Locked in His Own Trunk: A Mobile Attorney’s Account of Surviving a Carjacking
A routine trip to a Government Street car wash turned into a life-or-death ordeal for Mobile attorney Richard Mather, who was forced into the trunk of his own Volvo at…
A Punch on the Senate Floor, and a Standing Ovation in Birmingham
State Sen. Charles Bishop was publicly condemned for punching a Democratic colleague on the Alabama Senate floor. At a Republican dinner in Birmingham, he got a standing ovation, and Mobile…
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…
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…
Gary Cooper Quits USA Fundraising Drive, Charging the University Has Failed Black Mobile
Retired Marine general and banker J. Gary Cooper resigned from the University of South Alabama's capital campaign, accusing the school of neglecting the Black community. President Gordon Moulton answered point…
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…
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…
Long Before the Primaries, Mobile’s Political Class Was Already Choosing Sides
With the 2008 field still forming, local officeholders, lawyers and pundits named their favorites. A state representative was co-chairing John McCain's Mobile County campaign; a famous oddsmaker had already called…
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…
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…