I-65 rocket, cannabis lawsuit, City of Arab: Down in Alabama

I-65 rocket, cannabis lawsuit, City of Arab: Down in Alabama

Sometimes it’s hard to move forward on something. Sometimes it’s because we don’t want to lose something that we enjoy (in the case of the Interstate 65 Saturn 1B rocket near Huntsville). Sometimes it’s because of glitches when you’re, say, trying to create a whole new industry (such as newly legalized medical cannabis).

Read below for more, and then make sure you enjoy your weekend.

Still no solution for rocket

It’s been tough letting go of the big Saturn 1B rocket that stands along Interstate 65 just south of the Tennessee state line.

AL.com’s Paul Gattis reports that last month the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission called on subcommittees to take another look at the deteriorating rocket and potential options for saving it. After all, it’s not only a popular and familiar roadside attraction but also one of only two Saturn 1Bs left in existence.

But the review landed in the same place we keep coming back to: The prudent thing to do is to dismantle the big landmark.

Not everybody’s giving up yet. Steven Thornton of a group trying to save the rocket say he expects there to be an objection to the subcommittee’s review at the Commission’s next full meeting in August.

Medical cannabis hiccup

Not everybody was thrilled after the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission awarded licenses to businesses in the new industry.

Namely, those who were not selected. Or at least not selected yet.

AL.com’s Mike Cason reports that Alabama Always LLC has sued the Commission, claiming there were problems with the licensing process — and the Commission itself has said it realizes there have been issues. It announced 21 licensees on June 12, then temporarily suspended the issuance of licenses a few days later after discovering inconsistencies in the way the applicants were scored.

As for Alabama Always, according to its lawsuit it has spent $4.5 million on a cultivation and production facility just west of Montgomery. It applied for an integrated license so it could cultivate, produce and sell medical marijuana.

Whose name are you calling strange?

The site 24/7 Tempo released its list of the 43 strangest town names in the U.S., reports AL.com’s Leada Gore.

One Alabama city made the list, and it gives us another chance to explain why we have an Arab, Alabama.

Stop me if you’ve had this conversation with somebody from out of state.

You’re asked why there’s an Arab, Alabama. You then have to explain that it’s pronounced EH-rab, not AIR-ub.

The truth is that in the mid-1800s the community there brought in a post office and named it after the founder’s son’s middle name, Arad. Well, at some point somebody misspelled it and it became the Arab Post Office.

When the community decided to incorporate, it did what many new towns did at the time and took the name of the post office. So Arab it is.

And if they don’t like it they can move along to Boring, Oregon, or Embarrass, Wisconsin, or any other place from the strangest-town-names list.

Quoting

“It’ been a tough year, I’ll just tell you that. Miracles do happen.”

Birmingham-Southern College President Daniel Coleman, speaking to the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church Wednesday, a week after the governor signed legislation that allows BSC to take up to a $30 million loan to keep its doors open.

“The number of parents who are burying their children because of gun violence confirms to me that what we’re doing is simply not working.”

Selma Mayor James Perkins, whose city has seen 14 murders in the past six months, 13 of those gun-related.

By the numbers

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