Former Birmingham News staff writer Brett Blackledge discusses his 2007 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting at Auburn University, Montgomery, in this video obtained by the Locust Fork News-Journal.

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To some legal experts, his admission that he was handed the information in a box raises some concerns about how he got the information in a highly politicized climate for the Bush Justice Department in Alabama that resulted in the jailing of former Governor Don Siegelman, as well as numerous federal cases against people who work for community colleges in the state and also serve in the state Legislature.

“If the materials include grand jury materials, then this may have been a criminal act,” says New York attorney and writer Scott Horton, who keeps up with the cases in Alabama for his blog “No Comment” on the Harper’s magazine Website at Harpers.org.

It also raises some doubts about the qualifications of the reporting for the award, since it doesn’t look like he did much “investigating,” and was perhaps just handed the information by federal prosecutors in possible violation of judicial codes of ethics.

The stories came preliminary to charges being brought against a number of legislators, including Sue Schmitz of Huntsville, who worked in a program that helps troubled teenagers. Her trial is ongoing in the federal courthouse in Decatur, and her lawyers have indicated an interest in this video as evidence.

Here’s the AP story from opening arguments today:

Prosecutor Tells Decatur Jury Schmitz Did Little for Pay

The Pulitzer committee awards the prizes each year for “a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series, in print or in print and online.” The prize pays a cash award of $10,000.

Blackledge’s award is billed as a reward for “his exposure of cronyism and corruption in the state’s two-year college system, resulting in the dismissal of the chancellor and other corrective action.” It was moved by the board from the Public Service category.

The 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Investigative Reporting

Blackledge left the News a couple of months ago to take a job with the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Associated Press, where he works for bureau chief Ron Founier. Since Founier took over the bureau a few months ago, critics say the coverage has demonstrated a “clear-cut GOP slant.”

Some bloggers have even gone so far as to connect Fournier to former Bush political adviser Karl Rove as a little bit more than a routine “objective” source, and media news outlets have released e-mails between Rove and Founier showing they were more like “buds” than reporter and source. (Since this report was published, Founier was let go at AP and was last seen at the National Journal, according to Wikipedia).

Blackledge also seemed to have unusual access to Rove at the News, where he quoted him at some length, while editorial writers at the Newhouse papers across the state disparaged the very idea that Rove would have any time for, or care anything about, political goings on in Alabama — since he must have surely been too busy working in the Bush White House.

Birmingham News Ace Reporter Hits the ‘Big Time’

Rove still faces a contempt charge for failing to appear before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to testify under oath about his role in turning the Justice Department into a political arm of the White House. When the House returns from it’s August recess, Speaker Nanci Pelosi has said she will consider bringing the issue of “inherent contempt” before the full House for a vote.

Jill Simpson Calls on Pelosi to Find Rove in Full Contempt

The Alabama Environmental Council is wondering why the Riley administration is trying to roll back a 29-year-old air pollution law, given that five counties in Alabama have been certified as failing national air quality standards for soot.

“Air pollution control technology has improved so much in the past 29 years that compliance now should be easier, not harder,” says Jenny Dorgan, program coordinator for umbrella environmental group, in a press release issued Tuesday.

The state’s environmental regulatory agency, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, will be asking the Alabama Environmental Management Commission to rollback a long-standing soot control rule in a public hearing scheduled for Friday in Montgomery.

In the past few weeks, members of the group have met with a number of the Commissioners explaining why this rollback is “neither necessary nor sound policy,” according to the release. “Several Commissioners found our arguments persuasive, but they also know that Alabama’s regulated community (read corporate polluters) really wants this rollback. ”

So the Commissioners asked, Dorgan said, “Why isn’t the public more interested in this issue?”

They also asked: “Why there weren’t more people at the recent Public Hearing regarding the proposed changes to our Opacity Standards?”

The group explained that people have jobs that prevent them from driving to the state capital during the week, as opposed to industry representatives that are paid to attend these meetings.

“We don’t think they were convinced,” she said.

So the group is asking people to turn out.

“We think a big turn out could tilt the scales in our favor,” she said.

Public comments will not be allowed, she said, “but our presence will speak volumes.”

The meeting will take place in the Main Hearing Room at ADEM’s Central Office at 1400 Coliseum Blvd., Montgomery, beginning at 10 a.m.

In Birmingham, carpoolers will meet at the AEC office at 8 a.m. Contact Dorgan if you will be able to attend at: Jenny@aeconline.org.

For more information, consult the group’s Website at www.aeconline.org or www.blackwarriorriver.org.

Mike Rogers, the Republican, holds a 54 to 33 percent lead over Josh Segall, the Democrat, in the race for Congress in District 3, even though Democrats have a marginal lead in political party self-identification, according to the Capital Survey Research Center, the polling arm of the Alabama Education Association, the state’s teachers’ union.

The most important issue to the people in the area is not surprisingly the economy and jobs. The most influential factors in determining the vote are “record/experience” and “honesty/integrity.”

More voters identify themselves as independents and Democrats than Republicans in the district, according to the survey, with 35 percent saying they are independent, 35 percent saying Democrat and only 27 percent reporting themselves as Republicans, a function of national rather than state party identification, according to Gerald Johnson, the poll director.

The survey of 468 “likely voters” was conducted August 13-14 and 18. The margin of error is 4.5 percent.

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, who is on Barack Obama’s short list for Vice President, responded to former Bush political adviser Karl Rove’s criticism of himself and Richmond, Virginia, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this past Sunday.

As we reported last week, Karl ‘Turdblossom’ Rove stepped in some deep South Richmond Doodoo last Sunday on the CBS News show “Face the Nation,” and may have done more to hand the red state over to the Democrats in the 2008 election than all of the money Obama is spending to try and win the state come November.

The local reaction to Rove’s “patronizing” comments was swift and not kind, making it look like the former White House political aide Bush liked to call “turdblossom” had stepped in one gigantic pile of doodoo.

Karl ‘Turdblossom’ Rove Steps in Richmond Doodoo

Now it is clear Kaine is on the short list.

Obama Veep Choice Expected Soon