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The legislature meets in regular session every year for three-and-a-half months. However, an extraordinary special session can be called by the governor if he/she deems there is a dire emergency in the state government that needs addressing. This provision in the Constitution gives the governor inherent advantage in a special session. The official proclamation calling for a special session allows the governor to set out matters for a specific purpose(s) when calling the session and requires the legislators to address those specific issues. You...
The wheels of justice move very slowly; sometimes the movement is imperceptible. The Trump Campaign and then the Trump Administration have been under siege for going on four years. Most Americans have known the FBI and CIA spied on the Trump Campaign to thwart his candidacy and then with Democrats relentlessly pursued baseless charges of Russian collusion and Ukrainian nonsense to undermine his administration and even try to remove him. With brazen unfair media treatment, Americans have been intensely aggravated and frustrated that Trump's poli...
Last week Governor Ivey issued orders allowing Alabama’s restaurants, hair salons, barbers, and other personal service businesses to reopen Monday under social distancing guidelines. This is an important step towards safely reopening our state’s economy and ending extreme measures put in place to flatten the curve and limit the spread of the virus. While Alabama – and our district – continue to see cases and sadly some deaths, we have been successful in preventing our hospitals and ICU units from being overwhelmed by Covid-19 cases—the original...
The town of Century and the town of Flomaton are both experiencing problems with water pumps. Both are about to spend a lot of money to fix those problems. The town of Flomaton voted Monday afternoon to go to its line of credit and borrow $117,680 to fix the problems with the well on Highway 113. Century is also looking at ways to fix the problem of the well that feeds Century Correctional Institute. Those could have been critical issues, but both towns did a good job reacting and were able to tie in to adjacent water systems to meet the...
I hear the complaints and I'm sure judges hear the same complaints. I look at some, not all, social media complaints. The complaint is why can a person being charged with drug trafficking get a $1 million bond and a person accused of sexually abusing a child or possessing child pornography charges get a $500,000 bond. I attended a bond hearing Tuesday where Richard James Rabon of East Brewton, charged with five counts of possession of child pornography was given a $500,000 bond by District...
The 2020 Regular Legislative Session has resumed after a six-week hiatus due to the coronavirus shutdown of the state and nation. The session must end by May 18, 2020. The only thing they will do is pass barebones budgets. The most important and actually the only constitutionally mandated act that must be accomplished is the passage of the state budgets. In our case, we have two state budgets. We have a General Fund like 45 other states, and we have a second Special Education budget. Like all states, the power is where the money lies....
After about two months of national crisis, the Chinese virus pandemic seems to be giving way to paranoia and power lust. Make no mistake, COVID-19 is a very real threat; it is certainly contagious, viciously attacks the respiratory system, and is definitely deadly especially to vulnerable folks with other health issues. We are learning more everyday about the virus, how to contain it, and how to treat it. But we are also learning other valuable lessons. Once again the media is proving completely unreliable. Politicians of all stripes are...
Closing down the American economy has a real and enormous effect on the lives of countless Americans. Layoffs and job losses are devastating for individuals, families, and communities. In good times, it generally takes three to six months for someone to find a job after a layoff. Of course, these are not good times. Moreover, closures and layoffs go deeper than this. Large unemployment numbers can also make it much harder for areas to move into economic recovery when a crisis is over. Certainly, the government’s coronavirus response has not b...
Being in the newspaper business is not always easy in terms of covering the news and writing opinion pieces about what's going on in our community, state or nation. Relationships can sometimes be strained by things I print in the newspaper – whether its an actual news story or some of my opinions. People get mad. My wife's been mad at me and some of my best friends have been mad at me. Sometimes I think my wife is still mad. But the relationship between a reporter or editor and an elected o...
OK folks, don't be idiots. The state of Alabama and the town of Flomaton have reopened some things that were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Beaches across the gulf coast are open. We could see cars with tags from north Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and beyond coming through Flomaton this weekend. Hopefully this is a sign that we are about to reopen everything, but a lot of that will depend on how we act during this 'soft opening'. Mark our word, if beaches get packed to the hilt, they will be closed again; if people take...
Last week I discussed Alabama’s outstanding leaders in the political arena. This week allow me to share with you some of the state’s leaders under 45 who are shaping and molding our state from outside the actual pit of the political arena. The most prominent political power in the under 45 category, who is not in an elected position, is Katie Boyd Britt who heads the Business Council of Alabama. Katie was born to be an Alabama leader 37 years ago in Enterprise. She was a high school leader and was Governor of Girls State. Then she went on to th...
With any crisis, there always comes accusations, recriminations, and second guessing on what should have or should not have been done. Obviously, the Trump loathing media has just become annoying noise with their incessant snarky sniping about everything the President utters. However, when the welfare of the nation and the people are severely threatened whether by pandemic or shut down programs, there should certainly be ample healthy debate as we make important decisions that impact the lives and livelihoods of Americans. When the Chinese coro...
Alabama reached and passed the peak of COVID-19 new cases during the week of April 12. As I have written previously, this doesn’t mean we haven’t seen new cases since then because we have. Nor does it mean we won’t see new cases in the future because we will. It does mean that the number of new cases per day is beginning to gradually come down. This is the flattening of the curve you have heard so much about. We have been successful in achieving what we set out to do with state-ordered extreme social distancing. Indeed, we have avoided the w...
As I talked to people prior to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's address Tuesday about what the state was going to do in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, I predicted she would do a 'soft-opening'. I also told people I could probably write that story before she made her speech and I wouldn't miss it by much. I was right on both points. The one point I would have missed was the opening of the Alabama beaches along the Gulf Coast. But like the most of the changes, it was a soft change. Her new order says t...
It's easy to say Flomaton Police Chief Chance Thompson and Flomaton Volunteer Fireman Hunter White were just doing their jobs last Wednesday when the two saved the life of a 4-year old child caught inside a burning vehicle. They both took their respective jobs to protect the public. That's what they do. But Thompson is not a fireman and White doesn't get paid a dime to be a fireman. There is a 4-year old little boy walking around in Flomaton today because of the actions Thompson and White took last Wednesday afternoon. Had Thompson not been on...
Without a doubt the Chinese corona virus is quite contagious and definitely dangerous for vulnerable Americans with other health issues, but the press’s paranoia pandemic has created a bigger blast than any bomb. No attack or threat has ever brought the United States to a near total standstill in just a few weeks. Pearl Harbor mobilized the nation and 9/11 rallied the country, but a Chinese bat flu sent Americans into hiding. We have weathered various epidemics and pandemics for centuries and still found ways to cope with daily life, but C...
Many of you have lamented to me that it appears that all or most of our state political leaders are older folks. On first glance, that appears to be true. However, on a deeper observation we have some extremely talented younger stars on the horizon. In fact, they are already in the ring and making a difference. There are a few names that are worth watching. Allow me to share with you a select group of Alabama’s under 45 outstanding leaders. There are two superstars already on the scene and leading the state: State Representative Bill Poole of T...
Last week I wrote about how things will never be exactly the same after the COVID-19 virus goes away. I've been thinking that maybe somethings will be better in the aftermath. We live and learn and we try to improve things as we go along. Kind of like Gomer Pyle's old saying of 'fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me'. Last Thursday I went up to New Beginnings Worship Center in Brewton as they handed out 15,000 pounds of food to the people in the community. The center plans to...
We can all learn a lesson from Danny Cottrell. About a week ago he brought his $2 bill stimulus package back by giving his employees at Flomaton Medical Center Pharmacy, Brewton Medical Center Pharmacy and Cottrell's Pharmacy in East Brewton $200 each in $2 bills. His only instructions to his 30 employees were to spend the money at local stores. Cottrell held his first $2 stimulus package program in 2009 when the nation was in a deep recession and many businesses were laying people off. He called his employees together, some probably felt they...
I saw a post on Facebook last week that made me laugh. Whoever originally posted it said things must be getting back to normal because they had started getting those calls informing them about their extended car warranties. I hadn't really thought about it, but I haven't gotten one of those calls in several weeks. Two days after reading the post, I got one. I got another one the next day. What I didn't miss were the political calls we would have been bombarded with a few weeks ago when Alabama...
Flomaton Police Chief Chance Thompson started his 'How Are Ya!' program well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and people were put in lockdown. Now that we are in a lockdown on a virus that apparently doesn't treat our senior citizens well, its great to have such a program in place in Flomaton. We talked with Chief Thompson and his feeling was there were many senior citizens and other handicapped people who were basically in lock down before the virus hit. Many are home alone with nobody to talk to. Thompson initiated the program where he will...
Passover and Easter came and went with all of us still in extreme social distancing. There were online Seders. Many of us missed being in church on Easter Day for the first time in our lives. Easter egg hunts and parties were cancelled, and parents conducted their own hunts with just their children. The big Easter brunches and dinners which have been the tradition for so many were forgone, postponed, or just very small. And too many of us were literally alone, all alone. The experts tell us our peak for the disease in Alabama is about a week...
Allow me to share some more observations from the year. One of my favorite people in the world and one of the finest gentlemen I have ever known is State Representative Steve Clouse of Ozark. My relationship with Steve goes under the category of Alabama is one Big Front Porch. His sweet mother, Mrs. Ruth Price Clouse, passed away a month or so ago at 93. There was a nice church service at the First Methodist Church of Ozark. Afterwards, Steve and his lovely wife, Dianne, invited folks to come over to their house across the street from their...
Well into the second month of our national crisis caused by the Chinese corona virus, we can with a degree of confidence review what we have learned and with reason consider our next steps. We can definitively say this Chinese bat virus is more deadly than the Chinese pig virus. With over 20,000 dead in just two months, we already have thousands more casualties than after a year of the 2009 Swine Flu. However, it has not yet killed more than a bad flu season when typically some 60,000 Americans succumb to influenza. It appears more contagious...
Like many of you I “attended” Palm Sunday worship online. It was strange not to be there at St. James Fairhope physically for the Liturgy of the Palms to gather outside for prayers and walk into the church together with our palms singing “All Glory, Laud and Honor.” I heard the words of the Passion according to St. Matthew but wasn’t there to see the faces and expressions of the readers. We said prayers for those afflicted by the disease and those caring for them. We also said the right words for the Offering, the Eucharist, and the Peace, but...
