Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce

The four astronauts of NASA‘s Artemis-2 mission are getting used to life on Earth again. The crew splashed down in the Pacific after their flyby of the Moon. The astronauts took photos of the lunar surface, including one spot called the Ocean of Storms. One astronaut from Mobile was supposed to get a lot closer than that. Clifton Williams was meant to land there during Apollo 12 in 1969.

A south Alabama woman who took part in a No Kings rally in Fairhope last October has been found not guilty following an scuffle with police. A jubilant Renea Gamble emerged from the court room, raising her arms in victory and with a message for her supporters.

Recent employment reports may indicate a mixed labor market – but there are jobs aplenty in Alabama. The office of Governor Kay Ivey says 2025 was a record breaking year for economic development with more than nine thousand new jobs on the horizon. We’re not talking about just any jobs, but ones that require an educated workforce. Baldwin County is home to a career tech public high school that’s helping meet the demand.

As of this week, both the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort were at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, according to publicly available ship tracking data. The Comfort arrived at the shipyard in the southern state on Jan. 23 and is expected to remain there through April, according to the government contract for the work.

The clash over freedom to read is playing out on the Gulf coast with both sides thinking they’re right. Members of the Fairhope Library Board agreed to stand their ground over books deemed too adult for younger readers. The city’s public library lost its state funding last month when the Alabama Public Library Service board voted to deny funding over books it says don’t belong in the library’s teen section. It was the agency’s first such denial over book placement.

The Baldwin County Commission voted Tuesday to terminate the current agreement with area libraries tying courier service to state funds. The libraries have signed new contracts without the funding requirement. The move comes after Fairhope and its residents lost access to the courier when the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) denied state funding to the Fairhope library last month. The two sides disagreed over 10 young adult books the state board says meets its definition of sexually explicit.

Philip Rivers interviewed with the Buffalo Bills for their head coaching job on Friday, the latest twist in a busy couple of months for one of the most prolific passers in NFL history. The 44-year-old Rivers has no previous NFL coaching experience, having worked since his initial retirement from the league as a high school coach in his native Alabama.

A historic ocean liner will become the world’s largest artificial reef after it's sunk off Florida’s Gulf Coast early next year. Okaloosa County officials announced Tuesday that they expect to sink the SS United States in early 2026 about 22 nautical miles (41 kilometers) southwest of Destin and 32 nautical miles (59 kilometers) southeast of Pensacola.

An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant work forces.

After coming in second in August’s general election, former judge Spiro Cheriogotis narrowly defeated opponent State Rep. Barbara Drummond in the runoff to become Mobile’s 109th mayor.