Featured VIDEO: Protestors disrupt civil rights hearing on immigration law in Birmingham Several gro

Featured VIDEO: Protestors disrupt facts about the united kingdom civil rights hearing on immigration law in Birmingham Several groups disrupted a field hearing facts about the united kingdom by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Friday morning in Birmingham by shouting in English and Spanish and holding up signs. facts about the united kingdom One group of "undocumented, unafraid" protestors was escorted out of the hearing at the Birmingham Sheraton facts about the united kingdom by security. Harry Lyon, Democratic candidate for Chief Justice, to face firing squad Friday in party hearing Tomorrow, Democratic party nominee for Chief Justice Harry Lyon will face what he considers — and what may be — a railroading off the ballot. But might his ridiculous and vitriolic homophobic rants be the cause? Lots of fun inside. Councilor withdraws proposed plan to explore funding Birmingham school system reserve Council President Pro Tem Hoyt withdrew facts about the united kingdom a plan Tuesday to explore funding the Birmingham Board of Education's reserve fund after councilors expressed a desire to communicate more with the Birmingham BOE and the Alabama State Department of Education.
Featured Catching up with Jackie Greene Look out Warren Haynes you re about to lose your Hardest working man in show business title to Jackie Greene. In addition to maintaining a solo career, Greene has toured with Phil Lesh Friends, Trigger Hippy and the trio Weir, Robinson Greene (WRG) among others. On Wednesday, October 3, the singer/songwriter/guitarist will return [...] The Dirty Guv nahs return to Zydeco Trite as it sounds, The Dirty Guv nahs have built a large fan base by touring constantly and performing memorable live shows. On August 14, The Knoxville, Tenn.-based sextet released Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies (Dualtone Music), a 14-track collection of the familar-sounding facts about the united kingdom yet unique Rock Roll sound that defines the band. On Saturday, [...] Concert Shots: Phish 8-24-12 Verizon Wireless Music Center Photos by Brent Thompson
Friday Photo: In Tension Yes, that s a stack of coffee stirrers. Coffee stirrers which have, in fact, been carefully woven into sturdy little webs that are being quilted together (quite literally as I type, Read more State veterans get a new home The fourth state home for former military veterans will feature neighborhood concept, lower cost.
A year into his job as Jefferson County's first county manager, former Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos believes the county will recover from the largest municipal bankruptcy in history, but not without some pain. As we continue our interview from our October 4 print edition, Petelos talks about selling off property to raise money, and why he's in it for the long haul. First, though, he acknowledges something anyone facts about the united kingdom living in Jefferson facts about the united kingdom County already knows: fixing the county facts about the united kingdom anything but a bloodless process. facts about the united kingdom "There is a lot of pain," he says.
Petelos : We actually facts about the united kingdom did a good job with the reduction in force. It was done properly. We had a few glitches, but I think overall with the amount of people that left I'm very pleased with the way it was handled.
Unfortunately, we lost a lot of good folks. Unfortunately, facts about the united kingdom there were a lot of people out there who thought they had a job here until they could retire and they didn't have it. And that's sad, and we've got to remember that bad decisions were made years ago and we're paying for it today. And it's very painful.
Petelos : It's going to take years to straighten it out, I think.  I'd say six to eight months for things to settle down. And then we'll have an opportunity to implement new software programs and IT resolutions that can make us more efficient and more user-friendly with the public.
Any time you go through what this county has gone through it takes time to reorganize facts about the united kingdom and we're just reorganizing.  My goal is to make Jefferson County a user-friendly county and a county that we can be proud of again one day but that's years down the road.
When I was mayor of Hoover, we had a slogan: "Hoover is happening." I'd like to see us here be able to say, "Jefferson County is open for business." To have companies want to relocate in the largest county in Alabama, the economic engine of Alabama.
Petelos : I think it's a possibility that we could be out in eighteen months from now. And it could go maybe three years. It just depends on a lot of different factors. But the beauty of it is look at Orange County, California.  Prior to Jefferson County going bankrupt it was the largest bankruptcy in America.  And now look at Orange facts about the united kingdom County.  It didn't take them long once they evolved out of bankruptcy. And they reorganized facts about the united kingdom their government and they became much more efficient, they took off like a rocket. Hopefully we can replicate that here so that we can be open for business and make us proud of Jefferson County once again.
Petelos : We're going to have to find some type of funding and I don't know what we can do. But in order for us to be successful, we've got to reinvest facts about the united kingdom in the county with economic development. We're putting very little money into capital. And when you run an organization as big as this we need to be putting in somewhere between $15 and $20 million a year, reinvested in the county in roofs and air conditioning and elevators. If we don't reinvest, facts about the united kingdom in three or four years we're going to hit a brick wall where everything is breaking and we just don't have the money to fix it.
Petelos : We've sold so much equipment, vehicles, cars. We have sold a lot of equipment.  And continue to do so. It helps us because it's one-time money and in this new budget we've put over $4 million into capital. That number needs to be much higher than that, but we have over 4 million dollars of one-time money.  We sold the DHR building that we owned on 5 th Avenue South Birmingham and Jefferson County owned it jointly   and we received a just under $2 million check. So we're still selling assets off as we determine we don't need them anymore.  But we are going to have to have some help sometime in the future.  Somewhere, somehow, with the legislature. And I don't know what the answer is.
Petelos : I told them, Don't spend any money …All of this is old furniture (from elsewhere) in the building. We didn't buy anything. We just try to set a standard of, "Ok, we're broke and we got to be as frugal as we can."
Petelos : I am. Very much so. People ask me all the time if I regret leaving Hoover. Hoover was a  great city. We won regional, national, even international awards as far as most livable cities. We had the city on automatic pilot no major issues when I left and came over here. It was a major challenge, but no, I haven't looked back. I miss my friends at Hoover. facts about the united kingdom I still live there. Haven't moved.  We still see folks and I go to functions in Hoover. So it's not like I'm out of town but I'm no longer the mayor there. But I'm still in the community. facts about the united kingdom This was a major challenge facts about the united kingdom and I'm gratified that all five commissioners voted on me coming into this role. As I continue facts about the united kingdom to work for all five of the commissioners it's been a very challenging job, but very rewarding.
facts about the united kingdom It's much slower. Just the progress, the bureaucracy here and what we have to deal with, is much slower facts about the united kingdom than if I was in the private sector, or even at Hoover. I was able to move much quicker whenever we needed something done in Hoover. It takes a little more time over here.
Petelos : Let me say this about the commissioners: they're under a lot of stress. They're under a lot of pressure. And I think that if you look over the history of Jefferson County, there's never been a set of commissioners that's had to deal with so many issues facts about the united kingdom at one time.  They've done an excellent job working together. They disagree. They have varying views. But they've been able to make decisions facts about the united kingdom and move forward. In the past, we've had commissioners that wouldn't even talk to each other.
They respect me and my job, and they've been very helpful as I've moved through setting up this new government. Because you just don't set it up overnight. We've made a lot of progress but we have a ways to go.
Petelos : People don't see what we're doing here. There are some major changes that are going on here, implementing policies and procedures that, when I'm gone and the commissioners facts about the united kingdom are gone and we have different people in these jobs, this place should facts about the united kingdom be able to continue to run on automatic pilot, just like when I left the city of Hoover.
Let me say this: I'll go in public and people recognize me and   this is really encouraging I have people all the time who come up to me, total strangers, saying "We're praying for you. You're on our prayer list. The county is on our prayer list." That is so encouraging to hear because there's so many people that are so negative.  But it's rare for me to go in public and not get those types of comments and so that keeps me going.
And I think being born and raised in Jefferson County, born at Princeton Hospital, growing up in Ensley, graduating from Ensley High School I think having that background and being part of this government here gives me staying power that I don't want to leave until we get place fixed.