State prosecutors are opposing former House Speaker Mike Hubbard's request to have the sheriff investigate if there was misconduct by the jury that convicted him on ethics charges.
The attorney general's office in a response filed yesterday saying Hubbard is seeking an "unfettered fishing expedition into the deliberations of the jury."
A Lee County jury convicted Hubbard of 12 felony ethics violations. A judge sentenced to Hubbard to four years in a state prison and another eight on probation.
Hubbard filed the investigation request immediately after he was sentenced.
Hubbard's defense submitted an affidavit by a juror or alternate juror - it was unclear which - saying that some jurors made biased comments to each other during the trial, such as calling Hubbard greedy. The person's name was redacted.
Alabama is on pace to collect a record breaking ten billion dollars in taxes this fiscal year. However, the Revenue Department says it might not add up to enough to fix Alabama’s budget woes.
Julie Magee* is the Revenue Commissioner for the state. She says that most of the money comes from income tax and sales tax and tourism plays a major part as well…
“That’s a very important part of our collections. These state collection numbers go up, you’re going to see the collections of the cities and counties go up as well. So lodging’s tax has seen an increase recently because air BNB is now collecting and remitting as host in our state.”
Magee* says while that state is getting more money most of it is earmarked for specific use and can only be used for its intended purpose. The fiscal year ends on September 30th.
Community and business leaders from Mobile and Baldwin counties are at the Farnborough Air Show in London.
They are looking to recruit businesses to south Alabama and develop an innovation portal facility in Mobile.
Leigh Perry-Herndon is with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. She says the Innovation Portal is being created to provide assistance to both new and existing businesses…
“And part of the reason for us visiting some of these innovation centers in London is that they have similar relationships, partnerships with entrepreneurs and manufacturing companies. And that’s of interest to this facility that we’re looking to put in in Mobile.”
Perry-Herndon says the Innovation Portal is expected to open within the next 18 to 24 months. The Chamber says another benefit from attending the airshow is that Mobile business leaders get to meet with top executives of the forty companies that operate in their city.