Take 6 headlines 24th Martin Luther King Jr. Realizing the Dream concert
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 18
A cappella gospel sextet Take 6 took some audience members by surprise in its 2001 concert at the Moody Concert Hall. Despite the fact that only the six men appeared on stage, there seemed to be a lot more sound going on, like horn stabs, bass lines and percussion, guitar and trumpet solos. It’s a little like when Bobby McFerrin creates what sounds like a full band out of his voice and body, best known from his mega-hit “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” Only there are six guys doing it in Take 6, so it becomes more like an orchestra. ” ‘Wait a minute? Were there instruments out there?’ ” said founding member and first tenor Cedric McKnight, laughing. “We try to make it so you don’t miss what you would normally hear in a concert.” This year, as Take 6 celebrates the 25th anniversary of its first recording, the group comes back to Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the 24th Martin Luther King Jr. Realizing the Dream concert at Moody. They’ll be joined by the Aeolians of Oakwood University in Huntsville, where the group has its roots, so the sound will be even fuller.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 19
James Hood Dead: Man Who Defied Racial Segregation At University Of Alabama Dies at Age 70
Huffington Post (Associated Press) – Jan. 18
One of the first black students who enrolled at the University of Alabama a half century ago in defiance of racial segregation has died. James Hood of Gadsden was 70…Then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace made his infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door” in a failed effort to prevent Hood and Vivian Malone from registering for classes at the university in 1963. Hood and Malone were accompanied by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach when they were confronted by Wallace as they attempted to enter the university’s Foster Auditorium to register for classes and pay fees. Wallace backed down later that day and Hood and Malone registered for classes. UA President Judy Bonner remembered Hood as a man of “courage and conviction” for being one of the first black students to enroll at the university. “His connection to the university continued decades later when he returned to UA to earn his doctorate in 1997. He was a valued member of The University of Alabama community, and he will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time,” Bonner said.
Daily Mail (UK) – Jan. 18
BBC – Jan. 19
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 18
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Jan. 18
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 18
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 18
Alabama celebrates BCS Championship win at parade
USA Today – Jan. 19
The University of Alabama has celebrated its third BCS National Championship in four years on the steps of Bryant-Denny Stadium Saturday in front of thousands of crimson- and white-clad fans. The day began with a parade down University Boulevard that concluded at the walk of champions outside the stadium. Players, coaches and support staff walked through the plaza, which honors every national championship and SEC championship team in the Crimson Tide’s illustrious history, up to a stage set up outside the stadium.
AL.com – Jan. 19
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
Crimson White – Jan. 22
ESPN.com – Jan. 19
TSN (Canada) – Jan. 19
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – Jan. 19
WTVM-ABC (Columbus, Ga.) – Jan. 19
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
WKRG-CBS (Mobile) – Jan. 19
WXTX-Fox (Columbus, Ga.) – Jan. 19
WALA-Fox (Mobile, Ala.) – Jan. 19
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 19
Ala. museum invites teens to ‘geek out’
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Associated Press) – Jan. 21
Middle and high school students in west Alabama will soon have an opportunity for “hanging out, messing around and geeking out” at the Alabama Museum of Natural History. The museum on the University of Alabama campus and UA’s geography department have partnered to plan and design a Discovery Learning Lab. UA is one of the organizations to receive a total of $1.2 million in grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of the Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums project. “The museum has been targeting school-aged children in their programs for years, but they didn’t have the digital technology or the expertise in some of that technology,” said Linda Watson, director of the Placenames Research Center in UA’s geography department. “That’s where we come in.”
UA organist’s concert to create ‘domino effect’ of art
Crimson White – Jan. 22
Faythe Freese, professor of organ at The University of Alabama, will be presenting three interdisciplinary concerts starting Wednesday, Jan. 23 through Jan. 25. The concert is a collaboration with Creative Campus and members of the Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre and is based on art by the artist Nall. Freese had three pieces commissioned by her friend, composer and organist, Pamela Decker, professor of organ and music theory at the University of Arizona. The organ solos are inspired by three different pieces of Alabama-based artist, Nall’s art that Freese owns: “Iris and Poppy,” “Augenmusik” and “The Cross of Faith.” Each piece of art is different and the music will consequently reflect this difference. The concert will consist of Freese at the organ playing these new works, along with other pieces, while dancers from ARDT perform on the stage of Moody Music Building’s Concert Hall. Cornelius Carter, Sarah Barry and Rita Snyder are the choreographers. “Working with the dancers has been wonderful,” Freese said. In order to promote cyclical artistic inspiration, Creative Campus will be presenting audience members with pieces of paper and drawing utensils during the concerts. Audience members will be encouraged to draw what they hear, see or feel. Creative Campus will then take all of the audience art and transform them into large collages.
MIND Reviews: The Myth of Martyrdom
Scientific America – Jan. 18
The dust had not yet settled after the 9/11 attacks when people began debating whether to call the hijackers cowards. Addressing the nation, President George W. Bush assigned cowardice to the 19 terrorists, articulating a worldview that equates courage with good. Others, including journalists Bill Maher and Susan Sontag, argued that the hijackers could not be cowards, no matter how despicable their methods, because it takes guts to die for a cause. No one, however, questioned the hijackers’ dedication to their campaign, until now. In The Myth of Martyrdom, author Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama, rejects the prevailing view of suicide terrorists as radicalized individuals who will do anything for a cause. Rather, he asserts, they are merely unhappy, damaged individuals who want to die. Terrorist organizations recruit people who are in desperate straits for suicide missions and call them martyrs, and we have bought into their propaganda.
Must-read war, political books to read from now until June
Myrtle Beach Online – Jan. 22
Plotting your Kindle downloads for the coming months? From war memoirs to digital manifestos, here are some new books that will be hot off the presses in the months ahead: … “The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers,” by Adam Lankford (January) … An assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Alabama, Adam Lankford decided to examine what motivates suicide bombers. Poring over interviews, case studies, suicide notes and other sources, Lankford concludes, contrary to many psychologists and political scientists, that suicide bombers do not act simply in the name of a political or religious cause, but instead have a clinical suicidal impulse; their acts are attempts to escape depression, anxiety and other personal hardships, Lankford finds. His book, which has earned advanced praise from both government officials and psychologists, feels especially timely amid the discussion surrounding mental health and mass shootings in the United States.
Crime expert to give lecture
Crimson White – Jan. 22
A UA professor attempts to answer the fundamental question of whether suicide terrorists are engaged in sacrifice or suicide in his book, “The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and other Self-Destructive Killers,” released on Tuesday, Jan. 22. Adam Lankford, professor of criminal justice, will speak to students Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 4 p.m. in Room 205 of Gorgas about his new book. “The book presents unprecedented evidence that suicide terrorists are not selfless “martyrs” trying to sacrifice their lives for an ideological cause,” Lankford said. “But in reality, what makes them different from other people with strong beliefs is that they are suicidal, in the clinical sense.” Lankford said he believes these attackers have far more in common with other people who commit murder-suicide – like rampage shooters – than they do with people who risk their lives to serve some greater good. “Are [suicide terrorists] more like the Secret Service agent who takes a bullet for the president, or the teenager who overdoses on pills due to psychological pain?” Lankford said. In his book he uses case studies of suicide bombers, airline hijackers, rampage shooters, workplace killers and others who committed suicide for similar reasons.
Unemployment rate in Tuscaloosa County remains at 6.1 percent
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 19
Tuscaloosa County’s unemployment picture showed no change in December. The county’s unemployment rate stayed at 6.1 percent, the same as in November. The three-county metro area of Tuscaloosa, Hale and Greene counties also had a flat rate at 6.5 percent. There were about 1,400 fewer people employed in the Tuscaloosa metro area in December than in November, which had an increase in employment and a drop in the unemployment rate. Monthly fluctuations in unemployment rates and job numbers are not as significant as the long-term trend, said economist Ahmad Ijaz, director of economic forecasting at the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research. “West Alabama’s economy is like what is happening in the rest of the nation,” he said. “We add a few hundred jobs one month and then we lose a few hundred jobs the next.” But the news is not all good, even in the months in when jobs increase. Most of the job increases in West Alabama are in part-time and low-paying jobs with little or no fringe benefits, he said.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
Alabama unemployment drops to 7.1 percent
Ventura County Star (California) – Jan. 18
Alabama’s unemployment rate dropped for the fourth month to 7.1 percent in December, well below the national unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. Gov. Robert Bentley announced Friday that December’s rate was down from 7.5 percent in November, continuing a decline from 8.5 percent in August. It declined to 8.2 percent in September and 8.1 percent in October … The Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama is forecasting the job growth will continue this year. It is estimating that Alabama will add 18,500 jobs in 2013, which would represent a 1 percent increase in employment. At a conference Wednesday in Montgomery, center Director Sam Addy said that picture could improve if Washington leaders provide a clear picture of the country’s fiscal future. He said businesses need that clarity to feel comfortable about investing money.
Decatur Daily News – Jan. 19
Montgomery Advertiser – Jan. 19
A 10-YEAR TRIAL: Siegelman’s pardon chances slight as Obama begins new term
Anniston Star – Jan. 20
Four more years for President Barack Obama — one of history’s least-pardoning presidents — could spell four more years in prison for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, one expert says. “The chances of anyone getting a pardon from this president are very, very slim,” said P.S. Ruckman, a professor of political science at Rock Valley College in Illinois, who studies the use of the pardon power. Since September, Siegelman, 66, has been in a federal prison in Oakdale, La., serving out the remainder of a six-year sentence in a 2006 public corruption case. Some petitioners swallow their pride and drop their claims of innocence in exchange for freedom. That might be tough for Siegelman, whose case has become a cause célèbre for Democrats, who see him as a rising political figure cut down in his prime. Dana Siegelman said her father “would be on the national stage” if not for the conviction. University of Alabama political science professor Stephen Borelli said it wasn’t entirely unthinkable. A Siegelman congressional run was more realistic, he said, but the former governor fit the mold Democrats once looked for in presidential candidates. “They wanted well-educated Southern governors who didn’t fit the stereotype,” Borelli said. “They wanted wonks, not demagogues.”
GUEST COLUMN: Let Alabamians decide if gambling will pay for school security
Gadsden Times – Jan. 20
The 20 little bodies are buried, most wearing favorite clothing. First graders. Grief that will not dissipate for a long, long time haunts America. Now gather the big bodies. Starched shirts and dark suits cluster at meeting tables from Maine to California, from Washington D.C. to Montgomery. In unison they chorus, we must do something to gain control over America’s growing epidemic of gun violence. Good intentions. Give them that. Dozens of possibilities lie before them. But none will amount to anything unless they choose carefully and agree to make enforceable decisions, remembering those little bodies. (Donald Brown is a former executive editor of the Tuscaloosa News. He teaches journalism at the University of Alabama.)
Local student wins state essay contest
Alexander City Outlook – Jan. 19
Cash prizes of $500 for Benjamin Russell High School as well as BRHS senior Austin Ward – that was the outcome of Ward’s entry in the 11th Annual To Kill A Mockingbird Contest. Ward was the statewide winner out of a pool of 64 contestants in ninth through 12th grade across the state. The contest was sponsored by the Honors College at The University of Alabama. “I was surprised – I didn’t think it was that good,” Ward said. Ward’s three-page essay had to answer the prompt that pointed out how much time has passed since Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird and said, “Since then this country has advanced technologically, legally and socially, but Lee’s book remains the iconic work of American fiction. What is it in To Kill a Mockingbird that still speaks powerfully to readers today?”
Museum collecting storm stories
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 20
The Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum is working to collect oral histories on the April 2011 storms and the civil rights movement…Shaina Strom, director of the MWWTM, is leading a team collecting oral histories on two projects…The oral history project will be assisted by personnel from the library, the University of Alabama’s Creative Campus and some of the news team from Alabama Public Radio. Pat Duggins, APR news director, said he and his staff, which includes UA students and interns, are “chomping at the bit to get to work on this.” “As soon as I heard about it, I said, ‘Good lord, of course we’re going to help on this, it’s great,’ ” Duggins said.
Get on Board Day changed to 3 days after student input
Crimson White – Jan. 22
This week The SOURCE will be hosting a three-day Get on Board: Trio Edition for students to seek more specific involvement opportunities on campus, after receiving input from organizations and freshmen following last semester’s event. DJ Jackson, director of organizational outreach for The SOURCE, said the changes are the result of input from students and student organizations on campus. “This year at The SOURCE we have been evaluating the effectiveness of our initiatives in an effort to best provide resources for both students across campus, as well as student organizations,” Jackson said. “We surveyed student organization officers, as well as current university freshmen, and found that student organizations are looking to recruit students for their spring projects and initiatives, while freshmen are seeking specific involvement opportunities.” Jackson said The SOURCE hopes to provide a meaningful experience for student organizations and students looking to be involved on campus. “By dividing the organizations into multiple days based on type, we hope to provide a more meaningful experience for both parties,” Jackson said. “The goal of fall GOBD is to exhibit all that the University has to offer, but for spring we’ve developed a more focused approach.”
Creative Campus-led club helps artists promote, sell their art
Crimson White – Jan. 22
Creative Co-op offers student artists an outlet for them to promote and sell their creations, as well as purchase the creative works of other students. Creative Co-op, formed in September 2012, is an organization that seeks to acclimate student artists with a marketplace and help them develop an understanding of what it takes to promote and sell their products. It is an independent student organization that operates under Creative Campus and is currently under the administration of seven Creative Campus interns. Ally Mabry, a junior majoring in digital media and printmaking, played a key role in the development of the organization along with a team of Creative Campus interns who were excited about the idea of an organization that supports the talents of young artists. “It’s not just about providing affordable student art to UA’s campus, it’s about connecting artists with the marketing world and allowing our peers to appreciate our work,” Mabry, president of Creative Co-op, said. The organization has been well received by members of the UA community. Charlie Bice, secretary of Creative Co-op, said the club’s first semester was met with a lot of support, providing the organization with a solid foundation for success. “The club started out strong,” Bice, a senior majoring in international studies and Spanish, said. “In the first semester we had a very successful Christmas sale where we sold around $200 worth of merchandise. We plan on having the sale again.”
SCLC holds Unity Day breakfast
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 22
The Tuscaloosa County chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference calls today “unity day”, and it has been full of events remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The day started with a unity breakfast at Stillman College. Many West Alabama officials attended today’s events, such as state representative Chris England and Tuscaloosa mayor Walt Maddox. The guest speaker was University of Alabama Vice Chancellor of International Affairs Dr. Arthur Dunning.
SOUTHERN LIGHTS: Digging deep into childhood dream, pastime
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 20
Newspapers, I have long maintained, are the family disease…I decided early on that I would break the mold. I wanted to be an archaeologist … The more I thought about it, the more I despised it. I quit being a potholer and concentrated on real archaeology … These thoughts of a time almost 50 years ago were revived by the recent publication of a marvelous book, “Bottle Creek Reflections” by Ian W. Brown of Tuscaloosa. Brown, a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama and curator of Gulf Cost archaeology in the Alabama Museum of Natural History, has trained generations of budding archaeologists. He is primarily responsible for the archaeological explorations of the Bottle Creek site in the Tensaw Delta of south Alabama.