Consumers and Retailers
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. (CST) on Friday August 3, 2007, and ending at twelve midnight on Sunday August 5, 2007, Alabama will hold its second annual sales tax holiday giving shoppers the opportunity to purchase certain school supplies, computers, and clothing free of state sales or use tax.
Retailers are required to participate and may not charge tax on items that are legally tax-exempt during the Sales Tax Holiday.

The Alabama Department of Revenue and the Alabama Retail Association in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama are organizing a series of Sales Tax Holiday Seminars throughout the state beginning the month of May to explain to businesses and answer any questions regarding how the back-to-school sales tax holiday scheduled for Aug. 3-5 will work. A list of seminar dates and locations will be posted soon.

Log in for exempt items: http://www.revenue.alabama.gov/salestax/STHolidayQuickRefSheet07.pdf

(1) Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday August 4, 2006, and ending at twelve midnight on Sunday August 6, 2006, a sales tax holiday is enacted pursuant to Act No. 2006-574, whereby no state sales or use tax is due on "covered items" as defined herein. For each year thereafter, the sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ends at twelve midnight the following Sunday.


(2) Pursuant to Act No. 2006-574, any county or municipality may, by resolution or ordinance adopted at least 30 days prior to the first full weekend of August, provide for the exemption of "covered items" from county or municipal sales or use taxes during the same time period, under the same terms, conditions, and definitions as provided in this rule for the state sales tax holiday. A county or municipality is prohibited from providing for a sales and use tax exemption during any period other than the first full weekend in August.

A participating county or municipality shall submit a certified copy of their adopted resolution or ordinance providing for the sales tax holiday, and any subsequent amendments thereof, to the Alabama Department of Revenue at least 30 days prior to the effective date of the resolution or ordinance. The Department will compile this information into a list of all counties and municipalities participating in the sales tax holiday and issue a current publication of the list on its website.

No Place Like Home, caregiver referral agency, has opened at 3606 Triana Blvd in Huntsville. The agency specializes in locating, screening and placing qualified caregivers, including certified nurse aides, home health aides, sitters for the elderly and private nannies.

Cynthia D. Hieronymi is the owner and founder.

Please call 783-8411 or e-mail noplacelikehome@myway.com for more information

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH series of interviews conducted
by Marcus Sims.

These interviews will take place every
Friday afternoon at 3:30 for the month of April.
WEEK 1
Alabama A&M poets and published author Alfred Ward
:"Award"
Award will discuss his new book and his upcoming
poetry based play " I stand accused"

WEEK2
Allen Barry poet and coordinator of the Limestone
Poetry Dust Festival will discuss this popular yearly
gathering of poets.

WEEK3
Special guests include Danny Simmons, executive
producer of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and poet Jessica Care
Moore of Moore Black Press

WEEK4
Poet/recording artist Ursula Rucker will be discuss
her latest cd "Maat Mama" and her career as a poet.

These special shows will also feature original poetry
from poets from the ART N SOUL poetry society

The largest building permit issued during the week of March 26-30 in the city of Huntsville went to Flanigan Real Estate Resources Inc., $10 million, for a building for Huntsville Tide Realty LLC at 475 Quality Circle in Thornton Research Park. The permit is for a 152,000-square-foot building for an Alabama headquarters for Verizon Wireless.

Verizon's announcement last September that the new building would support up to 1,300 jobs was Alabama's biggest new jobs announcement in 2006.

The new facility will handle customer service and business functions.

Another significant building permit, also valued at $10 million, went to Blalock Building Co. Inc., for a building for Monaco Pictures LLC at 370 The Bridge St., the Bridge Street Town Centre in Cummings Research Park.

Sunday, April 08, 2007By CHRIS WELCHTimes Entertainment Writer chris.welch@htimes.com
Local stations all experiencing staff changes

Change is brewing at all three local television stations, but one thing is constant - WAFF-TV Channel 48 is still king of the hill with viewers.

WAFF, the NBC affiliate that has dominated this market since 2003, won the February Nielsen ratings book determined by viewer diaries. WHNT-TV Channel 19, the CBS affiliate, was second and WAAY-TV Channel 31, the ABC affiliate, was third.

OSBO Training every second Tuesday of the month at Crestwood Women's Hospital 8:30 am until 11:00 am
185 Chateau Drive, Huntsville, AL

April 10 Taking a Brick and Mortarbusiness online
Shannon Belew - author and newspaper columnist


May 8 QuickBooks Point of Sales Software – is it right for your business?
Bob Crook, Small Business Solutions

June 12 Marketing on a Shoestring
Tana Torrano, OSBO, Inc.

July 10 Hiring? How to get the best employee possible
Stacia Robinson, Colonial Insurance


August 14 Creating Cash Machines
Camille Mueller, DCM Management, Inc.

September 11 Turning 1 contact into a 100 referrals

October 9 Guerilla Marketing

November 13 Networking 101 and 202

December 11 Strategizing for your Business Success

Camille Mueller, DCM Management, Inc.

Log in for more information http://osbo.nearmesales.com/Portal/Index.aspx?id=2250

That increase, which represents approximately 48,700 people, put the Birmingham area in 77th place among the country's metro areas in terms of population growth during that time.

Atlanta's population increased by 890,211, or 21 percent, from 2000 to 2006, ranking first in the country.

Although Birmingham was not in the top 100, two Alabama metro areas - Huntsville with 10 percent and Auburn-Opelika with 9.3 percent - did make the list, which was dominated by cities in the South and West regions.

Huntsville ranked 98th with a population increase of about 34,000 between 2000 and 2006, according to the estimates.

Cities with the top population growth percentage from 2000 to 2006 were St. George, Utah, with 39.8 percent; Greeley, Colo., with 31 percent and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., with 29.6 percent.

Bonner Farms is a genetically progressive Angus breeder located at New Market, Alabama (about 20 miles northeast of Huntsville, AL). The operation took form in 1989 after acquiring their first Angus from a dispersal sale and set as a goal to develop a performance based maternal herd that would not only survive, but flourish in the hot, humid, fescue forage environment of the southeast.

They have diligently culled from the herd and have concentrated on moderate framed cattle with good maternal and growth traits while meeting the demanding standards of both the commercial and registered breeder. With the use of ultrasound measuring tools to determine the IMF and REA of yearling bulls and heifers, they have been able to identify superior carcass traits and breed for those traits.

To the Editor:

I am writing to you to call your attention to a matter of serious concern both to the City of Madison and the State of Alabama.

On March 10, Senator Lowell Barron from Fyffe County began required advertising for two local bills that would de-annex 263 acres (230 acres in one bill and 33 acres in the other) of prime commercial property from the City of Madison. This property has been in Madison for over 40 years, and recently, the City has been negotiating with a nationwide development company for a major commercial development there.


I strongly urge the Legislature to reject these bills for three principal reasons: