Saturday 3/31/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

Daily Home – St. Clair, Talladega lawmakers review past legislative week for local paper.

Decatur Daily – Presidential hopeful Giuliani plans fund raising trip to Montgomery next month.

Gadsden Times – Gadsden couple say they won’t appeal dismissal of case attempting to void election of Sen. Larry Means (D-Attala).

Associated Press – Divided State Supreme Court upholds death sentence.

Anniston StarThe Anniston Star comments on the impact of this weeks N.Y. Times‘ article about Alabama’s lack of adequate counsel for death-row inmates.

Tuscaloosa News – Siegelman asks supporters to send messages detailing his good deeds to sentencing judge in corruption case.

Tuscaloosa News – State’s unemployment rate holds steady at 3.3%.

Continue reading “Saturday 3/31/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST”

Ghosts in the Machine

Lost posts today (including the Daily News Digest) and lost comments from readers… I know that it is a problem.

My experience with the webhosting company has been positive enough to this point that I am hopeful they will be able to get us through this frustration, recover what is lost, and work everything [...]

Friday 3/30/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

Birmingham News – Continuing corruption of community college system points to Shelton State president.

Birmingham News – Riley, state board of education members expected to propose actions to limit number of legislators working in community college system.

Birmingham News – Slowdown halts work in Senate.

Birmingham NewsThe Birmingham [...]

Political Parlor’s Servers in Slowdown Also

The Senate has slowed down and the servers hosting the Political Parlor seem to be matching it step for step. Filibusters may have their place, but I don’t want to experience one from a web page trying to load. I haven’t seen Doc this hopping mad since he ran over a dirt dauber’s nest [...]

AL-2 Rumors and Facts

Terry Everett

U.S. Rep. Terry Everett

Alabama’s second U.S. House District looks like the only Alabama Congressional seat that may have much drama to it in 2008 (though, to be fair, there are some who believe Democratic Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks could mount a challenge to incumbent GOP Senator Jeff Sessions in ’08).

The [...]

Kudos to Sens. Byrne, Dixon, and Erwin

Kudos to three GOP state senators who have taken a principled stance that would have given many of us pause.

Three state senators have refused their annual $18,840 expense allowance increase that House and Senate members voted themselves last week.

Sens. Bradley Byrne, R-Montrose, Larry Dixon, R-Montgomery, and Hank Erwin, R-Montevallo, said Tuesday [...]

Sparks May Decide in “Weeks or Months”

Yep, Democratic Ag Commissioner Ron Sparks is considering a challenge to GOP incumbent Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008.

Sparks said he would discuss the possibility of a Senate run with his advisors and hopes to make a decision in a “few weeks or months.”

Related Articles:

Thursday 3/29/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

Birmingham News – Legislators considering size of bond issue for schools’ capital needs, split between higher ed and k-12.

Press-Register – House committee adopts bill to keep presidential primary on February 5th, but allows Mobile and Baldwin counties to conduct early voting so as not to interfere with Mardi Gras.

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Change of Pace, Change of Perception…

During my first four years in Montgomery there was always a commonly held belief that it didn’t really matter what happened in the House of Representatives to most insiders because of the different volume of bills passed as opposed to the Senate. The House has always worked at a break neck pace to pass [...]

Cramer Most Powerful Alabama Representative

A reader has pointed me to Congress.org that ranks all members of Congress according to a “Power Ranking” (their criteria are found here).

The recent November flip in both Washington houses has helped make Alabama’s only two Democratic representatives, Bud Cramer and Artur Davis, the top-ranked Alabama representatives on the list from [...]

House Bill Bans “Pass Through Pork”

For the fourth year, the House has passed a bill banning “pass through pork.” This was one of the reforms touted in the Governor’s 2003 failed Amendment One tax reform campaign. The practice involves a legislator securing funds for an agency that are actually spent in a manner directed by the legislator, i.e. [...]

Wednesday 3/28/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

Senate Sketches – This week’s “Senate Sketches,” Sen. Hank Sanders’  (D-Selma) weekly column for his constituents, focuses on the legislative appropriation  to rebuild Enterprise schools.

Birmingham News – Report reveals that Alabama tax burden for low income families  lightens; state moves up from highest to second place in ranking of states [...]

Two Competing Minimum Wage Bills

Dollar Sign

Rep. Patricia Todd (D – Birmingham) has sponsored HB331, a bill to raise the minimum wage in Alabama from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years. (The Decatur Daily appears to have misread the bill and mistakenly said that this bill would require a constitutional amendment.)

Rep. Jack Williams (R – Birmingham) [...]

Guin, Two-Year Colleges, and the Smell Test

Ken Guin

No one is accusing Democratic House Majority Leader Ken Guin of breaking the law, but his cozy relationships with Shelton State Community College and Bevill State Community College aren’t passing the smell test for reasons already covered elsewhere. (Three part-time jobs, including state Representative, at around $50,000 each is good work [...]

Bills for the Week…

I have a couple of bills that will be coming up this week in the House and while these issues will not set blog world on fire they do make a difference in the criminal justice world.

** Confession- I am one of those horrible, lowlifes in our society commonly referred to as an [...]

Legislative Dispatch

A Look from the Rearview Mirror

This Thursday will mark the last day of the legislative Session.  For some, it was a Session that seemed would never end.  For others, it was one that ended much too quickly.  It may be early, yet, to write an obit on this Session, but as we approach the finish line, some perspective may be in order.

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Putting Students First

As you know, a very important piece of legislation will be presented for our consideration in the House tomorrow in Montgomery – Senate Bill 310 – the “Students First” tenure and fair dismissal reform bill. Like me, many House members have been inundated with phone calls and emails from opponents of this bill, and some have been [...]

Legislative Transparency

There are a lot of issues to debate before we begin the final days of this session. In fact, I am quite certain there will be some comments on this post debating many of them. Before we get into the last seven day of the session I wanted to bring up a topic that [...]


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