Thursday, March 6, 2025

Will Jarrod Webster Get Life in Prison?

 



On May 20th, the hirsute and tattooed Jarrod Gailen Webster will stand before judge, God, and man to be sentenced in federal court. He faces a lifetime behind prison bars. 

Below is the official statement from the U.S. Department of Justice:

A former Killen, Alabama, Police Department officer pleaded guilty yesterday for sexually assaulting a woman while on duty and for receiving sexually explicit photos of a minor.

As part of the plea agreement, Jarrod Gailen Webster admitted that, on Nov. 12, 2023, he violated the civil rights of a woman after initiating a traffic stop on the woman’s vehicle. Webster asked the woman to step out of her vehicle and he asked her what she wanted to do to “get out of this.” When the woman told Webster that she was not going to do anything for him, Webster handcuffed the woman and sexually assaulted her.

Further, Webster admitted that, between June 2016 and October 2018, he communicated with a minor by phone. Webster asked the minor to produce and send him sexually explicit images of herself. The minor victim sent multiple photos to Webster at his request, at least one of which constituted child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

“Jarrod Webster took an oath to protect and serve citizens of his community. He violated that oath when he sexually assaulted a woman and exploited a minor to produce and send sexually explicit images,” said U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who violate positions of public trust are held accountable for their actions.”

“Police officers are given immense trust and responsibility to serve and protect, and are therefore held to a higher standard, so there are serious consequences when one tarnishes the badge by breaking the law,” said Special Agent in Charge Carlton Peeples of the FBI Birmingham Field Office. “Jarrod Gailen Webster disgraced the uniform when he abused his authority, his sentencing affirms that the FBI has zero tolerance for officials who prey on the citizens they have sworn to protect.”

Webster pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of sexual exploitation of children. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 20.

Webster faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 for the count of deprivation of rights under color of law. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, supervised release for life, and a fine of up to $250,000 for the count of sexual exploitation of children. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI Birmingham Field Office investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Royster for the Northern District of Alabama and Senior Sex Crimes Counsel Maura White and Trial Attorney Sarah Howard of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case. 


Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Muscle Shoals ACT Scores at All Time Low

 



ACT scores continue to fall at Muscle Shoals schools, and one of our readers wants to know why...

The loud boom you hear is the ACT test scores dropping 15% in 9 years to an all time low of onlly 23.2% white students leaving Muscle Shoals High School are college ready.

Alabama State Department of Education issued the 2023/2024 report card grade of 79 (C) for Muscle Shoals High School. 
Another embarrassing all for a school that was once an academic leader.

76.8% white kids are not college ready

CHANGE OR BE LEFT BEHIND.
TIME FOR A CHANGE IN SUPERINTENDENT AND SCHOOL BOARD
TIME FOR TEST SCORES TO GET OUT OF FAILING STATUS
TIME FOR A NEW CITY COUNCIL & MAYOR.
MUSCLE SHOALS CITIZENS WANT AND DESERVE BETTER.
Children can't succeed with the status quo. CHANGE for the sake of the children's futures.



Tuesday, March 4, 2025

The Sheffield Roundup - Check out the Pics!!!

 




From an informed source:

We realize Sheffield City officials have been silent on Inspiration Landing, so we plan to have a Free roundup event this Spring.

SPRING KICK OFF EVENT: "SHEFFIELD ROUND UP - KEEP THE SHOALS BEAUTIFUL"
 
The Shoals Chamber will not be invited. Their "activities" and "parties" are held behind locked doors after hours with SEDA where only a couple of people are allowed.

Steve Stanley will be the head of the round up.
Steve Hargrove will be holding portable lights and guarding the porta-potties.
City Council Members will be handing out trash bags, gas masks and campaign signs/literature.
John Elkington - well, he won't be present. He is busy spending millions of our tax payers' money & "bilking" the next gullible little podunk city.

The rules:
Wear comfortable clothes, work boots, safety gloves and gas masks.
If it's dead, the vultures beat you to it.
If it doesn't move, it is trash.
If it moves, grab it before the vultures do.
If you care, vote in August to get rid of all the vultures and trash.

Promo Pictures of  2025 event area, known as "the" INSPIRATION LANDING:




Sunday, March 2, 2025

A Negligent NAMC ER Situation

 



Note: The following blog concerns only complaints against the administrative staff in the North Alabama Medical Center ER. We have never heard anything but excellent reports concerning emergency department physicians and nurses. If you should, for whatever reason, believe you have a complaint concerning professional personnel, comments on this blog are not the place for such a discussion.


The ambulance arrives at the NAMC emergency department, and EMTs wheel the patient into receiving. Then they wait...and wait.

These responders can't just dump a patient. They have to wait until the patient is officially admitted to an ER room before they can retrieve their equipment and leave. It happens multiple times a day and should be pretty straight forward.

Lately, these EMTs say this process has been anything but quick. Some crews have reported wait times as long as two hours. At times, as many as five ambulances have been backed up, unable to leave until they can officially hand over their patients.

When five units are backed up, that's five units that can't go out on calls. In the Shoals area, that is a problem, a big problem.

The ambulance personnel feel that these delays are unnecessary. In short, they feel the administrative staff at the NAMC emergency department are not doing their jobs, perhaps even enjoying making the EMTs wait.

We're sure administrative support is also stressful, but it seems something is very wrong in the NAMC ER. Whatever it is, it needs to be sorted.




We welcome any comments from NAMC employees, both administrative and professional. You may send to Shoalanda.Speaks@gmail.com.




"Rescue Ukraine" is Not "United Help Ukraine"

 



When we recently recommended Rescue Ukraine, a reader sent us some info on United Help Ukraine. Knowing this reader's isolationist position, we believe he intended to discourage any monetary contribution to a pro-Ukrainian organization.

United Help Ukraine obviously has taken in a great deal of money, and we can find little or no negative information about that organization. In fact, Charity Navigator gives it a 100% score, stating you can give with confidence.

However, as we have previously, we ask our caring readers to contribute to Rescue Ukraine, a work grounded locally and one which we believe will give you a lot of bang for your buck.

Take a look at its website: Rescue Ukraine

If you're inclined to donate, you can do it via PayPal to Jeff Abrams:




*****



Saturday, March 1, 2025

Modified Language Policy

 



We live in a world where even the Florence mayor's wife feels free to appear on a livestream and spout vulgarities. If you don't find this troubling, you should.

For years, we've had a language policy complete with a list of words that should be avoided. Ideally, Facebook will filter out these posts, but sometimes they're missed. In the humor department, FB has often hidden posts about Dick Jordan. Yes, really.

Today we've had several complaints, mainly from the same person, about those who find a way around our policy. For instance, many may type a$$.

Therefore, in future, these types of hybrid vulgarities will also be deleted. Anyone using this language may or may not be banned; it will depend upon our interpretation of the poster's intent.

Trust us, it's much easier to filter your language in type than in spoken words. Try it; we believe more will take a look at your viewpoint.


Shoalanda


Friday, February 28, 2025

IT Manager Must Be Hittin' the Hootch

 



We're not sure whether to laugh or be very afraid for this man. Albert J. Dressler is the current IT manager for the City of Florence. Or he was; at best he's on paid leave after his second Domestic Violence arrest in 12 months.

The problem here is Dressler does have access to the data of every Florence Utilities customer. You think Ukranian hackers aren't seriously thinking of contacting him after he posted this new profile.

It's Friday, and many out there are currently enjoying refreshments of a certain kind. This may be the root of Dressler's problems at home. No matter the cause, no wife or child deserves to be anyone's punching bag.

And the City of Florence doesn't need to have to pay any more 300K ransoms. Can't Handy Dandy Andy handle this, or is he too busy concocting ways to take over the animal shelter?