Tag Archives: Free

Saf-T-Net premium service now free for Alabama residents

AlaSAF-T-NetLogo_150x150_WebThis afternoon, Governor Bentley announced that Baron Services of Huntsville will provide its premium SAF-T-Net® service at no cost to all Alabama residents.

The premium version of the service normally offered by the company costs $3.99 per month or $45 for the year and provides National Weather Service polygon based tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flash flood warnings for up to four user-defined locations (including your smartphone) via phone, email, or text messaging. While a free version of the service is available, it only allows you to receive those warnings for one location and the types of warnings available are limited.

The service also provides updates from area media partners as they are available.

Currently residents are being encouraged to sign up for the service via any of the media partners in the state, including locally (all links to sign-up pages):

The Birmingham News/al.com
CBS 42
Fox 6

They may also visit www.alabamasaftnet.com and sign up directly with Baron Services. The company has provided an infographic via PDF explaining just how the service works (or you can watch the video available for viewing on the site’s media page).

Dig for plants tomorrow

It’s time for the annual (FREE!) Plant Dig presented by the Keep Birmingham Beautiful Commission. I’d try to write a really cool description of the event, but Christina probably did it best when she wrote up last year’s event – including (basic) directions. It’ll be warmer too. The fun’s from 12-4 p.m. at the New Georgia landfill.

Learn Spanish… from the bus system?

Screenshot of bjcta.org What’s New page, accessed 9.16.2008.

Not quite, but yes! It was a little weird when we visited the BJCTA’s (a.k.a. our bus system’s) website earlier today while getting ready for the Tuesday morning City Council post. We went back later to check on it; the item posted at the top of the What’s New items section of their website is a link that takes people to another site, Learn Spanish Today, that offers people to take free Spanish lessons – via a widget dictionary that can be installed on your website or blog or another link on the site.

Before you ask, yes, we did email the BJCTA about the link – we hope to share their response with you soon.

Langford’s had a busy day…

Langford with school children. acnatta/Flickr

Mayor Langford speaks to students at Phillips Academy during Wachovia’s Way2Save event on April 22. acnatta/Flickr.

Larry Langford’s been a busy individual this morning. Here he’s seen talking to area school children during today’s Wachovia Way2Save event. Representatives from four area schools each received $2,000 for their scholarship funds at the event. The mayor spent most of the time he was at the event taking pictures with the children and answering questions about this morning’s approval of his proposal to pay for free bus rides in Birmingham beginning in May and running through August by the City Council.

According to the blog post made earlier today by The Birmingham News, the BJCTA board still needs to approve the proposal during their board meeting tomorrow.

Help the Big Guy atop Red Mountain breathe a little easier

Si Reasoning - Sierra ClubNow, tomorrow’s Earth Day (officially), at least the one that everyone’s familiar with (maybe)… that’s another post. Anyway, there are a lot of things available to people in Birmingham tomorrow because of the observance that will help make the community a better place to live, whether financially or environmentally. One of the environmental options includes driving up to visit Vulcan atop Red Mountain and getting a free 90 second emissions test beginning at 10 a.m. Click on the link to see the rest of the scheduled testings for this year if you can’t make it tomorrow. There’s more…

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Free the Hops boycotting Birmingham Budweiser

Of the world’s Top 100 beers, only two are available here. Alabama has some of the most restrictive liquor laws in the nation still on the books years after Prohibition. Free the Hops (FTH) is a grassroots, citizen-driven organization trying to change that. For the second legislative session, the group will try to get state lawmakers to literally free the hops by increasing the limit on alcohol content allowed in beer. But first they have to battle with Birmingham Budweiser.

Free the Hops logoFTH has asked its members and supporters to join a formal boycott of Birmingham Budweiser products. In an e-mail sent late Tuesday night, new FTH president Stuart Carter says the leadership at the local beer distributor is “still working against the interests of both Anheuser Busch (who, in addition to Bud, brews dozens of beers that are currently illegal under Alabama law) and Alabama consumers. They have indicated that they will again work to prevent our bill, freeing the hops, from passing in the Alabama state legislature.”

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