For the last 40 years, Alabama’s power structure has grappled with accusations that party crashers are interfering with the state’s primary elections. For most of its history, Alabama has been a one-party state, first under the Democratic Party banner and for the last decade and a half under the GOP banner. The 1980s marked a transition. Republicans were gaining ground. In 1986, then-Attorney General Charles Graddick won a heated Democratic runoff against then-Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley by nearly 10,000 votes. The Alabama Democratic Party invalidated the outcome, claiming Graddick had violated party rules by encouraging Republicans to vote in the...

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I am just starting a new book. It’s called The Gentle Swedish Art of Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson. A friend recommended it to me. Well, actually, she recommended another book by the same author — one on aging gracefully. It was a humorous book, which I enjoyed very much. She was too tactful to mention how much stuff I have and that I probably would disregard the death cleaning book anyway. When I said how much I enjoyed the book on aging, she mentioned that the death cleaning book was much funnier. That made me sign up for it...

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Have you ever stopped to think about just how important your tax dollars are to your local community? Have you considered how far those dollars stretch and what they actually provide? Without your tax dollars, there would be no fire department to respond if your home caught fire. Without your tax dollars, there would be no police department to answer a call for help. Roads would not be paved. Potholes would not be repaired. Public services we often take for granted would simply not exist. It is easy to sit behind a desk and order clothes, groceries and just about...

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FEBRUARY 20 The Citizens That Care Mardi Gras Parade will roll at 4:30 p.m. in Jackson. Lineup begins at 4 p.m. behind Jackson City Hall. The parade will travel from City Hall down Commerce and College streets and disband at Gillmore Elementary School. All are welcome and there is no entry fee. For more information or to register, contact James Earl Barnett at 251-490-7399 or Tyrone Moye at 251-769-6979. FEBRUARY 24 The Thomasville Public Library will host its AdultBookClubmeetingFeb.24at5:30p.m. The discussion will focus on the novel “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi. Adults ages 18 and older are welcome to...

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(This column reflects the personal views of the author.) I want to start by saying I’ve known Sen. Jack Williams for a long time — long enough to have known his father before I ever knew him. Growing up, my parents always had cows, horses and hogs. Like so many families in our area, we bought our feed from Williams Feed Store. I spent many days there as a child, playing around on the feed sacks while my dad loaded up supplies. Long before politics ever entered the picture, the Williams name was tied to agriculture, hard work and serving...

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When President Donald Trump endorsed Alabama Republican Party chairman John Wahl for lieutenant governor on January 22, it shook up Alabama politics in a profound way, perhaps more than we realized. Aside from shaking up the lieutenant gubernatorial field by endorsing a previously unannounced candidate, he almost immediately created a vacancy at the top of the Alabama Republican Party. The next day, Wahl qualified with his own party as a candidate for lieutenant governor and resigned the post he had held for nearly five years. By rule, Vice Chairwoman Joan Reynolds assumed the role of interim chairwoman. She, along with...

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I am a bit perplexed because I can’t get into my Yahoo account. I recently switched internet providers after the one I had kept going up in price while giving me very poor coverage. My television provider offered a new deal at a greatly reduced price, which I gladly took. Everybody had been raving about Starlink and how good it was. Word of mouth is the best recommendation for me, so I was eager to get started. It turned out to be more complicated than I expected. My Dish Network provider came to install the Starlink equipment free of charge....

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