Business owners and economic developers in the Mobile area will gather today to talk about trade with Europe. A town hall meeting will discuss a pending trade deal called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Negotiators between the U.S. and Europe are ironing out the agreement which deals with everything from intellectual property to e-commerce. Christina Stimpson is director of international trade with the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. She says the deal could be good news for businesses in our state…
“Alabama’s economic relationship with the European Union is already strong, and Europe is by far, America’s biggest trading partner. So, a successful conclusion of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would contribute significantly to the state’s economic growth.”
The Mobile meeting will focus on how Alabama businesses can cash in once the deal goes through. Panelists will include speakers from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the embassy of Belgium.
Alabama is still buzzing over the news that Birmingham will be the host city for the 2021 World games. Alabama Public Radio’s Pat Duggins says the first big job is to watch how Poland does it…
Wroclaw, Poland will be hosting the 2017 games and Alabama be taking notes on how that city handles it. Over four thousand athletes from one hundred countries usually take part. Professor Darren White teaches sports marketing at Samford University. He says one advantage the World Games have over the Olympics is that World Games insist that host cities don’t have to build pricey new venues…
“When the Olympic committee team came back in and took a look at what we had going on back in October, they actually saw the different places we’d be using for the World games.”
It could cost seventy five million dollars for Birmingham to hold the 2021 games. Transportation and security will likely have to be beefed up. Still, proponents say the event could bring a quarter billion dollars in business to the community.
Alabama is asking an appellate court to let the state proceed with the execution of inmate Tommy Arthur next month.
Lawyers for the state attorney general's office on Thursday asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a 2012 stay of execution for Arthur. U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins last week ruled that stay had never been lifted.
