By Glynn Wilson – While the House Republicans were celebrating in the White House Rose Garden after the vote to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare on Thursday, it would have been interesting to be a fly on a bush. Did any of them even whisper a hint about the massive voter backlash that was already exploding…
By Glynn Wilson – In spite of all the big talk rhetoric from Republicans from the president on down about a plan to repeal and allegedly replace the Affordable Care Act with something that would cover the same number of people for less, an independent, nonpartisan U.S. Congressional Budget Office report released Monday says the…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Partisan political prosecutions have a long history in the system of jurisprudence in the United States, in spite of what judges, lawyers and politicians want the public to believe. Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of it. Although over the past couple of decades,…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg showed up on the Gulf Coast Sunday just in time for Mardi Gras and had people speculating that he may have a political future in mind. Dutifully, all three local television news stations covered the visit like any other celebrity sighting. But due to a…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Republican legislators in Montgomery are monkeying around again and turning more public education funding over to private schools. They claim 5,793 scholarships have been awarded under the Alabama Accountability Act, but numbers from the Department of Revenue show that only 127 people have asked for the tax credit allowed when a child is…
By Glynn Wilson – A special district attorney has been appointed by Alabama’s new attorney general to investigate allegations of misconduct by Governor Robert Bentley. Steven T. Marshall, appointed by the governor as state attorney general to replace Luther Strange, who will assume the U.S. Senate seat of Jeff Sessions recently confirmed as President Donald…
EDITOR’S NOTE: During the turbulent 1960s when the civil rights movement made Selma and Birmingham Alabama infamous, turning Martin Luther King Jr. of Atlanta and other activists into household names, including Fred Shuttlesworth of Birmingham, there were other activists in other cities who never became so well known. The political and business establishment of Mobile,…
By Catherine Bullock Rainey – Arts Editor – With the glamor of a Broadway show and the ambience of a carnival, Venardos Circus brings a whole new light to entertainment and the festivities of Mardi Gras. “We are proof that the circus is not coming to an end!” announced ringmaster and producer Kevin Venardos during…
By Glynn Wilson – The gerrymandering plan rammed through the state legislature by Alabama Republicans after they took control in 2010 has now been thrown out by a three-judge panel of federal judges in Montgomery as an unconstitutionaly overtly race-based map. A three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Montgomery unanimously agreed that in…
By Catherine Rainey – Arts Editor – While Mardi Gras in Mobile holds its own captivating charm, another spectacle will take place during the long-standing tradition this year. In early February, Venardos Circus and Alabama Contemporary Arts Center, formerly Space 301, are collaborating by putting together a performance art piece for all audiences entitled Cirque…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — One of new president Donald Trump’s biggest issues during the campaign was his promise to rebuild America’s “crumbling” infrastructure. People who watch politics closely seem to think this may be the one good thing Trump might be able to accomplish out of all his zany Twitter campaign promises…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The first time I saw Jeff Sessions in court and then interviewed him in person 27 years ago, my human instincts and reporting acumen led me to conclude that there was something horribly wrong about this little man’s character. I never figured he would…
Connecting the Dots – By Glynn Wilson – What a year it has been. Whether you liked it and prospered or were horrified by some of the stories and events, it was a year to remember, even if many people would simply like to forget. To write a year in review column, I was looking…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — Television celebrity president-elect Donald J. Trump ended his “victory tour” or “thank you tour” where his campaign took off 16 months ago, before an adoring crowd of average, working class “conservative” Republicans at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in the home town of Senator Jeff Sessions. When Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — President-elect Donald J. Trump is planning to bring his “victory tour” or “thank you tour” to Mobile on Saturday, Dec. 17. The event will take place at ​Ladd–Peebles Stadium beginning at 3 p.m. You can obtain tickets here. This was first reported by the local CBS News affiliate…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – You may have already heard the news that President-elect Donald J. Trump is planning a “victory tour” across the country to thank his supporters for helping with his election. Sources say he may be in for a big surprise when he lands in Mobile, Alabama, the home…
By David Underhill – When Caesar made himself emperor of Rome he spayed and neutered the senate – but kept it alive as a pet in remembrance of the extinguished republic. When the Alabama legislature put constitutional Amendment 2 on the ballot for this year’s general election, it set in motion the mechanism for privatizing…
By Glynn Wilson – The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the Colonial Pipeline explosion and fire in Helena, Alabama, which killed one worker and seriously injured four others. The major gasoline pipeline, built in 1963, that had already busted in September and was leaking, causing fears of a gas shortage in…
By Glynn Wilson – The poor people of Alabama are being hoodwinked by their government, again. And it seems every conservation and environmental group in the state and a few decent newspapers are being taken in too. The issue is Amendment 2 up for a vote to change the Alabama Constitution, again, on the Nov.…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — A major gas pipeline that was discovered broken and leaking at least 250,000 gallons last week in rural Shelby County, south of Birmingham near Helena, has government and industry officials hopping to contain the leak, shore up any impact on the price of gas, and assure the public…
