Sections

Federal election commissioner says Trump is trying to improperly remove her

Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission, says President Trump is trying to improperly remove her from the post.

“Unprecedented”: White House moves to control science funding worry researchers

If the Trump administration continues targeting DEI in science and seeking to slash funding, American science will look fundamentally different.

Employers added fewer jobs in January — but the labor market overall remains healthy

U.S. employers added 143,000 jobs in January — a modest slowdown from the two previous months. The unemployment rate dipped to 4%.

A family endures a dictatorship in the Oscar-nominated ‘I’m Still Here’

A Brazilian family is rocked when the father disappears following a military coup. I'm Still Here tells the heroic true story of a wife and mother who steers her family through the rapids of tyranny.

The 2025 Super Bowl guide: When is it, who’s performing at halftime and how to watch

From the football field to the halftime stage, here's what to know about the storylines and stakes before Super Bowl 59 kicks off on Sunday.

A search is underway along Alaska’s coast for a plane carrying 10 people

The disappearance marks the third major incident in U.S. aviation in eight days. The Bering Air Caravan, a single-engine turboprop, was heading from Unalakleet to Nome.

Republicans target immigration in legislature’s opening week

Republicans hit the ground running as the Alabama legislative session started this week. Among their top priorities is a package of immigration bills, which advanced out of committee and onto the Senate. We talk about that and other action this week with Todd Stacey, host of Capital Journal and Alabama Public Television.

U.S. importers prosecco panic

President Donald Trump's threats to impose new tariffs on European goods has caused Americans to suddenly stockpile their favorite Italian wines, especially prosecco.

Why is the Trump administration targeting USAID?

From Day 1, the Trump team has issued a series of orders and statements aimed at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

U.S. veterans work to make sense of New Year’s Day incidents: It’s ‘doubly tragic’

U.S. veterans are worried that two deadly incidents involving current and former service members could increase stigma, or paint veterans as somehow damaged.

Flu cases rise again, while COVID takes a back seat

It's an unusual winter for respiratory illnesses. The flu is peaking twice: once in early January and again in February. Meanwhile, it's the mildest COVID winter since the pandemic began.

It’s like ‘dead birds flying’: How bird flu is spreading in the wild

That's the way one scientist puts it — referring to how infected wild birds survive long enough to spread it to birds and mammals around the world. And that's a serious risk for human health.

U.S. education policy is at a crossroads. This congressional hearing shows why

The House education committee is charged with forging consensus on the nation's education policy. But at a recent meeting, partisan differences were on full display.

Republicans race to release plans to advance Trump policy agenda in Congress

House Speaker Mike Johnson is working with House Republicans to advance a budget bill that would allow Republicans to pass many of Trump's top policy priorities without threat of a Senate filibuster.

Japan’s Ishiba to push importance of alliance during visit with Trump

Trump has long felt that Japan and other wealthy allies take advantage of the U.S., racking up big trade surpluses, while paying too little for the cost of American military protection.

Trump carries out his ‘flood the zone’ strategy, creating a week of whiplash

An attempt to identify and explain some of the biggest things that happened each week, and draw attention to some that have been overlooked.

Alabama puts man to death for a 1991 murder in the nation’s fourth execution using nitrogen gas

Demetrius Frazier was pronounced dead at a south Alabama prison Thursday evening for his murder conviction in the 1991 rape and killing of Pauline Brown. It was the first execution in Alabama this year.

Alabama set to execute a man with nitrogen gas for 1991 murder and rape

Demetrius Terrence Frazier was convicted of the 1991 murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown. Prosecutors said Frazier raped and shot her after breaking into her Birmingham apartment. If carried out, Frazier's execution will be the third in the United States in 2025 and the first in Alabama this year.

Ivey calls public safety her top priority for the 2025 session

The proposals come in the wake of mass shootings that rattled Alabama cities, including the shooting deaths of four people outside a Birmingham nightclub in September.

In wake of mass shootings, Alabama lawmakers eye ban on Glock switches and public safety bills

After a violent year marked by multiple mass shootings in Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey and many lawmakers from both parties are backing a proposed ban on so-called Glock switches and other conversion devices that make semi-automatic weapons fire like machine guns.

Crime and education on the agenda for the 2025 legislative session

The 2025 legislative session in Alabama kicks off Tuesday, Feb. 4 with plenty on the agenda. Education, public safety, and of course the budgets are expected to come up. We get a preview of what's ahead with Todd Stacy, host of Capital Journal on Alabama Public Television.

Steel City Men’s Chorus brings music and friendship to LGBTQ+ community in Birmingham

The Steel City Men's Chorus, formed in 2013, is the only queer identified chorus of its kind in Alabama.

2025 Murrow Award Entry — Continuing Coverage

The following are stories that were part of WBHM’s coverage of the closing of Birmingham-Southern College. BSC’s Daniel Coleman talks about his years-long effort to save the school and what […]

With leaked footage from the inside, Sundance doc shows horrifying conditions in Alabama prisons

Incarcerated men in the Alabama prison system risked their safety to feed shocking footage of their horrifying living conditions to a pair of documentary filmmakers. The result is “The Alabama Solution,” which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Federal judge hears request to block an upcoming nitrogen gas execution in Alabama

The state of Alabama urged a federal judge Tuesday to allow the nation's fourth execution with nitrogen gas to proceed next week, but a doctor who witnessed an earlier execution by the new method told the judge the inmate appeared to be in distress and awake minutes longer than officials predicted.

Amid sewage issues, a nonprofit is helping Alabama Black Belt residents find solutions

As the region grapples with poor sanitation, groups like the Black Belt Unincorporated Wastewater Program are taking it upon themselves to address the issue.

Birmingham’s new resilience chief looks to protect residents from climate change

“Fundamentally, to me, it's about survival,” says Sherry-Lea Bloodworth Botop, Birmingham’s new chief resilience and sustainability officer about fighting climate change.

Alabama’s foster care caseworker turnover is at 50%. What can be done?

Alabama is struggling to keep foster care caseworkers on the job. The state reports a turnover rate of 50%in 2024. Why does the state have such a high turnover rate and what is being done to fix this? 

Alabama woman with a functioning pig organ is thriving after a record 2 months

An Alabama woman passed a major milestone Saturday to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant – healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting.

Man charged with 11 homicides — including two mass shootings in Birmingham — pleads not guilty

Damien McDaniel is accused of killing 11 people between July and September of last year in Birmingham — which would account for over 7% of all homicides in the city in 2024.

Trump’s geographic renaming plans leave mapmakers pondering what to do next

Mapmakers and teachers are re-thinking what to call the gulf of water between Mexico, the United States and Cuba after President Donald Trump ordered it renamed from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. There's no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features shared by countries. And map lines are inherently political.