UA student competes in CMT’s Music City Madness
Crimson White – Nov. 13
Ten years from now, Katy Montalto hopes to be a singer-songwriter in Nashville, but for now, she is trying to triumph at CMT’s fourth annual Music City Madness, a competition for unsigned artists based on the popular vote. Montalto, a senior, entered her self-made video “Drivin’ On,” filmed in Munny Sokol Park and around downtown Northport. Montalto currently is ranked in the top 16 in the eight-week competition with round three ending Monday.
WCFT (Birmingham) – Nov. 12
Because they’re hungry
Planet Weekly – Nov. 13
The West Alabama Food Bank works with volunteers and organizations to organize food drives and pass out goods to those 62,000 people, director Henry Lipsey said. Different groups organize food drives throughout the year to provide food for the food bank. The University of Alabama’s “Beat Auburn Beat Hunger” food drive is the biggest, Lipsey said. In 2008, the University of Alabama and Auburn University worked together to collect more than 483,000 pounds of food.
New bank rules may cause confusion
Montgomery Advertiser – Nov. 13
A new federal banking rule will make it easier for customers to avoid some overdraft charges, but one consumer scientist says it will cause some short-term confusion. The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that by July 1, 2010, banks must get customers to opt into their overdraft services, and the fees that come with them, for transactions involving ATM and debit cards. Previously, the banks often automatically included customers unless they stated that they wanted to opt out of the service. Caroline Fulmer, a professor of consumer science at the University of Alabama, said the new rule will have mixed results, especially at first. “It is a positive and will be better for consumers,” she said, but she added “I think there will be a lot of chaos when it starts.”
State’s housing affordability drops
Montgomery Advertiser – Nov. 13
Alabama’s Housing Affordability Index fell to 185.9 in the third quarter, according to the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama. The number means that the average income in the state is 185.9 percent of the income required to purchase a median-priced home in the state. It is lower than the record 210.4 of the first quarter but still well above average for the past decade. According to the center, a slight hike in interest rates in the quarter led to the decline in affordability. The median price increased by 0.54 percent in the quarter.
Classically trained musician meets rocker in Trout Fishing in America
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 13
Incongruous is a word that’s been applied to Trout Fishing in America. Named after a famously odd novel by a beat-poetic-Zen-black comic writer who’s almost forgotten now, the musical duo comprises a 5-foot-51⁄2-inch-tall, classically trained musician who likes to read while on the road, and a 6-foot-8 ex-basketball star and rock ‘n’ roller who prefers to fish. . . . And though Keith Grimwood, the smaller, shyer bass player, was born in Birmingham, today will mark the group’s first performance in Tuscaloosa, with tonight’s University of Alabama Celebrity Series Concert.
Crimson White – Nov. 13
ALLELE presents Richardson for the series’ fourth speaker
Crimson White – Nov. 13
The Alabama Lectures on Life’s Evolution hosted Robert C. Richardson Wednesday as its fourth speaker in a series of six lectures. Richardson’s lecture, “A Natural History of Morality,” focused on the evolution of morality and how morality is exhibited among various species. Richardson currently is the Charles Phelps Taft professor of philosophy in the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.
Graduate expo welcomes prospective students
Crimson White – Nov. 13
This weekend, the top 50 graduate students from all over the country will come to look at the University. The College of Arts and Sciences’ Bama Grad Expo is hosting the students. At the Expo, students will talk to current faculty and graduate students and also learn more about the courses and degrees offered for graduate students on campus. While there were only 50 spots in the expo, the college received more than 114 applications from undergraduate hopefuls.
Student group encourages literacy
Crimson White – Nov. 13
Literacy is the Edge, a UA student advocate group formed in 2008 by a group of graduate students, is searching for volunteers to tutor adults and children from West Alabama in reading. There are 18 million adults in the U.S. who do not read well enough to earn a living wage, according to ProLiteracy, an international non-profit literacy organization. Recent reports show up to one in four Alabama residents are functionally illiterate.