State Auditor Jim Zeigler questions ALDOT’s John Cooper about spending priorities
Tasked with providing accountability to the taxpayers of Alabama by maintaining accurate records of all personal property valued at $500 and above, State Auditor Jim Zeigler is taking his responsibility to the people of Alabama one step further: questioning the spending priorities of the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT). On Tuesday, Zeigler sent a letter to John Cooper, Transportation Director at ALDOT and William Patty, ALDOT Chief Counsel, inquiring about the need for an $87 million state-funded bridge project in Baldwin County — which would be a second bridge to Orange Beach. Zeigler requested the following documents from the ALDOT: Copies of any and all studies that demonstrated a need for a bridge over the Intercoastal waterway Any and all documents that show a change in the need for the Intercoastal bridge since the determination in 2016 that the bridge was unnecessary Any and all analyses to support spending $30-$87 million in state funds in light of the pressing infrastructure needs throughout the state Any and all documents that resulted in the range of costs projected ($30 to $87 million) Documents that show cost overruns on current and recent ALDOT projects According to the court filing from the bridge company, they agreed to widen their bridge at no additional cost to Please provide any and all documents that address why the option of widening the original bridge is not being utilized. “I have more questions than I do answers about the proposed additional bridge. I hope to solve that with my specific requests for public records,” Zeigler explained. “With other pressing needs for infrastructure improvements, we need to make sure that this $30 to $87 million-dollar project is the best use of our limited funds.” Zeigler continued, “Could this money be better spent to finish ‘Bloody 98’ in Mobile County; to solve congestion on I-65, U.S. 280 and I-565; and to address dozens of local projects? The public needs to know, and I intend to figure it out.” Read Zeigler’s letter below:
Kay Ivey campaign ad praises controversial Confederate monument law
Governor Kay Ivey on Tuesday released a campaign praising a controversial law she signed prohibiting the removal of Confederate monuments in Alabama. In the 30-second spot, Ivey says “when special interests wanted to tear down our historical monuments, I said no!” In response she signed a law to protect the monuments. “We can’t change or erase our history, but here in Alabama, we know something Washington doesn’t — to get where we’re going means understanding where we’ve been,” she says in the ad as the camera pans around the Confederate memorial outside the state capitol building in Montgomery, Ala. On May 25, 2017, Ivey signed into law the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which preserves all historical monuments on public property that have been in place for at least 40 years. Ivey’s campaign said the ad is slated to run statewide for a week. Ivey faces Huntsville mayor Tommy Battle, State Sen. Bill Hightower and Evangelist Scott Dawson in the June 5 Republican primary. The winner will go on to face the Democratic nominee in the general election, to be selected among: Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox; former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, along with Christopher Countryman, James Fields, Doug Smith and Anthony White in the June 5 Democratic primary. Watch the ad below:
Alabama trade mission team seeks business connections in South America
Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield is leading a team of state business leaders on a trade mission in South America this week, aiming to forge new relationships and find new markets for their goods and services. The mission to Argentina and Ecuador features a wide variety of the state’s business interests, with representatives from the tech, engineering, medical and manufacturing fields. In both countries, the delegation will meet with public and private sector leaders to explore new business and investment opportunities. “Alabama companies are making their mark in all corners of the world, with high-quality, in-demand products and innovative processes that are consistently recognized as market leaders,” Canfield said. “As we have seen time after time, connections made on these trade missions help our businesses gain a foothold in new markets and grow their international sales, which helps create new jobs and investments back home.” Alabama team Last year, Alabama exports reached a record $21.7 billion, a 6 percent increase from the previous year. The state’s exports to Argentina totaled $111.5 million, increasing 108 percent from 2016. Top categories were minerals and ores, chemicals and transportation equipment. More growth is projected for the country’s economy in the coming years, buoyed by rich natural resources and a broad middle class with strong purchasing power. Meanwhile, Alabama’s exports to Ecuador were $7.8 million last year. The country, a top oil and agricultural exporter, is seeking to diversify its economy, with the government focused on opening it up to more international trade. Alabama companies participating in the trade mission include Atlas RFID Solutions and Warren Manufacturing of Birmingham; Douglas Manufacturing of Pell City, Irrigation Components of Daphne; Knox Kershaw of Montgomery; ProcessBarron of Pelham; Rico Suction Labs of Mobile; SEPCO of Alabaster; and Smarter Services LLC of Prattville. Representatives from the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Commerce are also a part of the delegation. Mission goals For ProcessBarron, the trade mission is part of a recent effort to expand export activities in Central and South America. The company provides air, gas, fuel and ash handling equipment for a variety of heavy industrial uses, including plants in the pulp and paper, iron and steel, cement and sugar industries. “We’re trying to expand our footprint in those same industries in other countries,” said Vince Simpson, regional sales manager for ProcessBarron, who is traveling with the trade mission delegation. “We’re taking what we do best and trying to do it somewhere else.” The company’s export business started about 20 years ago in the Dominican Republic, where its key customers are a large power plant, sugar mills and cement plants. In addition to new customers, the company is also seeking local representatives for its products in South America, Simpson said. “If you can go on a trade mission, it will open doors for you by facilitating meetings and introductions,” he said. Seeking opportunities Hilda Lockhart, director of the Alabama Department of Commerce’s Office of International Trade, said the delegation has a full slate of meetings and networking opportunities in Argentina and Ecuador. “We have collaborated with the American Chamber of Commerce in Buenos Aires to put together a seminar that will highlight the business and investment opportunities Alabama provides for Argentine businesses,” she said. “This program allows us to meet with local, national and international businesses to explore opportunities for all of Alabama and not just the companies that are participating in the trade mission.” Also in Buenos Aires, delegation members will meet with several top government officials, including the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of production (trade), among others. And in both Argentina and Ecuador, the group will attend receptions at the ambassadors’ residences, which provide an additional avenue to meet with business and government leaders, Lockhart said. “As with all trade missions, we are working with our Foreign Commercial Service at the embassies that are setting up pre-qualified B2B meetings with prospective customers, business partners and industry leaders for our small and medium-sized businesses — helping to connect these companies is what the trade mission is all about,” she said. “Many of these companies do not have the resources or opportunities to push their quality-made products in overseas markets. So, with the assistance of the Export Alabama Alliance, we are able to help create these customized itineraries.” Republished with the permission of Alabama Newscenter.
Donald Trump says ‘good relationship’ formed with North Korea
President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that his CIA chief secretly met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea and said “a good relationship was formed” heading into the adversaries’ anticipated summit. Mike Pompeo’s highly unusual talks took place “last week,” Trump tweeted, and “went smoothly,” with details about the presidential meeting within the next few months “being worked out now.” “Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!” Trump wrote while at his Florida estate, where he was hosting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump had disclosed on Tuesday that the U.S. and North Korea were holding direct talks at “extremely high levels” in preparation for a possible summit. He said five locations were under consideration for the meeting, which could take place by early June. Confirmation of Pompeo’s trip later came from two officials, who were not authorized to discuss the meeting publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The Washington Post, which first reported the development, said it took place over Easter weekend — just over two weeks ago, shortly after Pompeo was nominated to become secretary of state. Kim’s offer for a summit was initially conveyed to Trump by South Korea last month, and the president shocked many by accepting it. U.S. officials indicated over the past two weeks that North Korea’s government had communicated directly with Washington that it was ready to discuss its nuclear weapons program. It would be the first-ever summit between the U.S. and North Korea during more than six decades of hostility since the Korean War. North Korea’s nuclear weapons and its capability to deliver them by ballistic missile pose a growing threat to the U.S. mainland. The U.S. and North Korea do not have formal diplomatic relations, complicating the arrangements for contacts between the two governments. It is not unprecedented for U.S. intelligence officials to serve as a conduit for communication with Pyongyang. In 2014, the then-director of U.S. national intelligence, James Clapper, secretly visited North Korea to bring back two American detainees. China, North Korea’s closest ally, said it welcomes direct contact and talks between the U.S. and North Korea after news emerged of Pompeo’s meeting with Kim. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing Wednesday that Beijing hopes the two sides will work on a political resolution of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and set up a peace mechanism. The Koreas are technically still in a state of war after fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. At a Senate hearing last week on his nomination, Pompeo played down expectations for a breakthrough deal on ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program at the planned summit, but said it could lay the groundwork for a comprehensive agreement on denuclearization. “I’m optimistic that the United States government can set the conditions for that appropriately so that the president and the North Korean leader can have that conversation and will set us down the course of achieving a diplomatic outcome that America and the world so desperately need,” Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After a year of escalating tensions, when North Korea conducted nuclear and long-range missile tests that drew world condemnation, Kim has pivoted to international outreach. The young leader met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing in late March, Kim’s first trip abroad since taking power six years ago. He is set to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the demilitarized zone between the rival Koreas on April 27. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Senate panel divided over Mike Pompeo for secretary of state
President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, is facing so much opposition from Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the panel could be forced to take the unusual step of sending the nomination to the full Senate without a favorable recommendation. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire on Tuesday became the latest member of the committee to announce her opposition, and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., recently said he would vote no. Both supported Pompeo as CIA director last year. Pompeo is still expected to have enough votes in the full Senate to replace Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump. But as support peels away, his confirmation may come down to a handful of senators. The backlash ahead of the panel’s vote is a rare rebuke for such a high-profile Cabinet pick, and sets Pompeo on a potentially uneven path for the new job. “I continue to have deep concerns regarding Mr. Pompeo’s past statements and policy views, particularly in regards to the LGBTQ community, American Muslims and women’s reproductive rights,” Shaheen said in a statement, after calling the former Kansas congressman Tuesday to tell him she would be opposed. Shaheen said Pompeo’s previous roles “are fundamentally different from that of Secretary of State, who represents American values around the world.” A sign of the important role Pompeo plays in the Trump administration: The CIA director traveled to North Korea for a secret meeting with leader Kim Jong Un, two U.S. official say. The meeting came as U.S. and North Korean officials plan a summit between Trump and Kim. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the trip publicly. Rarely has the Senate panel failed to back a nominee, and some said not since President George W. Bush nominated John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has the committee declined to recommend a White House pick. Republicans have a narrow Senate majority, which gives them a single-vote advantage on the panel. But with stiff opposition from Democrats — and at least one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, opposed — the committee may have few other options when it convenes as soon as next week. “We’ll see,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Under Senate rules, if the nominee does not have support in the committee, the panel could report to the full Senate unfavorably, which would send a strong rebuke to the White House, or simply report without a recommendation. It also could take no action. One top committee Democrat, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, said he was still reviewing his decision. Senators submitted more than 100 questions for the nominee after his initial hearing, and many are waiting for those responses. Trump initially tapped Pompeo as CIA director, one of his first Cabinet nominees in 2017, and they became close allies. But some Democrats have faced resistance for their votes, and Pompeo is having a tougher path as the nominee for secretary of state over his hawkish foreign policy views and comments about minorities, having suggested that Muslims should denounce extremism and gay people should not be able to marry. During his confirmation hearing last week, Pompeo told senators it’s unlikely he’d resign if Trump fired special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Of the more than a dozen Democrats who supported Pompeo’s nomination as CIA director in 2017, at least four, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, now oppose his nomination for State. “The Secretary of State is a very different role than CIA director, and it’s not the kind of position you learn on the job,” Feinstein said in a statement Tuesday. “I sense a certain disdain for diplomacy in Mike Pompeo that I believe disqualifies him from being our next senior diplomat.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who also backed Pompeo earlier, declined to say Tuesday how he would vote. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
‘It smells like death:’ Alabama endures NYC ‘poop train’
A stinking trainload of human waste from New York City is stranded in a tiny Alabama town, spreading a stench like a giant backed-up toilet — and the “poop train” is just the latest example of the South being used as a dumping ground for other states’ waste. In Parrish, Alabama, population 982, the sludge-hauling train cars have sat idle near the little league ball fields for more than two months, Mayor Heather Hall said. The smell is unbearable, especially around dusk after the atmosphere has become heated, she said. “Oh my goodness, it’s just a nightmare here,” she said. “It smells like rotting corpses, or carcasses. It smells like death.” All kinds of waste have been dumped in Georgia, Alabama and other Southern states in recent years, including toxic coal ash from power plants around the nation. In South Carolina, a plan to store radioactive nuclear waste in a rural area prompted complaints that the state was being turned into a nuclear dump. In Parrish, townspeople are considering rescheduling children’s softball games, or playing at fields in other communities to escape the stink. Sherleen Pike, who lives about a half-mile from the railroad track, said she sometimes dabs peppermint oil under her nose because the smell is so bad. “Would New York City like for us to send all our poop up there forever?” she said. “They don’t want to dump it in their rivers, but I think each state should take care of their own waste.” Alabama’s inexpensive land and permissive zoning laws and a federal ban on dumping New Yorkers’ excrement in the ocean got the poop train chugging, experts say. Nelson Brooke of the environmental group Black Warrior Riverkeeper, describes Alabama as “kind of an open-door, rubber-stamp permitting place” for landfill operators. “It’s easy for them to zip into a rural or poor community and set up shop and start making a ton of cash,” he said. The poop train’s cargo is bound for the Big Sky landfill, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Parrish. The landfill has been accepting the New York sewage sludge since early 2017. Previously, it was transferred from trains to trucks in nearby West Jefferson, but officials there obtained an injunction to keep the sludge out of their town. The sludge “smells of dead rotting animals as well as human waste,” West Jefferson’s attorney said in a lawsuit against Big Sky Environmental LLC. It also caused the community to become “infested with flies,” the complaint states. After West Jefferson went to court, the train stopped in late January in Parrish, which lacks the zoning regulations to block the train cars. It’s sat there ever since. “We’re probably going to look at creating some simple zoning laws for the town of Parrish so we can be sure something like this does not happen again,” the Parrish mayor said. Hall said she’s optimistic the sludge will all be trucked to the landfill soon. New York City has discontinued shipping it to Alabama for the time being, said Eric Timbers, a city spokesman. Its waste, recovered from the sewage treatment process and often called “biosolids,” has been sent out of state partly because the federal government in the late 1980s banned disposal in the Atlantic Ocean. In an earlier trash saga, a barge laden with 3,186 tons (2,890 metric tons) of non-toxic paper and commercial garbage from Long Island and New York City wandered the ocean for months in 1987, seeking a place to dump it after plans by a private developer to turn it into methane gas in North Carolina fell through. It was turned away by North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Belize and the Bahamas. Brooke’s Black Warrior Riverkeeper group last year opposed continued permits for the Big Sky landfill. Rural parts of Alabama are “prime targets” for landfills that accept out-of-state waste, it argued, meaning “that Alabama was becoming a dumping ground for the rest of the nation.” Big Sky officials did not return multiple email and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Nationally, the waste and recycling industry generates more than $93 billion in gross revenue annually, said Brandon Wright, a spokesman for the National Waste & Recycling Association. Wright said there are many reasons waste is sometimes transported out of state. There might not be enough landfill space nearby “and the waste has to go somewhere, so it gets transported out of state,” he said. Alabama and other Southern states have a long history accepting waste from around the U.S. A former state attorney general once described a giant west Alabama landfill as “America’s Pay Toilet.” It was among the nation’s largest hazardous waste dumps when it opened in 1977. At its peak, the landfill took in nearly 800,000 tons (72,570 metric tons) of hazardous waste annually. Plans to dump coal ash in Southern states have been particularly contentious. Each year, U.S. coal plants produce about 100 million tons (90 metric tons) of coal ash and other waste; more than 4 million tons of it wound up in an Alabama landfill following a 2008 spill in Tennessee. In Parrish, the mayor hopes the material in the train cars is removed before the weather warms up. “We’re moving into the summer, and the summer in the South is not forgiving when it comes to stuff like this,” she said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
State Rep. Jack Williams, ex-GOP chair Marty Connors to appear in federal court
Vestavia Hills-Republican, longtime State Rep. Jack Williams along with former Alabama GOP chairman Marty Connors are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Montgomery, Ala. Wednesday afternoon on conspiracy charges, according to the Associated Press. The two were arrested earlier this month on federal bribery charges. They “were arrested on charges stemming from their involvement in a public corruption scheme,” said United States Attorney Louis V. Franklin, Sr. in a press release at the time of the arrest. Williams has since denied any wrongdoing. “I have done nothing wrong, and once the facts are presented, I expect to be found innocent by a jury of all the allegations outlined in Monday’s indictment,” he said in the statement. If convicted, the men face up to 20 years in prison.
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Broadway production company countersues Harper Lee’s estate
In a courtroom drama as fascinating as the novel itself — things are once again heating up surrounding the production of the upcoming Broadway adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The production company for the show is fighting back against a lawsuit brought forth last month by the estate of the late Alabama author Harper Lee, who wrote the beloved 1960 novel, by introducing a countersuit. Hollywood producer Scott Rudin’s production company Rudinplay filed a $10 million countersuit on Monday against the estate for damages, threatening to cancel the play scheduled to open in December. “Investors are not willing to invest millions of dollars when a cloud exits,” claims the lawsuit. The original suit alleged screenwriter Aaron Sorkin wrongly altered Atticus Finch and other characters from the book in the script, despite a clause in the contract stipulating that “the play shall not derogate or depart in any manner from the spirit of the novel nor alter its characters.” However, the firm that represents Rudin’s company said Sorkin’s script “is a faithful adaptation of a singular novel which has been crafted well within the constraints of the agreement executed by both Harper Lee and the play’s producers before Ms. Lee’s death. Monday’s lawsuit further argues, “The Agreement did not give Ms. Lee approval rights over the script of the Play, much less did it give her right to purport to edit individual lines of dialogue.”
Steve Flowers: Those who have the gold set the rules
Our antiquated 1901 Constitution was designed to give inordinate power to the Legislature. During the Wallace years, the King of Alabama politics, George Wallace, usurped this power and controlled the Legislature from the Executive Branch of Government. Over the last couple of decades the Legislature has wrestled this power back and pretty much excluded the Governor from their bailiwick. Governors Bob Riley and Robert Bentley were ostracized and pretty much ignored. Their proposed budgets were instantaneously tossed into the nearest trashcan. Legislative power is derived from controlling the state’s purse strings. Thus the old adage, “Those who have the gold set the rules.” The Legislature has gotten like Congress in that incumbents are difficult to defeat. Therefore, the interest will be on the open Senate and House seats. Most of the Montgomery Special Interest money will be focused on these Legislative races. Speaking of Montgomery, two open and most interesting Senate seats in the state will be in the Montgomery/River Region. One is currently in progress. Montgomery City Councilman, David Burkette, Representative John Knight and Councilman Fred Bell are pursuing the Democratic seat vacated by Senator Quinton Ross when he left to become President of Alabama State University. Burkette has already bested Knight and Bell in a Special Election last month. A rebound race is set for June 5. The Republican Senate seat in the River Region held by Senator Dick Brewbaker is up for grabs. This seat was expected to attract numerous well-known aspirants. However, when the dust settled at the qualifying deadline two relatively unknown candidates were the only ones to qualify. Will Barfoot and Ronda Walker are pitted against each other in a race that is considered a tossup. The Etowah County/Gadsden area was considered one of the most Democratic areas of the state for generations. However, in recent years it has become one of the most Republican. State Representative, Mack Butler, should be favored as a Republican. Although, polling indicates that veteran Democratic Representative, Craig Ford, could make this a competitive race in the Fall. He is running as an Independent. Veteran State Senator Harri Ann Smith has represented the Wiregrass/Dothan area admirably for over two decades. She has been elected several times as an Independent. However, she has decided not to seek reelection. Her exit leaves State Representative Donnie Chesteen in the catbird seat to capture the seat. Republican State Senator Paul Bussman, who represents Cullman and northwest Alabama, is a maverick and very independent. This independence makes him powerful. He will be reelected easily. State Representative David Sessions is predicted to win the seat of Senator Bill Hightower who is running for Governor. Most of the state Senate’s most powerful members are unopposed or have token opposition. Included in this list of incumbent State Senators are veteran Senate leader and Rules Chairman, Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia, Senate President, Del Marsh, R-Calhoun, Senate Majority Leader, Greg Reed, R-Jasper, veteran Senator Jimmy Holley, R-Coffee, as well as Senate leaders Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, Clay Scofield, R-Marshall, Clyde Chambliss, R-Autauga, Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, Tom Whatley, R-Lee, and Shay Shelnutt, R-Gardendale. The Senate leadership will remain intact, as will the House leadership. Almost all of the House leaders are unopposed or have token opposition. This prominent list includes: Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Madison, Budget Chairmen, Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, Bill Poole, R-Tuscaloosa, Speaker Pro-tem, Victor Gaston, R- Mobile, Rules Chairman, Mike Jones, R-Covington. In addition, there are numerous Veteran lawmakers, who will be reelected, including Lynn Greer, Mike Ball, Jim Carnes, Howard Sanderford, Kerry Rich, and Jimmy Martin; as well as rising leaders: Nathaniel Ledbetter, Kyle South, Connie Rowe, Tim Wadsworth, April Weaver, Paul Lee, Terri Collins, Danny Garrett, Dickie Drake, Chris Pringle, Randall Shedd, Allen Farley, Becky Nordgren, Mike Holmes, David Standridge, Dimitri Polizos, Reed Ingram and Chris Sells. Even though there are 22 open House seats and 10 open Senate Seats, the leadership of both Chambers will remain the same. There are some competitive House seats that will be interesting. In the Pike/Dale County Seat 89, Pike Probate Judge Wes Allen is pitted against Troy City Council President Marcus Paramore. Tracy Estes is favored to replace retiring Mike Millican in Marion County. Alfa is going all out for Estes. David Wheeler is expected to capture the open House seat in Vestavia. See you next week. ••• Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
