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Contributor Connection Newsletter

Aug 09, 2023

It's not a wall, but a possible widened Interstate 65 became part of the 2024 presidential race .with a Trump campaign promise. Not everybody's impressed.

Ike Morgan

 

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Arrests in Montgomery

Montgomery Police said they have arrested three people on misdemeanor charges related to Saturday evening's brawl at the Riverfront area, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

Those arrested were all boaters from a pontoon boat who are shown on video fighting with a riverboat co-captain.

In all, 13 people were taken into custody and then released as the investigation continued. Police were looking for another man to question -- one who was among those who engaged the pontoon-boat group after that first scrap. They say the man they're looking for used a folding chair to strike a woman's head.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert said the co-captain was just doing his job leading up to the fight. He also said there wasn't enough evidence to pursue hate-crime charges.

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Bahamian bond

The Dothan woman accused of planning to have her husband killed was in the process of bonding out of a Bahamian prison, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

Lindsay Shiver is a former Miss Houston County, and her estranged husband, Robert Shiver, is a former Auburn University football player. They were married in 2010, have three children, and had been living in Thomasville, Ga. The couple, which has a vacation home in the Bahamas, filed for divorce this year. Court papers show him accusing her of adultery and her accusing him of abuse.

Authorities in The Bahamas were investigating a break-in at a bar when they came across text messages that put them onto the alleged murder plot among three people -- Lindsay Shiver, her alleged boyfriend and a friend of the alleged boyfriend.

She's been in the process of meeting her $100,000 bond, posted by her parents, after her husband did not object. A court date is scheduled for Oct. 5.

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Six of the most spectacular lanes

When Donald Trump spoke in Montgomery last week, one of the attention-getting moments was his promise, if elected president next year, to make Interstate 65 six lanes from Huntsville to Mobile. He indicated he'd get that going on his first day in office.

(I don't want to compare this to the "build the wall" promise of 2016, but if he starts calling I-65 a "big, beautiful interstate" then you know it's getting real.)

AL.com's John Sharp reports that some Republican lawmakers have been behind widening at least parts of I-65 for some time. The most vocal of those might be Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who said he's behind the widening, quote, “so Alabamians may go about their business, tourists may travel throughout our state, and trucks may engage in commerce without sitting idle on what amounts to the world’s longest parking lot.”

Some Democrats aren't buying it. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he'd rather see rail to the coast, and State Sen. Bobby Singleton, a Greensboro Democrat, said Trump's just saying what the Republicans want to hear.

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Attention drivers who smoke/vape

There is a growing number of things you can't do while you're driving in Alabama.

You can't text -- or, in some circumstances, be in contact with your cellphone at all.

Being in contact with an adult beverage continues to be frowned upon as well.

(From that you can deduce that you ought not be driving while you're reading this, especially if you have to drink to get through it.)

And now, Leada Gore reports, a new law is in effect that prohibits smoking and vaping while inside a vehicle with a child (14 or younger). Rolling your windows down doesn't get you out of it.

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By the Numbers

$1,580,000,000

That's how much last night's Mega Millions jackpot winner won. The winning ticket was sold in one of our neighboring states: Florida.

 

More Alabama news

  • Martez Seay, Birmingham killer of 5 in months-long crime spree, dies in Alabama prison at 39
  • Henry Ruggs III’s mysterious missing month finally filled in
  • Nick Saban brings Pete Rose to Tuscaloosa to speak to Alabama football
  • SEC commish talks ‘problematic’ conference moves, subtly swings at rivals]
 

Born on this date

In 1985, JaMarcus Russell of Mobile. Played quarterback at LSU and spent three years in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders.

 

On the calendar

Aug. 17-18: High school football jamborees.

 

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