NJN/am for Wednesday, June 4

Published 6:52 am Wednesday, June 4, 2014

It’s Wednesday, and let’s recap all of Tuesday’s winners and losers…

Weather: No rain! For the first time in several days, there is no chance of rain in today’s forecast. Mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 80s, followed by a partly cloudy night with lows near 70. Rain returns Thursday with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms and highs in the upper 80s.

DeMarco, Palmer, Shelnutt and King. Those four candidates will have six more weeks of campaigning, as they finished in the top two spots of their respective Republican primary elections on Tuesday. State Rep. Paul DeMarco of Homewood and Alabama Policy Institute founder Gary Palmer of Birmingham will face each other in the runoff for the Sixth Congressional District race. DeMarco was the clear winner with 33 percent of the vote, with Palmer second at 20 percent. Palmer was in a tight race with State Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale, physician Chad Mathis of Indian Springs Village and corporate executive Will Brooke of Birmingham for most of the night. But Palmer and Beason first pulled away from the pack, then Palmer left Beason behind in late returns. Beason was third by just 28 votes over Mathis, with Brooke fifth. Over in the State Senate District 17 race, Trussville businessman Shay Shelnutt and Locust Fork attorney Brett King were the clear winners. King led for most of the night, but Shelnutt pulled ahead late to win with 34 percent to King’s 30. Oneonta businessman Jim Murphree was a distant third; all others were in single-digit percentages. The runoff takes place July 15.

Sports: Tide falls to Florida. Alabama’s softball team came up short in the second and deciding game of the Women’s College World Series championship series, as the Gators took the title with a 6-3 win. Former Mortimer Jordan standout Haylie McCleney went 2-for-3 at the plate and scored twice; she tried to spark a rally in the seventh inning with a triple off the wall. It’s the first softball national championship for the Gators… College football: Nick Saban is definitely the big winner of the day, as the Crimson Tide inked a contract extension that will keep him at the Capstone through 2022. Saban will reportedly get about $7 million per year, plus several other perks. According to Forbes magazine, Saban’s new salary is behind only four other head coaches – all of them in the NFL.