The hovering Tide: UA, Auburn meet Saturday in the ‘Iron Bowl’ of hovercraft
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
Even though the calendar says it’s March, it’s Iron Bowl time again in Tuscaloosa. This matchup is of the hovercraft variety, an aircraft that can travel across smooth surfaces of land or water while being propelled by air pushed beneath the vehicle. The University of Alabama hovercraft team will compete against the Hovering Tigers of Auburn University in the third annual University Hoverbowl Challenge. The challenge will take place at Lake Lurleen State Park in Coker beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday and ending at 6 p.m. … This race is formatted in three one-hour endurance heats. … The competition is based on the number of laps each hovercraft will take and is not technically contingent on speed. “The goal is not necessarily to be the fastest out there, but to have the most reliable machine,” said Jacob Wilroy, senior aerospace engineering and mechanics major at UA.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 28
State Unemployment Down, Entrepreneurs and the Blue Angels
Alabama Public Radio – March 27
If you have an idea for a better mousetrap, then the University of Alabama wants to talk to you. UA’s Business School is hosting its second annual startup weekend for entrepreneurs starting today. Participants are broken into teams to present their ideas to a panel of judges on Sunday. The top three teams are awarded prizes. Pam Hill is a Clinical Instructor for UA’s STEM Path to the MBA program. She says the prizes are items to help their businesses move forward. “All of the prizes are intended to – it’s not monetary – but they are items to encourage that business to continue and further develop.” Hill adds it’s important for entrepreneurs to take risks, build a great network and believe in what they’re doing to have a successful business. The event will be held at UA’s South Engineering Research Center with registration beginning at 6:30pm.
Tuscaloosa gets grant for technology upgrade
Tuscaloosa News – March 29
City officials have contracted with an Illinois company to help develop a plan to upgrade the city’s technology and ensure its sustainability. Magellan Associates LLC was selected from a pool of five consultant firms to help city officials develop the plan. A $50,000 grant from the Local Technical Assistance Program, administered by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, will fund part of the contract. The grant requires a $50,000 match from City Hall … The plan also will consider the needs of The Edge — Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a business incubator that was formed through a partnership of Tuscaloosa, the University of Alabama and the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. A new $9.3 million facility for The EDGE is planned for property that once housed the U.S. Armed Forces Reserve Center on 10th Avenue across from the Tuscaloosa Housing Authority’s Rosedale Court.
Murphy High School students sign up to take classes from UA’s Early College
WPMI-NBC (Mobile) – March 27
Thursday was an exciting day for 43 Murphy High School sophomores. They signed up with the University of Alabama to take college level classes. It’s a one-of-a-kind partnership that Mobile County public schools has entered into with the University’s Early College. The students will begin taking their first Early College class at the Murphy University Center.
Jobless rate in Tuscaloosa falls to 4.8 percent
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
Tuscaloosa County’s unemployment rate fell to 4.8 percent in February. The rate was 5.3 percent in January and 6.8 percent in February 2014. Alabama’s official unemployment rate for February was 5.8 percent, compared with 6 percent in January and 7.2 percent in February 2014. Unlike the county rate, the official state rate is seasonally adjusted. “February data released this (Friday) morning looks slightly better than the January data that came out last week,” said Ahmad Ijaz, director of economic forecasting at UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research. “Total employment also increased, and the overall number of unemployed dropped from 128,433 to 123,293,” he said. The University of Alabama economist noted that over 12 months, ending in February, the state added around 37,900 jobs. A survey of state employers, known as the establishment survey, showed transportation equipment manufacturers added 3,200 new workers. Most job gains were in the leisure and hospitality sector with 8,600 new jobs, followed by professional and business services with 7,500 new jobs and educational and health services with 5,900 new jobs.
GUEST COLUMNIST: Big tobacco has surprising friends
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
At the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi last week, the latest grim statistics shocked even veteran anti-smoking advocates. In spite of the growing number of nations that have banned smoking in public places and have prohibited or restricted cigarette advertising and marketing, the annual death toll from cigarette smoking keeps rising. A mind-boggling 6.2 million people will die in 2015 from the ravages of smoking, including more than 480,000 in the U.S., where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in five deaths in the U.S. — and fully a third of all deaths from cancer — is caused by cigarette smoking. Over the 50 years since the publication of the landmark Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, the percentage of adults who smoke has been cut in half in the U.S. to less than 20 percent. But the actual number of smokers is almost the same, and the decline in smoking in the crucial 18 to 34-year-old age group — the lifeblood of Big Tobacco — has stalled. Ominously, too, smoking is on the rise in many countries. (Alan Blum, M.D., is the Gerald Leon Wallace, M.D., Endowed Chair in Family Medicine at the University of Alabama, where he directs the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society. Readers can email him at ablum@cchs.ua.edu.)
THE PORT RAIL: Breaking, and other, news I don’t need
Tuscaloosa News – March 28
Breaking news is usually announced breathlessly on the 24-hour news channels, as if our lives depended on knowing exactly how the President tripped boarding his helicopter or some other equally useless snippet of news that feeds the voracious appetite by the public for “what’s happening?” I can do without about 99.9 percent of this news. It also comes pouring out of your computers, smartphones, iPads and Apple watches, light-emitting diodes blinking and tones beeping away to keep you abreast. However, no news supplier tops what comes in through my email. Even with all sorts of spam blockers in place, the stuff that pops up reminds me of the annual Darwin awards for the dumbest human beings on earth. Each year, I note incoming email for about a day or two and share the results. (Larry Clayton is a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama. Readers can contact him at larryclayton7@gmail.com.)
UA Counseling Center hosts walk to bring awareness to suicide prevention
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 29
The CDC says suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. This afternoon local college students walked to raise awareness of the problem with mental health. The University of Alabama’s counseling center hosted the walk and showed the resources they provide for mental health and suicide prevention.
University Medical Center to expand evening hours in April
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
The University Medical Center, which is operated by the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, will expand its evening hours beginning April 6. The center will be open from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for scheduled appointments and urgent care for new and established patients. The center has been open on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for established patients who need urgent or walk-in care. Last year, University Medical Center opened those hours to established and new patients to schedule appointments to see doctors for routine health care services. To make an appointment, call 348-1770. The center is at 850 Fifth Ave. E.
UA instructor helps write revised state constitution
Crimson White – March 30
At 340,000 words and over 800 amendments, Alabama’s State Constitution is the world’s longest functioning constitution. But length alone is not the reason that Robert McCurley, attorney and former director of the Alabama Law Institute, has been helping Alabama’s Constitutional Revision Commission draft a new constitution. “There are about four big issues, with some of the biggest being taxation and home rule,” he said. The Constitution that he and the reform commission drafted seeks to address these issues on an article-by-article basis while leaving some mainstays, like state boundaries and the oath of office, alone. McCurley became the director of the Alabama Law Institute in 1975. At that time, a new constitution had been drafted by a commission formed during Governor Albert Brewer’s administration. However, when a new governor took office, these reform efforts were abandoned. In 2011, the newly-elected Republican legislature revived these efforts and established a new Constitution Revision Commission under the leadership of former Governor Brewer. McCurley, along with 12 others, commissioned the re-writing of the 1901 Alabama Constitution. The commission’s newest draft was completed in 2014 and is working its way through the legislative process. McCurley’s background in law and constitutional reform has given him material and style to teach students for over 25 years. In addition, he has been instrumental in the Honors College Town Hall series. “Mr. McCurley is one of the most interesting people I’ve met in my life and he has a story for everything,” said Maria O’Keefe, a senior majoring in history who has taken every class McCurley has offered through the Honors College since she was a freshman.
High schoolers participate in oratorical contest on campus
Crimson White – March 30
Inner-city students from Huntsville gathered in Lloyd Hall Friday to partake in the Victory Through Voice oratorical contest. The contest, which was organized through the New College, showcased young speakers whose stories dealt with personal difficulties and their passion to succeed in life. The students are all members of an after-school program at the Huntsville Inner City Christian Learning Center. Program director Jahnitta Lovejoy said many of the students come from broken homes. She said the students are passionate about learning and, despite having the odds against them, they strive to succeed. “One of the goals is to build future leaders in the community,” she said. Cynthia Maugeri, a senior majoring in public relations, said the young speakers moved her. “They were all so brave,” Maugeri said. “They have more courage than I do as a 21-year-old.”
Annual plant sale set April 4 at Kentuck Art Center in Northport
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
The Tuscaloosa chapter of the Alabama Wildflower Society will hold its annual plant sale from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. April 4 at the courtyard at the Kentuck Art Center in Northport. … Most of the proceeds from the sale will fund college scholarships for botany majors at Alabama colleges and universities. A portion of the proceeds will also benefit the University of Alabama Arboretum and the Cahaba Lily Society.
Former Gordo students’ project has become state bill
Tuscaloosa News – March 28
The bill to ban distracted driving that was introduced in the Alabama Legislature this year began as a project by three Pickens County teens last year, but has evolved into a campaign to change the driving habits of motorists statewide. The cause that began as a senior-year project for the three Gordo High School graduates competing at the state conference for Health Occupations Students of America was inspired by personal experience. One of the three, Morgan Sanders, now in her first year at Shelton State Community College, was injured as a passenger in an accident caused by distracted driving during her junior year of high school. … Gordo classmate Maria Manning recalled the shock of almost losing her friend. “It was just really gut-wrenching. It could have been prevented. If the driver had been paying attention, none of this would have happened,” Manning said. … A bill inspired by the three students’ efforts is being sponsored by Rep. Alan Harper, R-Northport. It would ban motorists from driving while reading, writing, grooming, interacting with pets or unsecured cargo, using wireless telecommunications devices or any other activity that “prevents a driver from devoting the necessary attention to driving.” “It’s basically anything that takes our attention off operating the vehicle,” said Manning, a freshman at the University of Alabama.
Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society gets letter from time of city’s birth
Tuscaloosa News – March 27
On Friday, a piece of Tuscaloosa’s early history as an incorporated city returned home. Descendants of John Coffee, a noted land surveyor and developer who served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812, on Friday donated one of his letters to the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society. The framed letter, dated March 12, 1820, is from Tuscaloosa resident John Doxy, seeking Coffee’s help in designing the newly incorporated city of Tuscaloosa. Tuscaloosa was incorporated and made the county seat on Dec. 13, 1819, a day before Alabama was admitted to the Union. By 1826, Tuscaloosa was designated as the state capital. The creased and yellowed letter bears the script that marks the beginning of Tuscaloosa’s design … “It’s really an honor to be able to contribute to the Preservation Society and in essence be a part of history itself,” said Marie Tucker, a senior at the University of Alabama. “We have discovered the history, we’re a part of the history and we want others to know about it.”