NJN/am for Monday, October 14
Happy Columbus Day! (You forgot, didn’t you…)
Weather: Gorgeous. Mostly sunny today with a high near 80 and a low near 60. We’ll finally see som showers moving on Tuesday night.
Queen of the Tigers. Molly Anne Dutton, an Auburn University student who hails from Gardendale, was named the school’s “Miss Homecoming” during halftime ceremonies of the Tigers’ game Saturday afternoon. Dutton, 21, studies horticulture at Auburn; she graduated from Gardendale High in 2010.
Charge of the veterans. Though the event may not have come anywhere close to the numbers indicated in its title, those attending the Million Vet March in Washington did raise a ruckus as they protested the closure of the World War II Memorial because of the federal government’s partial shutdown. Veterans, with help from conservatives Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), tore down barricades blocking access to the open-air memorial; some of the metal barricades were hauled to and dumped in front of the White House a half mile away. Critics of President Obama accuse him of selectively shutting down government facilities such as the Memorial, which is in an open area on the National Mall and not normally manned by park rangers.
Sports: Really Big Papi. The Boston Red Sox were down by four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, and in danger of dropping the first two games of the American League Championship Series on its home field. But slugger David Ortiz took care of that with one swing, as he launched a grand slam into the bullpen (sending Detroit outfielder Tori Hunter head over heels trying to catch it) to tie the game. Then in the ninth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a walk-off single that drove home Jonny Gomes with the winning run… Football: Welcome back, and War Eagle. Auburn became the eighth SEC team to be voted into the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday, marking the first time any conference has had that many teams in the rankings. The Tigers checked in at No. 24.; it’s the first time they have been in the poll in almost two years.