Hyundai says fixing steering assembly won’t take long
Montgomery Advertiser – Sept. 28
… Jim Cashman, a professor of management at the University of Alabama, said Hyundai must remain aggressive in dealing with the recall to keep from losing consumer confidence. He pointed to Toyota’s recalls earlier this year and how they were handled, both with a wide-ranging public relations effort and a relatively simple remedy for drivers. “They need to be very Toyota-like in their response,” he said. Cashman also cautioned against jumping to quick conclusions on how the problem occurred. It is possible that Hyundai’s efforts to maximize production led to manufacturing mistakes, he said, but he added that this appears unlikely. “It can (happen) if you are producing beyond capacity,” he said. “More likely, they were producing above the plan, but the plan has room to be stretched.”…
Proration: How a bit of actuarial jargon became part of the Alabama dialect
Anniston Star – Sept. 28
… The state’s constitution –- the longest in the world –- also plays a role, according to Phillip Westbrook, who teaches school finance at the University of Alabama. It sets up a complicated funding system for schools, Westbrook says, making it hard to predict revenues. And it empowers the governor to step in and shop budgets when the numbers don’t add up…
Atheists, agnostics top religious knowledge survey
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 28
… Theodore Trost, chair of the religious studies department at the University of Alabama, said the results of the survey were not surprising. “The thing that those three groups (who scored the highest) have in common is that they’re outside the religious mainstream,” Trost said. “My guess would be that they’re more aware of a variety of religions than insiders to a religious tradition would be. “Mormons have a greater knowledge of world religion because Mormon youth are required to go on a mission so that makes them more aware of a larger world.”… Trost said again, the results were not surprising. “The word university comes from the word universe,” Trost said. “One thing that a college education is supposed to do is expose people to universal concerns…“I don’t really know what to make of the age differences,” Trost said. “With the regional results, I’d have to wonder what the education background of those surveyed in each region was. “One thing that does make sense in terms of region is that the western part of the U.S. is exposed to more religious traditions,” he said, citing as an example more exposure to Asian religions in the West…Trost said that Democrats as a whole likely scored lower than Republicans because they tend to be a more diverse group. “For example, Hispanics scored the lowest on the survey and we can assume that they’re Democrats,” Trost said. “That reflects the kind of diversity in that group. Also, women scored lower than men and women tend to be Democrats.” Trost said that liberals could have scored higher than conservatives because some independents could be liberals and some Republicans could be moderates.
West Alabama lags behind in kids’ health
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 28
… Part of West Alabama’s low scores could be attributable to socio-economic and educational disparities and lack of access to vital health care in rural counties, including prenatal care, said Dr. John Higgenbotham, associate dean of research and health policy in the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences. “The problems include access to care and education,” Higgenbotham said. “Education of the mother is a really high predictor to infant mortality. A lot of rural places, there are lower education levels and there isn’t as much access to the prenatal care that is really vital.”…