Catch up on news and take the quiz: Down in Alabama
The weekly quiz is near the bottom. First let’s catch up on some news. We have an arrested high school band director, an update on the case of the missing girl found in some hillside kudzu, and the Crimson Tide’s rare fall in the polls.
Postgame tasing
The football postgame at Jackson-Olin High School last week took a bizarre turn that ended with the band director from visiting Minor High School tased and arrested, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.
According to Birmingham Police, officers were trying to clear the stadium after the ballgame, and both bands were still playing. They said they tried to get the bands to stop; Jackson-Olin’s did but Minor’s didn’t.
They said they asked Minor band director Johnny Mims to stop the playing so everyone could leave but he refused. They say they began to arrest Mims, there was a physical altercation, and an officer used a taser on him. Charges are disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest.
Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said in a statement: “I am in the process of gathering all the facts, and feel it would be inappropriate to comment further until that process is complete. I urge everyone not to jump to conclusions.”
Allegations behind the baby found in the kudzu
The next one isn’t going to be any less strange.
It’s an update to a story we had back in July. A 9-month-old baby girl was reported as kidnapped in a family’s SUV out of Walker County. The dad said he had left the girl in her car seat and run into a friend’s house, and a minute later the vehicle was gone.
An Amber alert was issued and an overnight search commenced. The next morning, the SUV was found. Downhill from where it was parked — down an embankment and into thick kudzu. The girl was still in her seat, dehydrated but otherwise alright.
That’s still by far the best news of all in this story.
Now, the Parrish, Ala., Police Department has released that it arrested the 30-year-old father of the girl last week and believe that on that day he had driven the child to a drug deal and left her in the SUV, reports AL.com’s Ramsey Archibald.
The charges are conspiracy to commit a controlled-substance crime and endangering the welfare of a child. Two other men were also hit with charges related to the case.
Down the poll
After Alabama’s 17-3 win over South Florida on Saturday, the Tide fell out of the Top 10 of both major college-football polls for the first time since 2015, reports AL.com’s Nick Alvarez.
Alabama is No. 12 in the coaches poll and No. 13 in the AP poll.
It’s probably worth noting that Alabama won the national championship after that 2015 season, although at the time it was an early-season loss to Ole Miss that plunged the Tide in the polls, and this time around it’s a loss to Texas followed by that way-too-close-for-comfort performance against the American Athletic Conference Bulls.
In college football you can’t really say “a win is a win,” at least not in everybody’s mind, but during the postgame presser Alabama coach Nick Saban didn’t give away the W. “I want our players to be happy about the fact that they won and enjoy it for 24 hours,” he said.
Meanwhile, Auburn remained unranked but did win back a vote in the AP poll and a few more in the coaches poll after a 45-13 win over Samford.
Quoting
“I don’t know what outcome he expected, but I’m hearing more and more that his actions are having worsening consequences.”
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) on Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions.
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Born on this date
In 1954, former Auburn coach and current Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Camden, Arkansas.
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