By Glynn Wilson – The Obama administration on Friday released the first national regulations to provide for the safe disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the final rule that establishes safeguards to protect communities from coal ash impoundment failures, like the catastrophic 2008 spill in Kingston, Tennessee,…
A Photo Essay in Progress – Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – We pulled into Tannehill State Park on a cloudy, drizzly Friday the week before Christmas and stumbled onto perhaps the best deal on a campsite we’ve seen after three months of camping all over Maryland, Virginia and the Gulf Coast. There’s a…
By Glynn Wilson – In a historic announcement guaranteed to draw howls from conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama announced an agreement on Wednesday to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba and called for an end to the Cold War economic embargo that has been in place since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1961.…
Planning Commission Denies Rezoning By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — More than 140 residents of Africatown turned out at a town hall public meeting Tuesday night to oppose an industrial rezoning that would open the way for a steel storage warehouse right across the street from a proposed tar sands crude oil tank city…
EDITOR’S NOTE: On Monday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. we will be talking with former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern about the US Senate’s report on torture. In 2006, McGovern returned his CIA medal to former House Intelligence Committee chair Pete Hoekstra, a Republican from Michigan – see the letter below explaining his reasons for doing…
Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – I know this kind of deceitful seduction has been a part of American politics since our republic was born. But my mind is made up. Up until now, as cynical as I am, I bought into it. I hoped. I did. I’m guilty. But what I see now…
MOBILE, Ala. — A video tells the stories from December’s Art Walk, where controversy spurred a movement to set the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gathering of Santa’s Elves. The count fell short. But according to observers, it would was great to see such a large and diverse number of people having…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. – What if? What if we could figure out a way to bring American journalism back from the brink of death? Would it be possible to make American democracy work again for “the people?” Sitting here on the Gulf Coast riding out the winter of…
Education Matters – By Larry Lee – It looked innocent enough. Just another of the dozens of emails I get every day. Then I looked again and immediately did a double take. It was an email of an email. The first was from the Alabama State Director of the Alabama Federation for Children. He was…
Editor’s Note: Because we’re in the annual enrollment period for Obamacare I’m going to write about health care. I don’t pretend to understand most of this stuff, in fact, much of what I know I learned from a fellow blogger. For that reason I encourage you to go to her blog and read one of…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Where oh where is Jeb Bush and what is his position on the torture ordered by his brother? As the media across the world continues to cover the story about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report just out on the Bush administration’s CIA torture program,…
By Glynn Wilson – While a slim majority of Americans, 51 percent, say they disapprove of President Barack Obama’s executive action to deal with undocumented immigrants living in the United States, Hispanics, African-Americans and other recent immigrants by a wide margin approve of the policy plan to grant legal status to those who have been…
Africatown News – By Joe Womack – The historical value of Africatown’s Hog Bayou was carved in stone long before the Oil Barons of the world discovered Africatown’s valuable wetlands. Africatown’s Hog Bayou will forever be known as the place in Mobile where the “African” slaves taught the “American” slaves how to feed themselves and…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – It’s incredible that, despite real progress in reducing climate-disrupting carbon emissions, the United States is still charging ahead with a “boom” in dirty fuels and extraction methods. It’s like swallowing aspirin as you beat your head against a wall. What gives? By now, it’s clear that the dirty…
By Bob Wells – This month I’m going to be doing posts on how our society got so addicted to stuff as evidenced in Black Friday and Christmas shopping in general. I’ll offer explanations and suggestions about what we can do about it including alternative ways to celebrate Christmas without the orgy of greed. This…
Eschew Obfuscation – By Michael Douglass – Virtually no one in America had ever witnessed such a horrific event live and free on television — until then. It was simultaneously more violent, more chaotic and more disturbing than maybe anything we’d ever seen. A handful of burly peace officers bearing down in concert on a…
By Bob Wells – As you might know I just went over to New Mexico for a week to spend time at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge at the Festival of the Cranes. Every November they hold a large Festival to celebrate the return of the Sandhill Cranes. It’s popular enough that photographers come…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – OAK MOUNTAIN, Ala. – My home town. That line from an old Andy Griffith episode keeps going through my mind this morning sitting in the campsite listening to the woodpeckers work. Passing through my hometown of Birmingham on the way to Mobile this week, I heard a…
By Robert Reich – This is the time of year when high school seniors apply to college, and when I get lots of mail about whether college is worth the cost. The answer is unequivocally yes, but with one big qualification. I’ll come to the qualification in a moment but first the financial case for…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Based on extensive recent scientific evidence about the harmful effects of ground-level ozone, also known as smog, the Obama administration is proposing to strengthen air quality standards to better protect Americans’ health and the environment. The Clean Air Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the standards every five years…
