6A j The BirminghamNews Friday, September 10, 2010FROM PAGE ONE
“We’ve got to give every child in Alabama an opportunity.Every child who stays in school, stays out of trouble, when they
walk across that stage to get a diploma, we’ve got to be giving thema scholarship in the other hand.”
Ron Sparks, Candidate for governor
SMITH:Claimed he wasdisabled vetFrom Page 1A
ensure he doesn’t use it tocommit similar crimes andhis computer equipmentwill be available for ran-dom inspection, the judgealso ordered.
“I don’t know whatkinds of problems youhave that cause you to bethis way,” Blackburn toldSmith at the hearing inBirmingham. She said shedidn’t know whether it was“mental” issues or “a crim-inal mind” that causedhim to do what he did.
Blackburn said she hadconsidered making hissentence longer after hehad made false statementsto a magistrate judge at ahearing to revoke hisbond. That hearing washeld because a probationofficer believed he wasagain involved potentiallyfraudulent activity. Hisbond was revoked at thathearing.
As Smith began to makea statement to the judge atThursday’s hearing, hesaid he had made somemistakes and “misinter-preted some guidelines.”
B l a c k b u r n q u i c k l ystopped him at that point.She said she didn’t knowwhere he was headed withhis statement, but “you donot want to lie to me.”
Smith then told thejudge in a very briefstatement that he hadmade some mistakes andwould like the opportunityto make restitution.
Smith’s attorney, RobertTuten, told the judgeSmith had admitted to hisactions and was asking fora second chance.
Smith had been indictedin February on sevencounts. Five of the countsinvolved claims that hehad worn, without autho-rization, the Purple Heart,t h e C o m b a t I n f a n t r yBadge, the Senior Par-achutist Badge, the Air As-s a u l t B a d g e a n d t h eBronze Star. He rode in aVeterans Day parade inHuntsville last year wear-ing a uniform and a PurpleHeart, according to theplea agreement.
Another count involvedselling a $12.90 cubic zir-conia as a diamond for$70,000. And the othercount involved falselyclaiming to be a disabledveteran in his bid to sellthe government protectivevests.
Smith won a $168,643contract last year for hiscompany, NBC Tactical, tosupply vests, according tohis plea agreement. TheArmy canceled the con-tract when he didn’t de-liver the vests. Bidders forthe contract were onlysupposed to be disabled-veteran-owned small busi-nesses.
“Mr. Smith spun lies ontop of lies to inflate hisi m a g e a n d t o s t e a lmoney,” U.S. AttorneyJoyce White Vance said ina prepared statement.
I n v e s t i g a t o r s f o u n dSmith received an otherthan honorable dischargefrom the Army and wasnever classified with a dis-ability, according to hisplea agreement.
During the hearing, As-sistant U.S. Attorney DavidEstes said that Smith hadbeen absent without leavewhen his unit deployedoverseas for Operation En-during Freedom. Smith’sactions were “more egregi-ous than a person whonever wore a uniform.” Healso said the nation is atwar and Smith’s actionshad come in Huntsville,where there is a heavy mil-itary presence.
Estes said after the hear-ing that he was pleasedwith the judge’s two-yearsentence. That amountwas higher than the sen-tencing guidelines and wasthe amount he had recom-mended.
Estes, a lieutenant colo-nel in the Army NationalGuard who has severed 25years including five yearson active duty, said he tookSmith’s case personally.
“I know a lot of peoplewho are heroes. This guy’snot,” Estes said.
Tuten said after theh e a r i n g t h a t h e w a spleased and believes Smithgot off easy. “I think thejudge was more than fairto him,” he said.
Tuten also said he foundit unbelievable the govern-ment could have awardeda contract to Smith. “Youwould think they wouldreally check the creden-tials of the contractors be-fore they started doingbusiness with them,” hesaid.
E-MAIL: [email protected]
NEWS STAFF/JOE SONGER
Ron Sparks, the Democratic nominee for governor, speaks at a fundraiserThursday at the Summit Club as former President Bill Clinton listens.
CLINTON:In town forSparks fundraiserFrom Page 1A
When it was over, Clintongot back into a black SUVwith blacked-out windows,which had been parked inan underground garage, andheaded to the airport andout of town.
Two reporters and a pho-tographer did manage tomake it into the fundraiserlong enough to catch someof Sparks’ remarks beforethey were escorted from theroom by Clinton representa-tives. The reporters didn’tcrash the event; they wereinvited in by some membersof Sparks’ campaign.
“I will move this state for-ward like President Clintonmoved this nation forwardwhen he was president,”
Sparks told the crowd asClinton stood at his side.“The way he moved it for-ward was that he talkedabout things that mattered— educating our children.Taking care of our seniorcitizens. Rebuilding our in-frastructure across ourcountry.”
Sparks then launched intohis familiar pitch for a lot-tery.
“We’ve got to give everychild in Alabama an oppor-tunity. Every child who staysin school, stays out of trou-ble, when they walk acrossthat stage to get a diploma,we’ve got to be giving thema scholarship in the otherhand,” Sparks said.
Sparks thanked Clintonfor being at Thursday’sevent.
“I’m honored to speak toyou here today and anhonor for my president tobe here,” Sparks said. “Pres-ident Clinton has been a
friend. Hillary (Clinton) hasbeen a friend.”
After the event, Sparkssaid the event was closed atthe insistence of the Clintonteam.
“I didn’t have any controlover that,” Sparks said. “Iwant all the media time Ican get and I would have al-lowed you guys in, but Ididn’t control access.”
The event did draw anumber of notable Demo-crats including former Gov.Don Siegelman; Lt. Gov. JimFolsom; state Rep. KenG u i n , H o u s e m a j o r i t yleader; state Rep. John Rog-ers, chairman of the Legis-lative Black Caucus; Bir-mingham Mayor WilliamBell; former U.S. AttorneyDoug Jones; Joe Reed, assis-tant executive secretary ofthe Alabama Education As-sociation; and gamblingmagnate Milton McGregor.
E-MAIL: [email protected]
INSIDEyy SSppaarrkkss,, BBeennttlleeyy ttaallkk ppllaannss ffoorr ffiissccaall ssttiimmuulluuss // 11BB
ASFA:Theater to allowfor teachingFrom Page 1A
Adams, said the theater wasneeded because the currentone at the school is out-dated and too small to holdthe school’s entire studentbody.
“The theater we have isinadequate for the state’sfine arts school,” she said,noting it seats around 250 instadium seats rather thanthe true theater seating thatwill be in the new facility.
Adams said the theaterhas been part of the school’sstrategic plan since 1998 butit has taken this long to getthe fundraising and thecosts within $1 million ofthe needed goal.
“We are real excited,” shesaid. “I think all-in-all we’regoing to have an incrediblywell-designed theater that isgreat for dance, music andtheater.”
Adams said the Perform-ance Network will be theonly theater of its size in theregion appropriate for inti-m a t e c o m m u n i t y a n dschool venues. Special con-sideration will be given toideal viewing and acoustics,according to a press release.It is designed to be both aprofessional performancevenue as well as a teachingfacility.
Arts groups from Bir-mingham and around thestate have long expressedinterest in the theater.
“We have letters of sup-port from the Alabama Sym-phony and Alabama Shake-speare Festival,” Adamssaid. “It will be available fora rental fee, hopefully a fairone, to small groups, largegroups and meetings forcorporate donors. We’rehoping that a lot of peoplewill be able to use it.”
Craig Krawzcyk of Bir-mingham’s Live DesignGroup is the architect forthe project. Adams, and theschool’s foundation boardchairman, Stanton Ingram,
worked with the faculty andthe architect on the design.
The project is the result ofa seven-year fundraising ef-fort by the nonprofit Ala-bama School of Fine ArtFoundation’s PerformanceNetwork capital campaign,which has raised $6.5 mil-lion.
The facility will be at-tached to the existing ASFAbuilding, with a separate en-trance on 19th Street. It wasoriginally slated for a loca-tion across the street fromthe school.
“We were able to savesome money by attaching itto this building,” Adamssaid. “Our current recitalhall will become anotherlobby area. We will renovatethe current theater and itwill become a gymnasiumand exercise, health andwellness center.”
The contributions havecome mostly from majordonors such as AlabamaPower Foundation, RegionsBank, EBSCO, Daniel Foun-dation, Community Foun-dation of Greater Birming-ham, Hillcrest Foundation,Jemison Investment, HughKaul Foundation, RobertMeyer Foundation, Com-pass Bank, Vulcan MaterialsFoundation, AT&T Founda-tion, Joseph S. Bruno Foun-dation, Walls Foundation,along with many individualdonors.
David Kahn of AcousticDimensions in New Ro-chelle, N.Y., and MichaelFerguson of Theatre ProjectConsultants in Norwalk,Conn., also contributed tospecific design characteris-tics.
B.L. Harbert Internationalwill build the facility with aconstruction schedule last-ing 14 months.
Mayor William Bell isamong the officials sched-uled to attend the groun-breaking later this month.
The Alabama School ofFine Arts is often recognizedas a top public, tuition-free,arts and science school forgrades 7-12.
E-MAIL: [email protected]@bhamnews.com
PERFORMANCE NETWORK ATALABAMA SCHOOL OF FINE ARTSLocation: 19th Street and Rever-end AbrahamWoods Jr. Blvd.
Uses: Theater, dance, chambermusic, lectures for ASFA andcommunity events.
Architect: Craig Krawzcyk, LiveDesign Group.
Acoustician: David Kahn ofAcoustic Dimensions, New Ro-chelle, N.Y., whose work includestheMeyerson Symphony Hall inDallas and venues at the PeabodyConservatory in Baltimore, Uni-
versity of Tennessee and Univer-sity of California, Davis.
Construction: B.L. Harbert Inter-national.
Seats: 500.
Orchestra pit: Seating for 52 mu-sicians.
Stage area: 80-by-40 feet, not in-cluding the orchestra pit.
Cost: $7.6 million.
Raised so far: $6.5 million.
Recommended
