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Good PR rep needed
In the same breath she criticized the media for "seeking to discredit our great system." It has been the media…most especially the Birmingham News…which has turned up all manner of highly questionable spending and hiring practices in the network of two year colleges. Dr. Culverhouse, who was president of Gadsden State until a few weeks ago, doesn't have clean hands in this area. There were several employees on her payroll at Gadsden State that raised eyebrows. That in her new role as chancellor she would call on the institutions to impede the investigation brought an immediate expression of astonishment from Gov. Bob Riley. Riley said he believes media scrutiny will help resolve problems in the system and he was chagrined that Culverhouse would try to hinder these investigations. Perhaps Dr. Culverhouse's next PR rep needed hire should be a public relations advisor. She obviously needs one. **** It may or may not have been significant, but several days ago the top industrial development recruiter for Louisiana said publicly that that's state offer for the giant ThyssenKrupp steel plant had fallen short. Was this a concession of defeat? Did this mean that Alabama is now a lock cinch to land one of the largest industrial development projects in history? Can we start dancing in the streets that this multi-billion dollar project is now certain to come to Mount Verson? Neal Wade , the director of the Alabama Development Office, wasn't ready to claim victory. While saying Alabama's negotiations with the plant have been "nothing but positive" he still thinks it is a horse race between the two states for the plant. **** For the record, six members of the State Senate…all Republicans…have filed the necessary papers instructing the State Comptroller not to give them the huge pay raise the legislators approved for themselves a few weeks ago. The legislators who said thanks but no thanks to the 62 per cent raise were Sens. Bradley Byrne, Montrose; Ben Brooks, Mobile; Larry Dixon, Montgomery; Hank Erwin, Montevallo; Harri Anne Smith, Slocomb and Del Marsh, needed Anniston. Several other legislators said they would accept their full salary but intended to give the extra money to charity. **** Former Gov. Don Siegelman has asked a 100 or so of his closest friends to write "fan letters" to U. S. District Judge Mark Fuller…telling him what a good man Siegelman is and what a "positive difference" he had made for the people of Alabama. It was Judge Fuller who presided over Siegelman's corruption trial where the former governor was found guilty of bribery and conspiracy charges. **** Municipal Court Judge Holmes Whiddon of Mobile has attracted some national applause for some of the sentences he has handed down against those who would litter the streets of that city. For example, several defendants who were cited for flicking a cigarette butt on the sidewalk were ordered to pick up 4,000 cigarette butts and bring them to the court. Last week a man charged with tossing a piece of cardboard out of his trailer was ordered to pick up 200 pounds of cardboard. If Judge Whiddon keeps this up, Mobile may soon be one of the cleanest city in America.
Bob Ingram has been covering Alabama politics for over 50 years.
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