Oct 31, 2023

Boo.

(That was a scary boo. Not a Phillies fan kind of boo).

It's a chilly Halloween. Be sure to bundle up if you're going trick-or-treating or waiting on the Great Pumpkin. Today's news spans from politicians to rock 'n' roll.

Ike Morgan

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Veteran Alabama lawmaker John Rogers, a Birmingham Democrat, has been jailed on accusations that he contacted a witness in his bribery case, reports AL.com's Hannah Denham and Joseph D. Bryant.

The allegation is that he violated his bond when he FaceTimed the founder of a nonprofit that was part of an alleged kickback scheme. Judge Staci Cornelius said she told state Rep. Rogers to not have contact with anyone associated with the case.

Rogers has denied trying to contact the witness. After the arrest, Carlos Chaverst identified himself as Rogers' PR rep and claimed Rogers had been trying to contact an accountant who had the same last name as the witness.

There has been a change in leadership in the state legislature, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

Clay Scofield, an Arab Republican (note to our New Jersey audience: Arab is a town in North Alabama), has resigned his seat in the state senate -- including his post as senate majority leader -- to become executive vice president of the Business Council of Alabama.

The Alabama state senate elected Steve Livingston, a Scottsboro Republican, to replace Scofield as majority leader. Wes Kitchens of Arab announced that he's running for Scofield's seat.

(Greg Garrison/AL.com)

Earth is being moved at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, reports AL.com's Greg Garrison.

Renovations began Oct. 25 to prepare for a Major League game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants on June 20. That game is being called a tribute to the old Negro Leagues.

These renovations are wholesale. Those tiny, narrow 1910-era dugouts are gone and will be replaced by dugouts big enough to hold a modern staff and roster of bigger and much richer ballplayers.

The field is being literally replaced. They’re hauling out the dirt, taking it down a couple feet, and replacing it with what Friends of Rickwood Chairman Gerald Watkins called “state-of-the-art dirt.”

He balked a little before using that phrase, but anybody who’s had a homegrown Slocumb tomato knows that state-of-the-art dirt exists.

I have a theory that people always think the current world is way more stressful than it's ever been. And as communication gets faster and the world gets smaller, we're more aware that everybody else thinks they're stressed out just as much as we we think we're stressed out. We compound each other's desire for simpler times, and the value of nostalgia is growing exponentially.

Either that, or I'm just getting older.

On a related note, some concert announcements just came in that might please a few generations of throwback fans. Here's some nostalgia for you:

Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top are coming to Huntsville’s Von Braun Center in April. I know, I know ... something about original lineups. But Johnny's been the frontman for Skynyrd for nearly 40 years and that ought to count for something.

Looking further into 2024, Creed is scheduled to play Pelham's Oak Mountain Amphitheatre with 3 Doors Down next August.

Yeah, I said Creed. For all you post-grunge kids with the gray just now creeping into your sideburns.

In 1951, Alabama head football coach Nick Saban.

Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday. Here's a positive spin: Now you don't have to wait until after 5 p.m. to enjoy the sunset.

We switched to a new online tool for Monday's Week in Review Quiz, and we ended up with one little small tiny problem: It didn't work for most people. A preliminary investigation indicates that might've been the fault of this newsletter's author.

We don't blame you if you're over it until next time, but if you've been playing along every week and want to keep your streak unbroken, we're including a (hopefully) good link to it below. We'll push the results to tomorrow's newsletter.

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