Students lend hands for hurricane repairs at Gifford home
TCPalm.com (Vero Beach, Fla.) – March 21
Avery Driggers of Birmingham, Ala., swings a mean paint brush. And she’s pretty handy with a roller. The 18-year-old college freshman from the University of Alabama spent her spring break in Vero Beach, not getting a tan, but painting tan, at Louise Colley’s home in Gifford. Driggers is one of 64 students from the University of Alabama’s campus ministry program called “The Navigators” that are volunteering this week for Every Dream Has a Price. This local, nonprofit organization works to restore, rebuild or even build affordable housing for low-income residents…”All of the students have a desire to help others,” said Jason Johnston, 26, who oversees the crew for the University of Alabama’s campus ministry…
Give The Mouse A Furlough And Shop Closer To Home
Tampa (Fla.) Tribune – March 15
…communities around the world are starting their own buy-local campaigns…A filmmaker at the University of Alabama has launched a project called “Eating Alabama.” He and his wife are living only on things grown or raised there. He won’t eat a Florida orange because it didn’t come from an Alabama tree. “If everyone in this state made a concerted effort to buy locally raised vegetables and meats,” he says, “we could put a huge amount of money back into our economy.”…
Impact Alabama tax bill hits wall: UA students find the legislative process a long haul
Tuscaloosa News – March 15
…University of Alabama students trying to get a bill passed that would require seasonal tax preparation businesses to be tested and licensed…The bill in question is a product of Impact Alabama, a three-year-old initiative of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility that hopes to help as many as 4,000 poor and moderate income families file their income taxes this year free of charge…The bill has already sailed through the Senate, but complications arose quickly in the House, Lindsay and Flachsbart said last week…Although she did not attend the committee hearing, UA junior Kendra Key said she is not surprised they have hit some bumps along the legislative way. “I’m from Alabama, so I know this is pretty much business as usual,” she said. “I’ve seen a whole lot of things I would like to see the Legislature do just fall by the wayside, and I was very upset when I heard what happened in the committee.”…
Tuscaloosa home sales drop sharply
Tuscaloosa News – March 14
…Data released Friday by the Alabama Center for Real Estate showed the median price of a home sold in the Tuscaloosa market was $145,000 in February, which is down when compared with $151,250 median price a year earlier but up from the $131,000 median price in January when 77 homes were sold.
Mercedes to get $11.5 million in breaks for Vance expansion
Birmingham News – March 21
Mercedes-Benz’s Alabama operation
…In recent months, the automaker has completed a buyout offer to its Vance employees and eliminated its temporary workers. Mercedes, which employs more than 3,000 workers in Alabama, had a payroll last year that approached $244 million, with average pay coming in at $64,300, according to a study by the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research…
Physician makes regular house calls for Black Belt patients
Tuscaloosa News – March 22
…Dr. John Brandon, the medical director of University of Alabama’s Rural Medical Scholars Program and a full-time family physician in Gordo, said the home visits are changing rural health care in Hale County. “Even in communities where doctors are present and providing health care,” Brandon said, “the problem is the lack of transportation for many rural [residents] — particularly the elderly and disadvantaged. “[For] a physician, being willing to take on this added responsibility is really commendable and would go a long way in providing health care to these folks who are home-bound.”…
College news
Tuscaloosa News – March 16
University of Alabama — Christina Ibrahim, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering from Ryan, was one of 24 students selected to participate in the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers Leadership Development Program… — Joanne Terrell received the Social Worker of the Year award, Dr. James ‘Ike’ Adams Jr. received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Deontay Wilder received the Public Citizen of the Year Award given by the West Alabama National Association of Social Workers chapter. The awards were presented at the annual Social Work Day conference on March 10…
Education briefs
Birmingham News – March 15
The University of Alabama Women’s Resource Center will presented LUNAFEST, a national touring festival of films focusing on women, as part of Women’s History Month, at 6:30 p.m. on March 31 in the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa… — Twelve students were recognized this week and are the third group in a series of University of Alabama students who each will receive a $5,000 scholarship per year for four years, courtesy of the Coca-Cola First Generation Scholarship program… — The Office of Greek Affairs at the University of Alabama has announced the creation of the United Greek Council, which comprises three historically multicultural organizations – Delta Xi Phi, Sigma Lambda Beta and Sigma Lambda Gamma…
Education briefs
Birmingham News – March 20
Student senators for the University of Alabama Student Government Association 2009-2010 term were chosen in an election on campus March 3-4. They are… — “Storybook,” a documentary film created by University of Alabama students Kristian Collins and Stephen Lovell about a reading program for incarcerated mothers and their children, has been selected for inclusion in the 2009 Undergraduate Ethics Symposium at DePauw University April 9-11. — Christina Ibrahim, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering from Ryan, was one of 24 students selected to participate in the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers Leadership Development Program…