UA student receives $10K for relief group
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 23
A University of Alabama student was surprised Thursday with a $10,000 check for a tornado relief organization that he helped start. James O’Dwyer, a 19-year-old sophomore from Alpharetta, Ga., received the check while he was being filmed for an awards show on the cable channel TeenNick…After a large initial round of supply donations and deliveries, he and another Georgia resident, Lani Nichols, established Magnolia Disaster Relief, a nonprofit organization aimed at disaster preparedness and relief for small communities…celebrity Nick Cannon entered to surprise O’Dwyer with the check and gave him a plane ticket to meet another celebrity interested in the organization…
Grisham awarded first Harper Lee Prize
Washington Post – Sept. 22
John Grisham received the first annual Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for his 2010 novel “The Confession.” The award, which was personally approved by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee, was given to Grisham by the dean of the University of Alabama School of Law during a ceremony at the National Press Club Thursday. The law school administers the award. The award will be given each year to a work of fiction “that best exemplifies the role of lawyers in society and lawyers’ power to effect change,” according to the law school. The work of fiction must capture the essence of Atticus Finch and his fight for justice. In Grisham’s book, a black man is facing execution for the murder of a white cheerleader. The case gets complicated when another man confesses to a Kansas minister that he murdered the cheerleader.
American Bar Association Journal – Sept. 22
UA sets homecoming schedule, ‘The Tradition Rolls On’ as theme
Al.com – Sept. 23
The University of Alabama set its homecoming theme this year as “The Tradition Rolls On,” as the school preps activities leading up to the Crimson Tide’s game versus Vanderbilt on Oct. 8 in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The following events are scheduled during the week of Oct. 2-8…
Rick Bragg film ‘Out of the Dirt’ premieres at McWane Science Center’s IMAX Dome Theater
Birmingham News – Sept. 23
…Monday night at 7, the documentary “Alabama’s Rick Bragg: Out of the Dirt” will make its premiere at the sold-out McWane Science Center IMAX Dome Theater. The film tells Bragg’s story from his dirt-poor childhood in Calhoun County through his days as a Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter and the bestselling author of “All Over But the Shoutin’.”…