Tag Archive for Alabama

Setbacks a Setback – But Not Defeat – For Mobile Tank Foes

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – After a couple years trudging through the weeds and thickets of laws, regulations, technical standards, hazard assessments, health effects, economic impacts and other consequences of petroleum storage tanks, Mobile has arrived at nearly the same place it began this trek. On June 11 a three-member subcommittee presented its…

Charter School Bill Passes: Follow the Money

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Education Matters – By Larry Lee – Even an amateur swami with a cloudy crystal ball could have told us how the recent vote to approve charter schools in Alabama would play out. In fact, he didn’t even have to look at his ball, they could have looked at 2014 campaign financial disclosures instead. There…

A Chance to Support Art in Mobile and Agent Orange Victims in Vietnam

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MOBILE, Ala. — Here’s a chance to support art, music and the victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam. There will be a special live music fundraiser at Gallery 450 on Dauphin Street Friday the 13th that promises to steel the show for the monthly Art Walk for March. What sparked this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Alabama…

Controversy Continues Over President’s Visit to Selma on Fiftieth Anniversary of Selma-to-Montgomery March

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By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The controversy between the White House, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and African-American Alabama political leaders continues and has not been resolved, according to information obtained by the New American Journal on Saturday. The SCLC held a press conference in Montgomery on Friday reiterating…

Miracles in Education Still Happen

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Education Matters – By Larry Lee – Contrary to what many think, miracles still happen these days. In fact, one just happened in Alabama concerning public education—though no one seemed to notice. I refer to recent news from the Alabama State Department of Education that four schools formerly on the “failing” school list were removed…

Same Sex Marriage and Same History in Alabama

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By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – The threat of gay marriage in Alabama has roused governor George Wallace to rise from the dead and stand again in the schoolhouse door. When Roy Moore, chief justice of the state supreme court, flung himself this week between a federal judge in Mobile and the local bureau…

Alabama Political Future Damaged by Labor vs. Environment Split

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — A few years ago, Princeton graduate Charles Scribner with the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in Birmingham saw my coverage of the BlueGreen Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference in Washington, D.C. and sent me an e-mail asking an important question: Do you think it would be…

Mobile Residents Say No to Canadian Tar Sands Crude Oil Tank Farms

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Will the City Government Side With the People or Industry? By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The citizens of Mobile, especially those in the historic Africatown community along with members of the Mobile Bay Sierra Club, have held public meetings and spoken up: They do not want the Mobile Planning Commission and the City…

Politicians Say the Darndest Things

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Education Matters – By Larry Lee – Some of us can recall when Art Linkletter did a segment on his radio show called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” He would ask questions of children and in their wonderful innocence they would give answers that often made us laugh. I read or hear comments from politicians…

The Fiftieth Anniversary in Selma: A Once In a Lifetime Experience

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By Hank Sanders – It’s a once in a lifetime experience! I know you have heard that statement before, but this really is a once in a lifetime experience. It’s once in a lifetime because it happens only once. It’s once in a lifetime because it’s so big. It’s once in a lifetime because it’s…

Africatown Residents Win Victory Over Industrial Zoning in Historic Community

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Africatown News – By Joe Womack – On December 16, 2014 the Africatown Community attended a meeting hosted by The Yorktown Baptist Church to voice their opposition to local industries attempt to re-zone a section of Africatown just North of The Community Gardens from residential to industrial. More than 150 Africatown residents, supporters and friends…

Africatown Residents Oppose Industrial Rezoning for Steel Warehouse

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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…

Controversy Surrounds Mobile Alabama’s Art Walk

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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…

My Home Town Birmingham: Can’t Support a Football Team

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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…

Ten Years After: Goofy Shit Sells

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – How was I to know 10 years ago that we would end up where we are now? I was living in Alexandria, Virginia working for States News Service and free-lancing as a reporter for the likes of Time magazine covering stories related to the Abu Ghraib torture…

Attorney General Candidate Advocates Lottery to Fund Education in Alabama

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By Wayne Ruple – HEFLIN, Ala. — Standing only 26 miles from the Alabama-Georgia state line, a candidate for Attorney General told a crowd in Heflin recently, “Right now Alabamians are funding the education of Georgia’s children, funding the education of Tennessee’s children, funding the education of Florida’s children. Now in my opinion it’s only…

Africatown: A Tradition and Struggle Like No Other

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By Joe Womack – To commemorate the 155th anniversary of the beginning of the Africatown saga and the 154th anniversary of the landing of the last recorded shipment of slaves to this country, here is a summary of the “Africatown Story” from 1859 to today. (As told to me by Mr. Henry Williams as he…