The return of Saturn
Here is what you need to know about the Saturn rocket [https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2025/05/us-space-rocket-center-likely-to-oversee-construction-of-new-welcome-center-rocket.html?e=4da776d31d8b542a854861e72892b86b] at the state line. This news station has a fantastic video segment [https://www.waaytv.com/news/alabama/how-alabamas-saturn-ib-rest-stop-rocket-ended-up-on-the-scrap-heap-and-where/article_c2518b96-84c3-11ee-81c6-37f3487613e5.html] on it, too. The short version is: Yay! It might be back!
The previous rocket, developed at Huntsville’s Marshall Space Flight Center, had been in place at the rest stop since about 1979 before it was dismantled in 2023. There was a months-long effort to save the deteriorating rocket, but NASA and the rocket center said that after four decades of being exposed to the elements, the rocket was in no condition to be preserved and the cost would be prohibitive. The Saturn IB was smaller than the Saturn V rocket, which carried men to the moon in the Apollo program, which is on display inside the rocket center. A rocket center report from 2022 described the IB rocket as an “overlooked workhorse of the Apollo program.” Among its tasks was sending crews to Skylab.
Here are some reasons why [https://taxfoundation.org/blog/state-overtime-tax-no-tax-on-tips-proposals/] tax experts say it’s a bad idea not to tax overtime, if you want to join the Killjoy Party. Like this bunch [https://www.al.com/politics/2025/05/alabama-workers-slapped-in-the-face-with-expiration-of-overtime-pay-tax-cut-op-ed.html] of state Republicans, I guess, who prefer giving tax breaks to corporations [https://alabamareflector.com/2025/03/31/alabama-house-democrats-support-making-overtime-tax-break-permanent/].
The story of the man who shot George Wallace is here [https://www.al.com/news/2025/05/man-who-shot-george-wallace-ends-his-sentence-on-anniversary-of-assassination-attempt.html?e=4da776d31d8b542a854861e72892b86b]. I also mention having been at a talk in Huntsville by former Attorney General Bill Baxley [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Baxley], who successfully prosecuted the men behind the 16th Street Baptist Church. Here’s a snippet (asterisks are mine) from Wikipedia:
Baxley reopened the cold case of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing]. In a letter, the Ku Klux Klan threatened him, comparing him to John F. Kennedy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy], and called him an “honorary n****r.” Baxley responded, on official state letterhead: “My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is—kiss my ass.”[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Baxley#cite_note-2][3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Baxley#cite_note-3][4] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Baxley#cite_note-4]
Taylor surprised me with the story of Wallace’s wife, Lurleen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurleen_Wallace], who was governor of Alabama in 1967-68. She ran at her husband’s request, and as “Mrs. George C. Wallace” to boot, because at the time the constitution of Alabama outlawed consecutive terms for governors. Wikipedia says this:
Wallace's most notable independent action as governor was increasing appropriations for the Bryce Hospital [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_Hospital] and the Partlow State School [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partlow_State_School], a residential institution for the developmentally disabled. She visited both institutions in Tuscaloosa on her own initiative in February 1967 after reading a news story about overcrowding and poor staffing, and was horrified by the filthy, barracks-like settings.[19] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurleen_Wallace#cite_note-Carter-19] She also obtained a large funding increase for Alabama state parks [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alabama_state_parks].[21] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurleen_Wallace#cite_note-21]
The story of Alys Robi, the Quebec City singer who had a lobotomy performed on her against her will in the late 1940s, is available in English here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alys_Robi]. Below, in 1992, she performed some of the songs that made her famous.
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