Tagged: Mobile

Residents along Alabama's Gulf Coast are being asked to participate in a survey designed to gauge long-term effects of the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

Representatives of the state Department of Public Health will go door-to-door this week to conduct the survey, which take about 15 minutes to complete.

Residents of Mobile and Baldwin counties were also surveyed in 2010 and 2011.

Participants also will be asked about how their community is prepared for an emergency and their access to health care.

Witnesses say a University of South Alabama student was screaming obscenities and talking about being on a "spiritual quest" shortly before campus police fatally shot him.

Two students who knew 18-year-old Gil Collar described him Monday as appearing intoxicated shortly before his death early Saturday.

The university says Collar was nude, acting erratically and challenging a police officer when the officer opened fire. A school statement makes no mention of Collar being armed.

   The seventh annual alligator season has just wrapped up in Alabama. One hundred twenty five tags were issued to hunters who wanted to chase down the large reptiles. Of that, seventy-eight gators were brought in, leaving forty seven tags unfilled.

   Two weekends a year Alabamians get the opportunity to hunt for alligators. Hunters like Jennifer Smith and her family, who bagged a three-hundred fifteen pound alligator that measured ten feet five inches long. She says hope to go every chance she gets.

Update:  August 28, 2012 - Afternoon

MONTGOMERY – Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday lifted mandatory evacuation orders 

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Forecasters say a strengthened Tropical Storm Isaac is bearing down on the Florida Keys. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac was centered about 135 miles (220 kms) east-southeast of Key West at 8 a.m. EDT Sunday. The storm has top sustained winds of about 65 mph (100 kph) and is moving toward the west-northwest at 20 mph (31 kph). Hours earlier, Isaac's winds were clocked at about 60 mph (95 kph).

Federal railway officials are providing $100,000 to study the possibility of passenger train service linking Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham.

The Federal Railroad Administration said Thursday it is earmarking the money in response to an application from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.

Amtrak used to run passenger trains linking the three cities, and the study will look at restoring the service.

Alabama's governor says the state will provide $5 million and job training to Austal USA to help the shipbuilder add up to 1,000 jobs in Mobile.

Gov. Robert Bentley was in Mobile on Tuesday to announce an agreement with the Australia-based shipbuilder.

The agreement calls for the state to provide $1 million a year for five years, which will help with the expansion of the Mobile complex.

FOSTER, R.I. (AP) — 

A Rhode Island native has taken command of U.S. Coast Guard's Cutter Stingray during a change-of-command ceremony in Alabama. 

Lt. j.g. Christopher Marquis relieved Lt. Molly Keyser as the commanding officer of the cutter in a ceremony held in Mobile, Ala., on Friday. Marquis is a native of Foster, R.I. He assumed command of the 87-foot vessel after serving as the weapons officer and the first lieutenant of the Coast Guard Cutter Albert, based in Astoria, Ore.