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March is Women's History Month!

State Budget Crisis

Governor Robert Bentley says he wants to be upfront with voters.  The state is facing a budget crisis and fixing it the right way will require changes that some people probably won't like.  The governor said taxes are a last resort, but he believed the state would re-examine current tax deductions.  That includes a tax break that only Alabama and a few other states give.  Residents can now deduct their federal income taxes and FICA taxes that they pay when calculating their state income tax.  

Deadly Weekend

State Troopers are investigating a two-vehicle crash Sunday night that left an Elmore County sheriff's deputy dead, also killed were three male teenagers.  A fourth teen was injured.  Troopers said the deputy was on patrol when the vehicle he was driving collided with a car on Firetower Road last night at about 7:45 p.m.  Authorities are withholding the deceased deputy's name and the names of the three teens who died in the crash.  No information has been immediately available regarding the medical condition of the four teenager who was airlifted to a Montgomery hospital.  Overall, it was deadly weekend for roadway crashes on state highways.  Troopers are investigating traffic fatalities in Butler, Chilton, Coosa, Elmore, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa counties.  

Prisons Investigation

A Montgomery-based advocacy group is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what it called illegal and unconstitutional conditions in Alabama prisons.  Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, is calling Alabama prisons the worst in the country.  Stevenson says his organization has asked DOJ to expand an investigation into a troubled Alabama prison for women to include all of the state's prisons.  Stevenson says his organization has uncovered abuses, contraband-dealing by prison staff and dangerous conditions.  Alabama prisons hold nearly twice the prisoners they were originally designed to house.  

Conviction Overturned

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed a 2012 murder conviction because the judge did not instruct jurors on possible self-defense claims.  Ellis Diggs was convicted in the shooting death of Garry Blackwell at a Montgomery party.  Diggs was sentenced as a habitual felon to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  The appeals court ruled that because Diggs presented evidence in support of his self-defense claim, the trial judge should have instructed jurors about how to determine if he acted in self-defense.  

Toddler Dies

Authorities in Opelika say a 3-year-old  boy who was hit by a car on Samford Court has died.  Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said the boy was hit by a car Saturday afternoon about 2 p.m. and was airlifted to a children's hospital in Atlanta.  The youngster died Sunday morning.  His name has not been released.  Harris says while Opelika police were responding to the boy they also found a seriously injured 31-year-old woman who was airlifted to a hospital in Columbus, Georgia.  Her medical condition is unknown.  Opelika authorities are investigating the circumstances that led to the incidents.