Tornado did not affect area foreclosures, study shows
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 20
University of Alabama researchers expected to see an increase in foreclosures after the April 27, 2011, tornado devastated about 12 percent of Tuscaloosa. But when they looked at the foreclosure numbers in the tornado zone, they were surprised. “There actually was a slight decrease in foreclosures,” said sociologist Bronwen Lichtenstein, an associate professor in UA’s criminal justice department. Lichtenstein and Joseph Weber, an associate professor in UA’s geography department, have been studying foreclosures in the Tuscaloosa area for the last several years. They recently had published their study looking at home foreclosures in the Tuscaloosa area during the economic downturn. That report in the academic journal Professional Geographer is titled “Old Ways, New Impacts: Race, Residential Patterns, and the Home Foreclosure Crisis in the American South.” It used Tuscaloosa to look at how the nation’s foreclosure crisis impacted a smaller city in the South.
WDEF 12 (Mobile) – Oct. 21
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 20
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Oct. 20
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Oct. 20
High-achieving University of Alabama student driven to go into space
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 21
Despite her aerospace engineering major and her dream to one day become an astronaut, Bowman has yet to see “Star Wars” or “Star Trek.” She acknowledges that she’s not a typical geek. But at 19 years old, the University of Alabama junior from a tiny town in northeast Alabama is in her second internship with NASA, has a co-op planned at the Johnson Space Center in Houston next spring, and is working on her private pilot’s license on the side…By the time Bowman graduated from high school, she had been taking classes at her local community college since she was 15. She came into UA with enough credit to be considered a second semester sophomore. Bowman applied and received an internship at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville for the spring of 2013…In Huntsville, Bowman built a simulation that represented a water recovery rack for the environmental and life support systems for the International Space Station…That attitude led Bowman to a second internship with NASA this fall in Cape Canaveral at the Kennedy Space Center. Bowman had planned on staying in Tuscaloosa for the semester, but the unexpected internship offer from Kennedy was too good to pass up. Her internship at Kennedy, plus her previous one in Huntsville, and her upcoming co-op in Houston means three straight semesters away from UA.
University of Alabama student researches campus slavery
Jackson Clarion-Ledger – Oct. 20
University of Alabama senior Benjamin Flax spends a few hours a week sifting through files stuffed with handwritten receipts and bound volumes with faded ink in the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, searching for hints of the university’s past with slavery…Flax hopes his work, which he is pursuing as an independent research project supervised by history professor Josh Rothman, will result in a public presentation on campus of some of his findings — in a “digestible form” — in February during Black History Month.
Pensacola News Journal – Oct. 20
Al.com – Oct. 20
UA Alumnus, U.N. Technology Expert to Discuss Cybersecurity in UA Lecture
Insurance News Net – Oct. 18
Gary Fowlie, a University of Alabama alumnus and an expert on cybersecurity, will present the Helen Crow Mills and John Carroll Mills Lecture Thursday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. in room 120 of Farrah Hall on The University of Alabama campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.
MOM STOP: Map out fall fun for your batty brood with local activities
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 20
Halloween is around the corner, which means there is a plethora of fall festivals and Halloween-themed events planned in Tuscaloosa County. Here are just a few family-friendly events coming up for you to enjoy with your little ghosts and goblins: The Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama will host its annual “Haunting at the Museum” event from 6 -8 p.m. Oct. 29. The free event will feature guided, candlelit ghost walks around the Quad, children’s activities, a scavenger hunt and ghost stories at the museum. The University of Alabama’s Panhellenic Association will host its annual sorority row trick-or-treat from 6-8 p.m. Oct. 29. Children ages 12 and younger are invited to dress up in Halloween costumes and trick or treat.
Watch what you think – because others can, too
Dallas Morning News – Oct. 19
Imagine that psychologists are scanning a patient’s brain as part of some basic research. As they do so, they stumble across a fleeting thought that their equipment is able to decode: The patient has committed a murder or is thinking of committing one soon. What would the researchers be obliged to do with that information?…In a book to be published next month, Minds, Brains, and Law: The Conceptual Foundations of Law and Neuroscience (Oxford University Press), Michael S. Pardo and Dennis Patterson directly confront Farahany’s work…And where the Fourth Amendment is concerned, Pardo, a professor of law at the University of Alabama, writes in an email, “I do think that lie-detection brain scans would be treated like blood draws.”
NLN New Faculty Resource Helps Teach Nursing Care of Veterans
Review Seeker – Oct. 18
Meet Butch Sampson, 62, a homeless vet exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam; Jenny Brown, 23, and Randy Adams, 28, who both saw combat in Iraq; and Eugene Shaw, 82, a former Marine who served in Korea. They represent the new faces in the NLN’s arsenal of unfolding cases in the latest entry into the NLN’s innovative faculty resources and programming, developed in partnership with Laerdal Medical: Advancing Care Excellence for Veterans (ACE/V)… Added NLN President Marsha Howell Adams, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF and senior associate dean of academic programs at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing: “Through our experience with the NLN signature program, Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors (ACES), we learned how the power of storytelling, combined with the experiential nature of simulation scenarios, creates a robust, meaningful experience for students that mimics many of the challenges presented by continuity of care. That’s why we chose to model the unfolding ACE/V cases after the highly regarded, effective ACES unfolding cases.”… Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education.
UA Student Volunteers at Rescue Horse Ranch
WSFA (Montgomery) – Oct. 20
A helping hand is sometimes needed. But for a few of our four-legged friends, a helping hand can mean the difference between life and death, which is where the Circle 8 Rescue Ranch in Ralph comes into the picture. Brenda Westphal and a team of dedicated family and friends open up their pastures and pocketbooks to animals that have fallen on hard times. Now, they need your help in continuing an effort which is absolutely Alabama…University of Alabama student Victoria Sheehan is one of those who goes the extra mile.
Lauren Leonard navigates fashion world to become a star
Nashville Tennessean – Oct. 19
Fashion designers, like songwriters, are a dime a dozen in talent-filled Nashville. Only a fraction of the creative types in each profession, however, actually pays the bills doing what they love… “I didn’t go to design school. I went to the University of Alabama and majored in textile and apparel design. But I worked in retail all through high school and college,” says (Lauren) Leonard, who says she took those early jobs very seriously…Leonard knew she wanted to design and create her own line of clothing for women. But she also knew she needed to immerse herself in the business side of fashion…The budding designer packed up her car with samples and hit the road. She called on 30 stores. And sold clothing to 27 of them. “I was the only employee for almost two years. Now I have six full-time employees, including the staff at my flagship store in Nashville,” she says with visible pride.
From cosmetics diva to private equity investor, this Astros partner shares roadmap to success
CultureMap Houston – Oct. 19
Janet Gurwitch might have left behind her hometown in Mississippi and her classmates at the University of Alabama some years ago, but she retains enough Southern graces combined with an astute business acumen to gladly accept the moniker of “steel magnolia.”