MONTGOMERY - Marion County’s unemployment rate was marked at 4.6 percent in February, according to Alabama Department of Labor Secretary Fitzgerald Washington, six points lower than January’s rate of 5.1 percent.
Meanwhile, the State of Alabama’s unemployment rate continues to break records as it has now decreased to the lowest recorded rate on record, 3.7 percent—one point lower than January’s 3.8 percent, which also set the record.

WINFIELD - Great first impressions are hard to make, but the City of Winfield succeeded grandly last week when the Alabama Speaker of the  House, Mac McCutcheon, came to town.
McCutcheon, along with District 17 Rep. Tracy Estes, met with local leaders at a Winfield Chamber of Commerce meeting to discuss issues affecting the town.
“I really enjoyed the event, McCutcheon said. “It was good to sit down and meet with local leaders as well as leaders in the business community.”

 MONTGOMERY -  Winfield resident Gail Spann, the mother of Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann, appeared on the floor of the Alabama State House on Thursday, March 21, to express her opposition to the early release of Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh.
Lindh was a prisoner at the Qali-I-Jangi fortress where Micheal Spann was killed on Nov. 21, 2001, after a prison uprising.
Spann was the first American killed in combat after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

GUIN - The Guin City Council voted to do away with cumulative voting as the method of electing council members at the council’s Monday, March 18, meeting.
Cumulative voting is a form of voting that allows each voter to cast multiple votes for one candidate. The method allows for a low population of racial minorities in a certain district the chance to gain representation on a governmental board or council.  

MONTGOMERY - The state Senate has voted 23-7 to repeal Common Core Standards from public school curriculums.
Common Core, also known in Alabama as Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards, is a set of academic standards for English and math adopted by 41 states.
Both Marion County senators, District 4 Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, and District 6 Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, voted in favor of the repeal, also known as Senate Bill 119.

HAMILTON -  Rita Robertson Gilmore, 70, will be retiring after 51 years as a cosmetologist in Northwest Alabama.
“I’m looking forward to (retirement), I haven’t had a Saturday off in a long time. I’ve really enjoyed serving the people here, now it’s time to hang it all up,” said Gilmore.
She expressed that her favorite thing about working in cosmetology was the opportunity to better the self-esteem of her clients, one of which was Willa Dean Spratlin of Detroit, who has been a loyal client of Gilmore’s for over 50 years.

WINFIELD - The Winfield City Council moved to table a vote on a resolution that would cap the towing and storage fees for towing companies on the city’s rotation wrecker service at its March 19 meeting.
At the March 5, meeting the council voted to allow city attorney Todd Atkinson to draft the resolution that would cap the fees. The resolution would cap the towing fee at $150 and the storage fee at $35 per day.

HAMILTON -  The Alabama Association of Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) council  gathered for its quaterly meeting to provide the annual report for 2018 on Thursday, March 21, at Oh! Bryan’s Family Steakhouse in Hamilton.
Hamilton Mayor Bob Page was present at the meeting, along with several other local officials from Marion County.

HAMILTON - The recently-passed 10-cent statewide gas tax increase will increase the City of Hamilton’s gas tax allocation for city streets by an estimated $60,000 dollars.
House District 17 Rep. Tracy Estes, R-Winfield, was in attendance during the Hamilton City Council’s meeting on Monday, March 18, and answered questions concerning the tax increase, named the Rebuild Alabama Act.

HAMILTON - The Pride of Hamilton Aggie Band will be hosting its first-ever car and bike show fundraising event.
The Hamilton High School Band’s Inaugural Car Show and Motorcycle Exhibition will take place rain or shine on Saturday, April 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the band’s practice field in front of Hamilton Middle School and will be open to all cars, trucks and motorcycles.
From noon to 1 p.m., a barbecue lunch will be available in the Hamilton High School cafeteria and will cost $8 per person.

HAMILTON -  The Marion County Extension Office will be holding parenting classes once every week throughout the month of April.
The classes will be held on Tuesdays, April 9, 16, 23 and 30, beginning at 1:30 p.m.

These classes will set out to teach parents and guardians how to create a healthy environment and relationship for the children under their care.

HAMILTON  - The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released updated star ratings, and North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC)-Hamilton received a five-star rating.
The ratings are a composite metric of one to five stars, with five being the best. They intend to convey the overall quality of nearly 4,000 hospitals in the U.S. and are posted to the CMS Hospital Compare site.

MONTGOMERY - Gov. Kay Ivey has awarded more than $260,000 to five agencies in north Alabama to continue efforts against domestic abuse and sexual violence.

TUSCALOOSA- West Alabama Works (WAW) has received a grant of $1,459,335 from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).
This grant is a part of ARC’s $22.8 million to expand and diversify the economy of coal-impacted communities in nine Appalachian states.
In partnership with the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, WAW will use the grant to deliver training and employment opportunities to coal-impacted communities such as Bibb, Fayette, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Shelby, Tuscaloosa and Walker counties.

HAMILTON - Nights will be brighter in the City of Hamilton.
The Hamilton City Council unanimously voted during its meeting on Monday, March 18, to move forward on a project with Alabama Power which will replace all 661 of its city street lights with LED bulbs.
The city’s power bill, which currently averages roughly $6,900 per month, will increase by $108, or about $1,300 annually, to pay for the lights and installation.

BAKU, Azerbaijan - Ramp pastors Samuel Bentley and Micah Wood, both of Hamilton, were two of 12 U.S. evangelical pastors who traveled to the country of Azerbaijan as guests of its president.
Azerbaijan is a predominately Shi’ite Muslim country on the Caspian Sea, located north of Iran and south of Russia. It is one of the few Muslim nations to maintain cooperational ties with Israel.

HAMILTON - Miss Hamilton Lauren Reaves and the Hamilton Fire Department have partnered together  to provide a special class to train public safety workers on how to communicate with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).