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…
Tag Archive for Alabama
Charter School Bill Passes: Follow the Money
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
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
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
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
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. â 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
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…
On Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Democracy to Survive
Mobile Residents Say No to Canadian Tar Sands Crude Oil Tank Farms
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
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
Africatown Residents Win Victory Over Industrial Zoning in Historic Community
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
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
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
Living in a Camper Van, if You Don’t Like the Weather, Move on Down the Road
The Art of Budget Cutting: Arts Orgs, Others Try To Compose a Response in Mobile
By David Underhill â MOBILE, Ala. â Remember those photos from Pakistan several years ago? Squadrons of unruly lawyers in suits and ties, some with flowing wigs left over from British imperial days, wielding brief cases like cudgels in the streets to protest an insult to themselves and the constitution by autocratic rulers? Now picture…
Ten Years After: Goofy Shit Sells
Attorney General Candidate Advocates Lottery to Fund Education in Alabama
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…