Good Thursday morning to you…

Weather: As it should be. Mostly sunny and warm today with highs in the upper 80s and nighttime lows in the middle 60s. Warmer still on Friday, with highs reaching 90 degrees and lows in the middle 60s.

It all started with some steaks. A series of raids of convenience stores took place all across Birmingham on Wednesday, and all of them had their roots in a shoplifting arrest made in February by Gardendale police at the local Walmart. In February, they booked a man for stealing steaks from the superstore; that suspect admitted that he was stealing the meat in order to sell it to inner-city stores, who would then resell them to customers at prices typically much higher than supermarkets — those convenience stores are generally located in areas without supermarkets, because of high crime and low income in the area. As investigators looked into the arrest, they found that it was part of a ring where suspects would purchase electronic benefits cards — part of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, and still often called “food stamps” — by paying cardholders in cash for half the value left on the cards. They would then use the cards to illegally purchase foods to resell at inflated prices. That led to Wednesday’s raids and 17 arrests by the FBI, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, numerous federal agencies, plus Gardendale, Birmingham and Hoover police. The raids shut down 11 stores, all of which are now subject to being seized and sold by the federal government. Investigators are also checking into reports that the proceeds from these crimes may have been funneled into terrorist hot spots such as Yemen, since many of those arrested have ties to the Middle East.

Sports: Skating for the Cup. The Chicago Blackhawks won the first game of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals 2-1 on the road at Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, thanks to a third-period goal and an assist by Teuvo Teravainen. His goal came on a shot from the left point near the blue line with 6½ minutes left, then he fed the puck Antione Vermette, whose shot clanged off the crossbar and into the net. Chicago takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, which resumes Saturday night at 6 (NBC-13)… Basketball: The NBA Finals get under way tonight, as LeBron James seeks to establish his place among the game’s greatest players ever. His Cleveland Cavaliers take on Stephan Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the first game of the best-of-seven series, played in Oakland tonight at 8 (ABC-33/40).