Incumbent Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle won a decisive victory in yesterday’s election, earning 81% of the vote to challenger Loretta Spencer’s 15%. Jackie Reed finished in third place with 4% of the vote.
Political newcomer Troy Trulock will be the new mayor of Madison, winning 79% of the vote to challenger Don Palmer’s 21%.
In the race for mayor in Decatur, Don Kyle will be in a runoff in an attempt to regain the seat he lost four years ago. WHNT reports Kyle received 45% of the votes, and will face attorney Carl Cole, who received 28%, in the Oct. 9 runoff. Incumbent mayor Don Stanford came in last with about 6% of the vote.
Guntersville voters chose their first female mayor in overwhelming fashion with Leigh Dollar collecting 66.6% of the vote to Councilman Jim Cary's 33.4%, according to unofficial results.
In Athens, Mayor Ronnie Marks was elected to a full term.
Voters in Huntsville approved the renewal of the ad valorem tax to support schools with 69% voting in favor and 31% voting against the tax.
Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman is headed back to the federal prison in Oakdale, LA. Siegelman said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons sent him a letter yesterday saying he would complete his sentence at Oakdale, where he was incarcerated earlier. Siegelman asked during a recent resentencing hearing that he be allowed to complete his sentence close to his home in Birmingham. He expressed concern that Oakdale is a 900-mile round trip for his family to visit. Siegelman has a sentence of six years and six months.
(AP) The gulf is churning large waves and white foam on Alabama's coast and the wind from Isaac is still whistling around buildings. But beachfront walkways and other structures along the shore appear intact. Lights are still on Wednesday morning in Orange Beach and a few cars are traveling the beach road. Louisiana took the brunt of Isaac after the hurricane shifted west and gave Alabama only a glancing blow. Officials in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach are still watching to see whether the heavy surf will deposit oil left by the BP oil spill on gulf beaches. Alabama officials expect some tar balls to be dredged up by Isaac, and they will assess the beaches as the weather improves.
A team of students and scientists from The University of Alabama in Huntsville has its instruments on site in Louisiana, ready to collect data as Hurricane Isaac comes ashore. Teams are on the scene at the airport in Picayune, La., and in a field near the National Weather Service office in Slidell. The seven graduate students and two scientists from UAH's Atmospheric Science Department and the Earth System Science Center want to study how the storm spins down as it moves inland. The goal of this research is to improve the ability to predict severe weather events that spin off from hurricanes.