Alabama: As Contagious as Corruption

In meditative loneliness, a single customer last week sipped a beer in Chad's Twist Lounge—the only nightclub left in Phenix City (pop. 29.000). on the Alabama side of the Chattahoochie River, across from Columbus. Ga. All that day, members of the Chamber of Commerce had been stringing Christmas lights across the city's main street; a local radio station had hired a plane to bombard the town with colored pingpong balls that were exchangeable for merchandise at the million-dollar Phenix City Plaza Shopping Center; a weekly newspaper glowingly reported plans for the second annual Christmas parade, featuring "seven bands, 18...