First News At Ten

Huntsville Police respond to robbery at Subway

Sat, 26 May 2012 21:16:25 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - Huntsville Police responded to a robbery at Subway on University Drive Saturday night.

Police responded to the robbery just after 9:00 p.m.

No other details were immediately available.

We will continue to update you as more information becomes available.

Fire dampens holiday weekend for Monte Sano family

Sat, 26 May 2012 20:21:30 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A house fire puts a serious damper on the holiday weekend for a Monte Sano family.

Huntsville firefighters kept flames from spreading through the home on Railway Avenue.

Five units responded to the fire.

The home caught fire quickly because it was densely packed with items.

After knocking down the flames firefighters began to try and isolate the source of the fire.

Thankfully no one was hurt.

Morgan County pot bust

Sat, 26 May 2012 18:19:34 -0500

FALKVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - Multiple law enforcement agencies conducted a undercover sting operation in Falkville which netted a local marijuana trafficker for a second time.

Agents, along with Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin, arrested two Falkville men on charges of Trafficking in Marijuana and Possession of Marijuana.

Agents conducted a takedown at Loves Truck Stop in Falkville that led to the arrests of 75 year old Vadie Laney and 20 year old Jonathon Talma.

During the undercover operation agents seized over $5,000 in cash and more than six pounds of marijuana.

Laney, a convicted felon, was found with a loaded handgun in his waistband and an additional quantity of marijuana in his pocket.

Agents then obtained a search warrant for Laney's residence at 238 Dabbs Road, Falkville, Alabama. During a search of the residence additional quantities of marijuana and weapons were discovered.

Laney was charged is being held at the Morgan County Jail without bond. Additional firearm charges are pending.

Talma was released from Morgan County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Limestone County Cocaine bust

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:00:29 -0500

ATHENS, Ala. (WAAY) - Limestone County narcotics investigators busted an alleged cocaine trafficking operation Friday.

Limestone County narcotics investigators, responding to numerous reports of drug activity, executed a search warrant on Westmoreland Ave., in Athens, that resulted in three arrests and seizures of narcotics and currency.

Investigators seized six ounces of powder and crack cocaine, over a pound of marijuana, several items of paraphernalia used for distributing narcotics, a .380 handgun, and approximately $6,200 in currency.

31 year old Ervin Turner was charged with Trafficking in Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana First Degree, and Possession of Paraphernalia.

24 year old Eric Bass was charged with Trafficking in Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana First Degree, Possession of Controlled Substances, and Possession of Paraphernalia.

41 year old Jerry Barbee was charged with Trafficking in Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana First Degree, and Possession of Paraphernalia.

Their bond has not been determined at this time.

Huntsville Police arrest several dollar store robbery suspects

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:53:15 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - The Huntsville Police Department's Robbery Task Force arrested several Dollar Store robbery suspects. The arrests came just four days after police vowed to curtail the robberies.

Investigators interviewed and arrested 22 year old Demario Battle, of Huntsville, around 1:30 a.m. Saturday for the recent robbery of a Dollar General store.

Battle was also charged with driving the getaway car for John Dudley during the robbery of the North Alabama Educators Credit Union on Whitesburg Drive on May 20.

Dudley was arrested after a stand-off on Greenside Drive Sunday.

Battle was charged with Robbery First Business and Robbery First Banking Institution. His bond is currently set at $60,000.00.

The task force also interviewed and arrested 18 year old Lavonte Rice, also of Huntsville, for a Dollar General store robbery and a Parkway Place Mall purse snatching.

He was charged with Robbery Second Strong Arm and Robbery First Business Gun. His bond is pending.

Investigators also arrested a juvenile suspect believed to be involved with a Parkway Place Mall purse snatching and a Budget Insurance Robbery.

For at least two of these suspects, holding up businesses may be nothing new.
Huntsville Police Spokesman Harry Hobbs explains, “Currently the records show at least two of the suspects were out on bond at the time of their arrests."

That's why Huntsville police are working with the District Attorney's office to revoke all three of their bonds, which would keep these alleged repeat offenders locked up until trial.

Several dollar store customers say that's where these suspects belong, since they've noticed these robberies happening far too often.

Frequent Dollar General customer Mickey Grochowsky says he nearly witnessed one himself. He explains, "Well we just went in, bought some stuff and left, and later on we heard that they were robbed like an hour later. I mean I'm just glad that they caught them."

Beverly Chisolm lives near a dollar store that has been robbed multiple times; it’s one she shops at herself. She says, "I'm so disturbed by it, and I'm thankful that they is caught, I'm thankful for that."

Hobbs says this is an active ongoing investigation. He says investigators are closing in on more suspects that may have been involved in recent dollar store robberies.

The three suspects may face more charges as the investigation continues.

Limestone County burglary suspects arrested

Sat, 26 May 2012 14:18:30 -0500

LIMESTONE COUNTY, Ala. (WAAY) - Limestone County investigators arrested brothers James Clay Scott and Mark Lewis Scott on burglary charges Friday.

The arrests were the result of an investigation of a burglary that occurred in the 27,000 block of Oak Grove Road following the recovery of stolen property.

Investigators obtained warrants for the two and they were taken into custody without incident.

As a result of the arrests, a burglary from the 25,000 block of Sweet Springs Road was also solved and resulted in the recovery of additional stolen property including silver coins, guns, and a four wheeler.

The investigation is continuing and may result in additional arrests.

Only on WAAY31: One dead after motorcycle collides with truck:UPDATED

Sat, 26 May 2012 14:04:59 -0500

MONROVIA, Ala. - HEMSI officials say the driver of a motorcycle that crashed into a truck towing a boat has died. The wreck happened just after 10 a.m. Saturday morning near the intersection of Railroad Bed Road and Capshaw Road in northwest Madison County.

HEMSI says 59 year old James Copeland, of Toney, and a female passenger were driving along Railroad Bed Road when they crashed head on into a truck that was towing a boat in route to the lake for the Memorial Day weekend. The female victim on the motorcycle have been identified. Copeland was being transported by ambulance to Huntsville Hospital but died before arrival. The female motorcycle passenger taken by MedFlight to Huntsville Hospital and is listed in critical condition. No one in the truck was injured.

Alabama State Patrol is handling the investigation. WAAY 31's Shea Allen is continuing to follow the story and will have more tonight at 5 and 10.

H.P.D announces Memorial Day DUI checkpoints

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:54:00 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - The Huntsville Police Department announced motorists should be prepared for stepped up “Click it or Ticket” and “Safety Checkpoint” enforcement activities throughout Huntsville this Memorial Day weekend.

DUI checkpoints will begin This weekend at 6:00 p.m. Friday, May 25, 2012 and extend through 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.

f you drive up on a safety checkpoint this weekend be prepared to provide officers your current driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of vehicle insurance. Most safety inspections take less than 45 seconds per vehicle.

This Memorial Day Weekend, HPD will participate in aggressive DUI enforcement checkpoints at various “HOT SPOT” locations. These locations have been independently researched as being directly related to past DUI involved crashes and reviewed by a City Judge prior to set up.

These locations will include but not be limited to roadways such as Drake Avenue at Patton Road, University Drive at Memorial Parkway, Bob Wallace Avenue, Bailey Cove Road, Andrew Jackson Way, Sparkman Drive, Pulaski Pike, and Winchester Road at Moore’s Mill Road.

SpaceX success could be a boost in the Rocket City

Fri, 25 May 2012 21:49:38 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - A historic day for American space flight. For the first time, a private company docked a spacecraft to the International Space Station. The California-based SpaceX sent the un-manned rocket and capsule into space. This successful mission has some real implications for the Rocket City.

When the U.S. Government cut NASA's shuttle program, hundreds of Rocket City NASA jobs were slashed along with it. Andrew Sutinen founded Huntsville Space Professionals to help those former employees, and now, he feels SpaceX's achievement will be a big boost for Huntsville's big industry.

Sutinen explains, “It'll take some time, but the city of Huntsville is the nexus, it is the focal point for space research and space exploration in the United States, so at least these private companies will realize this is the place to start for them to procure, obtain their talent."

In addition to helping other private companies succeed, SpaceX's 'mission accomplished' could help Huntsville researchers who depend on getting to the space station. This is mainly because launching a payload with a private American company is cheaper and easier than through Russia, the only current alternative.

Huntsville Space Professionals Communications Director Chris McLemore says, "Now that they have a vehicle to do that, they'll be more likely to participate and carry their experiments to space."

Now that NASA has signed a 12-launch contract with Space X, McLemore feels privatized space is here to stay. To him, this means that the government agency can concentrate on exploring deeper space. He says, "I think that NASA can actually focus its effort on doing cooler things: going to asteroids, exploring deep space, because now low earth orbit, at least for today, has been shown that it's covered."

The group Huntsville Space Professionals plans to bring SpaceX to Huntsville within the next few months to discuss privatized space flight, and how the company could collaborate with Rocket City space professionals in the future.

City schools report graduation rates below national average

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:47:27 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, AL - Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski admits, the system has some work to do. Friday, the school board finalized the last of the administration changes for several feeder systems whose test scores and graduation rates rank below national averages.

As a system, Huntsville City's high school graduation rate is far less than neighboring Madison City. Huntsville's rate for 2011 is 66 percent and Madison is 91 percent.

The latest figures show the national high school graduation rate at 75 percent. At Butler High School, the rate is striking lower at just 31 percent.

Here are how the city schools ranked:

Butler: 31%
Johnson: 62%
Lee: 65%
Columbia: 76%
Huntsville: 81%
Grissom: 88%
New Century: 95%

Wardynski says solving the problem starts long before the students get to high school.

"Anything that is happening at Butler for example, we look backwards. We look at Westlawn, we look at Morris we look at McDonald and the rest of the schools that feed Butler. What we find is we have a lot of work to do," he says.

Wardynski hopes that new administration, new faculty, new technology in every classroom and a focus on the elementary and middle schools levels, the graduation rates system-wide will improve dramatically.

"We've already been doing a lot this year in the area of elementary instruction we are seeing a lot of good growth at Morris and some of the other feeder schools and so that's bringing things up from the bottom," says Wardynski.

District Attorney requests mental evaluation for Hammad Memon

Fri, 25 May 2012 17:14:13 -0500

MADISON COUNTY, Ala. (WAAY) - Madison County District Attorney Tim Gann filed a motion Friday requesting Judge Karen Hall order a mental evaluation for Hammad Memon.

Memon's attorney plans to use the insanity defense.

Memon is accused of shooting 14-year-old classmate Todd Brown between classes at Discovery Middle School in 2010.

Judge Karen Hall granted a defense motion to delay the trial earlier this month.

The motion was filed in April after Memon and his mother, Safia, fled north Alabama and were missing for several hours before being arrested in Dallas, Texas. The trial was originally supposed to be begin June 18th.

Boat safety during Memorial Day weekend

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:54:00 -0500

Those planning on kicking off the summer season on the water this weekend should be prepared for beefed up marine police patrols.

"The biggest thing is we just want everyone to be safe," said Officer Chris Glover. "We're going to be out looking for people who have been drinking and driving because that's a big concern. Our goal for this holiday weekend is to have zero accidents and zero fatalities."

Glover said that they will also be keeping an eye out for any alcohol on board.

"All of Lauderdale County is dry, so if we pull up and check them and somebody has alcohol on board, they'll get an illegal possession of alcohol ticket which is a very expensive fine," said Glover.

He said that it's important to make sure that there are plenty of serviceable life jackets on board and a fire extinguisher that's up to date.

"When we make a stop on the water, we check for everything," said Glover. "Vessel license, registration, fire extinguishers, life jackets even Type Four throwables which is a device that you can throw like a ring or a lot of times you can get a seat cushion that's U.S. Coast Guard certified."

He said that people should also use extreme caution while swimming.

"A lot of times, all you can see when somebody's swimming is a little head," said Glover. "They're pretty much just a head sticking up and boats go pretty fast. They may not have time to stop or slow down, so it's very dangerous."

He said that they're not there to write a lot of tickets but want to make sure that everyone goes home safe after leaving the water.

Florence gets armed and fired up for tourism

Fri, 25 May 2012 16:07:00 -0500

Florence law enforcement and fire stations are teaming up with Florence Lauderdale Tourism to make the area more visitor friendly, by having them "armed and fired up for tourism".

The tourism bureau is planning to "arm" local law enforcement and fire stations with tourism information. They have created a tourism package for each officer to carry with them to give to any tourist who flags them down for help.

"So often they don't know really a point of contact and when they do stop and ask a police officer, they may not have the information they need to get them correct things," said Florence/Lauderdale Tourism Director Debbie Wilson. "So now they've got all the tools that literally they need in their trunk for being officer friendly."

The packets will include multipe copies of visitor guides and maps featuring local attractions, lodging facilities and shopping areas.

Summertime heat returns this Memorial Day Weekend

Fri, 25 May 2012 11:44:00 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - Summertime will be felt in the Tennessee Valley this weekend.

Moisture flowing into the region over the next few days will make a late May weekend feel more like July or August thanks to an increase in afternoon humidity.

Dew points will continue climbing into the 70's for this afternoon and the weekend making for heat index to average near 100 degrees.

While hot, summertime weather is welcome by many residents, it's never too soon to begin adhering to traditional heat safety tips.

Check on the elderly, make sure you're well hydrated if outside for an extended period of time, apply sunblock while being outdoors, and take the opportunity to ensure outdoor pets have plenty of water.

The upper 80's and 90's are here to stay for the foreseeable future therefore enjoy Summer weather safely.

Tune to WAAY 31 FirstNews today at 4, 5, and 10 for updates on the heat wave forecast with weather information available 24/7 on tnvalleywx.com.

Alabama releases high school graduation rates for 2011-12

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:56:15 -0500

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WAAY) - The Alabama State Board of Education released graduation rates for the 2011-12 school year Thursday.

The Huntsville City School system had a graduation rate of 66%. The lowest graduation rate in the Huntsville system was Butler High School at 31%. New Century carried a rate of 95%.

Madison City School system- 91%.

Madison County School system- 76%.

Decatur City School system- 64%.

Colbert County School system- 61%

To see a complete list of schools click here.

NASA Astronauts visit McDonnell Elementary School

Thu, 24 May 2012 18:11:19 -0500

HUNTSVILLE Ala. (WAAY) - McDonnell Elementary School students got a special treat for their last day of school today as part of their reading program.

Astronaut Mike Fink amazed students with a video from his recent trip to space. Fink answered questions about his time in outer space and encouraged students to follow their dreams.

"I think just about every one of those kids, if they set their mind to it, could be an Astronaut. But its not just about being and Astronaut and flying in space, it's acheiving your dreams, and you can't do that without hard work without knowledge and reading," Fink said.

Mayor Tommy Battle also sat down with students and encouraged them to have a great summer and continue to read.

Airlines charge fee for window and aisles seats

Thu, 24 May 2012 17:51:30 -0500

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - Memorial Day Weekend airline travelors, be prepared to face another new fee. Most major airlines are now adding an extra charge for aisle and window seats, meaning if a family wants to fly together, they will have to pay extra.

Since last summer, Delta, American Airlines and United have all designated a reserved number of coach seats on certain flights that will require an extra charge, whether it be for more leg room or to have a seat at the window or aisle.

John Harrington flew to Huntsville for a relative's graduation. He has a family of four, and said he does not want to pay the fee, but feels like he has no choice if they want to stick together.

"You know they are thowing in all these extra charges, Whether it be for the luggage or the aisle seats or whatever, It's too much," Harrington said.

Travelors agree, Tina Hinze said airlines charging fees for every little thing has gotten out of control.

"I work for the Government so that is additional cost and charge for taxpayers. I work, I have to travel for my job and I think its unfair that the airlines have to nickle and dime people flying so its just completely unfair," Hinze said.

Tammy Williams traveled to Huntsville for Memorial Day Weekend. She said she would have to see her family split up before she would pay the extra charge.

"I think it's ridiculous. I think it's highway robbery and they are just trying to find a way to make an extra buck."

Stalker arrested in Etowah County

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:01:15 -0500

ETOWAH COUNTY, Ala. (WAAY) - Etowah County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested a Rainbow City man charged with aggravated stalking Wednesday.

Authorities say 51-year-old Danny Smith stalked a woman and made threatening phone calls and text messages. Smith allegedly stole a 1991 Toyota Corolla from the woman's residence. Sims and the victim had previously been in a relationship.

Sims was found hiding in the attic of a residence located on Leeth Gap Road in the Whitesboro Community.

He has a prior record of arrests concerning violations of protection orders and resisting arrest.

“We take seriously finding those who violate domestic violence orders and intend harm to their victims,” says Sheriff Todd Entrekin. “I commend all the deputies and agents who were involved in located this dangerous criminal.”

Sims was charged with one count of aggravated stalking, one count of first degree theft of property, two counts of violation of a domestic violence protection order and one count of resisting arrest.

Sims is currently being held in the Etowah County Detention Center on a $105,500 bond.

Huntsville Police investigating fatal wreck: UPDATE

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:27:40 -0500

HUNTSVILLE , Ala. (WAAY) - Huntsville Police say a woman died after crashing her car into a tree off of Airport Road Thursday.

Police say 59-year-old Kathy Hawkins Wilson was travelling westbound on Airport Road around 12:20 p.m., in an older model blue Ford Escort, near the entrance to the Fire Station near Jaycees Way.

That's when her vehicle left the road and hit a tree on a soccer field.

She was taken by HEMSI to Huntsville Hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

A witness told police Wilson slumped over the steering wheel as she ran off the roadway into the field.

According to family members she has a history of medical problems.

Alabama governor signs both budgets

Thu, 24 May 2012 14:25:49 -0500

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has signed two state budgets into law.

Bentley said Thursday he didn't like everything the Legislature put into the education and General Fund budgets, but there were more positives than negatives.

Bentley said he waited to sign the budgets until the Legislature passed a use tax bill early Thursday morning. It moves part of the state use tax from education purposes to the General Fund budget.

The General Fund budget also depends on voters in September approving a transfer of funds from a natural gas revenue savings account and from the education budget. Bentley plans to travel the state to promote the referendum. He predicted voters will approve it if he explains it is a way to finance the General Fund budget without raising taxes.