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Gov. Bentley Due to Testify Before Auditor, Project LAUNCH at University of Alabama

Bentley Zeigler
(L) Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, (R) Alabama Auditor Jim Zeigler

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is due to testify before State Auditor Jim Zeigler later this morning regarding potential misuse of state funds, but Ziegler says he doubts Bentley will show up.

Zeigler says the state auditor has the authority to call any state official to testify under oath if there are suspicions that state money is being misused. Late last month, he ordered the governor to address several areas including the use of BP settlement money and records related to his relationship with former staffer Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

Bentley released a statement saying he doesn’t plan to respond to Zeigler, and that the appropriate legal channel would be through the Alabama Ethics Commission, where the auditor has also filed a complaint.

Zeigler says his office is already looking into what options they have if the governor doesn’t show up this morning, and they plan to make an announcement later today.

Meanwhile, some state legislators are making headway on their effort to impeach Alabama’s governor. An impeachment petition will be sent to a new 15-person judiciary committee as the legislature returns for their final two days of the session this week.

A two-day summit about early childhood development will begin tomorrow at the Bryant Conference Center located on The University of Alabama’s campus.

The summit is being put on by The Alabama Project LAUNCH. Project LAUNCH promotes the wellness of young children by tracking their development in areas such physical, social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive development. They will be offering sessions on early mental health consultation, reflective practice and a poverty simulation called walk a mile in their shoe.

Amy Crosby is the Alabama Project LAUNCH Young Child Wellness Coordinator. She says this summit will help improve practices already happening.

“We provide professional development opportunities, we create these linkages to again expand and enhance services that are already in place.”

Crosby says people who want to come to the summit can attend one or both days of it.

Newborns in Alabama will have an opportunity to get money for college. All they have to do is be born in the month of May.

The program is called CollegeCounts, Alabama's 529 Fund. Organizers will choose 31 babies born in May to receive $529 towards a new or existing college account.

Young Boozer is the Alabama State Treasurer. He says the program is an opportunity for families to start saving for their children’s college education.

“We’d like to have more people get involved and we would like to be able to allow them [to] save more money for their children’s college education, because it’s certainly needed.”

Boozer says the program is in its second year. He says people can’t start too early and it’s never too late to start saving for college. Parents have until mid-June to sign up for the program, and the winners will be announced in early July.

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