Elections notebook
For those who were closely following some of the municipal campaigns in recent weeks -- and judging by Tuesday's election turnouts, you probably weren't -- here are a few noteworthy items:
Unofficial results in Birmingham have Randall Woodfin winning a third term as mayor with a pretty convincing win over Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales and state Rep. Juandalynn Givan.
Mobile's race to replace Mayor Sandy Stimpson had a loaded field, and few onlookers really knew what to expect. State Rep. Barbara Drummond and former Mobile County District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis are heading to a Sept. 23 runoff.
Mountain Brook will have its first woman mayor as Graham Smith ran unopposed for that office.
Tarrant, the Jefferson County town with the off-kilter politics (even by Jefferson County standards), gets to enjoy a runoff for mayor. Incumbent Wayman Newton will face Councilwoman Tracie Threadford in that one.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato has been in that office since 2016 but lost yesterday to police chief Nick Derzis, whose been on the force since 1979 and chief since 2005.
Check out AL.com/politics for more election and political coverage.
A new trial
An Alabama inmate of three decades will get a new trial thanks to DNA evidence, reports AL.com's Ivana Hrynkiw.
A jury convicted Christopher Barbour in the 1992 murder and rape of Thelma Roberts in Montgomery. At first, Barbour, who was homeless, confessed to the killing, but he quickly tried to back down from the confession and claimed that he had been beaten by Montgomery police.
Then two years ago, new testing showed that DNA evidence left on Roberts was not from Barbour or two others who had also been implicated in the crime. The DNA actually was from Jerry Tyrone Jackson, a teenaged neighbor of Roberts who is now doing time for killing another woman.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall didn't find the new evidence persuasive. He maintained that Barbour, the victim, must have had sex with the teen neighbor before being raped and killed by the homeless men, who managed to not leave DNA evidence.
Still, U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ordered a new trial, calling the DNA present at the scene "powerful evidence that Barbour's confession is false." The AG's office has 90 days to begin the new trial.
HOPE for dementia patients
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville has begun a study aimed at identifying potential dementia and Alzheimer's patients before they develop the maladies, reports AL.com's Scott Turner.
The hope is to move toward prevention efforts, rather than the current norm of treating patients once they're symptomatic. Researchers say these diseases begin years before patients show obvious signs of memory loss.
The program is called Healthy Outcomes through Phenomic Explorations for Alzheimer's Disease, or HOPE AD. It's expected to last 12-15 months, and it's initially involving 200 volunteers from the Huntsville area between the ages of 65 and 75 who are at risk through their family medical history.
They're going to look at biomarkers and data on diet, physical and mental exercise and sleep habits.
HudsonAlpha President Neil Lamb:
"The type of diet, does it have a lot of sugar and processed foods, or is it more whole grains and lower in fats? Are we actively keeping our brain healthy? Are we doing things like brain teasers, Sudoku, crosswords, online games around your brain? Are we getting the right amount of sleep? ... All of those things are habits. We want to be able to pair these individuals with lifestyle and health coaches to help them make those changes."
Weed abatement
Birmingham's weed emergency continues.
No, I don't mean THAT kind of weed. I mean the unwanted kind that takes over a yard, especially if owners have decided to turn their lawns back over to Mother Nature.
The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to extend an emergency declaration to Oct. 10, reports AL.com's Greg Garrison. That allows the mayor to suspend notice requirements for cutting weeds on neglected private property in the city.
The city has around 15,000 tax-delinquent lots that have overgrown vegetation.
There's an expense to taking care of the blight: The latest budget includes $3 million for weed abatement. City work crews as well as at least 18 lawn contractors are ready to mow.
It's become an issue this summer because of all the rain the area has seen. Anyone who cuts grass knows that it's been a busy summer.
Ham, biscuits and ... egg on somebody's face
Our not-so-long national nightmare is over: The "old timer" on the Cracker Barrel logo is staying put.
After days of backlash over a redesign, the popular interstate-exit chain reversed course on a previous decision to go with a simpler, flatter logo that was free from old country dudes and cracker barrels. It was the mediocre grits of restaurant logos.
With the move, Cracker Barrel stepped, or was pulled, into the political culture wars. Was it a "woke" decision? Was it a scrubbing of something that reminds us of granddaddy and who we were back home? Was it part of a cultural genocide against traditional American country folks?
You might see how some folks are thin-skinned about such a possibility. Believe it or not, I've actually personally witnessed people expressing contempt for things rural and southern and country. I know that's hard to believe.
But whether or not corporate types were embarrassed by a cracker barrel hero, it was more likely that Cracker Barrel was choosing to grow its customer base the same way country music does: By changing itself to appeal to people who don't like it in the first place.
After the decision to revert to the old logo, President Trump, famously a connoisseur of finer road food, congratulated Cracker Barrel on social media and wished it well financially.
Certainly bringing us all together once again.
Quoting
"What our communities need is continued investment in jobs, education, mental health, and public safety resources -- not troops on our streets."
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, on gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville's openness to deploying National Guard troops in Montgomery and Birmingham.
More Alabama News
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Born on This Date
In 1949, longtime guitarist, fiddler and keyboardist for the country-music band Alabama, the late Jeff Cook of Fort Payne.
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