Final OTR before Election Day

Democratic Nominee for Governor Ron Sparks is the guest this afternon at 5:30 on CBS 8 in Montgomery, just before 60-Minutes....

A review of the Alabama built Honda Odyssey

This one is in the NY Times...steering criticism (too light to the touch), but overall a good review of the 2011 model, still built in the Honda plant in Lincoln Alabama.

Shades of Nancy Worley?

     A McDonalds in Ohio is apologizing for including "Vote Republican" materials in the pay envelopes of employees....stressing how there is a direct connection between their pay and their vote.
     That sounds like what former Alabama Secretary of State Nancy Worley did...without the threat part. She sent her five state employees campaign material with an envelope for donations for her re-election campaign. She has yet to go on trial and won a victory before the Alabama Supreme Court in September.
     Since the minimum wage isn't exactly rare in the fast food industry, and since it is primarily GOP candidates who have called for an end to it, wouldn't it be in the best interest of the McDonalds workers to vote Democratic? As you'll read in the Times story linked above, McDonalds corporate officials says it is completely against company policy.

[NOTE; a webmaster named Brandon Twitchell recommends his "Newsy.com"" site for added information about the McDonalds story, and I'm glad to pass along the link. As with all infomation---including what you find on timlennox.com--- read everything with care. (-:  ]

Alabama's 53rd Governor

     I spent a few hours with each of the nominees this week. You can watch the resulting reports online at the CBS-8 website, click on the name links for each report. I traveled to Auburn and Montgomery with Republican Robert Bentley, and to Hayneville in Lowndes County and Camden in Wilcox County with Democrat Ron Sparks.

 The contrast of locations was striking.

     I'm not sure if I should mention Bradley Byrne, though there's a mini-movement to nominate him as a write-in candiate. (The GOP says it's a plot by a \Democratic operative trying to siphon votes away from Bentley.)

     Speaking of Byrne, he'll be our guest live on election night, providing a unique perspective on the results. Join me during the 8:00 -9:00 hour for his commentary. He'll be especially interesting, since as recently as six months ago, the smart money (mine included) expected he and lame duck Rep. Artur Davis to be fighting it out on November 2nd.

[UPDATE: Blogger Wade Kwon up in Birmingham has an interesting take on who will win or lose based on Facebook "likes"... if it's accurate, watch for some upsets...like Anderson over Strange.]

"Yea? Well my ugly car can beat up your ugly car..."

     Pontiac dies a quiet death this weekend, and a NY Times story about the end of production notes that one Pontiac model is on many "Top 10 Ugliest Cars" lists. The Aztec.
     I only owned one Pontiac, a Fiero, which I've blogged about before.
     Lots of my folks of my generation certainly loved their GTO's, but in recent years the name Pontiac fell into disfavor and was finished off by The Great Recession. RIP.

Use The Belt

     Governor Riley expressed surprise that the three-year study on seat belts and school buses showed 60% of the kids not using the seat belts. He used that fact as one of the justifications for rejected a proposal to include the belts in new Alabama school buses at a cost of some $38 Million. The other reason was that it cost to much and would save only one life every eight years.
     That's probably not too much if its your child who dies. The study began after four Alabama school kids in Huntsville died when a bus crashed head-first off an Interstate ramp to the ground below..
     Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that he's not calling on the schools and parents and transportation departments to do their job. If the kids are required to use the belts, then enforce that requirement. I'm not suggesting that the other kind of belt be used, but come on! If we can't enforce a relatively simple rule like you will wear a seat belt the entire time you are riding on the bus, than how can we make the kids do more complex tasks like you will not beat up the bus driver. Oh yea, that.
     Does all this start at home?

    
  

Irony

Link on the National Weather Service page:

Storm Spotter Class in Dadeville Postponed Due to Weather

MMM #116 - MSM, Still in The Wilderness

     As far as I can tell, the media is still in the wilderness that exists between the old broken business model and the yet to be developed (or even semi-articulated) way of making the news business work.

     It's been eight months since an experiment by three of the biggest names in news and online content shut down an experiment called "Living Stories"
     The idea was you could tell your "page" on the program to keep track of whatever stories you selected, and they would automatically be updated.     
     The experiment was conducted by The New York Times, The Washington Post and Google...a Triumvirate powerful enough to have made it a likely answer to the online journalism question. But it wasn't. The program was handed free to web developers to use it as they please, and Living Stories was no more.

     Just weeks from now, The New York Times is supposed to start charging some heavy users of their web site for access...The Wall Street Journal has already done so.
      I have yet to hear of any broadcast journalism outlets considering the same thing.
     It's not the first time the Times has ventured into the pay to play territory. Their experiment with charging for their premier columnists angered the writers and the readers, and never attracted enough subscribers to make it worthwhile. They abandoned "Times Select" in 2007, eons ago in Internet time.
     In January, we'll find out if their plan---casual users will be allowed free access, heavy users will be charged either per-story or a monthly all-access fee---will be more acceptable. Still no word on how much the paper will charge. They're apparently attracting 20-million unique hits, a number that is sure to drop--or plummet---once there's a fee charged.

[PLUS: a mea culpa from the NPR head for the handling of the Juan Williams affair.]

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

Two Months Before...

And...at Wal-Mart, at least..the shelves are being stocked!

None of The Above

     So The Montgomery Advertiser has backed out of the endorsement game, refusing to endorse either of the two major party candidates for Governor.
     Just wondering: what does that say to potential first-time voters who are conflicted over the choice between Democrat Ron Sparks and Republican Robert Bentley? Don't vote?
     Let's hope the paper doesn't feature an editorial next Sunday encouraging people to get out and vote. It might just ring a touch hollow.

Workplace

     A wake up call for the unemployed from Paul Krugman:

"We’re in the age of 'extra', and everyone has to figure out what extra they can add to their work to justify being paid more than a computer, a Chinese worker or a day laborer."

                                                         Paul Krugman, in a New York Times column


     Ouch. But likely true for many professionals.So what do you bring to the table?
     Alabama's unemployment rate is improving, The Montgomery Advertiser suggests it's because Alabamians who had given up looking for work are back searching because of the upward turn in the economy. But those returning workers may find the demands of the jobs they apply for will require more.
     Productivity has improved during the Great Recession as companies found they could maintain almost the same output even with the layoffs that lowered costs..

On Bright and 'Em

 “Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done."

     So writes the author of "Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics" in a column in today's NY Times.

     Ari Berman never mentions Alabama's Bobby Bright, but the former Montgomery Mayor certainly fits the mold of Democrats who vote so Republican that they have a wing of the party all to themselves: Blue Dogs.

     Berman argues that the Democratic Party would  have been better off if candidates like Bright had lost, and actual card-carrying GOP members had won the seats.

     I can almost hear Marth Roby's plea: from your mouth to God's ears!"

     An interesting column, one way or the other.

What we owe

     I was at Auburn High School the other day listening to Alabama Republican Nominee for Governor Robert Bentley when he asked the kids if they realized how much money they personally owed based on the national debt.
     $45,000 each, he told them...a figure that I have heard before and one that I presume to be correct.

     It got me thinking. If it's fair to use that as a kind of shock to convince people we're in deep deep trouble, then how about the other side of the coin?
     How much do each of us own based of the value of everything owed by the Federal and State and City Governments. Wow. Is there such a figure available? I went searching online. Without luck.
     But just consider for a moment the value of just the Federal Park System. Or of Interstate 10, Or of all the Federal buildings (like the White House or your local Federal Courthouse). Or all of the trucks and beds and nuclear weapons in the military. And the Golden Gate Bridge. And the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. And all of the books and possessions in the various Federal Libraries. And the footprints and flag left on the Moon by U.S. Astronauts.
     Certainly the value is in the many trillions, or maybe in the septillions (24 zeros at the end)  And perhaps that eases the alarmist $45,000 figure a little?
    If you are going to saddle people with a big debt to make a point, then reward them with the worth on the other side of the coin.
     I don't care even a little that I owe one million dollars... if I am a billionaire.

..and speaking of The Subway...Thank you J.C. for the reference.

Juan's Words

     I think NPR blew it with the firing of Juan Williams for voicing his opinion that he is afraid when he gets on a plane and there are people dressed in traditional Muslim garb.
     You can see the video of Williams comments and read one account of the results in The Washington Post story. Listen to, or at least read, all of his comments before you reach an opinion.
     I always thought Willilams was a commentator and analyist..someone hired to express his opinion. Was that only if management agrees with the opinion?

     On the other hand, let me ask Mr. Willliams: do your comments justify white people who cross the street if there is a black man coming toward them on the sidewalk?
     We are all individuals, regardless of color or religion or nationality...a little more judgement by individual behavior and conduct would go a long way toward making this a less knee-jerk reactionary planet on which to live.

The subWAY

     Anyone who has lived in New York City for any length of time...especially in Manhattan...knows the joys and terror of the subway system. The N.Y. Times has posted a lengthy photo tribute to the underground/elevated trains that carry so many people where they need to go in the Big Apple. The pictures go back to some of the earliest days to recent times.
     I took the F and the E train from Queens into Manhattan more times than I care to count, and when I lived in Manhattan, the trip uptown was just minutes long from my apartment near Washington Square. Depending on the time of day, that was either a fast and uneventful journey, or a threatening edgy experience.
     I never got mugged or anything on the subway, but there were times when I thought it was a distinct possibility.

NEW Freedom Riders Coming To Montgomery

     As a promotion for next Spring's airing on PBS of a documentary about the freedom riders who came from North to South to support the Civil Rights movement, a bus of college students and veterans of the original journeys will travel to Montgomery and cities in other Southern States.
     The "American Experience" program will air the program, and is soliciting college students to apply for the a seat on the bus.
     The documentary is being screened in New York City tomorrow.
See The Trailer in the post below.

The NEW Freedom Riders are Coming to Montgomery

Birmingham-born scandal figure dead at 68

     Melvin Lane Powers, a Birmingham native who went on to become, shall we say, romantically involved, with his Aunt, and then was charged with her of murdering her husband, has died. The Times has the story this morning, in much of its lurid detail, declaring them "the most notorious couple" in America.
     No cause of death immediately determined
     They were acquitted of the killing in 1966, defended by an attorney who convinced the jury the husband had been involved in "transvestitism, homosexuality, voyeurism and every conceivable type of perversion, masochism, sadism..." and had been killed by a sex partner.
    We just though we cornered the market on celebrity trash trials.

Looking through the rear view mirror at WMD

     TIME magazine has posted a redacted memo from three months after 9/11, just prior to the Iraq War, showing how the U.S. Government knew it was trying to sell the public by (mis)using false WMD intelligence. "Focus on WMD" advises the talking points list.
     I found the last words...a heading "Next Steps", with nothing below it, of note.

Dites qu'il n'est pas aussi

     As if the French aren't having enough trouble with residents rioting over the threat of reduced government services (as opposed to the U.S., where the prospect of increased government services riles the tea-party masses)...now some Universities in America are dropping French Language courses!
     J'edtudie' Francais por dous annee en ecole. (that's written just as I think it should be from those many years ago courses. The heading of this post was written based on a translation from babblefish.com. Are either of them correct??? French scholars out there??) And why should anyone speak French today anyway...hasn't English in one form or another proved itself as the world language?

MMMM #115 -- Anger at The Media

     There's no shortage of anger at what what "new media" folks call the MSM..the Mainstream Media.
     In fact even before there was a "new" media, taking shots at the print and broadcast Media was something of a national sport in America.
      But in Saudi Arabia, a crowd of folks got so angry at a TV station they took literal shots....attacking it and the people who worked there because it was believed the station had insulted members of the Royal Family.
     Pretty neat deal for the royals. According to the Reuters story...the Saudi "...ruler is protected from criticism by the constitution, and defamation cases against newspapers, writers and bloggers are common."
     Here in the U.S., there haven't been any attacks on stations or papers---though the verbal bombs are routinely thrown at the MSM online, including in the swamp known as the post-story comment section*.
     In a twist on the Saudi violence, I suppose if the MSM started attacking The Obama Administration more directly these days, would it actually lessen any chance of physical violence against themselves?
   

*Check out Montgomery Advertiser columnist Terry Manning's column from Sunday on the topic of post-story comments.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

Campaign Fund Raising Costs

     CBS reports the GOP Senate Candidate in Nevada, Sharron Angle, spent $12 Million in order to raise $14 Million for her campaign, putting her on equal footing with Democratic incumbent Harry Reid.

      Even a math-challenged guy like me knows that's an awfully expensive method of raising money. Like paying someone $40,000 a year as a finder fee for a $50,000 dollar a year job.

Or, better yet, raising millions for a job that pays $174,000. Like that of U.S Senator.

The (AEA-Friendly?) Country Doctor

     The Press-Register reports this morning that GOP nominee Robert Bentley's campaign urged AEA to attack Bradley Byrne in the final days of the election, perhaps leading to Bentley's GOP Primary runoff win.
     We have the (previously taped) interview with Bentley airing this afternoon at 5:30 on CBS 8 in Montogmery.

The Anger

     If Tea Party candidates triumph, they’ll be emboldened. If they lose, the anger and bitterness will grow. The only development that can change this equation is a decisive rescue from our prolonged economic crisis.

Frank Rich in a Sunday NY Times column.

Mom obit

   Though it is true that the "good old days weren't always good" (and tomorrow's not as bad as it seems), there were a few places...fictional ones, of course,...that were the center of the "perfect (white middle-class) family" in the 1950's. My Three Sons, Father Knows Best, and Leave It To Beaver.
   Now the actress who played the perfect Mom in that last TV show, Barbara Billingsly, has died at the age of 94.

(Dis)Abled Restrictions

     An airline is in hot water for telling a man he was too disabled to fly on one of their flights.
     This is obviously a touchy area...just when can society say the greater good requires an individual to give up some of his rights to move within society?
     I asked J.C., the executive blog editor, who has a hearing impairment is a Deaf Person, and who was once Assistant Director for the Minnesota State Council for the Handicapped for him thoughts:

     If this man has already flown half a million miles on various airlines, including US Airways, there is no reason to kick him off a flight. Every day thousands of persons with disabilities fly. Elderly people in wheelchairs are routinely brought onto planes and seated, usually in the bulkhead seats. Blind and even Deaf-blind persons are assisted by airline personnel as needed.

     There is a FAA restriction: persons seated in the emergency exit rows must be able to follow spoken instructions and to physically be able to operate the emergency doors. Other than that, there is absolutely no reason to ban this man from the privilege of flying.
     I do hope that he follows through with a hefty 504/ADA lawsuit.

Thanks J.C.!

The Gaggle

As in Media Gaggle...today for the arraignment for The Bingo 11*...maybe the most TV cameras in one spot here in Montgomery since the Siegelman trial.

*I've got dibbs on this expression, and graphic:  (-:

Robert Bentley on OTR Sunday

     Republican nominee for Governor Robert Bentley will be the guest Sunday afternoon on CBS-8's On The Record. We talk about his charge that Democratic nominee Ron Sparks is the "most liberal Democratic candidate for governor ever"...about the bingo indictments...and about his expectation that Alabama will have a Republican Senate and House after the November 2nd election.

Noon Thursday anyone?

Pack a sack lunch and come join us if you can!
Tim

‘BONUS’ ARCHITREATS:
FOOD FOR THOUGHT PRESENTATION

STEALTH RECONSTRUCTION PANEL DISCUSSION

AT THE ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY

     Join us at noon on Thursday, October 14 for a ‘Bonus’ ArchiTreats: Food for Thought panel discussion on Stealth Reconstruction: The Untold Story of Racial Politics in Recent Southern History. This will be held at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

     Most Americans know the basic facts and events of the modern civil rights movement, but few have a sense of how the civil rights movement actually played out in southern politics over the remainder of the twentieth century. Glen Browder's and Artemesia Stanberry's book, Stealth Reconstruction, explores how white politicians and black activists worked together quietly, practically, and bi-racially to change the South from the 1970s through the 1990s. The book features prominent Alabama political players of the past and present – including Richard Arrington, Fred Gray, Jerome Gray, Howell Heflin, Paul Hubbert, Joe Reed, and George Wallace – and includes surprising revelations about racial politics during that era.

     In this ArchiTreats program, a panel of Alabamians will discuss this process of political change and examine how Alabama got from the continuous turmoil of the mid-twentieth century to biracial politics in the twenty-first century. In addition to co-authors Browder and Stanberry, the panel participants are moderator Tim Lennox (WAKA-TV broadcast journalist), Dr. Sharron Herron (Alabama State University political scientist), Markeshia Ricks (State Government reporter for Montgomery Advertiser), and Dr. Bill Stewart (Professor Emeritus in political science from the University of Alabama).

     Books will be available for purchase by NewSouth Books. The public is invited to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a bit of Alabama history. Coffee and tea will be provided by the Friends of the Alabama Archives. For more information, call (334) 353-4726.

www.archives.alabama.gov

###

Right To Work State

     In "Right To Work" states like Alabama, it is harder to unionize a company. Alabama is already a place where there are only two activities that offer workers protection from dismissal: you can't be fired for having served on jury duty, and you can't be fired for National Guard or Reserve duties. Anything else is fair game, though of course you can always sue over federally protected discrimination.
     An MSNBC report discusses the fact that returning Vets are still having trouble nationally in getting their jobs back, sometimes because the jobs and companies no longer exist.

(That's to Senior New Media editor J.C. for the story idea.)
  

MMMM #114 Media-Ready Survivors

     The miners in Chile who are in the process of being rescued from the mine that has been their home and prison for weeks are certainly ready to come up, escaping the fate so many other miners have suffered.
     Alabamians certainly can relate. Hundreds or thousands of state residents have died in mine accidents over the decades, including 107 who died in a mine explosion in 1905.

     But the miners in Chile also also ready for the army of reporters and producers and videographers and photographers who will pry into their lives the moment they return to the surface. The rescue managers up top...no doubt partly to give them something to do....have sent them materials to provide them media-training. They're using closed circuit TV to connect them with a psychologist and a former journalist who are teaching them how to ask the interviewer to repeat the question if they don't understand it, and how to deflect questions they prefer not to answer.
     The men, who have received more than 1,000 job offers, will also be taught how to open bank accounts and understand how to handle their money. The wife of one miner said simply that he will give interviews to the media offering the largest check.
     Most disasters happen so quickly that there's no time for thinking about media training, but the slow- motion pace of the trapped miners disaster has provided us with perhaps the first large group of mass-media trained survivors. Good luck to them! It may have been easier dealing with the boredom of the mines than with the insistent questioning of the reporters.

[UPDATE: 8:41am, The miners are going to sign an agreement that all profits will be shared...and that there is a 17 day part of the ordeal that will remain a secret.]
[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this blog.]

Solomon Burke 1940 - 2010

     I came to know his music truly late...about six years ago. But I think I loved it no less than those who were fans for decades.
     It was his Don't Give Up on Me that had me asking who is this singing? I pictured him as a small guy, maybe even scrawny, so I was also surprised so see his pictures. A big man.
    Solomon died early today, in the air, on a flight from L.A. to Amsterdam. He was prodigious in both music and love...leaving behind 21 children, 90 grandchildren and 19 great grandchildren.
     R.I.P.

Solomon Burke: 1940 - 2010

Middle Class Poverty in Alabama

     NPR this morning featured the story of an Alabama Departmentof Public Health biologist with a wife and two kids who lives in Tallassee but works in Mongomery...and the struggle the family has paying bills.

Reporting on Suicide

     The blogger at The Legal Schnauzer is questioning the lack of reporting on the recent death of The
Business Council of Alabama's Ralph Stacey, and quotes an (unpublished) letter to Montgomery Advertiser Editor Wanda Lloyd  questioning the cause of death and asking why there was no follow up coverage.

     There is a longstanding policy in most newsrooms to avoid reporting suicides, period. There are exceptions...when the death occurs in a public place or in a spectacular way, or when the suicide victim is a public figure.

     While Stacey's death was in an office building as opposed to a home, it's still not quite the old House Chamber in the State Capitol or the center of Dexter Avenue. And while he was known to people in the media and corporate world, he hardly qualified as a public figure.

     At WAKA we reported the death, but not the suicide aspect of it. I saw the Advertiser story and also felt it was oddly written.

     Journalists are people too, and suicide is such a guilt-ridden kind of death that we sometimes do everything we can to avoid adding to the hurt the victim's family is already feeling.

Literally Watch!!!!!

     I has been so long since I last issued a "Literally Watch" that I've forgotten if I used a particular format with it. For those who have never seen one, Literally Watch is a Public Service of this blog, alerting readers to the fact that we have found another person--in public--misusing the word literally.
     In this case it was a certain news anchor with a last name that starts with a "P" who works in TV News in Montgomery, but not at WAKA.
     In a story about medical bills, she said:

"SOME PEOPLE ARE LITERALLY DROWNING IN DEBT"

   If I had any artistic talent, I would draw a picture of those poor people being smothered by a huge pile of...what? Zero signs? Unpaid hospital bills? This is a tough one to visualize, since debt is not a physical thing, much less a liquid. Maybe liquefied hospital bills?
     Anyway, what she really should have said, of course, was that some people are figuratively drowning in debt.
     I must remember to advise my ENG students to avoid using the word at all, unless they have taken Tim's mini-course in the meaning of literally and figuratively. Coming soon to a University near you.

M(T)MMM # 113 - H. Kurtz to Beast

    I love the "headline" in this MMMM (even if I am posting it on a Tuesday).
    It sounds like something out of a 50's Tabloid, with the headline writer struggling with the confinement of creating a headline "x"  pica across the page using an "x" sized font.
   The story is that Howard Kurz of The Washington Post is leaving the newspaper world and joining the new media. From the Post to the Daily Beast.
    Kurtz is one of my favorite media writers, so the significance of his move may seem more significant that it really is. Another gasp in the dying print world? Or just another adjustment to the economic realities of the newspaper world.
    Good luck Howard!

[PLUS: The Tribune Company's troubles are detailed in a N.Y. Times story today...a must read for anyone in the media. And you thought your company was a hellhole? Whew!.]

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular--usually on Mondays---feature of this blog.]

Haven't we seen this movie??????

     The N.Y. Times reports on a  group of (mad) scientists who have programmed a (berserk) computer to go to the web and teach itself (to hate humans because they are inferior) and grow smarter.
     Don't we ever learn? (-:

BINGO

    Twice during the Justice Department news conference this morning announcing the arrests of eleven people in connection wtih an electronic Bingo investigation, it was mentioned that the "investigation continues". So the question left hanging is this: will the Feds indict any other Democratic candidates in the four weeks before election day?

     Already charged are four State Senators, two Democrats, an Independant (forced to run as one when the GOP refused to let her run under their party banner because of her support for Democratic (BD) Rep. Bobby Bright), and a former Democrat who last month suddenly became a Republican and then just as suddenly reverted to his him party roots because his "heart just wasn't in it" to run with the GOP.

     Here are the names of the 11. Will there be a 12th to make it a dozen?

•Milton E. McGregor, 71, of Montgomery, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, six counts of federal program bribery, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud;


•Ronald E. Gilley, 45, of Enterprise, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, six counts of federal program bribery, 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and four counts of money laundering;

•Jarrod D. Massey, 39, of Montgomery, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, five counts of federal program bribery, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud;

•Thomas E. Coker, 70, of Lowndesboro, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of federal program bribery, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud;

•Robert B. Geddie Jr., 60, of Montgomery, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of federal program bribery, 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice;

•Jarrell W. Walker Jr., 36, of Lanett, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of federal program bribery, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud;

•Harri Anne H. Smith, 48, of Slocomb, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of federal program bribery, one count of extortion, 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and four counts of money laundering;

•Larry P. Means, 63, of Attalla, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of federal program bribery, two counts of attempted extortion, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud;

•James E. Preuitt, 75, of Talladega, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of federal program bribery, one count of attempted extortion, 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud, and one count of making a false statement;

•Quinton T. Ross Jr., 41, of Montgomery, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of federal program bribery, two counts of attempted extortion, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud; and

•Joseph R. Crosby, 61, of Montgomery, Ala., was charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of federal program bribery, and 11 counts of honest services mail and wire fraud.

Comments from the parties, Ron Sparks etc at WAKA.

  

Oktoberfest

     The most unusual variation of that Fall Festival in the world started yesterday in Cullman Alabama, perhaps the only Oktoberfest of any size without beer.
     I attended one Oktoberfest in Germany in 1999, and it was a beer-fueled event that filled a dozen tents the size of football fields. And I drank not a drop. In fact in my life, I've probably consumed a half six-pack.  
     Beer has obviously never been my drink of choice.
     The Cullman event is relatively recent...it was started as a church fundraiser in the 1970's and grew from there.
     Cullman is a post Civil War city, like it's much-larger neighbor---Birmingham-- an hour to the South. And like Birmingham is also has a bleak history of bigotry. The German businessman who developed Culman was almost murdered by a local farmer upset by the newcomer immigrants from Germany, and the city outlawed blacks from settling there. There was even a sign warning blacks not to be there after sunset. (There is some dispute over the details, such as documented in a Cullman Times series.)      
     But traditions do end. In 2008 a black man, James Fields, defeated the white Republican candidate for a House District seat in 2008. And the Cullman dry Oktoberfest could be ending in 2011. Votes are being counted on a referendum that would allow voters to say yea or nay on going "wet", at least in the city of Cullman (not the entire County of Cullman.) Several times in recent years, similar wet/dry votes have been rejected by city residents. We'll see.

OTR on CBS-8

     After a few weeks of sports preemptions, On The Record is back tomorrow just before 60 Minutes on CBS-8 in Montgomery.

      Our guest is Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor Kay Ivey.

     
      The following Sunday we're preempted again. Both of the gubernatorial candidates will be on before the election.

Bye Bye Rick

     Few shows on CNN irritated me as much as Rick Sanchez. It wasn't his politics, such as they were, it was his condesending, phony ego-driven presentation. After some pithy comments about being being biased against him and Jews running the world, I mean, the media, he and CNN have split.
     Dead air would be a suitable replacement for his afternoon program.
     Ya think I disliked the show?

Pre-Tuskegee Experiments--by the same doctor!

     The Times reports this afternoon that the same doctor who was behind the infamous Tuskegee Experiments, in which some African-Americans with syphilis were left untreated to see how the disease would progress, even though it was known penicillin would cure them, had an earlier experiment in which he actually infected prisoners and mental hospital patients in Guatemala and then gave them penicillin to see if it worked.