Chugging along on the choo chooFinleybypasscloserto realityState DOTsets meetingon 3 plansBy GINNY MacDONALDNews staff writer

Birmingham City Coun-cilwoman Maxine Parkersaid she grew up hearingher granddad and othermen in her Collegevillecommunity talking aboutthe Finley bypass.

And since 1968, it hasbeen all talk while plansconsistently were derailedor altered.

After 41 years of prom-ises, it has taken Parker sixmonths to move the projectto the forefront.

The Alabama Depart-ment of Transportation hasscheduled the first publicmeeting to show residentsthree plans for the long-touted Finley extension,which will free the College-ville community from itsconfines of railroad tracksand trains.

The meeting will be July2 3 a t B e t h e l B a p t i s tChurch, 3200 28th Ave.North, from 4 to 7 p.m. AL-

DOT officials plan to ex-tend Finley Boulevard be-yond U.S. 31 to Alabama 79near East Lake Boulevard.

Parker took office in2005. She said from hearingher grandfather’s conversa-tions, she has grown upwith the bypass on hermind.

It was President Obamaproposing stimulus moneyfor roads and bridges thatinspired Parker.

“That really got me ex-cited. I thought, ‘We canget the Finley bypass inthere.’ Then I found out theprojects had to be shovel-ready, and then I found out

See BYPASS Page 2A

NEWS STAFF/TAMIKAMOORE

Intermittent rain and occasionally dark skies Sunday didn’t keep away those looking for a last thrill during the holidayweekend with an afternoon of carnival attractions in Birmingham. Mary J. Trone, and her granddaughter Mya Trone,3, enjoyed a train ride of sorts at the Magic City Summer Fest at Legion Field. The festival, with rides spinning in the

shadow of the old stadium, runs through Sunday.

Hard-to-findCongressionalexpense reportsgoing online

President ObamaSaid in an interview thatVladimir Putin has “one footin the old ways of doingbusiness and one foot in thenew.”

Obama to back morefreedom in Russia By MARY ORNDORFF

News Washington correspondent

WASHINGTON — Alabama’s represen-tatives in the U.S. House last year eachspent about $1.3 million to run their stateand federal offices, and their expense re-ports show budgets largely consumed bypayroll and plane tickets.

But they also handle more routinehousehold matters, such as rent for officespace, car leases, cell phone bills, over-night mail, printer ink, bottled water andcomputer maintenance.

Records of how members of the U.S.House of Representatives spend their of-fice allowances are kept on Capitol Hilland not available online. But in a timewhen Congress is demanding accountabil-ity and transparency from the corporateworld and Wall Street, there are new plansto post the quarterly expense reports,which are public record, on the Internet.

See SPENDING Page 3A

Wants Medvedev tostrengthen rule of lawBy PETER BAKERand CLIFFORD J. LEVYNew York Times News Service

MOSCOW — Ahead of his de-parture for Moscow on Sundaynight for a visit aimed at repairingstrained relations with Russia,President Barack Obama vowednot to sacrifice American supportfor greater freedom here andquestioned the politically chargedprosecution of a prominent Rus-sian businessman.

Obama raised concerns aboutthe treatment of the businessman,Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who along

with his partner has been put backon trial six years after they werefirst arrested. Critics say the newtrial seems aimed at keeping Kho-dorkovsky, a rival to the govern-ment who was once Russia’s rich-est man, in prison.

“Without knowing the details, itdoes seem odd to me that thesenew charges, which appear to be arepackaging of the old charges,should be surfacing now, years af-ter these two individuals havebeen in prison and as they be-come eligible for parole,” Obamasaid in written answers to ques-tions posed by a Russian opposi-tion newspaper, Novaya Gazeta,over the weekend. “Nonetheless, I

See OBAMA Page 3ANEWS STAFF/JEFF ROBERTS

Birmingham city CouncilwomanMaxine Parker, at arailroad crossing in Collegeville, has spent the lastsix months moving the Finley bypass to theforefront. The project will free the Collegevillecommunity from its confines of railroad tracks andtrains.

INSIDE

1.6M Jackson fans await word on memorial tickets 2A

Shirley Ferrillhas taken aninterest in thedigs going onat TannehillState Park,where slavesonce workedin blastfurnaces. Thepig iron fromthose furnaceswas used tomakeConfederateartillery duringthe Civil War.

Fairfield woman wants memorialfor Tannehill’s forgotten slavesBy RAHKIA NANCENews staff writer

Not much hints at theslave life that existed duringthe 1860s at the area that isnow Tannehill IronworksHistorical State Park.

Piles of rocks wherechimneys once stood arethe only silent remindersthat a community ever oc-cupied these wooded cor-

ners of west JeffersonCounty.

But as a Fairfield womanturned the stones of Tanne-hill, she happened upon ararely mentioned part of Al-abama’s history: the slavelabor that supplied blastfurnaces.

Shirley Ferrill had madeplenty of trips to the statepark and noticed severalpiles of stones. A self-de-

scribed “history buff,” shegot curious about thestones and was shocked tolearn they were remnants ofslave quarters. Those slavesprovided labor for one ofthe last blast furnaces thatproduced Confederate artil-lery during the Civil War.

Historians have esti-mated that as many as 600

See SLAVES Page 2A NEWS STAFF/TAMIKAMOORE