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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tuscaloosa mends

Alabama’s national championship football team returned home Tuesday to a state where the Crimson Tide’s BCS victory over LSU had special meaning after last year’s deadly tornado outbreak. Hundreds cheered at Tuscaloosa’s airport as the team arrived from New Orleans on two charter jets. Fans stood with umbrellas and red-and-white shakers in a steady rain just a few miles from neighborhoods devastated by a tornado that killed more than 50 people in the city, including several students. “We love our Tide!” one man yelled. Fan Mary Strong said people desperately needed football as a diversion after the devastation of April 27, when more than 250 people were killed in the northern two-thirds of the state. – Associated Press