Hello, Wednesday – yeah, we know, the camel…

Weather: Just a tad warmer. Sunny and warm is the order of the day, with highs in the middle 80s and lows in the lower 60s. Thursday will be pretty much the same.

Road to the future. Gov. Robert Bentley made it official Tuesday – the Northern Beltline highway project is officially on. The highway, which will eventually be called Interstate 422 and go for 52 miles through northern Jefferson County, will begin next year with a small portion between Alabama 75 and 79 north of Pinson. The announcement came at a press conference held at the Gardendale Public Library.

Crime spree in Corner. A break-in and robbery at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church late Sunday night is the latest in a string of such crimes in and around Corner in recent days. Robbers also struck a convenience store, a car wash and the Yellow Jacket Restaurant, whose owner has organized a meeting there on Oct. 8 so that local residents can figure out how to stop the criminals.

ObamaCrash. Tuesday was the first day for the new online health care exchanges that are a big part of the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as ObamaCare. But the debut did not go well in many areas, as websites run by the federal government and some states crashed, or had errors that prevented users from examining available policies. Even at 2:45 Central Time this morning, the application portion main federal site was down because of heavy traffic, preventing Alabama users from seeing what options were available. Meanwhile, the partial shutdown of the federal government – brought about due to efforts by House Republicans to de-fund or delay ObamaCare, combined with refusal of Senate Democrats to consider any changes to the controversial program – continues into its second day, with non-essential federal services shut down again.

Sports: Buctober. The Pittsburgh Pirates are in baseball’s playoffs for the first time in more than two decades, thanks to a 6-2 win over Cincinnati in the National League Wild Card game. Russell Martin smashed two homers for the Bucs, who won their first post-season game since 1992. Tonight, Cleveland hosts Tampa Bay in the AL Wild Card game… Hockey: Drop the puck, eh? There are some hockey fans in north Jefferson County (good morning, De Allen), and they are no doubt happy to see the opening night of the new NHL season on Tuesday. The Chicago Blackhawks raised their Stanley Cup championship banner to the rafters, then took down visiting Washington 6-4, despite a hat trick by Mikhail Grabovski for the Capitals.