Wednesday 6/25/2008 DAILY NEWS DIGEST
Birmingham News – UAB increasing recruitment of Hispanic students in effort to expand availability of Spanish-speaking health professionals.
Birmingham News – Study shows state has made improvement in closing achievement gaps by race and income in elementary and middle school grades, but gap grows among high school students.
Birmingham News – Judge rejects AEA’s lawsuit challenging appointment of Bradley Byrne as chancellor.
Birmingham News – Economist predicts that Alabama will avoid economic downturn, predicts growth this year.
Birmingham News – The Birmingham News says that the number of absentee ballots cast in some Black Belt counties in recent election is “unbelievably high.”
Birmingham News – The Birmingham News comments on DHR’s elimination of homemaker services, calls for legislature to restore funds for service.
Senate Sketches - “Senate Sketches,” the weekly column to his constituents from Sen. Hank Sanders (D-Selma).
Mobile Press-Register – Activists raise questions about location of proposed sewage treatment facility in Bayou la Batre.
Mobile Press-Register – Press-Register says that creation of bus system to move riders between Mobile and Baldwin counties demonstrates that public transit systems can be successful.
Huntsville Times – Michigan continuing efforts to land VW facility while industry analyst says that Limestone County site appears to be the frontrunner.
Huntsville Times – The Huntsville Times looks at squabble between Attorney General Troy King and U.S. Justice Department over voting irregularities in Perry County.
Tuscaloosa News – The Tuscaloosa News contends that decision by DHR to eliminate homemaker services due to budget shortfalls “yells for tax reform.”
Times Daily - Times Daily praises Riley’s decision to release names of contributors to his inauguration, but calls for enactment of state statute to require such disclosure.
Birmingham News – Experts predict an expanding Alabama aerospace industry regardless of decision on tanker.
Montgomery Advertiser - The Montgomery Advertiser urges AG and local prosecutors to vigorously investigate allegations of voter fraud, but caution against allowing partisanship to dictate where and who they investigate.
Montgomery Advertiser - Commentary by Randy Brinson of the Alabama Christian Coalition calls for efforts to increase access to health care.
I hope the issue of voter fraud in Alabama stays on the front burner because without honest elections we can’t even hope to have honest government at any level from local to state.
Comment by Don — June 25, 2008 @ 8:44 am
glad to see: AEA’s “Case dismissed” … another defeat for AEA
too bad: AEA is also paying the legal tab for an ongoing lawsuit by some legislators
so sad: “Unfortunately, we were forced to spend $75,000 of taxpayer money defeating this lawsuit, which never had merit” Byrne said
Comment by OldCloverdale — June 25, 2008 @ 10:00 am
The readiness to use percent of the vote absentee as “evidence of election fraud” is unsound. The strongest predictor of the rate of absentee voting is the percent of the labor force employed outside the county. For example in Green County only 48.3% of the employed residents worked in Green County. For Perry County the same statistic is 50.7%. Compare that with Montgomery at 93.3% and you can clearly see an economic reason for this difference. One other point about this primary that the Republicans point to is the very high turnout in the black belt counties. The issue here is that in these counties the Democratic primary is the general election for almost all the local offices. Back when Alabama was a one party state, we often had more votes in the primary than in the general election for non-presidential election years. The same thing continues in the black belt.
Now Republicans have consistently jumped to the conclusion that this is evidence of voter fraud. And then they accuse blacks of racism when they won’t consider voting for republicans.
Comment by Pecan Jim — June 25, 2008 @ 11:25 am
Pecan Jim, where did you find your statistics on the percentage of persons employed within the county? I’m not questioning your numbers, I’d like to find that info for some other counties.
Comment by Fo-fiver — June 25, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
Fo-Fiver,
The data are in Population Table 26, cell 1 is for total employed and cell 3 is employed in the county of residence, of Summary File Three of the 2000 Census. They are accessible through “The American Fact Finder” tool on the www.census.gov site. It takes a little while to learn to use it but with just a little playing around you can get a lot very interesting data. I usually build a table and download it in Excel format so I can make calculations.
Comment by Pecan Jim — June 25, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
Thank you very much Pecan Jim! The Alabama GOP is trying to make it illegal to vote absentee.
Comment by bhmhomeboy — June 25, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Thanks.
Comment by Fo-fiver — June 25, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Thank you Pecan Jim, I had not thought of the number of absentee ballots being so closely tied to the number of people employed outside of the county. It will be interesting to see how these investigations turn out.
I will, however, have to say that the statement that the GOP is trying to make absentee voting illegal is as silly as the earlier statement that cleaning up corruption in the 2 year system is really an attempt to destroy the community colleges.
Comment by Margaret — June 25, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
Bhmhmboy,If your comment was a joke and I missed it, I apologize.
Comment by Margaret — June 25, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Likely, the reason a high number of absentee ballots makes election results suspect is past history of how absentee ballots were forged in order for some unscrupulous politician to win an election that might have gone to his or her opponent otherwise. Because of that, it is only prudent to conduct an investigation to see if the same sordid thing has taken place again. In most cases, these elections involve two black Democrats facing one another, so it isn’t a matter of Republicans against Democrats nor whites against blacks. Good black citizens in areas where this has occurred rightly feel they have essentially been disenfranchised through this process and want to have honest elections. Remember that it is the black Perry County District Attorney, Michael Jackson, who said voter fraud has been going on there for half a century, that the results of the recent primary are suspicious, and who has called for a federal investigation.
Comment by Don — June 25, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
I wonder if Shelby Co has the same high Absentee rate, since a large percentage are employed out of county?
Comment by JD — June 25, 2008 @ 6:28 pm