Albany’s future mayor
Here’s a politician who could someday be Albany’s mayor – if only he lived here. Augusta state Sen. Ed Tarver, a Democrat, wants to make it illegal for Georgia General Assembly speakers to lie – unless the speaker is a state representative or senator. Tarver produced is proposing a law that would require an oath from the presenter of “any oral evidence in support or opposition of any legislation or request for appropriation to a committee or subcommittee of the General Assembly. The penalty would be a fine of up to $1,000 and five years in prison – unless you’re a General Assembly member. Recently, Albany Mayor Willie Adams told a City Commission visitor, “I’m a liar,” when the visitor confronted him about not telling the truth.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Albany Beat
Super Tuesday 101
The Dougherty County School System had its game on in preparation for Super Tuesday. For one thing, its 3,000-plus third- through fifth-graders participated Monday in a mock presidential election, and the participants proudly sported official Georgia voter stickers for the remainder of the school day. Before Tuesday’s primary elections, the same students learned about the history of voting in America , qualifications for candidacy, and about the issues facing our country. It’s a civic lesson that increases the chances of those children becoming better citizens. And here’s icing on the cake: Dougherty High School administrators provided space and support for a voter-registration drive at the school. As a result, 65 new voters are now on the rolls.
When severing doesn’t warrant a severance
An Albany Tomorrow Inc. board member says that she and her colleagues erred in hiring Kenneth Weaver, who resigned last week as CEO. Emily Jean McAfee told WALB-TV that she and board Chairman C.W. Grant came to that conclusion, and that Grant shared that perspective with Weaver, who then submitted his resignation. In particular, Ms. McAfee said, Weaver’s shortcomings became clear through his inability to recruit retailers. Unlike Albany City Manager Alfred Lott, who recently forced his finance director to resign after three months on the job, Ms. McAfee and her fellow ATI board members opted not to award a severance package to Weaver as a reward for his three months of service.
Voter disenfranchisement?
A workers’ vote Tuesday at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Albany created some controversy. An employee told The Albany Journal that rules have been put in place by some – but not all -- supervisors for the Findlay, Ohio-based company wherein employees must take time off and that they could lose their perfect-attendance status simply by casting a ballot. Let’s hope that didn’t actually happen.
Humble disassociation
Sometimes, your alma mater – or at least some people connected with it -- lets you down. That happened with many University of Alabama alumni in the 1980s when a classy and successful coach was run out of town by a redneck contingent, and that’s also what is happening to Albany teacher Laura Swette-Bridges’ alma mater, St. Cloud State University in Minnesota . Since November, there have been at least 19 reports of swastikas showing up in public places at the college. “I have always, secretly, felt a little smug to have come from a part of the country that was more enlightened and had people with more important things to do than worry about race,” Ms. Swette-Bridges wrote in Wednesday’s St. Cloud Times newspaper. “As an example to my young students, I have a desktop full of stuffied huskies ( St. Cloud ’s mascot) and university mugs … I am not faced with the sad realization that I am embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with this memorabilia.”
The Dougherty County School System had its game on in preparation for Super Tuesday. For one thing, its 3,000-plus third- through fifth-graders participated Monday in a mock presidential election, and the participants proudly sported official Georgia voter stickers for the remainder of the school day. Before Tuesday’s primary elections, the same students learned about the history of voting in America , qualifications for candidacy, and about the issues facing our country. It’s a civic lesson that increases the chances of those children becoming better citizens. And here’s icing on the cake: Dougherty High School administrators provided space and support for a voter-registration drive at the school. As a result, 65 new voters are now on the rolls.
When severing doesn’t warrant a severance
An Albany Tomorrow Inc. board member says that she and her colleagues erred in hiring Kenneth Weaver, who resigned last week as CEO. Emily Jean McAfee told WALB-TV that she and board Chairman C.W. Grant came to that conclusion, and that Grant shared that perspective with Weaver, who then submitted his resignation. In particular, Ms. McAfee said, Weaver’s shortcomings became clear through his inability to recruit retailers. Unlike Albany City Manager Alfred Lott, who recently forced his finance director to resign after three months on the job, Ms. McAfee and her fellow ATI board members opted not to award a severance package to Weaver as a reward for his three months of service.
Voter disenfranchisement?
A workers’ vote Tuesday at Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. in Albany created some controversy. An employee told The Albany Journal that rules have been put in place by some – but not all -- supervisors for the Findlay, Ohio-based company wherein employees must take time off and that they could lose their perfect-attendance status simply by casting a ballot. Let’s hope that didn’t actually happen.
Humble disassociation
Sometimes, your alma mater – or at least some people connected with it -- lets you down. That happened with many University of Alabama alumni in the 1980s when a classy and successful coach was run out of town by a redneck contingent, and that’s also what is happening to Albany teacher Laura Swette-Bridges’ alma mater, St. Cloud State University in Minnesota . Since November, there have been at least 19 reports of swastikas showing up in public places at the college. “I have always, secretly, felt a little smug to have come from a part of the country that was more enlightened and had people with more important things to do than worry about race,” Ms. Swette-Bridges wrote in Wednesday’s St. Cloud Times newspaper. “As an example to my young students, I have a desktop full of stuffied huskies ( St. Cloud ’s mascot) and university mugs … I am not faced with the sad realization that I am embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with this memorabilia.”
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Albany Beat
Rock, Roll and Run
Problem solved: Downtown Albany ’s signature weekend finally has an all-encompassing moniker: “Rock, Roll and Run.” The Mardi Gras events begin at noon Saturday, March 1 with live music, food, arts and crafts vendors, a car show and a BBQ cook-off sponsored by the Shriners. Kids’ activities including face painting, jumpy houses, a petting zoo, train rides, rock climbing, and games with prizes. Live bands will continue rocking the stage until midnight. Info: 434-8700.
Wanted, You
Speaking of Rock, Roll and Run, Albany needs you to be a member of the Support Team during the second annual SNICKERS® MARATHON® Energy Bar marathon, half marathon and Fun run; the Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend, and all the festivities taking place downtown on Saturday, March 1. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and a ticket for the Mardi Gras Street festival. Road marshals, in particular, are needed, and Central Monitoring will honor volunteers with a thank-you shindig March 18 at the Flint RiverQuarium. To volunteer, sign up at the Albany Chamber of Commerce or at www. albanymarathon.com.
UGA Library support
Harold R. Hudgens Jr., an Albany resident and University of Georgia alumnus, and an Albany couple have teamed up to support the school’s Map Library. A regular user of the Map Library, Hudgens is raising awareness of the library’s important role. Meanwhile, wildlife watercolor artist Rena Divine and her husband, William T. Divine Jr., a former University System of Georgia Board of Regents member, donated four artist's proofs from Rena's series, “Plantations of Southwest Georgia.” In the early 1980s, former Georgia Gov. George Busbee presented Rena's print of brown thrashers, Georgia 's state bird, to dignitaries.
Problem solved: Downtown Albany ’s signature weekend finally has an all-encompassing moniker: “Rock, Roll and Run.” The Mardi Gras events begin at noon Saturday, March 1 with live music, food, arts and crafts vendors, a car show and a BBQ cook-off sponsored by the Shriners. Kids’ activities including face painting, jumpy houses, a petting zoo, train rides, rock climbing, and games with prizes. Live bands will continue rocking the stage until midnight. Info: 434-8700.
Wanted, You
Speaking of Rock, Roll and Run, Albany needs you to be a member of the Support Team during the second annual SNICKERS® MARATHON® Energy Bar marathon, half marathon and Fun run; the Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend, and all the festivities taking place downtown on Saturday, March 1. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and a ticket for the Mardi Gras Street festival. Road marshals, in particular, are needed, and Central Monitoring will honor volunteers with a thank-you shindig March 18 at the Flint RiverQuarium. To volunteer, sign up at the Albany Chamber of Commerce or at www. albanymarathon.com.
UGA Library support
Harold R. Hudgens Jr., an Albany resident and University of Georgia alumnus, and an Albany couple have teamed up to support the school’s Map Library. A regular user of the Map Library, Hudgens is raising awareness of the library’s important role. Meanwhile, wildlife watercolor artist Rena Divine and her husband, William T. Divine Jr., a former University System of Georgia Board of Regents member, donated four artist's proofs from Rena's series, “Plantations of Southwest Georgia.” In the early 1980s, former Georgia Gov. George Busbee presented Rena's print of brown thrashers, Georgia 's state bird, to dignitaries.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Albany Beat
Holy Smoke!
Local and state arson investigators say they don’t buy the Rev. Joseph Howard III’s contention that his Metropolitan Baptist Church was torched by racists; rather, they say that Howard did the dirty deed. Howard was arrested Friday and charged with New Year’s Eve arson, which destroyed the church sanctuary, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage. Citing Howard’s “vision and commitment,” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop in 2003 helped Howard’s Trinity Community Development Corp. receive $3.975 million for 49 senior citizen apartments. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department grant was Trinity CDC’s first. Bishop added at the time: “I was pleased to support this grant application.”
Purple Heart to Lex
Albany ’s most famous military working dog is getting a new pendant for his collar – a Purple Heart. The recently retired German shepherd, which was wounded during combat in March in Iraq , will be honored during a ceremony on Feb. 16 at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach , Fla. Based at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Lex was serving alongside Cpl. Dustin Lee, a canine handler from Quitman, Miss., when the two were targeted during a mortar attack. Lee, 20, died from his wounds and his parents adopted Lex upon the dog’s retirement in December. Info: donations@militaryworkingdogmemorial.com. Four military dog handlers and three military working dogs have been killed in action during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
Local and state arson investigators say they don’t buy the Rev. Joseph Howard III’s contention that his Metropolitan Baptist Church was torched by racists; rather, they say that Howard did the dirty deed. Howard was arrested Friday and charged with New Year’s Eve arson, which destroyed the church sanctuary, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage. Citing Howard’s “vision and commitment,” U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop in 2003 helped Howard’s Trinity Community Development Corp. receive $3.975 million for 49 senior citizen apartments. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department grant was Trinity CDC’s first. Bishop added at the time: “I was pleased to support this grant application.”
Purple Heart to Lex
Albany ’s most famous military working dog is getting a new pendant for his collar – a Purple Heart. The recently retired German shepherd, which was wounded during combat in March in Iraq , will be honored during a ceremony on Feb. 16 at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach , Fla. Based at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Lex was serving alongside Cpl. Dustin Lee, a canine handler from Quitman, Miss., when the two were targeted during a mortar attack. Lee, 20, died from his wounds and his parents adopted Lex upon the dog’s retirement in December. Info: donations@militaryworkingdogmemorial.com. Four military dog handlers and three military working dogs have been killed in action during Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Albany Beat
Banishment to be banned?
Albany Mayor Willie Adams’ insistence that three-time drug offenders be banished from Dougherty County is being ignored by Chief Dougherty Superior Court Judge Loring Gray, who refuses to hoist our problems on another community. Besides, doing so may soon be illegal. The Georgia Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of banishment as it contemplates a Douglas County case in which a convicted stalker is prohibited from living with every Georgia County except Toombs while on probation.
High on … dung?
Hopefully you’re not eating, but you need to know this: Without question, the grossest thing you’ll ever read in this newspaper; Folks, drug addicts are getting high off on excrement. That’s right; they take raw sewage (it may or may not be their own), and they inhale it. Yep, effluent has street value. No dung. A respected local narcotics investigator told us about jenkem, this not-necessarily-so-new drug that is suddenly the topic of water cooler fodder in narcotics divisions throughout the country. Yep, the Apocolypse just may be here. But you needed to know.
Coat drive in final push
Got one warm coat to donate? Central Monitoring is wrapping up its second annual One Warm Coat drive, which benefits clients of agencies served by the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia . New and gently used coats are being collected through Jan. 31 at these and other locations: Any of Dougherty County’s 11 fire stations; Central Monitoring, 522 Pine Ave.; Regions Bank; Security Bank; Albany Bank & Trust; AmerisBank; WALB-TV; WFXL-TV; The Albany Herald; and the Albany Mall’s University Gifts & Apparel. Also, coats will be collected at the King Day Celebration on Monday at the Albany Civic Center . Info: 434-1176.
Albany Mayor Willie Adams’ insistence that three-time drug offenders be banished from Dougherty County is being ignored by Chief Dougherty Superior Court Judge Loring Gray, who refuses to hoist our problems on another community. Besides, doing so may soon be illegal. The Georgia Supreme Court is currently reviewing the constitutionality of banishment as it contemplates a Douglas County case in which a convicted stalker is prohibited from living with every Georgia County except Toombs while on probation.
High on … dung?
Hopefully you’re not eating, but you need to know this: Without question, the grossest thing you’ll ever read in this newspaper; Folks, drug addicts are getting high off on excrement. That’s right; they take raw sewage (it may or may not be their own), and they inhale it. Yep, effluent has street value. No dung. A respected local narcotics investigator told us about jenkem, this not-necessarily-so-new drug that is suddenly the topic of water cooler fodder in narcotics divisions throughout the country. Yep, the Apocolypse just may be here. But you needed to know.
Coat drive in final push
Got one warm coat to donate? Central Monitoring is wrapping up its second annual One Warm Coat drive, which benefits clients of agencies served by the Food Bank of Southwest Georgia . New and gently used coats are being collected through Jan. 31 at these and other locations: Any of Dougherty County’s 11 fire stations; Central Monitoring, 522 Pine Ave.; Regions Bank; Security Bank; Albany Bank & Trust; AmerisBank; WALB-TV; WFXL-TV; The Albany Herald; and the Albany Mall’s University Gifts & Apparel. Also, coats will be collected at the King Day Celebration on Monday at the Albany Civic Center . Info: 434-1176.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Albany Beat
Bishop, Bowling Big; Taylor Not
Georgia Trend magazine has left the “Big Guy” off its 2008 most-powerful list. Georgia ’s leading magazine and politics and the economy says U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who calls Albany and Columbus home, and Annette Bowling, the Albany Advocacy Resource Center executive director, are among Georgia’s most 100 influential residents. Notably not on the list is a former perennial Georgia Trend honoree – former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor of Albany.
Georgia Trend magazine has left the “Big Guy” off its 2008 most-powerful list. Georgia ’s leading magazine and politics and the economy says U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, who calls Albany and Columbus home, and Annette Bowling, the Albany Advocacy Resource Center executive director, are among Georgia’s most 100 influential residents. Notably not on the list is a former perennial Georgia Trend honoree – former Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor of Albany.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Albany Beat
Lott headed out?
If Albany City Manager Alfred Lott keeps his word (we know, we know), he’s in the homestretch of his first stint as a top administrator. Lott declared after being hired in September 2005 that he would stay in Albany for three years and that he then would, as it puts it, “graduate” to a bigger and better public management gig. How’s Lott, who was hired in September 2005, doing so far? Who knows? The City Commission has breached its contractual responsibility to appraise the city manager’s performance each year.
‘Fireproof’ on Dove’s A-list
Sherwood Baptist Church ’s new production, “Fireproof,” lured The Dove Foundation CEO Dick Rolfe to the movie set this month. Dove is a nonprofit advocacy organization committed to moving Hollywood in a more family-friendly direction. “The success of movies like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Passion of the Christ’ made Hollywood sit up and take notice that there was a huge audience being underserved,” Rolfe told the San Francisco Chronicle after his Albany visit. “Fireproof” follows the Sherwood hit “Facing the Giants,” which cost $100,000 to make and brought in $14 million. Rolfe and other parents started the Grand Rapids , Mich. , Dove Foundation in 1991 to create a guide to what they consider “safe” family viewing. Rolfe says the organization’s Website (http://www.dove.org/) garners 2 million hits a month. “We have as much or more experience than most organizations do in reaching American families,” Rolfe says, “and we have sensitivity to what they're looking for in the way of entertainment.”
Must-see TV on at 7 , too
Like news? We do, too. That’s why we’re celebrating WALB-TV’s expansion – so to speak – of its news coverage. The Albany NBC affiliate’s 6 p.m. news is now rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on Mediacom cable channel 26. Since WALB now also broadcasts the 24/7 Weather Channel over the air, it can be picked up by antenna, too.
Albany’s new jet service
DayJet Corp. is expanding its on-demand business travel airline service network to Albany and 27 other new destinations in Georgia , Florida , Alabama and Mississippi . The 5-year-old company’s network expansion follows the October launch of the company's jet service in Tallahassee. Other cities that can be booked by the airline are: Brunswick , Savannah , Valdosta and Waycross , Ga. ; Boca Raton, Daytona Beach, Destin, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Leesburg, Melbourne, Miami/Opa-Locka, Naples, Ocala, West Palm Beach, Panama City, Pensacola, Punta Gorda, Sanford, Sarasota, Sebring, St. Augustine, and St. Petersburg ; Dothan , Fairhope and Mobile , Ala. ; and Pascagoula , Miss.
Paying to fight crime
Conceding that it might not be able to be done, Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington is asking residents of his community to put up or shut up about fighting crime. A former police chief who ran a law-and-order campaign before being elected in 2006, Wetherington is asking business leaders to support his request that voters pay an extra penny in sales tax – mostly to pay for public safety. Under Wetherington’s plan, which hasn’t been presented to the City Council, a July referendum would be held. While the bulk of the tax would fund public safety, roads and infrastructure also would be financed with the extra penny, which would raise about $36 million a year and increase Columbus ’ sales tax to 8 percent. “I want to put more police downtown, more police on the Riverwalk, more police in the parks. I want to build new precincts,” Wetherington told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “With all of the broth, we are not prepared in the Public Safety Department to deal with it.”
‘Como esta?’ ‘You’re fired!’
Here’s one piece of federal legislation that will not – it had better not, anyway – get anywhere when Congress reconvenes. In his “Common Sense English Act,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) proposes to amend the Civil Rights Act to allow employers to require workers to speak English while on the job. “English is the language that unites our society and keeps our economy,” Price said in a statement. “Denying employers the right to promote our national language in the workplace only encourages division and creates troublesome misunderstandings.” We figure that Price must think that the U.S. Constitution begins, “We, the English-speaking people of the United States …”
Who’s in your wallet?
Do you know where your Social Security number is? Chances are pretty good a thief does, as it probably is in the hands of every insurance company you've ever had, your bank, your credit card companies, your doctor, the hospital where you had surgery, your student loan company, your university admissions office, and on and on and on. With identity theft now directly affecting 1 in 4 Americans, an online petition drive has started to enable Americans to tell Congress that their SSN is theirs – and should be protected. Info: http://go.care2.com/e/xsUe-R1o2/ADR9b.
If Albany City Manager Alfred Lott keeps his word (we know, we know), he’s in the homestretch of his first stint as a top administrator. Lott declared after being hired in September 2005 that he would stay in Albany for three years and that he then would, as it puts it, “graduate” to a bigger and better public management gig. How’s Lott, who was hired in September 2005, doing so far? Who knows? The City Commission has breached its contractual responsibility to appraise the city manager’s performance each year.
‘Fireproof’ on Dove’s A-list
Sherwood Baptist Church ’s new production, “Fireproof,” lured The Dove Foundation CEO Dick Rolfe to the movie set this month. Dove is a nonprofit advocacy organization committed to moving Hollywood in a more family-friendly direction. “The success of movies like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and ‘The Passion of the Christ’ made Hollywood sit up and take notice that there was a huge audience being underserved,” Rolfe told the San Francisco Chronicle after his Albany visit. “Fireproof” follows the Sherwood hit “Facing the Giants,” which cost $100,000 to make and brought in $14 million. Rolfe and other parents started the Grand Rapids , Mich. , Dove Foundation in 1991 to create a guide to what they consider “safe” family viewing. Rolfe says the organization’s Website (http://www.dove.org/) garners 2 million hits a month. “We have as much or more experience than most organizations do in reaching American families,” Rolfe says, “and we have sensitivity to what they're looking for in the way of entertainment.”
Must-see TV on at 7 , too
Like news? We do, too. That’s why we’re celebrating WALB-TV’s expansion – so to speak – of its news coverage. The Albany NBC affiliate’s 6 p.m. news is now rebroadcast at 7 p.m. on Mediacom cable channel 26. Since WALB now also broadcasts the 24/7 Weather Channel over the air, it can be picked up by antenna, too.
Albany’s new jet service
DayJet Corp. is expanding its on-demand business travel airline service network to Albany and 27 other new destinations in Georgia , Florida , Alabama and Mississippi . The 5-year-old company’s network expansion follows the October launch of the company's jet service in Tallahassee. Other cities that can be booked by the airline are: Brunswick , Savannah , Valdosta and Waycross , Ga. ; Boca Raton, Daytona Beach, Destin, Fort Pierce, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West, Kissimmee, Lakeland, Leesburg, Melbourne, Miami/Opa-Locka, Naples, Ocala, West Palm Beach, Panama City, Pensacola, Punta Gorda, Sanford, Sarasota, Sebring, St. Augustine, and St. Petersburg ; Dothan , Fairhope and Mobile , Ala. ; and Pascagoula , Miss.
Paying to fight crime
Conceding that it might not be able to be done, Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington is asking residents of his community to put up or shut up about fighting crime. A former police chief who ran a law-and-order campaign before being elected in 2006, Wetherington is asking business leaders to support his request that voters pay an extra penny in sales tax – mostly to pay for public safety. Under Wetherington’s plan, which hasn’t been presented to the City Council, a July referendum would be held. While the bulk of the tax would fund public safety, roads and infrastructure also would be financed with the extra penny, which would raise about $36 million a year and increase Columbus ’ sales tax to 8 percent. “I want to put more police downtown, more police on the Riverwalk, more police in the parks. I want to build new precincts,” Wetherington told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “With all of the broth, we are not prepared in the Public Safety Department to deal with it.”
‘Como esta?’ ‘You’re fired!’
Here’s one piece of federal legislation that will not – it had better not, anyway – get anywhere when Congress reconvenes. In his “Common Sense English Act,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) proposes to amend the Civil Rights Act to allow employers to require workers to speak English while on the job. “English is the language that unites our society and keeps our economy,” Price said in a statement. “Denying employers the right to promote our national language in the workplace only encourages division and creates troublesome misunderstandings.” We figure that Price must think that the U.S. Constitution begins, “We, the English-speaking people of the United States …”
Who’s in your wallet?
Do you know where your Social Security number is? Chances are pretty good a thief does, as it probably is in the hands of every insurance company you've ever had, your bank, your credit card companies, your doctor, the hospital where you had surgery, your student loan company, your university admissions office, and on and on and on. With identity theft now directly affecting 1 in 4 Americans, an online petition drive has started to enable Americans to tell Congress that their SSN is theirs – and should be protected. Info: http://go.care2.com/e/xsUe-R1o2/ADR9b.
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