We love cakes.
We love Alabama football.
What else do you really need to know?
This cake was the wedding cake for Justin and Taylor Woljevach, both UA grads.
It was made by Peace, Love, & Cakes in Bryan, Texas.
“When the bride walked in through the reception doors, her reaction was the most exciting. She was just giggling. It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Steffany Bowling told AL.com. “She told me, ‘You made our dream come true.’ That’s why I do this.”
Pretty awesome.
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Major Alabama Paper Thinks Obama Should Pardon Former Gov. Don Siegelman
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.
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: Mike D/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Republicans Don’t Deserve To Govern Alabama Anymore
This week, Alabama saw perhaps one of the strangest political moments in decades when Gov. Robert Bentley resigned amid a sex scandal and ethics violations investigation.
Bentley, however, is not the only disgraced political leader in the state.
This is the third, I repeat, third high ranking Republican politician to be removed from office in the past year.
Within less than 365 days, Alabama’s Speaker of the House, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and now Governor have all left office under their own ethical failings.
In June, Speaker Mike Hubbard was convicted on 12 felony counts of corruption and other abuses of office.
A month later, he was sentenced to pay a $210,000 fine and spend four years in prison, and then eight years on probation.
Throughout early 2016, Chief Justice Roy Moore actively and passionate fought against the US Supreme Court’s opinion that laws preventing same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, instructing local clerks to not give marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
In late September, Roy Moore was found guilty on six counts of judicial ethical violations and was removed as Chief Justice for a second time.
Finally, over the past year, it has become clear that Governor Robert Bentley had not only had an illicit affair with one of his staffers, but that he used state funds to conduct said affair and cover it up.
A 3000-page report from the House Judiciary Committee found that Bentley created an atmosphere of intimidation to cover up his affair, going so far as to fire the state’s top cop Spencer Collier.
Photo Credit: Jim Bowen/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
With impeachment proceedings quickly approaching, Bentley took a plea deal, admitting guilt to two misdemeanors in turn for higher level felony charges being dropped.
We are now far past the point of absurdity.
Alabama Republicans have embarrassed our state and further ruined our reputation nationwide.
When our leaders act so foolishly and without regard for the law, Americans outside Alabama view our state as a backwards spectacle without regard for so many of the redeeming nuances of our state.
These Republican figures and their actions are why at least a few times a month, there will be a segment from John Oliver or Rachel Maddow or Bill Maher roasting Alabama, turning the state into a continuous punchline.
Whether Alabamians watch these shows or not, millions of Americans do, and our reputation is flushed down the toilet every time our state provides the fodder for these jokes.
Obviously, these Alabamian leaders have some ethical issues.
But aside from all of that, these leaders also failed the citizens of Alabama by simply being bad at governing.
Alabama Republicans, much like their national counterparts, have proven that no matter how much power they control, they still have no idea how to govern.
Even without the distractions at the top, the Republican controlled state government has stagnated, while other states have passed us by in nearly every conceivable metric.
Alabama now ranks in the top ten nationwide in cancer, heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, and kidney disease.
Our state has the fifth-lowest percentage of residents with high school diplomas and the sixth highest unemployment rate to boot.
Over the past year, Republicans have done little to address the shortfall of Medicaid coverage, the structural budgetary deficit, and the lack of good paying jobs.
Instead, all that Republicans have done is built more prisons, disenfranchise thousands of voters, and get caught up in scores of ethics violations.
Perhaps a quote that summarizes the situation in Alabama best comes from former state representative Arthur Payne: “There is nothing good that has come from the Republicans being in power in Alabama, and I’m a Republican.”
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RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Stuart Seeger/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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In Historic Move, U Of Alabama Elections Board Acknowledges Existence Of Secret Society
In a historic announcement, the University of Alabama SGA elections board acknowledged for the first time, the existence of a secret society that has for decades dominated campus politics.
The action came in the form of a post on the SGA website asking for students to “provide information regarding the existence of Theta Nu Epsilon a.k.a ‘The Machine.'”
Here’s the full announcement from the elections board:
“The Elections Board is extending an open invitation from anyone wanting to provide information regarding the existence of Theta Nu Epsilon a.k.a “The Machine.” This could include but is not limited to those that are members or officially tied to “The Machine” in any way.
To clarify, we would like to offer the opportunity to all individual(s) that are involved to speak before the board, as is one’s rights to due process. We do this to ensure all parties are given the opportunity to speak on the matter at hand.
Persons willing may send tangible evidence and information or submit a request to speak with the board in person, can correspond to [email protected]. We request this be done ASAP and at least by Monday, March 6 at noon.
This information is requested in response to multiple violation reports regarding endorsements and any information provided will be included on record for this case.”
This is a breaking story. We will update this story as more information becomes available.
For more background on “The Machine”:
Read- Here’s Why The Current State Of Student Government Elections Are Killing American Democracy
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: University of Alabama/ Facebook
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