The following is the fourth edition of Mondays for Moms: When messes turn into messages I had some big plans for Saturday, y’all. We’re talkin’ deep cleaning, closet ransacking, pantry purging and even some yard sprucing. Well, I probably don’t need to tell you that those grand intentions got dashed real quick once the little […]

The fight over tolls on the Mobile Bay Bridge and Bayway project has turned into a statewide issue that could have ramifications in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race and beyond. State Auditor Jim Zeigler has been at the forefront of this movement and will tell anyone that listens that he was the first member of the […]

Some south Alabama breweries are working on a new beer to benefit a nonprofit environmental group that works to protect the state’s coast. Six breweries in Mobile and Baldwin County are teaming up to produce an ale called “Friends in Low Places IPA” as a fundraiser for the Alabama Coastal Foundation.

Governor Kay Ivey on Monday announced that the Alabama Department of Commerce has opened a business development office in Stuttgart, Germany, to enhance the state’s strategic efforts in attracting increased European job-creating investments in the Yellowhammer State. Christoph Doerr, an experienced German businessman who spent seven years in charge of an industrial operation in Alabama, […]

The first students will graduate next week from an intense HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) “boot camp” in Jasper. Bevill State Community College and Alabama Power announced in 2017 plans for a joint HVAC training center, which opened for classes last August. The summer boot camp is an accelerated program that teaches technical knowledge and skills to repair, […]

The U.S. Senate this month confirmed President Donald Trump’s appointment of Alabama Humanities Foundation executive director Armand DeKeyser to the National Council on the Humanities. DeKeyser, who served as chief of staff to then-Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), is now filling an unexpired term until Jan. 26, 2020, on the 26-member advisory board. In a statement, […]

7. Alabama AT&T workers joined the strike According to Communications Workers of Alabama, 20,000 AT&T employees throughout the Southeast walked out of work and protested in front of the facilities against the company’s negotiation tactics. The protests were sparked due to AT&T sending people to negotiate contracts for Southeast employees, but the company sent people […]

It has been a long hot summer in Montgomery, and I do not mean at the Capitol or Statehouse, but in the City of Montgomery itself. There is a heated and pivotal mayor’s race. It has been considered a foregone conclusion that Montgomery will elect their first African American mayor this year. It is probably […]

Last week, State Rep. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne) and Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) director John Cooper engaged in a spirited back-and-forth at an informational session hosted by ALDOT for legislators from Mobile County. During the meeting, Cooper made impromptu remarks and claimed the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) had broad authority in determining what is law […]

The head of the Alabama Department of Commerce will lead a trade mission to Israel early next year, part of a greater outreach between the state and the country that included a forum in Birmingham this week. Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield said a trip to Israel is being planned for April or May of 2020 with […]

Radio talk show host Dale Jackson and Dr. Waymon Burke take you through this week’s biggest political stories, including: — Has Alabama Governor Kay Ivey already made up her mind on tolls? — Is Tommy Tuberville running away with the U.S. Senate race right now? — Is it unseemly for Democrats to talk down the […]

Each year, about 4 million children enter kindergarten in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education. For parents, it is often hard to know if a child is ready for kindergarten or even how best to prepare them. “Kindergarten readiness is not just about learning your letters, numbers and shapes through flashcards,” said […]

During an appearance on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” that aired Friday, Gov. Kay Ivey took on critics of a $2.1 billion bridge over the Mobile Bay that included toll revenues as a means of financing. Ivey categorized some of the criticism as “noise” and attributed it to politicians seeking a particular office. “We got […]

In a record-breaking time of five years, Shigeyuki Ueno earned bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees (’07, BSE, ’09 MSE, ’12, Ph.D.) in engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Ueno, from Aomori-shi, the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan became interested in the field of civil engineering near the […]

As deer season approaches, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) remind hunters that it is illegal to import whole carcasses and certain body parts of any species of deer into either state. The import ban on deer in Alabama and Tennessee is part of a […]

Iron Tribe Fitness, founded in Birmingham, Alabama, is leading the way for workout programs across the nation. Ranked as one of the top five workouts in the nation, this 45-minute HIIT group workout class offers participants exciting and effective workouts in a time frame that works with any kind of schedule. Recently, the gym hosted […]

Although it is sometimes overlooked, agriculture still dominates Alabama’s overall economy as the largest industry in the state throughout all 67 counties. The annual $70 billion industry employs roughly one of every 4.6 workers in Alabama, with agricultural, forestry and related industries accounting for some 580,000 jobs in total. However, fewer Alabamians are choosing to […]

We don’t often hear about it on cable news, but we have a lot to be proud of in our country right now. In June, our economy added 224,000 jobs, and in July, we added 164,000. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) this month released a survey indicating that optimism among small business owners […]

Although he represents a district that is more than 200 miles from the site of the proposed $2.1 billion new I-10 Mobile Bay Bridge that is at the center of controversy because of the possibility of the use of tolling as a means of financing, State Sen. Tom Whatley (R-Auburn) said he is grateful for […]

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to curb climate change will require enormous sacrifice. The enormity of the required sacrifice suggests that we should have consensus on the goal before acting. Recent discussions of the Green New Deal have highlighted some of the required sacrifices, but I suspect that the full implications of an all-renewable power electric […]

AUBURN — The Alabama Republican Party on Saturday held its annual summer meeting in Lee County for the first time, with a host of resolutions and a proposed bylaw change on the agenda. Members of the party’s state executive committee assembled at The Hotel at Auburn University and heard a call-to-action from ALGOP Chairman Terry […]

For years – 13, to be exact – Dr. Kevin White has been on a mission to improve wastewater management infrastructure in portions of rural Alabama. He’s discovered that, in some areas, more than half of the households have raw sewage in their yards, the result of either a failed septic system or having no […]

AUBURN — U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is no friend of the Alabama Republican Party. That was the takeaway on Saturday at the ALGOP’s summer meeting hosted on the Plains in Lee County after the body passed a resolution introduced by State Rep. Tommy Hanes (R-Bryant) calling for Alabama’s congressional delegation to seek the expulsion […]

Backyard Blessings exists so poor school children in Walker County do not go hungry. The problem caused Leneda Jones to act nine years ago, and her actions have multiplied. Now approximately 850 children are fed every week. “Backyard Blessings is a local community nonprofit in Walker County that serves children in food-insecure homes,” she said. “We work primarily […]