The Jefferson County Commission is being inundated with form letters demanding refunds for occupational tax collected since 1999, but Commission President Bettye Fine Collins says that citizens taken in by the “scam” are not entitled to a refund and are putting themselves at risk of identity theft.

The form letters are the latest development in the occupational tax problem for the county. In 1999, Rep. Arthur Payne, R-Trussville, passed a repeal of the tax through the Alabama Legislature. Afterward, a circuit court judge ruled that the Legislature did not have a quorum present at the time of the vote, so the repeal was not legally valid.

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You know the album you’re listening to is WAY left of the dial when even www.allmusic.com doesn’t feature any substantial information about it beyond listing its initial release date (1972). In addition, Wikipedia, which seems to have an entry on just about everything, doesn’t even have a stub for this album, or the artists who created it. I have a hard time understanding why such little information exists about this album, because it – Bored Civilians by Keith Cross and Peter Ross – is one of the best albums I’ve heard in the last several years.

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Birmingham City Councilor Joel Montgomery returned to City Hall today after being absent for nearly two months. In the early morning hours of April 7, Montgomery injured himself in a fall in a Five Points South parking lot. Shortly afterward, he was arrested on a charge of public intoxication. The police report from that night accused Montgomery of berating police officers with vulgarity and sexist statements.

“I haven’t been this drunk before I fucking went to Iraq,” Montgomery said, according to the police report.

Montgomery’s attorney has said the councilor was not drunk but rather he was disoriented by his head injury and has continued to have memory problems.

During the meeting Tuesday, Montgomery seemed to have healed, at least from his superficial wounds. The long bloody gash along his nose was gone, and the baseball-sized bruise on his forehead had diminished to just a small blemish.

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THERE’S A CERTAIN WRITER WE KNOW: Who knows a deliciously dirty limerick that features a generous amount of Irish buggering. It also involves clergy and other people who wear various types of the cloth, so we won’t print it here. But we got to thinking about this because we recently learned that the Alabama State Council on the Arts is sponsoring a limerick contest about Alabama towns (so the Irish buggering theme is probably worthless – not to mention tasteless – in this case anyways). But, for real and for true, you can write your own five-liner, a la Edward Lear, and send them to Alabama artists Tut Riddick and Georgine Clark. Sue Walker, Alabama Poet Laureate, will choose the winners. You’ve got until June 1 to send your attempt in to Riddick Fun House, 5 Ashley Drive, Mobile, AL 36608. Need us to jog your limerick-style memory? You can’t do any worse than this: “There once was a lass from Birmingham/With coal, ore, limestone, she’s on the lam/She’s got large man-muscles/And black dirt ‘neath her nails/But for steel she has gone to Mobile.”

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THINK MEATLOAF, PRINCE AND EMINEM WERE STRANGE NAMES? Meet Panda Bear, Deakin, Geologist and Avey Tare of the band Animal Collective. Although they haven’t quite reached the popularity of those other guys, there may be some stroke of luck associated with unusual monikers. Before they started making music together in 2000, David, Josh, Noah and Brian were just a group of friends from Baltimore. Seven years and six albums later, the band just finished recording its seventh album, Strawberry Jam, which it plans to release in September. Another claim to fame came in the form of a Crayola commercial in which the band’s song “Sweet Road,” played in the background while children tested the company’s newest concept in crayons and markers. While at times they sound like Widespread Panic meets The Birmingham Zoo (think the hoots of monkey house or the echoes of seal island), these guys obviously have a sense of humor and love putting it on display. Come be a part of it Saturday, May 28, at Bottletree – located at 3719 Third Ave. South. The show starts at 9 p.m. and also features guitarist Richard Bishop. Tickets are $14. For more information, visit www.thebottletree.com or call 533-6288.

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During the Sunday morning talk show circuit, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, appeared on Face the Nation with a twisted, contradictory message about the Iraq war. In recent years, Sessions has been one of the Bush Administration’s biggest backers, but it would seem now that the public’s dissatisfaction with the war has left even Sessions second-guessing his president. On one side of Sessions’ schizophrenic argument: If we don’t see progress before September, Congress will start bringing the troops home.

“[B]y September, when General [David] Petraeus is to make a report, I think most of the people in Congress believe, unless something extraordinary occurs, that we should be on a move to draw that surge number down,” Sessions said. “I don’t believe we need a soldier in Iraq a single day longer than is necessary to serve our national interests.”

But if that sounded like a deadline, a benchmark or whatever you call a date certain by which something must be done, Sessions countered his own argument: If we retreat, the terrorists will win.

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IT’S FUNNY HOW SOMETIMES: You’ll be driving around town, rushing off to one appointment or another, and all of a sudden see some sort of gorgeous, tree-covered path along a creek off to the side of the road and think, “Wow, this doesn’t even look like Birmingham.” If you know the experience, then you’ve been spending too much time in the man-made city. Nothing against the brick and the concrete and the asphalt – nothing in particular. But, come on, it’s freaking beautiful outside now, despite the early drought. Go out and see what the area used to look like. This Sunday, May 27, the Friends of Oak Mountain will be out for their monthly walk in the state park down ‘round Pelham-town. It’s a relatively easy Sunday afternoon walk, and you can bring some snacks and drinks for a rest a little ways up the mountain. Meet at 2 p.m. ready to get your urban escape on. 910-2680.

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ONE TO GROW ON: Childhood mandolin phenom Chris Thile has spent the past few years in the Americana trio Nickel Creek, but the band will begin an indefinite hiatus following its 2007 tour dates. Thile has already laid the foundation for life after the band, releasing his latest solo CD, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground, in 2006 on Sugar Hill Records. On Saturday, May 26, Thile will give a 9 p.m. performance at WorkPlay as part of a brief solo tour that leads up to his final Nickel Creek dates. Since beginning a career in music at age five, Thile has received enough accolades for an artist’s lifetime. At age 12, he won the prestigious national mandolin championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. In 2001, the International Bluegrass Music Association named Thile “Mandolinist of the Year.” More recently, his song “The Eleventh Reel” was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award in the “Best Country Instrumental Performance” category. Thile’s band mates – who dub themselves “How To Grow A Band” – include Americana veterans Noam Pikelny, Gabe Witcher, Greg Garrison and Bryan Sutton. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.workplay.com or by calling 380-4082.

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Everyone in Montgomery seems to be breathing easier now that Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom has broken the partisan deadlock in the Alabama Senate (although some have questioned the legality of the move). It seems at this hour that the Legislature might actually fulfill its constitutional duty to pass the state budgets, as well as a $1 billion bond issue for building new schools throughout the state. A special session this year might have been avoided.

However, the action in the Legislature might not bode so well for Jefferson County (to a greater extent) and Birmingham (to a lesser extent). At issue is whether the county’s occupational tax will expire next year, or even if it has been legal since a contested bill to repeal it passed (or not, depending on who you ask) in 1999.

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LEAVE IT TO COLLEGE STUDENTS to mix it up a bit. Just when you thought you had a grip on the Birmingham theatre scene, students from UAB, the University of Montevallo and Birmingham-Southern College bring a little something different to the table. Even though the idea isn’t a new one, with cities like Orlando, San Francisco and Indianapolis boasting similar concepts, The Birmingham Fringe Festival of New Theatre is a welcome addition to the city’s art community and promises plays that focus on contemporary issues and break barriers of conventional performance and production. Four to six plays will show each night from May 25-27 from 6-11 p.m. Admission is free, but it would be a nice gesture to swing a donation their way. Performances will take place in the UAB Studio Theatre at the Alys Stephens Center located at 1200 10th Ave. South. For more information, visit http://theatre.hum.uab.edu or call 934-3236.

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