Update: Organizers cancel Birmingham Heritage Festival, citing financial woes.

• • •

Friday marks the return of the Birmingham Heritage Festival, which originally ran from 1991 to 2003 under Larry Allen. This year, Ascension Event Management has taken on the three-day event, but not without a hiccup or two.

Organizer Lawrence Walker asked the city council for a last-minute loan of $300,000 for the Birmingham Heritage Festival, the same day City Stages declared bankruptcy after taking an additional last-minute $250,000 from the City of Birmingham. Walker said the 30-day loan would be to pay acts after a financial backer had pulled out, but the council rejected the request.

The festival takes place Friday through Sunday in a new location, Linn Park (previously, the event was in and around Kelly Ingram Park). Tickets, $55 for all three days or $33 for one day, are available online and at select Piggly Wiggly locations.

Scheduled to perform …

Friday

• Angie Stone
• SOS Band
• Lloyd
• Ludacris

Saturday

• Dwele
• Avant
• Keyshia Cole

Sunday

• Prince Yelder and DFC
• OverFloe
• Cheryl Bufford and the Floodland Family
• Ashley Guin
• Church Boy
• Atlantic Starr
• Joe
• Chaka Khan

Update: Ludacris said via Twitter that he is not performing at the Birmingham Heritage Festival: “Bogus promoter alert!!! Birmingham, AL Heritage festival, completely false. Luda will not be there so don’t buy tickets!!!”

(hat tip The Terminal)

Video previews after the jump …

(more…)

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Dedrick Griham

Positions held: robber, kidnapper, felon

Wanted for: carjacking and related gun charges

Date of conviction: Nov. 13, 2006

Sentence: Life plus 84 years in prison.

Criminally fun fact: Griham served 5 years of a 20-year sentence for a Mobile robbery when he was paroled in 2005. He abducted a Birmingham attorney from the parking lot of her downtown apartment. Birmingham police captured him at a Homewood motel and freed his captive.

He later escaped from Staton Correctional Facility in Elmore County, but was recaptured when federal agents found him in a cardboard box in West End.

On the stand, he accused his victim of setting up the whole crime with a prostitute named ”Pumpkin.”

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Dedrick Griham
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

• • •

Want more Wade on Birmingham? Subscribe to our free newsletter!

Video: “Food, Inc.” trailer

“Food, Inc.,” the critically acclaimed documentary, started its four-night stint at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa Sunday night. It followed a one-week run in July at Mobile’s Crescent Theater.

But, Birmingham foodies and film fans will have their chance on Labor Day weekend, as Bottletree Cafe will show “Food, Inc.” for several nights. In addition to the film’s exclusive Birmingham screening, organizers plan to have tastings, a panel discussion and handouts detailing area food groups and resources.

The movie, directed by Robert Kenner, takes a look at the American food industry and the dire consequences of modern production and consumption to people and planet. Film critic Roger Ebert gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four, writing:

This review doesn’t read one thing like a movie review. But most of the stuff I discuss in it, I learned from the new documentary “Food, Inc.,” directed by Robert Kenner and based on the recent book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan. … I just wanted to scare the bejesus out of you, which is what “Food, Inc.” did to me.

“Food, Inc.” also scored well on the review site Metacritic.

Sponsoring the film are the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network, Greater Birmingham Community Food Partners, Jefferson County Childhood Obesity Task Force, Jones Valley Urban Farm, Slow Food Birmingham and Whole Foods Market.

Screenings will be on Sept. 5 and 6. Information on times and ticket prices will be posted on this site soon. [Update: You can purchase tickets for $7 to $18 through Bottletree.]

For more information, contact Amanda Storey on her site, Food Revival, or e-mail her at Amanda.storey[at]foodrevival.com.

Video: “Food, Inc.” opening scene

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Simon Speights

Positions held: Lipscomb mayor and city council president

Wanted for: burglary

Date of conviction: Feb. 3, 1994

Sentence: 3-year suspended sentence, unsupervised probation, $1,000 fine plus restitution and court costs

Criminally fun fact: Speights was Lipscomb council president when he was appointed as mayor after Jimmie Johnson resigned in 2005 for the “safety for me and my family.” Speights was driving a stolen car and collecting more than the authorized salary for his office. He resigned in July 2007 after his burglary conviction came to light; his conviction prevents him from holding office.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Simon Speights
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

• • •

Want more Wade on Birmingham? Subscribe to our free newsletter!

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Mary Kay Beard

Positions held: nursing school graduate, now Center Point resident and founder of Angel Tree ministry

Wanted for: grand larceny and armed robbery, including robbing banks and staging a prison break for her then husband/partner in crime. In 1972, Beard made the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

Date of conviction: 1972

Sentence: 21 years in Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, but paroled after 6 years.

Criminally fun fact: Beard once had a contract on her life for crossing the mafia in a diamond heist. She started the Angel Tree program in 1982, which has given Christmas gifts for 6 million children of prisoners.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Mary Kay Beard
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

• • •

Want more Wade on Birmingham? Subscribe to our free newsletter!

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Don MacDermott

Positions held: City Council member.

Wanted for: receiving and possessing child pornography.

Date of conviction: Dec. 5, 2007

Sentence: 5 years in prison.

Criminally fun fact: MacDermott is a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, described by him as “a conservative organization that tries to defend the Constitution.” The Southern Poverty Law Center says it “spews white supremacist propaganda in its publications and Web site.”

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Don MacDermott
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

• • •

Want more Wade on Birmingham? Subscribe to our free newsletter!

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Chris McNair

Positions held: milkman, photographer, Jefferson County commissioner, state legislator (one of the first black representatives since Reconstruction). Also, father of Denise McNair, one of the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church.

Wanted for: bribery and conspiracy related to awarding contracts in the Jefferson County sewer debacle.

Date of conviction: April 21, 2006

Sentence: 5 years in prison and more than $850,000 in restitution. However, McNair, 83, remains out on bond pending an appeal 2 years after sentencing.

Criminally fun fact: McNair once had a health clinic named in his honor, until the Jefferson County Board of Health renamed it as the West End Health Center in 2008.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Chris McNair
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

• • •

Want more Wade on Birmingham? Subscribe to our free newsletter!

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Rube Burrow

Positions held: Alabama native who became a farmer, train robber and outlaw

Wanted for: robbery and murder. One 1887 train robbery netted Burrow’s gang between $12,000 and $30,000 (or in 2009 dollars, from $284,000 to $710,000). He shot and killed a Lamar County postmaster.

Date of conviction: never convicted. Possibly gunned down or captured by Linden store owner J.D. “Dixie” Carter, after Burrow hid out in the Alabama wilderness for two years during one of the nation’s largest manhunts.

Criminally fun fact: Burrow’s body was displayed in Birmingham (and other cities) before being buried in his home county of Lamar in 1890. Namesake of the former Rube Burrow’s Food and Spirits in Five Points South.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Rube Burrow
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Marvin Warner

Positions held: Birmingham native appointed U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, attorney, insurance salesman, real estate developer, banker and owner of Home State Savings Bank in Cincinnati.

Wanted for: fraud and securities violations. His bad investments led to a run on his savings and loans across Ohio, draining the state’s insurance fund and causing about 90,000 to lose access to $143 million in savings.

Date of conviction: 1987

Sentence: Served 2 years, 4 months in prison, then lived on his farm in Florida while serving out 4 years of probation.

Criminally fun fact: Warner was team owner of the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Marvin Warner
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Mary Buckelew

Position held: president, Jefferson County Commission (Governing magazine’s 1997 Public Official of the Year)

Wanted for: obstruction of justice, lying to a grand jury about accepted gifts, including $4,000 in designer shoes, a purse and a spa treatment.

Date of conviction: Oct. 28, 2008

Sentence: Faces 12 to 18 months in prison. Sentencing postponed from June 30 to Sept. 30, after Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s federal trial. Her cooperation in a plea deal was to uncover others involved in criminal activity related to the bond swaps over the Jefferson County sewer system.

Criminally fun fact: Heckuva job … Buckelew was honored by FEMA in 2002 for her “drive, enthusiasm and dedication.”

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Mary Buckelew
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Gregory Clarke

Position held: pastor, New Hope Baptist Church (6,000 members)

Wanted for: filing false tax returns, owing $35,684 in back taxes

Date of conviction: July 20, 2007

Sentence: 21 months in prison, but was released from Atlanta federal prison in April after 14 months served. He’s serving the remainder of his sentence in a Birmingham halfway house.

Criminally fun fact: Clarke says he was targeted by the Bush administration for his support and friendship of former governor Don Siegelman [letter, Jan. 12, 2009, PDF].

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Gregory Clarke
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

In August, we’re celebrating Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks, whether they be liars, thieves, extortionists, swindlers or thugs. Running daily until Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s Aug. 31 federal trial. Thanks to Bhamwiki for helping with this project.

Gary White

Positions held: Jefferson County commissioner. Also became Golden Rule Bar-B-Q manager.

Wanted for: bribery and conspiracy related to the $3 billion sewer debacle

Date of conviction: Jan. 10, 2008

Sentence: He faces up to 85 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines, but was awarded a new trial prior to sentencing.

Criminally fun fact: He took up to $4,000 in bribes in hundred-dollar bills.

• • •

Additional reading:

• Bhamwiki: Gary White
• Crime Watch
• Meet more of Birmingham’s Biggest Crooks | RSS feed

Here lies Jefferson County, the biggest county in Alabama, once home to the once biggest city in the state.

What killed Jefferson County? Poor leadership? Not enough civic engagement? Bad financial management? The recession?

Let us start with the budget, a gaping black hole of billions of dollars of debt from the sewer crisis debacle. [More stories on the Jefferson County sewer system problem.] Add to that the demise of the county’s bizarre occupational tax and its $75 million in annual revenue. Rainy day fund? Emergency action plan? What’s Jefferson County’s Plan B? Heck, it doesn’t seem like it has a Plan A …

Kyle Whitmire of Birmingham Weekly does an exceptional job in “Politician-Assisted Suicide” of breaking down the tangled politics and morass of mistakes that have led us to today, the end of the budget.

With no money left, the county has yet to declare bankruptcy. It has however …

• Placed 900 employees on administrative leave with no return date. (The county employs 3,000 workers.)
• Shut down its satellite courthouses where citizens can renew drivers’ licenses and auto tags.
• Revamped its Web site.
• Battled with Sheriff Mike Hale over budget cuts to his department.
• Left Cooper Green Mercy Hospital untouched.
• Fled town: Commission president Bettye Fine Collins was in San Diego at a Republican National Committee meeting (checked into a hotel under her maiden name), and Shelia Smoot was in Nashville at a National Association of Counties convention.

So what’s left? The Legislature could reinstate a revised occupational tax or force the commission to hire a county manager. Jefferson County’s legislators will meet again Tuesday to look for a solution via Montgomery.

Update: The commission must also fend off a lawsuit from within. County tax assessor Dan Weinrib filed suit today to prevent any budget cuts to his department. (Hat tip Kerry Sanders.)

Meanwhile, the debt grows, the commission is out, and workers and citizens are left to wonder how much worse can it get.

Note: See our Independence Day weekend activities for 2010.

Looking for some hot and/or cool ways to spend your Independence Day weekend?

• The Birmingham News has 12 things to do (and one not to do, confusingly labeled under “Drinks”) around town. [PDF version]

• The Alabama Tourism Department has great activities across the state from A to V (Alexander City to Valley Head). [PDF version]

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Photo: Flickr: Jim Brickett / CC BY-ND 2.0

Last weekend’s disappointing ticket sales leave event $1 million plus in red

The Birmingham News reported via e-mail and Twitter that “Music festival organizers say City Stages will not return.”

And according to the News’ site:

The Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind City Stages, is “irretrievably insolvent,” and intends to go out of business, according to a statement released today by festival organizers.

City Stages can’t pay its expenses from this year’s festival, because revenue was “drastically below expected levels,” the statement says. Organizers pointed to the economic crunch, hot weather and low attendance, among other factors.

The downtown summer music festival, started in 1989, featured a wide variety of musical acts and quickly became Alabama’s largest music event. In recent years, the festival has been plagued by recurring debt, asking for and receiving $250,000 last week from the City of Birmingham. Last weekend marked an all-time low in day passes sold in the festival’s 21-year history.

Updated June 26: The final debt tally? More than $1 million, leaving vendors high and dry.

Also:

• Why festival president George McMillan should have stepped down in 2008
• City gave $700,000 in cash and services to festival in 2008
• An analysis of  the 2009 festival’s numbers and economic impact

Could the festival have been saved?
What are your favorite City Stages memories?
Should festival president George McMillan have stepped aside sooner?
How will this impact Birmingham culturally and financially?
Sound off in the comments.

• • •

City Stages officials released this statement [original PDF]:

City Stages Statement of Intent to Go Out of Business

For 21 years, the Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization, has been producing the annual City Stages Music Festival, which has consistently drawn hundreds of thousands of attendees from all backgrounds and cultures to downtown Birmingham to enjoy three days of live entertainment from national and local artists, a children’s festival, arts and crafts, and a festive atmosphere, all in a family friendly event

The Foundation has given back to the City of Birmingham and the state with an economic impact in the tens of millions of dollars and has provided scholarships, music camps, and other valuable benefits to the City and the region. Most of all, City Stages changed the landscape of downtown Birmingham’s Linn Park and the surrounding area for one weekend during the year, in a way that helped to unite the community. We are proud of our heritage and the long-term success of the festival and what the Foundation has been able to accomplish over the last two decades.

However, due to the recent economic downturn, weather challenges, low attendance, low ticket sales, and other factors, revenue from this year’s Festival was drastically below expected levels and insufficient to pay the expenses of the Festival. Coupled with the substantial debt the Foundation has carried from previous years, the inability to meet the expenses of this year’s event cannot be overcome. Therefore, we regret to inform the community, our loyal sponsors and vendors, and the many volunteers who have lent their time, talent and effort to this endeavor that it is no longer viable to continue this Festival.

The Foundation is now irretrievably insolvent. With great sadness, pursuant to a resolution adopted by its Board of Directors, the Foundation is in the process of officially going out of business and legally terminating its existence. City Stages has come to an end.

We would like to thank all of the artists, corporate sponsors, vendors, festival attendees, the City of Birmingham, Jefferson County, State of Alabama, local small businesses, board members, community organizations and all of the other many volunteers and partners who have worked with City Stages over the past 21 years. The Foundation would also like to express its regret that the drastic reduction in revenue from this year’s event has made it impossible for the Foundation to satisfy its debts.

It appears vendors such as Bottletree Cafe, which provided catering and shut down its restaurant/bar for five days, will not be fully reimbursed.

Rebecca Davis, promoter for the club, mentioned via Twitter:

“PLEASE come out and support Bottletree!! We won’t be getting paid what we were owed for the catering and hospitality we did for City Stages.”

(Hat tip: Bham.fm.)

More from Bottletree Cafe on its blog:

• “Bottletree caters the last ever City Stages”
• “Bottletree and City Stages”

• • •

A few more updates:

• ABC 33/40: “Some vendors say they were paid but their checks bounced. Others, like Bottletree, only got half of their money and don’t know how they are going to pay their staff.”
• The Terminal: Scott Schablow’s musical tribute to City Stages’ passing
• Black and White (published before festival’s termination): McMillan “makes perhaps his boldest and most repugnant claim, i.e. that his efforts with the festival were done ‘for this city.’ “
• Black and White (published before festival’s termination): “With all of the financial problems this event has suffered over the past nine years, somewhere, somebody should have put a stop to the idea that City Stages had to compete with every other festival in the region.”

• • •

Complete City Stages coverage.