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Alabama Scene
When Gov. Riley announced plans to call a special session to increase the state's bond debt limit with the money to be used to attract industry, the Democrat Caucus in the Senate howled in protest. It would be a waste of money to call a special session said Sen. Zeb Little, DCullman, who is emerging as a rising (and ambitious) star in his party. But lo and behold the very next day the special session got a strong endorsement from the two biggest Democrats in the Legislature…Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom and House Speaker Seth Hammett, DAndalusia. That may not have been egg on the face of Little and the other Democrat senators but it sure looked like it. What the senators must not have known is that when Riley flew to Germany a couple of weeks ago to meet with industrial prospects, he was accompanied by Folsom and Hammett. **** Dr. Tom Corts, an ordained minister has surely heard the old joke about the preacher who in his sermon turned his attention to some sins which were committed by many members of his flock. After the service, one of the old deacons lectured the minister…"You quit preaching today and started meddling…" When Dr. Corts suggested a few days ago that perhaps there should be a separate state board to oversee the two-year colleges, he quit preaching and started meddling. Almost instantly some of the board members raised the possibility of removing Corts from his position. Realizing the tempest he had created with his remarks he said he had mentioned a separate board "only lightly and without emphasis." An ongoing investigation had turned up evidence of mass wrongdoing in the two-year system, wrongdoing that had gone completely unnoticed by the State Board of Education until it was revealed some splendid investigative reporting by the Birmingham News. Corts in his initial remarks said that perhaps the State Board of Education had more than enough to watch over without also having the responsibility of the two-year schools as well. He also said that he was well aware he served at the pleasure of the board and "you need only to let me know when your pleasure is spent." Ella Bell, a board member from Montgomery, had a wicked response to that: "I would say my pleasure is spent. We hired him thinking he was the right man for this job and it just didn't work out." The obvious question in this donnybrook… if Corts is dismissed will the investigation into the sordid mess in the two-year system continue with the same gusto? **** Maybe it is because I happen to be one of them…a surviving World War II veteran…but I give a standing ovation to a group of folks in Huntsville, including my friend Melinda Gorham, editor of the Huntsville Times, for organizing the Tennessee Valley Chapter of Honor Flight. And what is the goal of this organization? To provide a free, one day trip for World War II veterans to Washington to tour the World War II Memorial. The first flight will be made April 4 when about a dozen vets…the youngest is 78, most are several years older…will be flown to Washington where a chartered bus will take them to the memorial. They will be accompanied by medical personnel because some of them are not in the best of health. But this fall the organization has even bigger plans…a plane will be chartered to carry 60 vets to the memorial…again with all expenses paid. Joe Fitzgerald, a Huntsville businessman, is head of this volunteer group and he thinks it is important that members of the "Greatest Generation" have the opportunity to see the memorial that honors them. "We are losing 1,200 to 1,500 of these veterans every day so there is no time to waste," he added.
Bob Ingram has been covering Alabama politics for over 50 years.
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