If I could put U
and I next to each other,
it’s alphabet soup.

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All about Black and White’s crime issue. Because we’re a sucker for special issues.

First, the good news: While violent crime runs unabated through the once-peaceful neighborhoods of Birmingham, at least one police unit is getting it done. Not the Birmingham police, but the Jefferson County Sheriff. Mike Hale’s task force sweeps have targeted hot spots and rounded up suspects of every stripe. drug proceeds of more than $6,000 in cash seized and a missing juvenile was located. One daylong sweep in September netted “62 contacts, with five arrest warrants in surrounding counties and states, 16 new criminal charges including possession of a controlled substance (cocaine, crack, pills), obstruction of justice — false information, possession of drug paraphernalia.”
• County Mounties [Black and White]

Lies, damn lies and …: Statistics show that overall crime in Birmingham is down 1 percent from 2005. But is that the whole story? Homicides are on pace to beat the 105 in 2005, and Southside, West End and other Birmingham neighborhoods are taking a real beating. Chief Annetta Nunn and Mayor Kincaid maintain that the police are helpless to prevent murders among acquaintances, but the open cases suggest random killings, not domestic disputes gone awry.

So far, 87 homicides this year. Hard to imagine? BhamWiki maintains a running list. Still too fuzzy? CBS 42 has compiled this interactive murder map.

And the hits keep coming …
• Crime by the Numbers [Black and White]

DIY PD: Merchants in Five Points South, fed up with attacks on employees and patrons, are hiring off-duty cops to patrol the streets. “It doesn’t speak well of the police force that we’re having to hire our own cops,” says Jeff Tenner, owner of Soca Clothing and president of the Five Points South Merchants Association. “The officers who are down here do a really excellent job, but there are just not enough of them.” We had boldly made the same suggestion a year ago, after friends were mugged outside one Southside bar. The response then: It can’t be done.

And yet, it saddens us that it’s come to this.
• Hired Guns [Black and White]

• How can the police fight crime with more than 40 vacant positions?
• Or using “cheap theatrics” like a fake funeral against crime?
• Mayor Kincaid dithers on promise to increase salaries of cops, firefighters
• Chief Nunn on the rising homicide rate: “I can’t explain this phenomenon”
• Judge for yourself: Are we better off one year later?

Also:

• Cold snap brings out sweaters, leaf blowers, cider dealers
• Mountain Brook schools locked down after jaywalker spotted
• We’re surrounded by ugly Bettys

• • •

Send us your news tips.

Is it OK to
set clocks back now instead of
waiting till next week?

• • •

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You know that dream where
you’re flying? Turns out you woke
up in a cornfield.

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Even light drizzle
sends cars into long lines of
rubbernecking haze.

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After a state championship four-peat, Repete is on pause from football.

Dwarn Smith, better known as “Repete” on the MTV reality series “Two-a-Days,” played as a defensive lineman for the Hoover High football team. No. 91 moved to Hoover from nearby Birmingham to join the nationally ranked Bucs.

Smith earned a reputation on the show as a tough trash-talker, an intense athlete and a laid-back jokester. This fall, the 18-year-old Auburn freshman became the first member of his family to attend college.

In this exclusive interview with Wade on Birmingham, Smith talks about life without football, his girlfriend Megan, the most important life lesson from Coach Rush Propst and his outgoing dad.

• Were you satisfied with how much airtime you received? Why did the producers choose you among all the players?

I think they chose me because I was laid back, and the cameras really didn’t affect how I acted.

I wasn’t really satisfied with the airtime. I could have stood to see the screen a little more — and from the 1,000,000 e-mails I get a week, my fans think so, too.

(more…)

An alphabet of
vitamins swallows up my
pre-breakfast routine.

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Workplace contagion
takes down colleagues left and right.
Must hold breath for weeks.

• • •

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Calendar boxes
fill up with soirées for an
October fester.

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The trek across Asia continued in tonight’s episode of “The Amazing Race.” Seven teams flew to India to wrestle gators and take driving lessons.

Friends Karlyn Harris and Lyn Turk of Birmingham have aligned with two other teams, but is the “Back Pack” keeping them from frontrunner status?

(more…)

Trick-or-treaters need
to show up soon before I
eat all the candy.

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If it won’t matter
in a hundred years, why does
now feel important?
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Beating of heart sounds
hollow with echoes of my
lonely, lonely night.

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In an MTV first, the last episode of “Two-a-Days” screened online Wednesday night before its Oct. 18 broadcast. And the post-post-season Hoover Bucs are looking forward to baseball and college ball.

Finally, some answers for fans’ burning questions: Who earns a football scholarship? Who ends up playing baseball? And which couples stay together? (Hint: not Alex and Goose.)

It’s zero-a-days for part two of the season finale. [recap of part one]
(more…)

Generations of the
future, pay heed: We really
did wing it most times.

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