Alabama

JD Crowe: People are dying in Alabama's ‘ambulance desert’

Published

1 year ago

November 22, 2024

JD Crowe: People are dying in Alabama's ‘ambulance desert’

This is an opinion cartoon.

“In the three weeks since Pickens County dropped down to one ambulance, two women died after waiting an hour for paramedics to arrive.”

That’s the first line of Savannah Tryens-Fernandes’ report on Alabama’s ‘ambulance desert.’

It’s an enlightening report. Read all of it here.

Let’s cut to the chase: Many of Alabama’s rural healthcare issues could be fixed with one stroke of the pen by Gov. Ivey. Expand Medicaid. To include the working poor people of Alabama. Rural Alabama. The places that need at least one more ambulance. Or one more doctor. To save a life. Or two.

Medicaid expansion is frowned upon by Ivey because it’s an Obamacare thing. And because it works. Why not just embrace it and call it yours? That’s how politics works, right?

So, let’s do this: Call it IveyCare. Or TrumpsterCare. What Alabama has now is WeDon’tCare. Maybe we just need NobodyCares.

Medicaid expansion would help cure a lot of ills in this defiant state. If nobody cared who got the credit.

The ‘one ambulance’ problem in Pickens County is a mixed bag of Alabama dysfunction. Read on …

Excerpts from This Alabama county is now down to just one ambulance: ‘It costs lives’

“Pickens County moved to only one ambulance on Oct. 25. The reduction in ambulance service is just the latest in a downward spiral, as rural communities across Alabama watch emergency rooms and hospitals shutter, and as pediatricians, dentists and maternity care have disappeared in over a third of the state’s counties.

“Sullivan McCrory said her team of paramedics has had to triage callers ever since the move to one ambulance. She said it’s not unusual to get two to three calls all within an hour, forcing them to decide where to go based on which call is most life-threatening.

“All I know is people are suffering,” she told AL.com. “What can you do when you have one ambulance in a county with over 19,000 people in it?”

“In 2022, Alabama passed a law deeming emergency medical services and ambulances an essential service, saying “emergency medical services are an essential public service and a part of the health care safety net for many residents of this state.”

“Alabama is one of 37 states to pass such a law. But unlike most other states, Alabama does not require the state government to fund the service.

“U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell represents Pickens County in Washington. Her office said typically the only source of federal funding for those services comes from Medicare reimbursements. She has introduced two bills in the House since 2021 to increase rates for both ambulances and rural hospitals to help them stay operational. But neither bill has received a vote.

“Congresswoman Sewell and our whole team have spent years pushing for congressional action to address these ambulance shortages at the federal level,” said Christopher Kosteva, Sewell’s Communications Director, in a statement to AL.com. “This issue has been exacerbated by the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid, which has put an enormous strain on the resources of rural health care providers.”

“When asked by AL.com if any emergency support could be provided by the state to keep an ambulance running, a spokesperson for Gov. Kay Ivey’s office said “we continue monitoring and are aware of developments in Pickens County, but at this time, you may wish to reach out to local officials.”

Read the whole report right here: This Alabama county is now down to just one ambulance: ‘It costs lives’

True stories and stuff by JD Crowe

The mysterious ‘Bubble Guy’ of Fairhope and the art of bubble Zen – al.com

How I met Dr. Seuss

Robert Plant head-butted me. Thanks, David Coverdale

I was ZZ Top’s drummer for a night and got kidnapped by groupies

Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe

JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @jdcrowe@al.com.

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Alabama

New Alabama football coach Adrian Klemm faces massive task | Goodbread

Published

6 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

New Alabama football coach Adrian Klemm faces massive task | Goodbread

Adrian Klemm, meet the challenge of a career.

Alabama football’s first-year offensive line coach is one of three new faces at Kalen DeBoer’s conference table. And, next year, history says there might be three more. At the major college level, heavy turnover among assistant coaches is business as usual. But make no mistake; Klemm was DeBoer’s most important hire of the offseason. He might well be the most important hire DeBoer has made in his 26 months on the job.

That’s the magnitude of the mess that Alabama’s 2025 offensive line left behind.

The Crimson Tide’s 2025 rushing attack was an insult to the word attack. It was more like a rushing surrender; ranked 123rd out of 134 FBS teams, and 15th of 16 SEC teams, at 104.1 yards per game. Rock bottom came in the SEC Championship Game, when Georgia sent it backward for minus-3 yards. It’s frankly remarkable that quarterback Ty Simpson assembled a 28-5 TD-INT ratio, as a first-year starter no less, with virtually zero help from a ground game. And while we’re on the subject of the passing game, Simpson wasn’t very well-protected, either. At 2.13 sacks allowed per game, UA ranked 90th in the country.

If Klemm even bothered to watch film of last year’s offensive line, he had to do it with one eye closed.

UA tried all sorts of combinations up front, looking for a solution to what was plainly its biggest problem. In 45 years paying attention to college football, I never saw so many substitutions on an offensive line as Alabama made in 2025. Backups got every chance that could have asked for. On one hand, it was understandable that now-fired offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic refused to stay with a failing five all season.

But it also smacked of desperation.

In the end, it was clear that no combination was effective; the first-team unit Kapilovic finally settled on late in the season was the one that got manhandled by Georgia in Atlanta.

It was a shock to the system for Alabama fans, who know what a dominant run game looks like whether they’re young or old. Jam Miller led Alabama with 504 rushing yards on the season; former UA star Derrick Henry once ran for 557 in a three-game stretch against Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State.

Miller, of course, is no Henry. But the gap between those two is no bigger than the gap between Henry’s 2015 offensive line and the disastrous line that took the field a decade later.

Klemm is tasked with turning that mess around in a single offseason, with only one returning part-time starter in sophomore Michael Carroll, a promising cornerstone to be sure. But an offensive line is only as strong as its weakest link, and Klemm must find four links to line up beside Carroll. A collection of returning backups, transfers and incoming freshmen have a lot of improvements to make, along with a strong impression on a new position coach.

With spring practice underway, that process has begun in earnest.

And Klemm faces a taller task than any assistant on the practice field.

Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.

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Alabama

Mother who reported AL toddler missing now faces murder charge

Published

18 hours ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

Mother who reported AL toddler missing now faces murder charge

The mother of an Enterprise toddler, reported missing Feb. 16, has been charged with capital murder, said Police Chief Michael Moore.

Adrienne Reid, mother of Genesis Nova Reid, reported her daughter as missing to authorities and said the two-year-old was not in the home and the door was open. On March 9, she was charged with capital murder of a child under the age of 14 and abuse of a corpse, Moore said. March 9 would have been Genesis’ birthday, he said. Adrienne Reid had previously been charged with filing a false report about her daughter’s disappearance.

She is being held without bond, Moore said. Adrienne Reid could not be reached for comment and court records do not show if she has an attorney.

The case shocked Enterprise and southeast Alabama. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her, and people were asked to wear pink to honor her.

Early on in the investigation neighbors told law enforcement that they hadn’t seen the child for several weeks.

Moore said evidence points to the capital murder charge even though Genesis’ body has not been found. The last time she was seen was Christmas night while visiting family in Dothan, Moore said. Video footage at the apartment complex where they lived showed Adrienne Reid about 11:30 p.m. Christmas night pulling a rolling duffle bag to a dumpster at the complex, and throwing the duffle bag inside, he said.

Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd said his office began the process of planning to search the landfill early in the investigation. The landfill covers 100 acres. He said the area where the contents of the dumpster that allegedly contained Genesis’ body was likely dumped has been narrowed down to an area covering a few hundred feet.

Active searches will begin soon, he said. District Attorney James Tarbox said the state will be seeking the death penalty.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com. To support his work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

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