First Rain After Drought is Both Good and Bad
Groups that monitor Alabama’s waterways are welcoming the rain after months of drought. However, they say, there are some drawbacks and are warning of potential health risks found in and around rivers and streams.
Members of the Cahaba River Society say the only thing worse than a drought is the first rain after a drought.
They say, for months now hazardous sediment has built up around the metro Birmingham area. The first rain after months of dry weather washes that residue into the waterways causing contamination, says Gordon Black, Education Director at the Cahaba River Society and an avid canoeist.
“I’m not about to go get in the water, today, tomorrow, this week. Because what that runoff brings into the river is not water. It’s all the chemicals, all the manures, all the awful bacterial growths,” Black says.
Black says it could be several days before the waterways are safe for human contact. The National Weather Service is predicting sunshine and clear skies for the rest of the week, with more rain in the forecast over the weekend.
Bessemer residents want answers about a four-million-square-foot data center coming to their backyards
Residents in and around Bessemer are furious over Project Marvel, a plan to build a 4.5-million-square-foot data processing facility on 700 acres of wooded land. Public officials have been sworn to silence.
A Russian drone strike in northeastern Ukraine kills 9 people, officials say
The drone hit a bus evacuating civilians from a front-line area in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region Saturday, hours after Moscow and Kyiv had held their first direct peace talks in years.
How DOGE has tried to embed beyond the executive branch
NPR has identified nearly 40 small, independent entities – both inside and outside the federal government's control – that a team of young DOGE staffers has tried to access in recent weeks.
Trump’s DOJ focuses in on voter fraud, with a murky assist from DOGE
President Trump and his allies have long made false claims of widespread noncitizen voting. Now, as the GOP pursues new restrictions, experts worry isolated arrests will be used to push the new rules.
The first time we had ‘one big, beautiful bill’ we called it Reaganomics
Budget reconciliation may not be catchy, but it's been a vital tool for many presidents, including Ronald Reagan, whose first federal budget was a watershed in the history of federal fiscal policy.
At least 7 people dead and widespread damage left in the wake of severe Midwest storms
The storms were part of a severe weather system Friday that caused damage in Missouri, left hundreds of thousands without power in the Great Lakes region and brought a heat wave to Texas.
