Applications for federal disaster loans lag in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa News – July 3
…Paavo Hanninen worked with non-disaster business loans before he retired as director of the University of Alabama’s Small Business Development Center. He also had damage to his yard and the exterior of his home in the Downs neighborhood in Tuscaloosa. He said many storm victims probably aren’t applying because they are too busy with other concerns… “People caught up in it are still caught up in the event,” Hanninen said. He said the most likely reason so many applications have been denied is because the standard rules of lending still apply, such as credit-worthiness and having the correct documentation needed for the loan. “It’s taxpayer money,” Hanninen said. “(SBA has) a fiduciary responsibility to be sensible even in the scope of what’s going on.”…
Alabama weighs ‘truth in sentencing’ for convicted felons
Mobile Press-Register – July 4
…It’s a concept known as truth in sentencing. The plan is due to the Legislature next year. “The true value of truth in sentencing is certainty,” said retired state Circuit Judge Joseph Colquitt, commission chairman. It’s particularly critical, he said, in cases of violent crimes.…Colquitt said that the Alabama commission is having to tread carefully. Alabama prisons house nearly twice as many inmates — 25,300 — as the system was designed for. Possession and distribution of drugs, robbery and burglary top the crimes that are filling cells. Under truth in sentencing, sending violent criminals away for longer stints would likely mean shorter sentences for others to make room. “There’s no reason to do something incorrectly and cause more harm,” said Colquitt, also a professor at the University of Alabama. “If we’re going to deal with truth in sentencing, let’s be truthful.”
Internet offers new ways to fake illness
Irish Times – July 5
…The latest manifestation of the syndrome is Munchausen by internet. Coined by Dr Marc Feldman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama, the term describes a growing number of people who pretend to suffer illnesses in order to get sympathy from online support groups…Feldman has described some of the behavior patterns common to people with Munchausen by Internet (MBI)…The scam is never about money. But those who are duped and offer genuine support often spend a huge amount of time online. When the deception is revealed, forum members who offered support are left to reflect on the wasted time that could have been given to their own families. Some describe feeling “violated” by the experience…Feldman reckons people with MBI lack social skills and simply want attention and sympathy. But as so few come forward, it may be some time yet before psychiatry can finally offer a deeper explanation for this latest spin-off from the Baron’s original exploits…
Birmingham to pay to spark commercial development
Birmingham News – July 5
…Sam Addy, director and research economist of the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said expectations must be tempered to reflect the current economy. “They were talking about it when real estate was hot, and now it’s not so hot,” he said. “Eventually they will come, and it’s a good investment, but the pace of development has to be realistic.”…
Alabama business executives temper expectations for recovery
Birmingham News – July 2
…Confidence in the economy has declined among Alabama executives, who will be cautious in planning for the third quarter, according to an Alabama Business Confidence Index report released today by the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research. The state’s confidence index fell 4.4 points to 51.4, “indicating that the recovery will continue at a slower pace this quarter,” said the report…
UA holds science camp for teachers
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 1
Sixteen West Alabama middle and high school teachers are at the University of Alabama’s science summer camp…
UA graduate student uses chain saw to carve chairs from fallen trees
Tuscaloosa News – July 3
…Tanya Mikulas turned the damage into decor. Mikulas, a University of Alabama graduate student, lives on the eastern side of Forest Lake, which took one of the most devastating hits from the tornado…So after the dust settled and people began to pick up the pieces of their lives, Mikulas went to work on the tree with a chain saw and is now fashioning crude chairs out of the wood left in her yard. “I’ve made four so far,” she said last week, sitting in one of the chairs in the yard of her 19th Street East home…Mikulas, 41, got undergraduate degrees in physics and mathematics from Augusta State University in Atlanta and had a variety of jobs before coming to Tuscaloosa for an advanced degree in physical chemistry.…That is a concern shared by others in the community, including Mary Jo Modica, the chief horticulturist at the UA Arboretum. “I know there have been some meetings to talk about what to do with all the good wood that is down, but I don’t think anything has been decided,” she said. “At the arboretum, we would like to see the wood that can’t be used for anything else chipped and brought out here for mulch, but we have not gotten permission to do that.”
Transportation Museum set to open in August
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
…Shaina Strom was hired Jan. 3 by the University of Alabama Museums department, which has entered into a management contract with the city of Tuscaloosa to help operate museum…
Rocket girl: Albertville native part of all-female aeronautics team
Sand Mountain Reporter – July 5
Albertville native Shelby Cochran and her Rocket Girls teammates are a unique group of aeronautics and engineering students at the University of Alabama… “The Rocket Girls started with only mechanical engineering girls. I got on the team. I was on the vehicle team, which worked on the outside rocket, how it flew and the parachute. The older mechanical girls dealt with payload and electronics.”…The Rocket Girls crafted a 10-foot tall crimson rocket with hand-painted iconic UA houndstooth fins from a fiberglass kit they customized, Cochran said. The rocket was affectionately dubbed “Sally,” after Sally Ride, the first American female in space in 1983 on the Space Shuttle Challenger. The rocket was to travel up to one mile in the air…Part of the competition was outreach, where the Rocket Girls traveled to various schools, libraries and even the McWane Center, in Birmingham, to talk to students about engineering, rockets and science in general. “We reached over 3,200 kids alone, and even won and award for our outreach program,” she said. “It was really cool. We got to go to the McWane Center the kids there saw our rockets and we told them about how parachutes come out…
UA student produces award-winning 3D film
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – July 1
The work of a University-of-Alabama student has earned an award in Hollywood. Senior Xavier Burgin produced this 3-D, short-movie of the April tornado, called Portrait of the Storm. Burgin beat out 50 others in the college film festival being held in Hollywood.
University of Alabama honors lists
Tuscaloosa News – July 3
The spring 2011 lists include the following area students…
College news
Tuscaloosa News – July 3
University of Alabama
Riley Phillips, a native of Tuscaloosa, completed an internship in the Washington office of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa…Phillips is a rising senior at the University of Alabama and is president of Kappa Delta sorority. Phillips is also a member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Order of Omega honor societies. She volunteers with the Girl Scouts of America, the RISE School and Crossing Points. She is on track to graduate in spring 2012 with a degree in nutritional sciences and biology. — David Wilson, a native of Tuscaloosa, also completed an internship in Shelby’s Washington office…Wilson is a rising junior at the University of Alabama and plans to graduate in 2013 with a degree in marketing and finance. He serves as the Student Government Association vice president for student affairs and is a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, University Fellows and Cardinal Key Honor Society. Wilson is the chairman and president of the Think Co. Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes creativity, communication and community…