Analysts say Alabama’s budget outlook grim
Gadsden Times – Dec. 8
The recession’s aftermath continues to bite Alabama’s two budgets and likely will until 2014, making this legislative class the most challenged financially since the Depression. Joyce Bigbee, director of the Legislative Fiscal Office, and Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, on Tuesday presented fairly grim budget outlooks to legislators in office for the next four years. Addy predicted the economy will recover by 2014 but unemployment will remain relatively high, at 7.9 percent in 2014. Unemployment was 5.8 percent as recently as 2008 before the full effect of the recession hit.
NBC-13 (Birmingham) – Dec. 7
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – Dec. 7
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 7
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Dec. 7
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Dec. 7
ABC journalist shares recollections of past presidents
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 8
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a hidden temper and was prone to “salty language,” John Cochran, longtime Washington television journalist, told the new Alabama Legislature during its orientation session Tuesday at the University of Alabama School of Law. John F. Kennedy was a “highly intelligent” president who loved to mix it up with the press. Lyndon B. Johnson was jealous of the Kennedys and demanded equal treatment from the White House staff, even when he was vice president. Richard Nixon was the “strangest” president and ran a “paranoid, closed White House,” while Gerald Ford and the first President George Bush were two of the “warmest” and considerate chief executives…Cochran graduated from UA, then worked as a technician in the Eisenhower and Kennedy White Houses before launching a journalism career that has lasted nearly 40 years. At 72, he says he is now “a special correspondent” for ABC…
Rookie Republican legislators say they sense some camaraderie from Legislature’s Democratic minority
Huntsville Times – Dec. 8
Rookie Republican lawmakers from the Tennessee Valley area said Tuesday they sensed a camaraderie from Democrats now that they will be in the minority for the first time since Reconstruction. Legislators from both parties are gathered at the University of Alabama for a three-day orientation conference that precedes the start of today’s special legislative session on a package of ethics reform bills.
Expert warns Alabama lawmakers about importance of moving forward on health care reform
Huntsville Times – Dec. 8
A health care expert warned legislators today that if they don’t take preliminary steps to enact the federal health care legislation, Alabama’s health care will be taken over by the federal government. LaVeeda Battle, a Birmingham attorney and a leading expert on national health care reform, said Alabama is one of only 15 states that has not adopted a template to enact the health care plan passed by Congress earlier this year. . . . That message was delivered by Battle at a legislative orientation conference at the University of Alabama.
Reprinted book features University Club recipes
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 8
The University of Alabama Press has reprinted a cookbook written by Alline P. Van Duzor, the director of the University Club from 1946 to 1961. “Fascinating Foods from the Deep South” features all those recipes that have proved popular at the club over the years. The only changes in the newly printed edition are a beautiful new cover photo by Chip Cooper, a new foreword by Camille Maxwell Elebash, an index and an explanatory page for ingredients that may no longer be widely known.
History professor discusses Pearl Harbor
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 7
It’s the 69th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 1941, thousands were killed when waves of Japanese planes conducted a sneak attack in Hawaii, joining us now with more on Pearl Harbor, is Dr. Lisa Dorr, professor of history at the University of Alabama.
‘Oldest living Alabama football player’ Benjamin McLeod dies at 97; played backup to Bear
Mobile Press-Register – Dec. 8
Funeral services were held today for Benjamin Watt McLeod Jr., who played on the 1934 national championship University of Alabama football team and was on 3 SEC Championship basketball and baseball teams. McLeod died Saturday at age 97. McLeod was the oldest living Alabama football player, according to the Pensacola News Journal.