West Alabama Friday Briefing

Good morning West Alabama! It is Friday, May 2, 2025. This is the 122nd day of the year with 243 days remaining.

In Today's Morning Briefing:

Weather
News
Sports
Morning Observations

Weather:

We could be in for some stormy weather this afternoon through tomorrow. The Storm Prediction Center has painted an area basically northwest of the I20/59 corridor under an Elevated (3 in 5) Risk for strong to severe thunderstorms with damaging 60mph winds and quarter size hail the main threat. There is a Slight (2 in 5) Risk for stormy weather southeast of the I20/59 corridor for today. The tornado risk, while low, is not zero.

Saturday there is a Marginal (1 in 5) Risk throughout the day Saturday with showers and storms backing off during the evening hours. Highs will be more early spring-like in the 70s.

Overnight lows early Monday morning will drop into the chilly 40s before highs bump into the upper 70s.

The Forecast:

Today

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 4pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Tonight

Showers and thunderstorms likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 4am. Some of the storms could be severe. Low around 63. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Saturday

Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Patchy fog between 9am and 10am. High near 75. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Saturday Night

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm, then a chance of showers between 10pm and 1am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 53. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 74. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the morning.

Sunday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 49.

Next Week

Mostly sunny with highs in the upper 70s to start the work week. Lows will be in the mid 50s. Rain chances return Tuesday through Thursday.

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News:

President Trump Gets Rousing Reception at Special UA Commencement Event

President Trump talked politics, Bama Football and Basketball and encouraged the 2025 graduating class during his special commencement keynote address at UA’s Coleman Coliseum last night. “Now is the time to work harder than you’ve ever worked before,” he said. “Find your limits and then smash through everything.”

Trump encouraged UA's largest ever graduating class to, “Think of yourself as a winner,” “Be an original” and “Never, ever give up.”

Trump also advised the graduates than, "Anyone can be a winner and our whole country will be cheering you on. I will be at the front of the line, especially because you come from the incredible university."

The president spoke under the Coleman Coliseum scoreboard that showed 45- 47, his presidential number of his split terms in office.

UA graduation ceremonies will continue throughout the weekend and there will be some road closures around campus.

Read More: President Trump, Nick Saban Address UA Seniors at Coleman Coliseum

Nick Saban Introduces President with Encouragement for Graduates

Retired Bama Head Football Coach Nick Saban introduced the president by telling students, faculty, guests and a national television audience he felt like, "I'm the warmup band for the Rolling Stones." Saban also used a peptalk similar to the ones he used to motivate his teams.

"And if you remember, back in 2009 when we won our first national championship here, we had a celebration in the stadium, and I said, ‘This is not the end, this is the beginning.’ And the reason I made that statement is I wanted our players and the people in the program and our supporters at the university to realize that we wanted to create a legacy of success. Well, that's what you have the opportunity to do now."

Read More: Nick Saban Shares Funny Donald Trump Story from Tide’s White House Visit

Protestors Diss Trump in Several Small Rallies

One protestor, Lynne Lee, told reporters she came to oppose last night's appearance by President Trump at UA to prove, “... that power of the people is greater than the people in power and it is time for us to take back our government.”

Other than a brief encounter with pro-Trump counter protestors, the four separate protest sites remain peaceful.

Court Records Allege Brutal Treatment of Missing Fayette County Toddler

New court documents about Fayette toddler Kahleb Collins’ disappearance reveal that his mother Wendy Bailey tortured, willfully abused, cruelly beat, or otherwise maltreated Kahleb on more than two occasions. The 1-year-old's disappearance was discovered after a traffic crash killed Kahleb's father and 2-year-old sister.

The child is presumed dead although his body has not been found. His grandfather Jack Bailey also faces several charges in relationship to the boy's disappearance.

Sulligent Police Chief Arrested

Sulligent Police Chief Rick McDaniel is in the Fayette County Jail facing unreleased charges. WCBI TV in Columbus, MS is reporting the 58-year-old was taken into custody last night after the crash of a UTV and an altercation with a family member.

According to sources, the incident took place in the Lamar County where McDaniel serves.

The case has been assigned to the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

TPD Looking for Attempted Burglary Suspect

The TPD Criminal Investigations Division is seeking a man connected with an attempted burglary of a home near the UA campus. Officers say the attempted break-in happened early this past Sunday morning at a home in the 1200 block of 13th Street.

A young woman called 911 at 5 a.m. Sunday morning after she was awakened by a security camera notification on her phone.

Video showed the man unscrewing a flood light on the porch and attempting to open a window. The residents later found that a window on the other side of the duplex had been opened. They didn’t notice any items missing or disturbed.

Read More: Tuscaloosa Police Look to Identify Attempted Burglary Suspect

LuLu's Law Goes to Gov. Ivey for Signature

Lulu’s Law is headed to Gov. Ivey for her signature after passing both houses of the legislature. It implements a shark alert system along the Alabama Gulf Coast after Lulu Gribbin lost a hand and part of a leg from a shark attack last June.

Fayette County Man Indicted for Murder

A Fayette County grand jury has indicted 37-year-old Michael Wade Tucker on charges of murder, abuse of a corpse, and possessing a forbidden firearm. The body of 21-year-old Laci Cheyenne Whitson was found in a wooded area behind Tucker's residence after her family had reported her missing.

Child Exploitation Arrests in Pickens County

The Pickens County Sheriff’s Office recently led an undercover operation targeting individuals attempting to exploit children through online interactions. Multiple arrests were then made when suspects arrived at a pre-arranged location under the belief they were meeting a child.

Arrested were Edi Sanchez, Carlos Lopez, Marquees Boose, Jason Baines, and Edson Archila.

West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, the 24th Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office, and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) participated in the operation.

Read More: Alabama: Suspects in Online Child Exploitation Sting Arrested

Sulligent Receiving Rebuild Alabama Funds

$350,000 from the Rebuild Alabama Fund is going to Sulligent for road and bridge repair in the Lamar County city.

According to a release from ALDOT, Sulligent is planning to use the money to resurface all or parts of 17 streets, a total of just under five miles.

The total project cost is $850,000 with the city committing $500,000 in matching funds.

Potential Severe Weather Pushed University of Montevallo Graduation Indoors

The University of Montevallo is moving spring commencement activities indoors due to the threat of severe weather today and tomorrow. Officials say commencement rehearsal, set for today, will take place inside the Student Activity Center (SAC) at Central State Bank Arena, which is where the ceremony will be held tomorrow.

Due to limited space indoors, UM says that graduates will each be issued five tickets for their friends and families to attend the event. Tickets will not be required for wheelchair users or children who sit on laps.

Beginning at noon today tickets may be reserved at a website provided by the school.

Sports:

Alabama Softball Start 3-Game Series at USC Off with a Bang!

The Bama softball teams scored 10 runs in the second inning before a run rule 13-1 win at South Carolina last night.

Alabama (36-18 overall, 12-10 SEC) scored a run in the first inning off of a South Carolina (37-14 overall, 11-11 SEC) throwing error and another run off of an error in the second inning sparked a huge frame for the Crimson Tide, bringing 13 batters to the plate to score 10 runs off nine hits to swell the lead to 11-0.

The 10-run second inning are the most runs in an inning for Alabama in SEC play since scoring 12 in a 16-2 win over Missouri on March 28, 2016

The final SEC series of the season continues tonight at 5:00pm CDT and concludes Saturday at 11:00am. CDT on the SEC Network.

Alabama Baseball in the Music City for 3-games at Vanderbilt

No. 18 Alabama baseball (35-10 overall, 12-9 SEC) returns to action for a three-game road series against Vanderbilt (32-13 overall, 12-9 SEC) beginning tonight The Crimson Tide will be making its first trip to Nashville since 2021.

PROBABLE PITCHING ROTATION

Tonight:
- RHP Tyler Fay (UA) vs. LHP JD Thompson (VU)
Saturday:
- RHP Riley Quick (UA) vs. RHP Cody Bowker (VU)
Sunday:
- LHP Zane Adams (UA) vs. RHP Connor Fennell (VU)

Sunday's game will be televised by the SEC Network. All three games can be heard on Tide 100.9.

Tide Academics Remain High

A total of 98 University of Alabama student-athletes are being awarded 99 undergraduate and graduate degrees this weekend. The Tide's achievements include three Olympians, an NCAA champion, eight All-Americans, 21 SEC champions and 13 All-SEC honorees.

Among this year's spring graduates are student-athletes who contributed to College Football Playoff semifinal runs, a men's basketball Final Four appearance, softball College World Series appearance and a women's soccer College Cup berth. The Tide's graduating class has also helped secure Southeastern Conference Championships in men's and women's cross country, football and soccer.

UA Football graduates were recognized by President Trump during his commencement keynote address last night.

Friday Morning Observations:

The presence of President Donald Trump anywhere is a flashpoint for leftwing Democrats and likeminded organizations. That was the case last night when the Republican Chief Executive delivered a special commencement keynote address at Coleman Coliseum.

UA and State Democrats held a protest of approximately a thousand or so at Snow Hinton Park with former Alabama U.S. Senator Doug Jones as the drawing card. Other anti-Trump protests took place with much smaller participation in downtown Tuscaloosa and on the Million Dollar Band's Butler Practice Field.

To the credit of the anti-Trump protestors, there were no significant incidents reported. But what was troubling was the hate that was written on signs and spewed forth from some participants. They like to call conservatives hateful but last night they seemed to just be filled with anger.

Some of the things proposed by the protestors were the very positions on issues that gave Donald Trump a second term in The White House. The far left is in control of the Democratic Party nationally, and if it hopes to regain control of congress at the midterm elections it better review what got them beat and not repeat the fiasco.

Obviously, both parties have extremists, but it was the Democrat's far left that seemed to scare Americans the most last November. Now, instead of learning their lessons, Dems seem to believe the solution is to move even further left with voices from "The Squad," a group of leftwing Democratic congresswomen. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar from Minnesota, Massachusetts's Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and others of similar political ilk.

During yesterday's protests there were a number of people wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Socialism is Our Future". If that is the direction Democrats are headed, then their future may continue to be bleak, no matter how Donald Trump and the GOP stand in the polls.

(Opinions expressed in Morning Briefings are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the ownership, management, staff or sponsors of Townsquare Media Tuscaloosa.)

Click TuscaloosaThread.com for the latest West Alabama news, sports and weather. Better yet, download the app.

Have a wonderful week, congrats grads and keep an eye on the weather. ROLL TIDE!!

Source: West Alabama Friday Briefing

Categories: News, Local News