Tag Archives: Alabama

Tickets limited for Condi Rice lecture at BSC

Condoleezza Rice - courtesy of BSCFormer U.S. Secretary of State (and Birmingham, AL nativeCondoleezza Rice will be the featured speaker for this year’s Alex P. Stirling Lecture at Birmingham Southern College. The lecture, named for a BSC student who died of cancer in 1995, will take place on February 11 at the college’s Bill Battle Coliseum. You’ll need a ticket to get in to hear Stanford University’s former provost speak even though it is a free event and they first will go to students, faculty, staff and alumni before being opened to the general public (as it should be).

Those interested in securing whatever tickets may be left are encouraged to fill out the request form at the bottom of the page announcing the lecture located on the college’s website. They’ve got all of the other information that you’ll need over there as well.

Photo: courtesy of BSC website.

LaMonte’s speech still talk of metro Birmingham

An evening view of Birmingham's west side from VulcanOne of the highlights of this year’s MLK Unity Breakfast was the speech given by Ed LaMonte, a former Howell Heflin Professor of Political Science at Birmingham-Southern College. The former interim superintendent of schools for the City of Birmingham took the opportunity to discuss the severe divisions that still exist in Birmingham and its metropolitan area during his remarks (made one day before the special election to select the city’s new mayor).

Reaction to the speech has been mixed, with some believing that it was appropriate while others wondered if it was the right time, place or if it was even necessary.

Current interim Birmingham City Schools superintendent Barbara Allen was one of the people who felt that she had to say something about the comments made.

It only seems to make sense that both voices be looked at and for you to decide. LaMonte’s comments have been posted to our editorial section while this link to AL.com will take you to Allen’s comments published in yesterday’s (Sunday’s) paper.

Dunkin is running in Pelham

Pelham's running on DunkinThis morning the line went out the door while another line was going around the building.

The photo shows both of those lines as they looked at 6 a.m. this morning.

Yes, metro Birmingham’s first Dunkin’ Donuts in some time opened at 5 a.m. this morning to a crowd of transplants and other fans. The Boston, MA based donut chain had first announced plans to open as many as 72 locations back in 2007 with a final plan for 21 announced last March.

According to The Birmingham News, Pelham’s finest had to stop by to let them know that motorists were upset by the traffic backup along Highway 119. Don’t worry, it’ll be open until 10 p.m. today. You may even get a chance to run into someone you already know over there around lunchtime…

Photo: Pelham’s running on Dunkin. acnatta/Flickr.

Smitherman to listen to community at Vulcan Park

Rodger Smitherman State of Alabama websiteAlabama State Senator Rodger Smitherman has announced a community listening post event for next Thursday, January 28, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Vulcan Park atop Red Mountain. There’s even an event listing that’s been created using his recently created Facebook profile.

The husband of Birmingham City Councilor Carole Smitherman stated via a status update on the popular social networking site that “at this time of transition for the city and state, it is imperative for us to talk to each other.”

He’s encouraging as many people as possible to attend the gathering to bring up any issue that is of concern.

Photo: Courtesy of Alabama State Senate website.

Find out when the flu hits Birmingham

So what do they do with all of that search data at Google? Well, apparently one of the things that they do is use it to attempt to estimate flu occurrences around the world, including Birmingham, AL.

Flu Trends is one of the projects that exist on Google.org – the company’s philanthropic arm – that appears to be quite accurate in figuring out when different parts of the country come down with the flu. Eerily so – but it looks like if the trend won’t be that bad for the rest of the year (at least, so far).

Screenshot: from Google.org

Bell wins Birmingham mayoral runoff, serves until 2011

With 99% of the precincts reporting, William A. Bell, Sr. has been elected to serve out the remainder of Larry Langford‘s term as mayor of Birmingham, AL. Unofficial results show that approximately 41% of registered voters took part in the election to choose the chief executive for the state’s largest city (compared to 23% in the general election in December).

Mr. Bell received 53.57% (25,354) while attorney Patrick Cooper received 46.4% (21,979) of the total vote.

The election is scheduled to be certified on January 26 at 12 p.m. with provisional ballots to be counted at that time.

A historic stroll through Birmingham is expanded

Birmingham's Civil Rights Walking Trail expandsFolks walking along 6th Avenue North between 19th and 17th Streets in downtown Birmingham may notice some large orange signs now located along the sidewalk. The four signs are the latest additions to the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail, first unveiled in August 2009. As first reported by The Birmingham News when the first signs were unveiled, the first portion of the trail will take people from Kelly Ingram Park to Linn Park.

This sign is located at the corner of 19th Street and 6th Avenue North in front of First Church Birmingham.

Photo: Birmingham’s Civil Rights Heritage Trail expands. acnatta/Flickr