I Scream! You Scream! We all scream! Over ice cream. Over the past several days, a number of seemingly homophobic tweets from Garrett Shirey, of Muscle Shoals’ Shirey Ice Cream, have circulated the internet. His ire, it seems, was the result of the Boy Scouts considering a change to their anti-LGBT policies. On Jan. 28,… Continue Reading
Last week, TIME Magazine named Birmingham, Ala. meteorologist James Spann as one of the 140 best twitter feeds of 2014. “The Birmingham-based meteorologist constantly responds to his 144k+ Twitter followers’ weather-related questions and retweets user-submitted photos from around the state, all while helming the televised weather forecast on a local ABC affiliate’s news show,” writes… Continue Reading
Birmingham’s City Council was half of UAB’s football attendance last year. No lead, no joke, just this: Birmingham City Council spends close to a quarter of a million dollars each year on UAB season football tickets for city employees, neighborhood associations and youth groups. Does anyone really want to see UAB football? No, and that… Continue Reading
Uber is a ride-sharing mobile application that matches up people seeking rides, with drivers. Uber is incredibly popular in cities that it operates in. Uber is not coming to Birmingham (probably). It’s not because Uber doesn’t want to be in Birmingham. No, Uber has foresight and sees a growing market… It’s because the Birmingham City… Continue Reading
We can’t talk about prison reform without a quote from the iconic Shawshank Redemption, the 1994 film starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. If you’ve ever watched TNT on any given weekend, you’ve seen it. So here’s a fitting quote from Morgan Freeman’s character, Red: “These walls are funny. First you hate ‘em, then you… Continue Reading
Briefs written, dockets filed, bills amended, coffee poured, 140 characters tweeted… You most likely already know about the players in Montgomery who have been around for 30+ years… but what about those young professionals who are driving politics in Alabama behind the scene? The following list of young politicos was derived from extensive interviews with… Continue Reading
The big news out of last week’s political primaries is that there was no news. The results of every race came down almost precisely as was predicted. The prevailing hypothesis among experts that there would be a low voter turnout was fulfilled. The turnout was around 20% statewide, as was expected. The reason for the… Continue Reading
Believe it or not we are less than one week away from the 2014 Primary Elections. The Republican and Democratic primaries are next Tuesday. The turnout may be historically low. The reason is simple. There are no good statewide races on the ballot. The Governor’s race is usually a marquee event. However, Gov. Robert Bentley… Continue Reading
The Campus Matters section of Sweet Home Politics has been designed to serve as a statewide forum chronicling issues surrounding higher education from the perspectives of students, professors and professionals at Alabama’s colleges and universities. We believe that the cultures established at the state’s universities and colleges have a long term impact on the state.… Continue Reading
Last Saturday, Shelton State Community College held interviews for its final three presidential candidates. The college, located in Tuscaloosa, has been without a permanent president for six years and will make a final decision in the coming weeks. Mark A. Heinrich, Chancellor of the Alabama Community College System and former interim president of Shelton State,… Continue Reading
This past week I was speaking with a group of small business owners and professionals in Dothan. One business owner felt that an increase in the Alabama minimum wage will make them need to raise prices at least a little, but that prices for all goods were already going up even without a wage hike,… Continue Reading
When I entered college in the 60s, women generally had three choices: teacher, nurse, or homemaker — very worthy occupations and endeavors, but what if you wanted to become an accountant? A doctor? An engineer? Or run for office? Those options were not readily available. 50 years later, trends have evolved to women’s benefit. In… Continue Reading
Former Congressman Parker Griffith could be ramping up for a gubernatorial campaign, WHNT News 19 reported earlier today. Griffith was elected to the US House as a Democrat in 2008 before running for reelection unsuccessfully as a Republican in 2010 and again in 2012. “The Alabama Democratic Party recently voted to reinstate Griffith” indicating that the candidate’s… Continue Reading
Will Republican Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle decide to take on incumbent Gov. Robert Bentley in the Republican primary? As reported by AL.com, Mayor Battle will make his announcement tomorrow. Battle’s former mayoral campaign website, www.tommybattle.com, has been made-over into a splash page that screams, as if it is for a statewide campaign, “Moving Alabama Forward.” Note, it says… Continue Reading
