David Ed Bishop Ran on a Promise to Bring Baldwin’s Money Home
The Baldwin County commissioner and longtime Fairhope councilman joined the District 32 field, arguing the county sent more to Montgomery in lodging and gas taxes than it ever got back.
A Senate Subcommittee Steered Millions Toward South Alabama Science and Coasts
A $30 million engineering center at South Alabama, a NOAA disaster response center on the Gulf, oyster bed reseeding and hurricane monitoring were among the projects approved in the 2008…
Drafting Gore, Backing Gingrich: The Candidates Mobile Wished Were Running
A restaurateur was writing letters urging Al Gore to run. A CPA was backing Newt Gingrich, who had not announced. Across the Mobile area, the most enthusiastic 2008 supporters were…
Why a Former Alabama GOP Chairman Settled on Romney
Marty Connors explained the research that led him to Mitt Romney, while other Alabama conservatives surveyed on the 2008 race fretted that no candidate in the Republican field could hold…
Edwards, Gore and a Border Fence: Mobile Democrats and Republicans Size Up 2008
A second round of Mobile-area figures weighed the 2008 field, from a license commissioner drawn to John Edwards and Joe Biden to a trio of Republicans backing California congressman Duncan…
Mobile’s Political Class Surveys the 2008 Field, and Mostly Declines to Commit
Asked in mid-2007 whom they favored for president, Mobile-area officials, lawyers and businessmen produced a portrait of a Republican electorate torn between Giuliani, McCain and Romney, and a probate judge…
First Jobs, Part Four: The Mail Route, the DDT Truck and the Shoe Department Ambush
A substitute mail carrier's route through Tillman's Corner, a summer spent driving a city DDT truck and a teenage boy's crushing disappointment in a department store shoe department round out…
First Jobs, Part Two: Crab Picking in Bayou La Batre and a Quarterback Sweeping the Shop
More Mobile-area figures recalled the work that started them off, including a summer picking crab in Bayou La Batre that produced a lifelong vow about education, and a future NFL…
First Jobs: Paper Routes, Ice Cream Plants and a Teenage Interview With George Strait
As another crop of graduates went looking for work, a group of Mobile-area figures were asked to recall the first jobs that started them off, from a Des Moines paper…
Shoeshine Kits, Snow Shovels and a Projector: Mobile Remembers the First Job
As a new class of graduates went looking for work, novelists, doctors, lawyers and legislators from the Mobile area recalled the jobs that taught them what work was, at a…