Court moves capital murder trial site

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) &045; The Alabama Supreme Court has let stand a judge’s order changing the site of the capital murder trial of a man accused of killing his prominent parents in their Montgomery home.

In August, Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Shashy granted a defense request to move the trial of Brent Springford Jr. from Montgomery to Birmingham because of publicity in the capital.

Prosecutors appealed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals without success and then to the Alabama Supreme Court, which denied the request Friday.

14-year-old charged with murder in Theodore

THEODORE, Ala. (AP) &045; A 14-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with murder in the Jan. 15 death of a 60-year-old Theodore man shot with a handgun taken during a burglary of his home two days before the killing.

Kate Johnson, a Mobile County sheriff’s spokeswoman, said the teen was arrested about 5 p.m. Thursday at his home.

The boy was charged in the death of Richard Land, who was shot in the front yard of his home.

In a statement Friday, Sheriff Sam Cochran said the 14-year-old allegedly burglarized Land’s home two day before the murder. Investigators recovered stolen items including electronics, jewelry and the .38-caliber revolver used in the Land murder.

Record lodging spending set in ’07 on Alabama beaches

GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) &045; Alabama beach resorts posted record visitor spending on lodgings last year, bouncing back three years after Hurricane Ivan left widespread wreckage on the coast.

Tourism officials hope high gas prices and a slide in the national economy won’t reverse those gains.

Next month heralds student springbreak frolics and the kickoff of get-to-the-beach tourism. Gasoline prices tend to bottom-out at the end of January, then start rising in March and peak on Memorial Day.

Last year, the average price for regular unleaded in Alabama was $2.05 at the end of January, soaring to $3.08 on Memorial Day. It was $2.91 last month, said AAA-Alabama spokesman Clay Ingram of Birmingham, who could not predict this year’s Memorial Day high.

“We’re starting a lot higher than last year,” Ingram said.