Welcome to Thursday, make the best of it…

Weather: Rain comes to an end. The scattered showers we’ve seen over the last few sayd will finally diminish this evening. We’ll have a 40 percent chance of showers and storms today with highs in the middle 80s. Rain chances drop to 10 percent tonight with lows in the upper 60s. Sunny and warmer on Friday with highs in the lower 90s.

No charges pressed. The man who was shot in in a family dispute near Morris on Saturday night has refused to sign a warrant against the brother of his girlfriend, so the shooter has been released. The incident came about when the shooting victim’s live-in girlfriend accused the man of being abusive toward her, and she then called her brother. That sparked two separate confrontations, the latter of which ended in the brother shooting the boyfriend. The boyfriend was taken to UAB Hospital in critical condition; a sheriff’s spokesman said the man is expected to recover.

Sports: Stoops isn’t a Saban fan. Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops took a series of shots at the SEC in general and Alabama coach Nick Saban in particular on Wednesday, as he went through the “ESPN Car Wash” – going from studio to studio in a series of interviews at the channel’s Bristol, Conn. Headquarters. Stoops made fun of Saban’s comments about last year’s Sugar Bowl, which the Sooners won over the Tide, as being a “consolation game” for the national championship. “They didn’t look like it was a consolation game on that first drive when they scored a touchdown and everyone thought they were going to rout us,” Stoops said. “I’ve been in plenty of those [non-national title games]. We’ve played in a bunch of national championship games, right?” He also made light of SEC scheduling, particularly the Texas A&M card. “They have Lamar, Rice, SMU and Louisiana Monroe. Boy those are all a bunch of toughies, right?” he said.