Off The Record: The latest rumors and rumblings in Alabama
Former nonprofit exec Kvach dodges court date once more
John Kvach’s day of reckoning keeps getting kicked further down the road. The disgraced former Singing River Trail executive director — arrested in June 2024 on five counts of possessing child pornography and one count of disseminating it — was reportedly supposed to appear in court yesterday. Instead, the case got pushed yet again.
Kvach was indicted by a Madison County grand jury in December after a lengthy investigation that led to a raid on his Brownsboro home. He’s out on a $100,000 bond, apparently in no hurry to face a judge. The case has now dragged on for more than two years, with Kvach reportedly forced to find new counsel after his original attorney was sidelined by an accident and subsequent retirement —another delay that, whatever the circumstances behind it, leaves Kvach with still more time before he has to answer the charges in court.
‘House of nerds’
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has a way with words and Tuesday’s ribbon cutting for Auburn University’s new Applied Research Institute laboratory was no exception. Standing before a crowd of hundreds just feet from a 30-ton cyclotron built to blast electronics with protons and see whether they can survive the radiation of space, the gubernatorial candidate explained that he usually doesn’t bother with prepared remarks. But, he said, since he was speaking to a “house of nerds,” he brought a speech. The crowd loved it, and let’s be honest, he’s not wrong. Auburn has assembled some of the best and brightest to tackle everything from missile defense and space electronics to advanced manufacturing and rapid prototyping. In this house, “nerd” is basically a job qualification.
Mountain Brook Wall
Residents on Round Forest Drive want their street turned back into a cul-de-sac to keep Irondale traffic — and, allegedly, crime — from cutting through the neighborhood. One insider who isn’t buying the safety pitch tells OTR it’s just the latest excuse for a certain type of Mountain Brook mom to keep the “undesirables” out. And hey, while we’re pouring concrete, why not just throw a wall up too? A recent double homicide in Irondale gave the whole thing the perfect excuse to turn into a full-blown NIMBY frenzy.
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