Army begins action to discharge reservists
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
AP's ROBERT BURNS - - Birmingham News
| The Army took initial steps Monday to expel dozens of reservists who failed to report for active duty, in effect warning hundreds of others that they too could be penalized if they don't heed orders to return to active service.
| Discuss
Senate group unveils oil-saving plan
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
AP's H. JOSEF HEBERT - - Birmingham News
| Efforts to stem America's appetite for oil, nearly two-thirds of it imported, are getting new attention in Congress with a push from an unusual coalition of environmentalists, evangelical Christians and conservatives.
| Discuss
White House: U.S. will pursue Jordan case
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
AP's NEDRA PICKLER - - Birmingham News
| Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings Wednesday at three hotels in Jordan are fresh evidence of the challenge facing the U.S. and its allies in the fight against terrorism.
| Discuss
GOP urges Bush on high court nomination
Sunday, October 30, 2005
AP's HOPE YEN - - Birmingham News
| President Bush neared a decision on a new nominee for the Supreme Court as Republican lawmakers suggested Sunday he should pick a solid conservative with a track record as a judge.
| Discuss
Sessions 'troubled' over nomination
Thursday, October 27, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Sen. Jeff Sessions, normally a full-throated advocate of the president's picks for the federal bench, remains on the fence about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, saying Wednesday that he is "troubled."
| Discuss
GOP contenders pass on Ariz. governor spot
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
AP's PAUL DAVENPORT - - Birmingham News
| Conservatives have long dominated the political landscape of this state, the home of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater. Republicans dominate the Legislature, hold both Senate seats and six of eight U.S. House seats.
| Discuss
Ohio war veteran running for Senate
Monday, October 24, 2005
AP's Dan Sewell - - Birmingham News
| Paul Hackett, the Democratic veteran of the Iraq war who narrowly lost a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district in August, made his official entry into a U.S. Senate race Monday.
| Discuss
Civil rights icon Rosa Parks dies
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 TOM GORDON - - Birmingham News
| Rosa Louise Parks, whose soft-spoken refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus launched the civil rights movement that dramatically changed Alabama and the nation, died Monday at age 92.
| Discuss
Condi comes back home
Friday, October 21, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Top diplomats from the two countries with the most soldiers in Iraq begin a three-day tour of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa today, starting with a joint lecture at the University of Alabama.
| Discuss
Hometown visit highlights civil rights triumph
Sunday, October 23, 2005 TOM GORDON and MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| The 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing denied four little girls a future full of potential, but their deaths forced Birmingham and the nation to face the injustices that afflicted the lives of black Americans, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Saturday.
| Discuss
AP: FBI may relax drug use hiring policy
Monday, October 10, 2005
AP's TED BRIDIS - - Birmingham News
| The FBI, famous for its straight-laced crime-fighting image, is considering whether to relax its hiring rules over how often applicants could have used marijuana or other illegal drugs earlier in life.
| Discuss
Sen. Byrd to run for record ninth term
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
AP's LAWRENCE MESSINA - - Birmingham News
| Plunging into what will likely be the toughest — and final — campaign in a political career that has spanned seven decades, Democrat Robert C. Byrd on Tuesday kicked off his bid for a record ninth term.
| Discuss
Supreme Court may hear abortion case
Monday, September 26, 2005
AP's Gina Holland - - Birmingham News
| The Bush administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a national ban on a type of late-term abortion, a case that could thrust the president's first court picks into an early tie-breaking role on a divisive and emotional issue.
| Discuss
Democrats seeking voice as Bush struggles
Friday, September 23, 2005
AP's RON FOURNIER - - Birmingham News
| The dip in President Bush's popularity has Democrats dreaming of brighter days for their out-of-power party, but only if they show voters clear leadership and a fresh message.
Right now, they have neither.
| Discuss
Keeping Natalee in the spotlight
Monday, September 19, 2005 KATHY KEMP - - Birmingham News
| Twitty talks daily by phone with Greta Van Susteren, the Fox News personality who practically moved to Aruba to report the story that has captivated people around the world and turned the grieving mother into a peculiar kind of superstar. Natalee Holloway, Twitty's 18-year-old daughter, disappeared May 30 during a trip to Aruba with fellow recent graduates of Mountain Brook High School. Outside a nightclub there, she got into a car with three young men and hasn't been heard from since.
| Discuss
Feingold could be first anti-war candidate
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
AP's FREDERIC J. FROMMER - - Birmingham News
| By issuing an early call for a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, Sen. Russ Feingold could emerge as the Democrats' anti-war candidate of 2008, in the tradition of Eugene McCarthy and Howard Dean.
| Discuss
Byrd likely to seek ninth Senate term
Friday, September 2, 2005
AP's ERIK SCHELZIG - - Birmingham News
| With a formal announcement set for next week, Republicans are already attacking the U.S. Senate's oldest member, Democrat Robert C. Byrd, for his intention to seek a record ninth term.
| Discuss
Warner vows to find Allen Senate race foe
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
AP's BOB LEWIS - - Birmingham News
| Gov. Mark R. Warner pledged Tuesday to find a strong Democrat to oppose Republican Sen. George Allen next year after removing the most formidable Democratic challenger — himself — from consideration.
| Discuss
Riley makes final pitch on base closings
Thursday, August 11, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Gov. Bob Riley on Wednesday made the state's final pitch to the military base closure commission, giving a divided argument that applauded recommendations to add jobs at three of the state's main bases and opposed those to remove jobs from the fourth.
| Discuss
Democrats focus on Latino partnerships
Sunday, August 7, 2005
AP's ABE LEVY - - Birmingham News
| Democrats took their fight for Hispanic votes to the president's home state Saturday, vowing to increase their party's appeal among the nation's fastest-growing minority group by giving Hispanics more resources and leadership positions.
| Discuss
PET scans help gauge lung cancer
Thursday, August 4, 2005 DAVE PARKS - - Birmingham News
| A high-technology PET scanner is allowing doctors to better determine the lethality of lung cancer and to target tumors with the best treatments, according to a study announced Wednesday by a team of UAB researchers.
| Discuss
National GOP could take sides on Riley-Moore
Thursday, August 4, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Whether the national Republican Party is allowed to take sides in a contested Alabama primary for governor next year is up to state party officials, two of whom said recently that the issue has not yet been debated.
| Discuss
Pryor touts Roberts for high court
Wednesday, August 3, 2005 DAVID WHITE - - Birmingham News
| U.S. Circuit Judge John Roberts Jr. is a smart and thorough jurist who has the training and ability to do a great job on the U.S. Supreme Court, former Alabama attorney general and U.S. Circuit Judge Bill Pryor said Tuesday.
| Discuss
Governors use meeting to polish messages
Sunday, July 17, 2005
AP's RON FOURNIER - - Birmingham News
| Republican or Democrat, most governors have two things in common. First, they want to be president. And they know that to be president they must find new policies and language — presumably both — that help voters feel less anxious about their place in a rapidly changing society.
| Discuss
Senate approves Central America trade deal
Friday, July 1, 2005
AP's JIM ABRAMS - - Birmingham News
| The Senate on Thursday endorsed a free trade agreement with six Latin American nations, handing a major win to President Bush, who has promoted the accord as a mark of U.S. commitment to democracy and prosperity in the hemisphere.
| Discuss
Split on Commandments
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| The Supreme Court on Monday said government displays of the Ten Commandments in a broad, historical context are acceptable but those with an obvious religious purpose are unconstitutional.
The justices made the distinction in separate rulings on cases from Kentucky and Texas.
| Discuss
Court: Some Commandments displays OK
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
AP's HOPE YEN - - Birmingham News
| The Supreme Court ruled Monday that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property is constitutionally permissible in some cases but not in others. A pair of 5-4 decisions left future disputes on the contentious church-state issue to be settled case-by-case.
| Discuss
Junk food ban sought for state schools
Friday, June 24, 2005 CHARLES J. DEAN - - Birmingham News
| State school Superintendent Joe Morton recommended Thursday that fried and starchy foods be eliminated from school lunchrooms and that sugary snacks and soft drinks be eliminated from vending machines.
| Discuss
FDA panel rejects artificial heart
Thursday, June 23, 2005
AP's LAURAN NEERGAARD - - Birmingham News
| Government scientists on Thursday narrowly rejected the first fully implantable artificial heart, saying they were unsure if a few extra months of life outweighed the serious side effects.
| Discuss
Border cameras a waste, Rogers says
Friday, June 17, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| A government contract to line the nation's borders with remote surveillance cameras wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and weakened security, said an Alabama congressman who helps oversee the Department of Homeland Security.
| Discuss
CAFTA gets push in Alabama
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Alabama has become a front line in the congressional battle over free trade because many of the state's normally loyal Republicans continue to express doubt over the latest international agreement backed by President Bush.
| Discuss
Guard in state tries to keep ranks up
Sunday, June 12, 2005 TOM GORDON - - Birmingham News
| Like its counterparts in many states, the Alabama Army National Guard is trying to keep its ranks from shrinking.
By the end of May, the Army Guard had added 984 soldiers to its ranks for fiscal year 2005, which ends Sept. 30. But it had seen the departures of 1,600.
| Discuss
Senate approves Pryor for appeals court
Thursday, June 9, 2005
AP's JESSE J. HOLLAND - - Birmingham News
| The GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday approved former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor and Michigan nominees David McKeague and Richard Griffin for seats on the U.S. Appeals Court, completing an unprecedented run of long-delayed judicial confirmations.
| Discuss
Senate gives up; Pryor vote due today
Thursday, June 9, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| The Senate agreed Wednesday night to end the nearly two-year fight over Bill Pryor's nomination for a federal judgeship, setting up a final vote today. The former Alabama attorney general is expected to win confirmation to the lifetime job.
| Discuss
Ad targets Sessions on asbestos
Friday, June 3, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| A new interest group opposing the asbestos trust fund legislation in the U.S. Senate paid for a television commercial Thursday in Alabama criticizing Sen. Jeff Sessions' vote for the bill in committee.
| Discuss
Legislators' travel plans span globe
Sunday, June 5, 2005 DAVID WHITE - - Birmingham News
| Brussels, Bucharest and Beijing.
Taiwan, Newfoundland and Seattle.
Those are some of the places dozens of globe-trotting state lawmakers plan to visit this summer, often at state expense.
| Discuss
U.S. confirms Gitmo soldier kicked Quran
Friday, June 3, 2005
AP's ROBERT BURNS - - Birmingham News
| The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Quran and was later fired for "a pattern of unacceptable behavior."
| Discuss
Bush picks California Rep. Cox to head SEC
Friday, June 3, 2005
AP's JEANNINE AVERSA - - Birmingham News
| President Bush chose California Rep. Christopher Cox on Thursday to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, assigning him the delicate regulatory dance of protecting investors' rights while not stifling business.
| Discuss
Iraq still on track, says Jeffco's Vines
Wednesday, June 1, 2005 TOM GORDON - - Birmingham News
| The daily dose of lethal attacks by insurgents may lead many Americans to believe that Iraq's fledgling government and military are foundering, but the Alabama native who commands U.S. and coalition ground forces in Iraq says the reality is otherwise.
| Discuss
Govs. back away from Medicaid cuts panel
Thursday, June 2, 2005
AP's ROBERT TANNER - - Birmingham News
| Governors working on proposals to improve Medicaid decided Wednesday they won't join a federal commission that's supposed to recommend how to trim $10 billion from the joint federal-state health care program for the poor.
| Discuss
Inquiry finds some Quran 'mishandling'
Friday, May 27, 2005
AP's ROBERT BURNS - - Birmingham News
| U.S. officials have substantiated five cases in which military guards or interrogators mishandled the Quran of Muslim prisoners at Guantanamo Bay but found "no credible evidence" to confirm a prisoner's report that a holy book was flushed in a toilet, the prison's commander said Thursday.
| Discuss
Senate deal helps Pryor's bid for U.S. bench
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor's path to becoming a federal judge was smoothed over by a last-minute political compromise in the U.S. Senate that will make it easier for him to win confirmation.
| Discuss
Davis offers alternative to stem cell research bill
Tuesday, May 24, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| A largely unnoticed bill that would expand research on stem cells culled from umbilical cords, co-sponsored by a Birmingham congressman, is being promoted as an alternative to the more politically charged proposal regarding human embryos.
| Discuss
Advocates push for Medicaid funds
Friday, May 20, 2005 KIM CHANDLER - - Birmingham News
| Nursing homes, hospitals and advocates for the poor urged legislators Thursday to find more money for Medicaid as they prepare to start a special session on next year's state General Fund.
| Discuss
Compelling testimony ALS victim will tell story to Senate
Monday, May 9, 2005 STEVE DOYLE - - Birmingham News
| Before Lou Gehrig's disease stole his voice and wrecked his body, Eric Obermann dreamed of becoming a computer scientist.
Five years later, the 23-year-old Grissom High School grad is poised to become something much more important:
A hero.
Wednesday morning, some of the most powerful people in Washington will be listening as Obermann tells his story to the U.S. Senate's Health Appropriations Subcommittee.
| Discuss
Legislators working to amend sex offender laws
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 BRETT TROXLER - - Birmingham News
| A south Louisiana senator is calling for a tighter law prohibiting sex offenders from living too close to schools, day cares and playgrounds. The action came one day after News 2 uncovered hundreds of sex offenders living near the places children visit each day.
| Discuss
Rocket factory may get boost
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 KENT FAULK - - Birmingham News
| Boeing's Delta rocket factory in Decatur will build Lockheed Martin-brand Atlas rockets under a proposed partnership, a move that could create up to 250 jobs at the plant.
| Discuss
Alabamian takes reins of forces in Iraq
Sunday, April 24, 2005 TOM GORDON - - Birmingham News
| When John Randolph Vines was a senior at Oak Grove High School, the yearbook playfully predicted that in 20 years he would be seen "cruising around the world in his yacht."
The wag who wrote those words in 1967 was mostly right: Vines would see a lot of the world, but never from a yacht. As a career Army officer, Vines' vantage points often have been from a parachute, a Humvee, a helicopter or on foot patrol.
Today, Vines' world-watching gaze is focused on Iraq. As the three-star general in command of the 150,000-strong American and coalition forces on the ground there, the barbecue- and beer-loving Alabamian is having a big say in the affairs of a country where the fledgling democracy is a lot like a bicyclist needing training wheels to stay upright and constant pumping to keep his tires inflated.
| Discuss
Pentagon won't move weapons
Thursday, April 21, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF and KATHERINE BOUMA - - Birmingham News
| The Pentagon will resume plans to build chemical weapons destruction plants in Kentucky and Colorado, eliminating the chance that some of those deadly agents and munitions could have been sent to Anniston.
| Discuss
Federal elections hampered by machines
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
AP's Will Lester - - Birmingham News
| Former President Carter and one-time Secretary of State James A. Baker on Monday rejected the notion that Democrats and Republicans have different interests in who gets to vote.
| Discuss
Congressmen accuse Corps in water wars
Friday, April 15, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Alabama's congressional delegation on Thursday put a political twist on the 15-year-old water wars and accused the Army Corps of Engineers of undercutting the state's efforts to protect its access to downstream water from Georgia.
| Discuss
Experts question gun bill's impact
Friday, April 8, 2005 CARLA CROWDER - - Birmingham News
| A bill moving through the Alabama Senate to expand the death penalty to murders committed with federally banned assault weapons would do little or nothing, authorities say, because those guns are not illegal anymore.
| Discuss
Daschle vows to continue policy debates
Wednesday, April 6, 2005
AP's CHET BROKAW - - Birmingham News
| Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, in his first visit to his home state since losing the November election, served notice Tuesday that he will continue to debate President Bush and the Republican Party on policy issues.
| Discuss
U.S. accuses Saraland landlord of discrimination against blacks
Tuesday, April 5, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Saraland landlord has been charged with violating the Fair Housing Act on accusations she discriminated against black tenants and white tenants with black relatives and associates, according to a Monday announcement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
| Discuss
Wisconsin senator mends fences
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 TOM GORDON - - Birmingham News
| The last time Russ Feingold came here, state and local officials wished the U.S. senator from Wisconsin had focused on his swings at the Robert Trent Jones golf course and not shared some thoughts about his visit in a subsequent political commentary.
| Discuss
U.S. plan could preserve vermilion darter
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 WAYNE MARTIN - - Birmingham News
| The federal government is expected to approve a plan this summer that could improve the chances of survival for Turkey Creek's endangered vermilion darter. It's a plan biologists believe may be the last hope for the tiny fish.
| Discuss
As AIDS toll rises, humanity endures
Sunday, March 27, 2005 DAVE PARKS - - Birmingham News
| LUSAKA, Zambia -- Every year, an estimated 130,000 Zambians die from AIDS.
George Mwape's number came up Sunday, Jan. 23.
His passing was more than a statistic for family, friends and many of the 350 employees of the UAB Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia. Mwape was the first CIDRZ employee to die from AIDS.
| Discuss
UA lawsuit like kick in head to artist
Thursday, March 24, 2005 BOB CARLTON - - Birmingham News
| Daniel A. Moore never got to play football for his beloved Alabama Crimson Tide.
As an artist, though, Moore was in on some of the greatest moments in Bama football history, using his paintbrush to commemorate the goal-line stand against Penn State, Van Tiffin's last-second field goal against Auburn and Cornelius Bennett's bone-jarring sack of Notre Dame quarterback Steve Beuerlein.
Now, after the University of Alabama Board of Trustees has filed a lawsuit against him, Moore feels like he's the one who's been sacked.
| Discuss
Bill seeks to prevent Schiavo-type tube removal case in Alabama
Monday, March 21, 2005
AP's BOB JOHNSON - - Birmingham News
| A bill has been introduced in the Alabama Legislature to prevent nutrition from being withheld from patients like Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tubes were removed after a lengthy court battle between her husband and her parents.
| Discuss
Feingold mending fences in Alabama
Saturday, March 19, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| U.S. Sen. Russell Feingold's fence-mending trip to Butler County has turned into a three-day, multi-city jaunt through Alabama by a potential Democratic candidate for president.
| Discuss
CIA seeks documents in Iraqi inmate death
Thursday, March 17, 2005
AP's Seth Hettena - - Birmingham News
| The Central Intelligence Agency has retroactively classified documents that were released to lawyers representing Navy SEALs accused of abusing prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, an unusual step the agency says is needed to protect national security.
| Discuss
Kincaid lobbies to keep grants
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 MARY ORNDORFF - - Birmingham News
| Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid is in Washington this week asking not for large increases in federal spending, but rather for Congress not to cut what is already being spent in his city.
| Discuss
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