Maddox Arrested, Resigns
Birmingham, Ala. —
Tuesday morning, Birmingham School Board President Edward Maddox was booked into jail and released a half-hour later on a thousand dollars bail. Tuesday evening, his attorney told reporters Maddox would resign and plead guilty to misdemeanor charges. He’s accused of using his position as president of the Woodlawn Neighborhood Association to funnel city money to a charity he founded, Woodlawn Missions and More, and of casting an illegal school-board vote to raise his daughter’s salary. His daughter, Melody Alston, is a technology specialist for the district.
The plea to misdemeanor charges means Maddox admits he unwittingly broke the law. The Birmingham News reports a hearing will be held today, Oct. 17, in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
The troubled school system is under a state takeover after an investigation began in April. Maddox was a leader in the slim board majority that fought the state takeover and fired popular superintendent Craig Witherspoon, only to have a judge reinstate him.
YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube is the latest social media company to pay Trump tens of millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits brought before he returned to power. The money will fund a new ballroom at the White House.
From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album
Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.
A year after Helene, a group of raft guides embarks on a river clean-up mission
A popular rafting river in the Appalachian mountains is still closed a year after Hurricane Helene, because there's just too much debris. Now, rafting guides have come together to help clean it up.
Lesotho’s Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars
In Lesotho, a style of traditional accordion music called Famo has become entangled with deadly gang rivalries. Once the soundtrack of shepherds and migrant workers, today it's linked to killings, government bans — and a fight over cultural identity.
Comic Cristela Alonzo grew up in fear of border patrol. ICE has ‘brought it all back’
For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy.
Compass-Anywhere real estate merger could squeeze small brokerages
The deal, announced earlier this week, would combine the two largest U.S. residential brokerages by sales volume.
