The Anniston Star, one of Alabama’s largest newspapers has called for President Obama to free former Gov. Don Siegelman from federal prison.
Siegelman is currently serving a 78 month prison sentence for bribery, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice charges stemming from a controversial arrangement made during his term as governor in the early part of the century.
His case is a complicated one to be sure.
But for the sake of a summation, AL.com does a pretty good job:
Siegelman was convicted by a federal court in 2006, “after being accused of appointing former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy to a health planning board in return for a $500,000 donation to the governor’s campaign for a statewide lottery.”
Was it corruption or just politics?
Depending on which side of the political aisle you sat at the time would determine how you felt.
But with the Supreme Court overturning the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell in a somewhat similar case as Siegelman, some believe that Obama should take action for the sake of justice.
The Anniston Star is leading the charge.
In an editorial, the paper cited the oft whispered idea that Siegelman’s conviction was a politically driven witch hunt.
“There’s no undoing the years of legal harassment waged against Don Siegelman,” The Anniston Star wrote in their editorial last week. “This court ruling and its narrowed definition of public corruption are an opportunity for President Barack Obama to use his presidential powers to make the former Alabama governor a free man.”
A few years back, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Siegelman’s son Joe.
At the time, Joe Siegelman was a student at the University of Alabama School of Law and was all a father could ask for in a son.
He was steadfast in his father’s defense, taking little time to sip his Starbucks coffee as that would have taken away from his time to convince me.
Indeed, many in his family were willing to try to convince anyone, anywhere of their father’s innocence.
Imagine what that must be like.
Your family used to be on top of the state with nothing but promise ahead.
Then a combination of bad decisions, confusion and a broken justice system breaks your family apart, soiling your name.
We’ll probably never know if Don Siegelman is totally innocent of the crimes he has been convicted of.
But a few things are certain.
One is that the US Supreme Court doesn’t feel like those crimes are that important anymore. Just politics as usual they say.
And two, is that Don Siegelman has certainly lost enough of his life already.
He is currently in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison with another two and a half years to serve on his sentence.
Free him.
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Cover Photo Credit: Mike D/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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This Florida Democrat Didn’t Vote To Give Gay Veterans Equal Partner Benefits In Congress
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, a long serving Democratic member of the US House didn’t vote to extend federal benefits to the spouses of LGBT couples last Thursday.
In a shocking move first reported by Politico, Brown reversed course on her previous support of an amendment that according to the Human Rights Campaign would “correct outdated language” in statutes that define spouses as a member of the “opposite sex”.
The proposed amendment- the Veteran Spouses Equal Treatment Act was proposed by Dina Titus (D-NV) and was designed to allow same-sex spouses of military veterans to receive benefits entitled to them under federal law.
“This amendment would take a critical step in ensuring in statute that the voices of LGBT veterans are consistently heard and ensure the LGBT community is represented when addressing the issues that affect minority veterans,” a statement from the Human Rights Campaign said.
Brown, the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee voted present when the amendment came to a vote.
“I never question someone’s motives for how they vote, but what upset us is, one, she changed her vote and second, she didn’t let us know and she is our leader,” Titus was quoted by Politico as saying about Brown. “We’re talking about a number of options….We’re going to do something. We want to hear her explanation and we want her to hear why we are upset. It was really disappointing.”
While Brown’s vote didn’t impact the outcome of the failure of the amendment to pass (12 of the 14 Republicans on the committee voted against it), it has sparked questions about her motivations and whether it is due to her positioning for the 2016 election- when she is expected to compete in a more conservative district.
Twitter was not pleased with the Congresswoman after the vote.
Shame on Corrine Brown. Democrats fume at fellow Democrat over same-sex benefits vote http://t.co/6kLlhLeoKh
— John B. Dorris, Esq. (@SciFi_TriGuy) September 20, 2015
@RepCorrineBrown a disgraceful Democrat who proves her self-interest is bigger than her constituents. Shame on you! Time for a new Dem!
— thebwein (@thebwein) September 20, 2015
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Photo Credit: JAXPORT/Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Alabama Tennis Team Choreographs Justin Bieber’s “Baby” On Long Trip, Wins Our Hearts
If you’ve ever been close to the day in and day out of college sports, then you know how boring and monotonous off the field activities can be.
And for the Alabama Crimson Tide Men’s Tennis team, one recent road trip proved just too much.
So instead of testing out new sounds for when they make contact with the ball (seriously, why do tennis players do that?), the boys decided to do something a little more sensible.
They choreographed the whole of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”- all three and a half minutes of it.
You have to admit that it is pretty good actually.
WATCH:
So next time you run into a tennis player on campus, you may want to ask him for a dance lesson. Who knew?
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us
Cover Photo Credit: Youtube/ Screengrab
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How To Prepare For Hurricane Irma
Many people in South Florida have never experienced a Hurricane before.
The last big storm to hit the region was in 2005, so it has been a long time.
We’ve put together a simple video that includes the basics you need to prepare for Hurricane Irma:
Stay with Rise Miami News over the coming days as we cover Hurricane Irma’s impact on South Florida.
Here’s some additional links that may be helpful in preparing for Irma:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/six-ways-to-prepare-for-tropical-storms-hurricanes-atlantic-season/46771146
https://www.ready.gov/hurricanes
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