U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith today sentenced former Jefferson County Commissioner Chris McNair to five years in prison and ordered him to pay more than $850,000 for his role in a massive sewer system bribery scandal. Last year a federal jury in Birmingham found McNair guilty on federal bribery charges, and earlier this year McNair pleaded guilty to other bribery charges in a related case.According to his plea and his conviction, McNair solicited and accepted more than $140,000 in bribes from Jefferson County sewer contractors. Using phony invoices, the contractors paid for work on McNair’s photography studio, which they then billed to the county. At other times, the contractors would give envelopes full of cash
In March, the former county sewer chief, Jack Swann, was sentenced to eight and half years on similar and related bribery charges.
The volunteer organization Hands on Birmingham is seeking 50 residents for weeklong volunteer trips to Biloxi and New Orleans Nov. 4-11. The Birmingham volunteers will partner with volunteers from Hands on Biloxi and Hands on New Orleans to gut and renovate houses, work at animal shelters, read to schoolchildren, remove litter and debris, paint murals and more.
Find out more at a free information session at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, at John’s City Diner, 112 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd., downtown. Learn how to sign up and what to expect on the trip. Also, meet members from April’s volunteer team.
Is your idea of fun making people crap their pants? Like chasing folks with chainsaws? Playing with knives? Love the dark? Drink blood? The Atrox Factory, the Southeast’s longest and scariest haunted attraction, is taking applications online, with auditions this weekend. Deadline is tonight, Friday Sept. 14, so hurry. Applicants must be over 19 and available to work the nightshift through October. And it pays!
If you would rather be on the receiving end of terror, you can learn more about the Atrox Factory here. Atrox opens October 5 and continues nightly through Halloween.
Almost three months ago, Jeremy Harper began his one-to-million shot — counting to one million live on the Internet. (Can you imagine putting that on your resume? Summer 2007: Counted to one million live on Internet.) You can read our original cover story here. But more importantly, you need to get yourself to the Barking Kudu this Friday evening to watch him cross the finish line. Here’s the plan. At about 6:30 Harper will finish counting, and everyone at the Kudu will be able to see it live on the Kudu cam. After his big number (sorry, couldn’t resist) Harper will finally leave his house for the first time in three months to go have a drink at the Kudu and to shave that nasty-ass beard he’s been growing since the count began. The Matt Woods band will play some tunes during the intermissions, and Push America will be there to take your donations and thank Harper for sacrificing his summer for charity.
But the Dog Day Afternoon Birthday Bash takes place on Thursday, Sept. 13, at Zydeco. A trio of friends decided they’d had enough of the old-fashioned cake-and-ice-cream-style birthday celebrations and preferred to mark their personal holiday by hosting a fundraiser for local animal rescue organizations. The scheduled shindig includes flamenco guitar by Paul Hutchison, food by Little Savannah, bellydancing by Samaraya, all starting at 6 p.m. In lieu of gifts, the revelers request donations of pet food, litter, bedding, leashes or cash to benefit TEARS and Birmingham Adopt-a-Rott. For more information, go to www.zydeco.com or call 585-8702.
Or, rather, fine prints. The opening reception for “Plot Influential: A National Invitational Printmaking Exhibition” takes place at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 7, in the Durbin Gallery at Birmingham-Southern College, but the gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. That means you can improve your mental health on any business day between now and Sept. 28 by viewing the show. Dozens of artists nationwide contributed prints and posters, resulting in an exquisite exhibit that reveals the myriad possibilities of the printmaking form. For more information, call 226-4928 or check out www.bsc.edu.
And there’s a lot more where that came from. Call it inadvertent citizen journalism here in the so-called Magic City, an armchair anthropologist’s goldmine posted on the Internet for someone to find. Birmingham News metro columnist John Archibald delivered the goods Sunday with a column that should enlighten the politically sheltered and frighten the socially insulated.
As just about everyone who pays attention to news in Birmingham knows by now three teenagers and one 21-year-old were shot last Monday night just outside Legion Field. The shooting occurred during a Labor Day football game between Parker and Huffman high schools. According to witnesses, at least one of the shooters shouted “Loveman Village” before opening fire. Loveman Village is a housing project in Birmingham’s North Titusville neighborhood. On Friday, Birmingham police arrested two men — 18-year-old Alonzo Robinson and a 16-year-old juvenile — for the crime.
The shooting left many in Birmingham befuddled and frustrated. Birmingham police had been assigned and positioned all over and around Legion Field when the shootings occurred. City officials have portrayed the shootings as a random and senseless event. However, as Archibald found, it’s not hard to peek further into the kindred Birmingham gang activity nor must you leave your desk for a better understanding of the underlying problems. All you have to do is search Bebo.com, a kissin’ cousin of MySpace and Facebook.
Sorry for the delay in our Making a Mayor posts. Last week, I had my laptop and briefcase stolen from my car downtown, which pushed things back. But considering the circumstances, what could be more topical for our next installment than crime? For Birmingham’s quality of life to improve, the citizens must feel safe and their lives and property must be secured.
Attrition, retention and recruitment
When Birmingham’s murder rate skyrocketed in the last two years, city councilors and FOP representatives immediately began to cry for a public safety raise. I won’t contend that police officers didn’t deserve the raise. Law enforcement is one of those professions, much like education, in which the professionals can never be completely compensated for the value of their service.
Still, I found it interesting that many of the same politicians who have advocated performance-based budgeting chose a spike in crime as an argument for a police and fire pay raise. But anyway …
After a raise included in this year’s budget, combined with the exceptional benefits and retirement packages, the city’s public safety compensation is now competitive with the rest of the Birmingham region. Rather, the issue now is one of retention and attrition.
The volunteer organization Hands on Birmingham is seeking 50 residents for weeklong volunteer trips to Biloxi and New Orleans Nov. 4-11. The Birmingham volunteers will partner with volunteers from Hands on Biloxi and Hands on New Orleans to gut and renovate houses, work at animal shelters, read to schoolchildren, remove litter and debris, paint murals and more.
Almost three months ago, Jeremy Harper began his one-to-million shot — 
Sorry for the delay in our 
