By June Mathews My little friend Lucy got kicked out of daycare the other day. Not literally kicked, of course, and not for long, although it may have seemed like an eternity to her weary parents. Daycare administration decided three days of suspension was fitting for her crime, and so it went. You see, Lucy is in the throes of what is commonly referred to as the Terrible Twos, and her parents, while far fr ...

By Gary Lloyd The words have stuck with me. I had this sports writing professor at the University of Alabama, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rick Bragg, who won last year’s UA Last Lecture Award, the only lecture on the Tuscaloosa campus in which students choose a lecturer to speak at the end of the spring semester. Bragg titled his lecture, “So People Won’t Forget,” a label he came up with from an encount ...

By Slade Blackwell As your state senator, I, along with my legislative colleagues, have the opportunity to make a difference in the state of Alabama. Now, after three years in the legislature, I am proud to see that our hard work is paying off: Area Development Magazine recently ranked Alabama fourth in best states to do business. Our record $19.5 billion in exports is a 9.36 percent increase since 2011. Un ...

By Dave Parrish It’s a well-accepted fact, markets are governed by the law of supply and demand. For the past five years the level of inventory for sale versus the demand for housing in the Birmingham housing market has definitely favored buyers. It’s been a buyers’ market. With the rising demand for housing, which has been on the rise for the past 17 months (since October 2011), and a shrinking inventory o ...

By June Mathews Bless my heart. I’ve been without a dishwasher for a week now, and I’m feeling pretty sorry for myself. A while back, I noticed the spoons and forks weren’t looking quite as shiny as before but attributed it to the age and quality of the silverware. Then I realized the glassware was filmy, and the daisy designs on the stoneware dinner plates were not quite as perky as they used to be. Reluct ...

By Chesley Payne Criminal law is an area of law that can affect you, a family member or a friend at one time or another in your life. In the event you are accused of a criminal act or questioned by police regarding a criminal act, please keep in mind these guidelines. You are entitled to counsel. This is one of the most important rights contained within the Bill of Rights. The Sixth Amendment guarantees you ...

By Scott Buttram Trussville lost a treasure last week with the passing of Venie Payne. It is a loss that will not be easily replaced, because the combination of love for her community and action on behalf of her community is rare. Many of us love the place in which we live. Working for the place we live? That is often another matter entirely. It was Mrs. Payne’s life work. Her priorities in life were clear. ...

By Channing King Stress is the real deal. Jesus, David, Solomon and other biblical characters had stress. It’s something we can’t avoid. We have to learn how to handle physical, chemical and emotional stresses so we can be healthy. I want to teach some principles I have learned from Dr. Ben Lerner, author of the book “Body by God.” The first principle to remember is that stress affects your body. Whether yo ...

By June Mathews Jimmie and I have never been the most romantic couple in the world, and I suppose a precedent was set by the inauspicious way we officially got engaged. We were sitting in his 1974 Javelin in the parking lot at Eastwood Mall, where we had just bought the ring I’d picked out a few weeks before (I didn’t dare let him choose a ring I’d likely be wearing the rest of my life on his own. Does that ...

By Zack Steele I hear all too often “My child sees 20/20, so vision is not an issue.” Most of the time that is true. But in many instances, children and adults have undiagnosed vision problems that have little to do with their ability to see letters on an eye chart. Some children may have undiagnosed problems with two eyes that do not work well together. This condition, called convergence insufficiency, is ...