Alabama snow and what you need to know

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It sure does look like it’s going to snow somewhere in Alabama on Tuesday.

The state was virtually covered in winter weather advisories, the governor has declared a state of emergency and many schools were announcing closings ahead of what could be a significant winter weather event.

But maybe not for the reasons you’d expect.

Snow day: Tuesday closing announced for some schools

Here are a few questions or things to know if you’re going to have to face the snow.

1. So is it REALLY going to snow?

The National Weather Service seems to think at least someone in Alabama will get snow on Tuesday.

All of the state except for the southeast corner is under a winter weather advisory.

A strong cold front is expected to move through Alabama tomorrow, and light snow is anticipated fill in behind it in the much colder air that follows.

Winter weather advisories expanded in Alabama

It will be cold enough for snow to fall in north and central parts of the state, and a wintry mix to light snow will be possible all the way to near the Gulf Coast.

In fact, the weather service in Mobile said up to 1 inch is not out of the question in isolated spots in south Alabama.

Less than an inch to maybe 2 inches will be possible in north and central Alabama.

2. OK then, so WHEN is it going to snow?

Snow could begin in northwest Alabama as early as 3 a.m. and spread south and east through the day.

Here’s a look at estimated arrival times from north to south:

The snow could last all day and taper off early Wednesday morning in areas in east Alabama.

3. There likely won’t be a lot of snow

Forecasters as of Monday night were thinking that 2 inches could be the top range for snow amounts across Alabama tomorrow. Most spots are likely to get an inch or less.

The exceptions could be higher terrain areas, which typically get a bit more.

Add an asterisk here: Those forecasts will likely be refined going into Tuesday.

4. But the amounts don’t matter as much for us this time because….

It’s going to be cold, and whatever falls is likely going to stick — and stick around for a while for those in north and north-central parts of the state.

So only a little snow has the potential to cause big travel issues.

Remember this?:

Traffic travels along I-20/59 near downtown Birmingham after a winter storm dumped snow on Jan. 28, 2014.Tamika Moore | tmoore@al.com 

Temperatures on Tuesday aren’t expected to rise above freezing in many spots — and some places in north Alabama may not make it above freezing again until Thursday.

And Monday’s halfway decent temperatures could have the consequence of “warming” up the roads, a bit, so that they could be still holding onto a bit of heat when the first snow falls.

That could cause the snow to melt, then quickly refreeze as temperatures continue to fall through the afternoon.

Which brings back bad memories for many of ….

5. Is it going to be just like the Snowmaggedon? No, the Snowpocalypse?

Not exactly like it. At least this time around forecasters have a better idea of what could happen, and many people across the state are electing to stay home and (hopefully) off the roads on Tuesday.

That should lessen traffic as well as potential problems.

It won’t catch us by surprise this time.

6. A winter weather advisory ISN’T a downgrade even though it may sound like one

The National Weather Service in Birmingham changed a winter storm watch to a winter weather advisory on Monday afternoon.

(NWS) 

(There are also winter weather advisories in effect for southwest Alabama and north Alabama.)

That may sound like a lesser threat, but it’s not, meteorologist Gerald Satterwhite said earlier this afternoon:

“Some people think that going from a watch to an advisory is a downgrade but it’s not,” he said. “The watch meant we were kind of keeping an eye on the potential for there to be winter weather impacts, but now that we’re more certain that will occur we’ve gone to an advisory.”

To get a winter storm warning more than 2 inches of snow would have to be expected.

7. Expect the forecast to change even now. 

There is only one thing that’s certain when it comes to winter weather in Alabama: Expect the unexpected.

There’s still the question of just how much moisture will make it into the state to touch off the snow as the cold air arrives.

It could mean hardly any snow. Or it could mean more.

“We’re still keeping a very close eye on the amount of precipitation that’s going to occur,” said the weather service’s Satterwhite. “We still can’t rule out there being just a hair more moisture with the system that could push totals a little bit higher.”

8. When are things going to get back to normal?

That depends on where you are. Temperatures in south and south-central Alabama are expected to rise into the mid to upper 30s on Wednesday, which could help to melt anything on the ground there.

North and north-central Alabama may not be as lucky. Temperatures for those areas on Wednesday aren’t expected to make it above freezing from roughly Birmingham north. So it may take longer for roads to become drivable again.

Thursday promises to have highs above freezing statewide.

Gallery: Snow possible in Alabama

 

13 Siblings, Some Shackled to Beds, Were Held Captive by Parents, Police Say

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The sheriff’s office did not say how long the siblings may have been held captive.

Sheriff’s deputies provided food and water to the siblings, who claimed that they were starving. They were later transported to hospitals for treatment. Their conditions were not released.

The Turpins’ home in Perris, Calif., on Monday. The police said it was dark inside and smelled foul.


Mike Blake/Reuters

California records show that Mr. Turpin had received state approval to run a private school, the Sandcastle Day School, at the family’s home, a one-story stucco house in a subdivision built in recent years. The school enrolled six students this year, in grades sixth through 12th, and Mr. Turpin was listed as the principal.

Perris, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles, is one of the largest cities in Riverside County, which became an emblem of bankruptcy and foreclosure during the depths of the recent recession. Known as the Inland Empire, the region has rebounded in recent years.

The couple filed for bankruptcy in California in 2011, stating in court documents that they owed between $100,000 and $500,000 in debt. At that time, Mr. Turpin worked as an engineer at Northrop Grumman, the defense contractor, and earned $140,000 annually, records show. Ms. Turpin’s occupation was listed as a homemaker.

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Their bankruptcy lawyer, Ivan Trahan, said in a phone interview on Monday night that the parents spoke often about their children. They had 12 at the time of their bankruptcy, Mr. Trahan said, adding that the children never visited his law office.

“They spoke about them highly,” Mr. Trahan said.

He said Ms. Turpin told him that the family loved Disneyland in Southern California and visited often.

“We remember them as a very nice couple,” Mr. Trahan said. “This is shocking.”

On Sunday evening, a van and three cars were parked in the driveway at the Turpins’s house, and TV news station trucks lined their streets. Neighbors said they rarely saw the parents or the children, except for when some of the siblings were mowing the yard.

The Turpins moved to California from Texas around 2010, the parents wrote on Facebook, after Mr. Turpin returned to work for Northrop Grumman. On a family photo of the parents and 12 children (the youngest had not yet been born) posted on their Facebook page in 2011, a friend asked if all the children pictured were theirs.

“Yes all 12 are our children and we are very proud of them,” the Turpins replied.


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Hundreds gather at Orange County synagogue to mourn slain college student Blaze Bernstein

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Blaze Bernstein was on winter break and visiting his parents in Lake Forest when they proudly explained that his namesake was Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century child prodigy who went on to become a mathematician, inventor and master of prose.

The 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania flashed a shy smile when they added, “We expect great things from you, too,” according to a website the family created in his memory.

A few hours later, Bernstein left the house without saying goodbye. He was reported missing the next day by his family, who became concerned after he didn’t show up for a dental appointment.

On Friday, three days after his body was found in a shallow grave in an Orange County park, detectives said they had arrested a former high school classmate in the slaying.

Two of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Children Speak Out Against Trump

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In Washington, Martin Luther King III, a son of Dr. King, noted Mr. Trump’s remarks and said, “I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is.”

“Now the problem is that you have a president who says things but has the power to execute and create racism,” Mr. King said. “That’s a dangerous power and a dangerous position, and we cannot tolerate that. We’ve got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.”

While two of Dr. King’s adult children spoke out against the president on Monday, another relative, in an interview on Fox News on Saturday, defended Mr. Trump. “President Trump is not a racist,” Alveda C. King, a niece of Dr. King and a former Georgia state legislator, told “Fox and Friends.”

In brief remarks at Ebenezer, Mr. Trump’s housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson, suggested that he had concerns about some of the remarks attributed to the president.

“I’m a member of this administration, and I don’t agree with the president about everything or of how it’s said,” said Mr. Carson, who noted, to some laughter, that he did not “even agree with everything that I’ve said.”

The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speaking during a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Monday.


Phil Skinner/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated Press

“There is something to be said about understanding messaging,” Mr. Carson said, “and if the way you say things is so inflammatory that people can’t hear your message, it’s not helpful, and that’s why I don’t do that anymore.”

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Despite the partisan firestorm that has resulted from Mr. Trump’s remarks, elected officials in both parties publicly celebrated Dr. King’s work in Georgia, his birthplace and the site of his marble-encased tomb along Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, wrote on Twitter that “Dr. King’s legacy is a guiding light.”

Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, said it was a day to “honor and remember the leadership and wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy continues to make a positive difference in the lives of many people in our state and around the world.”

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During a visit to Georgia last week, Mr. Trump approved legislation that upgraded the designation of National Park Service sites that honor Dr. King in Atlanta. And on Friday, he signed a proclamation marking the holiday on Monday and encouraged “all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King’s extraordinary life.”

The White House on Monday tweeted a video message from Mr. Trump in which he says that Dr. King’s dream is “the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people and written into the soul of humankind.”

Mr. Trump spent part of the holiday in Florida at the Trump International Golf Club, but White House officials did not confirm whether he played golf.

Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.


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Flake Says Trump’s Fake News Claims as Damaging as Stalin’s Were

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Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake plans to compare President Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on the media to those made by Joseph Stalin, the infamous dictator of the former Soviet Union, in a speech this week.

“When you reflexively refer to the press as the enemy of the people or fake news, that has real damage,” Flake said Sunday in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“And then now, today, you have authoritarians across the world using the term ‘fake news’ to justify cracking down on their opposition or — or stanch legitimate debate,” Flake said. “That’s nothing we should be proud of.”

Flake said he’ll expand on the Trump-Stalin comparison during a speech on the Senate floor, probably on Jan. 17. That’s the same day that Trump announced he’ll give out awards to media outlets he claims are producing “fake news.”

“The Fake News Awards, those going to the most corrupt biased of the Mainstream Media, will be presented to the losers” on Jan. 17, Trump said in a Jan. 7 Twitter message. “The interest in, and importance of, these awards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated!”

The president has repeatedly railed against what he says is fake news. In February, he called the media “enemy of the people” in a tweet.

Forbade by Khrushchev

“The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!” Trump wrote.

Vikings stun Saints with last-second TD to advance to NFC Championship Game

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SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports NFL insider Jarrett Bell attempts to put into words the unbelievable finish in Minnesota, and how important situational football meant in a weekend of classic games.
USA TODAY Sports

MINNEAPOLIS – In giant white letters on signage throughout the stadium, and in purple print on white towels placed on each of the 66,000 seats at U.S. Bank Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings made their intentions clear.

Bring it home, the signs said. Home, as in, to the Super Bowl, which will be played here in Minneapolis in three weeks.

The Vikings are now just one win away from becoming the first team to play a Super Bowl at home, after a stunning finished secured a 29-24 divisional-round win against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs scored the game-winning 61-yard touchdown as time expired, as Saints safety Marcus Williams dove at his legs rather than trying for a tackle. After Diggs regained his balance, he had a clear path to the end zone, where he was mobbed by teammates while fireworks exploded inside the stadium.

Quarterback Case Keenum led fans in a “Skol” chant while waiting for 11 Saints players to return from the locker room in order to take a kneeldown on the extra point attempt.

It was a stunning end to a game the Saints appeared to have won in the closing seconds, following a 43-yard field goal by Saints kicker Wil Lutz with 25 seconds remaining. Lutz’ kick came 64 seconds after the Vikings took a 24-21 lead on a 53-yard field goal by Kai Forbath.

The Vikings will travel to play the No. 1 seed Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game next week, a game in which Minnesota is likely to be favored, thanks to the top-ranked defense that largely shut down Drew Brees and the Saints offense on Sunday.

The Vikings intercepted Brees twice in the first half and held the Saints without a third-down conversion in the first two quarters.

More: Steelers’ Mike Tomlin gambled and lost against Jaguars, ending their NFL playoff hopes

More: Jaguars handle Steelers, crash AFC Championship Game party

For much of the game, each time Brees and the Saints offense seemed to find life, the Vikings defense found an answer – from Andrew Sendejo’s leaping interception on a deep pass in the first quarter, to a no-look deflection by defensive end Everson Griffen that wound up in the arms of linebacker Anthony Barr, to safety Harrison Smith’s third-down sack just before halftime that forced a long field goal attempt that was missed.

But this had been the Vikings’ winning formula for much of the season: bring pressure with Griffen and the rest of the hearty defensive front and play tight coverage in the secondary with Smith, Sendejo and cornerback Xavier Rhodes.

Minnesota finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in total defense and points allowed.

But the Vikings defense showed cracks in the second half of the game, as Brees and the Saints found momentum after Sendejo knocked out of the game with a concussion on a hit by receiver Michael Thomas.

Thomas caught a touchdown one play later to spark a Saints rally, and scored again early in the fourth quarter to cut Minnesota’s lead to 17-14.

The Vikings managed to extend the lead back to 20-14 on their next possession on a 49-yard field goal by Kai Forbath on a drive that featured two questionable challenges by Saints coach Sean Payton, who wanted to review a deep completion by Jarius Wright and if Keenum was down before a third-down incompletion. Payton lost both challenges – and two timeouts.

New Orleans secured its first lead on a 14-yard touchdown grab from running back Alvin Kamara to make it 21-20. That was the first of four lead changes in the final three minutes and one second.

Follow Lindsay H. Jones on Twitter @bylindsayhjones.

PHOTOS: Best of NFL divisional round

Here’s how this car got wedged in the upper wall of a two-story building

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A car hit a center divider, went airborne and crashed into the second floor of a small office building in Santa Ana, Calif., on Sunday. (Orange County Fire Authority)

The phrase “crashing into a building” took on a new meaning Sunday when a car in Southern California hit a center divider, went airborne and plowed into the second floor of a dentist’s office.

Images taken by the local fire department show the white sedan partially wedged into the building, its rear exposed as it tilted to one side.

Capt. Stephen Horner, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority, said officials received a call about a crash in Santa Ana, Calif., at about 5:30 a.m. The car was traveling at a high speed when it hit the concrete median. Horner said the driver was not driving parallel to the divider; instead it was coming from a side street and slammed into the median, much like a T-bone crash.

The impact sent the car into the air and into the small office building. Horner said a small fire was immediately extinguished.

Two people were in the car. One managed to get out, while the other one was trapped inside for more than an hour as authorities used a heavy piece of equipment to stabilize the vehicle, Horner said. Both were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

Horner said he does not have any more information on the occupants, but Santa Ana police said the driver admitted to having used narcotics.

Fire officials used a crane to pull the vehicle out of the building and bring it down, Horner said. The second floor, which is a storage space for files, suffered minor damage, he said.

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Missile alert blunder leaves Hawaiians fearful, skeptical

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A blunder that caused more than a million people in Hawaii to fear that they were about to be struck by a nuclear missile fed skepticism Sunday about the government’s ability to keep them informed in a real emergency.

Residents and tourists alike remained rattled a day after the mistaken alert was blasted out to cellphones across the islands with a warning to seek immediate shelter and the ominous statement “This is not a drill.”

“My confidence in our so-called leaders’ ability to disseminate this vital information has certainly been tarnished,” said Patrick Day, who sprang from bed when the alert was issued Saturday morning. “I would have to think twice before acting on any future advisory.”

The erroneous warning was sent during a shift change at the state’s Emergency Management Agency when someone doing a routine test hit the live alert button, state officials said.

Fire engulfs casino shuttle boat off Florida coast, 15 injured

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – At least 15 people were injured when a fire engulfed a boat off the coast of Florida on Sunday, causing the 50 people aboard to jump into the Gulf of Mexico and swim to shore, local officials said.

A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out at about 4:17 p.m. EST from an apparent engine issue, said Shawn Whited, division chief with Pasco Fire Rescue.

“The captain of the boat said there was an issue with the engine. He said he noticed smoke coming form the engine room and turned the boat around,” Whited said.

The 60-foot shuttle boat was on its way to the Sun Cruz Casino boat, a little more than three miles away in international waters. It had only made it about 100 yards from where it originated in Port Richey, about 30 miles north of downtown Tampa.

After seeing the smoke, the captain prompted the 50 people aboard the boat to abandon ship and swim to shore. Some of the injuries were from being in cold water and from smoke inhalation, said Whited.

The boat was “fully engulfed” in flames, said Dan Dede, a dispatch supervisor at Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and Pasco Fire.

An official investigation will start soon, according to Whited. Several agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the City of Port Richey Fire Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responded to the incident.

Reporting by Renita D. Young; Editing by Nick Zieminski

Hopes Dim for DACA Deal as Lawmakers Battle Over Trump’s Immigration Remarks

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“I’m not a racist. I am the least racist person you have ever interviewed, that I can tell you,” Mr. Trump said as he arrived at Trump International Golf Club for dinner with Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the majority leader.

The rift over Mr. Trump’s comments, and how they have since been recounted, risked further eroding trust between Democrats and Republicans at the beginning of a critical week for Congress. Government funding is set to expire on Friday, and lawmakers will need to pass a stopgap spending measure to avoid a government shutdown on Saturday.

And lawmakers are already facing a difficult fight over the politically volatile subject of immigration, with the fates of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants hanging in the balance. Adding to the uncertain picture for those immigrants, the Trump administration resumed accepting renewals for the program over the weekend, under orders from a federal judge who is hearing a legal challenge to Mr. Trump’s dismantling of the program.

But in Congress, the battle took on an increasingly personal dimension as Mr. Perdue and Mr. Cotton essentially accused Mr. Durbin of lying about the president’s comments, even after the vulgar remarks were widely reported and the White House did not immediately dispute that the president had made them.

“I didn’t hear that word either,” Mr. Cotton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And I was sitting no further away from Donald Trump than Dick Durbin was.”

Mr. Cotton said Mr. Durbin “has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings,” an assertion that Mr. Perdue made in his own interview Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week.”

Graphic

How Republican Lawmakers Responded to Trump’s Vulgar Immigration Remarks

Reports of the president’s comments prompted outcry from some lawmakers, but they were followed by notable silence from others.


Ben Marter, a spokesman for Mr. Durbin, responded by suggesting that Mr. Perdue and Mr. Cotton should not be believed.

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“Credibility is something that’s built by being consistently honest over time,” Mr. Marter wrote on Twitter. “Senator Durbin has it. Senator Perdue does not. Ask anyone who’s dealt with both.”

Mr. Graham had previously told a fellow South Carolina Republican, Senator Tim Scott, that reports in the news media of Mr. Trump’s language were “basically accurate.” A spokesman for Mr. Graham did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who is part of a bipartisan group of senators that has developed an immigration proposal, said on Sunday that people in the room with Mr. Trump during Thursday’s meeting told him that the president had used the inflammatory language.

“I was in a meeting directly afterwards where those who had presented to the president our proposal spoke about the meeting,” he said on “This Week.” “I heard that account before the account even went public.”

The other lawmakers at the meeting, all Republicans, have not offered any public recollection of what the president said.

The Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, who also attended the meeting, said on “Fox News Sunday” that she did not recall the president “saying that exact phrase.”

Mr. Durbin had told reporters on Friday that Mr. Trump called African nations “shitholes,” which Mr. Durbin said was “the exact word used by the president, not just once, but repeatedly.” He called the president’s comments “hate-filled, vile and racist.” At the meeting, Mr. Durbin said Mr. Trump also questioned whether the United States needed more Haitians.

Mr. Graham is said to have admonished the president during the meeting, telling him that “America is an idea, not a race.”

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Saying that President Barack Obama had exceeded his authority when he created the program that shields from deportation young immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, Mr. Trump moved to end it in September.

He gave Congress six months to find a fix for the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Democrats have been pushing to secure a deal by Friday’s government funding deadline that would protect Dreamers, hoping to capitalize on the leverage they have as a result of that deadline. Democratic votes will be needed to pass the stopgap spending measure in the Senate, where government funding measures require 60 votes, and Democratic votes might be needed in the House as well.

Republican leaders say they want to address DACA as well, but separately from funding the government. Compared with their Democratic counterparts, Republican leaders are operating on a longer time frame for taking action, given the six-month window that Mr. Trump gave Congress. They also have to contend with internal divisions over immigration policy.

The bipartisan group of senators, including Mr. Durbin and Mr. Graham, reached an agreement last week that would provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients while also providing money for border security and making other changes to immigration policy.

But Mr. Trump dismissed the proposal, calling it a “big step backwards.” And on Sunday, he offered a pessimistic take on Twitter: “DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, they just want to talk and take desperately needed money away from our military.”

Still, administration officials said they intended to abide by an order from Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco last week to restart the DACA program, with some modifications, while a legal challenge plays out. On Saturday, officials did just that by updating the program’s website to once again accept renewals.

But administration officials hope the judge’s decision will be temporary. Officials said the president’s lawyers are examining whether to appeal his order, which could lead to a ruling allowing the administration to shut the program down again. The administration could also choose to modify its legal reasoning to satisfy the judge’s criticisms.

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Either way, immigrant rights activists are not counting on legal action to be the ultimate protection for the Dreamers. Several said they believe the only real solution for the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants is to convince Congress to act soon.

The court ruling could lessen the pressure for that kind of action — at least in the short term — since some young immigrants can once again renew their protected status for another two years.

Lawyers and directors of community legal services spent Sunday preparing fact sheets and answering calls that have been flooding their offices.

Most of the calls that Hasan Shafiqullah, the director of the immigration unit of the Legal Aid Society of New York, said he has been receiving started with the burning questions “Is this real? Can I file?”

The answer, for now, he said, is yes. But he is concerned for his clients about another turnabout in the courts.

“It’s just the emotional roller coaster that our clients are on,” he said.

Allan Wernick, the director of CUNY Citizenship Now, a legal services program at the City University of New York, said filing renewals could be very powerful, at least symbolically, to Mr. Trump.

“The more applications get in, the more it is clear that his ending the program has real-world impact,” he said.

Liz Robbins contributed reporting from New York, and Michael D. Shear from Palm Beach, Fla.


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