Waylon Huguley Said What?

Muscle Shoals is a destination, despite the fact that you have to be coming here to get here. - TimesDaily, June 18

It should be noted that Waylon Huguley, part(?) owner of Certified Alarm, having relinquished (lost?) his Council seat in Sheffield, is now seeking a Council seat in Muscle Shoals. Remind me, please: what, exactly, did he accomplish for Sheffield when he had the opportunity? Does he offer the same 'achievements' for Muscle Shoals?

Rest in Peace, Una

Perhaps you got to see your biggest fan again today.

ACROSS THE SLEEPING TOWN OF MUSCLE SHOALS, A GIANT IS AROUSED

These groupings of signs are popping up in various neighborhoods across the city. Interesting that there is only ONE incumbent that shows up each time.

Leslie M. Shoals

It's Tommy!!!

Is there a perfect candidate out there in any upcoming election? No. Is there anything wrong in deciding between two less than perfect individuals? No.

Tommy Tuberville is a morally superior man to Jeff Sessions. If it should make a difference to any of our readers, he also has a better chance to defeat Doug Jones in November.

Make your vote count: Vote Tommy Tuberville on July 14th!

Two Takes on Things in Sheffield

Reader Number One: How many know the Sheffield police department is using Inspiration Landing property for an impound lot?

SS: We didn't. Is this correct? 

Reader Number Two: Imagine if David Johnson is elected Mayor of Sheffield. Then we will have John Elkington and David Johnson working together on the mysterious Inspiration Landing! How much worse could things possibly get with these two working together? We don’t want to find out!!!!

Wake Up Sheffield and find a candidate for Mayor who is at least honest and will work hard for your city. Nobody runs for Mayor because "you (heart) Sheffield."

SS: There's still quite a while to qualify. It will be interesting to see who steps up.

Will Rooster's Flap into the Shoals?

John Elkington has reported being in Oxford, Mississippi (population 28K souls and unknown numbers of undead college students), recruiting for the Furnace Hill retail component of Inspiration Landing. He proclaims that Rooster’s is a five-star recruit. Is it?

Rooster’s is a restaurant/bar/music venue. From what we can gather, it has no sister establishments around the Southeast. The eatery’s Facebook page states it’s currently open for take-out. Restaurant pundits say 70% of all independent food endeavors will cease to exist by the end of 2021 or earlier.
On the local front, a Sheffield citizen has reported a truck was actually moved on the IL property last week...

Arrest the Florence City Council?

As we have stated, we support the removal of the CSA military monument to Soldiers’ Rest in Florence. When we first heard there was a move afoot to have the Lauderdale County Commission charged with criminal conspiracy due to the cash payment to facilitate the removal, we laughed. Then we thought about Steve Marshall and considered the charges possible, but we were still amused at the thought of our commission having to face arrest. Now the onus seems to be on the Florence City Council. Would Steve Marshall actually prosecute them?

Here’s one Lauderdale resident’s opinion:

WWII Monuments to Be Removed from Florence?

Bribery is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official.

I think we can all agree that it would be a shame to see Mayor Holt, any member of the Florence City Council, and/or County Commissioners sentenced to spend up to the next 20 years in a federal penitentiary.

Unfortunately, Mayor Holt stated at a recent County Commission meeting that a group of business owners pledged money to pay the cost of moving the Confederate monument and the $25,000 fine in exchange for the city/county voting to break Alabama Sate Law.

Supporters of the monument's move said that the state law was "passed in 2017 by racists" and "no need to follow unjust laws."

Questions have already been raised how could Commissioner Brad Holmes remain a member of the Florence Police Department if he votes to take the law into his own hands?

Has any official even consulted with lawyers, Chris Connolly, or Steve Marshall?

Thomas Jefferson, who owned over 600 slaves, wrote the Declaration of Independence. Is it no longer valid?

What about the innocent people killed as a result of the atomic bombings of Japan? Should all WWII monuments be taken down?

What would Native American Indians say about white supremacy? Should we bulldoze the whole country and start over?

I personally think that Soldiers' Rest is a good place for the Confederate monument but it has to be done the right way. Otherwise, we will lose much more than we gain.

Forever grateful, your good bud,

ZAR

Fay Parker Strikes Again

The Lauderdale County Commission has just appointed one of its own, Fay Parker, to the 911 Board. After learning of this appointment, a local political influencer whom we respect and admire made the comment that surely of 93K Lauderdale County residents, the commission could have found some new blood. She was promptly criticized for using the entire population as a literal pool for applicants.

Let’s take a very conservative look at how many were qualified:

~ Let’s use 90K as the actual population.

~ Let’s say 50% are children, leaving 45K.

~ Let’s assume 5K are automatically disqualified due to previous crimes of true moral turpitude, leaving 40K.

~ Of the remainder, how many would be competent and willing applicants? One out of four? One out of eight? Let’s say the latter, leaving 5K.

So out of 5,000 qualified individuals, Commissioner Fay Parker was selected? Even if the opening was not widely advertised, this has to raise quite a few questions.

Our political pundit friend specifically questioned why so few women and racial minorities are on local boards. We won’t even go that far. We simply want to know why anyone thought Commissioner Parker was the best candidate for this job.

J. Redmon on Sheffield & More

In a move that displays a blatant disregard for science, Sheffield's mayor has decided 'it isn't safe' to reopen City Hall.

Personally, I think it should remain closed PERMANENTLY. I can't think of ONE city official in Sheffield that actually DOES any 'work' that justifies the expense of an office.

Historical monuments honoring the Confederacy are no more traitorous and no less honorable than historical monuments honoring America's Founding Fathers. They are part of America's history. Those that refuse to understand that are the problem; NOT the monuments.

How was it 'OK' to have the 'Trail of Tears' commemoration at McFarland Park last week, complete with a FULL campground and the accompanying crowd and live entertainment, but somehow celebrating the 4th of July is considered 'too dangerous'?

Leftist? Me? I'm outraged. Nay, I'm insulted! I demand satisfaction!

Addressing an ALFA Agent's Misstatements

A reader, presumably new, has asked two local ALFA agents about our Facebook profile icon:

Agent M replied:

Left wings that dont like farmers to raise chickens, pigs and cows for food

First, if there are any left-wing bloggers here, we don't know about it. Most lean to the right. 

Second, while we can't speak for all our writers, as far as we know most eat meat. No one here has any objection to humanely raised food.

So why do we, and many othrs, oppose ALFA? This article says it best:

The Truth About ALFA

If Agent M would like to debate the author of that article, we can arrange that. In the meantime, let's see if he apologizes for calling our bloggers left wing.

Prince Would Also Like A Word With Agent M!

Happy Father's Day 2020

Fathers, Pops, Dads, Daddies...Who's following in your footsteps today? Will it get them to where they need to be tomorrow? Always remember that you're a leader first, a pal second.

Happy Father's Day!

All of Us at Shoalanda

Addressing Some Racism

We've been debating the right time to address the removal of the CSA monument currently in place at the Lauderdale County Courthouse. Ideally, it should be moved to the Florence City Cemetery or other suitable place. We do not see that happening in the immediate future due to our county commission. We welcome readers' thoughts on this problem and any solutions they may offer.

So why is now the right time to broach the subject of any form of racism? It seems our blog has been accused of being racist for calling out a white school administrator who overlooked a student's infraction. Now we're told the student is of mixed race (something we could not tell from the photograph published online).

However, we are astounded at those who made this about the young woman who received the preferential treatment and not about the admin who gave it. We're not sure if this stems from the large number of individuals who can't read with comprehension or a victim mentality that prevails much of our society.

That being said, we want to stress that we will not tolerate either readers or bloggers being called vulgar names or threatened. Simply because we allow negative comments, it doesn't follow that we allow abusive ones.

Namaste!

Chad O.G. Holden: Vindictive & Inconsistent?

Pictured above is Chad (Original Gangster) Holden; we didn't dub him that, his students did. Holden is currently principal of Muscle Shoals High School, but soon he will be the system's new superintendent. 

One of Holden's first acts as principal of Muscle Shoals High in 2014 was to send a popular student home for her hair being dyed too vibrant a red:

Doesn't Look THAT Unnatural To Us

At the time the student was disciplined, Holden stated:

"As a new principal, my expectations are to enforce every school board policy and every rule in the student handbook, and that's what I did on the first day and what I will continue to do," 

In case you've forgotten, Holden knew this child's family. A lawsuit ultimately followed.

Flash forward to Muscle Shoals' 2020 graduation:

A Color Not Naturally Occurring On An Earthling

If the O.G. calls this being consistent, he needs to return to school for a remedial vocabulary course.

The O.G. Better Not Say A Word About Me

Still Time to Qualify for City Elections

You may love your current city government, but you may hate it. If the latter is the case, don't complain there are no fit candidates. What are you waiting for?

One may register to run for mayor until July 22nd. Registration for city council members ends July 23rd. (Don't ask us why the one day difference. We have no idea.)

Which cities need shaking up? In reverse order of need: Tuscumbia, Sheffield, Florence, Muscle Shoals.

Why is the City of Florence second on the list? No, we can't hold the council members responsible for the recent hacking debacle. We can hold them responsible for underfunding the animal shelter while tossing our tax dollars away to the less than holy Salvationist Church...for refusing to work with Room at the Table (at least one of them)...for being unresponsive to communications from concerned citizens!

For those making excuses concerning the erroneous past due notices from Florence Utilities, we make two points:

1. Someone had to have pressed the key to initiate the notices, realizing that many were in error.

2. Someone had to have taken these notices to the post office.

In other words...someone at Florence Utilities or the city IT department didn't care. Think about that...

Standing By & Ready to Biiiiite!

Florence: Inadequate & Sloppy?

You receive a phone call stating there's a bomb in your basement; what do you do? Do you sit around 12 days trying to decide the best way to handle it?

Obviously, hindsight is 20/20; however, we're wondering who knew what and when they knew it. From threat analyst Brent Callew:

“Despite being warned that its network had been compromised, Florence was nonetheless hit by ransomware due to the inadequacy of its response to the initial incident. Organizations cannot afford to be sloppy when it comes to remediating incidents. Completely rebuilding the networking is the only sure-fire way to ensure that an incident such as this does not become a ransomware event in which data is encrypted and possibly exfiltrated.”

That seems a fair assessment, doesn't it? 

$5,000.00 Reward to Report Cockfighting

For months now, we've heard that federal agents from Atlanta were to swoop into northwest Alabama and make arrests for cockfighting. So far, it just hasn't happened.

Now the the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) and Animal Wellness Action (AWA) have announced that they are offering a $5,000 reward for information resulting in the successful prosecution of any individual(s) for violating the federal law (7 U.S.C. § 2156) against animal fighting. That's a lot of money to do the right thing.

What to do:

Anyone with information about illegal cockfighting activities can send information to animalcrueltytips@animalwellnessaction.org. Residents can also contact the appropriate U.S. attorneys, the state attorney general, or county sheriffs or district attorneys.

Foghorn thanks you and we thank you!

100 MPH Chase No Threat to the Public?

It has been 11 years, almost to the day, since the brother of a local celebrity was killed in a high speed chase in Florence. At that time, we asked several retired and current law enforcement officials their opinion of such chases. Four out of five felt that these speed fests were dangerous and usually produced more bad than good.

Flash forward to 2020, and in the past year at least three Shoals area men have died in high speed police chases.  One deceased was a car thief; the stolen vehicle was also gone forever. One dead man was a decorated veteran who was guilty of running a red light. A third man was merely a passenger in a vehicle whose driver decided to run from officers. 

Last week in Russellville, a similar high speed police chase made its way through parts of the incorporated town, at times exceeding 100 mph. Steven George Melton, a man wanted for a probation violation, was eventually captured with no one being injured. What did police chief Chris Hargett have to say about the incident?

Hargett is quoted in a Franklin County news report as saying: ...this incident never got to the point of extreme danger.

If a chase that stretched from Russellville to Phil Campbell and reached speeds of over 100 mph didn't present extreme danger to the public, perhaps the public should ask Chief Hargett at what point he would consider them in danger?

Only Andrew Sorrell Had the Morals & Common Sense!

Who supported Lynn Greer's HB463 that stole the vote from Florence citizens in the county superintendent's race? In the Senate, Larry Stutts for one. How about Tim Melson? Tim abstained from voting. Perhaps he could explain that to us.

How about the House? Only one legislator voted against the bill. Once again, Andrew Sorrell showed backbone when no one else did. Thank you, Andrew!

Remember the Ag Authority pilfering this expensive conference table from the City of Florence? That was some foreshadowing of Greer stealing Florence's vote, wasn't it? 

The table was eventually returned after enough people kicked up a fuss about it. Now what do we have to do to get our vote back?

Chelsea Kauchick on Some Muscle Shoals Issues

Since this blog began publication, the population of Muscle Shoals has grown by 20%. Obviously, you have us to thank.

If that logic sounds very faulty to you, consider candidates who mention every business that has located in their fair town since they've been in office. Does anyone ever think these businesses came solely because of them? No, it takes more than idle boasts to run a city.

Here's a very interesting conversation with mayoral candidate Chelsea Kauchek and a concerned Muscle Shoals citizen...

Citizen:

There is a legal reason why MS does not have commission districts. The US Justice department determined that housing is not segregated enough to allow for district representation and Leon Madden was subsequently elected in an at-large election. Out-of-city students do not have a right to attend our schools; let their parents annex and pay the taxes we have to pay. My advice for anyone seeking income equality is to go to work as our Constitution only guarantees equality of opportunity. Muscle Shoals does not deserve a social activist as mayor. If. I in any way mis- Understood your appeal I apologize. I was hoping for a new mayor who would work for ALL the citizens as there are areas of this city that are unknown to the politicians.

My response:

XXXXXX, I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. I enjoy engaging in discussions on how to grow our city so please don't hesitate to continue sharing your thoughts. In regards to districting, from what I've researched, the decision to district or create an at-large council version is up to the municipality, but the US Justice Dept. would step in if they deem that the current system is in violation of the Civil Rights Act.

I know our current system has been in place at least since 1992 when we went to a mayoral/council format. I'd be curious to know if the city reassesses the current system each election cycle to determine if this is the best system moving forward. Historically, at-large council representation in city government are prone to overlooking minority communities because there is no representative responsible for the betterment of that particular location. Of course there are pros and cons with every format, but I want to make sure our city recognizes that some communities have been overlooked due to our current system. If my understanding of this is incorrect and the city does not make the decisions regarding districting, please let me know where I can find that information and I will be happy to put out a statement clarifying this.

Regarding Mr. Madden, I'm aware of his service as councilman from 1992-2000, a good 20 years ago. Would you agree that after two decades of only having white men serve, our city would benefit from having new voices in leadership from different backgrounds?

Furthermore, would you agree that having NO female leadership on the council hinders us from making the best decisions for more than half of our population?

The neighborhood I was referring to that was zoned out for city schools is right in the heart of our city. It is within one mile of our city schools and very much within city limits, so they pay taxes just like we do. Is it fair that they get bussed out of our city to attend county schools 20 minutes away just because they are considered lower income or don't fit into the MSCS image? As you mentioned, under our Constitution we are given rights for equal opportunity. Where is the equal opportunity for these students? Why is it that neighborhoods with higher-income families that live much further away from our city schools are zoned in while these other students right down the road are zoned out? I hope you and I can both agree that there is a misaligned moral compass on this issue.

You mentioned you are hoping for a mayor who would work for ALL of our citizens, and that is exactly what I'm trying to express in my campaign. You don't want a social activist mayor, but what I consider social activism is this: being engaged with our community. Communicating with civility and compassion. Learning from each other. Speaking up when we can do better. Leading by example.

I would argue that social activism is an imperative part to running a city because at the end of the day, it's the people of this community who matter and as mayor, my job includes being present for ALL of our community.

I would love to learn more about the areas of this city unknown to politicians. I feel like I've already brought up a few of them in this email, but I know there's more to learn. I learn from people like you. Please let me know what you think we could work on as a city. Feel free to contact my personal cell so we can discuss.

Again, thank you for your time. I hope this addresses your concerns, but if I missed the mark, please let me know. 

All the Best, 

Chelsea Kauchick

Demastus Guilty, but No Jail Time

Buddy (on right) - Killed by Justin Demastus

Pictured on right is Golden Retriever Buddy shot and killed by Justin Aaron Demastus. The stand-up comedian has pleaded guilty in Colbert County and will be doing community service. That's right; no jail time that we're aware of. 

What kind of man shoots a Golden Retriever? The answer is obvious - no MAN at all would commit such a heinous act.

Dog Killer Demastus