Past and future
The Crescent Theatre in Mobile is not dead yet.
The venue dates to the vaudeville era in 1885. Patrons there have seen burlesque shows and silent films. The space was used for restaurants as well over the decades before it was updated and reopened in 2008 to show mostly independent films.
It shut down again a little over two years ago, and a recent effort to make it a movies-and-comedy venue sputtered.
Now, AL.com’s Lawrence Specker reports that new operators have announced a “Grand Re-Re-Re-Re-Opening.”
That re-re-re-re-opening takes place Sept. 4, 5 and 6 with two comedy shows and a streaming of “The Big Lebowski,” respectively.
Husband’s sentence
A former chiropractor was sentenced to life in prison for trying to kill his wife by lead poisoning, reports AL.com’s Heather Gann.
Brian Thomas Mann of Hartselle stood to collect more than a million dollars in life-insurance money on his wife, Hannah.
Hannah said she became sick in August 2021. She had back pain, abdominal pain, nausea and lethargy so bad that it was hard to walk. She said she took multi-vitamins provided by her husband. She was not responsive when she arrived at UAB Hospital.
A doctor at UAB said she had eight times the normal amount of lead in her body. It took constant irrigation of her colon to remove it.
A cool August morning
When I called Wednesday morning bone-chilling, I was kidding. Mostly.
There were a handful of record-low temperatures for Aug. 27, reports AL.com’s Leigh Morgan.
The Shelby County Airport, with records dating to 1995, had a low temp of 58 degrees, breaking 2015’s record 62 by a whopping four degrees.
Birmingham’s 55 degrees also shattered the record of 58 degrees set in 1968. And Anniston tied its record low of 53 degrees.
One of the coolest temps came in at 47 degrees near Oneonta.
Big layoffs, bigger hiring
Mass layoffs in Alabama are on pace to affect the most workers since the pandemic year of 2020, but that appears to be more than offset by growth in other businesses.
A mass layoff is defined as events in which a company of at least 100 employees lays off 50 or more. AL.com’s Hannah Denham reports that Alabama employers have announced more than 3,100 such job cuts this year. The state has averaged fewer than 2,000 since the pandemic.
Half of this year’s mass layoffs occurred in business that were shutting down Alabama operations. Yet employment has still grown in the state. And unemployment is the sixth-best in the nation at 3%.
In July Alabama’s employed numbered 2.3 million, a 1.1% increase year-over-year. The labor-force participation rate is around 58%.
Jonathan McNair of the Alabama Department of Workforce said that as some Alabama businesses have contracted or closed shop, bigger employers have expanded or come into the state.
Also, while mass layoffs are more attention-getting, total layoffs are a little more in line with those of a year ago. During the first six months of this year, 132,000 workers have been laid off. Through the first sixth months of 2024, 135,000 were laid off.
McNair said that many workers have been able to find new work before filing for unemployment, some with contractors that replaces the original employer and keeps its employees, although the state doesn’t have full records on those kind of rehires.
By the Numbers
6
That’s how many suspects have now been charged in the Montgomery shootout that paralyzed a woman caught in the crossfire.
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