D.K. Is Happy Tonight!

Our fellow blog member D.K. is extremely happy tonight after Bama's super win over Notre Dame. Our facetious comment of yesterday was taken the wrong way by some--No, none of us here was rooting for the Irish.

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Is Goody's coming to the Sav-A-Lot Shopping Center in Muscle Shoals? If Pounders Realty has its way, the middle-of-the-road department store will be joining its sister store in the town's core shopping area.

Besides Burke's Discount, the company owns Beall's and Peeble's Department Stores. There's currently one Goody's in Russellville, and three Burke's in the area. Their gift cards are welcome at any of their stores, making for a great retail experience. Here's hoping Muscle Shoals gets this plum.

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Speaking of retail, how's Publix doing? We hear their main draw is the weekly buy-one-get-one-free offers. When making your shopping list, don't forget Belle Foods; the Alabama owned chain seems to get better each week.

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Know what this is?

According to this eBay listing, it's an illegal gambling chip from an establishment run by Pride and Dewitt Dawson. If you find it interesting, it can be yours for only 9.95.



Shoalanda

Railroad Avenue?

It seems that several new facilities are in the preliminary planning stage for Florence, the city that never saw a million dollar project it didn't like. That isn't surprising. It's also not surprising that Mayor Mickey Haddock realizes the impact the proposed East Florence Arts and Entertainment District will have on that area.

What is surprising is that Haddock has stated the city sanitation department headquarters may have to be moved from Railroad Avenue because of the future development. Anyone been down Railroad Avenue recently? It's as picturesque as it sounds. Running parallel to the train tracks, the narrow road runs from North to East Florence. Several small businesses dot the landscape as well as a few homes.

Perhaps we're not thinking big enough here, but in five to ten years, we don't see Railroad Avenue as home to Hard Rock Florence.

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Anyone have any plans tomorrow night? No? Didn't think so. Maybe TV Land will have a marathon of Bewitched...



Shoalanda

Patricia Edmon Ayers...Pagan Pornographer?

Click to Enlarge Image

Patricia Allana Edmon Ayers lives in the Johnson Crossroads community north of Florence. The 32 year-old woman was arrested yesterday for the manufacture and possession of five pornographic images of a seven year-old girl. The Tucson, Arizona, native has told police she took the photos in order to document a skin rash. Married since 2008, Ayers states on a social networking profile that she has three children from a previous relationship. DHR has now taken the children into state custody.

Authorities are calling the pictures "proactive." We'll interpret that as posing the child in certain provocative positions. Apparently the photographs weren't hidden, but appeared in a photostream that belonged to the Lauderdale County woman. Ayers is also a member of PaganSpace (pictured above), a social networking site for wiccans, witches, and others involved in the occult.

How will her "medical" defense play? We'll predict not all that well. After all, why post them to the Internet? Ayers isn't exactly mother of the year material...

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Will Greg Scoggins appeal to the Civil Service Board now that Muscle Shoals Mayor David Bradford has turned down the former officer's request for leniency? He very well may, but our expert on police procedure feels it's a case that can't be won. According to WHNT, the Alabama Department of Conservation will not be prosecuting Casey Liles, the 19 year-old who assisted in transporting the body of the dead deer to a local residence.



Shoalanda

Justice for Andrew Beach/Okolona Assault

Andrew Carl Beach

December 5, 1987 to July 20, 2012

It is true that Andrew was very gifted young man. His test scores were in the very top percentile of all of the students in the US. He could have gone to college anywhere and been accepted into practically any medical school in the country.

From the seventh grade on, his dream had been to be a pharmacist and become involved in pharmacological research.

He would have entered the Doctor of Pharmacy Program at the University of Tennessee this week. He had every intention of going on to achieve a second PhD in oncological research.

He was brutally and senselessly murdered on July 20 by a driver impaired at a minimum by alcohol and prescription pain medication only one-half mile from his home as he stopped at a rural four-way stop to allow another motorist to pass through the intersection. He was killed instantly as that impaired driver, traveling at an horrific rate of speed, hit him from the rear.

It was determined later that the driver and the three passengers in his car had just left a bar barely two miles away. The fifty-eight-year-old intoxicated driver left the bar, driving completely out of control. He ran through one stop sign, passed another driver at a high rate of speed and ran an approaching car off the road on his way to the fatal crash barely two minutes from the time he left the bar.

In addition to being a gifted student, Andrew was also an outstanding student athlete. He loved sports. As a left handed pitcher, he had an indomitable spirit to compete and win. From his first organized baseball at the age of nine to his final year at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, the accomplishments and rich memories are far too many to mention. Andrew on the baseball field was, and will always be, an image of pure poetry.

All of the academic and athletic accomplishments are not what defined Andrew Beach. He was most of all a loyal and loving son, brother, grandson, cousin, friend, teammate, student and engaged graduate assistant to the biology department at UAH. Though he was very shy and quiet and did not display his emotions easily, his true feelings shone in his beautiful smile and glistening eyes. He loved deeply and was loved by many in return.

Andrew's family has been pursuing the prosecution of the driver who took the life of this accomplished young man. As often happens, they've been disappointed in the lack of action in prosecuting the driver who killed Andrew. Mrs. Beach has contacted D.K. to ask that we publicize the following petition:

Justice for Andrew Beach

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We predict standing room only for Sunday services at Okolona Baptist Church in Town Creek. It seems their preacher was involved in an accident last Sunday night after church. According to news reports, Scotty Wayne Brackin, 43, was a passenger in a car driven by a member of his congregation when the two began to argue. Brackin abruptly exited the car on Wilson Dam Road in Muscle Shoals and ran into a field. The car's driver then pursued Brackin into the field, hitting him, and causing unknown injuries. Muscle Shoals police arrested the driver on charges of Second Degree Assault.

While an unusual tale in itself, the real kicker is that the driver was Brackin's wife Lee Ann Elliott Brackin. The couple have been married for 22 years and have three children. We also predict a marriage enrichment seminar coming soon to Okolona.

Shoalanda

Aaron Gregory Lucas Arrested for 2002 Crime

Aaron Gregory Lucas, an army officer with ties to Madison and points west, has been returned to Alabama and booked on charges related to a 2002 unsolved sex case. There had been previous speculation that Lucas was connected to an attempted 2008 Hazel Green abduction.

If guilty of the 2002 crime, Lucas would have been only 19 or 20 when he began his serial career as a molester of prepubescent girls. It's not known what punishment might await the lieutenant in Madison County if he should be convicted, but he faces a possible total of 100 years in Colorado.

We say let Colorado have and support him. He will only lower the class of felons currently incarcerated in this state.

Related post: Close to Home Sex Crime

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The Sherwin-Williams police have just solved several recent UFO sightings in the area. It seems Primo's Pizza in Elgin is visible as far away as the next galaxy and was being mistaken for a caution light. The Alabama Department of Transportation has also expressed concern about the restaurant, stating it's caused a massive shortage of yellow striping paint. Here's hoping Primo's will hire a new decorator in 2013.

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Tomorrow: Andrew Beach and the driver who took him from his family.



Shoalanda

A Cop, A Death, A Gun, & An Appeal

In a city not too far, far away...in a time not all that long ago, there was a rising star in a police department. There was also a man who committed a petty crime who chose to run from this rising star in the world of criminal justice. There was a foot chase, a fight, and a gunshot fired.

When backup arrived, they found the miscreant lying dead on a city street and the young police officer dazed at what he had just done. It took only seconds for one of the officers to retrieve an extra gun from his car and place it next to the body of the fugitive.

Is this unusual? We'll comment only on the practice of carrying an extra weapon. Yes, it's supposedly quite common and not frowned upon in many departments. These are handguns and usually untraceable. What about a long gun? According to not just Colbert County attorney and Democratic Party leader Billy Underwood, but our sources as well, this practice is also common in some departments.

We have no idea if the City of Muscle Shoals frowned upon this practice in the past or not. We certainly know the city has now classified Greg Scoggins' possession of a hunting rifle while on duty as being unauthorized.

Let's say we give former officer Scoggins a free pass on that one, how does Mr. Underwood plan to explain his client firing the fatal shot from his car? We also wonder how those who've contacted us to say Greg Scoggins killed the deer to feed his family now feel about the mighty hunter paying what must be an exorbitant fee to Underwood on the small chance he will get his job back.

Let's remember that Greg Scoggins didn't just commit several illegal acts while on duty, but also dragged a 19 year-old male into the crime. Scoggins reportedly contacted Muscle Shoals resident Casey Liles to meet him with a pickup truck to move the body to the Liles residence, a home in close proximity to Scoggins'. Now Liles may face charges of being an accessory to the crime.

We have had several conflicting reports on Liles' relationship to Scoggins and have previously reported that the youth was a family member. Specifically we have been told that Casey Liles is Greg Scoggins' nephew; however, several readers familiar with the situation have commented that there was no familial relationship.

If that should be the case, we certainly apologize for the error. After all, who would want to be related to Natty Dumbo?

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Our friend Mary Carton has been very busy, as usual. We admire both Mary's talent and her dedication to preserving Tuscumbia and Shoals history.

2013 Tuscumbia Calendars

Shoalanda

Welcome 2013!

We'll forego the homilies and offer only a riddle. What thief do we all wish to see more of?

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