Russel Lanier, the son of the late Russel D’Lyon Lanier Jr. and Eleanor Gaines Boykin Lanier and the self-described “Barbecue Man from Alabam’,” died from esophageal cancer in a Birmingham hospital January 11. He was 57.

Lanier was famous in the Alabama barbecue business for his Ol’ Hickory barbecue restaurant in Talladega.

I got to know Lanier on the Southside of Birmingham in the 1980s through his brother, James B. “Jimmy” Lanier, who worked in production for The Crimson White newspaper at the University of Alabama the same time I did in the early 1980s, Bear Bryant’s final two years.

Russel was an avid University of Alabama football fan.

“Russel fought a long, hard fight against cancer and never complained,” Jimmy said.

Russel was partial to the Benjamin Franklin quote, “Those who give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

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The Conservation Alabama Foundation has served notice of an intent to sue the Demopolis Water Works and Sewer Board for violations of the Clean Water Act and its water pollution permit for taking the liquid waste from the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, which has made national news lately for the controversy over taking millions of tons of toxic TVA coal ash from the cleanup site in Kingston, Tennessee.

To see the filing, hit this link to the PDF file.

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Brooks Boliek

The scene of the blizzard in Takoma Park, Maryland, just north of DC

Snow, wind and slush hounded eastern commuters Wednesday as blizzard warnings from Baltimore to New York City heralded the second major storm in a region already blanketed by historic weekend snowfalls. More than 10 inches of new snow fell before dawn in parts of Maryland that had received up to 30 inches just a few days earlier. Plows and salt spreaders fought heavy snow in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the flakes briefly turned to rain to make a slushy mix, according to the AP.

Click here to view a slide show of Snowmageddon I