Alabama | featured news

A line of rare winter tornadoes roared through Alabama early Monday morning, ripping apart homes and businesses and prompting the state's governor to declare a state of emergency.

A strong storm system that produced several possible tornadoes hit the Southeast on Wednesday, damaging dozens of homes and buildings. At least four people were killed and more than a dozen others were injured. Suspected tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina, and thousands of people were without power as trees and power lines were downed.

The injunction from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals came after the U.S. Justice Department requested that the legislation be put on hold until larger constitutional questions can be addressed.

The Obama administration is seeking to block enforcement of the disputed Alabama immigration law... The controversial state law allows police to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally if they cannot show proper documentation when stopped by authorities for any reason.

A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of Alabama's new law cracking down on illegal immigration, ruling Monday that she needed more time to decide whether the law opposed by the Obama administration, church leaders and immigrant-rights groups is constitutional.

The city's refusal to let homeless residents occupy temporary housing provided by FEMA has sparked outrage in this central Alabama town of 2,000, with angry citizens filling a meeting last week and circulating petitions to remove the man many blame for the decision, Mayor Jack Scott.

Federal regulators ordered in-depth inspections Tuesday at a nuclear power plant run by the Tennessee Valley Authority in northern Alabama after deciding the failure of an emergency cooling system there could have been a serious safety problem.

Actor Charlie Sheen toured an Alabama neighborhood leveled by tornadoes and said Monday he wants to organize a relief event for victims in the state.

Rescue and relief efforts continue in seven states in the South as hundreds of thousands remain without power. University of Alabama ends school year early. The death toll from this week's tornadoes continued to climb Saturday morning, making the storms fueled by record winds the second worst in history.

President Obama arrives in Tuscaloosa after flying over the hard-hit region. 'We're going to make sure you're not forgotten,' he tells residents. About 300 people are known dead in the South, with 210 of them in Alabama.