NJN/am for Tuesday, July 24

Published 5:00 am Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hello, Tuesday…

Weather: Blazes! The summer heat continues, with afternoon highs around 96 and heat indices reaching into triple digits. There’s a 20 percent chance of a scattered shower or storm. Nighttime lows will be in the middle 70s. The pattern continues through the work week.

“She is a hero.” That’s what the police chief of Bear Creek, Ala. told a local cable television channel after a Gardendale girl drowned while saving her younger brother from the same fate. Brandi Odum, 9, was playing with her two younger brothers in her grandparents’ pond near the Winston County community, when one of the brothers got into deep water. Brandi went after him and pulled him to safety, but then got into trouble herself. Brandi’s grandmother was able to pull her out and administer CPR, but the youngster died at a Haleyville hospital not long afterward. Brandi Odum went to Gardendale Elementary. Funeral arrangements are incomplete as of this morning.

Busy Fultondale street gets help. Walkers Chapel Road, the primary street between Fultondale’s center and Interstate 65, will be repaved thanks to some federal money. The project was approved at the Monday meeting of the Fultondale City Council, which voted to allow Mayor Jim Lowery to contract with ALDOT for the repaving.

Church request draws opposition. A request by Kimberly Church of God to the city’s council has met with resistance from neighbors. Pastor Dr. Stan Cooke asked the city to vacate an unused alleyway and a nearby street so that the congregation could expand its parking lots. However, a resident of a house behind the lots is objecting, saying she would be cut off from access to Jefferson Street if the proposal is approved. In their regular session Monday night, former mayor Rudy Sandlin — who operated a now-vacant store behind the church, facing Doss Street and across from City Hall — had a history of encroaching on neighboring property and public rights of way over the years. The council did not act on the request, pending a review by city attorneys on legal points of “adverse possession” claimed by the church.

Sports: Not the death penalty, but close. The NCAA lowered the boom on the troubled Penn State football program, banning the Nittany Lions from post-season bowl appearances for four years and imposing a $60 million penalty on the university. The action comes in light of the conviction of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky of sexually abusing several young boys on school property, and the findings by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that several high-ranking Penn State officials — including head coach Joe Paterno — knew of Sandusky’s crimes but did nothing because of how it would impact the program. The NCAA also vacated all of the Nittany Lions’ victories from 1998 to 2011, and altered Paterno’s record to reflect that. The action effectively guts the Penn State football program for the next decade or more. Paterno, who died a few weeks after being fired for his role in the scandal, moves from being the winningest coach in Football Bowl Subdivision history to fifth place on the list; Birmingham native Bobby Bowden now assumes the top spot again, which he held until the NCAA vacated 12 Florida State wins because of academic fraud in 2009. (Paul “Bear” Bryant is now second.)