Baxley inching closer to governor's race
By Staff
Bob Ingram, Alabama Scene
MONTGOMERY–Former Gov. Don Siegelman went on trial this week in Tuscaloosa after he won a significant victory in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Federal prosecutors had argued that Judge U. W. Clemon, who is hearing the case, should be removed from the trial because of prejudice but a three judge panel of the 11th Circuit, without any explanation, denied that appeal.
In pre-trial proceedings Judge Clemon has been a thorn in the side of the prosecutors. He has thrown out one of the charges against Siegelman and repeatedly has questioned the credibility of the other charges against him. In addition he has cited two members of the prosecution team for contempt and threatened to jail another.
"It is a goal of mine to earn the trust and confidence of the people to a level where they would consider me for a promotion to a higher level."
Since she is currently lieutenant governor, the only office which could be considered a "higher level" is governor.
Baxley, 66, has good reason to be encouraged about her chances to become Alabama's second woman governor. The only serious threat she would have in the Democratic Primary is former Gov. Siegelman, and he still has some legal problems to resolve.
Even if cleared of the charges against him, recent polls show Siegelman trailing Baxley in a head-to-head contest.
No less encouraging is that those same polls show she would be very competitive in a race against incumbent Republican Gov. Bob Riley.
A Montgomery circuit court judge has dismissed a claim made by some taxpayers seeking to require Moore to pay the legal bills run up by the attorneys who brought the case against him to remove the Ten Commandment monument.
Their argument was that Moore knew going in he could not win therefore he should pick up the $550,000 tab rather than the taxpayers.
Circuit Judge Tracy McCooey dismissed the case, ruling that the citizens who filed the suit had no legal standing to recover the money.
AU was placed on probation last year when SACS held that many programs…especially athletics…were being micromanaged by the Board of Trustees.
Interim President Ed Richardson who was brought in primarily to get Auburn off probation has repeatedly said he was confident that the sweeping changes he has made will result in the University being taken off probation.
One of the indirect victims of Hurricane Ivan in Montgomery was Miss Ida Belle Young, an exceedingly wealthy landowner and rancher. She owned much of the property on what is now the Eastern Bypass.
Young, a caretaker and a nurse all died of asphyxiation when a generator was being used to provide power in her home during the long power-outage caused by Ivan.
Last week the contents of her will were made public.
She left $2 million to her church, $10 million plus to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and a like amount to Auburn University Montgomery.
It was the largest bequest in AUM history.
