The Birmingham Police Department reports that detectives are conducting a homicide investigation. The incident occurred on Friday, August 30, 2013 at approximately 10 p.m., in the 500 block of 41st Street North.

The victim has been identified as:
John Mullins B/M, 55, of Birmingham, Alabama.

Officers from the South Precinct responded to the incident location to investigate a report of a person stabbed. Upon arrival, officers discovered the victim lying outside suffering from a stab wound to the back. Birmingham Fire and Rescue responded to the scene and transported the victim to U.A.B Hospital for treatment. Hospital staff later pronounced the victim deceased.
There have been no arrests made in the case.
If there is anyone who has information pertaining to the case, they are encouraged to contact the BPD at 254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 254-7777.

Federal prosecutors charge ninth person in scheme to defraud BP Oil Spill Claims Fund

BIRMINGHAM – Federal prosecutors this week charged a Birmingham woman as part of a conspiracy to fraudulently take money from funds established to pay claims from individuals and businesses harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr.
In an information filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Metilda Steward Gorden, 47, with conspiring in 2010 to participate in a scheme to defraud the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has now charged nine people with conspiring to defraud the oil spill claims funds, and seven have pled guilty.
British Petroleum, which owned the Macondo oil well where the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, established the Gulf Coast Claims Facility in June 2010 for the purpose of administering and settling claims resulting from the oil spill disaster. A subsidiary of BP established the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust Fund in August 2010 to pay certain types of claims and expenses from the oil spill, including claims settled through the GCCF.
Gorden is charged with independently agreeing to provide personal information, such as bank account information, to individuals who recruited her so that they could use her information to file fraudulent claims for lost wages with the GCCF. The recruiters are not named in the charging document. After the GCCF paid Gorden on the fraudulent claims, she returned part of the money to the individuals who recruited her to participate in the scheme, according to the information. Between November 2010 and August 2011, the GCCF paid about $65,786 into Gorden’s bank account.
The FBI is investigating these cases. Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Cornelius is prosecuting the cases.

Undocumented alien indicted in connection with counterfeit identification documents

BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury indicted an undocumented Mexican national on charges involving counterfeit identification documents, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Raymond R. Parmer Jr.
The indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges Ivan Alejandro Martinez-Barron, 23, with one count of producing counterfeit Social Security and Permanent Resident cards. The indictment also charges Martinez-Barron with one count of possessing the equipment to produce such documents.
“We ask for continuing help and vigilance from the community to help us detect anyone providing false identity documents, as those identities might be used by people who wish to do our country harm,” Vance said.
Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
ICE-HSI  investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa K. Atwood is prosecuting the case.
The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges. The defendant is presumed innocent, and it is the government’s responsibility to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Federal Grand Jury indicts Blount County men in separate Child Pornography cases

BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury indicted two Blount County men in separate cases for distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography, which included images of children less than 12 years old, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Alabama Bureau of Investigation Chief Neil Tew.
Independent indictments filed in U.S. District Court charge both James Howard Wilson, 51, of Blountsville, and Jeremiah C. King, 32, of Springville, with using the Internet to distribute child pornography, receiving child pornography on a computer and possessing child pornography on a computer or computer media. King’s possession charge involves images of children younger than 12. Wilson’s possession and receiving charges involve images of children younger than 12. Wilson is charged with crimes occurring in 2012.  King is charged with crimes occurring between March and May this year.
Distribution and receipt of child pornography each carry a minimum prison term of five years and a maximum of 20 years. The charges also carry a maximum $250,000 fine. Possessing and receiving child pornography that includes images of prepubescent children less than 12 years old both carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The Alabama Bureau of Investigation and its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigated the cases. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama is prosecuting the cases.

Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges.  A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Huntsville man indicted for series of bank robberies

BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury indicted a Huntsville man for 11 robberies or attempted robberies at banks across north central and north western Alabama, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr.
An indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges Cedrick Lamond Hicks, 32, with nine counts of bank robbery and two counts of attempted bank robbery. In all, the banks were robbed of more than $43,000. Most of the charges are for robberies or attempted robberies in 2012, while one charge is for a 2006 bank robbery and two are for bank robberies this year.
The date, location and amount of money stolen are as follows, according to the indictment:

•    Dec. 13, 2006, Regions Bank, Madison Street, Huntsville, $3,074.
•    Feb. 22, 2012, Regions Banks, Madison Street, Huntsville, $2,870.
•    March 23, 2012, First Jackson Bank, Sutton Road, Huntsville, $1,894.
•    April 30, 2012, Renasant Bank, U.S. 72 West, Madison, $3,500.
•    Aug. 2, 2012, Peoples Bank, U.S. 431 South, Guntersville, $890.
•    Aug. 8, 2012, Traditions Bank, Alabama 67 South, Decatur, $7,243.
•    Nov. 27, 2012, Regions Banks, Lee Street, Rogersville, $8,009.
•    Jan. 7, 2013, Peoples Trust Bank, Military Street South, Hamilton, $9,000.
•    March 6, 2013, ServisFirst Bank, Meridian Street, Huntsville, $6,575.
The attempted bank robberies were on Sept. 18, 2012, at Cadence Bank, U.S. 431, Albertville, and on Nov. 26, 2012, at Traditions Bank, Second Avenue NW, Cullman.
The maximum penalty for each robbery count is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Stuart Burrell is prosecuting.

The public is reminded than an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent and it will be the government’s responsibility to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

Fifth Adams Produce official charged in scheme to defraud U.S. Government

BIRMINGHAM – A fifth Adams Produce Company official now faces federal charges in a scheme to defraud the federal government, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr.
A federal grand jury has indicted Michael John O’Brien, 50, of Navarre, Fla., who was general manager of the Adams Produce distribution center in Pensacola, Fla. O’Brien’s duties included determining the prices Adams Produce charged the United States under contracts it had with the government.
The 37-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges O’Brien with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Defense and its Defense Logistics Agency of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The indictment also charges O’Brien with 32 counts of wire fraud or aiding and abetting wire fraud, and with four counts of false claims or aiding and abetting false claims in order to carry out the conspiracy.
Four other Adams Produce officials – Scott David Grinstead, David Andrew Kirkland, Christopher Alan Pfahl and Stanley Joel Butler II – have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with defrauding the government.
Adams Produce was a Birmingham-based company that had been a leading distributor of fresh fruits and vegetables across the Southeast for many years. It was founded more than 100 years ago as a family-owned business. The family sold the company to executives and a private equity firm in 2010. Adams Produce closed abruptly and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
The Department of Defense, through DLA, contracted with Adams Produce and other distributers to supply fresh fruits and vegetables to military bases, public school systems, junior colleges and universities. Adams Produce had contracts worth millions of dollars with the U.S. government, according to O’Brien’s indictment. Under the contracts, the price the government paid Adams depended largely on what Adams had to pay its produce suppliers.
Each week, Adams Produce electronically submitted pricing information to DLA and was required, periodically, to submit purchase orders to DLA proving its costs, according to the indictment.
Adams bought from TLC, one of the largest distributors of fresh produce in the United States, with offices located across the country. Between August 2011 and November 2011, according to the indictment, O’Brien and other Adams employees arranged and conducted transactions with TLC in Marietta, Ga., designed to create purchase orders and invoices that reflected inflated costs to Adams Produce.
According to O’Brien’s indictment, he and others continued the conspiracy as follows:
O’Brien communicated instructions, often by e-mail, to other Adams’ employees concerning the inflated prices to show on the false purchase orders. Adams’ employees and officers used the false purchase orders to support false pricing information the company submitted to DLA for payment. The transactions with TLC to produce false purchase orders and the false information submitted to DLA “were intended to increase Adams Produce’s profit margins and inflate the income reported on Adams Produce’s financial statements.”
The maximum penalty for the conspiracy count is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum penalty for each wire fraud count is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and the maximum penalty for each false claim count is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The FBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney George A. Martin Jr. is prosecuting.

The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent, and it is the government’s responsibility to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

A special public presentation, “Justice Delayed, Not Justice Denied: The Prosecution of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Cases,” and the personal and historical impact of the 1963 events that took place in Birmingham will be held at Canterbury Center of Canterbury United Methodist Church, Sunday, September 8th at 4 p.m. Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley and Birmingham attorney and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones will speak on their involvement to achieve justice.
Though Baxley, founder of the law firm Baxley, Dillard, McKnight & James, was in law school in 1963 and Jones was only 9 years old, they later devoutly pursued justice in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and Birmingham’s civil rights violence many years after the fact.
Bill Baxley reopened the bombing investigation after he took office as Alabama’s Attorney General in 1971, requesting evidence from the FBI and building trust with key witnesses who had been reluctant to testify in the first trial. The prosecutor had been a student at the University of Alabama when he heard about the bombing in 1963. “I wanted to do something, but I didn’t know what.”
Doug Jones, former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama and founder of Jones & Hawley law firm in Birmingham, came to know Chris McNair, the father of Denise McNair, one of the girls killed in the bombing, and about 40 years after the tragedy, Jones led the prosecution of two of the former Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for the bombing. Jones represented McNair in his release from prison Thursday, Aug. 29.
The event is sponsored by the Birmingham Bar Association, the Magic City Bar Association, and Canterbury. The public is invited at no charge and there is no reserve seating. The Canterbury Center of Canterbury United Methodist Church is at 3350 Overbrook Road, Mountain Brook.

For more information, contact Laura Dabbs at laura.dabbs@canterburyumc.org or 871-4695

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing with an opening reception of its new exhibition, Remembering 4 Little Girls: A Gallery of Creative Expressions.  The event will take place on September 3 at 5:30 p.m. in David Vann Gallery.  The exhibition will be on display through December 31, 2013.
The Remembering 4 Little Girls exhibition, which is one of six owned and circulated by BCRI, consists of the top 36 multi-media entries from a nationwide high school contest sponsored by Home Box Office (HBO) in 1998.  The contest was held in conjunction with the release of Spike Lee’s Oscar nominated documentary “4 Little Girls.” Lee’s film explores the historic 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama which killed four little African-American girls attending Sunday School.  The exhibition and related education programs are supported by Wells Fargo.
“The Remembering 4 Little Girls exhibition is an amazing collection of art work, essays and creative expression from young people from all over the country,” stated Ahmad Ward, Head of BCRI’s Education and Exhibitions. “Even 15 years after the competition, these pieces are as beautiful and thought-provoking as they were back then.”
For more information about the BCRI exhibitions that are available for rental, visit www.bcri.org or call (205) 328-9696, ext. 234.

Cash For Crooks Div. of Refuge In (RITT) Trouble Times Community Development, Inc., PO Box 28083, Birmingham, AL 35228.
During 2012, 59 percent of the 76 reported homicides were shootings: 27 at homes, 8 at businesses, 3 domestics, 3 arguments, 3 blunt force trauma, 1 stabbing and 28 took place in the streets.
The streets around 9 p.m. is where it happened to Cedric Dickerson, age 54 on January 4, 2012, outside of his home in Birmingham, Ala. on Laurel Ave. in the Southwest area. He was shot mutiple times. His personal property was taken. He died later at UAB.  A $5,000 reward is offered for any information concerning this case. Will you help bring closure to his 74-year- old mother and close this homicide file for good? The Crimestoppers number is 205-254-7777.  Please do not give  NICK NAMES. You may also text from your cell phone by texting CRIMES7777. NO ONE WILL KNOW YOUR NAME.
If you have a case that you’d  like featured here, please contact Minister Brenda Paige Ward, founder of RITT at 205-240-9910 or e-mail us at odussasplace@yahoo.com.  We at RITT work with local and worldwide Law-enforcers to help take this and all bites from crimes. Please help us. It take a village to solve what happens in a neighborhood.

by Cheryl Eldridge
Editor

Academy Award®-winning superstar Jamie Foxx will host the BBVA Compass Concert for Human Rights on Saturday, Sept. 14, at The Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center in Birmingham, Ala.
The event will feature musical performances by Grammy® award-winning singer-songwriter Jill Scott and 2013 BET Lifetime Achievement Honoree and R&B singer-songwriter Charlie Wilson. Civil rights leaders will also make special appearances. The concert will support “50 Years Forward,” the city’s year-long celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
I had the  privilege to interview one of my favorite  uncles, Charlie  Wilson.
Uncle Charlie is visiting Birmingham for a Concert for Human Rights  and said that he is elated to be a part of such a pivotal moment in history.  He also can’t wait to see his friends Jill Scott,  and Jamie Foxx.
It was a sunny afternoon and I got a call from Charlie Wilson’s Public Relation contact that he was on the phone and ready for the interview.
I was so excited. Of course, I said ” Hello Uncle Charlie.”  He seemed so excited and delighted while speaking with me.
I asked him how did he get the name “Uncle Charlie.” He stated that Uncle Charlie was “America’s Favorite Uncle”, he gave an example of being the cool uncle when momma and daddy said ‘no’, he said ‘yes’ and he would always be the one that would give you an encouraging word or some money to go and buy junk food, etc.
Although Uncle Charlie is a family man who lives on a ranch with his wife, (who travels with him always and collaborates with him musically) and mentioned some of his animals which includes the llamas, alpacas, cats, goats, lambs, among other animals in his barn.
His passion, however, is singing, entertaining and writing songs. He  stated he has so much passion and energy when it comes to music. He loves what he’s doing and for the next five years or so, he will continue to cut records and tour all over the world.
This  cancer survivor/achiever and award winning uncle states that he is a cancer advocate. He recommends men to go to the doctor and get checked. His key to fighting Prostate Cancer was simple, “He Never Gave Up.”
He can’t wait to get to Birmingham. He plans on performing 90 minutes of every “hit” possible including some of his Best Bets and Gap Band Hits.

The BBVA Concert for Human Rights, which will be co-produced by Live Nation, will take place at the end of a week-long remembrance of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, which killed four girls in 1963 and marked a turning point in the struggle for civil rights.
“To have this event and artists of this caliber in the City of Birmingham to help commemorate and pay tribute to the individuals who risked their lives for freedom leaves me speechless,” said Birmingham Mayor William Bell. “Birmingham has come so far since 1963 and we want to show the world that we are 50 Years Forward. As the cradle of civil rights, we will continue going forward to make not only Birmingham better, but the world’s consciousness stronger in the struggle for human rights.”
“We knew this event would draw quality artists since it’s commemorating such an important time, and the line-up certainly reflects that,” said Alan Register, Birmingham city president for BBVA Compass. “Our hope is that the concert inspires people to get out there and continue to move the needle forward and make a difference.”
Shawn Gee, Geoff Gordon and Scott Mirkin are executive producers of the concert and are the same creative team behind some of the largest concerts and live streams in the U.S., including The Philly Fourth of July Jam and Budweiser Made In America Festival. Artists that have performed at these events include The Roots, JAY Z, Pearl Jam, John Mayer, Ne-Yo, J. Cole, Grace Potter, Jill Scott and many more. Charlie “Mack” Alston also serves as co-producer for the BBVA Compass Concert for Human Rights.
“It is our honor to co-produce and be a part of the BBVA Compass Concert for Human Rights,” said Live Nation’s Geoff Gordon. “Artists like Jamie Foxx, Jill Scott and Charlie Wilson help bring attention to Birmingham and the city’s place in our civil rights movement.”
For more information, go to 50yearsforward.com.

Stillman College will hold its annual Fall Convocation on Thursday, September 5, 11 a.m. in Birthright Alumni Hall. During this event, President Ernest McNealey will deliver his annual State of the College address and welcome faculty, staff, students and friends of the College to another academic year. In addition to reflecting upon the past year, he will highlight the College’s plans for the future.
On Thursday evening at 7 p.m., the College will hold its annual Sophomore Rite of Passage Ceremony. The ceremony congratulates students for enduring their freshman year of college and encourages them as they continue to transition into becoming Stillman men and Stillman women.
The College is noted for its outstanding programs in biological sciences, business administration, and teacher education, in addition to its Harte Honors College and pre-professional programs in law and medicine. Ninety-two percent of Stillman’s full-time faculty members hold terminal degrees and the student-to-faculty ratio is 15:1. The faculty is committed to excellence in teaching, advising, scholarship and service—providing a challenging curriculum that prepares graduates for employment, professional or graduate studies and viable careers in selected fields.
Fall Convocation and the Sophomore Rite of Passage Ceremony are free and open to the public.

During the Birmingham City Council Meeting on Tuesday, September 3, 2013, Council:

1. Referred to Budget and Finance an Ordinance “to further amend the general fund budget” by appropriating $30,000.00 to Non Departmental – Taste of 4th Avenue Jazz Festival from Fund Balance. For more information, contact the office of Councilor Steven Hoyt at 254.2304.

2. Approved an Ordinance annexing into the City of Birmingham a 1.25 acre tract of land located at 711 Rex Lake Road in unincorporated Jefferson County, as petitioned by United States Steel Corporation, a Delaware Corporation (formerly known as USX Corporation), owner, pursuant to Title 11, Chapter 42, Article 2, Code of Alabama 1975, Sections 11-42-20 through 11-42-24, as amended. For more information, contact the office of Councilor Roderick Royal at 254.2302.

3. Appointed three (3) members to the Birmingham Housing Board of Appeals: Frederick Chatman term expiring July 28, 2016, Jennifer Clarke term expiring July 28, 2016, and Jason Fondren term expiring July 28, 2014. For more information, contact the office of Councilor Valerie Abbott at 254.2355.

4. Approved a Resolution determining that the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony honoring the Four Little Girls that is being held September 10, 2013 at the United States Capitol, serves a public purpose that promotes goodwill and serves a public interest, and requesting that Birmingham funds be administered to pay for this event in accordance with Section 3-1-7 of the General Code of the City of Birmingham. For more information, contact the office of Councilor Roderick Royal at 254.2302.

5. Approved a Resolution supporting the Housing Authority of Birmingham District’s application for a CHOICE Neighborhoods Initiative Implementation Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. For more information, contact the office of Councilor Roderick Royal at 254.2302.

6. Set a public hearing October 22, 2013 to consider the adoption of an Ordinance “to amend the zoning district map of the City of Birmingham” (Case No. ZAC2013-00008) to change zone district boundaries from R-6, Multiple Dwelling District to O&I, Office and Institutional District, filed by John F. Chapman, representing the owners, WCP/ 2401 Arlington, LLC., for property located at 2400 Arlington Avenue and situated in the NE ¼ of Section 06, Township 18 South, Range 2 West, Birmingham.

7. Approved a Resolution regarding the amended appointment of Exford Architects, LLC, Birmingham, in the additional amount of $69,100.00 which increases the amount to be paid to the contractor to $310,150.00, inclusive of any reimbursable expenses, to provide architectural and engineering design services for the Fountain Heights Recreation Center Project.

8. Approved a Resolution regarding the appointment of Exford Architects, LLC, Birmingham, in the additional amount of $69,100.00 which increases the amount to be paid to the contractor to $285,000.00, inclusive of any reimbursable expenses, to provide architectural and engineering design services for the Police West Precinct Project.

Announcements and Reminders:

1. The Education Committee Meeting scheduled on Tuesday, September 3, 2013, is canceled.

2. The Transportation and Communication Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, 12:30 p.m., Conference Rooms D & E.

3. Joint Public Safety and Technology Committee meeting is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, 2:00 p.m., Council Chambers.

4. Special Called, Joint Budget and Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting is scheduled on Thursday, September 5, 2013, 4:00 p.m., in Conference Rooms D & E.

5. The Budget and Finance Committee Meeting scheduled on Monday, September 9, 2013, is canceled.

6. On Tuesday, September 10, 2013, the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in honor of the four little girls killed in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing will take place at the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.

7. The Planning and Zoning Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, September 10, 2013, 4:00 p.m., in the 5th Floor Engineering Conference Room.

8. Councilor Kim Rafferty seeks to fill a vacancy on the Birmingham Parking Authority. Councilor Rafferty, Chair of the Transportation and Communication Committee, is accepting letters of interest and resumes. Candidates should mail the aforementioned information to: Honorable Kim Rafferty, Office of the City Council, 710 North 20th Street, Birmingham, AL 35203. For more information, call 254.2348. 

For more information, log onto www.birminghamalcitycouncil.org. 

Are you unable to attend the Birmingham City Council meetings?

Watch Council Meetings on demand. From anywhere in the world you can log on to www.birminghamalcitycouncil.org and click on the tab Watch Council Meetings; or from the comfort of your home, tune to Bright House Cable Channel 244. The Birmingham City Council meetings are free and on demand. 
The City of Birmingham will make reasonable accommodations to ensure that people with disabilities have equal opportunity to enjoy all city services, programs and activities. If accommodations are required for public meetings, please contact John Long, Senior Public Information Officer, with reasonable advance notice by emailing John.Long@birminghamal.gov, or by calling 205-254-2036.

The Birmingham Public Library Archives will host a panel discussion by three eminent historians examining Governor George Wallace’s role in Birmingham’s civil rights struggle and Wallace’s continuing influence on American politics and race relations today.

Entitled In Birmingham They Love the Gov’nor: George Wallace, Birmingham and Beyond, the program will be held in the Arrington Auditorium of the downtown library, Monday, September 9, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. Generous financial support for this program is provided by the Rita C. Kimmerling Family Fund.

The panelists:

Dr. Dan T. Carter has served as a professor and visiting scholar at Emory University, the University of Maryland, the University of Wisconsin, London’s Westminster University, Cambridge University, the University of Genoa and the University of South Carolina. His book Scottsboro: a Tragedy of the American South won the Bancroft Prize and the Lillian Smith Award. He is the author of the highly regarded biography The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics.

Dr. Glenn T. Eskew is professor of history at Georgia State University. He is author of the book   But For Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, which  received the Francis Butler Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association, and the forthcoming book Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World.

Dr. Angela K. Lewis is professor of political science in the Department of Government at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is author of the new book Conservatism in the Black Community: To the Right and Misunderstood.

For more information, contact 205-226-3631 or e-mail Jim Baggett at jbaggett@bham.lib.al.us
The program is free and open to the public.

Native Plant Group takes unique approach to nurturing plant that attracts the butterfly in decline
 
BIRMINGHAM, AL – Birmingham Botanical Gardens’ Native Plant Group is actively working to help strengthen the monarch butterfly population. According to statistics gathered by Toronto’s Globe and Mail, there are 350 million monarch butterflies that winter in the average year in Mexico. This year, that number has dropped to 60 million, a difference of more than 80 percent. Those numbers are the lowest in 20 years, and have experts wondering if monarchs can rise from the decline.

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberose) is the only host for the monarch larvae. Upon hatching, the larvae eat the leaves of milkweed plants or starve to death. Because the Native Plant Group at Birmingham Botanical Gardens has had difficulty with producing these plants during the climates leading up to April’s Spring Plant Sale, it has taken a new approach – nurturing 400 of these plants during summer, the hottest months of the year, when the plants are most likely to thrive. When the plants had matured, the Native Plant Group offered a presale and sold out of all inventory within two days, turning many other interested parties away.

You can shop the rest of the selection nurtured by the Native Plant Group and all of the other volunteer groups at The Gardens at this year’s Fall Plant Sale on October 19 and 20. Admission to the sale, located in Blount Plaza at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, is free to the public and proceeds benefit The Gardens’ educational mission. To learn more about the sale and its inventory as the information becomes available, visit www.bbgardens.org/fallplantsale.

With this year’s proven success, the group plans to revisit this method annually, with hopes of doing its part in repopulation. If you would like to learn more about how volunteering with the Native Plant Group and how you can help, contact Volunteer Coordinator Taylor Steele at 205.414.3962 or tsteele@bbgardens.org.

About Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Birmingham Botanical Gardens is Alabama’s largest living museum with more than 12,000 different species of plants in its living collections. The Gardens’ 67.5 acres contains more than 25 unique gardens, 30+ works of original outdoor sculpture and miles of serene paths. The Gardens features the largest public horticulture library in the U.S., conservatories, a wildflower garden, two rose gardens, the Southern Living garden, and Japanese Gardens with a traditionally crafted tea house. Education programs run year round and more than 10,000 school children enjoy free science-curriculum based field trips annually. The Gardens is open daily, offering free admission to more than 350,000 yearly visitors.