Author: Don Fletcher

Pandemic hogs headlines, despite $1B in local projects By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Except for sporadic reports from national news outlets, few people had heard of COVID-19 when 2020 began. Before the year was three months old, though, the virus had begun to hog news headlines the world over. The novel coronavirus began its globe spread in earnest in March, eventually reaching pandemic status, infecting more than 350,000 Alabamians…

By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Although the COVID-19 pandemic has messed up plans to some degree, organizers of Atmore’s annual parade and tribute to Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. said the memorial event will not be a casualty to the virus. Sandra Gray, vice president of Concerned Citizens of Atmore, said last week this year’s celebration would be a scaled-down version of the annual salute to King…

By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Atmore City Council members voted unanimously during their Monday, January 11, meeting to allow The Event Zone, a local banquet and party hall, to continue operations, providing that no alcoholic beverages are consumed on the premises and no exotic dancers perform during events held there. The issue was discussed at length by the city’s governing body during a pre-meeting workshop. City Attorney Larry Wettermark,…

By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Escambia County Sheriff Heath Jackson announced this week that forensic pathologists with the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences have finally identified the person whose desecrated body was found more than four months ago in a forested area near Nokomis. Jackson said ADFS doctors have confirmed that the body is that of 23-year-old Toyshia Ceara Snowden of Atmore, who was reported missing in August. Her…