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Area’s joblessrate hits 8.7%

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May’s metro figureis worst in 24 yearsBy ROY L. WILLIAMSNews staff writer

Metro Birmingham’s unemploymentrate surged from 7.7 percent in April to 8.7percent in May, a 24-year high, Alabamafigures released Friday show.

The May rate is more than double the 3.8percent rate from a year earlier, accordingto the state Department of Industrial Rela-tions. Alabama’s most populous metro area

joined a statewide trend: All 67 countiessaw their unemployment rates jump fromApril and from a year earlier.

Statewide, the jobless rate rose from 9percent in April to 9.8 percent in May,matching the highest level since November1984. A year ago, the state unemploymentrate was 4.7 percent. The nation’s unem-ployment rate was 9.4 percent in May, upfrom 8.9 percent in April and 5.5 percent ayear earlier.

Yvette Fields, office manager of the Ala-bama Career Center on Third AvenueSouth, said the Birmingham area and Jef-ferson County jobless rates are expected toworsen this summer. She noted that the

May figures do not include 1,711 temporarylayoffs at U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works nor200 job cuts recently announced at theUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Our job market is a state of turmoil —and it’s hitting people from all economiclevels, from laborers and clerks to profes-sionals,” Fields said Friday.

See JOBS Page 7A

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Styx—featuringMontgomerynative TommyShaw—helped kick offCity StagesFriday night indowntownBirmingham.The band, on abill with REOSpeedwagon,sang hits suchas “Lady” and“Come SailAway.”

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Iran electionvalid, leaderwarns protesters

NEWS STAFF/TAMIKAMOORE

Crowds show support onhot first night of City Stages

By NAZILA FATHINew York Times News Service

TEHRAN, Iran — Supreme leader Ayatol-lah Ali Khamenei on Friday sternly cut offany compromise over Iran’s disputed presi-dential election.

In a lengthy hard-line sermon, he de-clared the election valid and warned of vio-lence if demonstrators continue, as theyhave pledged, to flood the streets in defi-ance of the government. Opposition leaderswho failed to halt the protests, he said,“would be responsible for bloodshed andchaos.”

The tough words seemed to dash hopesfor a peaceful solution to what defeatedcandidates and protesters call a fraudulentelection last week, plunging Iran into itsgravest crisis since the Islamic Revolution in1979.

See IRAN Page 3A

By KATHY KEMPNews staff writer

Glorious weather Fridaynight — and plenty ofpositive thinking —

helped usher in the 21st annualCity Stages, Birmingham’s fi-nancially strapped downtownmusic festival.

After a slow start, fans werepouring in by 7:30 p.m. and,three hours later, were thick asthe Indigo Girls started theirset. Early on, crowds seemedmuch lighter than normal,though fans eventually packed20th Street North shoulder-to-shoulder as they headed to see

such acts as Styx, Plain WhiteTs, REO Speedwagon and WildSweet Orange.

Organizers hope a greatweekend weather forecast, plusBirmingham-area residents’love of nonprofit City Stages,might be enough to allow it tosurvive.

See STAGES Page 6A

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NEWS STAFF/MICHELLEWILLIAMS

Donnie Van Zant led 38 Special through someclassics at theMiller Lite Stage.

The Seay brothers—Cortez, left,Martez andDemarius—werechurch-going,often-disciplinedboys growing up,their family says.Now youngmen,one has beenconvicted of andthe others chargedwithmurder orattemptedmurder.

Sons’ slaying cases burden motherSeay brothers’fate promptssoul searching

By CAROL ROBINSONNews staff writer

Yolanda Seay wants to be-lieve she did all she could toprotect her three boys fromthe streets.

They were baptized andraised in the church. Theyw e r e t a u g h t r i g h t f r o mwrong, and raised up to make

their way in the world.Now all three are in jail or

prison, charged with capitalmurder, murder or attemptedmurder — all in separate inci-dents.

The streets, it seems, won.A n d Y o l a n d a S e a y , a

42-year-old single mother,doesn’t know why.

“My children are gone,”she said. “I’m shocked justlike everybody else isshocked. I need some an-swers myself.”

Her first-born, MartezSeay, 25, is charged withcapital murder in the May

See MOTHER Page 7A