More Violence in Bessemer

More killings have occurred on Dartmouth Avenue. You probably have heard that over the weekend three men who were arguing ended up shooting each other. Two men “teamed up” against one, who is still alive, but he is in critical condition, and probably will die as well.

This happened in the middle of the street in the 2700 block of Dartmouth. I don’t know whether any of these men had prior felony convictions, but I will renew my call to get guns off the street. You saw my editorial (the second part of this post)about it, and I delivered a personal letter last week to Police Chief Rutledge regarding the issue, but not surprisingly I have not heard back from him.

I don’t know why the city leaders (the mayor, the council, pastors and civic leaders), are not upset and outspoken about this. Do they think that “some level” of crime is acceptable? Do they think that Josh may have been a tragedy but these three thugs they can just ignore? Don’t get me wrong. I don’t know these three men or anything about them. But three guys arguing in the middle of the street at 2 AM more than likely are thugs.

It would be refreshing to hear from the police department. I don’t mean answering my letter, I mean addressing the community.




Yesterday as part of one of my classes we visited the Norwood Community in Birmingham, beginning at the Norwood Resource Center, in a restored historic home. This pot of zinnias was blooming on the front porch.









There is not a lot blooming now, but the sunflowers are very close to opening.












There are too many of these in the yard, but these umbels of small yellow flowers reach optimistically toward the sky, either in appreciation of the sunlight they receive or maybe they are pleading for rain, which they should get today. This is fennel, and it grows about 5 feet tall. The feathery leaves smell like licorice, and can be used in arrangements although they wilt pretty fast.




Speaking of water issues, the automatic sprinklers were working just fine in front of the Wynfrey Hotel at the Riverchase Galleria on Saturday night around 8:45. How many regulations were being broken here, and whose fault is it, the mall or the hotel?



And the deck is coming along. Soon, soon.

Jeff Sessions and Bob Riley in Gay Paree

Jeff Sessions and Bob Riley and some others are in Paris, France, "Sipping champagne on the bank of the Seine" the Birmingham News says, trying to persuade the French to do business in Alabama.

Remember not too long ago our republican led, war starved country was renaming things like Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast, in the House of Representatives cafeteria, to so much anti-French fanfare. They called for boycotts of French wines and French cheeses, and everything French. During the 2004 presidential campaign an anonymous Bush advisor told the New York Times that Kerry "looks French," to persuade voters that he was anti-American.

Oh, last year the House quietly returned to the use of "French Fries" and "French Toast." Young lovers resumed "French kissing" (as if they ever stopped. What would a "Freedom kiss" be like anyway?) and the makers of French's Mustard breathed a sigh of relief. John Kerry returned to looking "New Englandish."

My how things change. Why, with German steel maker ThyssenKrupp AG coming to the state, and now luring the French, Alabama could become a virtual melting pot of its own, with all kind of outsider and foreign influence affecting out state. Our leaders may not like them, but we will take the money coming from "Old Europe ," to use the term that Rummy used to dis the French and Germans when they wouldn't support the War in Iraq, as it was called back then.

Jeff Sessions in Gay Paree. Now there's a picture.

Puppies and Kittens

How many of you are growing squash in your gardens? By now, assuming you are able to water the plants, you may be getting squash daily, and running out of ways to cook it. Here’s one of my recipes, called squash puppies. Where it calls for yellow squash, I mix squash and zucchini (2 to 1) when I have zucchini.

Squash Puppies

Makes about 20, takes about 10 minutes to prepare, 15 to fry them all

¾ cup self rising corn meal
¼ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground red pepper (or a tad more)

6 medium squash cooked and mashed
½ cup buttermilk
1 small onion, minced
1 large egg

Oil
Salt

Combine first 5 ingredients, set aside. Stir together mashed squash and next three ingredients. Add to dry mixture and blend. Heat ½ inch of oil in skillet to 350 degrees (who measures?) and drop by tablespoonfuls in to oil. Fry about 3 minutes on each side, till browned. Drain and salt.
Let me know how you like them.

I rarely fry food anymore, but had a request to do something “different” with some of the squash (for a change). Even the 17 yo said even though he hates squash and zucchini, he really likes the puppies.

Since I’m posting a recipe and people still talk about the chocolate chip cookie recipe I posted months ago, here it is, for those who missed it. The recipe is here

I’ve not been able to discuss the Sopranos ending with my daughter because she had not watched it until last night, but I had been giving her little teases about it. The wait was worth it to hear her scream in frustration at the ending. Priceless.





It has finally begun. Here is what the "deck to be" space looks like now. When it is finished, there will be a celebration. Who’s in?
















A neighbor has these two little kittens that need a home. Please help us find them a home, surely you or someone you know needs a kitten.

Water, Water, Everywhere...

But not a drop to drink.

So much water in the news. I don’t have to say anything about the drought. (Yeah, right) We all know it is the worst in recorded history, Birmingham Water Works customers are under restrictions for water use, Bessemer Utilities water customers are not under restrictions, and this includes some people in Shelby County, and Ross Bridge and other communities that were smart enough to contract with Bessemer to supply their water. But there are a few more water stories.

Of interest to people whose yards are turning brown and landscapes are dying, Bessemer Water has offered to sell water to Birmingham to help in times of drought, like now, but Birmingham has refused to buy it. You can lead a horse to water…

There is a drought on the space station. Russian computers that control oxygen and water have failed. Supposedly the crew, including Americans, are in no danger and they have “plenty of time to sort this out,” says Mike Suffredini, NASA manager of the Space Station program. U. S. astronauts can shower on Mondays and Thursdays, and Russian cosmonauts can shower on Tuesdays and Fridays, under the new water use plan. Just kidding.

Birmingham’s water supply will reach its limit by 2025, according to an article in the Birmingham News. Seems like it may be more like June 25, but at least the BWWB is searching for new sources to tap. They will spend 2 years and 2.4 million dollars to find ways to expand the system. Can you spell r-a-t-e h-i-k-e? Birmingham Water

And in Bessemer, the city is buying out its water contract by voting (the city council) to approve a buyout plan of about $2 million for the General Utilities Service Corporation to finalize a deal with Covanta (or as the Western Star reported this week, Cavanta?) to control the water.

Mayor Ed May wanted the city to purchase the contract, not just approve the deal for the independent GUSC to control it. May said allowing the city to control it would have benefited the city (and ratepayers), but GUSC board member W. W. Ledbetter says having control of the water will let profits go back to the water department to help pay for upgrades and equipment.

That may be a good idea. Remember last summer, when major water mains around Bessemer broke and we were without any water for days? Seems that pipes were outdated and such, so maybe the water department needs the extra cash for upgrades.

Bessemer Water

Lil' Bush on Comedy Central and Western Trib Column

Tonight on comedy Central “ Lil’ Bush” debuts. In “Lil’ Bush” elementary age Lil’ George makes mischief with schoolmates Lil’ Cheney, Lil’ Condi, Lil’Jeb and others. Creator Donick Cary says “Now that I’ve gotten inside Lil’ George’s head, I really like the guy. He’s got nuclear weapons AND little kid emotions.” (Is this not so different from reality). In the series, schoolmates Lil’ Hillary and Lil’ John Kerry find this out when Lil’ George launches nukes at them when he’s left alone in the Oval office by his dad, George H. W.

9:30 tonight on Comedy Central Lil' Bush

This show is reported as a “crossover” series. Comedy, especially on Comedy Central, has crossed so many lines and pushed so many envelopes that what is left to crossover? What they mean is: “Lil’ bush premiered last fall on cell phones as five minute mobisodes. Apparently the first such series to cross over from cellular to TV…” So that is what crossover means these days. And I thought Shania Twain was crossover. Mobisodes?

We had a little celebratory episode at dinner last night: the first ripe tomato from the garden. That of course allowed the entire salad to be called “garden fresh,” even though the rest of the ingredients came from Bruno’s. That brings up a question. Bruno’s has this big sign out front about “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” or something like that. But inside, there is no indication of which produce is local, if any. Do we then assume that all of it is? The bananas? The oranges (which had a California sticker on them)?

And now to stickers on fruit. You know, the tomatoes have the little stickers on them with a code number so that the check out guy will know what to charge for. Have you looked closely at the stickers lately? On a tomato I recently bought, was the code number, and an advertisement for Disney’s “Mickey’s Great Clubhouse Hunt (On DVD March 20).” The things you can learn from a tomato.

I am all for buying local. Today the Park Place market begins. From 10 am to 2 pm vendors will be on Park Place at Linn Park selling fresh, local produce as well as fresh pastries and arts and crafts. Like a little Pepper Place Saturday market. Look for these guys every Wednesday, except July 4.

Any of you who have experienced delivery problems with The Western Tribune things should be better this week. There was a glitch, should be solved. If you are not getting the paper delivered call 425-7171 to subscribe. Here is my column from the Trib this week. I am serious about this issue, and will present this challenge to the chief of police just in case he hasn’t subscribed to the paper.

Of course I don’t know the title of my editorial, but here is the meat of it:

The most recent example of senseless killing in Bessemer is the death of 14 year old Joshua Hughes. Josh was attending a birthday party on Dartmouth Avenue when he was struck by stray bullets last month. He would have turned 15 this week, on June 15, but there will be no such party for him. He was in the “wrong place, at the wrong time,” it was said.

Rolando Williamson of Lipscomb is 21 years old. Williamson has been charged with murder in the killing. Williamson has previous drug and weapons charges pending from an incident in Homewood.

Last week in Tuscaloosa a team of federal officials and local police combined their efforts and took into custody at least 10 people sought on federal gun charges. David Hyche, a supervisor with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Birmingham office said that this effort was several years in the making, and will be ongoing, as reported in The Birmingham News. “We're going to do it every month for as long as it takes. With a partnership like this, we'll make an impact on violent crime in Tuscaloosa,” Hyche said.

I feel certain that Rolando Williamson’s previous charges preclude him from legally carrying a gun, yet he obviously did. How many other felons, drug dealers, illegal aliens, fugitives and convicted domestic abusers are in Bessemer and illegally possessing firearms?

I don’t know if such a dragnet would have prevented Joshua’s murder, but such an effort would be welcome in Bessemer. Pastor Thomas Franklin of Ward AME Church wondered what if this was his child. I wonder also. My children are not much older than Joshua, and could find themselves “in the wrong place, at the wrong time” on any given day.

Bessemer Police should team up with U. S. Marshalls and agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives like Tuscaloosa police did to institute such a program here. Our police department is good at solving homicides, as the arrest in this case and the recent discovery and identification of the body of Mary Catherine Williams and subsequent arrests of four suspects in her death shows us.

Bessemer should expand its efforts in preventing such crimes. The city would benefit from using the powerful assistance that Federal involvement would bring, and the instances of “wrong places” and “wrong times” could be reduced. This is not the first teen killed in Bessemer in recent years. Parents, aunts, uncles; we worry every day. Let’s do this in memory of Joshua Hughes, so that his premature death shall not be in vain.

Habeas Corpus, Alive and..., Well?

Habeas corpus is one of those legal terms we learned about in high school (and some of you learned a lot about it in law school) and it gets thrown around from time to time and we sort of remember what it means and that it might be important.

Habeas corpus has been in the news lately. In president Bush’s bumper sticker war on terror, he is trying to do away with habeas corpus. And in the neighboring state of Georgia, habeas corpus is getting a young man closer to being released from jail.

The dictionary defines habeas corpus ad subjiciendum as a writ for inquiring into the lawfulness of the restraint of a person who is imprisoned or detained in another’s custody. To me, that means you get to question why you are being held, and whether your punishment fits the crime. Help me out here attorneys if I am wrong.

Genarlow Wilson was 17 years old when he and some friends decided to rent a motel room for some sexual escapades. Everyone was a willing participate. Someone had a video camera. Someone showed the video to someone, and Genarlow was arrested for having oral sex performed on him by a 15 year old girl. There was no coercion, everybody had a good time. (Well, maybe not the 17 year old girl who got drunk, had sex on the floor and claimed she was raped...a charge that did not stick. She is the one that reported the event).

Georgia tried to get tough a few years ago by revising its sex crimes laws and making sex with a minor a felony, and imposing stiff (pardon the pun) punishment including long prison terms and sexual predator registration. Genarlow was an honor student, a star athlete, and homecoming king. He had everything going for him, and only did what half of the boys his age are already doing, and the other half wish they were doing.

Because of the publicity surrounding this case, the Georgia legislature changed their laws to make consensual sex between teens a misdemeanor, instead of a felony. But they did not grandfather Genarlow in under the revised law, so he remained in prison, with a felony conviction, labeled a sexual predator.

Genarlow’s attorney filed a writ of habeas to seek relief for her client. Months of legal wrangling later (and years in prison later for the young man, now 21) yesterday the judge granted her petition and a bubbling attorney and Genarlow’s mother and CNN’s Rick Sanchez jumped up and down after the attorney read a fax hot off the machine announcing the decision (I have never before seen a reporter kiss a person he’s trying to interview but there is always a first time. Go Rick) that said the charge would be reduced to a misdemeanor, his time served would be enough time in prison, and no sexual predator status. CNN Video

Well now of course, the power hungry attorney general of Georgia has filed an appeal to keep Genarlow in prison, meaning he must think this young man is a danger to society.

If this appeal is successful Georgia had better start building prisons in every town next door to every high school, and just move the kids on in. I’m not advocating teen sex, but I do accept reality.

But the case at least shows us one way that habeas corpus works.

Now, to the war on terror. There are many ways in which the Patriot Act (inappropriately named) has trampled on our constitutional rights, and this has been pointed out many times. More recently the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was passed. In a few words, this act allows the federal government, i.e., the president, to hold detainees, and to convene a military commission to prosecute them. This law also denies habeas corpus type protections to those who are detained, and can be used against U. S. citizens.

In other words, the president can order anyone to be detained, without charging them with a crime, for any length of time, and the detainee can not challenge his or her imprisonment and if this is one of your loved ones you can not do anything about it.

Here is what Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, says about it, "The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions,” and an editorial in The New York Times described the Act as "a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy.”

This act or parts of it are being challenged on several fronts, and in the news today is what seems to be a setback for the Bush administrations War on Civil Liberties. A federal appeals court panel has ruled that President Bush cannot indefinitely hold a U. S. resident on suspicion alone and ordered the government to either charge Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri with a crime or release him. Of course the Bush administration is appealing this to the full appeals court.

Here is what the court said, “The President cannot eliminate constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention.”
Story

I am not a legal expert by any means, and am not even sure if habeas was used in this case (since I guess the guy would have been denied habeas anyway), but it all ties in together. The president does not respect our constitution, he does not understand the importance of basic fundamental rights as outlined in the constitution and bill of rights.

Sopranos - Bizarre

I may be up on presidential candidates and certain health issues and helping plants to thrive during the worst drought in history, and even on such pop culture happenin's as Paris Hilton's in and out saga or Jennifer Hudson's connection to the gay community, but one thing I am not close to is The Sopranos. Until yesterday I had never seen the show but with all the hype about the final episode I decided to watch. Ho-hum. I kept waiting for it to get interesting, and not until Tony Soprano walked into the restuarant and sat down at the end did I get drawn in to it. Think of all the time I saved over the last few years by waiting till the final episode to watch.

I am 100% sure that had I been watching from the beginning, or even just from the beginning of this season, and had a better understanding of the characters and plot lines that the entire episode would have been meaningful to me.

So from a one time viewer just let me say that Meadow trying to parallel park was the most brilliant part of the final few moments. Some of you may have it on Tivo and may not have watched it yet, so I will say no more.

If I am on one end of the Soprano's spectrum, then Brian Fleury is on the other. The Birmingham News reports that Brian, who lives in North Shelby County, ordered pizza for Sunday nights finale from Pizzaland in North Arlington, N. J. This pizzaria is shown each week during the opening credits. $44 ($13 for the pie, $31 for overnight delivery packed in dry ice)for a "really good New York-style pizza" was well worth it for Brian, even if the pizza did arrive cold. Toppings? Pepperoni and sausage. Apparantly he is not the first person to order pizza long distance from Pizzaland, "When I called, before they even said 'Hello,' they said,'Where do we need to ship it."





As I stepped out this morning the sun was bearing down on the back porch, and I guess the heat was helping this liitle rose release its fragrance, because it was almost overwhelming. This back porch is about to be torn down, but this rose will be saved as new construction takes place.

Most of the daylilies are surviving the dought, although flowering is not as profuse as in past years.