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Students learn about importance of honey bees

By Sarrah Peters

News Editor

About 75 children from Glencoe Elementary and John S. Jones Elementary Schools learned about honey bees on Monday, July 6 in honor of the 3rd Annual Honey Bee Awareness Day.

The children participated in the honey bee program as part of the schools’ summer camps.

The children first learned about why honey bees are important. Honey

County hires new Chief Administrative Officer

By Sarrah Peters

News Editor

The Etowah County Commission unanimously voted to approve a contract with Sherrie Y. Kelley for the Chief Administrative Officer position at the Etowah County Commission meeting on Tuesday, July 7.

The position opened after the commission terminated the contract with Patrick Simms, following his arrest for sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12

GRMC’s orthopedic floor home to award-winning nurses

By Sarrah Peters

News Editor

Natasha Williams, a registered nurse in orthopedics at Gadsden Regional Medical Center, was named the 2015 Patient Choice Award winner earlier this year. 

The orthopedic floor has had its nurses honored with this award for the last three years, with Laura Pearce winning the award last year and Misty Cash in 2013. 

“We are all very

In & around SEC football

2015 will be the most important season of Gus Malzahn’s coaching career at Auburn. Everything is in place for the Tigers to be the best team in the Southeastern Conference and possibly the country, but expectations have often been a burden on Auburn football. In the last 25 years, Auburn has been ranked in the […]

Gadsden State student-athletes earn national recognition

The National Junior College Athletic Association recently announced the recipients of the 2014-15 NJCAA Academic Student-Athlete Awards, and seven Gadsden State student-athletes were among those recognized.

This year saw a record 1,936 student-athletes from 324 NJCAA member colleges earn national academic honors. During the 2014-15 academic year, the NJCAA saw 58,531 student-athletes compete on 3,461 teams in 28 different sports.

The Vagabond – A History of Gadsden: Part III: 1836-1900

The Vagabond recently pulled up an article from the Etowah Historical Society library called “Early History of Northeast Alabama,” which contained a section called “A History of Gadsden ” by Charles P. Smith, who was mayor of Gadsden in 1905-1906. Smith was known as “The Hooter of Owls Hollow” who wrote his reminiscences. He wrote six extremely interesting and historically

ML Brackett leaves behind legacy of class

Longtime Etowah County resident and former Etowah High, Auburn University and National Football League standout ML Brackett passed away on June 30 at the age of 81. The following is an article originally published in the Feb. 25, 2009 edition of The Messenger. 

By Chris McCarthy/Editor

ML Brackett’s career has taken him far and wide from his roots in

Pious Bob – Branching Out from the Lord

In receiving Holy Communion, we connect with Christ Jesus through His Body and Blood. Another way of understanding this connection we make to Jesus is actually being part of His Body and Blood. A way we describe this is by understanding we are in the vineyard with Jesus. The gospel of John enlightens us with the description by Jesus.

Craig Ford – You can’t fix something you don’t believe in

For months, we have been told that the state needs at least another $200 million to avoid catastrophe. We have been told that we are broke because the way we budget for our state government is broken.

Unfortunately, what we have been told is true: our government is broke, and it is broken. But you can’t fix something if