Local News

Jay Jacobs, Auburn University’s athletic director, was the featured speaker at the monthly Tuesday Talk event at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce Tuesday morning.

Joseph Harrison III, a poet with Alabama roots, will give a reading from his newly published collection, “Identify Theft,” Thursday at 5 p.m., at Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. 

Gov. Bob Riley signed a law Monday that will send many troubled teens to community programs instead of locking them up in detention centers where they often learn bad habits that get them into worse trouble.
The law stops juvenile judges from sending children who have committed noncriminal offenses to the Department of Youth Services. Last year 77 percent of DYS admissions were low-risk juveniles with nonviolent offenses like running away and being truant from school, according to the Alabama Youth Justice Coalition.

A House Judiciary Committee deadline passed Monday with former White House adviser Karl Rove standing by his refusal to testify about allegations that he pushed the Justice Department to prosecute former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
In his latest offer to settle the matter, Rove sent the panel a letter offering to respond to questions in writing, according to his attorney. But he reiterated that he would not testify publicly and under oath.

Wendell McLendon is a cautious man, who is known for taking his time when he tools around the hallways at the Care Center of Opelika in his electric wheelchair.

CHENGDU, China — A powerful earthquake toppled buildings, schools and chemical plants Monday in central China, killing about 10,000 people and trapping untold numbers in mounds of concrete, steel and earth in the country’s worst quake in three decades.

When Kyle Graddy, 7, and his sister Amelia, 5, speak before their homeroom classes at Cary Woods Elementary and Lee-Scott Academy this week, they’ll be looking for the attention of their audiences.
However, what they won’t be looking for is any reactions. Reactions of the allergic kind that is.

There is no word yet on whether a Smiths Station man will be indicted and stand trial for allegedly killing Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk on March 4. Or if Courtney L. Lockhart, 23, is even fit to stand trial for the crime.

At latest count, the estimates of those killed in a 7.9 -magnitude earthquake that rocked China’s Sichuan province has risen to nearly 10,000 with that number expected to rise.

The Lee County Commission set a budget of $1.4 million Monday for the construction of the Auburn Satellite Office across from the University Village Mall and in front of the Jameson Inn.

At least two area nursing homes — Care Center of Opelika and Oak Park Nursing Home in Auburn — are hosting a variety of activities this week to entertain residents and to say “thank you” to their employees.

Gov. Bob Riley has signed a law that will keep troubled teenagers who run away and are truant from school from being locked up in juvenile detention

Sections of Donahue Drive will be closed this week while Alabama Power Company relocates power poles and transmission lines Wednesday through Friday, according to a statement released by the City of Auburn.

DECATUR — Police in two Alabama cities are seeking answers after two male bodies were found floating in creeks over the weekend.

The Alabama Education Association is giving up on a bill that would have short-circuited plans by the chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system to use a private company to do criminal background checks on employees.

There is no word yet on whether a Smiths Station man will be indicted and stand trial for allegedly killing Auburn University freshman Lauren Burk on March 4. View the full court documents.

New recipe, cook method leads to growth in meth labs in Ala.

CHONGQING — A massive earthquake struck central China on Monday, killing more than 7,600 people and trapping nearly 900 students under the rubble of their school, state media reported. 

We’re just about there, folks. Tuesday brought us Round 3,462 in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton needed a big win in Indiana and at least a close race in North Carolina to close her delegate gap with Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON - Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America’s vets shrinks.
Despite the decline in total vets - as soldiers from World War II and Korea die - the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years, up from today’s $29 billion, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press