THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS

The latest news, sports, entertainment and more from Birmingham and surrounding areas

Heavy rains and possibly severe weather may occur tonight and Tuesday across Central Alabama, according to the National Weather Service.

Continue reading "Heavy rains possible over next 24 hours" »

The Interstate 459 north on-ramp at U.S. 31 in Hoover has reopened after Hoover police finished their on-site investigation into a wreck that blocked the ramp and sent a teenage girl to UAB Hospital in critical condition.

The wreck happened about 3:15 p.m. when a Toyota 4Runner driven by the teenage girl and headed north on I-459 apparently collided with a concrete truck, then flipped off the interstate and landed upside down on the ramp, Hoover police Capt. Jim Coker said.

The ramp reopened shortly after 6 p.m., according to a police dispatcher.

The Brookside Town Council announced tonight that a community development block grant for $407,000 was approved by the Jefferson County Commission, clearing the last hurdle for construction to begin on a new fire station.

Construction could start later this month.

The fire station was destroyed May 7, 2003, after 8 to 11 inches of rain fell on Jefferson County and pushed Five Mile Creek over its banks. In October, a new $3.5 million municipal complex opened in Brookside, including a town hall and community center.

In other business, the Town Council accepted the donation of a 1978 fire truck from Gardendale, which recently bought a new fire truck, and a $700 grant from the Alabama Power Foundation to plant trees in memory of military veterans.

Hoover Fire Chief Tom Bradley told city leaders tonight that he intends to retire on Feb. 1 after 32 years of heading the department and 60 years as a firefighter.

The 80-year-old Bradley shared the news at the Hoover City Council meeting and received a standing ovation.

Bradley became Hoover's chief in 1976. The firefighting veteran began his career in 1948 when he joined the Bessemer Fire Department and stayed there almost three years. He worked for the Birmingham Fire Department in 1951, serving there until 1973. He then worked three years conducting fire inspections for the Insurance Company of North America before becoming Hoover's top firefighter.

He has received numerous awards and recognition for his years of service. He was recognized in May for 60 years of service from the International Association of Fire Fighters.

In 2004, Hoover officials named the city's main fire station after him. Under Bradley's watch, the fire department has grown from 16 firefighters to about 170.

U.S. sales of the Alabama-built Hyundai Sonata sedan plummeted in December, falling 74 percent from a year ago to 6,593, the Korean automaker said today.

Continue reading "Hyundai says December sales of Alabama-made vehicles tumble" »

Hoover police closed the ramp from U.S. 31 to Interstate 459 northbound after a car left the interstate around 3:15 p.m. and landed upside down on the ramp, police said.

A teenage girl driving northbound on I-459 in a Toyota 4Runner apparently made contact with a concrete truck, also going north, before the wreck, police Capt. Jim Coker said. The girl was taken to UAB Hospital and was in critical condition, Coker said.

Coker said the ramp would remain closed while the wreck is being investigated. It was still closed as of 5 p.m.

Three people facing capital murder trials in Jefferson County instead pleaded guilty to lesser charges today in the 2006 shooting death of a Graysville man they tried to rob.

Mark Anthony Carroll, 30, was shot to death at his home on Sixth Street Northeast when Anthony Wayne Blackwell and Amanda Shae Moore tried to rob him.

The third defendant, Steven Davis, had come up with the robbery plan and was waiting at the scene in a stolen car.

Anthony Wayne Blackwell, who admitted shooting Carroll, pleaded guilty to felony murder and received a sentence of life with the possibility of parole.

Moore, who admitted carrying the gun Blackwell used to kill Carroll, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 15-year term.

Davis, 24, pleaded guilty to felony murder and received a 20-year term with all but five years suspended.

Blackwell, 21, Davis and Moore, age unavailable, will get credit for the time they have served in jail awaiting trial since their arrests in January 2007.

All three vehicles built at the Mercedes-Benz factory in Vance posted steep declines in December sales, the German automaker said today.

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A man killed today in a shooting in southwest Birmingham has been identified as Cornelius Mosley.

Mosley, 34, is the city's first homicide in 2009.

He and his brother were both shot about 12:15 p.m. at First Avenue South and Goldwire Street, according to Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Pat Curry.

Authorities said the preliminary information they received is that Mosley and his brother had pulled up to a stop sign when a man started firing at them from the front porch of a nearby home.

Mosley's brother, whose name police have not released, was struck in the foot. He drove himself and Mosley, who was shot twice, to UAB Hospital where Mosley was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m.

Investigators recovered about a handful of shell casings from the crime scene.

Police said they took a 27-year-old suspect into custody around 3 p.m. today. Investigators said the suspect was stabbed last week and just released from the hospital.

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Birmingham police are investigating a midday shooting that killed one person and possibly wounded another in the city's first homicide of 2009.

The shooting happened just before 12:30 p.m. at First Avenue South and Goldwire Street. Police said the two victims showed up at UAB Hospital, where one of them was pronounced dead.

Police have identified a possible suspect and are looking for him.

No other information was immediately available.

Police and firefighters in Fultondale this morning evacuated a daycare and houses in a four-block radius of where discarded chemicals used to make illegal drugs caught fire in the back of a garbage truck.

Fultondale Fire Chief Larry Holcomb said residents were allowed to return shortly before noon.

Some time after 9 a.m., garbage workers noticed smoke coming from a plastic bottle that was in a garbage bag that had been picked up from a nearby house, Holcomb said.

Continue reading "Update: Discarded chemicals prompt Fultondale evacuations" »