BW Recommends is a rundown of stories you might have missed this week. It offers insight into issues important to our area and sometimes tickles your curiosity.

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Does Tuberville actually live in Alabama? A reporter digs in (WBHM)

WBHM interviewed Scott Johnson, a reporter with the Lagniappe Daily in Mobile, who has taken a deep dive into Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s expense records to shed light on his residence as he runs for the Republican nomination for governor.

Federal court sets May 22 hearing on new Alabama congressional map

A federal court has set a hearing for May 22 to consider a request that it order Alabama not to revert to using a 2023 congressional map the court previously declared racially discriminatory. The court is reconsidering the map after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier lifted a permanent injunction against the map following a ruling in a Louisiana case that weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

‘They may draw racist maps, but we are the South’: thousands rally in Alabama for Black voting rights (The Guardian)

Thousands of people from across the country descended on Montgomery on Saturday. They arrived by bus, by car and by plane to gather for the All Roads Lead to the South rally, following the supreme court’s Louisiana v Callais decision last month, which essentially gutted the Voting Rights Act and severely limited protections against voting discrimination.

Organized by a coalition of national and local civic engagement groups, the rally took place outside the Alabama state capitol building, in the same plaza where the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches — three nonviolent demonstrations in support of Black voting rights — are enshrined.

Alabama Third-Grade Reading Scores Essentially Unchanged (Alabama Daily News)

Alabama’s third-grade reading scores were essentially unchanged this spring, with 88.3% of students meeting the state’s promotion benchmark on the ACAP reading test, according to preliminary data presented Thursday to the Alabama State Board of Education. This year, 47,956 of about 54,300 third graders scored at or above the state’s third-grade reading benchmark, or cut score, of 444. That leaves about 6,350 third graders who did not meet the cut score and will receive additional reading help before final promotion decisions are made.

Oxmoor Valley Residents Sue to Block Proposed Nebius AI Data Center in Birmingham (ABC  33/40)

A group of Oxmoor Valley residents is asking a judge to stop the proposed Nebius AI data center in Birmingham, filing a lawsuit that argues the project violates city zoning rules and should not have been allowed to move forward. The residents are seeking class-action status on behalf of nearby residents they say could be negatively impacted by the development.

Birmingham Museum of Art’s CEO Graham Boettcher Departing July 31 (Bham Now)

Birmingham Museum of Art’s Director and CEO Graham C. Boettcher is stepping down July 31 from the role he has held for nine years to become director and CEO of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.