Dead Business

Usually a neighborhood is happy when a new business opens, but that wasn't the immediate reaction in the Montgomery Garden District recently. The new business is a crematorium.

As much as most of us try not to think about the end of the road, I can understand why residents near 901 South McDonough Street were a bit put out when Magnolia Crematorium and Embalming opened. The neighborhood's "Garden District Preservation Association" newsletter tried to put a positive spin on it by pointing out there would be an employee on site 24/7, suggesting it would be a deterrent to crime. And they report there have been zero issues with "emissions" from another crematorium that opened recently in the Highland Park neighborhood. The new business is just a few blocks from the Governor's Mansion.

Who knew Alabama was becoming such a hot spot for cremation? I had heard we were among the states with the lowest cremation rates. Yet there are at least several hundred places where the departed can be returned to ashes in Alabama. And there is (of course) a two-part video on YouTube from The History Channel describing how it all works, though the details may be somewhat distressing for someone handling funeral arrangements.

Then there's the "perpetual care" aspect of a traditional in-the-ground burial. Heck, I'm hesitant to sign up for a "lifetime" subscription to a magazine or web site...if they go out of business, who's left to sue?

The Department of Insurance took over Memorial Gardens in Cullman a year ago, and is just now settling that case. At least with cremation, you've got the urn and the ashes and I presume they won't come take it back.

I produced an APT documentary about cemeteries in Alabama that had basically been forgotten, with forests growing in them. Mostly the property of churches that had gone out of business and all of the relatives of those in the graveyard moved away. Not much perpetual about that! I did get some severe red-bug bites tromping through the woods for that story, and they seemed like they would last forever.

Who's NOT Coming For Dinner

Back in the first weeks after President Obama's Inauguration, Democratic Congressman Artur Davis was among a very small group invited to join The President at the White House to watch the Super Bowl. This is a White House photo showing the President.

At the time, Rep. Davis' mojo couldn't have been higher. To be among fifteen men invited to share Super Sunday with the new President! Amazing.

Flash Forward. The White House this week released visitor logs for the White House after initially fighting that proposed disclosure. Mr. Davis' visit isn't included because the records only cover recent weeks. There is a way to request records for other dates or names, and to search the names that have resulted from those requests, but still, no Artur Davis (or, for that matter, Bob Riley!)

Starting in December, all of the records will be posted automatically. But I wonder how often the Congressman has been back to visit, considering his opposition to several Administration initiatives like health care with a Public Option.

And will President Obama take an active role in the Alabama Gubernatorial election, either before or after the primary?

[Disclosure: Though I've been to the White House, courtesy Presidents Carter and Reagan, nothing since. Talk about loss of mojo!]

The Stimulu$ in Alabama

The White House is out with figures based on information filed by states and agencies showing the stimulus plan is saving and creating jobs...but Republicans and other critics say not so fast. Here's the breakdown of the stimulus money spent in Alabama and out immediate neighbors, and the number of jobs saved or created, according to the Obama Administration:

===============================================

Alabama....$545.184.755 spent...4,884 jobs

Florida.......... $402,301,304 spent...29,321 jobs

Georgia........ $1,351,909,776 spent...24,681 jobs

Louisiana..... $554,554,215 spent...9,136 jobs.

Mississippi... $410,153,462 spent...3,433 jobs

Tennessee... $340,761,909 spent.....9,548 jobs

===============================================

A quick look at other states in the Southeast shows Alabama with more money than Mississippi or Tennessee, but in Tennessee there were more than twice the jobs. Someone else will have to do the Per Capita calculations.

The complete paperwork is online at http://www.recovery.gov/, and it shows Alabama having received only a fraction of the $2,492,510 awarded. And it lays at the feet of Governor Riley $455,667,439 of the total. The breakdown shows a big part of the money going to road projects and shipbuilding. You can look up projects by Zip Code, Congressional District, and more. At the very top...in bright red...is a place to report fraud and waste.

At the very least, there should be praise for the transparency being offered by the Obama Administration, though I won't hold my breath.

Stantis on Langford

Scott Stantis, late of The Birmingham News, now at the Chicago Tribune, had followed and draw dozens of panels about the Larry Langford saga, and offered the cartoon below, with the Trib's permission, to the News. The News said no thanks. Here it is anyway. Any day I get to include a Stantis on this blog is a good day.

Perspective

I noticed the story about the new Los Angeles Police Headquarters building. Los Angeles is spending almost ten times the annual budget of the entire Montgomery Police Department, and five times the entire Birmingham Police Department budget, just for the new building.

Everything is relative, no?

The Opt-Out Raffle - One Down

GOP Candidate for Governor Bradley Byrne issued a press release this morning saying he would opt-out of the health care reform legislation being developed in Washington. That makes him the first of the candidates to take a stand on the issue, which I blogged will become maybe the most important issue of the campaign. The Byrne statement wasn't on his campaign web site as of 12:15, so I'm going by the Press-Register's story. I'll be interested in seeing what he plans to do---if anything-- about Alabamians without health insurance. Byrne is taking the Republican Party line, not unexpected considering his political background. What will other Republicans do? What will Artur Davis do? He's the only candidate who will actually have a vote on the plan since he is a still a member or Congress? And Ron Sparks? He pledges to keep Medicaid financially secure, and the "public-option" is basically an extension of Medicaid-benefits to much of the rest of the population. Stay tuned. [UPDATE: 2:45pm The Byrne campaign has the statement online now here. He calls the "states opt-out aspect a ploy to cloud the issue.] [UPDATE 3:10pm: From Politico: Few expect Rep. Artur Davis to back the bill because he's running for governor in Alabama, a conservative stronghold.]

[UPDATE 4:00pm Another Alabama Democrat says he'll vote against the measure. Read the Parker Griffith story here. Is Bobby Bright next?]

[UPDATE AT 4:50PM Alabama GOP smells blood in the water.]

Back To The (Riley) Future...

The Governor, who is a lame duck and will be replaced by someone else in January, 2011, is going to require all state purchases be bid. Bob Riley ran against Don Siegelman, in part, by criticising no-bid contracts in 2002. He held a ceremony with his cabinet right after he was elected almost eight years ago with ethics pledges signed and placards handed out for their desks reading "If you don't bid it, don't buy it." He signed the new memo the day before he said he would sign a no-bid contract with a computer firm with no web site, no business address, no business phone, and no Montgomery business license.

The Federal Hate Crime Law

Now that the Federal Legislation expanding the scope of the U.S. Hate crime statute has been signed into law by President Obama, it will be interesting to see if the State of Alabama, or local municipalities, will take advantage of some of the federal support offered in the measure. The states and local governments can receive law enforcement training and funds to help prosecute hate crimes for the first time. Ironically, although Alabama's existing hate crime law does not include sexual orientation---it does include physical or mental disability. House Democrat Alvin Holmes (D - Montgomery) has introduced bills adding orientation to the existing law for years without success. Both orientation and disability were added to the Federal law today.

Bronner in the N.Y. Times

The focus of the story this morning is the Real Estate investments of The Retirement Systems of Alabama...from buildings in Montgomery to the restored Battle House Hotel and the tallest building in the state next door. The Times photo shows Bronner in front of two of the green-roofed office buildings in Montgomery that are his trademark.

Out of work

Word came today that Alabama now has joined the list of the ten states with the highest unemployment rate in the U.S.

Alabama's is 10.7%

Michigan had the highest at 15.3%, with the Detroit car industry in tatters.

Alabama has one Black Belt County---Wilcox County-- with an unemployment rate of almost 25%, equaling the highest unemployment rate during The Great Depression! It appears Wilcox had the third or fourth highest unemployment rate in America, according to an interactive map from earlier in the year in the NY Times. Percentages can be deceiving, of course. A remote rural county in Texas with a tiny population might have a 50% jobless rate, but it might represent only 100 people. Still, the rate in Alabama has doubled in the past year.

UPDATE: Opting Out

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid says states will be allowed to opt out of the health reform plan he wants the Senate to vote on. During a news conference this afternoon, he was asked how that would work, but never got to an answer. ABC News reports:

"In theory, states that wish to opt out of the public plan would have to adopt a law to do so, which would require agreement between the state legislature and the governor."

Here in Alabama that will create perhaps the issue of the year, and of the 2010 elections. The Legislature is majority Democratic, though the Senate (like the U.S. Senate) is a quilt of mostly Democrats with some of them willing to vote with Republicans. The Governor, right now, is Republican Bob Riley. But he's leaving office in 2010, and there will be incredible lobbying pressure on the candidates from both parties to take one side or another in the opting out issue. [UPDATE ON THIS UPDATE: The NY Times reports details about the opt out are slim, but the date the legislation would go into effect in the middle of the then newly elected Alabama's Governor's term:

Mr. Reid’s aides provided few details about how the opt-out provision would work. They said that the public plan would be national in scope and that it would be available on the first day that the major provisions of the health care legislation go into effect, which is now expected to be July. 1, 2013.

Let the campaigning begin!]

Faint Environmental Praise

For the fifth year in a row, The EPA has handed out awards to companies, universities, local governments and others for partnering with the agency in "green" initiatives. Each of the award winners found ways to use alternative power sources. When I spotted the categories my first reaction was...nah, there won't be a single Alabama institution on the list. I'm sorry to say I was right. There are companies with a presence in Alabama..like Kohl's, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, but not a single Alabama based entity or location listed. In fact in the entire South, there were a few Texas listings and a single K-12 school in Florida. Examples: Whole Foods, which the EPA says "...hosts and owns solar systems in almost a dozen locations...and hosts fuel cells at two of its stores. Wal-Mart in California and Texas uses wind and solar to provide 8% of its power needs. The University of Pennsylvania gets 46% of its power from wind, and has reduced the amount it uses by 18%. I'm still adjusting to throwing plastic items into the trash to send them to the landfill for the next thousand years or so. Montgomery eliminated its curbside recycling program a few weeks ago. In addition to the largest hazardous waste dump in America in Emelle, we also have one of the largest commercial landfills in America in Perry County, Arrowhead Landfill, which has been in the news recently because of the coal ash headed there from the spill in Tennessee. I believe populations get excited about environmental issues from the top down. If there's little enthusiasm for them from elected officials, there won't be much interest on the street level either, and certainly no funding. Then again, if voters cared about these issues, they would call out for candidates willing to embrace them. And I haven't seen that happening, have you? The largest power production and sales company in Alabama is Alabama Power, which has a web page devoted to alternative energies.

More than a game

Four decades later, the Rattlers vs Spartans, a game that changed college football forever. The story in today's NY Times.

An Alabama Option.

Forget the healthcare "Public Option"...it's the "State Option" that should be getting lots of attention here in Alabama. The Public Option would extend Medicaid-like coverage to most of the uninsured population. But the "state option" is also part of the negotiations over the legislation...and it would allow states to say "no thanks" to the public option (an alternative plan would require states to "opt-in" to be part of the public option).

Ask yourself: which side would Alabama come down on?

Both of our U.S. Senators are Republicans, as are virtually all of the seven House members. Rep. Artur Davis is the closest thing Alabama has to an actual Democrat, and he's running for Governor, so his vote will probably swerve to the right. The other two "democrats" are of the blue-dog variety, and are as likely to side against the public option as most Republicans. I don't know exactly how a state opting out or in would work...a vote of the delegation? A vote by the population? The Democratic-majority Legislature? The Governor is a Republican, and by extention, so are the appointed heads of state agencies like Medicaid. Whatever method is used, the congressmen and other elected state officials will have a powerful influence over the vote.

So, if it happens...will Alabama opt out? And if so, what will the state do--if anything--to replace the health insurance they've rejected for the state's uninsured?

And let's not forget we have a little election underway. What do the candidates for governor think? Do they think Alabama should opt-out? And how much money will flow to the candidates from the insurance companies? We probably won't be able to answer that last one, of course, since Alabama is a state of PAC-to-PAC transfers. Just a few things to think about this coming week.

MMMM # 66 -Part III OLD MEdia

And Mobile too.....from 1935. [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog]

MMMM # 66, Part 2 - OLD Media

This second film also promotes work being done as part of CCC Federal Government programs. Timely in light of our own economic problems, no? This films shows Birmingham in 1937 and the building of Oak Mountain State Park. [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

MMMM #66, Part 1 -OLD MEdia

These two films were created by the U.S. Government to show what the 1937 "make-work" programs were accomplishing. The music and all is a bit hokey, including the stress in the first film on the state's Confederate Connection, but heck, that was/is Alabama, no? This first film shows Montgmery and Auburn University in addition to the park work. [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

WWJD Health Care

So the GOP is out today with a singular question about the health-care reform legislation: Will this make your life better? Here's the story about the Saturday GOP Radio Address and its self-centered all-about-me question. Not for the first time, I am left wondering about the party that regularly claims the mantle of religion. Imagine Jesus telling a parable and asking this question:

"Will helping these poor people make your life better?"

He might indeed ask, but I suspect it would be only because he wanted to explain that it would in fact make their lives better...not to convince them to deny the assistance. The GOP radio address makes me wonder if that's how they've been deciding how to vote on bills all these years. Hmmm, let's see, will this bill make my personal life better?

If you like this view....

...you'll love the new project TVA is constructing at the site of the massive coal ash spill at a power plant in Tennessee. The agency is building an observation area, according to a story in the Knoxville News-Sentinel.Parking for 20...BYOFM (face mask). Millions of gallons of coal ash spilled on the land and a river when a dam broke. The coal ash they're pulling out of the river and off the surface of the earth is being transported to a commercial landfill near Uniontown, Alabama.

*Evidence, Part 3,485

"Reader comment" after a story about a forum at the University on Alabama on the topic of Human Sexuality:

Parents' tuition at work. Hasn't this issue been discussed to death. With all the information out there today, only the lowest forms of life catch STD's and STD's serve as method of Natural Selection. Let them run their course.

[*Evidence that newspapers need to closely monitor their comments section, or go back to the letters to the editor system.]

Evidence

Why more control should be exercised over the comments section after newspaper stories online. This, after a runaway teenager story in The Huntsville Times:

If he ran away, he's right where he wants to be. Why spend money looking for him? He's like a cat. He'll turn up when he gets hungry.

[UPDATE: A N.Y. Times story discussing the increased nymber of runaways caused by the Recession.]

Beliefs and the passage of time

Reading a book review in today's Press-Register got me thinking about the passage of time, and whether anything I hold true today will be laughable a century from now. John Sledge reviews the book "Alabama History On The Air: Mobile Radio Broadcasts of the 1930's". It's made up of a series of transcripts of broadcasts about Alabama History made 80 years ago on a Mobile Radio Station. They were assembled by the son of a man who became known as "The Old Narrator", John F. Glennon.

Eighty years is a long time, and reviewer Sledge gives Glennon a pass on his comments about the whistling "happy slaves" and "negro deckhands". Glennon was born in 1877 after all, just a handful of years after the end of The Civil War. But I wonder if the son considered leaving those commentaries out? And, as I asked up top, I wonder if you have any firmly held views that deep down, you know will sound quaint or downright barbarian in 2090?

Help, please?

OK, I'm giving up searching for the answer to this blogging problem and asking YOU to help me find it. Like all bloggers, I frequently link to articles. I have found "Permalink" the most reliable method to use. But it's not always an option. Instead I'm offered Reddit or Bebo or Bloggy or Amen me! or AIM Share or a dozen more.

Enough! I just want a simple cut and paste address for the article to share it. Are any of those others like permalink so I can use them when Permalink is not available to link to an article in this blog?

What Are We Fightin' For....

Reuters story quotes Billionaire T. Boone Pickens as saying the U.S. is "entitled to" Iraq oil because of the war:

"They're opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world ... We're entitled to it," Pickens said of Iraq's oil. "Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars."

I'm sure the Moms and Dads of those killed, and the vets who came back wounded physically or mentally appreciate Mr. Pickens explaining what they were fighting for. And speaking of that, a story from a British paper explains one aspect of a free Afghanistan: dancing boys to entertain the men. Probably not all that widespread, but like the lack of human rights in another ally of ours...Saudi Arabia...still disturbing.

Apostrophe Abuse

What this blog needs more than anything is a good editor (insert loud applause here!). Too often, my fingers get ahead of my brain as I try to get something posted, and I don't spot an error (or don't know it's an error!), and mistakes of grammar or usage or spelling make it online. Former Birmingham Post-Herald political reporter Ivan Swift (and is that a great name for a reporter or what? I'm Ivan Swift at The United Nations for CNN!) emailed from his home in Washington to comment on the post in which I said Richard Arrington's reborn political organization is called "The New Jefferson County Citizen's Coalition". His comment was about the incorrect apostrophe, which he laid at Arrington's feet. I sheepishly emailed back to confess it was not the former Mayor's error, but my own, which I quickly corrected. Swift wrote back somewhat graciously, allowing that I am not alone:

"That apostrophe is abused all over the South. Years ago, in Ardmore, on the Tennessee line, Jones Drug Store's sign said "Jone's." When it modernized, they got the apostrophe out of there. Couple of days ago, in a doctor's office, a sign said "patient's without appointments ...."

Thanks Ivan. Ain't language great. (-:

The Magic City's Dirty Air, Pt. 2

For the second time this month, a report is taking aim at the dirty air in and above Birmingham. Now it's the Southern Environmental Law Center issuing a report blasting the area's coal-fired Alabama Power power plants as the source of the problem.

It ranks Birmingham's air as the dirtiest in the South.

Not the kind of thing that's helpful in soliciting new business. The earlier report was from the EPA.

It's sometimes hard to imagine that the state's largest city has such dirty air when you walk around on a crisp Fall or Winter morning. But remember: the really bad pollution is mostly invisible, the stuff you don't see coming from a smokestack or a vehicle.

[The late D.J. Tommy Charles used to joke--at least I think he was joking--"that's not pollution, that's jobs!"]

Old School vs Harvard

Word that former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington will endorse Democrat Ron Sparks for Governor in a news conference in Birmingham tomorrow shouldn't come as a big shock. If Arrington, the city's first black mayor, was going to endorse anyone in the Democratic Primary, it certainly wasn't going to be Rep. Davis. Davis beat fellow Democrat Earl Hilliard to win his Congressional seat, and he's part of the younger black leadership. They tend to paint Arrington and Hilliard and company as the old school politicians who won the civil rights battles but squandered the political power by adopting cronyism. Arrington resurrected his old political machine this past April, calling it the New Jefferson County Citizens Coalition, indicating he would be getting involved in politics again. The Vice Chair of the group? Earl Hilliard Junior, son of the man Davis beat. Davis' best hope was that Arrington would stick to Birmingham city politics and stay out of the Governor's race, but that wasn't to be. As of now--6:00pm the night before the official announcement--not a peep from the Davis campaign, but watch for him to show respect for Arrington's accomplishments while painting the former mayor and Sparks as old school back-room politicians not fit to lead in the new Obama era. [NOTE: The Arrington picture is from a radio debate during the 1979 runoff election that he won, making him the city's first black Mayor.]

Bus Speed

I am not the slowest driver in the world, but I am especially careful on residential streets. A friend told me about a school bus traveling down a certain Montgomery block at a relatively high rate of speed every day about the same time...so today I stationed myself in a driveway and waited. Sure enough...right on schedule...2:35pm...here comes the bus more or less barreling down the street. A message to---of all people---school bus drivers--especially the one in this bus! SLOW DOWN! This is a residential street with a marked 30mph limit. Children live on it!

Bank On It

Why people hate banks: A Montgomery Advertiser Editorial

Customers should not overdraw their accounts, true. But banks shouldn't charge excessive fees, and move slowly when recording deposits but with lightening speed when recording checks and debits. Sure you're in business to make money, but considering all the ill will from the public about bailouts, isn't this the time you want to go out of your way NOT to annoy people?

Jefferson County Doldrums

Bloomburg is out with a rundown of the rundown financial condition of Jefferson County, using the trial of Birmingham's Mayor Larry Langford as a launching pad. The questions of declaring bankruptcy is still unresolved, but time i s running out...like the money is.

A LaLa Trial Tweet

Perhaps the most telling Tweet so far from inside the Tuscaloosa Courtroom where jury selection is underway in the trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford. Birmingham News Columnist John Archibald:

No jurors read birmingham news editorial section.

Of course they are Tuscaloosa area residents, and perhaps they read the Tuscaloosa News editorials every day...but if you were on trial, who would you rather have on the jury: intelligent, aware folks who actually read newspapers (or keep up in other ways), or those who are somewhat "less aware"?

The Vast No-Wing Media Conspiracy

So who is the sheriff talking about when he discusses charging "the media" with conspiracy in connection with the balloon hoax? He won't name an outlet, but he's quoted as saying the show...

...blurs "the line between entertainment and news."

His allegation comes after he examined emails between Richard Henee and the show.

Hmmm..blurs the line....CNN? FOX? NBC? That line is so blurred by now that about the only actual news program on TV may be CSPAN.

Critics say the media should have known the balloon wasn't capable of lifting a 6 year old boy aloft, and that there were other clues to the story being fake, but please put yourself in the shoes of a network producer in the middle of a relatively slow news day. The family says the boy was on the balloon! The sheriff himself has a chase underway. The National Guard has helicopters aloft. And you want a producer to say no, I don't believe it, let's stop coverage? You want him to decide the family's a bit crazy, so we'll pull the plug? I don't think so.

If the sheriff does file charges against some TV show, it will be a fascinating event, watching a show that may consider a Beyonce parking ticket the top story of the day argue First Amendment rights.

[A SIDE NOTE: the MMMM I posted (a day early) on Sunday about the balloon stunt was my 1,000th post. The second anniversary of this blog is in November. Happy blog day to me. Happy blog day to me. (-: ]

Bambi and Family.

They really are everywhere. For five years there have been sanctioned bow hunts at Oak Mountain State Park outside Birmingham to cull the growing population of deer. The first 2009 hunt is next week.

And it's not just here in The South...areas north of New York City are also fighting the foraging monster that herds of wild deer have become.

It's also the time of year here in Alabama when another kind of deer culling will be underway...the kind that happens when tons of automotive steel meets pounds of living venison on the highway. November is the peak month for deer/car accidents, according to an Insurance Industry study. The number of people killed in those accidents in Alabama is relatively small...two in 2007...43 between 1993 and 2007...but the collisions do cause injury and damage. I came across one driving to Tuscaloosa last Fall, but he stayed off the road. Good for us.

Huntsville: Block Your Tunnels!

Headline from al.com: Golfer John Daly Coming Next Month for Clinic, Tournament

Block off your tunnels, Rocket City, block your tunnels!

MMMM* #65 - The Media, Ballooned.

It was that newest of new media...Twitter...that alerted me to the Great Balloon Story of 2009. I had been somewhere else online when I switched to Twitter and saw a series of tweets about a balloon and a boy and....I was off to CNNland, sucked up like a lot of other folks in the sheer drama of a runaway balloon and a missing six year old. It wasn't like the Challenger disaster, when I called folks to make sure they knew (I know I woke some of them up...it was a Saturday, no?). On Thursday I was debating with myself---out loud, of course-- about just where the little boy could be...wondering if he was in fact somehow inside that silver floating vehicle...on the ride of his life. Inside? With the helium? Why was there no basket? CNN assured us they would cut away when the balloon came down, out of respect for the boy's family.

Now, a couple of days and a lot of information later, that phrase sounds especially ironic. A news conference is expected today by the Sheriff's Office there in Colorado to announce charges against someone. Who? Mom and Dad? The rest of us for being suckered in? The Media for exploitation?

Bill Maher Friday night laughed about the media devoting all of that time to the runaway balloon, but I'll tell you right now. Given the facts presented at the time, had I been a producer at CNN or anywhere else with access to those helicopter shots, nothing would have interfered with the coverage. I would have done just as they did, stayed with it till the very end, even as some of the more, well, unconventional aspects of the family came of light. You don't pick your parents. A six year old boy is a six year old boy. And a balloon barrelling along toward whatever was in its way is a live drama you couldn't make up. Or, actually, you could. But we didn't know that then. What a story.

[UPDATE: Sunday 10/18: Howard Kurtz/Washington Post tweets: should it be against the law to conduct a hoax? No, but it is agianst the law to lie to police. Think about the amount of money that various agencies spent trying to "save" their son. And no, I do NOT think it is or should be against the law to lie to the media. If it were, all of Congress would be behind bars.]

[UPDATE - Monday 10/19: Colorado authorities now say some media could be charged as well...if they knew the balloon event was a hoax in advance. No names named so far. Now THAT would be an interesting trial to cover.]

[*The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

Why is The South so hard hit by Unemployment?

Alabama's unemployment rate scooted up even more last month, to 10.7%, leading me to ask:

what's wrong with this picture? I understand why the West Coast has been so hard hit by unemployment...at least I know we're told it was the housing bubble...all of those stupid people buying vacation and rental homes with sub-prime mortgages they couldn't afford. And that might explain the North-East and Florida. But what's up with the South-East?

Alabama officials have said we aren't suffering the way the West Coast is because we never had many big sub-prime mortgages. But neither did Mississippi or Georgia or Tennessee, yet there they are, along with Alabama, in the second-worst tier of states with high unemployment rates.

Is it our new-found reliance on the automobile industry? The textile jobs had by and large left before the Great Recession hit, so it's not that sector. Why is the South-East so hard hit? (With the Carolinas even worst off than other states!). Heck, Wilcox County has a 25.6 jobless rate! Time to get some answers from these candidates for Governor instead of letting them slide with vague promises of ethics reform and moral leadership. What will they do about the state's jobless rate if they're elected?

Food, Glorious Food...

...remember the song? From Oliver as I recall, and it certainly is a defining statement for a lot of Southerners. We do love our food! Now there's a museum dedicated to Southern Food and Drink, and a literary festival on the same theme is being held at it next Saturday, October 24th. Where is it? Where else: New Orleans, which I suppose has dibs on the title Capitol of Southern Food.

To quote Billy Joel: The good old days weren't always good, tomorrow's not as bad as it seems...." but one thing that has changed from those "old days" is Sunday Dinner. How many modern Southern women (or men for that matter!) spend much of the day cooking a meal for an extended family anymore? Maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas...but the rest? Maybe that's why they call it the Southern Food and Beverage museum. I've lived in the South most of my life, and have managed to enjoy enough of those slow cooked (and served) meals to appreciate them as an important cultural touchstone.

Don't misunderstand, I'm not nostalgic for the amount of work that went into those big meals, and I am well aware that the hard labor was accomplished in many homes by underpaid minority workers.

But the slowness of the cooking process was a positive. It allowed a lot of time for conversation, for generational interaction. Now it's microwaved or partly-prepared meals from the supermarket that take minutes to put on the table and an equal time to eat. There's a game to watch or yard work to do or a run back to the office or Facebook to update or the blog...

No, I don't want us to go back to beating the clothes on rocks to clean 'em so there will be more time to chat, but not all improvement is. And it wouldn't hurt to settle back for a while and listen to each other.

The SCOA Speaks

Attorney General Troy King has been bragging about lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, so I'll be interested to hear what he has to say, if anything, now that the almost 100% Republican Alabama Supreme Court has thrown out the judgement in favor of the state and against those firms. I hope nobody in Alabama State Government planned on using that $274-Million as part of the General Fund budget! The suits claimed the companies had defrauded the state in pricing drugs provided for the Medicaid program.

And I wonder how those 16 companies that settled with the state for $124-Million feel now?

It was an 8-1 vote, and no, it was not the lone Democrat...Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb...who cast the only dissenting vote. It was Justice Tom Parker, the former Roy Moore confederate.

Animal Report

We all survived our interaction with the animals on "CBS 8 This Morning", courtesy of a visit from Peter Gros, host of Mutual of Omaha Animal Kingdom on Animal Planet TV. Kait was anxious to get wrapped up in the event, and did, with Peter and one of the handlers assistance of course. The Burmese Python is the kind I've blogged about, the ones that are taking over the everglades and heading north! There was a Lemur which looked cute and cuddly (though we were asked NOT to pet it) and a Joey---a baby Kangaroo---which a lot of folks held. Not pictured are the young alligator, or the beautiful owl, or the considerably smaller snake that Peter also had with him. After they left us the crew was headed to Wetumpka to show off their animal collection to schoolkids. The crew members who produce the program gathered for a shot with Peter...and thanks to Mark, kneeling, for taking most of the photos!

CBS-8 is a Zoo...

...at least Friday morning's CBS-8 This Morning will look like one. Peter Gross, the host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom will be a guest and yes, he'll be bringing some exhibits. Live ones. A lemur, an alligator, a python, and a chimp of some kind...I think I stopped paying attention after I heard the word python (from previous posts, you may know snakes are not my favorite idea of a pet). Anyway, join Kait and I and a menagerie of critters. 6-7am Friday morning on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

INconsistency

I like political consistency, even when I disagree with the politics. It was one of the reasons I applauded The Birmingham News when they reversed more than a century's worth of editorial position by coming out against the death penalty a few years ago. They discovered (somewhat late, I think) that they couldn't be "pro-life" and "pro-death" at the same time.

With that said, GOP candidate for Governor State Representative Robert Bentley says he has pre-filed legislation for the 2010 Legislative Session to basically outlaw abortion in Alabama. Even if the bills pass, they're headed for eventual defeat in the Federal Courts, so I hope I can be excused for thinking that this legislation is more about his campaign than about any realistic hope of making the state an abortion-free zone.

But the real complaint I have is his inconsistency. Because Rep. Bentley hates, hates, hates abortion, considers if murder. Yet he's willing to look the other way in cases of rape or incest.

And just why is it that those "children" are less deserving of Mr. Bentley's protection? Are they less human? If the candidate really wants to be consistent, he should introduce legislation that reflects his belief without exception. No abortions for anyone in Alabama anytime under any circumstances. And then get working on that bill to abolish Capital Punishment in Alabama too.

Sport?

After Oprah's interview with Mike Tyson, I got into a debate with a friend over the "sport" of boxing. I don't like it, won't watch it, and have no interest watching an interview with someone who's goal in life in beating people up done by someone who is clearly a fan.

I pointed out boxing is the only "sport" in which the goal is to hurt the other person, to knock them into unconsciousness.

"What about football tackles?"

The pain they feel is a byproduct of the blocking and tackling, not the purpose.

As long as 1983, physicians groups were calling for a ban because of the intentional injury boxing causes. Now the science is even more exact. Boxing causes brain damage. But it doesn't matter, does it? The "sport" appeals to our animal instincts, and they'll always win out over rational thought.

Bleeding Billboard

I'm not a fan of billboards, but would this get the attention of bad drivers here in Alabama?

What They Really Mean...

...when a reporter or anchor says something came "all the way from" and the place is in North America...what they're really saying is

"I haven't traveled much, so I think Canada or Mexico or California is far away."

[This may or may not be a new series...and I may or may not open it up to nominations/suggestions. (-: ]

Small Paper - New Owner

I'm happy to be able to point you in the direction of anything positive about American newspapers...so here the story of a reporter who, when his paper went under, bought it.

Alabama is home to a lot of weeklies, and to Community Newspaper Holdings, an RSA funded newspaper group that owns hundreds of papers and a handful of television stations. RSA is a frequent investor in media, and part of the agreements is always that they run a certain amount of Alabama Tourism commercials.

MMMM #64 - Sources Disclosed

Challen Stephens is a "Special Projects Editor" at The Huntsville Times. He wrote a column last Thursday in which he blasted state Democrats for trying to "plant" stories through him in the Times.

[*NOTE: See the Update below]

But his column/story/blog post seems to violate the confidentiality reporters sometimes offer to sources in exchange for information. And if not, it at least raises a lot of questions about how he and The Times do business when they deal with people who do not want their names used. I would like to know what Mr. Stevens was thinking when he wrote the column, and how he responds to criticism about it, but he hasn't returned my email or phone messages. Perhaps he'll call me if I agree to give him confidentiality? He writes about the Democrats approaching him---apparently off the record---with what they consider negative information about Mo Brooks, a GOP candidate for Congress. He tells them he's not interested because it's not a story, and implies he gets these kind of offers of information all the time from both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. He writes:

Last month's attempt set a new bar for the ridiculous, even for these two groups. When the Democratic operative said she wouldn't go on the record with her ethical concerns, I explained that their e-mail wasn't news. At least not yet.

He says he might report it IF someone makes a public allegation, and promises to include the information closer to election time...

He continues...

But that wasn't good enough for Jessica Santillo, press secretary of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She likes to work off the record. So she arranged to get me a local Democrat to complain on the record. She did just that, and quickly. But this isn't our role here at the newspaper. We keep an eye on Huntsville; we're not here to repeat manufactured spin of hired guns on either side. Not when we can spot it.

So apparently the rules he's operating under changed...he wanted an on the record source, but when provided with one, nothing...and now he has named his source...! The one who "Likes to work off the record".

She then sent six e-mails, each more strident than the last. "I have not shared it with any other news outlets," wrote Santillo at one point, "but will need to know by 1 p.m. today if you are not planning to write."

By then she had broken the unwritten rules of these press/flack relationships. There are limits. She pushed too hard, so hard that her efforts were of greater news value than her pitch.

So there are "rules and limits"....I would love to know what those are! If you push too hard you get named in the paper? Are three e-mails OK, but four are too many? Just how many phone calls are allowed? How often has he allowed "sources" to "plant" stories in the past, and can we presume they didn't push too hard? If someone calls to tell him about an event, is that "planting" a story if they don't want their name used? And perhaps most important of all, why isn't the information about public tax dollars being spent to advance political aims a story anyway? Maybe the fact that he doesn't consider it a story is a story itself!

MMMM # 64 - Part 2

I somehow missed a media development on the West Coast first reported by The NY Times and discussed this week in the "On The Media" NPR program. Seems the Hockey team the L.A. Kings have hired their own "reporter" to write stories about them. No, he insists, he is not a PR guy, but an actual reporter, sitting one seat away from his old newspaper-reporter press box seat where he gets "good-natured ribbing" from the "other" reporters covering the games. Really? So his check is signed by the team but he's going to be an impartial writer? If this model is the future of journalism I give up.

[*UPDATE: Challen Stephens was out of town last week. He returned my phone call this morning and we talked about his column on political operatives "planting stories". The main questions I raised about the column focused on the apparently off the record conversations he had with Jessica Santillo, press secretary of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Stephens says he did not consider the communications to be off the record ("I never used the words 'off the record'," he said.), and that when he does agree to speak with a source under those circumstances, he'll later go to jail if necessary rather than reveal the identity of the source. "That's sacred," he said.

He does admit the column was not very clear on the nature of the communications (e-mails mostly, after an initial phone call). I have to agree, especially when he writes at one point:

Last month's attempt set a new bar for the ridiculous, even for these two groups. When the Democratic operative said she wouldn't go on the record with her ethical concerns.

But if they weren't "off the record" in the first place, why would it be necessary for them to go back "on" it? The episode points out the importance of reporters being very, very clear about the nature of their work-related conversations. Regarding the question of the "unwritten rules", Stephens said he would "hate to spell them out", and that they vary depending on the person he's dealing with. For example, they're not the same for a veteran political operative as they might be for a less savvy individual. [The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

Artur Davis' change of heart on Hate

The House approved legislation this week expanding the definition of hate crimes to include gays. The legislation has been around for a very long time. It won approval on a 281 - 146 vote. I was sure I would see a 100% no vote by Alabama's seven house members, but to my surprise, Congressman and Democratic Candidate for Governor Artur Davis, who gave a somewhat tortured explanation about why he had voted against it in a previous attempt, voted for the legislation this past week according to the congressional web site! Amazing. Davis was criticized for his earlier no-vote, which made him the only member of the black caucus to vote against the measure. Of course the bill was attached to the massive defense spending legislation, and that may give him some cover. But again, he was the only Alabama Congressman to vote yes. Only half a dozen House members failed to vote and nobody voted "present". The Legislation now heads to the Senate, where there are enough Democratic votes to approve it. Maybe.

A DIY Saturday

Replacing a ceiling fan...new for old..doesn't sound that complicated. But as I've learned over the years, my home projects seem to instantly become more complicated than if anyone else were doing them. This time it's a question of different methods of hanging the fans.

The OLD fan was attached to a hook screwed into the ceiling beam.

The NEW fan attaches to the junction box via a ball and harness setup.

The question: Is the (metal) junction box secured to the beam sufficiently to hold the 20.2 pound weight of the fan?

I'm convinced it is, and am now in the process of connecting the wires. We'll see.

Voila! Seems to be working well, except for some wobble. There are small weights included to eliminate that and I'll play with them some. Maybe, just maybe, I'm getting better at these projects?

Credit Where It's (NOT) Due

In the news today:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says 16,626 people died in traffic crashes between January and the end of June, a 7 percent decline from the same period last year.

More than 37,000 motorists died in 2008, the fewest since 1961. But the government projects that even fewer people will die this year.

How strange. Virtually all of the county had no "Take Back Our Highways" and "Click It or Ticket" or police roadblock programs, and yet they too saw a decrease in deaths.Could it be? Do those programs mainly produce revenue instead of highway safety?

Blocking Hall Street

If you live outside Montgomery, this probably won't have any effect on you, and even if you do live here, I may be the only one uphappy with a recent City Council decision. With little fanfare, and as far as I know, no notice, the Council agreed to give a portion of a public street to Alabama State University. Hall Street, it's called...a stretch of the street between I-85 and Carter Hill Road is now part of the ASU campus. There will be gates for ASU to close the street when it wants. Speed limits will be dropped to 15 mph or so with crosswalk/speedbumps. It's part of a $3-Million dollar project to create a new gateway into the campus. Problem is that Hall street was a common commuter street for drivers (like me!) trying to get from one part of town to another.

It probably was inevitable that the University would take control of the street, since they bought a former neighborhood to the East of Hall street and over the years demolished the buildings. Several new campus structures went up on that side of the street in the past year or so. Universities, by nature, grow.

I just wish there had been some kind of hearings or notices given. And I hope the city street department is prepared for the added wear on the few other ways to get from there to here.

Birmingham: You Have Dirty Air (Duh!)

EPA news release lists Jefferson-Shelby-Walker County areas as NOT in compliance with clean air standards. Just a reminder, for those who needed it. The picture below was take from the helicopter in the late 70's when I was doing traffic reporting in Birmingham...it was taken somewhere near Ensley, probably above I-59. Everything is relative, no?

As goes France, So Goes Alabama.

"Lately, tougher-on-crime policies in (Alabama) have resulted in longer terms for...petty criminals. Thirty-five years ago the average criminal sentence...was four months. Now it’s eight and a half."

I edited the above from a movie review in today's N.Y. Times. The movie is about overcrowded prisons...in France. But the root of the problem there is the same as it is here. Alabama politicians, seeking to show how anti-crime they are, introduced and won passage of bills increasing penalties for all sorts of crimes. "Three Strike And You're Out" was perhaps the most grievous offender. Few of those who had to seek re-election were brave enough to stand up and point out the obvious: when you increase the length of prison sentences, you increase the number of prisoners being held at any given time. Did they agree to fund new prison construction? To find money for more guards? To finance actual rehabilitation? Of course not, because they would have forced them to commit the other cardinal sin for those running for office in this state: voting for a tax increase. Any tax increase. The Department of Corrections says as of August, there were some 25,593 inmates in correctional facilities that are designed to only hold 13,403 prisoners. Alabama spends less per inmate on keeping a prisoner behind bars than any other state. While there might be some reason to brag about keeping costs of any state project below the national average, being dead last in this category doesn't mean best. Last Spring, guards in France held public protests against working conditions brought on by the overcrowding. About the same time, the professional organization representing the Alabama correctional officers filed papers in support of prisoner complaints about overcrowding. The guards siding with the prisoners! How far behind are we? Here's what the Assistant Executive Director of the Parole Board told The Times-Daily in November of 2007:

"Alabama cannot afford to build enough prisons to put everyone convicted of a felony in prison," he said. "There's not enough money in the general fund to pay for all the prisons we would need to do that."

And that was before Alabama tax collections sunk like a rock. Every time the Alabama Legislature meets, they pass new laws creating new felonies. The movie being reviewed in the N.Y. Times is "The Prophet". A central theme of the film is the ongoing violent conflict among various ethnic populations in French jails. As Alabama's population becomes more diverse, watch for our prison populations to mirror that change, and for the prisons in Sweet Home Alabama to take on a French accent. And there will be nothing Oh La La about it.

Heads Up..er, down? Tiny Car May Be Coming

Expect an announcement in the next couple of weeks about a South Korean company locating a plant in the Southeastern U.S., likely in Alabama, though Georgia and South Carolina are also fighting hard for it. The plant would produce frames and other major components for the "EZone" electric vehicles(top left) for CT&T Company. The cars have been compared to the Daimler Smart ForTwo vehicles (top center). The Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa just produced their One-Millionth vehicle! In addition, Hyundai is expected to build a hybrid at it's Montgomery plant, probably based on the Sonata (top right). Then there's the China Ex-Pat Billionaire Benjamin Yeung, who saying he'll build a huge plant near Mobile for build electric vehicles too. That may be the most nebulous of the projects, since the money for it has yet to be lined up. And his former partner is still promoting a similar project in Mississippi, complete with models on display. All in all, Alabama is positioned to become a major electric and hybrid vehicle production state. Incentives like the free training offered manufacturers through AIDT are a major factor, and it is being copied by other states. Alabama's hostility to unions is also a big factor, though industrial development types deny it.