The sheriff of an Alabama county mired in allegations of abuse was arrested on Monday for hiring officers with out state coaching or certification, in keeping with an indictment.

Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith, 41, was indicted on six misdemeanors in state court docket, accused of hiring one deputy, 4 armed college useful resource officers and one jailer who allegedly didn’t have state certification or coaching, in keeping with court docket paperwork made public on Monday.

Each the deputy and a few college useful resource officers had been issued division patrol automobiles, badges and firearms, in keeping with the indictment.

Smith has come under scrutiny in recent years for the loss of life of Tony Mitchell, a 33-year-old mentally unwell man who died of sepsis and hypothermia after being held within the native jail in 2023.

At least 14 law enforcement employees for Walker County have pled responsible or been indicted on federal expenses associated to Mitchell’s loss of life. Smith, who was first elected sheriff in 2018, has been named in a civil lawsuit filed by Mitchell’s household.

A minimum of one of many officers talked about in Smith’s indictment beforehand had his certification suspended in Arizona after he admitted to placing a gun to a girl’s head throughout a visitors cease, in keeping with sworn testimony throughout a civil service board assembly final month.

The deputy was employed in late June as a provisional officer, which meant he wasn’t allowed to execute arrests or patrol alone till he accomplished his state coaching beneath state regulation. However the deputy made three arrests and investigated three deaths, in keeping with civil service board testimony from a fellow officer in Might.

Waker County Sheriff’s Division Chief Deputy Ralph Williams was additionally arrested on Monday for allegedly mendacity to the Alabama Peace Officers’ Requirements and Coaching Fee, saying the officer had been terminated final November.

There have been no attorneys listed for Smith or Williams on Monday afternoon. Phone and electronic mail messages in search of remark had been left with the Walker County Sheriff’s Workplace.

Smith known as the Might civil service board listening to a “sham” and “political circus” whereas he was questioned.

___ Riddle is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.

Picture: The Walker County jail in Jasper (Safiyah Riddle/AP).

Copyright 2025 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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5 massive brokerage companies should reimburse prospects $19 million as the results of a nationwide crackdown by state securities regulators on what they are saying are fee overcharges on small-dollar transactions, in accordance with Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin whose workplace led the investigation.

Based on consent orders fied by Galvin’s securities division final week, Edward Jones, LPL Monetary, RBC, Stifel, and TD Ameritrade pays as much as $9,870,000 in fines along with offering restitution to affected prospects.

The companies have denied any wrongdoing.

Based on the consent paperwork, the brokerage companies “failed to make sure small-dollar transactions have been executed at a good and cheap value,’ overcharging prospects by making use of minimal fee prices as excessive as $95, whatever the reasonableness of the commissions.

The investigation checked out conduct throughout the approximate time interval of Could 1, 2020, to April 30, 2025. Throughout that five-year interval, regulators stated that, nationwide, the companies charged roughly $19 million to course of 1.12 million small greenback fairness transactions and trades.

State securities rules prohibit companies from charging unreasonable commissions, with fee prices that exceed 5% of the whole transaction typically thought of to be unreasonable.

“This practice that some brokerage companies have of nickel-and-diming prospects with the intention to line their pockets with commissions is one thing that I and different securities regulators have been watching carefully,” Galvin stated in saying the settlement.

Galvin stated states have secured related settlements for overcharged prospects with different companies previously, and they’ll proceed to oppose makes an attempt to cost small-dollar traders unreasonable charges.

Prospects will obtain refunds within the quantities that they have been overcharged, with 6% curiosity.

The settlements are the results of an ongoing investigation by a multi-state working group of securities regulators, in coordination with the North American Securities Directors Affiliation (NASAA). Along with Galvin’s workplace, the working group included regulators in Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Texas, and Washington.

Galvin stated a minimum of 21 different states intend to affix the settlement.

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Agencies

Final week, we answered the query; What do folks have to find out about hurricane season?

In responding to that query, it occurred to me that there’s extra to the reply and I wish to give attention to the query of energy.

For many of us more often than not, an influence outage is comparatively uncommon and short-lived.

However throughout a hurricane, all bets are off. An influence outage that may usually take a few hours to repair may take three days to get to throughout a hurricane as a result of

• It might not be protected to deploy restoration crews.
• Some crews could not be capable of go away their very own properties.
• Your line might not be in a high-priority space.

In order that leaves us with the query, how do I present energy at my dwelling when the grid is down. Life is best if you concentrate on this query properly earlier than the storm begins to indicate up on the night information, your tik tok feed, or YouTube. Like, take into consideration this now.

There are three high-end methods to just remember to have energy when the grid is down. You would spend money on photo voltaic panels and because you’re already in that far, be sure that they set up the battery backup so to retailer a number of days’ value of energy. You would additionally purchase an electrical car should you’re a fan of these. They are often your battery backup should you lose energy. Simply just remember to maintain that EV charged as a result of they will’t cost with out energy. You would even have a complete dwelling generator put in at your home. These could run on gasoline, pure fuel, or propane, and are designed to kick in robotically if the ability goes down.

Now that now we have that crowd out of the best way, let me discuss to the remainder of us, who’re searching for some strategy to have energy simply in case the grid goes down, and we don’t have the bankroll for the opposite options.

For many who need energy, however don’t need a lot in the best way of upkeep or gasoline value, there are a number of kinds of energy stations which are comparatively small and might energy something from a few cellphone chargers and followers to working small kitchen home equipment. These energy stations will be charged by plugging into the home (earlier than you want them) and plenty of embody a photo voltaic panel or will be related to a conveyable photo voltaic panel.

Possibly you’re desirous about a extra conventional generator. So let’s speak about these. A conveyable generator is normally sufficiently small to be moved by one or two folks and so they can usually energy a lot of your home, though take note of the working wattage, not the crank wattage, and just remember to don’t exceed your generator’s means to offer energy. That’s why they’ve fuses, and so they can exit on you should you’re not cautious.

If you happen to get a generator, take the next precautions.

• Use it outside in a well-ventilated space. I don’t care should you suppose somebody may steal it, maintain it outdoors. It’s burning fuel and creating carbon monoxide. If you happen to don’t know why that’s unhealthy, simply search the web.
• Get a plug professionally put in. That approach, when your neighbor comes over for the subsequent cookout, you possibly can present it off and humble brag that you simply’re prepared for the subsequent storm.
• Run it on the producer’s advisable schedule. Put fuel in, crank it up, and plug one thing in. Run it for a short while, after which shut it down and put it away. Not solely are you able to flex on the neighbors who don’t have a generator, nevertheless it retains the mud daubers from constructing a nest in your carburetor.

Yet another factor, should you get a generator that you simply hook into your private home in any respect, irrespective of the way you do it, or how large it’s, this final level is a very powerful for you.

Flip off your principal energy shut off earlier than you hook up, or flip in your generator. If you happen to don’t do this, you’ll feed at the least a few of your energy into the powerlines. It might not be sufficient to offer juice to your neighbor for his or her freezer, nevertheless it may very well be sufficient to injure or kill an influence restoration crew member and also you don’t need that. Their jobs are too onerous with out us including a shock stage of issue to them.

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Catastrophe
Natural Disasters
Hurricane