By By Adam Prestridge
For his 22nd consecutive year, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) visited Escambia County Saturday morning to address its residents as part of his yearly state tour to discuss local, state and national political issues.
Shelby arrived in Atmore Friday evening from Washington with his staff in preparation for the 7:30 a.m. meeting.
The first issue Shelby touched base on was the presidential primary and the importance of Super Tuesday, which is Feb. 5.
Shelby went on to add that the next president will be “facing some real challenging problems in the world.”
Those problems Shelby was referring to include, the War in Iraq, Afghanistan, the challenge of the Muslim world, terrorism and hijacking of the Muslim religion by terrorists.
Another hot topic was the “shift” of the nation’s wealth to other countries in the world.
Shelby said he believes there is a need for more funding to discover alternative sources of fuel to operate our vehicles, the opportunity to drill for oil in the United States and the ability to build more refineries.
Other issues discussed included, education, post secondary education and Shelby’s vow to continue supporting first-generation programs such as Upward Bound and adult education programs, the War in Iraq and Shelby’s support of any funding for troops as long as they are in harms way, economic prosperity in the state including ThyssenKrupp and EADS and his stand on immigration.