We’re going to try again this morning to open the comments up for business. It’s obvious we are being spied on by the Bush administration, filtered by the Internet service providers in collusion with the Bush administration and spammed by their paid hacks to try and put the number one true voice for news in Alabama out of business. Don’t let them succeed. Keep coming back.

That’s it folks. Shutting down for the night…

The spam finally stopped and the server is running fine again, it seems, so we opened the comments function back up. Sorry, again, for the trouble. Just in case, we will most likely turn it off again at some point tonight to prevent spam comments from being published while we sleep.

Meanwhile, that crazy early March storm is on the way…

Due to the Karl Rove and Jenna Bush spamming operation out of Paraguay and Texas, we are temporarily shutting down the comments section for approved commenters only. We hope to get this situation under control and fixed as soon as our AWOL programmer gets to the bottom of this and shuts it down. Sorry in advance for the trouble.

There will also be thunderstorms moving through the area later today and tonight, so there’s a good chance the Alabama Power “Always On” campaign will be proved wrong again and we will likely lose our Net connection at least temporarily later today or into the evening. So if you try go get to this site later and the link doesn’t work, it could be the spammers, the downed power or the lost Net connection here. Just warning you in advance.

Meanwhile, for all the newbies here, notice the three types of blog posts below. The first is an opinion column, the second is a breaking news story and the third is simply a blog post with a few funny comments with links to other stories. We also do investigative reports and news features as well as feature photography. I hope this helps people new to the Web understand what a blog is all about.

As always, we are chasing the world headlines over on the Locust Fork World News page. When we get in the mood to write, it will be right here…

A THOUSAND LIVES A MONTH ? – A renowned researcher estimates that 22,000 patients could have been saved if the Food and Drug Administration removed the heart surgery drug Trasylol two years ago, when his study revealed widespread death associated with it. Scott Pelley reports. Solly Granatstein is the producer.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS – Little Denmark, with its five-and-a-half million people, is the happiest country in the world, says a study done by an English University. Morley Safer reports why the Danes are so happy and explores why the U.S. is way down the list. Deirdre Naphin is the producer.

No sign of the Siegelman story this week…

We apologize to our regular readers – and all the new readers who have discovered this groundbreaking site of late – for the occasional server outages at LocustFork.Net.

It’s obvious we are scaring some people in Washington, Montgomery and Texas – along with some fascists over at Southern Company, AT and T and the Newhouse empire.

Some assholes will stop at nothing to silent a strong voice for change and alternative voices to the traditional, corporate press. Our programmer in Homewood is working hard to keep the corrupt spammers at bay. Please bear with us as we fight the real evil doers in the world.

Underground Lines 

Meanwhile, perhaps this would be a good time to bring up one of the pet peeves I’ve harbored for years. We need to find a way to push the power, phone and cable companies to put all of their lines underground. The water, sewer and gas lines are already underground, so there’s a utility corridor in place along every right-of-way.

The power company is the most resistant to this. They don’t like the idea of having to dig a hole to fix their lines. They would rather climb a pole. I have watched and covered this fight for years.

Back in the late 1980s, I was in on a big meeting with company and government officials after there was a push by citizens and the local press (me) to get the power, phone and cable lines placed underground along the beach. Not only is it ugly to have all those poles and lines ruin the view. Every time a storm or a hurricane comes ashore, the first thing to go down are the power lines. Now that includes Internet access for millions of people along the cable and phone lines.

The power companies object to underground lines due to the capital investment expense and for a perceived safety risk. But we have the technology now to alleviate that risk and even make it easier to diagnose problems when they occur on the underground lines. There are many communities in this country where this battle has been fought and won, mostly out West. It’s just not been pushed by citizens or government officials in many areas under the control of Southern Company.

Super Bowl Sunday

I am on the road today and not able to send e-mail, since the stupid Charter.Net Web mail system sux. But I am thinking now about a Super Bowl Sunday column having to do with Tom Petty, who will be playing the half-time show, and his fight with George W. Bush back in 2000 over the use of his song with the line, “I won’t back down.” Check back in a little while and hopefully we’ll get these server issues delt with soon.

We are still tweaking the Locust Fork News and Journal re-design, but most of the preferences are set to hopefully make your viewing experience the best on the Web.

Notice the blog ad strip is now on the left hand side of the page, as much to please search engine and advertising programmers as readers. And notice we are now running a special on blog ads for a limited time only. Alabama attorney Clay Ragsdale is now a full-time sponsor of this site.

Mr. Ragsdale’s practice focuses in the areas of environmental litigation, personal injury and wrongful death, securities fraud, class action work and the representation of individuals and businesses in all types of litigation.

Mr. Ragsdale is a lifelong resident of Birmingham, Alabama. After graduation from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1982, Mr. Ragsdale began his practice of law doing trial work for a mid-size litigation firm, Starnes and Atchison. In 1992 he formed his own practice to concentrate on the representation of individuals and small businesses. In the 14 years since, Mr. Ragsdale has handled cases for hundreds of clients ranging from civil rights violations to products liability and personal injury of all types, class actions for securities fraud, environment torts, securities fraud, consumer fraud, and taxpayer issues, and has represented small businesses in insurance claims, anti-trust suits, business interference and other torts.

Mr. Ragsdale’s 23 years of litigation in Alabama state and federal courts has allowed him to develop experience in a wide range of types of law. For more information, click on the blog ad on the left.

If you and your company or organization would like to help support ground breaking investigative journalism and up to the minute news updates on this independent Web Press, and you need technical help figuring out how, contact us today at (205) 960-3639.

Pardon our progress, but at long last, the Locust Fork News and Journal redesign is up.

We are still working on some things and figuring out how to manage this new interface, but right away you will notice some changes – and we trust improvements – to the site.

For starters, the news page is now the main domain site page at LocustFork.Net. After almost three years of experimentation, it is now obvious that this page is the most popular page on the site, in part since it combines a fast and tasteful news layout with the blog interface like no one else on the Web.

You will need to update your favorites, bookmarks or your homepage link in your Web browser if you use the Locust Fork World News as your start page. We will continue updating the locustfork.net/news page briefly to allow everyone to get changed over, but at some point in the next few days, that page will no longer be updated.

As for the Locust Fork Journal, we have finally abandoned the Moveable Type software that was the hottest and best thing going three years ago, and moved into Word Press, we think the best blog software on the market right now. This will be good news to anyone who has had problems making comments in the past. We hope the comment section is now way easier to use and we look forward to reading and responding to your comments.

We still reserve the right to delete anonymous and/or offensive comments and ban commenters who abuse this site to push a personal or political agenda. We are far more interested in constructive dialogue than flame throwing. As entertaining as that might seem to some folks, it’s not our cup of tea.

We are also about to be THE FIRST independent news and blog Website in Alabama and perhaps the American South to be sponsored on a full-time, year-around basis by local advertisers. While we have been a profitable news company from the outset and pioneered both the format of news sites and the funding mechanism behind it, these changes we are announcing today will help us continue this pioneering Web Press venture into the coming months and years. And it will help provide the resources to do ground breaking investigative journalism as well as entertaining literary news features with high quality digital photography.

If you have thoughts or comments on the redesign, give our new comment section a try…

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is now accepting nominees via e-mail until Jan. 1 for the 2008 Electronic Pioneer Awards, established to recognize leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology.

This is your opportunity to nominate a deserving individual or group to receive a Pioneer Award for 2008.

The International Pioneer Awards nominations are open both to individuals and organizations from any country. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of the technical, legal, and social issues associated with information technology.

How to Nominate Someone for a 2008 Pioneer Award:

You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one email per nomination. Please submit your entries via email to pioneer@eff.org. We will accept nominations until January 1, 2008.

Provide this information in the e-mail:

1. The name of the nominee,
2. The phone number or email address or website by which the nominee can be reached, and, most importantly,
3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award.

Nominee Criteria:

There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the following guidelines apply.

1. The nominees must have contributed substantially to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications.

2. To be valid, all nominations must contain your reason, however brief, for nominating the individual or organization and a means of contacting the nominee. In addition, while anonymous nominations will be accepted, ideally we’d like to contact the nominating parties in case we need further information.

3. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.

4. Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors.

5. Nominations are open to all (other than current members of EFF’s staff and operating board or this year’s award judges), and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may also nominate yourself or your organization.

6. Persons or representatives of organizations receiving an EFF Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony in San Francisco at EFF’s expense.

More on the EFF Pioneer Awards