Author: Jason Johnson

One of the men charged in the two-year-old murder of Ke’lei Morris was slapped with additional felony charges Friday after a grand jury found probable cause he had attempted to orchestrate the murder of at least three witnesses from inside the Mobile County Metro Jail. Morris, a 24-year-old Biloxi native, was employed as a respiratory therapist at Mobile Infirmary when she was found shot to death near her apartment on Grelot Road in February 2015. More than two years later, Steven O’Brien Mason, 33, was charged in connection with the murder on March 20. According to prosecutors, Mason was...

Last week — nine months after its longtime leader stepped into retirement — Mobile County’s public works department was diagnosed with a number of issues in a report that prescribed a major retooling of its policies, practices, leadership and culture. Conducted by The Mejorando Group, the $30,000 review was part of the Mobile County Commission’s mission to replace former Engineer Joe Ruffer, who directed the department for 42 years before retiring as the county’s highest-paid employee in 2016. Ruffer led the department as its responsibilities, budget and independence expanded greatly over the years. However, consultant Patrick Ibarra said, at some point,...

It’s been 100 years since Government Street United Methodist Church acquired the Spanish Colonial-style façade that sets it apart, but while history is important to Methodism’s oldest church in the area, its leaders are also looking to the future. Though the first church was established in 1832 as Franklin Street Methodist Episcopal Church, it wouldn’t take on its distinct appearance for another 85 years, after moving from Franklin Street to its current location at Broad and Government streets. “They started a renovation of the sanctuary, the outside and the façade in 1906,” Rev. Bert E. Park told Lagniappe. “It...