Mar 12, 2024

Kind of left you hanging in this space yesterday. That's what we like to call a "technical difficulty" but by "technical" we mean "mental" and by "difficulty" we mean "hiatus."

Today we'll start out with a couple of tried-and-true crimes: political corruption and auto theft. We'll finish with the answers and results of yesterday's Week in Review Quiz.

Ike Morgan

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Longtime state lawmaker John Rogers signed an agreement to plead guilty to federal felony charges in a fraud case, reports AL.com's Hannah Denham.

Rogers, a Birmingham Democrat, has been serving in the Alabama House of Representatives since he was first elected in 1982. He's been indicted before -- in 1989, when he was accused of taking bribe money from a union -- but he was acquitted at trial. In 2010, the FBI seized computers from his office, but he never faced charges.

And he's the namesake of John Rogers Drive, the old "Race Track Road" in East Birmingham where BPD, if it wanted to, could camp out and write enough speeding tickets to build the domed stadium that Rogers, among others, once called for.

Rogers will resign from the state house and plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. He also agreed to pay nearly $200,000 restitution to the Jefferson County Community Service fund. The plea deal helps clear him of 18 other charges.

From 2019 to 2023 Rogers was part of a scheme to move $400,000 of public money from that Jefferson County Community Service Fund to a youth baseball league   and then kick around half of it back to Rogers and his longtime assistant.

Rogers is 83 years old and could face prison time. Sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

Car thieves drove off in more than a quarter million dollars' worth of vehicles from a Daphne Chevy dealer over the weekend, reports AL.com's Warren Kulo.

They made their score at Terry Thompson Chevrolet. According to police and surveillance video, around 2 a.m. Saturday, a dark four-door sedan dropped off four masked people wearing black clothes. They entered the building through a service-department window, found the key fobs and drove off in four vehicles that were priced between $60,000 and $80,000 (each).

They included a Chevrolet Suburban Z71, two Chevy Silverados and a black '22 Dodge Charger Hellcat with a 717-horsepower engine. I'm no detective, but one of those surely needed a gas-and-go before long. The last GPS signal they got showed they were heading north on I-65 near Prichard.

In September 2021, Vestavia Hills Police Cpl. Jerry Hughes, at only 43 years old, was diagnosed with kidney failure, reports AL.com's Carol Robinson.

He was put on light duty by the department and began nine hours' of dialysis every night. His daughter began putting out the word and trying to locate a kidney.

Not long after that, a nearby fellow law-enforcement officer, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Lt. Mike House, began to feel called to be kidney donor. He said God put it on his heart. He didn't know when it would happen, and he didn't know Cpl. Hughes.

Now, there wasn't an immediate connection here. House said he had to get in shape. It took him a year, but he dropped 40 pounds and qualified to be a donor.

House, 55, went on a general donor list but turned on the TV news one night and there was Hughes' story. So he contacted a transplant coordinator, found out he would qualify to give his kidney to Hughes, and made it happen.

They both went under the knife this past December at UAB Hospital. Before Hughes even knew that House was also in law enforcement.

“The man saved my life,’’ Hughes said. “He gave me time with my family, time with my grandbabies.”

In 1883, sacred harp composer Judge Jackson of the Montgomery area.

April 11: A tribute to late Mobile native Jimmy Buffett will take place at the Hollywood Bowl, according to Variety. The performer list is, well, impressive. It includes Paul McCartney, Kenny Chesney, the Eagles, Brandi Carlile, Jon Bon Jovi, Pitbull, Eric Church, Sheryl Crow, Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne, Zac Brown and Mac McAnally and the rest of the Coral Reefer Band.

Here are the answers (and how we did):

During last week's State of the Union Address, President Biden focused on hot-button issue by recognizing a woman from Alabama because ...

She had used in vitro fertilization to grow her family.    (CORRECT) 91.1%

Her brother, in prison for a non-violent offense, has been denied parole seven times. 4.7%

Her boss at an auto manufacturing plant allegedly pressured her against signing a union card. 3.6%

Her son, a sophomore wide receiver at Alabama, has been bullied online since it was revealed that, the day before Nick Saban retired, he stormed into the coach's office and asked whether Saban was ready to be his "ambassador of quan." 0.5%

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt gave the Republican response to President Biden's State of the Union Address from ...

Her kitchen (CORRECT) 97.9%

The U.S.-Mexican border    0.0%

Mar-a-Lago 0.5%

Montgomery's Riverwalk 1.6%

"Big Daddy" James Lawler, who passed away recently, was known for the hunting- and fishing-themed radio show ...

Gettin' Outdoors (CORRECT) 23.4%

Alabama Sportsman 33.9%

Outdoors with Big Daddy 41.7%

Fillin' Freezers 1.0%

According to Alabama law, no one may be elected or appointed to a judicial office after reaching the age of:

70 (CORRECT) 66.1%

67 7.8%

62 3.6%

75 22.4%

The acronym "ESA" as it applies to current Alabama policy discussion refers to:

Education savings account (CORRECT) 70.8%

Equity, safety and acceptance 26.6%

The economics of student-athletes 2.1%

Environmental Salvation Association 0.5%

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