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New law protects children
(Updated:
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 2:15 PM CDT)
Gov. Bob Riley has an opportunity to do
something to help protect child victims of abuse from the
terrors of going into a courtroom and testifying against
adults who have threatened to hurt them again should they
ever tell.
The governor can sign a bill drafted by state Attorney
General Troy King and sponsored by Rep. Cam Ward
(R-Alabaster) to allow children in abuse cases to testify by
closed-circuit television.
According to Owens House in Columbiana, which provides
services and programs to serve child victims of abuse and
their families, there were 403 cases of child abuse or
neglect reported to the Department of Human Resources in
Shelby County during 2005.
[full story]
Legislation on judicial vacancies
advances
Friday, June 01, 2007
NANCY WILSTACH
News staff writer
Two pieces of Shelby County legislation
have cleared both houses of the Alabama Legislature, their
sponsor, State Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, said Thursday.
The measures would establish a judicial
appointments commission and abolish the office of constable
in Shelby County.
The creation of a judicial appointments
commission to fill vacancies on the district and circuit
bench in the 18th Judicial Circuit, which is Shelby County,
requires a vote of the people to become law because it is an
amendment to the Alabama Constitution of 1901.
[full story]
King, victim's
mother seek action on art profits
Friday, May
04, 2007
By SEBASTIAN KITCHEN
Capital Bureau
MONTGOMERY
--Attorney General Troy King and the mother of a murder
victim Thursday applauded the House's passage of a bill this
week that would stop criminals from profiting from the sale
of their art and essays, and urged the Senate also to
approve the measure.
"My
daughter did not deserve this and neither do any of the
victims who are being violated," said Mary Kate Gach, whose
daughter was brutally murdered in the Birmingham area in
1992 by Jack Trawick.
Trawick and
Daniel Siebert, both convicted of multiple murders and
sitting on Death Row at Holman Correctional Facility in
Escambia County, attracted national attention by posting art
and writings online depicting or discussing their crimes.
Some people purchased the art during online auctions.
[full
story]
Transportation Commission Long Needed
editorial by Montgomery
Advertiser.
Alabama's transportation priorities don't really change
every four years, yet there has long been the prospect --
and often the reality -- of significant changes every time a
new governor is elected. That unsound approach would end
under legislation that passed the House of Representatives
this week.
For decades, the director of the state Department of
Transportation has been appointed by, and serves at the
pleasure of, the governor. Some governors have used the
appointment as a form of political muscle, holding out the
big sums of road-building money the department handles as
enticements to get legislators who want road work in their
districts to vote with the administration.
[full story]
House
bill to create judicial commission
By ASHLEY VANSANT / Managing
Editor (Updated:
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 2:56 PM CDT)
A
new bill passed by the Alabama House of Representatives
would make local input part of the formula to fill vacancies
in the Shelby County court system.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cam Ward (R-Alabaster), would
create a five-member Shelby County judicial commission.
Should a vacancy arise in the 18th Judicial Circuit, the
commission would provide three nominees to the governor to
fill the position.
The county’s last judicial vacancy was created by the
retirement of circuit judge Al Crowson in 2005. Riley
appointed Sonny Conwill to fill that position.
Although the current procedure has gone without incident
under Gov. Bob Riley, Ward said, the potential for conflict
remains without some form of local involvement. “It would be
really scary for a governor to come in and make an
appointment based on political patronage rather than
professional qualifications,” Ward said.
The newly created commission would be modeled after similar
ones already in place in Jefferson, Montgomery and Mobile
Counties. Members would serve staggered, six-year terms with
no compensation and could not hold office in a political
party. Two members of the commission would be appointed by
the executive committee of the Shelby County Bar, with two
non-bar members appointed by the county’s legislative
delegation. Shelby County’s presiding judge would also serve
on the commission.
Because the bill proposes a constitutional amendment, it
would go before voters during the next statewide election
should it pass through the state Senate. |
