Roger Lovelace, Alice Martin, & Barack Obama

In all probability, one of Barack Obama's initial acts as President will be to clean house at the Justice Department, and US Attorney Alice Martin will be one of the first forced to pursue new venues. Sources say she is anticipating this reversal of fortune and is attempting to tie up the loose ends of several North Alabama cases, among them the Lovelace FloGas/FloWeb debacle.

I am not the first to suggest that Roger D. Lovelace's latest antics may be a desperate attempt to elude prosecution. After all, what 62 year-old executive procures a badge from the local police chief and begins stopping vehicles at random? While Lovelace has always had his quirks, this is bizarre even for him.

There is no parole in Federal Prison; those incarcerated in Federal institutions usually serve 85% to 90% of their sentence, assuming they are well-behaved captives.Considering the amount of money involved in the Lovelace case, a sentence of 20 years would not be unheard of. Obviously, Lovelace has no desire to lose his freedom until his ninth decade, making hospitalization for mental defect seem extremely appealing.

If this is Lovelace's plan, let us hope that Lauderdale and Colbert County authorities will not be deceived into helping him pull it off. Let's accept nothing less than the money he owes the citizens of Florence.


What's up with this: Gasoline prices are on the rise again; do we have any idea how long our local governments will continue to collect their two-cent per gallon Robert Trent Jones tax?