WVAS Local

Montgomery, Alabama –
Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange and Montgomery County Commission Chairman Elton Dean are meeting today with members of the company that recently purchased the Montgomery Mall.

The owners, Blue Ridge Capital, say they would like to form a public/private partnership to help utilize the facility. Mayor Todd Strange says there are many avenues they might take in considering what to do with the facility which has been vacant for several years.

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama –
(AP) - A man behind bars on drug charges has
been charged in the 1999 slaying of a 21-year-old Tuscaloosa mother
of two children.
Tuscaloosa Police Sgt. Kenny Ray Jenkins said it seemed like
Eric Horton had dropped off the face of the earth until he was
found at St. Clair Correctional Facility serving time on drug
charges. A grand jury issued a capital murder indictment against
Horton last month in the death of Stephanie Collins.
Collins was found dead on Moody Swamp Road in west Tuscaloosa on

Enterprise, Alabama –
(AP) - A peanut field in south Alabama becomes a vibrant go-to site for country music fans Thursday, with more than 100,000 people expected for the second annual Bama Jam.
The three-day event kicks off Thursday with Taylor Swift
headlining, followed by Alan Jackson on Friday, and Kid Rock and
Brooks and Dunn on Saturday.
There's also a liberal amount of rock and alternative music
mixed in, including the Black Crowes, Los Lonely Boys, Umphrey's
McGee and Drive By Truckers.

Birmingham, Alabama –
(AP) - The Birmingham City Council has voted to
legalize, regulate and tax electronic bingo, but it will be a month
before the first license is granted to nonprofit operators.
Mayor Larry Langford said he would wait 30 days to sign it after
the Jefferson County district attorney expressed concerns about
whether the machines ultimately will be declared illegal in the
state.
The policy was approved on a 4-1 vote.
District Attorney Brandon Falls asked the city for the delay to

Montgomery, Alabama –
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - The Alabama Supreme Court has reversed a
lower court's decision on a policy that bans Alabama legislators
from working in the two-year college system.
The high court on Friday sent the case back to a Montgomery
circuit court, who had struck down the State Board of Education's
policy prohibiting the practice known as "double-dipping."
Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick had ruled in November that the
school board violated state law in passing the ban on

Washington – WASHINGTON (AP) - The ranking Republican on the Senate Banking
Committee says he believes the federal government's key role in a
likely bankruptcy filing by General Motors Corp. puts Washington
"on the road to socialism."
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said the financially beleaguered GM
should have filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy six months ago. And he
said the U.S. government's stake in the company now facing a
restructuring-or-bankruptcy deadline in the next few days is
entirely too large.

Birmingham, Alabama – (AP) - Southern Company will operate the National Carbon Capture Center at a facility next to Alabama Power's Gaston plant at Wilsonville.
The company announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of
Energy's center will develop and test advanced technologies to
capture carbon dioxide from coal-based power plants. The goal of
carbon capture is reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that a
coal-fired electricity plant releases to the atmosphere.
The center will work with scientists and technology developers

Montgomery, Alabama –
Alabama's lone contender at the 82nd Scripps National Spelling
Bee, Lindsey Grace Zimmer of Notasulga, failed to advance to
Thursday's semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in
Washington D.C.
The 13-year-old correctly spelled "longitude" and "anodyne"
on Wednesday, but her score for those two rounds, combined with her
score on the 25-word written test, was not high enough to qualify
her for the semifinals.
Only 41 of the original 293 contestants move on to the

Tuskegee, Alabama – (AP) - Tuskegee University President Benjamin F.
Payton will deliver the main address at the rededication of the
Lincoln Memorial on Saturday afternoon.
Payton, who is retiring next year after serving 28 years as the
university's fifth president, is continuing a tradition at the
nation's capital. Robert Russa Moton, president at what then was
known as Tuskegee Institute, delivered the principal address at the
Lincoln Memorial's dedication ceremony on May 30, 1922.

Montgomery, Alabama – Listen,now,to some of the stories making headlines in the WVAS newsroom.