7 Things: B’ham murder count sets record; suspect arrested in Mobile mass shooting; and more …

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January 2, 2023

7. Alabama rolls on, Troy claims most football wins in the state

Alabama Crimson Tide superstar QB Bryce Young likely played his last game as his 321 yards and 5 TDs led his team to a big 45-20win over Big 12 champs Kansas State.
Even though Alabama had the higher-profile game, the Troy Trojans declared their football team had the “BEST IN BAMA” in a tweet. They followed that up by bragging about the 1 million views the previous tweet received, it now has over 2 million.

6. Pressure builds for lying congressman-elect to quit before being seated

U.S. Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.) is still under pressure to resign his seat in Congress before he is even seated.
Not everyone is suggesting he go away, former congressman from Wisconsin and Fox News host Sean Duffy suggested that Santos should, “stay in Congress and work for your district.” Conservative website The American Spectator praised Santos for duping progressives at their own game and explaining, “Say you’re a Wall Street whiz, that you’re gay and Jewish and that you come from Holocaust survivors, and that you’re a 9/11 victim, if only by proxy.”

5. Suspect nabbed in murder of 4 college students, he denies it

Police in Moscow, Idaho, believe they have the person responsible for the murder of 4 University of Idaho students on Nov. 13. The suspect is Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student in criminology.
According to Kohberger’s lawyer, the suspect will be waiving his extradition hearing and was “eager to be exonerated of these charges.” His family vows to, “promote his presumption of innocence.”

4. A lot of really bad takes floated around a potential Trump/DeSantis fight

Former Trump advisor Paul Ingrassia spent the weekend touting a love letter from former President Donald Trump over a column he wrote attempting to attack Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He even copied the lame attempt to brand DeSantis as “Ron DeSanctimonious.” Just embarrassing.
More interestingly and less likely than a Trump/DeSantis fight, some supporters of DeSantis are trying to float a potential presidential ticket that includes U.S. Sen.-elect Katie Britt (R-Montgomery). The group “Ron 2 The Rescue” declared Britt, to be young, electable, and conservative, and added, “Britt & DeSantis would make for a power ticket!”

3. 1 dead, 9 shot at New Years’ celebration in Mobile

Mobile’s New Year’s Eve celebration was marred by a shooting that caused death and injuries just blocks away from where the city’s main event was taking place. A 24-year-old was killed and nine people, ages 17 to 57, were also shot.
An injured suspect is now in custody but Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson says a task force is being formed to find “everyone responsible” for the shooting. Responding to the mass shooting as a whole, Stimpson said, “I am outraged at the violence that occurred last night in downtown Mobile. I am beyond disgusted that the actions of one or two individuals with suspected gang affiliations have taken a life, injured others and tarnished what should have been a safe and fun event.”

2. Fretting over new gun law is silly theater

A former federal prosecutor from Alabama and now-terrible television personality on MSNBC, Joyce Vance, is one of many pundits warning that Alabama is on the verge of a dystopian future because constitutional carry is now in place. Vance shared her half-baked thoughts on Twitter claiming the shooting in Mobile (taking place in 2022) and the new law are somehow linked. They are not, unless the shooter is a time traveler.
Vance’s opinions are motivated by politics, as is most of the media coverage of the story. Some worry that people can now carry without a concealed carry license in half of the states in the United States. It is highly-unlikely those killing their neighbors in America’s urban centers are big fans of licensing their firearms nor will this law cause more of those killings.

1. Birmingham’s mayor sets record

Congrats are in order for Birmingham’s social media-addicted Mayor Randall Woodfin – he has overseen more murders in a single year than any other mayor in the city’s recent crime-riddled history. A total of 144 people in Birmingham were murdered in 2022, this ranged from a 3-year-old killed by his father to a 97-year-old veteran beaten to death in a robbery.
Woodfin released another video on social media in response where he made it clear that he did not want the people killed to be “turned into empty statistics or a simple number.”