LOCALNEWS [ 13A ]Sunday, June 14, 2009

HOW THEY VOTED 14A DEATHS 17A WEATHER 20A

Storm puts thousands in dark1 killed in wreck as winds, rain whip area

ONB takesmayoralbeat-down

Staff reportsMore than 8,700 Alabama Power

Co. customers remained withoutelectricity Saturday night after thun-derstorms ripped through the cen-tral and northern Alabama Fridayand Saturday.

Power crews from surroundingstates and Alabama worked over-night Saturday and should havemost service restored by tonight,said Alabama Power spokeswomanHallie Bradley.

At its peak Friday night therewere 101,438 customers statewidein the dark as a result of strongwinds that downed power poles,

lines and trees.Of those still without power,

5,452 were in the Birmingham area,2,512 were in west Alabama fromTuscaloosa to Jasper, and 424 in theAnniston and Gadsden areas, Brad-ley said.

The National Weather Service re-corded 1.29 inches of rain Saturdayand just .33 inches Friday. Thestrong wind accounted for dozensof reports of downed trees.

Gary Goggins, a meteorologistwith the National Weather Servicein Birmingham called the event a

See STORM Page 16A

Mayor Larry Lang-ford on Friday con-firmed what has

been whispered abouttown for weeks.

His attempt to wipe outOperation New Birming-ham’s budget and force itto merge with other busi-ness groups was not just amatter of consolidation oreconomic need. It was abeat-down, plain and sim-ple. It was a petty, churlish,old-style political pummel-ing.

Who’s the boss? Yes, sir,Mr. Mayor. You’re the boss.

Learn to say it, ONB.Learn to say it, now.

Langford acknowledgedFriday that he cut ONBfrom his proposed budgetbecause ONB chief MikeCalvert allowed Coun-cilman Steven Hoyt tospeak at an event. And, asthe mayor put it, Hoyt is “ajackass.”

Good point, Mr. Mayor.But . . . what?

It is so petty that it defiesdescription. It is so telling,so revealing about the wayLangford runs his kingdomthat it looks for all theworld like a caricature.

“He wants everybody tocater to him and kiss his—,” Langford said of Hoyt,without a trace of irony. “Ican’t work with him.”

Good point again. But. . . what? Is a personalfeud really importantenough to destroy a his-toric and functional50-year-old program?

It is to the mayor.But then, things have

gotten ugly between Hoytand the Langford camp oflate. The mayor’s chief ofstaff claims Hoyt madesexist slurs about her, butLangford says the feud be-gan long before that.

He said he repeatedlywarned Calvert to steerclear of Hoyt, but whenCalvert allowed Hoyt tospeak at the Cityville Block121 groundbreaking inApril, Langford saw red.

Calvert wrote a letter ofapology, but the mayordidn’t buy it. So ONB hadto pay.

“It’s not a position Iwant to take,” Langfordsaid. “Mike Calvert forcedme to do it.”

So let’s get this straight.Calvert has run ONB for

a quarter century, pushingracial reconciliation anddowntown improvementin tangible and not-so-tan-gible ways. Langford him-self has praised ONB, andjust last year the mayorawarded Calvert his presti-gious “thinking outside thebox” award.

But all that was then. Ev-erything changed whenCalvert wavered and let acity councilman take themicrophone.

“Mike Calvert keepsplaying games with me,”the mayor said. “I don’tknow which side of hismouth he’s speaking out oftoday.”

Lord, I know how thatfeels. It wasn’t long agothat I heard the mayor saythe city of Birmingham it-self was held back by pettyself interest.

That would be that thingthey call irony. Or hypoc-risy.

Wow.Perhaps it is just politics,

anyway.In all likelihood the City

Council will restore ONB’sbudget, and that may bejust the way Langfordwants it. Perhaps he justwants to send a messageanyway, to let Calvert andONB know he’s still boss.

For now, anyway.

NEWS STAFF/JEFF ROBERTS

This tree fell Friday night on the home of Noelle Glaze in VestaviaHills. Neighbors said the tree fell across a room of the house wherean infant was sleeping, but the child was not harmed.

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NEWS STAFF/BERNARD TRONCALE

Twenty-two university teams, including these women from the University of Alabama inHuntsville in a sprint race, were in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ NationalConcrete Canoe Competition on Saturday at Lake Nicol near Tuscaloosa.

Concrete boats set sailwith engineers’ skillsBy KENT FAULKNews staff writer

TUSCALOOSA — A weightychampionship was decidedSaturday as engineering stu-dents from around the UnitedStates and Canada raced theconcrete canoes they builtaround Lake Nicol.

The University of California,Berkeley, took the nationalchampionship in the Ameri-can Society of Civil Engineers’National Concrete CanoeC o m p e t i t i o n w i t h i t s230-pound concrete canoenamed Bear Area. Alabama’s

only finalist, the team fromthe University of Alabama inHuntsvi l le , placed ninthamong the 22 finalists with its217-pound boat dubbed ITZCivilized.

Canoes varied in weight —from the 140-pound craft builtby the University of Nevada atReno team to the 420-poundone from the University ofTexas at Tyler.

“Steering that thing is thehardest thing,” said BrittanyMeloni, a 120-pound civil en-gineering student on theTexas team.

Two-woman, two-man, andcoed 200-meter sprint races,and 600-meter three-man andthree-woman enduranceevents were held. The endur-ance route ended with sets ofbouys crews had to maneuveraround.

Teammates yelled encour-agement from the shore.“UAH . . . UAH . . . UAH!”Huntsville students chantedas their three-man endurancecrew passed by. One UAH stu-dent played bongos to buoythe team.

See CANOES Page 17A

NEWS STAFF/MARK ALMOND

Ro’Lencia Bostic and her mother,Rosemary Bostic, pose Saturday afterRo’Lencia’s graduation fromMaranathan Academy in Birmingham.Both women are graduates of thealternative private school.

Texts, trash, toy poodles try drivers’ patienceOne would think that it

would be cheaper toinsure a Nissan than

a Porsche. But that’s not thecase, and it all depends onwhat kind of Nissan, accord-ing to insurance.com

The Web site has releasedthe 10 most expensive andthe 10 cheapest cars to in-sure based on quotes for a40-year-old male. Toppingthe expensive list was Nis-san GT-R ($2,533 a year) andDodge Viper ($2,446).

The Porsche 911 cost$1,819 a year to insure, ac-cording to the Web site.

The cheaper list washeaded by Hyundai SantaFe ($832) and Kia Sportage($840)

The Nissan GT-R, by theway, cruises at 185 mph andcosts $76,840, according tothe Web site.

BUMPER SNICKER: In-

flation is when the buckdoesn’t stop anywhere.

NO TEXTING ALLOWED:Tennessee joins seven otherstates as of July 1 banningtexting while driving. A sim-ilar law in the Alabama Leg-islature this year bit thedust. States that ban textingare: Alaska, California,Maryland, Minnesota, NewJersey, Virginia and Wash-ington.

COMMENT: I see bicy-clists riding down the mid-dle of Montclair Road and

Montevallo Road. Traffic ismoving at 30 to 45 mph andmore. The cyclists say theyhave a right to use the road.They can’t compete with acar. One day there will be aaccident, and the cyclist willget caught in the middle.Their arrogance will getthem killed. — Donald Dun-lap, Irondale.

Q. Is there any way to re-port litter bugs? Driving be-hind someone who is throw-ing his trash out the windowis driving me crazy. I amlooking right at his licenseplate but have no one to call.If we could just call someonewho would send a post cardstating that he or she was re-ported littering at this timeand location, at least theywould know people arewatching. — Jonathan C.Putman, Vestavia Hills.

A. There is not a lot that

can be done unless a policeofficer sees the littering andcares enough to stop the ve-hicle. A group called Ala-bama People Against Litteroperates out of Montgom-ery. If you get the licensenumber of the car and thelocation, you can notify thisgroup. PALS will send a let-ter to the vehicle owner.They say that’s all they cando. Reach PALS at1-800-252-7257 or334-263-7737 orhttp://www.alpals.org/

Q. Please tell me there is alaw stating that a driver maynot have a live animal (typ-ically a dog) in her/his lapwhile moving. There is noquestion in my mind that todo this is a far more danger-ous act than talking on a cellphone while driving. — GregTovar, Mountain Brook.

A. I agree with you, but I

cannot tell you it’s illegal todrive with Fido in your lap.Under quirky Alabama law,there is no law to prohibit adriver holding an animal;but there is a law that statesthat nothing must obstruct adriver’s view of the road. SoAbbott, the English sheep-dog, would be illegal whileFrancois, the toy poodle,would be legal. Go figure!

GINNY MacDONALDDRIVER’S SIDE

John Archibald’scolumn appearsSundays, Tuesdays

and Thursdays.Write him atjarchibald@bhamnews.com.Join the conversationwith John online atblog.al.com/archiblog. GET THE NEWS AS IT HAPPENS Sign up for breaking news alerts from The Birmingham News at al.com/alerts