1. Heat wave takes hold.

 

2. Cannabis council to meet.

• Alabama’s commission considering laws about medical marijuana is holding its first meeting.
• The Medical Cannabis Study Commission is tasked with recommending legislation to be considered in the 2020 legislative session. The panel will hold its first meeting at the Alabama Statehouse on Tuesday morning.
• The commission was created by lawmakers as a compromise after a bill to allow medical marijuana stalled in the Alabama Legislature.
• Sen. Tim Melson’s original bill would have allowed patients with certain medical conditions to purchase medical marijuana with a doctor’s approval. The Alabama Senate approved the measure, but the proposal hit opposition in the House of Representatives.
• The National Conference of State Legislatures says more than 30 states have approved some form of a medical marijuana program.
• Read more from Brian Lyman HERE.

 

3. Former Rep. James Thomas shot.

• The Selma Police Department is investigating a shooting that injured former state Rep. James Thomas.
• “The whole case is still under investigation, but he’s back at home,” interim Police Chief Robert Green told Alabama Daily News on Monday. He said the shooting occurred Aug. 5, but police didn’t learn of it until the next day.
• Thomas, who once represented Selma as a Democrat, was convicted in 2012 of having sexual contact with a student when Thomas was a high school principal.
• Thomas on Monday told Alabama Daily news he was driving when someone started firing at his vehicle.
• “I didn’t know them and they didn’t know me,” he said. “I was in Selma, I can’t tell you exactly where.”
• Thomas was shot once in the thigh, he said.
• “We’re trying to determine what happened,” Green said. His department learned of the shooting after the Wilcox County Sheriff’s office requested Selma police contact Thomas, who lives within the police jurisdiction.
• Read more from ADN’s Mary Sell HERE.

 

4. Parolee nabbed for UA burglaries.

 

• A paroled burglar is accused of breaking into the bedrooms of sleeping University of Alabama students and robbing them.
• The Tuscaloosa News reports 35-year-old Jim McCoy was arrested Saturday and charged with burglary and criminal trespassing.
• Tuscaloosa police Lt. Teena Richardson says the investigation into the break-ins may yield additional charges. Police say a woman told officers earlier this month that she awoke in the middle of the night to find a man standing at the foot of her bed.
• Police Capt. Brad Mason says the man fled the screaming woman, who later noticed she had been robbed. The scene replayed itself days later at another home. Mason says there haven’t been any reports of physical contact between the burglar and victims.
• McCoy was out on parole for a previous burglary conviction.
• Read more from Stephanie Taylor HERE.

 

5. AP News Briefs.

 

• Auburn University has named longtime broadcaster Andy Burcham to take over as the athletic department’s main play-by-play announcer.
• An announcement from the school says Burcham will become the lead announcer for football, men’s basketball and baseball.
• Burcham will replace Rod Bramblett, who died along with his wife in a wreck in May.
• Burcham has been involved with Auburn radio broadcasts for the last 31 years.
• Burcham worked with Bramblett for the last 25 years broadcasting Auburn baseball. He also worked as the play-by-play announcer for women’s basketball.

• An Alabama man has been sentenced to life without parole in the killing of his girlfriend.
• News outlets report that a judge in Mobile imposed the sentence on 34-year-old Steven Mason during a hearing Monday.
• Mason was convicted of capital murder and could have gotten the death penalty for the slaying of Ke’Lei Morris.
• Morris was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head at her home in Mobile in 2015. Mason denied killing her, but he was charged with murder two years later.
• Mason was convicted in June. During sentencing he said he was sorry Morris is dead, but he didn’t accept responsibility for what happened.
• Another man, Adam Miller, also is charged in the killing. He is due in court later this week.

• A Montgomery man accused of shooting at another parent during morning drop-off at an elementary school will receive mental health treatment.
• A judge on Monday ordered Isaiah Johnson to receive inpatient mental health treatment at the Veteran’s Health Care System. Prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to the move.
• After treatment, Johnson will be returned to the Montgomery County jail as the criminal case against him continues.
• Johnson is charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Police say Johnson fired a gun multiple times in the car line at an elementary school following a traffic dispute last week. No one was injured.
• Johnson’s wife died recently, and prosecutors wrote in a court filing that a friend had expressed concern for Johnson’s mental stability after her death.

• Alabama’s attorney general has agreed to release more than $200,000 seized from the brother of Jefferson County’s sheriff after a federal judge criticized the state’s “misleading” attempt to link it to an illegal gambling operation.
• Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office in July sought to seize a bank account it said was connected to a gambling operation in Bessemer called Brighton Ventures. The bank account was frozen as a result of the civil asset forfeiture petition filed in state court.
• Bruce Pettway filed a federal lawsuit seeking to unfreeze the money, saying the state’s action was both unlawful and politically motivated.
• His brother, Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway, and Marshall have feuded over gambling enforcement in the county.
• Full story HERE.

 

Headlines.

 

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