Stress is everywhere, and it is most apparent in the eyes of today’s teens. In this day and age, it seems that teenagers are more likely to burn out than the average middle-aged adult. With jam-packed schedules, endless homework, part-time jobs and demanding social lives, it is easier than ever for stress to become a dominant force.

Grace Harbor opens its doors to homeless women of St. Clair County on October 1st at Lifeline Village. Upon opening they will be prepared to accommodate 14 women and hope to expand to 18 within six months.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that nationally 1 in 150 children have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Parents whose children are diagnosed with Autism have to alter the way they raise their child.

Thirty-three-year-old Joanna remembers where she was the first time she tried meth. She was in a car behind a grocery store in Moody, it was one in the morning and a friend told her she would like it. “It’s cheaper than pot, they told me. I used to spend a lot of money on weed, I really loved the stuff,” Joanna recalls. “My

Beatrice Green was born and raised in Carrollton, Alabama. The upper window of her hometown’s courthouse bears the ghostly face of Henry Wells, an ex-slave whose image was burned into a window on the top floor by a bolt of lightning in 1876 just before a mob dragged him from the courthouse and hung him for allegedly burning down the previous courthouse.

While we are all accustomed to buying meat at the grocery store, there are still a number of people in St. Clair County that are getting their beef and pork the old fashioned way. Since the 1970s the Dollar family in Odenville has been slaughtering and butchering pigs, cows as well as processing deer for local residents who want meat from around the corner instead of from a large stockyard that could be thousands of miles away.

While many people in the county recycle by giving their used goods to recycling centers so that they may be reused, some are getting more inventive by reusing cooking oil as an additive in their diesel engines in order to save on fuel costs.
Also, in the Montgomery, a group is pushing to get rid of burdensome taxes and rules for residents who want to install solar panels on their home in order to cut the cost of their electric bill.

While Americans are becoming increasingly aware of our impact on the environment, a growing number of ways to limit personal waste are being implemented by area residents.
The traditional means of recycling is giving used goods back to be re-used and there are many places and ways that St. Clair County residents can recycle various items.

After 15 years with the Birmingham Police Department and one year in Iraq, Sergeant Ted Ludvik has called Pell City home for three years. I sat down with him before the ride-along and he covered many different topics. The following are excerpts from the conversation.