Wade on March 2008
By Wade KwonThen and now
Flushed away: Jefferson County is broke, and getting broker by the minute. The commission sent representatives to New York to meet with financial brokers to find a way to pay off the $3.2 billion in interest payments.
It all started with a broken-down sewer system, which led to court-ordered fixes, which led to bonds to raise funds, which led to unsupervised hiring of contractors, which led to corruption and payoffs, which led to bond swaps to get supposedly better deals.
On Thursday, the commission rejected a proposed plan from Merrill Lynch to create an independent oversight board. Naturally, the commission is paying Merrill Lynch $75,000 a month to make proposals for it to reject.
If the commission doesn’t come up with a plan by Aug. 1, it will default on $100 million in payments. Not to mention the possibility of filing for bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history.
So much for solvency. So much more for leadership.
More on festivals, war and schools, after the jump …
Festival futures: March offered a first glimpse into the lineups of two of the city’s best-known downtown music festivals, City Stages in June and the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil in May. Fergie vs. Diana Ross. T-Pain vs. Sean Kingston. Gavin DeGraw vs. Galactic. Band fight!
We also previewed the Birmingham Area Music Awards with a special playlist. And while the show was fairly jumbled, at least the performances were excellent.
Five for fighting: To mark the fifth anniversary of the War in Iraq, we paid tribute to the 75 soldiers from Alabama who have lost their lives since the War on Terror began. American soldiers killed in the War in Iraq stands at 4,113.
Two more Alabamians have been killed in the line of duty since our tribute: Capt. Torre R. Mallard of Anniston and Col. Stephen K. Scott of New Market.
For whom the school bell tolls: The Birmingham school board fired Superintendent Stan Mims, only a year and a half after hiring him. Mims sealed his fate after altering a report critical of the system. He’s the third superintendent in six years.
Taking his place is Interim Superintendent Barbara Allen, who has served since February, when Mims was placed on leave. She’s been busy making improvements from improving transparency (making agendas and financial records available on the upgraded Web site) to reorganizing the entire system. But more tough choices lie ahead, as the budget and the enrollment shrink.
Stepping out: Oh Fabian Sanchez, we hardly knew ye …
Haiku flashback
sixty-three are doomed [March 16]
Madness, madness, we
say, when brackets fill with teams
who don’t stand a chance.
More haiku.
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Archives: March
Special report: Wade on 2008
