Alabama

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. — Woodrow Lowe, a three-time All-American linebacker at Alabama and an 11-year starter for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, has died. He was 71.

Lowe died at his home in Collierville, Tenn., on Thursday, according to the National Football Foundation.

Lowe was a 2009 NFF Hall of Fame inductee. He starred at Alabama (1972-75) and was the second player in program history to make the first-team All-America list three times. He helped the Crimson Tide make the Sugar Bowl in 1973, losing to eventual national champion Notre Dame, and was a consensus All-America selection the following year.

“Woodrow Lowe was one of the finest linebackers ever to play the game, and we are deeply saddened to learn of his passing,” NFF Chairman Archie Manning said. “A three-time All-American and one of the most decorated linebackers in college football history, he defined excellence at one of the top programs in the country.

“After his playing days, he dedicated himself to shaping young lives as a coach and mentor, carrying forward the lessons of excellence and dedication that defined his own career. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the entire Alabama football community.”

Born June 9, 1954, in Columbus, Ga., Lowe got his football start at Phenix City Central High in Alabama. He stayed in state for college and set a single-season record at Alabama with 134 tackles in 1973. The Tide went 43-5 during his four seasons in Tuscaloosa, and his 315 career tackles still rank fourth in school history.

A fifth-round draft pick by the Chargers in 1976, Lowe played in 164 of 165 possible games during his NFL career and tallied 21 interceptions, including four returned for touchdowns.

He coached at the high school, college and professional levels before retiring in Tennessee.

Lowe also was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.

Oct. 5 (UPI) — At least two people are dead, including a teenager, and 12 more were wounded in a shooting in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday night.

At least five people have life-threatening injuries, according to Montgomery Police Chief James Graboys.

Montgomery Mayor Steve Reed added $20,000 in reward money to a $5,000 reward offered through the Crime Stoppers tip line. The City Council president offered an additional $25,000 in reward money for leading to information about and arrest of the suspect.

Officials continue to investigate the incident and search for a motive.

“Lot of great fun has been had along these last several days, but, unfortunately, it only took one or two bad people with bad intentions to change not only their fortunes, but the fortunes of many, many other innocent people,” Reed said.

Reed said Sunday that thousands of people were in the city over the weekend to attend the Alabama National Fair and related events

Montgomery is also hosting the HBCU Classic Weekend and Alabama State’s homecoming weekend.

“As you can imagine, that could be a very chaotic situation, and every weapon has to be accounted for, and every piece of evidence has to be processed,” Graboys said.

Officers were called to a shooting around 11:30 p.m. CDT during downtown festivities in Montgomery. They said one of the victims was targeted and that other victims were shot when people nearby who were armed began to draw their weapons.

President Donald Trump, seen here in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C, in August. Trump is expected to announce Tuesday that U.S. Space Command headquarters would move from Colorado to Alabama. Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 2 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce Tuesday that the U.S. Space Command headquarters will releocate from Colorado to Alabama.

The move would shift the U.S. Space Command headquarters from its current spot Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Huntsville, Alabama, CBS News, Politico and CNN reported.

The U.S. Department of Defense had posted to its Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, that Trump was to make a 2 p.m. EDT statement on its website that was initially titled “U.S. Space Command HQ announcement.”

The site has since replaced that with “President Trump Makes an Announcement.”

Trump’s decision to uproot the military branch’s current spot follows an April report from the Department of Defense Inspector General that “could not determine why the (former) [Secretary of the Air Force] did not make an announcement decision for the transition of [U.S. Space Command headquarters] from Colorado Springs to [the Redstone Arsenal].”

The Redstone Arsenal is a U.S. Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama.

The first Trump administration had planned to move Space Command to Alabama, but after a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office which found fault with that conclusion, then-President Joe Biden decided in 2023 to keep it in Colorado, to the chagrin of officials in Alabama.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has pushed for the move to her state even before Biden’s call to leave the base in Colorado.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to learn that Alabama will be the new home to the United States Space Command,” she posted to X in January of 2021.

However, following Biden’s decision, she posted in May of 2023 that “Alabama is the only rightful home for Space Command Headquarters, and supporting this mission is critical to the advancement of our national security.”

In April, Kay signed a resolution that urged Space Command Headquarters to be permanently established in Huntsville.

Meanwhile, Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduced a resolution in the Senate in January that “encourages President Donald J. Trump and his incoming second Presidential administration to halt the Biden administration’s disastrous decision and immediately proceed in establishing a permanent headquarters for United States Space Command at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.”

“Space Command coming to Huntsville?” Kay posted to X Sunday. “Count on it.”

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s administration will announce on Tuesday that U.S. Space Command will be located in Alabama, reversing a Biden-era decision to keep it at its temporary headquarters in Colorado, according to a person familiar with the announcement.

Trump is expected to speak Tuesday afternoon, and he will give the new location, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the plans ahead of the official announcement. A Pentagon website set up to livestream the remarks described the event as a “U.S. Space Command HQ Announcement.”

“The president will be making an exciting announcement related to the Department of Defense,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Space Command’s functions include conducting operations like enabling satellite-based navigation and troop communication and providing warning of missile launches.

Alabama and Colorado have long battled to claim Space Command because it has significant implications for the local economy. The site also has been a political prize, with elected officials from both Alabama and Colorado asserting their state is the better location.

Huntsville, Alabama, nicknamed Rocket City, has long been home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command is also located in Huntsville, which drew its nickname because of its role in building the first rockets for the U.S. space program.

The announcement caps a four-year back-and-forth on the location of Space Command.

The Air Force in 2021 identified Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville as the preferred location for the new U.S. Space Command. The city was picked after site visits to six states that compared factors such as infrastructure capacity, community support and costs to the Defense Department.

Then-President Joe Biden in 2023 announced Space Command would be permanently located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which had been serving as its temporary headquarters. Biden’s Democratic administration said that keeping the command in Colorado Springs would avoid a disruption in readiness.

A review by the Defense Department inspector general was inconclusive and could not determine why Colorado was chosen over Alabama. Trump, a Republican who enjoys deep support in Alabama, had long been expected to move Space Command back to Alabama.

Kim and Chandler write for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday put off ruling on a second Black majority congressional district in Louisiana, instead ordering new arguments in the fall.

The case is being closely watched because at arguments in March several of the court’s conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.

The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court that has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life.

Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a brief dissent from Friday’s order that he would have decided the case now and imposed limits on “race-based redistricting.”

The order keeps alive a fight over political power stemming from the 2020 census halfway to the next one. Two maps were blocked by lower courts, and the Supreme Court intervened twice. Last year, the justices ordered the new map to be used in the 2024 elections, while the legal case proceeded.

The call for new arguments probably means that the district currently represented by Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields probably will remain intact for the 2026 elections because the high court has separately been reluctant to upend districts as elections draw near.

The state has changed its election process to replace its so-called jungle primary with partisan primary elections in the spring, followed by a November showdown between the party nominees.

The change means candidates can start gathering signatures in September to get on the primary ballot for 2026.

The state’s Republican-dominated legislature drew a new congressional map in 2022 to account for population shifts reflected in the 2020 census. But the changes effectively maintained the status quo of five Republican-leaning majority white districts and one Democratic-leaning majority Black district in a state in which Black people make up a third of the population.

Civil rights advocates won a lower-court ruling that the districts likely discriminated against Black voters.

The Supreme Court put the ruling on hold while it took a similar case from Alabama. The justices allowed both states to use congressional maps in the 2022 elections even though both had been ruled likely discriminatory by federal judges.

The high court eventually affirmed the ruling from Alabama, which led to a new map and a second district that could elect a Black lawmaker. The justices returned the Louisiana case to federal court, with the expectation that new maps would be in place for the 2024 elections.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave lawmakers in Louisiana a deadline of early 2024 to draw a new map or face the possibility of a court-imposed map.

The state complied and drew a new map, with two Black majority districts.

But white Louisiana voters claimed in their separate lawsuit challenging the new districts that race was the predominant factor driving the new map. A three-judge court agreed.

Louisiana appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

May 19 (UPI) — The National Weather Service in Alabama warned Monday that weather radio broadcasts are offline for routine maintenance as severe storms are forecast to hit the state Tuesday.

The weather service said while all watches and warnings will be released over the next few days, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Radio transmitters will be offline during that time. Severe storms are forecast Tuesday for much of Alabama.

“NWS local offices plan to inform listeners both on-air and on their websites when updates are scheduled,” according to the NOAA Weather Radio website. NOAA Weather Radio is a network of stations that broadcasts warnings and weather information from the National Weather Service. The Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or AWIPS, went offline Monday and will remain down through Wednesday.

“Our Weather Radio broadcasts have concluded and will remain unavailable until our system updates are complete,” NWS Birmingham wrote Monday in a post on X. “Weather products will continue to be transmitted via the Internet, weather apps and wireless emergency alerts.”

“During the time of the update, forecast operations will be conducted in conjunction with our service back-up office in Peachtree City in Georgia to minimize any potential interruption to services,” the National Weather Service said Monday. “No impacts to our core services of forecast products and weather watches, warnings and advisories are expected during this period.”

The software updates will impact transmitters across northern and central Alabama. The NWS said its forecast office in Birmingham will remain open and staffed during the maintenance.

Approximately 31 million people from Texas, north to Iowa, could see severe storms starting Monday with forecasts showing strong winds, hail and tornadoes. That risk will shift Tuesday to Louisiana and north into Alabama and Indiana.

The NWS is urging Alabama residents to gather several weather sources — the Internet, weather apps and local emergency management — to ensure they receive all severe weather warnings in order to stay safe over the next few days.

Deadly storms and tornadoes over the weekend hit 10 different states, including Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Kentucky, where at least 28 people were killed.