I’ve noticed that as the City of Cullman grows, so do the unexpected consequences and problems. One of those problems is the traffic on the incredibly narrow Highway 31 and those who are choosing residential streets as their alternate route. Over the past year or so, my once peaceful...
When it comes to writing, I have always enjoyed getting things done. I love the feeling that comes when I have completed a piece and feel satisfied by the result. Everyone has something that provides that little release. You are proud of whatever it is that you have accomplished...
Change is a largely evolving concept. Occasionally, we are swept up in this giant wave of newness and gives us a feeling of being dipped into ice water. Initially, when submerged in freezing water, the human body has what is known as a “cold shock response.” The lungs immediately...
Any time you open a new book, you are introduced to a world of endless possibilities. There are a thousand--no, a million different places that stories could take you. As local libraries begin to reopen at full capacity and access to hands-on literature becomes available again, let us not...
There are few things that we as people seem to love less than change. The disruption to our daily patterns, motions and moments rattles us so greatly that occasionally, we break under the pressure—and why wouldn’t we? As creatures so comforted by our habits, it only makes sense that...
The city and county schools always do an amazing job at taking care of Cullman’s students and with summer just around the corner, they don’t plan to slow down. This summer, both the City and County Schools are implementing a Summer Feeding Program.
Here in the City, the program begins...
“But when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.”
John 16:13 NIV
Personal trainers are a wonderful asset in a person’s life. Almost everyone would love to have one. They work with individuals on a one-on-one basis to help them develop strong and physically...
I consider myself quite lucky after discovering a fire in my living room Monday afternoon. For anyone with older homes with built-in electric wall heaters, please pay attention. Even if you think the heater doesn’t work, do not put anything in front of the heaters unless you know they...
"Major broadband legislation will be addressed again in my committee (House Urban & Rural Development) this coming week.
A working group of legislators met with Governor Ivey this past week to make final changes to SB215 carried in the House by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville.
This legislation would build upon my...
We all know someone who seems compelled to ruin any and every conversation. I call them the one-uppers. Regardless of your experience, they feel compelled to one-up every single one. They can effortlessly make every statement, story, situation and conversation about them. To the one-uppers, how about you shut-upper.
The...
Last week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law S.B. 202, a piece of reform legislation that will enhance the security and integrity of elections in our neighbor state.
While the bill makes numerous changes to the voting process in Georgia, the bill requires proof of identification to be submitted...
Brooke Astor was known as “The Queen of New York.” Her beloved country house, “Holly Hill,” in Briarcliff, New York is the regal setting for “The Winners Circle Birthday Party.” The Westchester County estate has more than 10,000 square feet, including 24 rooms, 13 bedrooms and both indoor and...
Alabama doesn’t function like other states on a lot of things, but especially when it comes to public records.
Last year, my colleague Amy Yurkanin had a question: How much was the University of Alabama at Birmingham paying a private company to recruit students from foreign countries?
Her question led to...
You’ve probably heard something like this before: another national ranking, another instance when Alabama ranked dead last.
But I promise you, this one is different, and by the end of this column, I’ll explain how.
A couple of years ago, University of Arizona journalism professor David Cuillier set out to measure...
Alabama Department of Mental Health
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Since 2005, the Alabama Department of Mental Health (ADMH) has hosted the Capitol Showcase, a consumer art show. Individuals with mental illnesses, developmental disabilities, substance use disorders or co-occurring disorders graciously offer their works of art to showcase throughout the month of...
CULLMAN, Ala. - National Agriculture Day, commonly referred to as National “Ag” Day, is coming up on March 24, and Cullman County’s Farm-City folks are gearing up for a series of events around the day and through the season to celebrate farmers and agriculture in Alabama and the Cullman...
CULLMAN, Ala. - The Health Care Authority of Cullman County/ Cullman Regional Board of Directors this week announced that they have received Emergency Alabama Certificate of Need (CON) approval to add an additional 30 beds to the hospital, including 13 additional critical care beds.
During the final months of 2020...
During the peak of storm season, our greatest concern is for the safety of everyone who will be affected by a storm. State Farm encourages all residents in the projected path of any storm to protect themselves and their property.
Despite taking proper precautions to prepare your home for a...
In many areas of Alabama, blogs or Facebook pages have begun to function as news agencies. While those entities can be helpful in distributing information, they lack the accountability to be considered an actual news outlet.
In my opinion, a news outlet should be credentialed in some form. Being a...
On any given day, there are tens of thousands of people being trafficked into and within the U.S. A large percentage of the victims are minors, often young females, who are brutally forced to perform commercial acts of sex or labor against their will.
January is National Human Trafficking Awareness...
The doctors call it “COVID fog,” and it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as respiratory issues and ventilators. It is a very real effect of COVID-19, though, and it can be difficult to define as it strikes different victims in different ways, including striking some not at all.
This...
As the director of the state agency charged with safeguarding Alabama’s environment, I have great respect for and deep appreciation of our state’s wonderful natural resources and rich biodiversity of species and habitats, including many that are unique to Alabama. Protecting human health and those environmental treasures is precisely...
There was an article concerning the Alabama Legislature 2021 Session in The Cullman Tribune on January 2, 2021. Garlan Gudger and Randall Shedd commented on whether or not to allow gambling and in which forms it might take. I am concerned that the article did not mention that there...
As the new year begins and we reflect on 2020, we are faced with the sad reality that almost 4,800 Alabamians have died from COVID-19, the highly contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Last spring when we learned about the illnesses and deaths due...
Prescription benzodiazepines can treat several conditions, including epilepsy, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. However, professionals continue to debate as to whether long-term use of these drugs is medically acceptable. As more information has surfaced regarding these drugs' addictive potential, medical professionals have shied away from prescribing them. Psychiatrists...
Editor's note: A post on a local Facebook page Saturday afternoon used a second-hand quote from Cullman physician Dr. Adam Harrison regarding in-person worship services without context or verification from Harrison himself. Sunday, Harris responded due to the heated debate that ensued as a result.
Below is a letter,...
“I Miss Precedented Times.” That’s a T-shirt slogan seen recently, and indeed the year 2020 has brought unprecedented challenges due to the coronavirus COVID-19. As December begins and the weather becomes colder, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have increased in Alabama, and it is feared that activities associated with...
Dear Editor,
On September 12, 2020, a horrendous crime was committed to someone very near and dear to our hearts. Herndon “Junior” Self was a hard-working and outgoing husband, father, grandfather, son, brother, and uncle whose only fault was putting his trust in the wrong person.
The shocking part about this...
The time has come to paraphrase the lawyer Joseph Welch in the famous Joe McCarthy hearing and address Governor Kay Ivey instead: “Have you no sense of decency, ma'am, at long last?”
Alabama’s coronavirus infections and deaths continue to climb. And among the victims are poor people who fell below the...
On Friday members of the Cullman Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary took part in a march around Sportsman Lake in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Carrying flags including Old Glory, all five branch flags, the Firefighter and Police flags, as well as...
This will be a cross between a sports story and an opinion
piece. When you first start reading, you may ask, “Why is this in this
paper? This isn’t about a local sports player.”
Read to the end, I think you will understand…..
Kaetlyn McGriff is a volleyball player from Huntsville
Junior High School...
After the recent Letter to the Editor from my opponent, I commented that I have never heard, thought or said that Mayor Dodson has done anything illegal whatsoever.
I want to say, in this election, the choice is between two very different candidates. We have tried to knock on every...
To the Editor:
First let me introduce myself. I am The Town of Colony Councilman Melvin Hammond (Finance) and have been a councilman for two and a half years.
This is in support of Mayor (Donnis) Leeth.
The other candidate, Curtis Johnson, is running for this office, but the following reasons (are)...
I am the former activities director for Westminster Assisted Living. The reason I am writing you is to provide feedback regarding the CHS Band. My daughter is a clarinet player in both marching and symphonic bands for Cullman High School. She also has chronic asthma and sees a pulmonary...
Editor’s note: Heather Mann is a reporter for The Cullman Tribune who recently returned to campus at Auburn University for her junior year.
Classes at Auburn University started Monday, but events have been taking place since Aug. 10 (the start of the university's Welcome Week). With more than 30,000...
America’s Founders regarded a free press as so vital to the new nation that they took care to include that right in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Founders spoke glowingly about the press as a pillar of democracy and guarantor of liberty. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, famously wrote in...
My fellow Alabamians:
In a few days, America will celebrate her 244th birthday.
Traditionally, many towns and cities around the country light up the night with fireworks and music festivals. In 1776, John Adams predicted that Independence Day would be “celebrated by succeeding generations” with “pomp and circumstance…bonfires and illuminations.”
However, largely...
112 days. That’s how long our seniors, the members of the Greatest Generation, have been locked down inside assisted living and nursing homes. 112 days. That’s how long the senior centers have been forced to remain closed. 112 days. That’s how long the rest of the world has continually...
Census 2020 kicked off in March, shortly before the word “coronavirus” entered our everyday vocabulary and upended life as we then knew it. And while the Census is not presently on the forefront of the vast majority’s minds, it is enormously important to Alabama’s future.
Alabama is currently reporting a...
Mark Wilson, M.D., health officer, Jefferson County Department of Health
Ray L. Watts, M.D., president, University of Alabama at Birmingham
As parts of Alabama’s safer-at-home measures relax Monday, May 11, health experts — including public health officials and world-renowned UAB infectious disease doctors and researchers — urge extreme caution.
According to...
This is a difficult day for all of us. New unemployment numbers released this morning, some of the worst in our nation’s history, paint a grim picture of the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of Americans, and many of our fellow Alabamians, are out of work...
Community colleges in Alabama and across the nation have responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic, making contributions to enhance capabilities of emergency responders and health care professionals. Two-year public colleges have the unique capability to re-skill the workforce as the state and the nation prepare to return to productivity...
As we honor our war dead this Memorial Day, please remember the extraordinary price Vietnam veterans have paid.
If you have never visited the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C., I urge you to do so. Being a Vietnam veteran, I knew from its construction that I must visit. Yet,...
It may not have sounded like it on the surface, but Gov. Kay Ivey recently made one of her most encouraging comments yet about Medicaid expansion. “It would be irresponsible,” Ivey told reporters Tuesday, “to think about expanding Medicaid just for the sake of expanding Medicaid without having a...
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted everyone’s lives in many ways. Those of us in the media are no exception. There are those, especially on social media platforms, who seem to believe that the media is enjoying this pandemic or even perpetuating it. This is simply not true. The last...
Even in ordinary times, the more than 760,000 unpaid family caregivers in Alabama face a daunting set of daily tasks. Oftentimes with little or no training, they may be responsible for wound care, tube feedings, dressing, managing the finances and medical bills of their loved ones, transportation and more.
Of course,...
Today (Friday, March 6, 2020), when the Pickens County Medical Center closes its doors, it will become yet another sad statistic among the now 14 hospitals in Alabama that have shuttered their doors since 2011. Eight of those have been in rural communities.
There are other shocking statistics, too, about...
March 3, 2020 the citizens of Cullman County have an incredible opportunity to set the course for their future. Voting to support the proposed 1-cent sales tax has the potential to provide approximately $10 million of additional funding for Cullman County and Cullman City Schools. Said funding will be...
First, notice my topic is not the most important state agency. My topic is the most important agency in the state.
What agency is the most important in the state?
Which agency can impact reduction in crime the most, reduce and eliminate racism, friction among our people, and even reduce and...
My legislative district is rural, therefore my voice in the Legislature is for rural issues.
We’ve had significant success for “rural Alabama” in the Legislature in recent years, primarily because of a focus lead by the Rural Caucus in the Alabama House of Representatives
One member of the Legislature told me...
Federal overtime rules which took effect Jan. 1 are having a big impact on Alabama’s small businesses.
The change means more management-level employees are eligible for overtime. According to the Labor Department, the new rule affects an estimated 1.2 million workers nationwide.
Previously, employees classified as managers who earn less than...
Can you imagine being without “city water” or electricity?
Without either of those utilities readily available, life would be difficult, and our local economy would be almost nonexistent.
Certainly, the poultry industry wouldn’t be what it is in our area today.
We can’t imagine being without electricity and “city water,” and one...
Every working-age, able-bodied person needs a good paying job.
Not too many years ago, the dominant manufacturing industry in Alabama was the textile industry. Just as Ross Perot predicted in presidential debates, the textile industry moved to other countries when Congress approved NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).
Alabama’s textile jobs...
This question has numerous answers, but I would like to hear your answer or answers.
I firmly believe education is important to our future. The very first economic development project during my time as mayor of my hometown was to recruit a high-quality preschool, Early Years Preschool.
Education continues to be...
At the heart of every great community are its seniors. Cullman County is no exception, and with hard-working entities such as the Cullman County Commission on Aging and Senior Outreach, the county if full of fun activities for its seniors. So much so that the Cullman’s special events often...
Local legislation is often required to authorize a local entity to do something specific that otherwise is not authorized by law or the state constitution.
Local legislation can usually be passed if all the local legislators, House and Senate agree or at least do not oppose the proposed local law.
For...
It’s been a little over a month since we learned about the death of Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney in Birmingham. That kind of violence against a beautiful child of God is just beyond comprehension. And in the weeks since, we’ve seen the tragic murders of Aniah Blanchard in Auburn and...
It’s important for everyone to understand the process for road and bridge projects.
First of all, please understand that legislators do not vote to do specific projects. We compete with every other legislator in the state for the same state funding for projects in our area.
Our job is to try...
I am thankful for faith, family and freedom! And, I am thankful for senior citizens; they’ve truly blessed my life!
I’ve just always been able to connect with seniors. I guess it goes back to the wonderful grandparents I had.
One of my proudest accomplishments in public service is the Cullman...
Governor Ivey has proclaimed Nov. 30, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as Small Business Saturday in Alabama.
Small business really is the bedrock of Alabama’s economy. It accounts for 99.4 percent of all businesses in the state and employs about 47 percent of the workforce, according to the latest figures from the...
This is a theme I’ve been promoting since I arrived in Montgomery.
I firmly believe in the Christian principle, “We are to serve, not be served” and that should be the goal of elected officials and those working in public service.
Just like all businesses, restaurants, corporate America and even our...
Dear Supporters,
On Oct. 1, 2019, Cullman County Bosom Buddies Foundation, Inc. held the (inaugural) Little Pink Dress (LPD) Benefit. It was a huge success! From that event, and because of your contributions, the Foundation raised over $22,000.
We are very grateful to you for making this event such a big...
With any issue, finding the right balance is the key to success. The prison/criminal justice system issue is no different.
The purpose of prisons, in my view, is to keep the public safe! And, provide the opportunity for inmate rehabilitation when possible. We have to be careful with that one.
Innocent...
When I say my goal is to protect RSA, (Retirement System of Alabama), I am speaking of preventing changing the retirement of Alabama’s public employees from a defined benefit plan to 401k type retirement plans, which are at the whim of Wall Street.
I led the fight in the legislature...
Tribune Column: Funny Things from Yesterday
Today’s article is not a funny, but a sad loss of a dear friend
Rudene and I met a couple in Frankweiler, Germany, Basil and Ingrid Holmes, and they became very dear friends to us. We met in 1987 when we twinned Cullman and Frankweiler...
