Students’ service project helps New Orleans center
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 9
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Louisiana’s Central City location on the corner of South Broad Street and Clio hasn’t been the same Hurricane Katrina hit in late August of 2005. When the levees broke, the entire neighborhood was under 4 feet of water. When the floods subsided, a mile-wide, mile-long block of public housing that backed up to the club was devastated, and is only now being rebuilt. Chester Elementary School, just across the street, was destroyed. The club’s gymnasium roof was ripped asunder, making the building unsafe to enter. Things were a little brighter at the clubhouse on Sunday, thanks to the work of nearly 200 volunteers — mostly University of Alabama and LSU students — who took part in the Allstate BCS National Championship Service project.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 6
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 6
Tide players visit cancer patients
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 8
University of Alabama football players visited the oncology wing of the West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero, La., just outside of New Orleans, on Saturday afternoon. With so much focus on Monday’s BCS National Championship Game against LSU, the excursion provided players with a chance to maintain perspective on things more important than sport.
UA National Alumni Association gets ready for BCS National Championship Game
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 7
Some Alabama fans are heading to the Big Easy today, more tomorrow and thousands are already in New Orleans for the battle on the bayou, we’re talking this morning with a member of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association about what’s in store for fans…
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 6
UA’s Million Dollar Band heads to New Orleans for BCS National Championship Game
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 7
The University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band boarded seven different buses around 9:30 this morning and headed out for the Big Easy. The band is set to perform during the halftime show, at the Bama Bowl Bash, and other events in New Orleans.
UA Alumni Association has Shreveport chapter
KTBS-ABC (Shreveport, La.) — Jan. 8
We’re sure you’ve seen that rare sight, Alabama Crimson Tide fans, living right here in Tiger territory. The University of Alabama National Alumni Association has a Shreveport chapter. It only has about 100 members, but that could change. The chapter says the Shreveport area sends several freshmen to Alabama annually.
Auto industry, UA and rebuilding efforts expected to drive economy
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 8
Three forces will drive the Tuscaloosa area economy in 2012 — the automotive industry, the University of Alabama and an accelerating rebuilding from last year’s devastating tornado, according to local economists and business leaders. “Certainly our local economy is going to continue to be bolstered by two big economic engines — the continued growth of the University of Alabama and Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (in Vance),” said Terry Waters, the recently retired executive director of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. . . . UA’s growth will continue to bring more students, faculty and staff to the community, he said. That in turn should help increase sales activity in the area. . . . Ahmad Ijaz, an economist at UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research, also expects the Tuscaloosa area economy to improve. “Manufacturing will pick up and we will see a better growth rate in 2012 than in 2011,” he said. Ijaz also predicted unemployment will drop in West Alabama and statewide, though it will remain higher than the low rates recorded before the recession.
University of Alabama Gadsden Center hosting open house
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Jan. 7
The University of Alabama Gadsden Center will host its annual open house on Saturday, January 21 at noon. The event is for potential students who are interested in earning a graduate degree from The University of Alabama. Dr. Beverly Dyer, Director of the Gadsden Center, says that students from Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee are working to complete advanced degrees while at the Gadsden Center.
Teen chosen as political director for state campaign
Talladega Daily Home – Jan. 7
His resume boasts statewide campaigns, years of experience and connections to many of Alabama’s leaders – and he’s only 19 years old. Sylacauga native Cass Curtis has a running start on a successful political career, and his latest project is a big one. Curtis is serving as political director for Kathy Peterson, who is running for president of the Alabama Public Service Commission. Curtis, a sophomore majoring in public relations at the University of Alabama, said he was approached for the job by Peterson’s husband, Dale.
Packing minority residents could make seats safer for both parties
Mobile Press-Register – Jan. 8
State Sen. Ben Brooks has the highest percentage of black constituents of any Republican in the upper chamber, a fact that has made his district one of more competitive in Alabama. That seems likely to change, however, when the Legislature adopts a plan to redraw the political map this year. The result could be a much safer Republican seat. . . . William Stewart, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, said a redistricting into politically separate constituencies would result in fewer competitive seats. Incumbents, he said, would have little to worry about unless they drew challengers in the primary.
18 killed in Calhoun County criminal violence in 2011
Anniston Star – Jan. 8
Local law enforcement officials are looking back on 2011 with a grim sadness, for it was a difficult year. A tally of 18 homicides within all jurisdictions of Calhoun County comes close to the record of 20 committed in 2008. The previous two years were mild by comparison — six homicides in 2009 and eight in 2010.. . . Mark Lanier, a criminologist at the University of Alabama, said an increase in domestic violence is often closely tied to the economy. “I might postulate that the tensions caused by a downturn in the economy results in increasing both the frequency and intensity of violence,” Lanier said. “If both partners are home more often since [they’re] not working then there are also more opportunities for violence.”
Law professors dismayed at ‘out of touch’ comments by ABA pres
Thomson Reuters – Jan. 6
The American Bar Association president’s suggestion that unemployed law-school graduates have no one to blame for their predicament but themselves elicited a range of reactions from law professors and administrators at a major law-school conference, with many expressing dismay at what they called insensitive and misguided remarks…Steven Hobbs, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, was critical of Robinson’s comment that he sold his car to help pay for law school at the University of Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1971. “Students are actually doing these things now — making the same sacrifices he made,” Hobbs said. “Many of them don’t have health insurance and are doing everything they can to attain their goals.”
Sheen donates $25,000 to Alabama tornado relief
Associated Press – Jan. 7
Actor Charlie Sheen quietly donated $25,000 to help tornado relief in Alabama, making good on a pledge to help survivors of the deadly twisters even though some had doubted his promises. Sheen wrote a check for about $15,000 after the website generated just $10,000 in contributions…Sheen visited Tuscaloosa after the April 27 twisters in response to messages from then-University of Alabama student David Harris, who had sent tweets to celebrities asking them to help out. Sheen — who had been fired the previous month from the hit sitcom “Two and a Half Men” — talked about staging a relief show and celebrity ball game to raise $25,000..
Don Noble: Study of state’s first geologist superb
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 8
Students and faculty at the University of Alabama all know Smith Hall. Now Aileen Henderson’s commendable study, based mainly on Dr. Eugene Allen Smith’s field notebooks and letters, as well as newspapers of the era, will tell readers the full story of Alabama’s first state geologist. This volume is richly illustrated with many period photographs of Smith at work in the field, often with one of his sons.