Alabama News

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Marjorie Taylor Greene warns Democrats want to ‘topple the South’ as she reveals Senate plans

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Friday she won’t challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia in next year’s midterms, delivering relief for some Republicans who worry she’s too divisive to win.

In a lengthy post on the social media platform X, Greene disputed GOP donors and consultants who fear she would turn off the moderate Republicans and independents needed to beat Ossoff.

She told Ossoff “to raise money off one of these other generic Republicans, though I expect your donations will drop.”

Greene said she doesn’t want to serve in a Senate that “doesn’t work” and that she said is dominated by lawmakers hostile to grassroots Trump supporters and unwilling to shake up the status quo.

“If I’m going to fight for a team, it will only be a team willing to lay it all on the line to save this country,” she wrote.

Greene added the she expects Republicans “to carefully select someone who can dress up in MAGA just enough to trick the grassroots into thinking they’re one of us—someone who won’t dare challenge the Republican establishment or disrupt the status quo that has failed the people time and time again. These are the Republicans who see Trump as a speed bump, one they believe they can carefully roll over now that he won’t be on the ballot again.”

Ossoff, a first-term senator, won the seat by a slim margin in a state that has historically been a Republican stronghold but has more recently become a battleground. He is a top target for Republicans looking to expand their narrow Senate majority.

Popular Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who could be a formidable opponent for Ossoff, opted out of the 2026 race on Monday. His decision leaves a wide-open race for the GOP nomination.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who represents a district on the Georgia coast, became the first major Republican candidate to declare Thursday.

Six other GOP officeholders besides Greene have acknowledged interest in running to The Associated Press. They include two other Republicans in the U.S. House, Mike Collins and Rich McCormick. Also considering the race are Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, state Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper, state Insurance Commissioner John King and state Sen. Greg Dolezal.

“I expect a competitive primary — Senate seats don’t come along that often,” said Eric Tanenblatt, a top national GOP fundraiser and Kemp ally who has backed Trump’s rivals in presidential primaries.

Greene is nationally known and a prolific fundraiser, but she has embraced conspiracy theories and feuded with members of her own party. On Thursday, she noted to reporters that she has more than 11 million social media followers, saying that’s because people know where she stands.

Greene’s appeal would be clear in a GOP primary with many voters fiercely loyal to the president. Her decision not to run came a day after she told reporters she was considering it.

“I’m going to give it some thought, talk to my family. I’m honored to have so much support from the great people of Georgia. And I have options,” she said Thursday.

Greene was first elected to the House in 2020. She initially planned to run in a competitive district in northern Atlanta’s suburbs, but relocated into the much more conservative 14th District in Georgia’s northwest corner.

Greene continued to embrace conspiracies even after 11 House Republicans joined Democrats to remove her committee assignments in February 2021. She embraced people jailed on charges following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol as political prisoners, part of her campaign to reframe the narrative of the attack and cast Democrats, not Republicans, as a party of violence.

She was welcomed back into the mainstream of the Republican conference by Kevin McCarthy, who forged an alliance with her. But Greene kept feuding with Republicans and Democrats alike. The House Freedom Caucus expelled Greene in 2023.

Democrats, Greene said, see Georgia as a key target in the South.

“Georgia is the economic engine of the South. We’ve got the third-largest port in the nation, the busiest airport in the world, and major trade corridors in I-75 and I-85. The Democrats want Georgia because if they flip us, they topple the South.”

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National Endowment for the Arts cuts hurting Alabama artists: op-ed

This is a guest opinion column

Like a lot of folks, I’m struggling with language and struggling to metabolize everything that’s happening. Last weekend we received the letter we somewhat expected, the same one as everyone else. The $40,000 grant awarded to Alabama Contemporary Art Center by the National Endowment for the Arts was canceled. It rolled back 30% of our programming budget on a spending commitment that started in September of 2024, with forewarning of deeper cuts to come. I know if you aren’t writing the grants it’s hard to see that money working in our community, but this is a millions of dollars hit to our state. Here’s the context that is at the top of my heart right now.

When Southern artists, musicians or writers break into the canon, or achieve national credibility, it is always a story about a diamond in the rough who was discovered by some authorized expert, auteur, or elite member of the canon. Someone took a risk, wandered off the path. And it’s romantic, this idea of being found, and being so different your context can’t account for you, being special. But by calling artists (or ourselves) an ‘exception’ to Southern Identity we assume ourselves out of the broader culture. We confirm our status as outsiders.

ACAC seeks national funding because we believe Southern artists have something to contribute to the national stage. This is not the money that allows us to exist – that is raised locally and regionally. If we are granted the gift of existence, by your direct support, then our job is to seek resources and opportunities connected to the larger field to put to work locally. National money is money that directly feeds the artists and community we work with. It allows artists and culture bearers the stability and space to imagine a future. It is also our telephone connected to the national conversation.

In a short period the state of Alabama has lost hundreds of grant opportunities that typically funded artists, writers, musicians, outreach and education projects as well as museums and public libraries. Over $16 million came into our state through IMLS, the NEH and NEA in 2024. The President’s budget proposal eliminates all of these agencies. The money is big, but it’s not just money. These programs not only support local practices but validate them, they value an artist’s labor, and create cultural capital. When organizations like ours are ushered out of the room, we lose the full complexity of our nation’s history and we lose the opportunity to negotiate a better future for ourselves and generations to come. We lose our voice in the conversation.

There is no going backwards, and when the road ahead is closed, you find an alternate route. It is useful to name your losses only when you aspire to restore or replace them. What we as a region need from our elected leaders is creativity and gumption that understands that mapping resources into the South is the only way to dismantle the assumption that this place has nothing to offer, that our culture is an exception to be exported at the behest of some foreign elite, or that our value is less, lower. We act as a passthrough for the wealth of the country and retain almost nothing. We act as an incubator for talent and culture but are rarely assigned credit. Recruiting and putting resources to work here is an act of radical hope. We need leadership that believes the South deserves a microphone on the national stage, and is prepared to grab one.

Here’s a short list of maybe not all, but some things you can do:

• Write your elected officials to ask them to protect cultural funding. 
• Give. Donations help greatly. If you can afford to give, do so. 
• Organize initiatives and collective action that creates space for the stories being silenced. Money is money, but time, space, and material is also money. You can work with your favorite museum/org or spearhead a new thing. 

We care about arts and culture because it is a driving indicator of the health and vitality of any place. We care about the arts because they are the workhorse that makes neighborhood revitalization happen. We care about the arts because they are entrepreneurship. They impact recruitment and retention rates for companies; they breathe life into education in math and science; they are medicine for healing trauma and dementia; they drive tourism; and they capture our community’s stories and history. Our art is both our future and our memory.

Help raise the visibility of the issue as you see it, however you know how. I know it feels like shouting into the void, but we gain nothing through silence.

elizabet elliott is the executive director of the Alabama Contemporary Art Center. She lives and works in Mobile, Alabama.

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Trump’s $5,000 baby bonus isn’t the Mother’s Day gift that America needs

President Trump’s proposed baby bonus would have come in really handy at chez Guy Birken 15 years ago.

Money was a bit of an issue for my family when we welcomed our first child in 2010. We’d moved to Indiana from Ohio in June of that year so my husband could take a higher paying job.

I’d left my own job as a high school English teacher. Our baby was born in late August, making it impossible to find a teaching job in our new town.

Our timing was impeccable that year. We also unwittingly put our Ohio house on the market one month after the federal first-time homebuyer credit expired, bought a house in Indiana right away, and paid two mortgages for 11 months until the old house sold.

As my husband likes to say, in 2010 we went from two incomes to one, from one mortgage to two, and from two people to three. (And yes, I am now considered a financial expert.)

But would a $5,000 baby bonus really help new parents on a national scale? Or is it just Trump’s transactional solution to falling birth rates?

In honor of Mother’s Day, let’s look at the best ways to support new parents, working mothers, and our nation’s children. And it doesn’t include a onetime cash payment.

Paying for a baby boom

The United States sees over 3.6 million births each year. If the government were to go forward with Trump’s $5,000 baby bonus proposal, Uncle Sam would be handing out over $18.3 billion to new mothers every year. While that would only be 0.019% of the $9.7 trillion federal budget—basically, a rounding error—it’s important to compare that amount to other types of spending that affect American families.

$18.3 billion in annual baby bonuses may represent a tiny portion of the government’s total budget, but that spending could be a relatively significant percentage of each of these department’s budgets. Specifically, $18.3 would equal

• 0.73% of the HHS budget
• 1.1% of the SSA budget
• 7.99% of the ED budget
• 20.7% of the HUD budget
• 27.6% of the DOL budget
• 10,958% of the CPSC budget

Allocating that kind of funding to existing programs could potentially improve maternal and infant health, provide ongoing financial benefits, support public education, increase access to affordable housing, support employment goals, or protect children from unsafe products. Obviously, $18.3 billion can’t do all of those things at once, but increasing the budgets of one or several of these departments may be a better use of the money.

Make motherhood feasible again

As helpful as five grand might be for any one family, the Trump baby bonus is the federal policy version of handing your wife a sawbuck the day after Mother’s Day and telling her to buy herself something nice. It’s not giving her what she needs or wants—and feels a little insulting, to boot.

American mothers are clamoring for help with the impossible financial and logistical challenges of raising a family in this country. Specifically, new parents need access to paid family leave and childcare. Spending federal money on these programs will do more to improve mothers’ lives than a one-time $5,000 payment.

Paid family leave

The United States is one of only seven countries without paid maternity leave. This means American women may have to choose between getting a paycheck and having a kid. While the Trump administration’s $5,000 baby bonus might help, the median weekly earnings for an American woman is $1,092—which means the bonus would cover less than five weeks of leave.

Instituting a federal paid family and medical leave program could potentially encourage more births, since it could help solve the financial problem of affording parental leave.

In 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a proposed federal paid family and medical leave program would cost about $200 billion for the 10-year period between 2022 and 2031. As it was written, the program would allow eligible workers to take up to four weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child. Benefits would equal a portion of the worker’s pre-leave wages and would be paid by the federal government.

The CBO anticipated the program would significantly improve the mental and physical health of postpartum parents–which would lead to increased employment and earnings. Although the four-week maximum leave time seems woefully inadequate, simply providing federal leave would make an enormous difference to a wide swath of American families.

Birth to kindergarten childcare

Returning to work after having a child is challenging (to say the least) without consistent and safe childcare. This is not nearly as simple as asking Nana and Pop-Pop to take care of the kids for free, especially considering grandparents are probably working, too. Nearly one out of every five Americans aged 65 or older is employed full-time.

And without free family options, childcare for young children is remarkably expensive. Anecdotally, every parent I know had a daycare bill that was higher than their monthly mortgage payment—and this is backed up by data from the Department of Labor, which found that American families spend between 8.9% and 16.0% of their median income on full-day care for just one child.

The Biden-Harris administration worked to invest in childcare on a federal level, providing $24 billion in funding to childcare via the 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP). The administration calculates that the onetime investment of $24 billion “saved families $1,250 per child (representing a 10 percent reduction in childcare costs), increased the pay of childcare workers, and increased the employment of mothers with young children by about 3 percentage points—leading to women’s prime-age labor force participation hitting its highest value on record.”

This meant the benefits were greater than just the $1,250 in childcare savings enjoyed by young families. Childcare workers made more money, employers kept more of their staff, and families maintained their financial and employment stability.

Unfortunately, all of these improvements were lost after the ARP expired.

Happy Mother’s Day! Here’s five grand

America has a cultural expectation that mothers will pick up the slack when children, fathers, or society needs something that they’re not getting. That means a national conversation about supporting motherhood to the tune of $5,000 a pop might feel like progress, even if it’s misguided. But a baby bonus feels a little like the exaggerated social media praise often heaped on mothers—a showy expression of appreciation that requires little effort.

The truth is that encouraging more people to consider motherhood isn’t a tough proposition if you provide the support they need—just as making Mom happy on Mother’s Day isn’t difficult if you listen to what she actually wants.

Offering actual support is harder than throwing money at the problem, but it’s the only path to a real solution.

Fast Company © 2025 Mansueto Ventures, LLC. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Catch this stunning rare bird in Alabama before it’s gone for the summer

They’re blue, round, and small. And birdwatchers throughout Alabama are hoping to catch sight of one before they head north for the summer.

The cerulean warbler is one of many bird species that migrate through Alabama in the spring and fall. But the brilliant blue birds are hard to spot when they’re here, and they’re becoming even more rare.

“It’s a really charismatic species,” said Thomas Thompson, a graduate student at Alabama A&M University who studies the Cerulean Warbler. “I think it captivates a lot of people, when they hear about it. And if you’re actually fortunate enough to hear one or see one, it’s a pretty awesome experience.”

Alabama is a stop-off point for cerulean warblers during migration. Their spring migration — mid-March to mid-May — is almost over but they’ll be back again in the fall.

Some cerulean warblers will breed in Alabama, in the northern third of the state, but their breeding grounds are becoming fewer and fewer.

You might see them on Chapman Mountain, said Lianne Koczur, science and conservation director with Alabama Audubon, the local chapter of the larger bird conservation society.

Cerulean warblers are around just 4.5 inches long. The males are bright blue with a black necklace, and white throats and bellies. Females are a paler bluish green with hints of yellow on their bellies.

Why are they so hard to spot? In addition to the decline in their population, they are a high canopy bird, meaning they hang out in the tops of trees, Koczur said, so they’re hard to see from the ground. The warblers also like to be in the interior of the forest, in mature trees, Thompson said.

“That’s another reason that they’re kind of poorly understudied is that they’re a cryptic species,” Thompson said. “They’re hard to see, they’re hard to find. More often than not you just hear them and you’re lucky if you get to see one because they’re tiny little birds.”

The warblers begin migrating north in mid-March and are largely past Alabama by mid-May. From there, they settle and breed as far west as Minnesota all the way to the east coast, but primarily in the Appalachian states, according to the Audubon Society’s migration tracker.

Their migration south for the winter begins as early as mid-July, becoming more prevalent in Alabama by September, according to the Audubon Society. From there the birds will settle in South America for the winter, in the Andes Mountains in Peru and up through Venezuela.

Since the 1980s, the warbler’s population has decreased by nearly 70%, according to the Audubon Society. From 1966 to 2005, the bird’s population decreased by an average of 3% every losses year. That’s one of the most dramatic declines of any bird species in recent memory, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s one of the fastest declining songbirds in North America, Thompson said.

“It’s kind of sad, because a lot of the birds that I hear singing there, I know they’re singing and there’s no female there to answer the call,” Thompson said. “It’s like taking a glimpse into kind of a disappearing population.”

Cerulean warblers breed in mature deciduous (meaning the trees lose their leaves) forests. This habitat has been lost over the decades, causing the bird’s population to decline. Their winter habitat in the Andes is also in danger of disappearing due to development, the fish and wildlife service said. Cerulean warblers are on the service’s Birds of Conservation list, meaning the bird is one of its highest priorities for conservation.

Because the warblers are so picky about their habitat, that makes them even more susceptible to habitat loss, Thompson said. Some birds can live anywhere, but cerulean warblers require those tall, mature deciduous trees, much of which has been lost. Even within the forest, the warblers like to breed in places where there’s a gap in the tree canopy, because it amplifies their song.

There used to be more locations where the bird could breed in the state. But today there’s just three known breeding populations in Alabama, Thompson said, though he acknowledged there could be populations on private land unknown to researchers. Those breeding populations are in the Sipsey Wilderness Area in the Bankhead National Forest, on Larkin Fork and in the Walls of Jericho tract in Jackson County.

“They used to be considered common. So there was sightings of them all around Birmingham and in multiple counties throughout Alabama,” Thompson said. “There was known breeding populations, and now there’s really only two known breeding populations left.”

There are several other warbler species that breed in Alabama, including Kentucky warblers, hooded warblers and Swainson’s warblers, Koczur said. All of these birds breed here in Alabama but migrate south to Central and South America for the winter.

This story is the first in Beautiful Birds of Alabama, a new series from AL.com featuring some of the state’s most unique birds.

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Alabama vaping bill reaches Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk after years of debate, final surge of opposition

For three years, Alabama state Rep. Barbara Drummond fought to rein in the sale of alternative nicotine products.

Last week, that effort reached a milestone as lawmakers passed HB8, a potentially groundbreaking bill that could mark Alabama’s first major regulation of e-cigarettes and vaping devices since they became widely popular among teens more than a decade ago.

“This is a game-changer for Alabama,” said Drummond, D-Mobile. “I think (HB8) will save some children’s lives.”

The bill’s passage comes at a critical time, as a staggering 17.5% of Alabama high schoolers report using vaping products — more than double the national average of 7.8%.

But HB8’s journey is not yet over. The bill, now on Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk, is drawing last-minute scrutiny and lobbying, particularly from the convenience store industry, which sees the measure as an existential threat.

Industry Uproar

Central to the controversy is an amendment by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, approved Tuesday by a narrow 18-16 vote. That amendment would limit sales at convenience stores to just 34 tobacco and menthol-flavored e-cigarette products approved by the FDA. All other flavors — including hundreds currently pending FDA review — would be banned from sale except in age-restricted vape shops where only those 21 and over can enter.

“The only place to buy a vape-styled product with a flavor other than tobacco or menthol would be at an age-restricted specialty vape shop,” said J. Bart Fletcher, president of the Petroleum & Convenience Marketers of Alabama. “Alabama is looking at being the only state in the nation where retail convenience stores are limited in the sale of vape products, and limited to only those on the approved federal registry.”

Fletcher warned that this could devastate small businesses and push major chains like Wawa and Circle K to reconsider investing in the state. Vape sales, he noted, bring in an average of $6,117 per month per store, with a nearly 30% gross margin. Alternative nicotine products account for about 30% of convenience store sales.

Governor’s Decision

The amendment has created unusual political drama over legislation that has been voted on in the legislature and is now headed to the governor’s desk.

Singleton, who supported tighter regulations but wanted to protect retailers, has sent a letter to Ivey urging her to revise the bill with an executive amendment that would allow for more products – beyond the FDA-approved list — to be sold at convenience stores.

“We need to rein it in but at the same time, I don’t want to see small businesses go out of business,” Singleton said. “Convenience stores are a big part of the business landscape in the state.”

Sen. David Sessions, R-Mobile, who sponsored HB8 in the Senate, is strongly opposed to revisiting the bill. He called Singleton’s suggestion for an executive amendment as an “unfriendly” one and insists governor should sign the bill as is.

A spokesperson for Ivey said only that HB8 is “under review.”

Sessions said if the governor is “serious about protecting Alabama family values,” she will sign the bill, as it was advanced out of the legislature, “with no problem” and without Singleton’s request.

“Honestly, I’d like to see them all out,” Sessions said about alternative nicotine products sold at retail shops that are open to all ages. “It’s nothing against free trade, commerce. It’s about the health of our children.”

Sessions got emotional during the Senate debate on Tuesday, pressing the urgency of reducing youth access to vape products.

“It’s a huge win for the health of our state,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll stop every child or teenager from getting their hand on a vape. But at least we’ll get it out from so many different choices that are in the front of your face.”

Still, Sessions issued a warning if the bill comes back to the Senate: “If it comes back, I’m taking it all out of the convenience stores and they can fill the space with something else.”

Education and Enforcement Measures

While the political drama plays out, HB8 contains several provisions focused on youth prevention and public health:

• Bans vape sales in vending machines.
• Increases penalties for selling to minors under 21.
• Requires vape products sold in Alabama to be U.S.-manufactured.
• Mandates the State Board of Education create a vaping education and prevention program for schools.

Virginia Guy, executive director of the Drug Education Council in Mobile, applauded the education component.

“This is a huge problem for schools,” Guy said. “We have third and fourth graders, every day, who are vaping. They were sold as alternatives to cigarette smoking. The vape industry sold these products as being safer than cigarettes and what people hear is that they were safe, not safer. Now we’re seeing that they are not safe at all.”

Big Tobacco Influence

Jim McCarthy, spokesperson for the American Vapor Manufacturers Association, condemned the bill as a giveaway to major tobacco corporations.

“HB8 isn’t just bad policy, it’s a case study in regulatory hubris, punishing entrepreneurs and adult consumers while handing the keys to the vaping market to the same cigarette giants who’ve profited from harm for decades,” he said.

McCarthy and others argue the bill favors Big Tobacco by sidelining smaller vape companies and raising prices for consumers.

The legislation had previously been, in past years, opposed by public health groups like the American Cancer, Lung and Heart associations. The groups argued that curtailing alternative nicotine products could lead to a surge in cigarette smoking.

Alabama has long had an “F” score by the American Lung Association on its policies aimed at curbing tobacco use.

“We support fact-based ways to reduce tobacco use, including significantly raising taxes on all tobacco products, creating smoke-free environments and increasing tobacco control funding,” said Jane Adams, the government relations director with the Alabama Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Government.

She said the April closure of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Smoking and Health, will leave states with limited resources on tobacco control programs.

“We look forward to working with lawmakers to focus on these fact-based initiatives that are at risk now more than ever,” she said.

Personal mission

Despite pushback, Drummond has remained steadfast over the years. She said her motivation stems from a moment years ago, while teaching Sunday school to middle schoolers.

“I see a young man sucking on something that, out of my ignorance, I thought it was a zip drive to a computer,” she recalled. “I said, ‘What is wrong with you?’ Why are you sucking on a zip drive?”

The class laughed. She soon learned it was a vape device.

“I knew I had to do something about this,” she said. “It was about doing policy to save lives.”

Political Implications

Drummond, now preparing for a run for Mobile mayor in the August 26 election, maintains her campaign and the vape legislation are unrelated.

“I’m a legislator,” she said. “Policy is what I do.”

Still, the timing of HB8’s advancement may boost her visibility. On the same day the legislature approved HB8 — and applauded Drummond for her efforts — the candidates for Mobile mayor were gathered together in Mobile for a forum at Cottage Hill Baptist Church. Drummond appeared via a pre-recorded video message that was shown before and after the forum.

“I think the timing came out well for her,” said Rep. Sam Jones, D-Mobile, who served as mayor from 2005 to 2013. Jones, who voted against HB8 over concerns for small businesses, praised Drummond’s work ethic.

Drummond previously worked under Jones during his mayoral administration and has experience in both county and state government.

“I know Barbara,” he said. “I know she is one of the hardest working people I ever have met.”

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Archibald: I see my dead mother in the strangest places

Opinion

I saw a mother lug two young children onto a plane, one in each arm, like carry-on bags.

She smiled silently but spoke with her eyes, apologizing for what she thought we thought was bound to disrupt our trip.

It wasn’t necessary. We all flew across America in peace. Restful. For everyone but that mom.

There is no rest for mom.

My mother lives only in pictures, now, and in the memories of those who will miss her forever. But I see something of her in all kinds of mothers, in all kinds of circumstances. In my wife. My daughter-in-law. In strangers at airports and grocery stores.

I saw a mother walking a dog and pushing a stroller at the same time. All while talking – hands free – of brussels sprouts.

I saw a mother with a diamond ring as big as a peanut rush her brood past the candy aisle in the supermarket. I saw a mother with no ring at all rush her little boy past the same temptations.

I saw a mother stop in the middle of a sentence on a video call to wave goodbye to a teenage driver. She shivered a little at the thought.

“I still can’t get used to it,” she said.

There is no rest for mom.

I saw mothers at churches and synagogues and mosques, and I saw a common faith in their children. I saw mothers in libraries and gardens and parks, and saw the same thing there.

I saw mothers deliver food and groceries as second jobs. I saw them at work at the gas station where I fill up. I saw them in lab coats and executive suites.

I saw, in the news, a mother shot dead in front of a child. A child who will know their mom only from pictures, or news clips, or the transcripts of trials.

I heard mothers wail for lost children in front of crime scene tape. I heard them scream at God, and the police, and anyone who would hear.

I saw mothers fret about money, and appearance, and appearances. I saw them worry about whether they worry too much, or not enough, or about the right things.

I heard mothers worry about screen time and test scores and proper diction. I heard mothers who could not sleep at night because they were told to pay money they did not have to extortionists if they hoped to keep their child safe in a barbaric prison.

I saw mothers cry. Because of distance, or illness or because the rehab didn’t work. Again.

There is no beginning or end to worry about the ones you love.

I saw mothers push their children to read and to think, to welcome the world and appreciate the differences of their friends as much as the common bonds.

I saw mothers who made mistakes and never forgave themselves. I saw mothers who made mistakes and tried to do better. I saw mothers who blamed themselves for things that were not their fault. Because you cannot protect anyone, even a child, from all the dangers of a world.

I saw mothers who measured themselves against their own moms, and always found themselves lacking. I saw mothers who considered it their greatest achievement to raise their children in a different way. Their greatest achievement other than their children, that is.

I met a mother who showed me a picture of her mom, who lives in another country and is afraid to fly. Or afraid, now, to fly here. I met another mother who left my state to protect a child who was “different.”

I saw mothers love their children no matter what. I saw that up close, and often.

I look at that picture of my mom on days such as this. I do miss her. It is a comfort, though, to look around and see a world so full of mothers.

It is their day. They are our gift.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner.

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Did Jill Biden signal Joe not to answer mental health question on ‘The View’?

Jill Biden is suspected of giving a secret signal to her husband, former President Joe Biden, when she didn’t want him to answer a question on “The View” last week.

The alleged move was thought to have come when the former First Couple appeared recently on the live ABC chat show to give one of Biden’s first interviews since leaving the White House earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin had asked Biden about Democratic insiders who have said that the ex-prez suffered a cognitive decline during his final year in office.

After a few moments of relatively fluid speech, Biden suddenly stopped and said, “I’ve spoken enough.”

But former First Lady Jill Biden picked up the answer without missing a beat.

The move sparked theories that she may have nudged the former president or kicked him under the table in order to quiet him.

Jill Biden was often accused of hiding her husband away and cutting him off from answering unscripted questions from the press.

The former first lady on “The View” denied “sequestering” Joe Biden during their time in the White House.

But her sudden interjection on “The View” appeared rehearsed, the Daily Mail said, as she said that she was infuriated by books about her husband’s struggles in office because “nobody saw how hard Joe worked.”

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against then-GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Dem nominee and was defeated by Trump for the White House.

Biden told “The View” hosts that he “wasn’t surprised” by the outcome of the election, saying that Trump had gone the “sexist route” in order to “undercut” Biden’s former veep.

Biden said that Trump received “seven million fewer votes” against Harris compared to Trump’s showing against Biden in 2020, when the Democrat won the White House.

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Bankruptcy kills 1980s kids’ dream of someone showing up with a giant check

Publishers Clearing House was a dream for folks of a certain age.

Through the 1980s and into the 1990s it was not uncommon to see the commercials on television of folks being surprised at their door with an oversized $1 million dollar check.

Your mom or grandmother, maybe even you, probably dreamed of getting that big old check.

And, believe it or not, plenty of folks did get the knock from Publishers Clearing House as it reportedly paid out more than $618 million in prizes while also reportedly donating millions to veterans’ causes and children’s hospitals.

Some folks really did live the dream, and apparently the payouts kept coming right on into recent years.

But, alas, Publishers Clearing House was fueled by the magazine industry, and that has fallen off substantially across the past 20 years or so.

According to The Street, print publication advertising revenue dropped from $20 billion in 2007 to $2.3 billion in 2023. The site said that Publishers Clearing House tried to expand to e-commerce, but it just couldn’t make up for the lost money.

And, in 2023, The Street said Publishers Clearing House was also ordered to pay out $18.5 million to customers who believed they were victims of misleading claims.

And with all of those factors coming together, Publishers Clearing House LLC is struggling to stay afloat.

According to The Street, the company filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on May 1. That motion seeks approval to sell “all or substantially all of its assets” as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, per the site.

Publishers Clearing House proposed the auction in an attempt to “preserve its intellectual property and perhaps save the brand,” the site reported. The business also reportedly got a loan from Prestige Capital Finance LLC., so that it can continue, at least for now.

Per The Street, the company’s assets included “intellectual property, an extensive customer database, and brand recognition.”

The company first field for Chapter 11 protection on April 9.

While it is attempting to stay afloat, things don’t appear to be looking good for the company that many folks dreamed might knock on their door and deliver a big old check, back in the day.

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JD Crowe: Mother’s Day tribute to my mom: The world’s greatest pencil sharpener

This is an opinionated Mother’s Day tribute.

This is a revised drawing from my Mother’s Day tribute essay first published in 2013. Mom passed later that year.

I was a bad thumb sucker, as my mama put it. But the one thing I liked better than my thumb was a pencil. At the age of two, I could draw Roy Rogers and Trigger better than I could say their names.

As long as I was drawing, I wasn’t sucking that sinful thumb.

Early on, my mama found the keys to keeping her weird toddler content was a grocery sack and a pencil. She would tear down a large brown paper sack and lay it out flat on the kitchen floor. I would lie there with it for a minute, gazing at its awesome emptiness, then – pencil in hand – disappear into it for hours. Mom could then go about her daily routines without a worry about me.

I only came up for air when my pencil needed sharpening. I didn’t have to say a word. I just held my pencil up and Mom came swooping in with her paring knife, the one that looked a hundred years old. She laid the pencil on her left index finger and scraped the lead until the point was sharp and her fingertip was black.

The same knife that peeled, sliced and cut thousands of potatoes, tomatoes, apples, green beans and cantaloupes also sharpened several hundred grubby, snotty toddler pencils. Please, don’t say a word about this to the Health Department.

My mom is the best pencil sharpener I ever saw. Each point was a work of art. A tiny black lead sculpture. And like fingerprints, no two were alike.

My early toddler drawings prompted the phrase my dear mother often uttered when looking at my work throughout my career: “I’m not sure what it is, but I can tell it’s real good.”

Thanks for always trying to keep me and my pencils sharp, Mom.

Happy Mother’s Day.

True stories and stuff by JD Crowe

The mysterious ‘Bubble Guy’ of Fairhope and the art of bubble Zen – al.com

How I met Dr. Seuss

Robert Plant head-butted me. Thanks, David Coverdale

The hog killin’

I was ZZ Top’s drummer for a night and got kidnapped by groupies

Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe

JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].

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Adventure company and sweet treats are among new businesses coming at the beach

OWA Parks & Resort has a new attraction that promises fun after dark.

Aura Adventures, an outdoor adventure company, has opened at OWA, off South OWA Boulevard, in Foley.

Aura features glow-in-the-dark night kayak experiences on the lake in Downtown OWA. Aura also offers pedal boats and paddle board adventures.

The deal is just one of notable real estate transactions in coastal Alabama in recent days.

• Lanae, an online cabinetry wholesaler, has leased 29,050 square feet of space at 65 Sidney Phillips Drive in Mobile, according to Chris Harle and Leigh Dale Younce of White-Spunner Realty, who represented the landlord.
• CPAP Plus has leased 1,449 square feet of space in Foley Square Shopping Center at 2434 McKenzie St., in Foley, and plans to open next month, according to Robert Cook of Vallas Realty and Joe Roe Burton of Burton Property Group, who handled the transaction. This will be the medical equipment supplier’s fourth location in south Alabama.
• New sweet businesses are arriving in time for summer: Crave Cookies has opened at Wharf Portside at 4593 Main St., at The Wharf in Orange Beach. And Gage’s Ice Cream has opened in The Square, a mixed-use development at 1538 Gulf Shores Parkway in Gulf Shores.
• Three new stores are joining the lineup in the Eastern Shore Centre off Ala. 181 in Spanish Fort: Blooming Fabulous Flower Shop, Fluffy Pet Shop and Escapology, a family friendly escape room concept.
• The city of Orange Beach has renamed the former Bear Point Cemetery the Municipal Cemetery, which sits on a quarter of an acre near Canal Road and Campagno Lane in Orange Beach. The cemetery was owned by the Orange Beach Volunteer Fire Department, which was dissolved a few years ago. The OBVFD donated the cemetery to the city.

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