Two Alabama cities are hoping for the return of a pair of hometown Marines who are among the dozen people missing after two helicopters crashed off the coast of Hawaii.
Yellow ribbons are going up for Marine Sgt. William Josh Turner in his hometown of Florala near the Florida line. He’s a 2009 graduate of Florala High School, where workers remember him as a good student and baseball player.
Counselor Joea (JO uh) McNeil says Turner always wanted to be a Marine.
Another missing Marine is from Florence in northwest Alabama.
Capt. Steven R. Torbert grew up at Highland Baptist Church and his relatives remain members there.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders became the eleventh presidential candidate to visit the Yellowhammer State with his rally last night.
The Democratic candidate appeared in front of a packed house at Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium and seemed a little surprised at the reception he received…
“Thank you! Well, there must be some kind of mistake. I was told Alabama was a conservative state.”
Sanders’ speech touched on major policy issues like health care, a living wage, income inequality and the environment. But he also noted the day and the city’s civil rights history. Sanders said to remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy, he would continue to fight for a nation in which all people live with dignity.
A lot of Alabamians have weight loss on their minds. One hundred and Fifty dieters stepped onto a truck scale to prove they’d lost over thirty four thousand pounds. That could a record.
But, only after it’s confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records. While that goes on, Alabamians are teaming up for the tenth annual Scale Back Alabama weight loss program. Participants pledge to lose 10 pounds in order to qualify to win cash prizes in April at the end of the event.
Theresa Fair is the Health and Behavior nutritionist at the Alabama department of health. She says they are hopeful that they broke a Guinness World Record.
“January 8th was our kick off and we attempted to break a Guinness World Record and we did accomplish that in terms of the number of people that were required to do that but we are still in the process of getting our paperwork to Guinness and getting that verified. The kickoff started on the 8th but the actual program starts on January 25th.”
The official weigh-in for Scale Back Alabama is next Monday. The final weigh-in is in late April.