The World Around You

There a bunch of people who need to be getting real nervous this morning over the headline from the Birmingham News this morning. Former two-year college chancellor Roy Johnson is cooperating with prosecutors…

Johnson’s cooperation is significant in a case focusing on political corruption inside the state’s college system. The former veteran legislator who rose to become House speaker pro tempore served for decades as one of the state’s most powerful political figures and kept close ties to lawmakers after he took over the college system in 2002.

Dozens of legislators, their close relatives and businesses received jobs in the system, and some of those arrangements are under federal investigation.

Efforts to reach Johnson and his lawyer, Joe Espy of Montgomery, failed Wednesday. Johnson has denied any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors identified Johnson last year as a major target in their corruption investigation. The state school board fired Johnson as chancellor in July 2006 after a series of articles in The Birmingham News detailed college contracts and jobs his relatives received. Johnson and his family received more than $600,000 in jobs and contracts the year before he was fired, system records show.

Former Alabama 2-year colleges chancellor Roy Johnson expected to plead guilty, cooperate with corruption probe- al.com