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Birmingham lawyer Patrick Cooper and Jefferson County Commissioner William Bell will face off again next month in a runoff to decide who will be Birmingham’s next mayor. Voters on Jan. 19 will go to the polls to select one of the two candidates to serve the remaining two years of what was Larry Langford’s term. Langford was removed from office Oct. 28, the same day he was convicted by a federal jury of taking bribes while on the Jefferson County Commission. Cooper, after results Tuesday night showed him with 40.1 percent of the vote, said, “It looks like we’re headed...

SNIPPET: "TERROR mastermind Rashid Rauf has been linked to a fresh Al Qaida plot to launch attacks on the US. The Birmingham-born extremist has been named by witnesses due to testify against Najibullah Zazi, who was arrested for plotting suicide bombings in New York. MI6 officers have linked the plot to a complex terror network said to be directed from Pakistan by Rauf and fellow jihadists. Zazi, 24, was identified through an intercepted communication, and was further implicated by US national Bryant Neal Vinas, who was captured in Pakistan last November. Vinas, 26, allegedly admits meeting Rauf and receiving training...

Note: Notice how AP does not mention Larry Langford is a Democrat!TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - A federal jury convicted Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford on Wednesday on all charges of accepting bribes in exchange for funneling $7.1 million in bond business to a prominent investment banker. As a convicted felon, Langford was automatically removed from the office he won in a landslide in 2007. Jurors deliberated less than two hours before returning their sweeping verdict on all 60 counts. It came after six days of testimony in which they heard Langford accepted cash and luxury items worth some $236,000 while serving...

Carole Smitherman is now the city's mayor following the conviction of Larry Langford. Smitherman, who had served as the City Council president, will meet with city employees Thursday morning. She's already been in contact with Langford Chief of Staff Deborah Vance-Bowie and also plans to talk to Langford. "I have a very heavy heart right now for the city of Birmingham, our employees and the people of the city of Birmingham," Smitherman said. "My heart goes out to Mayor Langford. History will certainly be kind to him as a progressive mayor who loved this city and its people."

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA--Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial. Langford was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co.

Since I have lived in Tuscaloosa my whole life, I figured I'd keep my fellow FReeper friends up to date with the Larry Langford bribery trial. Begin Article: TUSCALOOSA | Testimony in the corruption trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford portrayed his personal finances as a disaster area Monday, with scant assets and liabilities of about $650,000, including nearly $240,000 in credit card debt. The testimony came as federal prosecutors neared the end of their case and tried to show Langford had a financial incentive to accept bribes while he was on the Jefferson County Commission, a charge that Langford...

Birmingham’s top Muslim leader urged his followers to “vent their feelings” against anti-Islamic protesters during a weekend rally that ended in violence and dozens of arrests, The Times can reveal. Muslims were encouraged by the Birmingham Central Mosque to counter-demonstrate during Saturday’s protest in the city, which was organised by the right-wing English Defence League (EDL). It is understood that Muslims were encouraged to confront the protest against the advice given by the West Midlands Police to community leaders to stop their followers from attending.

LONDON (AP) - Authorities arrested 90 people after racially charged violence erupted between a group protesting Islamic extremism and counter-demonstrators in the central English city of Birmingham, police said Sunday. The clashes erupted Saturday when a rally by the English Defense League ran into counter-demonstrators including anti-fascists and youths of South Asian descent, West Midlands Police said. About 200 people were involved in the clashes in downtown Birmingham, police said. Television footage showed masked or hooded youths throwing projectiles and running from riot police through the diverse city's downtown area.

THERE were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street. A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city's main train station. One onlooker said: "There were about 250 people in total, fighting and throwing bottles at each other." The disorder spilled onto the adjoining Bennetts Hill, a street lined with a number of pubs, popular with shoppers. Dozens of riot police worked to contain the disturbance and a police helicopter hovered overhead....

There were angry clashes in a city centre today as right-wing protesters fought with anti-fascist campaigners in a busy shopping street. A planned demonstration by The English Defence League in central Birmingham descended into violence as the group charged along New Street, close to the city's main train station. More than twenty men have been arrested. 'There were about 250 people in total, fighting and Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211414/Anti-fascists-clash-right-wing-protesters-Birmingham.html#ixzz0QFxinqVM

Link only - Health care reform protestors gather - loudly - in Birmingham

Christian pupils are now outnumbered by Muslims at Roman Catholic schools in some parts of England A survey has found 24 Catholic primary schools in the North West and the Midlands teach a minority of churchgoing children. Fewer than one in 10 children are Catholic at one school in Birmingham, while the Church is ending its involvement with a similar establishment in Blackburn. Overall, Catholics make up 73.34 per cent of pupils at the 2,300 schools linked to the denomination across England and Wales. But The Tablet, a weekly Catholic magazine, found that in Oldham, Blackburn, Wolverhampton and Birmingham there...

More than 30 people were arrested today after disorder broke out during a demonstration billed as a protest against Islamic fundamentalism.   A total of 31 people were detained in Birmingham city centre during the event, which is believed to have been organised on social networking sites.  A West Midlands Police spokesman said the arrests were made at various locations during the protest and a counter-demonstration organised by the Unite Against Fascism group.   A protester lies injured following the demonstration in central Birmingham today     A man with a Union Jack flag is attacked after the protest...

Police raids target 'terror plot' The raids took place at 0400 GMT on Wednesday morning Eight people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act in Birmingham after a "significant" operation involving police and security service MI5. A number of addresses in the city have been sealed off after morning raids. Security sources have told the BBC the alleged plot would not have involved mass casualties but marked "a different approach to terrorism in the UK". The six-month operation involved the Midlands counter terrorism unit, West Midlands Police and the Met Police. At least four addresses in Birmingham were targeted as...

A BRIT who spent two years in Guantanamo Bay as a terror suspect is cashing in with a computer game based on the US detention camp. Moazzam Begg, 41, will appear as himself in the Xbox 360 game, which could rake in £3million. Rendition: Guantanamo, due to go on sale in October, lets players control a detainee trying to shoot his way out. Begg, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, is shown in the game as head of an organisation helping the suspect to escape. Human rights activist Begg was thrown into the camp on Cuba in 2003 after the CIA held him...

SNIPPET: "White schoolboys from less well-off backgrounds in Birmingham are in danger of being recruited by far right groups as they grow increasingly disaffected, it has been claimed." SNIPPET: "The head teacher of Colmers School in Rednal, Peter Jones, called on Birmingham to take a lead in tackling the issue during a meeting of Birmingham City Council’s education scrutiny committee. And Nigel Baker, deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers in Birmingham, warned: “Areas like yours are also breeding grounds for extremism for right wing parties.” Council officers at the meeting acknowledged that “extremist attitudes” existed in areas...

SNIPPET: "Police are hunting a kidnap gang who tied up and apparently tortured an Asian man before dumping him in a car in a busy city centre, surrounded by a belt of canisters which they claimed were a bomb." SNIPPET: "The "bomb belt" was made up of half-a-dozen gas canisters, which would have killed the man if the gas had ignited, as well as exploding the car's petrol tank. Apart from the police helicopter, a no-fly zone was imposed on the area, causing diversions for light aircraft operating out of Birmingham airport. Firefighters were on standby at the scene throughout...

Some pics from the Birmingham, Alabama Tea Party help at Veteran's Park in Shelby County. (One of the most Conservative Counties in the country.)Rick and Bubba spoke to Sean Hannity live from this Tea Party.My Rick picture (camera phone) was crappy and my Bubba pics were useless...

I have written before – here and here -- about the way in which the First Community Organiser was assembling a permanent force from among the American public to act as a potential means of subverting the American Constitution. As I wrote here, straight after he was elected President Obama launched Organising for America, a formal infrastructure of activism built upon his campaign’s extensive database of supporters. This was ostensibly all about encouraging the public to tell Obama about the issues that concerned them. I wrote then: But as I pointed out here, such use of community organisation also follows...

Kortney Blythe, Director of Survivors Campus Life Tours, will hold a news conference in front of the Birmingham Police Department Central Headquarters at 1710 1st Avenue North at 12:00 noon today. She will demand the release of the Survivors' cameras and videos that were confiscated and held by the Birmingham police following the Survivors' arrests last week Thursday. On February 12, nine members of the Campus Life Tour team were arrested while handing out literature on the public sidewalk outside of Parker High School in Birmingham. They were held overnight in Birmingham City Jail and charged with trespassing. At the...

  Panned over pork takeaway   Halal of an idea ... Domino's pizza    By ANDREW PARKER Published: Today     TAKEAWAY giant Domino's has pizza-ed off customers by taking pork off the menu and serving only HALAL meat. The group have opened the first halal-only pizza store in the country, catering to the needs of Muslim customers in the mixed race area of Hall Green, Birmingham. The controversial menu change means Brummie pizza lovers hoping to tuck into classic pizzas like a Hawaiian with ham and pineapple will be disappointed. Instead, they will have to travel over two...

THREE members of a suspected terror cell with links to Al Qaida are on the run in the Midlands. The alleged jihadists, who all have joint Libyan/British citizenship, have been placed on Interpol’s Most Wanted list over claims they funded terror plots for Osama Bin Laden. The international police force has made the men subject to a Red Notice – the highest level of arrest warrant – and have traced them to areas in and around Birmingham. Abd’rabbah Ghuma, 51, Abdulbaqi Mohammed Khaled, 51, and Mohammed Benhammedi, 42, also appear on a United Nation’s list of Al Qaida and Taliban...

Water main break leaves 1,500 with no waterLast Edited: Saturday, 17 Jan 2009, 3:25 PM CST FOX 6 WBRC-TV BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC-TV MyFoxAL.com) -- Around 1,500 customers of the Birmingham Water Works are without water this cold Saturday afternoon. An eight inch water main broke earlier on Saturday morning. Birmingham Water Works spokeswoman Binnie Myles said that homes in the Airport Road area off of Lawson Avenue are without water, and blames the cold weather for the water main break.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of sympathy out there for Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Larry Langford, who was arrested this week and charged on Monday with 101 counts of bribery and corruption, including charges of accepting expensive jewelry in return for public favors. Langford seems to be taking heat from all sides, including two of our own syndicated bloggers at The Daily Voice. Writing what he calls "another black official 'done went and done' me wrong post," attorney and columnist Wain Bennett accuses Langford of betraying the public trust. "Here is the thing Larry: All those folks who felt...

A Birmingham City Council committee agreed this afternoon to fund a celebration in honor of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. The celebration will be held in Boutwell Auditorium, with big-screen TVs broadcasting the event. Members of the council's Joint Committee of the Whole were still debating the cost of the celebration this afternoon, but they said the cost would be paid from the city's budget. Also this afternoon, the committee said it would delay beginning street paving projects Mayor Larry Langford has advocated.

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested this morning on federal charges and is being held at the federal courthouse, the FBI and other federal officials confirm. A special grand jury for several months has been investigating county bond deals and Langford's financial dealings. Langford was Jefferson County Commission president 2002-06. Al LaPierre, a close friend of Langford's who also was part of the federal investigation, will be surrendering today, said his attorney, Tommy Spina. David McKnight, Montgomery banker Bill Blount's attorney, said Blount is on his way to Birmingham from Montgomery to surrender. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin will hold a...

A fugitive British militant linked to an alleged UK plot to use liquid bombs to blow up transatlantic airliners has been killed in Pakistan, reports say. Pakistani media said Rashid Rauf, born in Birmingham, was killed in a US air strike in North Waziristan, a haven for militants and the Taleban. Mr Rauf, on the run after escaping from a Pakistani jail, was alleged to have helped the group planning the attacks. Three men were convicted in the UK in September of conspiracy to murder. News of the liquid bomb plot paralysed global air travel, prompting authorities to implement stringent...

The document, which was drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch, states that "some thousands" of extremists are active in the UK. They are predominantly UK-born and aged between 18 and 30, and many are believed to have been trained in overseas terrorist camps. Under the heading "International Terrorism", the report, which is marked "restricted" states: "For the foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with al-Qaeda. It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign terrorists, as...

With $3.2 billion in debt, the county that is home to Alabama's largest city is about to go bust. How the credit crisis went South. Bob Riley wanted to help. It was Sunday, Oct. 5, and the Alabama governor was on the phone with Neel Kashkari, a Treasury Department official who the next day would be named by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson as interim leader of the government's just-approved $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. But Riley couldn't wait for Kashkari's role to become official. He needed to impress upon the new bailout boss the seriousness of the exploding financial...

In the twelve plus years that I’ve been writing this weekly column, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the Highlands Writers Group. That is a shifting association of professional writers, semi-pros like me, and gifted amateurs. One of the finest writers in the group is Anne Doggett; she helped create the Group a decade ago, She’s a distant cousin who creates Southern people and situations on paper easily as well as the legendary Eudora Welty. I won’t mention any of the other members for fear of slighting excellent talent among those I don’t mention, Suffice to say, there’s enough talent...

It turns out that al-Jazeera requested a similar interview from the Democratic mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Mayor Larry Langford. He refused because of the network’s ties to terrorists. But what was not reported is that they offered the same strange invitation, to be picked up and brought by them to some untold location. To be clear, I have no doubt that the harassment of elective candidates was not a network decision. As I stated in my last column, my cause for concern was that al-Jazeera hires many interns directly from the Middle East with little known about their background.

Extremists are winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Britain's young Muslims, a disturbing police report warns. Increasing numbers have become so alienated from mainstream society that they could even lend their support to jihadi terrorism, the study claims. While most reject violence, many distrust police and are reluctant to inform on extremists. The report was commissioned by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) after last year's failed bomb attacks in London's West End and at Glasgow Airport. It is to be discussed at Acpo's annual conference this week. In the most comprehensive research of its kind...

Bank employees said a man wearing a ski mask and carrying a pistol was thwarted in an attempt to rob the bank because the doors were locked. The man fled the scene. and he was unable to complete the heist,

London, Jun 4, 2008 / 07:24 pm (CNA).- British police said they will not apologize to two Christian preachers who were threatened with arrest by a Muslim police officer for preaching Christianity in Muslim communities in the city of Birmingham. According to the Telegraph, the incident occurred last February when Christian ministers Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham were handing out leaflets and speaking with four Muslim youths about Christianity in Birmingham. Naeem Naguthney, a Muslim police community support officer told them to cease-and-desist from preaching to Muslims and threatened to charge them with a “hate crime.” "He said we were...

Two Christians claim a police community support officer told them to stop leafleting in an area of east Birmingham where many Muslims live. The Christian Institute has complained to West Midlands Police the men were told to leave Alum Rock Road. The US Christians said they were advised they were committing a hate crime by trying to convert Muslims. West Midlands Police has investigated the complaint and said the officer intervened to defuse a row. Arthur Cunningham and Joseph Abraham, a pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship Church, in Saltley, Birmingham, had been distributing leaflets in nearby Alum Rock on 19...

On this day in 1963, police in Birmingham, Alabama -- under the command of the Democrat sheriff, Eugene "Bull" Connor -- attacked several thousand African-American schoolchildren who were demonstrating peacefully for their civil rights. At the time, it should be noted, Connor was the Democratic National Committeeman for Alabama. Connor's men used dogs and clubs... [see http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com for more] Republicans would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party. See www.republicanbasics.com for more information.

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

Cannot Post due to copyright issues: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/03/17/080317taco_talk_hertzberg

Suit challenges Langford's first computer charity Tuesday, February 19, 2008 BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and JOSEPH D. BRYANT News staff writers A charity Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford created more than seven years ago to give every child a computer faces scrutiny from a donor and federal prosecutors over its use of more than $1 million in taxpayer money, including payments on personal credit card bills, expenses for "elaborate" trips and checks written to a star of gay-porn films. The questions about Computer Help for Kids, created in 2000 to carry out Langford's first computer-for-every-child promise as Fairfield mayor, come as the...

The Muslim convert accused of trying to hijack a Ryanair plane from Sweden to Stansted attended an American flying school leaving with a qualification to pilot light aircraft. The revelation that Kerim Chatty, 29, had taken flying lessons in the US - just like the September 11 terrorists - came as detectives investigated reports that he was planning to crash the plane into an American embassy in Europe, possibly London. An intelligence officer in Sweden told Reuters: "We know for sure that the plan was to crash the plane into a US embassy in Europe." If London were the target,...

A Birmingham pastor was arrested for making a terroristic threat against a judge. Birmingham Police Sgt. Cory Hardiman said Wanda Radford was arrested November 9th for making a terroristic threat against a person in public administration. Another police officer told FOX6 News the public official was a circuit court judge. Pastor Radford is the founder of "Mothers Who Want to Stop the Violence," an organization created to promote non-violence in Birmingham. Radford was being held in the Jefferson County Jail on no bond.

Hardline takeover of British mosques       Andrew Norfolk   Almost half of Britain’s mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to “shed blood” for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found. Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and preaches contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement, which gave birth to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of Britain’s 1,350 mosques, according to...

Yes, it is highly unusual for a Bishop to be transferred to a new diocese with a smaller population and an even smaller number of nominal Catholics. Yet, Birmingham, the new diocese of Robert Baker, the former Bishop of Charleston, includes one specific Catholic institution, which deserves special treatment (for better or for worse). From our collection of episcopal reactions to Summorum Pontificum: In a letter to priests of the Diocese of Charleston, SC, Bishop Robert J Baker takes a warm and positive position. Among the many good things he says are the following, "Let us use this time of...

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 The Wait is Over... Finally. [8am: Updated with statements... scroll down.] Riffing off Sunday’s warning shot, a reader mused that “if it's [neither] the butcher or the candle-stick maker… IT MUST BE THE BAKER.” And it is – and, at long last, it’s official: at Roman Noon today, the Pope named Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston to the diocese of Birmingham, which covers northern Alabama. If you're surprised, you haven't been paying attention. Baker, 63, succeeds Bishop David Foley, who retired as Birmingham’s ordinary in May 2005. Foley, 77, has since served as diocesan administrator;...

Abortion Activists To Square Off In Birmingham By GREG GARRISON and WILLIAM C. SINGLETON III BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Birmingham will be the focus of the national abortion debate when activists on both sides converge on the city for a week starting Saturday. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America has been recruiting people from across the nation to meet in Birmingham July 14-22 for a week of demonstrations against abortion. At the same time, the National Organization for Women is calling activists from across the country to Birmingham for what is being billed as "Alabama Reproductive Freedom Summer,'' a series of demonstrations aimed...

When Your Doctor is a Muslim: Medical Terrorism Comes to America By Debbie Schlussel www.debbieschlussel.com May 17, 2007 Sometimes--so many times--diversity is not what it's cracked up to be. Just ask Joseph Applebaum. Well, you could ask him. But you won't get an answer. He's dead. And he's dead because he was a Jew, and his doctor is a Muslim and grad of "Ayman Al-Zawahiri" Medical School. But Applebaum wasn't denied treatment for being a Jew in Egypt. Or elsewhere in the Muslim world. It happened right here on U.S. soil. In Chicago. As Muslim doctors continue to flood into...

Police in Birmingham having been checking thousands of cars across the city following the bomb alert in London. It is believed the vehicle at the centre of the main alert in the capital could have been registered to an address in the region. An increased police presence in cities throughout the country saw officers from West Midlands Police take to the streets. The force had been placed on high alert after the discovery in London of two Mercedes cars containing similar explosive materials. The first car in question - a Mercedes rumoured to be registered to a Birmingham owner -...

A British Army officer has been abused by Asian women while on a hospital visit to troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Company Sergeant Major Neil Powell was surrounded and heckled by three young women in the unprovoked verbal attack at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. The women, in traditional Asian dress, ranted about the presence of British troops in Muslim countries. The incident took place in a public area of the hospital used by both civilians and military personnel. In recent months the standard of treatment for soldiers at Selly Oak has been widely criticised. Military personnel have called...

Hi there: there's a job prospect in Birmingham, Alabama. The job is supposed to be in downtown. I have never been in that part of the country before. Does one need to move far out into the suburb to be in a safe neighborhood? If so, what kind of commute am I talking about? Also, the pay is 50-60k/a. Is that a good salary? Thanks for any comments.

BESSEMER, Alabama: A gunman fatally shot two bank employees during a robbery Monday morning at a Wachovia bank branch in Alabama, authorities said. Deputies later shot one suspect as he left the bank with a gun held to a female hostage's head, and they were searching for a possible second suspect, a sheriff's spokesman told The Birmingham News. The spokesman said two other employees were shot and wounded.