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Google to offer gigabit internet, HDTV service in Huntsville, Harper Lee laid to rest

Huntsville city leaders have announced that Google is bringing high-speed fiber optic Internet and television service to the area.

Mayor Tommy Battle and Google representatives and others made the announcement today at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Battle expects faster Internet speeds to boost the local workforce and help provide more opportunities for residents to work from home.

Huntsville Business Relations Officer Hunter Diamond says gigabit Internet service is also expected to help lure entrepreneurs to the city.

Google Fiber Expansion Director Jill Szuchmacher says it's too early to estimate monthly service costs for Huntsville.

Alabama’s moment in the Presidential primary limelight is coming up during Super Tuesday on March first.

As Alabama voters line up to cast their ballots, the internet finance site WalletHub did a study to see how average voters here resemble the average voter in the rest of the country. Alabama doesn’t seem to match up to well with the nation’s ideals. Alabama came in with the fourth lowest in the ranking.

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez says findings from the study were all over the board.

“The state that most represented the U.S. as a whole was Illinois. Then it jumped around from Florida, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and those are all in the top five. There’s no clear trend there. You see a couple more Midwestern states. There’s one from the East and one from the West. There’s one from down South. So, there are really no clear trends here.”

Socio-demographics, economy, education, religion and public opinion comprised the study. West Virginia, Mississippi and Vermont rounded out the bottom of the rankings.

The writer of the classic “To Kill A Mockingbird” was laid to rest over the weekend.

Pulitzer Prize winner Harper Lee died last week at the age of eighty nine. About a dozen friends and family members attended the Saturday funeral with Monroeville police officers standing outside to keep away onlookers. Lee lived out her days quietly in her hometown which was fictionalized as the community of Maycomb in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg teaches at the University of Alabama. He says it’s tough to explain the impact of that book…

Not just for people who love to read. But, to young people, and to kids who are assigned to read that book in school, as maybe a way to see into our culture, and see into our culture, and see beyond the meanness and the small-mindedness.”

Lee followed up her classic with the novel “Go Set A Watchman.” The book generated controversy by portraying hero Atticus Finch as a racist. 

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