The Alabama National Guard has been activated to help with the winter weather in Alabama over the next couple of days. The Guard announced on social media that about 350 Guardsmen will operate six Mobility Support Teams that will be staged across the state. They will help local first responders and the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. AL.com reports The Mobility Support Teams are equipped for route reconnaissance, right of way clearance, transportation of critical resources, search and rescue, and more. The ALNG will operate under the direction of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency for the duration of the winter weather response.
The Decatur City Council met behind closed doors on Thursday to discuss the third-party review of the Decatur Police Department. WAFF TV reports the meeting lasted almost four hours. The meeting was centered around a comprehensive review of the DPD sparked by the shooting death of Steve Perkins. He was shot and killed by a Decatur police officer in 2023. The report will not be made public just yet, the city council will meet again on Jan. 13 before releasing the review.
State officials announced this week that the Alabama State Department of Education suffered a data breach in December. In a memo to superintendents across the state, State Superintendent Eric Mackey said the state was told by PowerSchool, a cloud-based education software company, that it had identified unauthorized access to certain customer information through its portal. The memo states names, addresses, email addresses and some medical and grade information for students may have been impacted. WHNT TV reports social security numbers are not believed to be affected because the department of education doesn’t collect that information as part of the student information system.
According to City of Huntsville statistics, tailgating is the leading cause of automobile accidents. In a blog post on the city’s website, communication specialist Adam Smith said following too close made up 26.1% of the 8,452 accidents within the city limits in 2023. The other top causes are misjudging stopping distance and improper lane changes. AL.com reports other crash factors include failing to yield the right of way, running red lights and not noticing hidden objects.