Mar 13, 2024

For our readers of Spring Breaking age: On our podcast we've long dropped occasional stories that serve as cautionary tales for this time of year. Today I've brought that to the newsletter.

Also a little native Alabama history for y'all. And we'll remember a former Congressman from the Wiregrass.

Thanks for reading,

Ike Morgan

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You may recall that last year residents in the town of Steele spoke up and Alabama Power decided against a plan that would've built dams around Chandler Mountain and sent some current residents away.

Well, with that dam problem out of them, AL.com's Dennis Pillion reports that there is now an effort to put into place permanent protections against such developments for the sake of those who lived there for centuries.

You see, it appears that the top of Chandler Mountain near the St. Clair-Etowah County line has been a sacred American Indian site for thousands of years.

Archaeologist David Johnson said he's found all the evidence that's been found on other sacred mounts -- such as carvings and rock cairns and stone fences. So local residents have been joined by area tribes to see what they can get done about preserving the land as it is.

Seth Penn of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama said he'd like to see an outside group be able to buy the land that was intended for the dam project, then make it a protected space.

“It’s an area of where our territory as Cherokee people met the Creek territory,” he said. He said the Southeastern Muscogees have also voiced support for preserving the location.

If we don't watch it, after the last couple of Spring Breaks, the Florida Panhandle counties are going to build a big wall along the state line to keep us out. Maybe get us to pay for it.

I'm kidding, of course. We're vital to their economy.

So far this Spring Break, no reports of Walmart-ransacking mobs from Alabama. The biggest alleged Alabamian-gone-bad-in-Florida story that I'm aware of involved a Huntsville 15-year-old who was caught drinking a Michelob Light this past weekend, according to a report by AL.com's Warren Kulo.

Getting caught by anyone while you're drinking a Mich Light may be embarrassing, but this 15-year-old was reportedly caught by the police.

Now, it's not a good thing to get busted for underage drinking, but it's not the end of the world. However, it's a whole lot worse to punch two Walton County deputies while you're getting busted.

That's what the boy allegedly did while partying in a group near Seagrove Beach. He was booked and transferred to Juvenile Justice in Crestview, which is a terrible way to spend Spring Break.

Former Congressman Terry Everett has passed away, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

Everett was from the Dothan area, and we worked as a reporter and, later, publisher for several newspapers in the Wiregrass. He was elected in 1992 to represent Alabama's Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and stayed for eight terms.

WDHN reported that he was an intelligence specialist in the Air Force, and during his time in Congress he became the ranking member on the strategic forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and was a voice on space-related issues.

He said in 2008, just before stepping down, that he planned to still be involved in space security and intelligence but without making all those trips from the Wiregrass to the Beltway.

Terry Everett was 87 years old.

“I’ve seen several floats they’ve done in the past (that were controversial), but this one really cuts deeply."

Mobile resident Pat Law, to the city council in a discussion about a sign displayed by the "Comic Cowboys" in their annual Mardi Gras parade. The photo in question:

$14.5 million

The size of the federal grant awarded to the City of Birmingham to turn Fourth Avenue North into a two-way street.

In 1940, gospel singer Candi Staton of Hanceville.

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