Tag Archives: B’ham

Hiers named to Presidential Advisory Council on AIDS/HIV

Posted on February 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Kathie Hiers. Courtesy of Facebook profileLast week President Obama reopened the Office of National AIDS Policy and made new appointments to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA). Among the 24 individuals selected to serve on the council is Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama, a recognized leader and expert nationwide in the HIV/AIDS arena. PACHA is tasked with creating a national HIV/AIDS strategy.

Decisions made by PACHA will be recommended to the President through the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  According to the press release that was posted via Facebook earlier today, Hiers is in pretty good company as folks normally selected to serve on PACHA are considered “significant community leaders with in-depth knowledge in HIV/AIDS, public health, global health, or business and may also include other highly regarded national figures.”

Photo: Courtesy of announcement on Facebook.

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Posted in Health, National

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Tickets limited for Condi Rice lecture at BSC

Posted on February 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Condoleezza Rice - courtesy of BSCFormer U.S. Secretary of State (and Birmingham, AL native) Condoleezza 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.

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Posted in Events

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LaMonte’s speech still talk of metro Birmingham

Posted on February 1, 2010 | 1 comment

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.

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Posted in The City

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Dunkin is running in Pelham

Posted on February 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

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.

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Posted in Business, food

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An online manifesto for Alabama’s Magic City

Posted on January 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Magic City Manifesto headerOne of the newest blogs to grace computer screens around metro Birmingham is Magic City Manifesto. L.K. Whitney recently started the blog in December after moving here from Charleston, SC. She describes the purpose of the site via a manifesto that says among other things:

“Magic City Manifesto is a personal journey to find the very best this city has to offer.”

Take a moment to check out how her journey’s going. A recent post should remind folks that there’s never a good excuse for saying that there’s nothing to do in Birmingham. You may even want to check out Whitney’s Twitter account too…

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Posted in Online

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Smitherman to listen to community at Vulcan Park

Posted on January 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

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.

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Posted in The City

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Bell wins Birmingham mayoral runoff, serves until 2011

Posted on January 19, 2010 | 3 comments

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.

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Posted in Election 2010

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