The World Around You

Richard Scrushy’s indictment was unsealed this morning,

Former HealthSouth Corp. head Richard Scrushy has been indicted on 85 counts in a massive federal fraud case that already has seen 15 former executives of the rehabilition services giant plead guilty.

The indictment, dated Oct. 29 and released Tuesday at the federal courthouse, accuses Scrushy of a range of criminal violations including securities fraud and false certification of corporate statements.

Scrushy attorney Donald Watkins said the HealthSouth co-founder and former chief executive officer will plead innocent. Watkins said Scrushy was being processed by federal marshals in Birmingham on the charges.

He declined to comment on the 85-count indictment. “There’s a whole group of lawyers studying it,” Watkins said.

Deny, deny, deny. All the way to a jail cell.

James has a very entertaining Rumsfeld Caption Contest up.

Matt Drudge has catapulted himself back into the headlines with the scoop yesterday that CBS would pull the plug on “The Reagans”. Congratulations to Matt and bravo to CBS for having no spine. I doubt I would have watched the telepic, but come on, they aired a movie about the “real” Hitler. This seems a little disingenuous.

Well, another election day is upon us. Run-offs are taking place in council districts in Montgomery and Birmingham, as well as the Mayor’s race in B’ham. The Birmingham News once again urges citizens to participate in the process,

Birmingham voters will elect a new mayor today. Well, at least some of them will.

If the voter turnout in today’s mayoral runoff is similar to that of the general election three weeks ago, most voters will stay home.

That would be a big mistake. Today’s vote is critical. No less than the city’s future is at stake.

Today’s runoff pits incumbent Mayor Bernard Kincaid against City Council President Pro Tem Carole Smitherman. Kincaid led the field of 18 candidates on Oct. 14 with 32 percent of the vote, while Smitherman came in second with 23 percent.

But the number from that day’s vote which really stands out is 37. That’s the percentage of Birmingham’s 122,582 registered voters who actually voted. A repeat of such a pathetic turnout would be inexcusable. Nearly two out of every three voters mustn’t sit out this election.

The News has endorsed Carole Smitherman, but regardless of who the citizens vote for, it’s important that they vote. Rock the Vote!