NJN/am for Thursday, April 26

Published 5:00 am Thursday, April 26, 2012

A good Thursday to you, and let’s get on with it…

Weather: Maybe a storm. There’s a slight chance of a pop-up thunderstorm today and tonight, but other than that it will be warm with a high around 80. Not much change over the next week, with highs in the middle 80s and lows in the lower to middle 60s. There’s a chance of scattered showers Sunday and Monday.

Traffic: ALDOT plans rolling roadblocks on the northbound side of the Corridor X construction zone on I65 Thursday afternoon for more blasting. They will begin at the I-20/59 interchange around 1:30 p.m. On the good side, traffic headed into Birmingham from Tuscaloosa will no longer have to contend with a detour in Bessemer after tonight. Repaving of the northbound lane near Splash Adventure water park (the former Alabama Adventure park) will end late tonight.

Exit Newt, stage right. He had become a non-factor over the last month or so, but former House Speaker Newt Gingrich stayed in the Republican presidential race, pinning hopes on a possible primary win in Delaware on Tuesday. But former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept all five primaries that day, Gingrich was all but finished, and on Wednesday a spokesman for Gingrich said that he will officially drop out and endorse Romney sometime in the next few days. Texas Rep. Ron Paul remains in the race, but it is mathematically impossible for him to catch Romney for the nomination.

Sports: Softball winds down. High schools are winding up the regular season the next couple of days, and all five local public schools are in action this afternoon, highlighted by Gardendale at Corner. The Yellow Jackets, who have struggled with personnel issues in the last three weeks, dropped to tenth in the final Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 4A poll released this morning. In other games, Fultondale travels to Oakman, Mortimer Jordan hosts Center Point, and Hayden hosts Walker in a game that basically determines who wears the home uniforms in the Wildcats’ first-round area tournament game against Curry next week.