Alabama football team to visit White House Thursday
Tuscaloosa News – April 14
The University of Alabama football team will travel to Washington, D.C., next Thursday to meet with President Obama in the White House. Alabama will be honored for the 2011 Bowl Championship Series national title. President Obama will also recognize the UA team for giving back to the Tuscaloosa community after the April 27 tornado.
Birmingham News – April 14
Gadsden Times– April 14
WAKA-CBS ( Montgomery) – April 13
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – April 13
UA studies women’s use of technology
Tuscaloosa News – April 15
Research by a University of Alabama senior finds that women are using technology to communicate more than men, contrary to several previous studies. Amanda Kimbrough, a 21-year-old UA psychology major, presented a pool of 381 subjects with a 26-item survey. The survey asked the participants to name their preferred piece of tech for keeping in touch, as well as how often they use it. The 114 men who participated largely could not pick a preferred client from a list including text messaging, phone calls, video calls and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But the vast majority of the 267 women who participated chose text messaging as their preferred method of communicating, with social networks a close second. Kimbrough said these are surprising results because the majority of similar studies, most of them conducted around the turn of the century, found that women hardly used technology at all. In fact, a 2000 study done at Georgia Tech found that 95 percent of Internet users were men.
‘Chicago’ razzles and dazzles UA stage
Tuscaloosa News – April 13
Razzle-dazzle, merry widows and all that jazz tap onto the Marian Gallaway stage as the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance presents Kander and Ebb’s Tony- and Oscar-winning musical “Chicago.” Set in the roaring ‘20s, “Chicago” ponders murder, betrayal, greed, corruption, media manipulation and more, with the stories of singing-and-dancing killers Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly, their slick lawyer Billy Flynn, prison matron Mama Morton and more, through scenes of hot jazz set to various styles of dance. Music is by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb and book by Ebb and original choreographer Bob Fosse. Some of the familiar numbers in “Chicago” include “All That Jazz,” “Mr. Cellophane,” “Razzle Dazzle” and “Cell Block Tango.” This production is being directed and choreographed by faculty member Stacy Alley, who taught at Arkansas State University for seven years before returning to UA, where she earned her MFA.
Alabama star Trent Richardson reportedly grants teen’s prom wish
Foxnews.com – April 13
A cancer-stricken Alabama teen is going to the prom with the biggest man on campus – ex-Crimson Tide and future NFL star Trent Richardson. Courtney Alvis, 17, began receiving chemotherapy treatment as a junior at Hueytown High School in Hueytown, Ala., and she’s now determined to make it to the big dance — but not without some apprehension, MyFoxAl.com reports. “I wasn’t comfortable with my body and of course I didn’t have long pretty hair to fix and also I didn’t have a date,” she told the website. That led Alvis’ uncle — who has some connections to University of Alabama — to contact Richardson, the Heisman trophy finalist who is expected to be the first running back selected in the 2012 NFL Draft. In football-mad Alabama, there is no bigger star. “I’m really excited but I’m also nervous,” Alvis said. “I’ve watched Trent all the time on TV and he’s going to be coming to prom with me.”
CNN-Headline News – April 14
WWSB-ABC (Tampa, Fla.) – April 14
WTVF-CBS (Nashville, Tenn.) – April 14
KENS-CBS (San Antonio, Texas) – April 14
Saban and Croyle address students on character
Crimson White – April 16
Speakers at the first annual Coaching Character Initiative drew from personal experiences to teach students about the Capstone Creed and how they should work to better practice what it says. Featured speakers at the event, which took place Thursday night in Coleman Coliseum and was hosted by the Student Government Association Judicial Board, were John Croyle, a former Alabama football player and owner of Big Oak Ranch, and head coach Nick Saban. Croyle was introduced to the audience as a man who found out early in life what he was put on earth to do. At age 24, Croyle gave up a career in the National Football League to follow his passions and start a camp for abused, neglected and orphaned children. Croyle has been running the Big Oak Ranch for 37 years. He and his wife have helped more than 1,900 children, with their first child now at the age of 57. Croyle said he is the richest man anyone in the audience had ever laid eyes on, not because of the money in his wallet, but because he figured out why God put him on this earth, and he is now fulfilling that purpose.
SGA elects speaker Will Barto
Crimson White – April 16
SGA Senator Will Barto was elected speaker of the SGA Senate Thursday night, defeating Senator Ryan Flamerich in his bid for re-election to the top position in the Student Government Association’s legislative branch. Barto, a student in the College of Commerce and Business Administration who is beginning his second year in office, beat Flamerich by a 28-21 vote. “I believe that the primary role of speaker of the Senate is to help other senators achieve their goals by giving them the tools that they need to succeed,” Barto said in a statement. “I plan on doing that this year.”…Flamerich, a junior majoring in chemical engineering and political science, was elected as a senator from the College of Engineering for his third year last month. He became the first speaker of the SGA Senate one year ago, after the new SGA Constitution — ratified in February 2011 — established the position.
UA economists expect state economy to grow
WPMI-NBC (Mobile) – April 13
Economists at the University of Alabama’s center for business and economic research expect the state’s economy to grow by about 2.5 percent this year. The state hasn’t had a growth rate at that level since before the recession started. The rate was -3 percent in 2009 and 2 percent in 2010. According to a latest economic outlook report, the state added 4,500 jobs from February 2011 to February 2012.
Kris Kobach: Immigration isn’t just a federal matter
News and Insight – April 16
The battle over illegal immigration heads to the U.S. Supreme Court next week, when the high court will hear arguments for and against new Arizona laws requiring police, employers and landlords to expose undocumented immigrants… A study by the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Alabama found that Alabama’s new immigration law will shrink the state economy by $2.3 billion and cost the state 70,000 jobs…The Alabama study did not consider the huge fiscal burden illegal immigration is placing on Alabama taxpayers. The other factor that needs to be considered is the benefit of removing Americans from welfare rolls and allowing them to work. Once illegal aliens are removed from the labor market, wages will inevitably come up.