Author: Don Fletcher

Orrie Hubert Bradford, 83, a Monroe County resident who formerly lived in Atmore, died Sunday (February 19) while riding his 1999 Harley Davidson motorcycle near Stockton, in Baldwin County. Preliminary Alabama State Trooper reports indicate that Bradford crashed into a guardrail, but a family member said survivors have learned that he actually experienced a “medical emergency” while riding “at low speed” and barely skimmed the guardrail. The family member said…

Alabama’s sixth annual Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday will be held Friday, February 24, through Sunday, February 26, in communities across the state, but only one of Escambia County’s taxing municipalities will take part. A provision in the Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday law allows counties and municipalities to join the state by removing their own local sales and use taxes from the same items during the same…

Brandon Smith doesn’t like taxes. Neither does he like the condition of the rural roads he and many other rural residents travel each day. But Smith, the Escambia County Commission’s District 4 representative, grudgingly agrees that the proposed statewide gasoline tax increase might be the only solution to the second problem. “Nobody likes a tax, and I don’t either, but at some point you’ve got to figure out a way…