What did they do?

Yeah, they signed off on it.

Unanimous vote today.

There were several amendments that passed through with 6-1 votes.

Councilman Reynolds voting against them.

And the biggest of those, obviously, was putting back that $400,000 for the Port City Classic, an HBCU game.

That's in addition to the Gulf Coast Classic expenditure of around $600,000.

Did you know that? Did you hear that?

Yeah.

So, uh, yeah, I think there was, um ...

You know, most construction projects, I don't want to say most.

I, I don't know if that's accurate or not, but, you know, the ...

You, you will say that there's some skepticism that a construction project gonna finish directly on time without an issue in a area that's, you know, um, prone to a rainy season.

So, uh, that's kind of what we're f- looking at here.

There's been some rains that kind of delayed, uh, some of the construction activity.

Yeah, that's for sure.

Very early, yeah.

So, uh, yeah, I think that was, um, you know, most construction projects, I don't want to say most, uh, I don't know if that's accurate or not, but, you know, the ...

You, you will say there's some skepticism that a construction project gonna finish directly on time without an issue in an area that's, you know, um, prone to a rainy season.

So, uh, that's kind of what we're looking at here.

There's been some rains that kind of delayed, uh, some of the construction activity.

Now, the mayor's administration will come out and say, you know, "This, this project is not behind schedule when you factor in some of the rain delays that have popped up apparently in the month of May and in June." But, um, um, be that as it may, it's not gonna be finished in time for Mardi Gras.

And even...

Yeah, that's for sure.

This isn't much, but it's still $100,000.

Yeah, that's correct.

And, you know, in this state, anytime there is some sort of gaming related entity that provides to a campaign, especially for a campaign for governor, you take notice.

There's been a couple of, you know, there was a casino operator out of Florida.

It has ties to the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.

He provided $10,000, again, a tiny amount compared to what Coverville's been raising.

But still, you're like, well, wait a minute here.

Yeah,

What did the mayor say?

Yeah, so yesterday, kind of frame up this discussion, the mayor, uh, invited some of the media over to his office and discussed the budget, and one of the things that came out of this, which actually is not in the budget, I've come to find out, uh, but is, you know, there was a discussion about the public safety budget, and the mayor said, "You know, we're in discussions right now, and we, we're trying to shape, you know, figure out what this may look like, but we're in discussions right now about, uh, potentially providing some assistance or, or..." I, there, the way he classified it is very preliminary dis- uh, preliminary discussions as far as putting a armed or a, or a uniformed, uh, police officer in every, uh, one of the Mobile County Public Schools that are within the city of Mobile.

So the city of Mobile would have some skin in this game in partnership with the Mobile County Public School system.

Now, getting comments from both the mayor and then from the school system yesterday, uh, clearly, it clearly indicates that, you know, they're really kind of in the early stages of these discussions, but there is this interest, and when you have two government agencies now together on this issue, um, it, it's kind of moving forward.

Um, where we're at right now is about three years ago or four years ago, the Mobile County Sheriff's Department, in conjunction with the public school system, um, assigned about a dozen deputies into the high schools and, and, and, and they would work that particular high school feeder pattern, which would be the elementary schools, the middle schools within that high school system.

And, uh, so they're, that's currently in place right now.

We have about a- Anywhere from 12 to 13, um, officers or sheriff deputies that are assigned to the feeder systems.

But yeah, you write here, "For 14 years, Mobile County Commission President Connie Hudson has championed her vision of a major soccer complex in Mobile County, one that someday could attract championship tournaments from across the region." People think, "Well, we already got the complex there," but there, wait, there's more, right?

So can you tell me about the stage move into the domestic market from the regional market, and how that sort of happened?

Well, Re- Rex was a regional airline operator, which meant we operated small turboprop aircraft, you know, with propellers on them and turbine engines in them, driving all of that.

So they're usually 30, uh, 34-seat aircraft, SARBs, and we operated to regional centers, but we obviously flew into the major capital cities, Melbourne, Sydney, you know, Brisbane, Adelaide, so on, uh, Perth.

And, um, and when COVID struck, you may recall Virgin collapsed.

It went broke.

It went into administration, and they actually stopped flying, and, uh, that left only Qantas as a domestic airline operator.

Domestic airline operator means that you're flying aircraft within Australia, and you're not doing regional, you're not necessarily focused on regional routes.

What's the best bit of advice you've ever gotten?

And Shamari figures.

Yeah, that's correct.

He does not face an opponent today, a primary opponent.

So he will be moving on to the general election.

He will be facing the winner of a somewhat crowded Republican primary running in a newly drawn district, I guess.

It includes Montgomery and, I guess, Montgomery, eastern, southeastern Alabama, or, yeah, southeastern Alabama into the wiregrass.

And so you have a pretty big district there.

I don't think it's going to happen, but what would happen if... figures one in the general what would that do the argument right that uh the so you go back to generally what two was and then if he would win what that does to the argument the plaintiffs had bought brought in the first place of the case

You got to replace it or something.

Well, the concern is also with, you know, the ability to withstand future storms.

And I think that's one of the big concerns with the existing Bailey.

That's why they wanted it elevated and fortified and ready to go for whatever may embark in the future.

And there are certain federal standards for that as well.

There is something called the AASHTO standards.

That's an acronym.

I'm not seeing that now.

John, what is the latest today's episode of As the Orange Beach Turns? What's happening?

Well, today's episode is based on last night's city council meeting.

And, you know, interestingly, the council meeting the first half hour of the meeting was without incident.

It was a well-run meeting.

They were handling the business of the day.

There was no sniping or griping or anything going on.

It was when that moment came to open up the mic for the public, that's when some folks got up to the mic and then all of a sudden accusations based on things that have popped up over on Facebook started coming up.

what the ethics complaint's about, right?

What's happening?

Well, the Orange Beach City Council called a special meeting for today.

They voted on, apparently there was a deadline they were running up on to make a decision on what they wanted to do, whether or not they wanted to pursue a purchase of the beach RV.

It's a mobile school.

like a RV park that's right across the highway from Orange Beach city council or Orange Beach city offices.

And they were given the option of whether or not they wanted to purchase this.

In order to do that, the first step would be get an appraisal of this property.

But is there a political thing at play with somebody? At that level?

It's Monday.

Well, I'd like to lead in my story.

You know, Father's Day was, I mean, we went, I went out to dinner with my family to the causeway.

And didn't even think of the mosquitoes.

You just walk right in.

We're standing around enjoying the outdoors.

Didn't think of mosquitoes at all.

They're just saying, okay, we're making that buy now.

It's been teased for a while that we'll find out the hockey team name, right? What's it going to be?

Well, it could be kind of, you know, I'm pretty sure.

If I was guessing, nobody's really want to put the cat out of the bag officially, but it seems like when we look at the trademarks and the trademark application and then, you know, the little hint that was sent out.

last week on social media, all indications that we're looking at potentially the Mystics revival of that brand.

And, you know, it's interesting.

This is not unusual in professional sports, in minor league sports and in major league.

You know, we think of the Cleveland Browns, for instance.

I think the name is, I think it's pretty strong, pretty strong pull.

Right.

Uh, for, for those who aren't familiar with Gamergate, it was, um, a moment in which a woman game designer was accused of having slept with a games journalist to get positive reviews that basically erupted into this giant moment of, um, toxic male behavior on the internet under the guise of, you know, truth and accuracy in journalism.

But really, it was just a bunch of misogyny and a bunch of people worried that, uh, girls were coming to take their, um, guns and whatnot away from them.

You know, it should be stated anytime Gamergate is talked about, the, um, that journalist never wrote about that woman's games, and yet somehow that became this, like, centrifuge through which a bunch of horribleness happened.

I bring this up because I, for me, I was very much at the time wanting to help bring about change, and still I want, I want to see a different game industry.

I want to see a different culture of game appreciation and games criticism.

And so I think while we did not get all, um, Marxist in the book, I think there's still a very heavy undercurrent of progressive values of, you know-

Mm