Forgotten town?

Many residents in the town of Camp Hill are still trying to pick up pieces more than two years after a hailstorm bore down on the small Tallapoosa County community and its roofs, windows and cars, reports AL.com’s Alaina Bookman.

After the storm, in March of ’23, there was no FEMA assistance. A nonprofit called ACROSS brought in more than a million dollars of donations, much of it in the form of meals and tarps.

That group partnered with another one called Groundswell to land a big EPA grant, but ACROSS founder Warren Tidwell said that went away with this year’s federal cuts.

The area has around 1,000 residents. More than a third live below the poverty line, and many are seniors.

That all adds up to a lot of remaining tarped roofs and covered windows. Longtime local official Juanita Woody estimates that about 50 homes still have damage.

ACROSS — that’s an acronym for Alabama Center for Rural Organizing and Systemic Solutions — is still working to raise money for the work.

Golden Dome czar

North Alabama Congressman Dale Strong has voiced his support for the newly confirmed Golden Dome program manager, reports AL.com’s John R. Roby.

On Friday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Gen. Michael A. Guetlein to the position overseeing Golden Dome, which is the future missile-defense system expected to incorporate technology in space to defend the U.S. against modern threats.

Said Strong: “President Trump’s decision to have Gen. Guetlein serve as the Golden Dome Czar is a strategic move to strengthen our national defense at a critical time.”

Guetlein has been vice chief of space operations for Space Force and was the program executive for programs and integration within the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville from April 2017 to June 2019.

There still isn’t much information out there on Golden Dome, but it would undoubtedly have impact on North Alabama’s military, space and defense-industry scene. The so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” put $25 billion toward the project, and President Trump has said it would eventually reach a total cost of $175 billion to implement by the time he leaves office.

And you know the rule: The price tag on a government proposal often turns into a starting point.

Rock on

A Hard Rock hotel is coming to Alabama, reports AL.com’s Megan Plotka.

And in a world where tourism-related establishments aren’t always spot-on artistically appropriate, Hard Rock is headed to the Alabama region most associated with rock and roll music: the Shoals area. Specifically, in the heart of Florence where an empty Days Inn has been sitting.

Neighboring Muscle Shoals is world-famous for the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and FAME Studios, where rock and R&B history has been made so many times over. Florence was also the birthplace of W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues, and Sam Phillips, who founded Sun Records and launched the careers of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.

The hotel will be a REVERB, which is like other upscale Hard Rock hotels with a recording studio, live music venues and restaurants but without that gambling that’s popular at other locations.

Hard Rock says the hotel will bring more than 200 jobs when it opens in 2028.

Wanted: Your take

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Sound off on the “Down in Alabama” podcast with a comment up to 15 seconds long, and we’ll try to include it on a future DIA podcast episode.

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Closed

The Crescent Theater in Mobile, which originally opened in 1885 and has had multiple reopenings after previous closings.

Quoting

“I’ll allow the contents of the conversation … to stay between the two of us.”

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, on video of her appearing to give Sen. Chris Murphy what-for on the Senate floor.

By the Numbers

287

That’s how many current and former NASA employees signed a letter calling on interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy to oppose the deep cuts proposed by the Trump administration.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1934, actress Louise Fletcher of Birmingham. She won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1976 for playing the infamous Nurse Ratched on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

In 1965, current Congressman from Alabama 4 Robert Aderholt of Haleyville.

The podcast