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| Alabama Decade of History | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 1 2010, 06:45 AM (105 Views) | |
| mouser | Jan 1 2010, 06:45 AM Post #1 |
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http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-stories/2009/12/post_68.html Alabama's decade of highs and lows By The Birmingham News December 31, 2009, 10:12AM ![]() Here is a look at some of the people, places and events that made their marks on metro Birmingham and Alabama from 2000 through 2009: POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT • Jefferson County collapses financially, driven by sewer bond deals that plunged the county billions of dollars in debt and by the demise of an occupational tax. • Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is removed from office in 2003 after he refuses to remove a 5,200-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from state judicial building. • Jefferson County Commission passes a 1 cent sales tax in 2004 to pay for $1 billion worth of new school construction that is still under way across the county. • Republican Gov. Bob Riley proposes biggest tax increase in state history, but voters reject it in 2003 by more than 2-to-1. • Birmingham native Condoleezza Rice in 2005 becomes U.S. secretary of state. CORRUPTION • Former Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy are convicted and sent to prison in a bribery case involving a Scrushy donation to Siegelman's lottery fund and Siegelman's appointment of Scrushy to a state health board. • Five Jefferson County commissioners (Jeff Germany, Chris McNair, Gary White, Mary Buckelew, Larry Langford) and a host of county officials and contractors are convicted or plead guilty in corruption cases. • Two- year college investigation produces more than a dozen guilty pleas, convictions and indictments from people with twoyear college ties, including former Chancellor Roy Johnson, several college presidents and legislators. CRIMES AND COURTS • Former Ku Klux Klansmen Tommy Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry are indicted and convicted on murder charges in Birmingham's most notorious crime-- the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. • Three Birmingham police officers -- Carlos Owen, Robert Bennett and Harley Chisholm -- are killed and Officer Michael Collins is wounded in a June 17, 2004, shooting at an Ensley drug house. • Birmingham abortion clinic bomber and Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, who eluded a national manhunt, is captured in 2003 and pleads guilty in Birmingham's federal court in 2005; he is sentenced to life in prison. • Gunman kills 10 people in a March 2009 shooting spree in two rural south Alabama counties, making it the state's worst mass slaying. • Three Birmingham college students set fire to nine churches in west Alabama in 2006. BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY • Alabama becomes a major U.S. center of auto production as Honda, Hyundai and scores of suppliers join Mercedes-Benz, creating thousands of jobs and attracting billions in investment. • Massive accounting fraud is exposed at HealthSouth, bringing down its flamboyant leader, Richard Scrushy, who is acquitted of fraud charges but is later ordered to repay the company $2.8 billion in a civil judgment. • Birmingham's days as a regional banking center come to an end through a series of buyout deals that see SouthTrust disappear, AmSouth merge with Regions, and Compass snapped up by a Spanish bank, moves costing hundreds of jobs. The deepest national recession since the Great Depression helps bring about the seizure of Colonial Bank, New South Federal and CapitalSouth. • Birmingham's status as a headquarters hub for Fortune 500 companies fades as departures and buyouts whittle the list of large hometown companies; landmark names such as Parisian disappear. • Alabama's unemployment rate spikes to 10.9 percent in October 2009, the highest rate in a quarter century, as the brutal recession ends an unprecedented era of prosperity. • A prolonged housing boom reshapes metro Birmingham, racking up years of record sales and suburban growth until the recession takes hold. • Alabama beats out other states to land a massive industrial prize -- a $4.5 billion Thyssen-Krupp steel mill that will create 2,700 jobs near Mobile; it costs the state a record $811 million in incentives. EDUCATION • UAB builds the new UAB Hospital, Shelby Biomedical Research building, the new campus green, the new recreation center, a new dining hall and dorm and a new classroom building. • The University of Alabama expands from 19,000 to 28,000 students and undergoes a massive building campaign, adding several dorms, classroom buildings, parking decks and improvements to athletic facilities. • Auburn University struggles, with former President William Walker forced out in 2004 and the university going on accreditation probation for meddling by the board of trustees in 2003. Trustee board is reshaped and new president is hired. • Samford University, Miles College and Birmingham-Southern College each say goodbye to longtime presidents (Thomas Corts, Albert Sloan and Neal Berte). • State expands and improves numerous programs: Alabama Reading Initiative is praised as a national model and expands to all K-3 schools; 45 percent of state schools now have the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative; Access distance learning is now in every public high school; pre-kindergarten program is ranked the best in the nation for its standards. SPORTS • Alabama hires Nick Saban, who in three years leads Crimson Tide to national title game. • Tommy Tuberville survives 2003 effort to oust him and leads Auburn to six straight Iron Bowl wins before resigning in 2008; Auburn goes undefeated in 2004 but doesn't get to play for the national title. • Mark Ingram wins the University of Alabama's first Heisman in 2009. • Legion Field loses the Alabama football team and its upper deck but gains Papajohns.com Bowl game. • Hoover High School becomes a state football powerhouse, winning six state titles in the decade, and a sensation on MTV with two seasons of "Two-A-Days," following Buccaneer football players and their coach, Rush Propst, on and off the field. • Barber Motorsports Park and Museum opens in 2003 and brings a host of international motorsports events to Birmingham. • UAB track athlete Vonetta Flowers wins Olympic gold in bobsledding in 2002. PEOPLE WHO MADE A MARK • Ruben Studdard from Birmingham and Taylor Hicks from Hoover win "American Idol" in 2003 and 2006; Bo Bice from Helena is runner-up in 2005. • Mountain Brook teenager Natalee Holloway captures international attention when she disappears on a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. She remains missing. • Miss Alabama Deidre Downs is crowned 2005 Miss America. • Chris and Diamond Harris of Center Point in 2002 become parents to the first surviving set of black sextuplets on record and receive a new 5,000-square-foot house from the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" TV show. OTHER NOTABLES • The aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks hits hard in Alabama. The state contributes substantial number of National Guard and Reserve units for the war on terror; numerous service members from the state serve multiple tours in and around Iraq and Afghanistan. • More than 100 with Alabama ties die in those conflicts; more than 600 have been wounded. • Vulcan returns to his perch in 2004 after a $14 million repair and renovation; new museum opens. • Carraway Methodist Medical Center struggles and finally closes in 2008, ending a century of service to central Alabama. • Heat wave and drought hit Birmingham and most of the rest of the state in 2007, making it the driest year on record with rainfall 47 percent below average; cities restrict outdoor water use. • City Stages music festival struggles with crippling debt all decade and finally calls it quits after 21 years; files for bankruptcy in 2009. |
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| Gr8fulheart | Jan 1 2010, 03:00 PM Post #2 |
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I'm lovin 'People Who Made a Mark'! I actually remember a few of these & I'm no where close to Alabama. |
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| san | Jan 2 2010, 07:45 PM Post #3 |
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Taylor Hicks has left his mark on the decade in more ways than one, just as he has left his mark on our lives in this decade. It is interesting to look back over this decade personally. It is BT and AT...before Taylor and after Taylor. A lot has happened! |
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| mouser | Jan 2 2010, 08:02 PM Post #4 |
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While many of these noteworthy , famous or infamous, people or events put Alabama in the news, it seems to me that the following Birmingham notables made huge "splashes" nationally and internationally. #1 , # 4 , # 5 and # 6 certainly were responsible for making the city of Birmingham a household name. 1. Condoleezza Rice in 2005 becomes U.S. secretary of state. 2. Hoover High School becomes a state football powerhouse, winning six state titles in the decade, and a sensation on MTV with two seasons of "Two-A-Days," following Buccaneer football players and their coach, Rush Propst, on and off the field. 3. UAB track athlete Vonetta Flowers wins Olympic gold in bobsledding in 2002. 4. Alabama hires Nick Saban, who in three years leads Crimson Tide to national title game.and a potential second national title. 5. Birmingham abortion clinic bomber and Olympic Park bomber Eric Robert Rudolph, who eluded a national manhunt, is captured in 2003 and pleads guilty in Birmingham's federal court in 2005; he is sentenced to life in prison. 6. Ruben Studdard from Birmingham and Taylor Hicks from Hoover win "American Idol" in 2003 and 2006. |
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