Presented by The Boeing Company.

1. In Abbeville, a possible model for rural economic development.

• A few weeks ago, I travelled down to Abbeville to watch Gov. Kay Ivey, Jimmy Rane, and a host of local and state leaders cut the ribbon on a new sawmill locating in the old WestPoint Pepperell textile mill.
• It was a local triumph and a uniquely special occasion. However, Abbeville’s story of a foundational rural industry closing and cratering the local economy really isn’t unique at all.
• Many small towns in rural Alabama face similar situations. I looked into some of those challenges and talked with a long list of political and business leaders to find out what the state is doing to address them in my latest feature story.
• Here’s an excerpt:

The old WestPoint Pepperell mill in Abbeville, Alabama is a long, greyish white structure that stretches two city blocks in all directions at the corner of State Highway 27 and U.S. 431.

For many southerners, the building’s long, column-stilted concrete exterior is familiar. Textile giant WestPoint Pepperell dotted the Alabama, Georgia, and Carolina landscape with dozens of similar-looking mills during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when the industry was still booming. Cotton was plentiful and the labor was relatively cheap, as was the power from hydroelectric dams in places like the Chattahoochee River Valley. And while the buildings were spartan and austere on the outside, the inside housed the beating economic heart of their communities.

But over time, a different kind of familiar sight began to set in. In the mid 2000s, WestPoint, now merged and reincorporated as WestPoint Stevens, began moving the manufacturing of many of its popular bedding brands overseas.  Mills once humming with thousands of workers slowly shuttered throughout the South, and the ridge-lined exterior walls turned to empty shells, the leftover fossils of industries that once sustained families and hometowns.

Here in Abbeville, the plant where workers made bedsheets and pillowcases began to close in 2007. More than 1,400 employees were forced to find work elsewhere, not an easy task in rural Alabama, especially once the Great Recession set in.

Abbeville’s story ultimately has a happy ending, or at least they are getting there.  But countless other rural Alabama towns face similar situations and few, if any, have a Jimmy Rane.

• It’s a long one, so take it in bites if you must. But it’s mostly worth it.
• Full story HERE

2. In teacher shortage, Alabama looks to South Korea.

• A group of Alabama education leaders and lawmakers will go to South Korea next month to explore the possibility of bringing Korean math and science teachers to classrooms here.
• State Superintendent Eric Mackey will be on the late October trip and said the state is interested in a possible program with the Korean government where teachers from that country come to Alabama, finish their master’s degrees and teach for a specified number of years. Mackey and others said South Korea has a surplus of teachers.
• “We do think it could lead to more teachers here, especially in math and, secondarily, science,” Mackey told Alabama Daily News.
• New data released from the Alabama State Department of Education last week showed a continuing decline in first-year teachers coming out of Alabama’s public and private educator prep programs from 2016-2017 to 2017-2018.
• “We know we’re going to have to do some things long term,” Mackey said about the teacher shortage. “This could be a short-term solution for some parts of the state.”
• There are a variety of details still to be worked out, including obtaining visas for the potential teachers and who would pay for the cost of bringing them to Alabama.
• State Sens. Tim Melson, R-Florence, and Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, plan to go on the trip. They’re chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Education Policy Committee.
• Read the full story from ADN’s Mary Sell HERE.

A message from The Boeing Company

• As stewards of the nation’s Minuteman ICBM mission since 1958, Boeing’s 60-year partnership with the U.S. Air Force is proof of our commitment to the deterrence mission and validates the capabilities of our team.

• A best-of-industry Ground Based Strategic Deterrent team including Boeing would leverage that technical strength and expertise.

• Yet currently there’s only one company providing a bid and intervention is needed to ensure the best capabilities from across the industry.

• Congressional and military leaders agree that acquisition of such a critical asset demands the best capabilities of the U.S. and strong competition to support national security and protect the taxpayer.

3. Lyn Head out at Pardons & Paroles.

• The turnover at the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles continues.
• The chair of that Board, Lyn Head, is resigning her post effective October 1.
• Head’s term as chair has already expired and she has been serving until Gov. Kay Ivey appoints a replacement. Ivey had not said publicly whether she would reappoint Head, only saying that “all options are on the table.”
• Head said she made the decision after fervent prayer. The Tuscaloosa lawyer and former prosecutor has served on the board for a total of three years, including the last year as chair after controversy led Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, and the Alabama Legislature to change the governing dynamics of Pardons and Paroles.
• Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola says the governor will begin the process to name a replacement.
• Ivey previously appointed former Attorney General Charlie Graddick to serve as the Executive Director of Pardons and Paroles, and he quickly moved to suspend his predecessor and two other administrators within the agency pending investigation.

4. The latest: 20-year-old charged in murder of Tuscaloosa officer.

• A man faces capital murder charges in the death of an Tuscaloosa police officer.
• Police said Tuesday that 20-year-old Luther Bernard Watkins is charged with capital murder in connection with the death of 40-year-old Tuscaloosa police officer Dornell Cousette.
• Authorities say Cousette was shot and killed Monday night while attempting to arrest Watkins who was wanted for robbery and other charges.
• Lt. Jack Kennedy says that Cousette had received information that Watkins, who had multiple felony warrants, was at a Tuscaloosa home. Police say Cousette drove by the home and Watkins fled inside. Kennedy says Cousette got out of his car and pursued Watkins into the home. Kennedy says “almost immediately gunfire erupted inside.”
• Story HERE.

5. News Briefs.

• MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen asked a federal judge to dismiss Roy Moore’s defamation lawsuit over a television segment that lampooned Moore in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.
• Lawyers for Baron Cohen, Showtime Networks and CBS wrote last week in a joint court filing that Moore signed an agreement waiving all legal claims before appearing on the “Who is America?” segment. They said in the agreement that Moore waived claims related to the program and anyone associated with it. They also said the segment was satire and is protected under the First Amendment.
• “This lawsuit conflicts directly with the long tradition of First Amendment protection for political parody and satire of public figures — especially where the satirical work ‘could not reasonably have been interpreted as stating actual facts about the public figure involved,'” lawyers wrote.
• The segment ran after Moore faced misconduct accusations during the 2017 Senate race in Alabama. He has denied the allegations and is running for Senate again in 2020.
• Moore said he was told he was receiving an award for supporting Israel when he agreed to appear on the show. Instead, Baron Cohen lampooned him as a possible pedophile.
• Full story HERE.

• TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — A University of Alabama teacher who was suspended after video surfaced of a person drinking beer in class is returning to work.
• School spokesman Chris Bryant says marketing instructor Joel Strayer was allowed to return to work Tuesday after a review.
• Bryant says the university won’t have any further comment.
• The university said it had suspended Strayer last week after video appeared online of a young man drinking a beer during one of his classes. The man isn’t a student at the university and later apologized for his actions.
• The video shows surprised students watching the stunt and clapping. The young man later said the incident was an attempt to boost a career producing viral videos.
• Story HERE.

• MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Prosecutors say a University of South Alabama student is accused of making a terroristic threat after he wrote song lyrics by a popular rapper on a large flip chart in the school library — the second such case within a week on the campus.
• Jack Aaron Christensen, 21, wrote song lyrics that referred to killing people and burning things, according to a criminal complaint. The lyrics are from the song “Radicals” by rapper Tyler, The Creator.
• Court records don’t say why the flip chart was in the library or whether it was part of a university program. The complaint says it happened on or around Sept. 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
• Court records don’t list a lawyer for Christensen who could be reached for comment on his behalf.
• In a separate case, another student was arrested on the same charge within a week of Christensen’s arrest, authorities said.
• That case involved a written threat on social media and is unrelated to Christensen’s case, Michael Mitchell, vice president for student affairs, wrote in an email to students and employees.
• “The students involved in each incident have been barred from university property pending the outcome of student conduct processes,” Mitchell wrote.
• “No matter the circumstances, our police must treat any possible threat with the utmost seriousness and act immediately to ensure the safety of our campus community.”
• Details of the social media threat haven’t been released by the university or its police department. The Mobile County District Attorney’s Office didn’t immediately respond to messages on Tuesday seeking information.

Headlines.

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