Witness: Leapin' Larry had extreme amounts of debt

The Tuscaloosa News ^ | October 27, 2009 | Jay Reeves

[UAConservative]

Since I have lived in Tuscaloosa my whole life, I figured I'd keep my fellow FReeper friends up to date with the Larry Langford bribery trial.

Begin Article:

TUSCALOOSA | Testimony in the corruption trial of Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford portrayed his personal finances as a disaster area Monday, with scant assets and liabilities of about $650,000, including nearly $240,000 in credit card debt.

The testimony came as federal prosecutors neared the end of their case and tried to show Langford had a financial incentive to accept bribes while he was on the Jefferson County Commission, a charge that Langford denies.

Norm Davis, a former top executive with the National Bank of Commerce, said Langford came to him seeking a $50,000 loan from the bank shortly after it was hired as a financial adviser to Jefferson County. Langford was the County Commission president and head of finances at the time in 2003.

Davis, a one-time head of the Alabama Banking Department, said Langford listed $649,946 in liabilities on a balance sheet they prepared together, including $238,152 in credit card debt and $92,000 in car loans.

[BilLies]

Demogrphics Birmingham - city:
Race
One race 240793 99.17%
White 58457 24.07%
Black or African American 178372 73.46%

Classroom Profile - school district wide

Students per teacher ? 12.9
Enrollment ? 29,435
Economically Disadvantaged 80.3%
Breakdown by Ethnicity
White 1.2%
Black 96.8%

Where have all the white childern gone?

[proxy_user]

Sounds like ol’ Larry will be leaping into the calaboose by and by.

[UAConservative]

The city experienced "white flight" during the 1970s which turned well-to-do places like Ensley upside down. Most of the white population in Birmingham moved out of the county (mostly Shelby County), and the businesses went with them.

All the white children in the public schools have left to go to private schools such as Briarwood Christian School, Altamont School, etc.

[MHGinTN]

When I lived in Pleasant Grove --a suburb just down the road from Ensley-- we sent my son to private church school despite the schools in PG being racially balanced. The public school system all around B'ham was lousy, except in Mountain Brook and Homewood.

I [layed tennis against Larry in the Park League. He was not the fallen man he is now. It is sad to see this happen to a guy I knew who was active in organizing park tennis for kids, way back when.

[earlJam]

Kramer: I just came from Leapin’ Larry’s. Making fun of crippled people, is that what you’ve sunk to?

Jerry: I didn’t do it on purpose, my foot fell asleep.

Kramer: Oh, oh your foot fell asleep.

Jerry: Ya know, the guy has one leg and he still calls himself Leapin’ Larry, you’d think he had a sense of humor about it.