Ben Cunningham

The Anniston Star • 9th July 2020

RMC hits new high for COVID-19 patients, Alabama virus count rising faster

Coronavirus infection in Alabama continued to spike Thursday, with more than 2,100 new cases reported by state officials and ever-climbing numbers of people being treated in hospitals, including Anniston’s Regional Medical Center.

In Calhoun County, 33 new cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus were reported Thursday, the second-highest daily number during the pandemic so far, among more than 200 cases in the last 14 days. The total number of people in the county who’ve tested positive reached 436.

The Anniston Star • 31st December 2019

A year’s work: Stories we told in 2019

In the course of a year, a daily news operation like The Anniston Star publishes thousands of stories. Some are just a few sentences long and take only minutes to report and write. Others take weeks of investigative work followed by careful writing and revision with the help of other writers and editors. For some stories, the only thing at stake may be a laugh; others may document the worst day of someone’s life — or their last.

The journalists who work at The Star each have their own reasons f

The Anniston Star • 26th May 2018

A century ago, the first man buried at Edgemont’s military plot died in France

Today, a century after his death, William Champion rests at Anniston’s Edgemont Cemetery, in the section set aside by the City Council after the Great War for use by the American Legion. Champion’s are the oldest remains buried there, under the easternmost row of headstones.

The Anniston Star • 10th April 2018

There goes the neighborhood

The first person we saw once the storm had passed was our neighbor from three houses down, Rufus Kinney. He pounded at our front door, startling us in the darkened bathroom where we’d spent much of the last hour and a half.

He shouted urgent questions: Were we there? Were we OK?

We’d just returned, my wife and I, to the bathroom, where our dog, Daisy, was still corralled. We’d been out briefly to take a first look at the damage. I ventured out again, splitting the darkness with the beam from m

The Anniston Star • 18th November 2017

Research suggests the bears are coming

The number of black bears wandering the forests of Northeast Alabama may have doubled over four years, and is set to keep growing, according to researchers at Auburn University.

The researchers say there’s plenty of room for bears to thrive in the mountainous forests of Northeast Alabama, and that it’s probably only a matter of time before they take full advantage of it.

The Anniston Star • 16th February 2015

Ben Cunningham: Covering the news of gay marriage in Calhoun County

Regardless of readers’ reactions, the past week’s events in federal courts, probate courts and parking-lot weddings across our state were one thing, for sure: They were news. Big news. Every change touched lives on all sides — lifelong commitments were recognized, deeply-held convictions were challenged.

The Anniston Star • 17th October 2014

JSU band’s tradition of hymn dates back decades

Jacksonville State's Marching Southerners have been singing “I’ll Fly Away” in some context for more than five decades, often as a kind of benediction at the end of performances and rehearsals. Over time, it’s evolved into a tradition at once solemn and joyously defiant, punctuated with a top-of-the-lungs shout of the line, “In the morning.”

The Anniston Star • 20th December 2017

Late votes can’t get Moore to recount in Alabama's Senate election

Roy Moore’s hopes to overtake Doug Jones with late-counted ballots in Alabama’s election for U.S. Senate were dealt a fatal blow Wednesday.

Secretary of State John Merrill’s office announced that ballots sent in by overseas military personnel and provisional ballots totaled 5,333, far short of Jones’ 20,715-vote lead in ballots counted the night of the Dec. 12 election. Even if all the late votes were for Moore, it wouldn’t narrow Jones’ 1.5 percentage-point margin to the 0.5 percent threshold

The Anniston Star • 14th May 2017

Want to rename a road? Move a monument? A bill that’s almost law would make cities, counties and schools get permission first.

Sen. Gerald Allen's bill would require local governments to get permission from a 12-member committee before they could change or remove historic monuments or change the name of any building or street named in memory of “an event, a person, a group or a movement” if it was named more than 15 years ago.