Let’s get ready for a three-day weekend….

Weather: Hot holiday. Sunny skies and warm temperatures continue through the weekend, with a possible chance of scattered showers on Memorial Day. Highs will be in the lower 90s, with nighttime lows in the upper 60s.

Traffic: No rolling roadblocks in the Corridor X construction zone on I-65 this weekend. Remember that ALDOT has closed I-20/59 outbound through Bessemer for a month-long repaving project. If you are headed toward Tuscaloosa, go south on I-65 to I-459, then west.

Birmingham News cuts publication schedule. Large metro daily newspapers have struggled over the past few years, but none had yet taken the big step of ceasing publication on some days of the week — until now. Advance Publications, which owns The Birmingham News and its sister papers in Huntsville, Mobile and New Orleans, announced Thursday that they will produce print editions only on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The cutbacks will begin this fall on a date yet to be determined. The announcement was first made by The Times-Picayune in New Orleans after a report in The New York Times on Wednesday speculating about possible schedule cuts.

More plea deals in Kimberly probe. Four more men were arraigned in U.S. District Court on Thursday morning, after agreeing to plea deals in the ongoing federal investigation into illegal gambling and bribery in Kimberly. Adam McGraw, Carl E. Scoggins, Kyle Sloan and John Lynwood Taylor were all arraigned on one count each of conspiracy to conduct illegal gambling, and to bribe Kimberly Mayor Craig Harris. All but Scoggins have agreed to cooperate with the government. Prosecutors are focusing on Robert Taylor as the central figure in the probe; he is charged with four counts related to bribery, conspiracy and illegal gambling.

Sports: Alabama up, Auburn out. The Crimson Tide softball team moved one step closer to the NCAA Women’s College World Series, thanks to a 4-1 win over Michigan in the Tuscaloosa Super Regional on Thursday. Jackie Traina pitched a three-hitter, striking out 10 Wolverines. The teams play the second game of their best-of-three series today at 3:30 p.m., which will be shown on ESPNU; if Michigan wins, they’ll play again immediately afterward (to be shown on ESPN)…. Meanwhile, Auburn was knocked out of the SEC Baseball Tournament at Hoover’s Regions Park, after losing 5-3 to South Carolina. Now the Tigers wait to see if they will be selected for the NCAA Tournament.