2 | LAGNIAPPE | June 4, 2015 - June 10, 2015 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• LAGNIAPPE WEEKLY JUNE 4, 2015 – J UNE 10, 2015 | www.lagniappemobile.com Ashley Trice BAY BRIEFS Co-publisher/Editor Airport Boulevard traffic could [email protected] benefit from the city’s investment in Rob Holbert new signal technology. Co-publisher/Managing Editor 5 [email protected] COMMENTARY Steve Hall Marketing/Sales Director State legislators chicken out over a local [email protected] bill allowing free publications to accept Gabriel Tynes legal notices. Assistant Managing Editor 12 [email protected] Dale Liesch BUSINESS Reporter Providence Hospital was recently [email protected] ranked as “high performing” in heart Jason Johnson failure care by U.S. News & World Reporter 16 [email protected] Report. Eric Mann Reporter CUISINE [email protected] Head down to the Kevin Lee CONTENTS DIP for tasty blue Associate Editor/Arts Editor collar fare from Uncle [email protected] Jimmy’s Delicious Hot Andy MacDonald Cuisine Editor Dogs. [email protected] Stephen Centanni Music Editor [email protected] J. Mark Bryant Sports Writer 18 [email protected] 18 Stephanie Poe Copy Editor COVER Daniel Anderson Mobile County License Chief Photographer Commissioner Kim Hastie [email protected] is mired in a criminal trial Laura Rasmussen alleging she abused her 24 Art Director office for personal and 24 www.laurarasmussen.com political gain. The jury Brooke Mathis Advertising Sales Executive has a number of counts [email protected] to consider, but must Beth Williams weigh the allegations Advertising Sales Executive of two very different [email protected] narratives. Misty Groh Advertising Sales Executive [email protected] ARTS Kelly Woods USA’s Makalani Theatre Ensemble Advertising Sales Executive returns with a larger cast for a [email protected] production of “Art” through June 7. Melissa Schwarz 26 Editorial Assistant [email protected] MUSIC Mary Burts Distribution Manager The Vomit Spots, one [email protected] of Mobile’s most Contributors: memorable ‘90s Asia Frey • Brian Holbert Tommy Hicks • Ron Sivak bands, is heaving Jeff Poor • Jennifer McDonald back on the scene On the Cover: Hastie at Trial for its annual reunion by Dan Anderson show. LAGNIAPPE (USPS 20) is published weekly, 52 issues a year, Volume 13, Issue 23, every Thursday by Something, Extra Publishing, Inc. Entered at the Mobile Post Office, 250 St. Joseph St, Mobile, AL, 36601. Periodicals postage paid at Mobile Post Office, 30 250 St Joseph St., Mobile, AL 36601 30 and other locations. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 3003 Mobile, AL 36652. FILM Editorial, advertising and production offices are located at 1102A Dauphin St. In “Welcome to Me,” Kristen Wiig Mobile, AL 36604. Mailing address is P.O. Box 3003 Mobile, AL 36652. Phone: 251.450.4466 Fax 251.450.4498. Email: ashley- shines as a mentally unbalanced [email protected] or [email protected] lottery winner with a bizarre talk show. LAGNIAPPE is printed at Signature Offset, 2610 36 Lakeview Road, Hattiesburg, Mississippi. All letters sent to Lagniappe are considered to be intended for publication. Member: Association of Alternative Newsweek- MEDIA lies and Alternative Weeklies Network All rights reserved. Something Extra Publishing, Lagniappe’s readership is soaring, Inc. Nothing may be reprinted, photocopied or in any way reproduced without the expressed according to a new report from permission of the publishers. Individuals may take one copy of the paper free Scarborough media insights. of charge from area businesses, 40 racks or boxes. After that, papers are $3 per issue. Removal of more than one copy from these points constitutes theft. Violators are subject to prosecution. SPORTS Help support Lagniappe Weekly by Snap to it: applications are currently becoming a “Friend with Benefits.” being accepted for the 2015 alligator Scan this code for more info: 42 hunting season. STYLE Music festivals bring an interesting cast of characters to downtown 44 Mobile. June 4, 2015 - June 10, 2015| LAGNIAPPE | 3 GOIN G POSTAL COUNTERPOINT: Public notice law The facts about oil risks outdated “There is simply no basis in science or fact to re- contaminated. Imagine three million gallons of oil up the spill” before Hurricane Lee paid its visit. What is so dangerous about quire a bigger setback (for above ground oil storage floating down the Mobile River and into Mobile (MPR, Sept. 3, 2011) tanks) from a safety perspective.” Thus wrote Steve Bay. How long would we it be before we were able Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons reported House Bill 102 that it can’t even Gordon, a representative of a “nonprofit” organiza- to fish, crab, or boat in the bay again? The fisheries that 42,000 gallons had spilled from the tank. be discussed? A century ago it tion formed by industry to provide tax write offs for in Prince William Sound have never recovered. The Coast Guard estimated the spill at more than might have been necessary for a the purpose of lobbying governmental organizations The U.S. Coast Guard released the following 275,000 gallons. The company declined to com- newspaper to have a U. S. Postal and “educating” the public (“Fixed petroleum tank statistics after hurricanes Rita and Katrina: ment. Under estimating an oil spill is commonplace permit, because households setbacks a competitive disadvantage” Lagniappe, 3.78 million gallons of oil were released into as we know from experience with the BP disaster were so spread out that it was May 14, 2015). Let me share a few facts that might Cox Bay from damaged storage tanks at Bass here and the recent spill by Plains All America in impractical to deliver the papers shed a different light on his position. Enterprises Production Company in Louisiana, and California. any other way. No publisher has In the professional Journal of Loss Prevention another 460,000 gallons spilled from its facility In fact, it would seem to be the very nature of oil delivered newspapers by mail in the Process Industries (Vol. 19, Issue 1, January in Point La Hache; 44 separate oil spills resulted companies to misrepresent the truth, even to each in our lifetime. It probably goes 2006) Drs. James Chang and Cheng-Chung Lin in Louisiana alone from tanks belonging to Shell, other. Remember the Gulf Coast Asphalt explo- back to the days when Benjamin reviewed 242 accidents storage tank accidents and Chevron, Murphy Oil, Sundown Energy, Venice sion that rocked Midtown after midnight on March Franklin was Postmaster General, revealed these facts: 30 percent of accidents were Energy Services, and Bass Enterprises among oth- 30, 2009? Do you also remember the lawsuit filed and a major publisher. caused by lightning; 30 percent of accidents were ers; 11 million gallons of oil were released into the against Chevron for the million gallons of oil that it In my opinion it’s unfair to caused by human error in design, operation, or navigable waterways of Louisiana during those two “intentionally” hid underneath the asphalt when it only publish public notices in maintenance; 80 percent involved fire and explosion storms; 540 oil spills were counted across the Gulf sold the property to the asphalt company? papers like the Press-Register. sending toxic fumes into the air. Coast. I would like to point out that none of the “numer- I pay about $200 a year for the ous regulations” mentioned by Mr. Gordon protected Oil and the chemicals it is treated with are deadly A tank at the Chevron Empire facility in Buras, Press-Register, which includes a in any form. According to Biologist and commercial Louisiana was “still bleeding oil” in October. any of these waterways, homes, or people from any generous tip for the carrier. How fisher, Dr. Riki Ott, “exposure to oil may reasonably Again, the so called “protective” booms failed. The of these spills. He also failed to consider the noxious many households cannot afford be anticipated to cause death, disease and infection, 990,000 gallons of oil that seeped into surrounding fumes that such storage tanks emit which are harm- behavioral abnormalities, cancer, genetic mutation, wetlands were then “burnt off,” again sending toxic ful to the respiratory system of children, the elderly, to pay that much, and how else endocrine disruption, miscarriage or birth defects, fumes into the air. Imagine that happening just a and pregnant women, and can cause cancer. are they supposed to find out and other physiological malfunctions in exposed few miles from downtown Mobile and across from The directive given to the 10-member Citizens about notices that may directly organisms, including humans.” Dr. Ott was one of Africatown and other residential neighborhoods. Advisory Committee on Above Ground Oil Storage affect them? the many fishers who was put out of business by the A storage tank at the Murphy Oil facility in Tanks was to investigate and propose restrictions I intend to allow my subscrip- Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. By 2010, almost all of Chalmette, Louisiana was “dislodged from its to such facilities in Mobile that would ensure our tion to the Press-Register to the cleanup workers on that spill had died. None of foundation, lifted, and damaged.” The families in safety. The committee of engineers, businessmen expire. It wrote its own death no- them are alive today. Their average lifespan was 51 1,700 homes had to be evacuated. I spoke with two (big and small), Mobile Baykeeper, and everyday tice when it ceased to be a daily years. insurance adjusters who said that they recorded oil citizens met for three months to study and discuss paper. Lagniappe gives better Severe storms and flooding are also causes stains on the ceilings of some of these homes. De this issue. I would prefer to defer to their recom- coverage of the news, and I can of storage tank accidents.