NO bingo, NO furloughs, NO charter schools, NO...

     This seems to be the Alabama Legislature that can't say yes. Unless it's to override one of Governor Bob Riley's vetos. The Senate voted against the electronic bingo bill today, leaving thousands of employees out of work and some pretty major entertainment centers gathering dust in Dothan and Shorter, and smaller ones elsewhere.
     But the tribes are smiling.
     It appears legislators will overturn the Governor's veto of a bill that prevented state agencies from sending workers home without pay for as long as 28 days a year.
     The Governor's charter school initiative died earlier. He expects to hear any day now whether or not the state is still in the running for some of that "Race To The Top" money. (By the way, read the story in today's N.Y. Times about the high-powered educator who has made a U-turn away from charter schools, No Child Left Behind and other education "reform" measures. From the story:

Charter schools, she concluded, were proving to be no better on average than regular schools, but in many cities were bleeding resources from the public system.

)

     Still to come for legislators, a little matter of budgets. The only duty they legally have to perform is writing the budgets. Yet with the session half-over, they've yet to begin. But they should be warmed up to the task...they'll find plenty of reason to say "no" in both the Education and the General Fund budgets.