EDITORS, MANAGING EDITORS, WEEKEND EDITORS:
The Associated Press recommends the following stories of Southern interest for use over the weekend of Feb. 9-11.
For repeats of AP copy, please call the Service Desk at 800-838-4616. AP stories, along with the photos that accompany them, also can be obtained from http://www.apexchange.com.
ALABAMA
For Saturday use:
MOBILE PET CARE
DOTHAN, Ala. — Chris Mixon smiles as she watches her beloved dog, Allie, enter the veterinary clinic. It seems a normal scene for any pet owner, but there is a difference - this clinic is currently parked outside Mixon's house. Countryside Mobile Veterinary Clinic has been traveling throughout the Wiregrass since October, delivering veterinary care aimed at residents who can't get their animals to a traditional clinic. By Greg Phillips. The Dothan Eagle.
For Sunday use:
CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Since its inception in 1992, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has been concerned about more than Birmingham, and more than "civil" rights. In its charter document, a lengthy statement that has been condensed to a single sentence, the institute states its broad mission: "to promote civil and human rights worldwide through education." A tour through its galleries and exhibits, while substantially focused on Alabama and the South, also reveals the impact the institute has had worldwide, where it has drawn inspiration and where it continues to make its mark. By Michael Huebner. al.com
For Monday use:
VOLUNTEER PILOTS-TREATMENTS
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Kevin Smith had a nearly 5-pound, melon-sized tumor removed from his abdomen late last year. Physicians at Northport DCH suggested that Smith receive 7/8follow-up treatment from specialists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. But with appointments required every six weeks, the trips to Houston could become expensive for the Northport family. Staff at the DCH Cancer Center referred Smith to Angel Flight Soars, a program that pairs pilots with people in need of medical treatment. By Stephanie Taylor. The Tuscaloosa News.
ALABAMA TORNADOES-TREES
ATHENS, Ala. — The tornadoes that hit Limestone County and much of North-Central Alabama on April 27, 2011, not only destroyed lives and homes, but much of the state's vegetation. Decades-old trees that stood in yards and unpopulated areas of the county were uprooted or broken down like twigs. And while many homeowners have rebuilt or moved elsewhere, evidence of the storms on the landscape is still visible in southwest Limestone and along and north of U.S. 72 in East Limestone. Statewide, the Alabama Forestry Commission estimates that 177,857 acres of forestation was damaged or destroyed on April 27. In Limestone County, approximately 2,068 acres of forest was damaged or destroyed. The total statewide value of the damaged forestation was $228,360,576. With a little help from state programs, two groups are working toward replacing trees that were felled in the storms. By Adam Smith. The News Courier.
FLORIDA
For Saturday use:
CATHOLIC DORM
MELBOURNE, Fla. — Awash in the blue glow of a nearby stained-glass window, WarrenPittorie is in a place where he and other students from Florida Institute of Technology can put aside the distractions of college life for a few moments of shared peace. By J.D. Gallop, Florida Today.
For Sunday use:
ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHER
OCALA, Fla. — For decades, John Moran has tried to capture the unique beauty of Florida's nature through his photographs. In that same time, however, he turned a blind eye to the less picturesque signs of environmental changes. By Carlos E. Medina, Ocala Star-Banner.
For Monday use:
FLORIDA FIREARMS MANUFACTURERS
TAMPA, Fla. — Just hours before a contentious debate over guns is set to take place in the U.S. Senate, Chris Krier wrangles with a high-tech lathe, trying unsuccessfully to drill a tiny hole in just the right place in a part for an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. By Howard Altman, The Tampa Tribune.
GEORGIA
For Saturday use:
CHATTAHOOCHEE WHITEWATER
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A signature piece of the Columbus whitewater course was unveiled this month as Uptown Columbus showed off its new $400,000 wave-shaper in the Georgia channel just below the old Eagle & Phenix powerhouse. By Tim Chitwood, The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
For Sunday use:
LOST CITY
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Ken Boyd has a perennial fascination with the barren, windswept peninsula that juts into a remote arm of Thurmond Lake. "There's not much here today," the Army Corps of Engineers biologist said. "But 200 years ago, it must have been quite a place." The wide, level ground at the confluence of the Broad and Savannah rivers holds the ghostly ruins of Petersburg, once hailed as Georgia's second-largest city and an economic rival to Augusta 70 miles downstream. By Rob Pavey, The Augusta Chronicle.
For Monday use:
TALLEST TOWER
ATLANTA — Bank of America Plaza is Atlanta's tallest skyscraper — and these days one of its loneliest. Though the 55-story tower's soaring gold-leaf spire still glitters from afar, the building is nearly half empty. Two thousand workers, perhaps more, have left in recent years as tenants downsized or moved, emptying whole floors. By J. Scott Trubey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
KENTUCKY
For Sunday use:
FURRY FRIENDS
BURLINGTON, Ky. — In 2004, Linda and Greg Salsbury had to make a decision. They knew, innately, it would be a big one. They knew it could help to define the rest of their lives. In the end, they went with the domesticated South American camelid. By John Faherty, The Kentucky Enquirer.
For Monday use:
NOTE IN A BOTTLE
BELFRY, Ky. — Brian Dingus likely would tell you Sunday, Jan. 13, of this year, was merely a day of happenstance. Dingus, who is an employee of CSX Railroad and who on this particular day of rest was enjoying a personal respite from work, had decided that portion of the Ohio Riverbank that spans in front of his Franklin Furnace, Ohio, home needed some sprucing up. By Bruce Justice, Appalachian News-Express.
LOUISIANA
For Saturday and Sunday use:
FOOD INCUBATOR
NORCO, La. — The smell of herbs and spices filled the large industrial kitchen space as Bonnie Barberot stirred ingredients in a steaming metal cauldron. She was at the Edible Enterprises kitchen early on a Monday to prepare a fresh batch of sweet and spicy pickles, one of five pickle products Barberot produces under the Bushwood Farms name. Like many of the tenants who use the same industrial kitchen at the Norco-based incubator for food businesses, Bushwood Farms started as a hobby. The Cajun-inspired products Barberot creates, including Cajun Hot Mirlitons and Cajun Sweet Beets, have made their way from farmers markets and food shows to local grocery stores over the past year. It's been a long transition, and patience has at times been hard to find, she said. By Maria Clark, New Orleans CityBusiness.
GRACE NOTES
ALEXANDRIA, La. — The clients sat in a large semi-circle, all eyes on Julie Thiels DeKeyzer. The session began with a lesson on patience. Some clients are confined to wheelchairs. Some struggle with words, others with motor skills. But during their sessions with DeKeyzer, they are all musicians, if only for a short time. "I don't go to work to get a million-dollar merger," DeKeyzer said. "I go to work to get eye contact or the first letter of a word." She is a licensed music therapist who contracts with Rapides Arc, which runs the training center, to help individuals who need more than traditional occupational or physical therapy. By Jodi Belgard, The Town Talk.
For Monday use:
WETLANDS PIPELINE
THIBODAUX, La. — Work will likely begin this year on a long-distance pipeline designed to carry sediment from the Mississippi River to restore wetlands east of Lafourche Parish. The parish's contribution to the pipeline was a point of contention for some Lafourche politicians. Local Levee District Directors say the project is an illustration of how some marsh creation can be done locally in the future. By Xerxes Wilson, The Daily Comet.
HANDWRITING LESSENS
MONROE, La. — Gone are the days when second- and third-grade students spent hours mastering the technique needed to create the cursive alphabet and even more time learning to string those letters together to form words and sentences. Script writing is not a part of the common core curriculum, which is now being implemented in Louisiana and many states across the country. In Louisiana, the state Department of Education has left it up to individual school districts to decide whether to devote instructional time to script writing. By Barbara Leader, The News-Star.
MID-ATLANTIC
For Sunday use:
STILL DELIVERING MILK
FREDERICK, Md. — At 85, Eugene "Smitty" Smith still drives an 18-wheel tractor-trailer truck, picking up milk from area farms and delivering to creameries for Clouse Co. in Frederick. By Ike Wilson, The News-Post of Frederick.
BACK ON TRACK
GREENVILLE, Del. — They are smart, but a little scared. Capable, but worried that their skills may have grown rusty. Experienced, but conscious that prospective employers may focus too closely on that long, quiet gap in their résumés. By Eric Ruth, The News Journal of Wilmington.
For Monday use:
REDEFINING LIVING
FREDERICK, Md. — Fear of failure nearly became Amber Chrobot's biggest downfall. As a high schooler, she could barely face math. She was home-schooled, and family health problems combined with her stubborn attitude provided the formula she needed to drop out. By Courtney Mabeus, The News-Post of Frederick.
HAT RETAILER
OCEAN CITY, Md. — It's not just another mall boutique. Behind the scenes, Hatland runs a thriving online business that sells tens of thousands of sports-themed hats each year. By Brian Shane, The Daily Times of Salisbury.
MISSISSIPPI
For Sunday use:
VAUGHN'S CEMETERY
CALEDONIA, Miss. — It is late evening in Vaughn's Cemetery, and the shadows are beginning to creep across the graves, slowly enveloping both simple and ornate without prejudice. By Carmen K. Sisson, The Commercial Dispatch.
TATUM SALT DOME
JACKSON, Miss. — He was 7 years old when U.S. government representatives came to his Lamar County home, boarded it up and evacuated his family three miles away to protect them from a nuclear blast that would both shake his body and the earth in a 30-mile radius of the Tatum Salt Dome. By Lareeca Rucker, The Clarion-Ledger.
For Monday use:
CAMPUS CHAPELS
TUPELO, Miss. — The transition from high school to college can be as scary as it is exciting. Plunged into the socially and academically fast-paced environment of a university, the house of their parents is not the only home that may get left behind. In the unfamiliar location of their university, many college students struggle to find a church home. By Riley Manning, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.
CEDAR HILL CEMETERY
VICKSBURG, Miss. — The effort to maintain and restore the resting place of thousands of Confederate dead is suffering from the same problems the Confederacy met — a shortage of manpower and sparse funding. By Josh Edwards, Vicksburg Post.
NORTH CAROLINA
For Saturday use:
COPING ON OCRACOKE
NORFOLK, Va. — For hundreds of years, Philip Howard says, his ancestors lived on Ocracoke Island without ferries. They did just fine, although it is fair to note that his forebearers were not used to large chain grocery stores and medical specialists. Since the channel filled with sand earlier this month, blocking the hourly free ferry between Ocracoke and Hatteras islands, Howard and the rest of Ocracoke's 1,000 or so residents are learning to cope. By Diane Tennant, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk.
For Sunday use:
MIDWIFERY PROGRAM
GREENVILLE — A classroom at East Carolina University's College of Nursing of Wednesday was filled with pregnant women gladly having their abdomens pushed and pulled, measured and diagrammed. Doing the hands-on examinations were about a dozen nurses studying online and on the ECU campus to advance their primary care skills by becoming certified nurse midwives, the only program of its kind in North Carolina. By Michael Abramowitz, The Daily Reflector of Greenville.
For Monday use:
CHANGING CRAFTS
SALISBURY — Maybe it's a holdover from his decades as a blacksmith, but wherever George Basinger goes, he leaves an impression. His home church, Grace Lutheran, is a good example. He made the outside mailbox in the shape of a church. He fashioned the wrought iron hand rails leading up to the altar. In the church history room are things Basinger thought Grace Lutheran should have, such as an 1880 pocketwatch he found in a shop in Hannibal, Mo. The year of the watch was important because it's when the church was founded. By Mark Wineka, Salisbury Post.
SOUTH CAROLINA
For Saturday use:
KICKING CANCER
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Having a fighter's attitude is what 19-year-old Natalie Hahn thinks saved her from being overcome by cancer, and now she's trying to give other cancer patients her swagger. By Felicia Kitzmiller, (Spartanburg) Herald Journal.
For Sunday use:
PRISONER PERKS
RIDGEVILLE, S.C. — In his nearly 30 years behind bars, a convicted murderer named Thomas hadn't seen much evidence that the S.C. Department of Corrections was living up to its name. By Doug Pardue And Glenn Smith, The Post and Courier of Charleston.
For Monday use:
CORONER'S ROLE
FLORENCE, S.C. — A coroner's job includes working with dead people, but Keith von Lutcken, Florence County's new coroner, said it's the live ones he's looking forward to working with most. By Traci Bridges, (Florence) Morning News.
TENNESSEE
For Sunday use:
SECRET WORSHIPPERS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Spring Meadows Church of Christ Minister Dale Jenkins is serious about making his Spring Hill church a welcoming place to the community. He's so serious, in fact, that he has employed an inconspicuous method to measure his church's friendliness. By Stephanie Hasbrouck, The Tennessean.
For Monday use:
BONES PROJECT
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Christina Myers pinches a bit of salt dough out of a large metal bowl. She puts the dough on the counter, rolling it out into a log, then pressing small indentations into the ends. By Rachel Bunn, The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
VIRGINIA
For Sunday use:
PEALE MEMOIR
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — From midpoint of the 20th century onward, Norman Vincent Peale was one of the most famous preachers in America. By David A. Maurer, The Daily Progress.
SHIPYARD CRANE
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — It's a Hampton Roads icon, a part of the region's landscape for more than 70 years, instantly recognizable. And it might be coming down. The Navy is weighing what to do with "Hammerhead Crane 110," which has towered over Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth since 1940, where it played a big — very big — part of the yard's World War II effort. By Robert McCabe, The Virginian-Pilot.
For Monday use:
ANTI-SMOKING CAMPAIGN
RICHMOND, Va. — Teenagers participating in Virginia's youth-smoking prevention campaign are sending letters and postcards to the top executives of some major retail and convenience stores asking them to place tobacco-prevention awareness signs in their stores. By John Reid Blackwell, Richmond Times-Dispatch.
ANGLICAN BISHOP
ROANOKE, Va. — Quigg Lawrence was fired from his first job as a pastor. Too conservative, they said. He landed in the Roanoke Valley in the pulpit of a fledgling Episcopal parish, but fought with the diocese over divisive issues such as abortion and homosexuality, and that parish was kicked out of the Episcopal church. It was an inauspicious start for a man of the cloth. By Matt Chittum, The Roanoke Times.
WEST VIRGINIA
For Sunday use:
GRADUATION COACHES
ONA, W.Va. — To know the impact graduation coaches are having at Cabell Midland and Huntington high schools, one only has to look at a Christmas card Becky Runion received. By Bill Rosenberger, The Herald-Dispatch.
OLD OPERA HOUSE
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Back in the day, a printing press used to rumble in the rear of the building at 210 N. George St. Come this summer, it will be the site of pirouetting ballerinas in training. Meet the Old Opera House theater company's newest acquisition — the onetime home of the Spirit of Jefferson. By Rob Snyder, The Spirit of Jefferson and Farmer's Advocate.
For Monday use:
HAWKS NEST-RAFTING
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Field work is planned to begin in May on a study that will investigate whether "family friendly" whitewater rafting and boating is viable on the 5.5-mile long section of New River below Hawks Nest Dam known as "the Dries." By Rick Steelhammer, The Charleston Gazette.
UNCLAIMED PROPERTY
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Treasurer's Office hopes to roll out an innovative system of using municipal utility bill databases to contact people with unclaimed property. By Jared Hunt, Charleston Daily Mail.
The AP
