MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's biggest news stories of 2019 included a legislative effort to outlaw abortion, an ongoing crisis in state prisons and a deadly tornado that claimed 23 lives. Here's a look at the stories that dominated headlines over the last year.
LEE COUNTY TORNADO
Twenty-three people were killed and dozens more were injured when a powerful tornado ripped through the rural community of Beauregard in Lee County, Alabama, on March 3, 2019. The youngest of those killed was 6, the oldest 89. The EF4 tornado with winds of 170 mph swept homes from their foundations and reduced others to unrecognized piles of twisted rubble as it cut a damage path up to a mile wide.
FILE - In this May 19, 2019 file photo, protesters for women's rights march past Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to the Alabama Capitol to protest a law passed making abortion a felony in nearly all cases with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, in Montgomery, Ala. This was one of the top stories in Alabama in 2019. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)ABORTION BAN
Alabama lawmakers approved a controversial near-total ban on abortion that did not allow exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. The ban would make performing an abortion a felony, but a federal judge temporarily blocked it from taking effect as a challenge plays out in court. Supporters of the ban say they want to mount a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion nationwide. A backlash over the legislation caused protests at the Alabama Statehouse and Capitol.
PRISON CRISIS
The U.S. Department of Justice in April said Alabama prisons house male inmates in unconstitutional conditions where violence is "too common, cruel, of an unusual nature, and pervasive." The Justice Department threatened to sue the state if conditions did not improve. The investigative findings detailed a chilling litany of incidents. Alabama also faces a federal court order to boost staffing in a separate case over mental health care. The state faced a rash of inmate homicides despite the attention on reducing prison violence.
GAS TAX
Alabama lawmakers approved a 10-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase to fund road and bridge construction. The gas tax increase will be phased in over three years. The first six-cent increase went into effect on Sept. 1. With the backing of Republican leadership, the bill moved on the legislative fast track after Gov. Kay Ivey called lawmakers into a special session at the start of the 2019. The tax increase also placed new fees on hybrid and electric vehicles that will take effect in 2020.
FILE - In this Dec. 2, 2019 file photo, deputies from the Lowndes County Sheriff's department bow their heads in prayer during the eulogy at the memorial service for slain Lowndes County Sheriff "Big John" Williams, in Montgomery, Ala. William's death was one of the top stories in Alabama in 2019. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt, File)POLICE OFFICERS KILLED
Six Alabama law enforcement officers were shot and killed in the line of duty in 2018. Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams was among those slain. Williams was shot at a gas station in the county where he served as sheriff. The other officers killed in 2019 were: Huntsville police Officer Billy Fred Clardy III (a Chattanooga man has been charged in the case); Tuscaloosa police Officer Dornell Cousette; Birmingham police Sgt. Wytasha Carter; Mobile police Officer Sean Tuder; and Auburn police Officer William Buechner.
KIDNAPPINGS
Three-year-old Kamille McKinney vanished in October while playing outside at a birthday party at the Tom Brown Village Housing Community. The search for the missing toddler gripped the state. Police found her body 10 days later in a dumpster at a county landfill. Two people face capital murder charges in the girl's death. Separately, 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, the stepdaughter of UFC heavyweight Walt Harris, disappeared after police say she was abducted from an Auburn gas station. A man faces capital murder charges after her remains were found in a wooded area.
Traffic passes a mural along Africatown Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama, on Thursday, May 30, 2019. An archaeological report will be released Thursday, May 30, 2019 on the discovery of what experts believe is the last ship known to have brought enslaved people from Africa to the United States. The event in the Africatown community of Mobile also will include a community celebration and commemoration event marking the discovery of the schooner Clotilda , according to the Alabama Historical Commission. (AP photo/Kevin McGill)LAST SLAVE SHIP
Researchers working in the murky waters of the Gulf Coast located the wreck of the last ship known to bring enslaved people from Africa to the United States. Remains of the schooner Clotilda were identified near Mobile after months of assessment. In 1860, the wooden ship illegally transported 110 people from what is now the west African nation of Benin to Mobile, Alabama. The Clotilda was then taken into delta waters north of the port and burned to avoid detection of the illegal trip.
FILE - In this May 9, 2109, file photo, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions smiles during a farewell ceremony for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in the Great Hall at the Department of Justice in Washington. Sessions is planning to run for his former Senate seat in Alabama. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
JEFF SESSIONS RETURNS
A year after being forced out as the nation's attorney general, Jeff Sessions announced a return to the political stage with a bid for his former Senate seat. His decision adds to the brewing drama in the 2020 race. Sessions joined a crowded and competitive GOP primary field that includes Congressman Bradley Byrne, former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. The Republicans are vying for the right to challenge incumbent Democrat Doug Jones in November.
ALABAMA DEMOCRATIC PARTY UPHEAVAL
A power struggle emerged in the Alabama Democratic Party as two sides wrestled for control. Longtime party bosses Nancy Worley and Joe Reed were pitted against a reform group that had the support of U.S. Sen. Doug Jones and others. The Democratic National Committee ordered the state party to hold new leadership elections and state Rep. Chris England was elected as party chairman under new bylaws. Worley maintained the election was illegitimate and filed a lawsuit to try to block England from taking control.
CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the majority-black city of Birmingham violated a state law protecting Confederate monuments when it put plywood panels in front of a towering obelisk in a downtown park. The all-Republican court reversed a circuit judge's ruling that struck down Alabama's 2017 law protecting Confederate monuments as an unconstitutional violation of the free speech rights of local communities. Alabama sued Birmingham in 2017 after municipal officials erected a wooden box obscuring the inscriptions on a 52-foot-tall obelisk honoring Confederate veterans.