http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1155806314167040.xml&coll=2 – Investigation launched into Rep. Yvonne Kennedy’s (D-Mobile) transfer of community service funds to private foundation at community college that she leads.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1155806106167040.xml&coll=2 – Baxley pledges to raise minimum wage if elected.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/OPINION01/608170308/1012/OPINION – Editorial praises DHR for efforts to reach more eligible recipients with food stamp program.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/NEWS/608170340/1007/NEWS02 – Tuscaloosa County sets election for home rule.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060816/APN/608160903 – Patricia Todd, apparent winner in House District 54, asks Democrats to dismiss election challenge.

FROM TODAY’S ANNISTON STAR:

Financing arranged to renovate space for Alabama Legislature

By Bob Johnson
Associated Press

08-17-2006

MONTGOMERY — A state board voted Wednesday to sell bonds to finance a $28 million project to renovate two buildings in the state Capitol complex to provide space for the Legislature and for the attorney general’s office.

The Alabama Building Renovation Finance Authority voted to sell bonds for a project to renovate the old Alabama Department of Public Safety Building, located in front of the Capitol, and to move the offices of the attorney general into that building.

The attorney general’s offices are currently located on the third and fourth floors of the Alabama Statehouse behind the Capitol. The bonds would also finance the renovation of the Statehouse so that the space-strapped Legislature could expand and build additional office space and meeting rooms, Gov. Bob Riley said.

The authority board includes Riley, Finance Director Jim Main and state Treasurer Kay Ivey. Ivey did not attend Wednesday’s meeting.

The authority’s action comes after House Clerk Greg Pappas and the Secretary of the Senate, McDowell Lee, asked the Legislature’s Contract Review Committee this month to approve a $93,000 contract with a Montgomery architectural firm to study the feasibility of building a new Statehouse. Pappas and Lee said the current Statehouse was designed as an office building in the 1950s and does not meet the current needs of the Legislature. Major complaints included small meeting rooms and inadequate access for the public.

Riley said Wednesday he doesn’t believe a new Statehouse building is needed and that the renovations would resolve the problems.

“This will open up 70,000 square feet for additional meeting rooms at the Statehouse. That’s a lot of space,” the governor said.

The old DPS building is currently unoccupied and Riley said the renovations would allow the state to continue to use one of the main buildings in the Capitol complex.

The Legislature voted to approve sale of the bonds during the last regular session. Riley said leaders in the House and Senate had approved the concept of remodeling the current Statehouse.

Jeff Woodard, spokesman for House Speaker Seth Hammett, said the speaker agrees with going forward with the bond issue to provide money to renovate the third and fourth floors of the Statehouse.

But Pappas said Wednesday he still believes the state needs a new Statehouse. He said he doubts the renovations will fix the building’s legendary plumbing problems or widen hallways that are so narrow that’s it’s impossible for two people in wheelchairs to pass each other.

“I hate to see us put good money after bad,” Pappas said. “To steal a quote, you can dress up a pig in a tuxedo, but it’s still a pig.”

Editorials

We expect better

In our opinion

08-17-2006

One of the most useless labels you can put on any Alabama politician is the term “liberal.”

This is especially true of any candidate who has been vetted by his or her party in a primary election and come out the winner.

A liberal in Alabama politics is as rare as snow in July or, the way things are going, rain in August.

So we were surprised, and disappointed, when Gov. Bob Riley’s campaign for re-election opened with an attach ad that tried to pin the liberal label on his opponent, Democratic Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, as if, by the way, there is something wrong with that.

Baxley came right back with the same old saw we have heard so many times: “Being called liberal by someone who proposed the largest tax increase in Alabama history is like being called fat by a hog.”

Cute, but as lacking in substance as the charge to which she was responding.

When asked why they chose this route, Josh Blades, Riley’s campaign spokesman, claimed they were only responding to what Baxley was doing. “While we have tried to ignore her attacks and hoped she would begin talking about the issues,” she told reporters, “it is obvious the time has come to start fighting back.”

Well, it is not obvious to us. But even if a response was warranted, in Alabama “liberal” is the most meaningless charge you can level.

Riley should not have used it. Baxley should not have thrown it back at him.

So, that said, what are the issues?

Riley says that Baxley represents the old politics and he represents the new.

We need the governor to be more specific on just what he means by old and how his new is different, and better.

Baxley has trotted out the annual property tax reappraisals, which Roy Moore tried to use against the governor, but Riley is only obeying the law and if the Legislature wants to change the way it is written, Riley has indicated he will sign the bill.

Meanwhile, Baxley says she will be a stronger advocate for our public schools, yet a change in property tax reappraisals will cost the schools money they can ill afford to lose. One can’t have it both ways.

It is still early in the race, so early that some observers question the timing of the Riley ad. However, it is not too early for the candidates to swear off tactics that play to popular prejudices and do little to inform citizens what they will get in return for their votes.