Authorities are looking for family members of a man who died earlier this month in Irondale.
Marion Allen Mosley, 58, was found dead Nov. 4 inside his home. Police made the discovery during a welfare check requested by a concerned neighbor.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said Mosley’s cause of death is pending, but there was no sign of trauma or foul play.
Mosley’s body is ready to be released for burial but coroner’s officials have not been able to locate his relatives.
Mosley listed previous Alabama addresses in Birmingham, Anniston, Gadsden, Moody, Thomasville and Tuscaloosa, and Georgia addresses in Macon and Taylorsville.
Family members are asked to call the coroner’s office at 205-930-3603.
Some of the most iconic calls in sports history belong to Verne Lundquist. The longtime voice of the SEC on CBS, Verne has seen just about every major rivalry in college football. But he says no fanbases hate each other like Alabama and Auburn (and few fanbases like to accuse him of rooting against their team as they do). And as beloved as he is for his football announcing, Verne’s calls for The Masters, like the iconic Tiger Woods call, also stand the test of time. And, of course, there’s his scene stealing cameo in Happy Gilmore.
This week on The Golden Age with Eli Gold, we’re joined by Lundquist, Eli’s good friend and fellow broadcasting legend. Verne shares some of his favorite memories from his legendary career and talks about his special relationship with Nick Saban. He also confirms that he’ll appear in Happy Gilmore 2 and shares stories from behind the scenes. Have you ever seen anything like that?
Beat Everyone is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on your favorite platform to automatically receive new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday. Beat Everyone is brought to you by Broadway Joe’s Fantasy Sports.
There are currently more than half a dozen Winn-Dixies throughout the state that have currently started the process of or will soon close to become Aldi stores.
Last year, Aldi acquired Winn-Dixie and Harveys from Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers. The deal includes grocery store locations across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
But currently, only seven stores have been publicly announced in the lineup for Alabama.
“As we work through this transition period, conversion plans are still being finalized, and we will share more information as it becomes available,” Winn-Dixie spokesperson Rachel Higgins wrote in an email to AL.com.
“We appreciate the support and understanding of our valued associates, customers and communities throughout this process.”
The stores that have already been closed and are already undergoing renovations include:
Northport: 10 McFarland Boulevard
Pinson: 4701 Centerpoint Road
Bessemer: 2910 Morgan Road, Suite 128
Semmes: 9082 Moffett Road
Mobile: 1550 Government Street
Auburn: 1617 South College Street
According to an email from Aldi’s PR team, the store located at 1061 U.S. Hwy, 280 East in Alexander City will also close for renovations in the coming months.
“While these stores are temporarily closed, we continue to proudly serve residents across Alabama at our other area stores,” the email reads.
“We thank our customers for their years of loyalty and look forward to seeing them soon as a new ALDI.”
“Associates at these locations have the opportunity to be the first to apply to newly converted ALDI stores. In addition, ALDI is committed to doing its best to minimize the impact and provide support and opportunities to associates at converting stores, including the option to remain with Winn-Dixie and transfer to a neighboring store.”
Cold weather means it’s time to adjust your ceiling fan and – hopefully – save a little on heating bills.
In the summer, ceiling fans should operate counterclockwise to circulate the air in a room to create a draft. In the winter, the direction should be reversed to clockwise and set on a low speed to move warm air from the ceiling to the living levels of the space. Typically, changing the direction can be done by flipping a switch on the fan itself.
You should be able to adjust your thermostat down a few degrees when using your ceiling fan, saving some on energy bills. According to the Department of Energy, changing the direction of the blades on a fan can save up to 15% on winter energy bills and up to 30% on summer costs.
Ceiling fans are only appropriate in rooms with ceilings at least 8 feet high and work best when the blades are 7-9 feet above the floor and 10-12 inches below the ceiling. Fans should be installed so their blades are no closer than 8 inches from the ceiling and 18 inches from the walls, according to the Department of Energy.
A Mississippi native has been arrested by the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly sexually abusing a child.
In a press release, BCSO said that Cordairo Samuel Oneal McCall, 37, was arrested Wednesday after an interview with the Criminal Investigation Division.
The department says that during the arrest McCall resisted and attempted to disarm an investigator.
McCall was charged with sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old and attempting to disarm a law enforcement officer. McCall is being held on a $35,000 bond.
Once known as one of the nation’s finest medical facilities to treat the mentally ill, the old Bryce Hospital building now houses a state-of-the-art student Welcome Center on the Tuscaloosa campus of the University of Alabama.
In 2016, I toured the facility after the majority of buildings were razed, leaving only its original administration building and four wings. It was creepy and fascinating to see its features taken down to the studs and being restored for a new purpose. Obsolete medical equipment was scattered, patient rooms were stripped, floors had been removed and piles of bricks were everywhere.
The interior of the 1861 Bryce Hospital when renovations began in 2016. This photo shows the floor removed so you can see the doorways to the old patient rooms from the basement.Kelly Kazek
I recently was able to tour the main building again and was impressed with the rescue of this important building that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A display at the Museum of Mental Health inside the old Bryce Hospital, which is now Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama. This display shows an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) shock machine used at Bryce Hospital in the 1960s when doctors thought this type of treatment was beneficial in treating mental illnessKelly Kazek
Eight years after my first tour, much of the work is completed but the massive rotunda and the wings sprouting from the main building are still under construction. Some of that space will be used for offices of faculty and staff for UA’s Department of Theatre and Dance, said Matthew McLendon, Ph.D., executive director of UA Enrollment Management, whose department is housed in the building.
The ceilings of the porches at Randall Welcome Center, the former 1861 Bryce Hospital, are painted “haint” blue, a Southern tradition meant to keep out evil spirits.Kelly Kazek
Bryce Hospital gets new life
The hospital opened in 1861 as the Alabama Insane Hospital, sometimes written Alabama Hospital for the Insane, and was later renamed for its founding physician Peter Bryce. Legend says Bryce and his family watched from the building’s rotunda as Union troops burned the campus in 1865.
Peter Bryce was a progressive doctor and his hospital was established as a place where patients with mental illness or addiction were housed in beautiful surroundings and performed therapeutic work in a pastoral setting. It was designed using the then-popular Kirkbride Plan, with staggered wings to allow the maximum sunlight for patients.
To provide a sense of purpose, patients would do chores on the farms or in other areas of the hospital until, in the mid-20th century, courts ruled that patients could not be made to work. The hospital was named one of the five best in the world in the 1880s.
A Museum of Mental Health is located on the second floor of Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama. The museum and Welcome Center take up a portion of the 1861 Bryce Hospital Administration Building, which has been extensively renovated. It opened in January 2024.Kelly Kazek
At its largest in the 1970s, the 168-acre hospital compound included farms with crops and livestock, kitchens, doctors’ and nurses’ quarters, parlors for visitors, patient rooms, a community room for dancing and parties, and quarters for the superintendent. Bryce and his family lived on the top floor of the administrative building during his time there. “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” once listed Bryce Hospital as having the longest roofline in the world.
The interior of the rotunda of the 1861 Bryce Hospital when renovations began in 2016.Kelly Kazek
The hospital closed in 2014 and patients were moved to a new mental health center nearby. The old property and buildings were purchased by the University of Alabama for use as a welcome and for office for the performing arts department.
The majority of the 1861 administration building was used to create the Randall Welcome Center, where students come when they first visit the university.
The center is named for the late Pettus Randall and his wife, Dr. Catherine J. Randall. It features “areas for prospective students to gather for campus tours, a lounge, theater and UA admissions offices” in its 15,000 square feet, the UA website says.
The wrought-iron stair railing with rose design was restored from the 1861 Bryce Hospital for use in the new Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama.Kelly Kazek
McLendon said the center has been well-received.
“The response from prospective students, families and guests have been overwhelmingly positive,” McLendon said. “The Randall Welcome Center provides the opportunity for guests to learn about many different aspects of the university through engaging and interactive content delivery platforms. Both students and guests have commented on how impressive the facility is and how the information provided in the interactive space is helpful to learn more about UA.”
In 2016, the hospital’s original administration building and wings were taken down to the studs to begin renovation for the Welcome Center. See the 2016 photos here.
The Museum of Mental Health inside the old Bryce Hospital, which is now the Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama. This display shows the silverware engraved with “AIH” (Alabama Insane Hospital) and photos of Dr. Peter Bryce and his wife, Ellen.Kelly Kazek
Honoring the history
The hospital’s exterior has been lovingly restored and the original wrought-iron stair railing with a rose design was saved.
“Throughout the building, many of the original features were either preserved or recreated,” McLendon said. “There was a lot of effort and planning that went into the overall project. In the central pavilion is a cast iron staircase from the early period of the hospital’s existence that has been refurbished and relocated within that part of the building. Throughout the building, reclaimed wood from the original building now makes up several areas of flooring and was even used for office signage. Most of the central part of the building along with the space in the west wings were preserved in the same floorplan that was in place when the hospital was operational.”
A nurse’s uniform and other artifacts in the Museum of Mental Health inside the 1861 Bryce Hospital, which now also houses Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama.Kelly Kazek
The museum, created to honor the building’s history, was beautifully designed and curated by the Alabama Department of Mental Health.
“Everyone from prospective students and families to general visitors to the building have taken advantage of being able to visit that space,” McLendon said.
Architectural salvage from the 1861 Bryce Hospital is on display at the Museum of Mental Health. The museum is located inside the old hospital building, which now also houses Randall Welcome Center at the University of Alabama.Kelly Kazek
Steve Davis, historian for the ADMH, was largely responsible for the museum, McLendon said. In a 2016 interview with AL.com, Davis said when he worked at Bryce in the 1970s, people would arrive asking for tours of the hospital that was the subject of many local tales. When visitors began interfering with the staff’s work, Davis set up a small museum in the parlor and dining room of the old superintendent’s home, which is now gone. The collection was later moved to the main building in the 1980s and now much of it is on display to allow the public to come in and learn about the history of mental health in Alabama.
The museum is free to visit and well worth your time.
The interior of the 1861 Bryce Hospital when renovations began in 2016.Kelly Kazek
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Exhibits include a vintage nurse’s uniform, a set of silverware engraved “AIH,” an electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) shock machine used at Bryce Hospital in the 1960s when doctors thought this type of treatment was beneficial in treating mental illness, an antique wooden wheelchair, metal markers removed by vandals from patients’ graves at Bryce Cemetery, medical kits, models of the hospital property, architectural remnants and much more.
The museum also includes a piece of an original door jamb from the main buildings that was signed by carpenters. It said: “A. Anderson, superintendent of Philadelphia carpenters who worked on this institution in the month of August 1860/T. Districh/T. David/W. Whellan/Jeff Jacham/Jackson Bryers.”
This display in the Museum of Mental Health shows cast-iron markers that student vandals removed from Bryce Cemetery. Etched with AIH, they once marked the graves of patients who died while in Bryce Hospital.Kelly Kazek
For Indigenous people, Native American Heritage Month carries a different weight this year.
Since 1990, November has been a time for America’s first people to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways of life. These cultural practices have experienced a renaissance in the past 15 years amid a wave of historic victories that have consolidated and returned millions of acres of Native American land, strengthening environmental protection and advancing the fight against climate change.
While these gains are monumental, they are not immune to political shifts.
As Native Americans honor traditions deeply rooted in the land and environment, recent progress faces serious threats under a second Donald Trump presidency. His plans to dismantle environmental protections, combined with cabinet appointments aligned with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—a sweeping 922-page conservative policy agenda—could threaten tribal sovereignty. The agenda includes the potential opening of federally managed public lands of cultural significance to tribes to fossil fuel extraction.
“Under Project 2025, and a Trump administration, we will go backwards,” said Judith LeBlanc, executive director of the Native Organizers Alliance and member of Oklahoma’s Caddo Nation. “At this point, our main obstacle to practicing our belief systems is climate change, energy extraction, and the selling off of public lands.”
15 years of land progress
Over the last decade, the momentum of the Land Back movement, which promotes the return of traditional Indigenous lands to communal ownership, has gained momentum alongside federal programs like the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, which began under the Obama administration following the 2009 settlement of Cobell v. Salazar.
The landmark class action lawsuit highlighted decades of mismanagement that cost Native American individuals and tribes billions of dollars held in trust. The case underlined how, even in the modern era, the U.S. government was still fighting against Indigenous groups, trying to right the wrongs of the past.
The government settled the case for $3.4 billion, with $1.5 billion going to individual tribes and members and $1.9 billion helping consolidate over 3 million acres of Native lands in 15 states. The program restored fractionated native lands—individual allotments created by the Dawes Act of 1887 and later divided among multiple heirs in later years—to tribal trust ownership, making it easier for tribes to develop and protect their lands.
“The checkboard system of land ownership on many reservations historically left communities and landowners unable to make basic decisions about their homelands,” said during a speech formally ending the program in Dec. 2023. “The Land Buy-Back Program’s progress puts the power back in the hands of tribal communities to determine how their lands are used — from conservation to economic development projects.”
Growing movement for land return
FILE – Wolf Ramerez of Houston, Texas, center, joins others with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas in holding up his fists as indigenous and environmental activists protest in front of the White House in Washington, Oct. 11, 2021. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding state authority to prosecute some crimes on Native American land is upending decades of law in support of tribal sovereignty. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)AP
The federal scheme accelerated the Land Back movement’s goal of returning lands to Indigenous control, strengthening tribal sovereignty, and enabling tribes to exercise self-determination over their lands.
The movement has led to numerous municipalities, states, and the federal government returning land that once belonged to tribes. Nick Tilsen, an Oglala Lakota president of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous group spearheading the Land Back movement, called it “a war cry for the liberation of Indigenous people.”
Since 2003, at least 100 tribal land recoveries have occurred involving over 70 federally recognized tribes, an intertribal coalition, and six Indigenous-owned land trusts, according to research by Kalen Goodluck, a Diné, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian journalist and photographer based in Albuquerque, N. Mex.
Goodluck found tribes recovered around 420,000 acres between 2003 and Sept. 2023., through private donations, transfers from land conservancies, land title purchases, and federal and state legislation.
In the summer 2023, on the 5th anniversary ofCalifornia’s apology to Native American people, the state transferred over 2,800 acres of ancestral land to the Shasta Indian Nation and the 40-acre Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery to the Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians, marking the first such transfer under a new state directive. The Yurok Tribe of Northern California reclaimed 125 acres along the Klamath River, strengthening salmon habitats and ceremonial practices.
Some land transfers have been tiny but significant. In 2023, a water advocacy group representing three California tribes bought a five-acre property from Three Creeks healing retreat. Meanwhile, a private resident in Altadena, Los Angeles County, returned one acre to Tongva Tribe descendants after 200 years.
Environmental benefits to Indigenous stewardship
The land returned to Indigenous stewardship isn’t just a victory for Native communities; it benefits theenvironment on a broader scale. Tribal lands are often managed with sustainability in mind, blending traditional ecological knowledge with modern science.
The Yurok Tribe’s work to restore salmon populations in the Klamath River, which runs through southern Oregon and northern California, demonstrates this approach. The tribe spent decades advocating for the removal of dams to revive fish habitats and repair regional biodiversity. The last of four dams is scheduled for removal at the end of 2024.
Researchers spotted the first salmon in 112 years in the Klamath River basin last October.
“The return of our relatives, the c’iyaal’s, is overwhelming for our tribe,” said Klamath Tribes Secretary, using the Klamath-Modoc word for salmon. “This is what our members worked for and believed in for so many decades. The salmon are just like our tribal people, and they know where home is and returned as soon as they were able.”
Trump’s 2016 and 2024 environmental policy plans
FILE – In this Aug. 10, 2005 file photo, tourist Chris Farthing from Suffolks County, England, takes a picture of Anasazi ruins in Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. The preservation and protection of Native American cultural sites would be a priority of U.S. land managers under one of the options up for consideration as they work to amend an outdated guide for management of oil and gas drilling across a sprawling area of northwestern New Mexico. (AP Photo/Jeff Geissler, File)AP
These practices contrast sharply with the fossil fuel industries likely to dominate federal land policy under aTrump administration. Trump has made no secret of his plans to prioritize oil, gas, and mining projects that, research shows, lead to long-term ecological harm, from polluted waterways to destruction of habitats.
For clues on what effect Trump will have on the Native American community in his second term, just look at his first. Between 2016 and 2020, Trump oversaw sweeping changes to federal land management policies, many of which disproportionately affected Native American lands.
Leadership roles within the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior were filled by individuals who bypassed Congressional vetting. Trump ended the annual White House Tribal Nations Conference, a hallmark of Obama’s administration for eight years.
Early in his presidency, Trump issued executive orders and memorandums rolling back critical public lands and wildlife protections. His America First energy agenda fast-tracked contentious projects like the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, both of which faced fierce and prolonged resistance from Native communities and their supporters. Additionally, Trump slashed the Bears Ears National Monument—an Indigenous-driven initiative—by 85%, undermining its status as a landmark in collaborative land stewardship.
While Native American issues were not a prominent feature of Trump’s 2024 campaign, his broader policy priorities pose significant risks. These include thepotential repeal of the Antiquities Act of 1906, a cornerstone of American conservation law used to establish national monuments, many protecting sacred Indigenous sites.
Project 2025, which Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from, explicitly calls for expanded oil and gas development on public lands. These policies could have catastrophic consequences for areas like the Chaco Cultural Historic National Park in New Mexico, where tribal leaders have fought for decades to prevent oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of the park. President Joe Biden ordered a 20-year ban on drilling around the park in 2023 and restricted oil production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, home to the Gwich’in people.
These protections are fragile. Trump could revoke past executive orders, and federal agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the Environmental Protection Agency face significant protection rollbacks under a Trump administration guided by Project 2025.
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North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, one of the wealthiest politicians in the country, could play a central role in Trump’s policy overhaul if confirmed as the next Interior Secretary. As governor, Burgum championed strong pro-fossil fuel policies and would manage U.S. federal lands, including national parks and wildlife refuges, and oversee relations with 574 federally recognized Native American tribes as Secretary of the Interior.
Burgum would also lead a new energy council seeking to establish U.S. “energy dominance” worldwide, including managing Bureau of Land Management oil and gas leases, which slowed considerably under Biden.
“He’s long advocated for rolling back critical environmental safeguards to let polluters profit,” the Sierra Club said on Nov. 15. “Doug Burgum’s ties to the fossil fuel industry run deep and, if confirmed to this position, he will surely continue Donald Trump’s efforts to sell out our public lands to his polluter pals. Our lands are our nation’s greatest treasure, and the Interior Department is charged with their protection.”
When Tommy Tuberville joined the U. S. Senate, he famously failed in an interview to name the three branches of the federal government. It wasn’t a gotcha journalism ambush, but a softball question about whether Democrats and Republicans could work together.
“You know, our government wasn’t set up for one group to have all three branches of government,” Tuberville said. “It wasn’t set up that way, our three branches, the House, the Senate and executive.”
Setting aside that he forgot about the judicial branch, what Tuberville seems to have been trying to say was that split control was the natural way for things to be, and that it wasn’t healthy for one party to have complete power.
That was then.
Fast forward to the present day. It’s unclear whether he ever learned the three branches of government, but now that doesn’t seem to matter so much to him. Tuberville is comfortable with just one.
“President Trump and J.D. Vance are going to be running the Senate,” Tuberville told Fox Business last week.
The Senate Republican majority will support the president-elect’s cabinet appointees, Tuberville said. And those who don’t will be dealt with severely.
“If you want to get in the way, fine, but we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that,” Tuberville told the host.
It’s their job, he argued, to support the Trump agenda, not evaluate Trump’s selections. To Tuberville, Trump’s support alone is qualification to lead a federal agency.
“It’s not for us to determine that,” he said.
Only, it kinda is. Were Tuberville ever to read the Constitution he swore to uphold, not only would he learn about the three branches of government, but also the duties of the Senate. Those include scrutinizing the president’s choices for cabinet positions.
He should know this. He fought and opposed all sorts of Biden appointments, including, famously, promotions for top U.S. military officers. He just doesn’t want to scrutinize nominees anymore now that Trump is in charge.
Tuberville likes for people to still call him Coach. But that’s not what he does anymore and that’s not who he is.
Under Trump, Tommy Tuberville is the waterboy.
For the last two years, there have been whispers in Alabama that, were Trump to win the election, Tuberville might get picked to lead the Department of Agriculture, or heaven help us, the Department of Defense. But no one seems to have asked Donald Trump whether that was the plan.
Instead, he’s left Tuberville washing Team Trump’s smelly laundry.
Perhaps, like the kid who makes team manager but dreams of being quarterback, Tuberville is trying to make a good impression in case a starter gets hurt.
With Trump’s roster, who knows? His dream might come to pass.
But to see the team Tuberville failed to make, it’s worth looking at who is up for these jobs.
Pete Hegseth appears to have bested Tuberville for the top defense post by having spent more time on Fox News than the Alabama Senator.
And Matt Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general shows that, indeed, Trump could do worse than appoint Alabama A.G. Steve Marshall to that post. In the U.S. House, Gaetz has been a nuisance and obstructionist for other Republicans, including Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, who had to be restrained from attacking Gaetz on the House floor, and has since been investigated for allegations of statutory rape and human trafficking.
Even Tuberville seems to be hedging on this one, something he normally reserves for day-trading.
There are many more Trump picks to pick over, including climate change deniers at the EPA, Vice President Elon Musk and (checks Twitter) Dr. Oz? The list is long and the day is short.
In the end, it’s the Senate’s job to vet these appointments. It’s Tuberville’s sworn duty.
Instead, he wants to forfeit before kickoff.
Not keen on his cabinet having to answer questions about dead bears or how to safely mix uppers with downers, Team Trump has suggested the Senate allow him to make these picks as recess appointments. He’s literally asking them not to show up for work at all.
