, Linwood says she feels both the pleasure of a month-long river trip with her friends and the weight of the past.

“I kind of feel guilty, like I haven’t done enough to be fighting,” she said. “I gotta remember that’s what our ancestors fought for. They fought for that — so that we could feel this joy with the river.”

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Not many people can say they’ve been on both sides of the Third Saturday in October rivalry.

Tight end Miles Kitselman is on the short list. And he’s experienced both the highs and lows of it.

He was part of the 2022 Alabama team that lost to Tennessee in Knoxville. Then, he was part of the 2023 Alabama team that beat Tennessee in Tuscaloosa. After that, Kitselman transferred to Tennessee. Then, he became the starting tight end for the Vols on a team that beat Alabama in Knoxville again.

“They’re both great programs,” Kitselman said. “I love where I’m at right now. I learned a lot from when I was there as a man and as a player, but we’ve moved on and I love Tennessee.”

Kitselman started his college career at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. Then Alabama signed him before the 2022 season. He played in 19 games over his time with Alabama, primarily working as a reserve.

Then, Kitselman left, transferring out before Nick Saban announced his decision to retire.

“I want to thank coach (Nick) Saban and coach (Joe) Cox for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime, Kitselman wrote on social media. “I will forever be grateful for my time at the University of Alabama. After talking with family and close friends, I have decided to enter into the transfer portal with 1 year of eligibility remaining.”

Kitselman went on to start in 13 games, finishing with 301 receiving yards and five total touchdowns (receiving and rushing).

“Elite competitor,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said of Kitselman. “You know exactlywhat you’re going to get, which is everything that he has every single day. He’s got great football IQ and understanding as of what we’re doing offensively, the fundamentals and the technique, but also understanding the scheme we’re going against on the other side of the football. He’s really developed as a leader during the course of this offseason.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.

Stevie Wonder has squashed rumors that have followed him for years.

The R&B legend has confirmed he is, indeed, blind during his “Love, Light and Song” U.K. tour.

“I must say to all of you, something that I was thinking, ‘When did I want to let the world know this?’ But I wanted to say it right now,” the 75-year-old legend told the audience from the stage during a July 10 concert. “You know there have been rumors about me seeing and all that? But seriously, you know the truth.

“Truth is, shortly after my birth, I became blind,” Stevie continued. “Now, that was a blessing because it’s allowed me to see the world in the vision of truth, of sight. See people in the spirit of them, not how they look. Not what color they are, but what color is their spirit?”

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.